Israel

13 Oct 2020; MEMO: The Israeli military is to punish soldiers involved in a brawl at a training base on Sunday, as well as their commanders.

The incident at the Givanti Infantry Brigade’s Ketziot training base left 21 soldiers injured including eight that were hospitalised and reportedly took place while troops from the Shaked Battalion and the Bedouin 585th reconnaissance unit were standing in line to enter the dining hall for lunch.

HAIFA, Israel (Reuters) - The ship-to-shore crane paused above the cargo ship just arrived from Dubai, then set its load down on the pier in Israel.

One after another, eight containers filled with electronics, cleaning supplies, iron and firefighting equipment were unloaded off the MSC Paris, one of the first cargo ships to make the journey between the United Arab Emirates and Israel.

Just a few months ago, such a journey from Dubai’s Jebel Ali port to the northern Israeli port city of Haifa would have been unthinkable.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Five years after Israel signed a landmark agreement to develop large offshore gas fields over the objections of antitrust authorities, environmentalists and consumer advocates, ordinary Israelis have yet to see the windfall promised by the government.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The director-general of Israel’s finance ministry plans to step down in the coming weeks, the ministry said on Sunday, the latest in a series of senior economic officials to resign in recent months.

11 Oct 2020; MEMO: Israel will oppose any US sale of F-35 warplanes to Qatar, Israel’s intelligence minister said on Sunday, citing a need to maintain Israeli military superiority in the region, Reuters reports.

Intelligence Minister Eli Cohen made the comments on Israeli Army Radio when asked about a Reuters report that Qatar had submitted a formal request to Washington to buy stealthy F-35 fighter jets.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said on Friday he was suffering “difficult” symptoms after contracting coronavirus, but that things were “under control”.

Erekat, 65, a lawmaker from Jericho in the occupied West Bank, said on Twitter that he was in isolation and receiving medical treatment at home one day after he confirmed that he had caught the virus.

He has cancelled all meetings and appointments. There is heightened concern over his vulnerability because he underwent a lung transplant in the United States in 2017.

09 Oct 2020; MEMO: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that he will bring diplomatic accords with the United Arab Emirates before the Israeli parliament on Oct. 12, Reuters reports.

Israel and the UAE signed agreements in Washington in September to normalize diplomatic ties and to forge a broad new relationship.

Netanyahu said he intends to get cabinet and parliamentary ratification for the deal, which marks a strategic realignment of Middle East countries against Iran.

07 Oct 2020; MEMO: Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz yesterday signed four orders to seize money transfers going to families of Palestinian prisoners and martyrs, Anadolu reported.

“The orders targeted funds transferred by both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority to Palestinians serving prison sentences in Israeli jails,” for alleged “terror attacks”, Israeli newspaper the Jerusalem Post reported, according to Anadolu.

07 Oct 2020; MEMO: A Palestinian prisoner in Israel is now in his 36th year behind bars, the Palestinian Prisoner Society (PPS) has revealed. Muhammad Altus from Jabaa in the Bethlehem governorate in the occupied West Bank, was arrested in 1985 for resisting the Israeli occupation as a member of Fatah.

06 Oct 2020; MEMO: If Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden, wins November’s US presidential election, he could undermine Washington’s efforts to confront Iran, US envoy to Israel David Friedman warned on Sunday.