Israel

25 Feb 2021; MEMO: Israeli Defence Minister and Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz on Tuesday threatened the Lebanese people over repeated remarks made by Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, i24 reported.

"If Nasrallah and Hezbollah's threats translate into action, the outcome will be painful for Hezbollah," Gantz said during a tour of northern Israel.

24 Feb 2021; MEMO: The leader of Israel's New Hope party, Gideon Sa'ar, yesterday said that he opposed the US-brokered two-state solution.

Makan reported him adding, however, that "there is no problem in forming a government with the support of the Joint List [Israeli parties]," in reference to the Arab majority Israeli political bloc.

JERUSALEM, Feb 22 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Israel and Egypt’s energy ministers agreed to build a gas pipeline from the offshore eastern Mediterranean Leviathan field to Egypt, aimed at boosting exports to Europe, an Israeli source said.

Yuval Steinitz and his Egyptian counterpart Tarek El Molla “agreed on the construction of offshore gas pipeline from the Leviathan gas field to the liquefaction facilities in Egypt,” the official said, asking not to be named.

23 Feb 2021; MEMO: An Israeli official from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's party, Likud, has met with a senior PLO official and close aide of Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas reportedly to mobilise support for the Israeli leader, local media revealed yesterday.

MK Fateen Mulla told Yedioth Ahronoth that he held talks with the PLO's Committee for Interaction with Israeli Society headed by senior Abbas aide Mohammad Al-Madani.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Generations of Jews have dropped spare change into the iconic blue boxes of the Jewish National Fund, a 120-year-old Zionist organization that acquires land, plants trees and carries out development projects in the Holy Land.

But the Israeli group, known by its Hebrew acronym KKL, is now considering formally expanding its activities into the occupied West Bank. That has sparked fierce opposition from left-leaning Jewish groups in the United States, deepening a rift with the increasingly right-wing Israeli government.

MIKHMORET (Israel), Feb 22 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Israeli authorities warned people to keep away from the country’s Mediterranean shore to avoid a massive tar slick, as thousands of labourers and volunteers worked to clean contaminated beaches.

Powerful winds and unusually high waves pummelled Israel’s entire Mediterranean coastline over Tuesday and Wednesday, with tonnes of tar staining 160 kilometres of beaches along Israel’s Mediterranean coast from Gaza to Lebanon.

22 Feb 2021; MEMO: The head of the Islamic Movement in Israel, Sheikh Raed Salah, has been held in solitary confinement since he was jailed by Israel on 15 August last year, Arabi21.com reported on Sunday. His lawyer Khalid Zabarqeh said that Sheikh Salah has been facing harsh treatment and difficult conditions in the Israeli prison in the Negev Desert.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Forget about oil and arms. Coronavirus vaccines are emerging as the newest currency of choice in the Middle East.

Israel’s reopening of its economy, combined with a murky prisoner swap with Syria and the arrival of a batch of vaccines in the Gaza Strip, have all underscored how those with access to the vaccines have political power in the turbulent region.

20 Feb 2021; MEMO: Israel is expanding its Dimona nuclear facility located in the Negev desert, news agencies reported, according to new satellite images released on Thursday.

19 Feb 2021; MEMO: Israeli Ministers of Defence and Foreign Affairs, Benny Gantz and Gabi Ashkenazi, have rejected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's nominee to lead Tel Aviv's contacts with the United States and the other signatories to the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran, local media outlets have reported.