Israel

30 Nov 2021; MEMO: Israeli occupation authorities yesterday renewed the administrative detention of Hamas leader Sheikh Jamal Al Taweel for another six months, the Prisoners Information Office reported.

On 2 June, a group of undercover Israeli occupation forces kidnapped 59-year-old Al Taweel, 59, from in front of his house in the occupied West Bank city of Al Bireh.

30 Nov 2021; MEMO: Miss France Clémence Botino tested positive for coronavirus shortly after arriving in Israel to participate in the Miss Universe 2021 pageant, Israel Hayom reported.

The paper quoted informed sources as saying that Botino was taken in an ambulance to a government isolation hotel yesterday morning and she will most likely miss the competition on 12 December in Eilat.

27 Nov 2021; MEMO: Amid global scandals regarding Israel's spyware firm, the NSO Group, the Israeli Ministry of Defence has reduced the number of countries to which Israeli companies can sell cyber technologies, The Times of Israel reported on Thursday.

In a report about November updates, the Israeli Ministry of Defence said that it reduced the number of countries to 37, down from 102, the Israeli Calcalist Business News daily said.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel on Sunday approved barring entry to foreign nationals and the use of controversial technology for contact tracing as part of its efforts to clamp down on a new coronavirus variant.

The Health Ministry said in a statement that the country’s coronavirus cabinet had authorized a raft of measures, including red-listing travel to 50 African countries, banning entry by foreigners and mandating quarantine for all Israelis arriving from abroad.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said on Friday that Israel is “on the threshold of an emergency situation” after authorities detected the country’s first case of a new coronavirus variant and barred travel to and from most African countries.

The Health Ministry said it detected the new strain in a traveler who had returned from Malawi and was investigating two other suspected cases. The three individuals, who had all been vaccinated, were placed in isolation.

26 Nov 2021; MEMO: Egypt and Israel have signed a memorandum of understanding to increase natural gas supplies from Israel to Egypt, with the aim of re-exporting, the Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum announced yesterday.

In an official statement, the ministry said that the agreement was signed by the Petroleum Minister, Tarek El-Molla, and his Israeli counterpart, Karine Elharrar, on the sidelines of the Sixth Ministerial Meeting of the East Mediterranean Gas Forum held in Cairo

JERUSALEM, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid will travel to Europe next week to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to discuss mainly the resumption of nuclear talks in Vienna, Lapid's office said Wednesday.

Lapid will meet Johnson in London and Macron in Paris, and the talks will focus on "the resumption of nuclear talks in Vienna as well as the deepening of bilateral relations between Israel, Britain, and France," according to a statement by Lapid's office.

24 Nov 2021; MEMO: Tel Aviv should refrain from attacking Iran's nuclear facilities unless it has the capacity to completely destroy them, the former head of Israel's Military Intelligence, Tamir Pardo, said yesterday.

Speaking at a panel at Reichman University's Institute for Policy and Strategy conference in Herzliya, Pardo warned that a military strike on Iran's nuclear programme would be far more complicated than the Israeli Air Force's successful attacks on Iraq and Syria reactors.

JERUSALEM, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Iran is five years away from developing a nuclear weapon, and international talks due to restart next week will do nothing to slow it down, Israel said on Tuesday, adding it reserved the right to act to protect itself.

Indirect negotiationsto revive the 2015 accord, under which Iran agreed to curbs on its nuclear programme in return for the lifting of international sanctions, are due to resume in Vienna next Monday after a five-month pause.

23 Nov 2021; MEMO: The Israeli government "will not allow Hamas to get foothold in Jerusalem," Arabs48 reported Defence Minister Banny Gantz saying yesterday.

Gantz's remarks came following a shootout that took place in Jerusalem on Sunday where a Palestinian teacher and Israeli soldiers were killed and four Israelis were wounded.