Israel News

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas plans to run his administration to the ground to prevent Israeli from pursuing its plan to apply sovereignty to large parts of Judea and Samaria and the Jordan Valley, a senior Palestinian official told The New York Times on Monday.

As Israel sees a spike in COVID-19 cases following the easing of lockdown restrictions, government leaders began to debate a controversial new bill Tuesday that would give the executive branch wide-ranging emergency powers to manage the virus outbreak, CBN News reported. The bill must first be approved by a special COVID-19 government committee before going on to the Ministerial Committee for Legislation and to the Knesset for approval.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told settler leaders on Sunday that he still intends to annex all West Bank settlements on the July 1 date that is the earliest allowed by his coalition deals, but he acknowledged that annexing other lands allocated to Israel under the Trump peace plan will likely take more time, several participants in the meeting told The Times of Israel.

A former police chief of Dubai has controversially called for all Arab states to normalize relations with Israel. On Twitter this weekend, Khalfan Tamim said: “Israel wants long-term peace and security. I support that.” Moreover, Tamim said: “From the moment that the Gulf States normalize their ties with Israel, Qatar’s job as a proxy state for terror organizations will end,” Israel Hayom reported.

A former national security adviser to Israeli PM Netanyahu, says Iran’s failed cyber- attack on Israel’s water supply in April represents a new phase of Iranian aggression, World Israel News (WIN) reported. The Iranian attack sought to cause computers to add too much chlorine to Israel’s water supply. An official source told the Financial Times that the attack was almost successful.

Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) says supreme Palestinian Shariah judge Mahmoud Al-Habbash appears to have authorized Muslims to kill Israelis, WND reported Sunday. Al-Habbash, who was appointed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, said in a recent televised address that the Quran shows there are 10 transgressions against which Palestinians are commanded to fight: according to PMW, these transgressions seem to have “been carefully selected in order to turn every single Israeli into a target that every Palestinian Muslim is ‘commanded’ to fight and ‘allowed’ kill.”

Israel is setting up a task force aimed at bringing a new level of accuracy to genome editing, in the hope it will pave the way to cures for various medical conditions.

At least nine people were killed in alleged Israeli airstrikes targeted Syrian defense factories near the city of Masyaf in northwest Syria on Thursday night, according to Syrian reports.

The Palestinian Authority announced Monday it will continue paying monthly salaries to terrorists in prison, WND reports. In violation of recent Israeli law, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) said the salaries would continue to be paid through local banks in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank).

It is highly unlikely the US will approve Israeli advancement of plans to unilaterally annex parts of the West Bank on July 1, a well-placed source told the Times of Israel (TOI) Wednesday. A central condition of US approval is that a joint US-Israel mapping committee must conclude its work on delineating the exact borders of the territory Israel would annex. According to the TOI source, it could take the committee weeks, if not months, to complete this task.

The Israel Aerospace Industries defense contractor performed two tests with one of its short-range ballistic missiles at sea on Tuesday, successfully hitting floating targets at two distances, the firm said.

Israel and Saudi Arabia have been reportedly engaged in secret talks since last December, through American mediation, over including Saudi representatives in the Islamic Waqf Council at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. This development has been taking place against the backdrop of US President Donald Trump’s deal of the century, and the plan to apply Israeli sovereignty in the Jordan Valley and the large settlement blocs in Judea and Samaria.

As he prepares to ask the Knesset to vote on a plan for Israeli annexation of parts of the West Bank, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu explained Thursday that MKs will only have to vote on the issue of sovereignty, not on the issue of a Palestinian state, the Jerusalem Post reports.

An airstrike in eastern Syria on Sunday killed five non-Syrian fighters backed by Iran, a Britain-based war monitor said.

An Israeli research institute has said that two medicines used to treat Gaucher’s disease could also be used to treat COVID-19, CBN News reported on May 27. Scientists at the Ministry of Defense-run Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR) have said Cerdelga, which has already been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration and Venglustat, which is in the process of approval, appear to inhibit viruses.

In response to Israeli plans to annex parts of the West Bank, on Wednesday Palestinian leaders reconfirmed their decision to terminate all agreements and security cooperation with the Israeli and US governments, the Jerusalem Post reported.

The head of the Lebanese Shiite terror group Hezbollah on Tuesday rejected a US request to empower a UN peacekeeping force patrolling the border with Israel.

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) warned Israel on Wednesday of “serious consequences,” if the Jewish state continues its attempts to annex parts of the West Bank and Jordan Valley. “There would be consequences for this measure on the economic and political Palestinian-Israeli relationship,” said PLO Secretary-General Saeb Erekat.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Tuesday issued an executive order requiring the implementation of a law passed last week that bars any cooperation with Israel, including the use of Israeli software and hardware.

A number of European heads of state recently wrote to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asking him not to proceed with plans for unilateral annexation of parts of the West Bank, Israel’s Channel 13 reported Tuesday. French President Emmanuel Macron made the request of Netanyahu “in a spirit of friendship.”