Israel

18 Sep 2021; MEMO: On 6 September, the Israeli occupation launched its largest manhunt in history, searching for six Palestinian prisoners who escaped the high-security Israeli prison of Gilboa. The operation has so far cost $30 million, Sputnik reported on Friday.

For the 14th consecutive day, the Israeli army and the Shin Bet intelligence service joined forces with police to look for the escapees using drones and helicopters. They set up hundreds of checkpoints.

16 Sep 2021; MEMO: Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz has said that Israel will not be removing any illegal Jewish settlements from the occupied West Bank and will maintain them in the long term, Foreign Policy reported yesterday.

Speaking to the news site, he addressed several issues related to Iran, the region and Palestine, saying: "We need two political entities here."

16 Sep 2021; MEMO: Palestinian prisoner Yaqoub Qadri, who was among the four Gilboa Prison escapees to be recaptured, pledged to seek freedom again, Safa news agency reported on Tuesday.

According to lawyer Hanan Al Khatib, Qadri said: "The five days I spent in the open air of Palestine without restrictions were the best of my life."

The lawyer also reported him saying he saw children during his freedom and kissed one of them. "That was the most beautiful thing to happen to me," he said.

JERUSALEM, Sept 15 (NNN-BNA) – Bahrain’s first ambassador to Israel, Khaled Yusuf Al Jalahma, presented his credentials to Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, yesterday, a year after the two countries signed a normalisation deal.

The Israeli president received the credentials from the Bahraini ambassador at the president’s residence in Jerusalem, Israeli president’s office said in a statement.

“Brave states take brave steps,” Herzog told the ambassador.

15 Sep 2021; MEMO: Israeli Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman said today that it impossible to reach an agreement with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Anadolu reported.

"Security cooperation with the Palestinian Authority is a common interest, but it is not possible to reach a political settlement with Abu Mazen," Lieberman said in reference to Abbas.

15 Sep 2021; MEMO: An Israeli court in Jerusalem ordered the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement on Monday to pay NIS38 million ($11.8m) to the families of three Israeli settlers who went missing in the occupied West Bank in 2014, Ynet News has reported. Gilad Shaar, Eyal Yifrach and Naftali Fraenkel went missing in June 2014 and were eventually found dead.

14 Sep 2021; MEMO: Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett described his meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi as "very important and very good" before leaving the Red Sea resort city of Sharm Al-Sheikh to return to Israel yesterday.

"We discussed a number of issues concerning the state, security, and economic affairs, as well as ways to further deepen relations and boost the interests of both nations," explained Bennett. "Israel is beginning to open itself further to its regional neighbours."

14 Sep 2021; MEMO: The former Deputy Director of the Israeli Communications Ministry Haim Garon died yesterday after the light aircraft he was in crashed into the sea close to the Greek island of Samos, authorities have said.

Haim was killed along with his wife, Esti. He was due to appear as a prosecution witness in the trial of former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in what has become known as Case 4000.

JERUSALEM, Sept 13 (NNN-PNN) – Israel’s Ministry of Health, yesterday reported 10,084 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the tally of infections in the regime to 1,169,217.

The ministry also reported one new death from the virus, taking the death toll to 7,338, while the number of patients in serious condition increased from 696 to 697, the ministry said.

The total recoveries from the virus climbed to 1,077,949, after 1,167 newly recovered cases were recorded, while active cases increased to 83,930, it added.

13 Sep 2021; MEMO: Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid yesterday proposed a plan to defeat the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas in Gaza based on economic improvements.

In an address to the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism Conference, Lapid said: "We need to start a large, multiyear process of the economy for security."

He said that reoccupying Gaza or repeated Israeli offensives are not the best ways to deal with Gaza and neutralise Hamas and the other resistance groups.