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Service Times

Israel Update 28.2.19

NOTE: Internal Israeli politics are outside the remit of this Update.

GAZA BORDER VIOLENCE CONTINUES

Hamas has recently increased its night time rioting near the Gaza border fence, which includes throwing explosives and using loudspeakers to simulate missile alerts. The goal, to frighten the Israeli residents, is working. Psychological distress is especially evident among the children.

Israeli security forces have recently noticed Hamas sending children as young as eight years old to the front lines of riots along the Gaza-Israel border. They have also heard operatives on loudspeakers promising children at the border NIS300 ($83) if they get injured.

From Adele Raemer ,a resident of the Gaza periphery, describing an incident on Wednesday: “The balloons now carry explosives which are timed to detonate after a few minutes. That’s what happened just a while ago in a community really not far from mine. THIS time, no one was injured. But imagine: if someone had been outside where that happened, those metal marbles that were propelled by the explosion, could have maimed or killed anyone below…This time it was just a window. Next time… it could be people driving by in their car, children playing soccer, teenagers riding their bikes, an elderly person on her walker.

Following this incident in which an Israeli home was damaged by an airborne incendiary device, the Israeli air force struck several targets in Gaza . Read more here

The Gaza Islamic Jihad terror group claims to have, with Iran’s help, developed a new missile that can hit beyond Tel Aviv, and they threatened to turn Israeli cities into “hell.” They also claimed to have developed precision missiles.

CO-OPERATION

he Palestinian Security forces have reportedly seized a Hamas-led cell in Nablus which was allegedly planning numerous terrorist incidents in Israel using explosive devices.

At the recent Israeli-Palestinian International Economic Forum, co-founder Palestinian businessman Ashraf Jabari of Hebron, spoke to the gathering – in Arabic and in Hebrew – about the importance of ties with Israelis. “The average American has no idea that Palestinians work with Israelis and that countless Palestinians want to work with Israelis,” Palestinians, however, are fearful to express this in public. He said “I want to send a message to all the Palestinian people who want to continue in the way of peace, explaining that he wants to work towards a strong economy.

ALLERGY

One million bags of Bamba, the popular Israeli peanut-based snack food, are produced every day at a new factory in to meet increasing worldwide demand. International research has shown that consumption of Bamba by Israeli infants helps prevent peanut allergy in later life.

MI6 VISIT

Britain’s MI6 intelligence chief Alex Younger secretly visited Israel last week amid concerns that Iran may breach the 2015 nuclear deal and attempt to break out to a nuclear weapons capability

MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY

Israel-based cancer diagnostic company Nucleix is transforming the nature of follow-up monitoring for bladder cancer with the Bladder EpiCheck – a urine test.The majority of patients who survive non-muscle invasive bladder cancer require frequent follow-ups, generally involving an unpleasant and costly cystoscopy procedure under sedation or general anesthetic.

Israel’s Zebra Medical Vision, which uses artificial intelligence technology to help read medical scans, has received grants from the Israel Innovation Authority to deploy its technology to detect early signs of breast cancer and osteoporosis at Israel’s two largest health providers.

Israel’s ReWalk Robotics Ltd., the developer of a robotic exoskeleton system that helps people who are paralyzed to walk, hopes to market a similar suit, this one aiming to help stroke sufferers regain their ability to walk. After applying for European regulatory clearance, ReWalk said it expects to commercialize its ReStore device for use by stroke patients and rehab clinics in Europe in mid-2019

RESERVISTS ON DUTY

Four reservist combat soldiers from the Israeli NGO Reservists on Duty have addressed the EU Parliament in Brussels. They shared emotional testimonies, emphasizing the difficulty and shock they’ve experienced when confronted by Palestinian terrorists using human shields – mainly women and children. One of the biggest concerns for the four soldiers is the culture of hate toward Israelis that is being impressed upon Palestinian children. Noam Kampler recalled arresting the 15-year-old terrorist who murdered nurse and mother Daphna Meir “All I could think was: How can a 15-year-old kid stab a mother of four to death?”

COUNTER TERRORISM

The IDF arrested 12 terrorist supects and seized two assault rifles in overnight raids.

On Feb.7, Israeli Border Police arrested a Palestinian attempting to cross the border fence into Israel from Jordan wearing a large backpack containing 37 pistols.. Police arrested three other Palestinians who were planning to pick up the smuggler .

Israeli security forces in the West Bank on Sunday evening arrested the Palestinian driver and passenger in a vehicle which was loaded with large quantities of ammunition, and a submachine gun.

An IDF Special Operations officer describes her role in counter terrorism activities….“I played a big part in coordinating the transfers of food and medicines into Syria, and the absorption of Syrian civilians injured in the civil war for Israeli hospital treatment. Once a week, there was a fun day for Syrian children.”…The brigade intercepted nearly $35,000 intended for terrorists in 2018. The IDF moved the money into an account dedicated to building Palestinian civilian infrastructure and creating jobs for Palestinians. “None of it goes to Israel,” she stressed.

HIZBULLAH

Israeli engineers have been neutralizing Hizbullah’s sophisticated cross-border infiltration tunnels which embody its ongoing efforts to threaten substantial harm to Israeli civilians. They are also a reminder of the potential for major destruction and suffering that would befall both Israeli and Lebanese civilians in another conflict on Israel’s northern front.
Hizbullah is a formidable military force capable of launching raids into Israel, targeting Israeli civilian communities,.

The UK Parliament is set to pass new rules classifying (the whole of) Hezbollah as a terrorist group. UK authorities say they are no longer able to distinguish between the group’s military and political wings. The changes are expected to take force from Friday, after which supporting Hezbollah will be an criminal offence. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47359502

UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL (UNHCR)

Denmark and Australia on Monday called on the UNHRC to stop its biased treatment of Israel by eliminating Agenda Item 7 that singles out Israel. The Danish Foreign Minister said, “Denmark will work for a council that treats all states in an equal and fair manner. It undermines the credibility of this council and its members when it insists on singling out one country, Israel, a democracy, under its own agenda item.” The Australian Foreign Minister added: “It is our firm view that a separate agenda item focusing on a single country situation – in this case Israel – is inappropriate. It does not occur in any other context for any other country.”

RWANDA

Israel opened its first embassy in Rwanda on Friday, offering support to the East Africa nation from health to education and agriculture, as well as communication technology including cybersecurity.

SISTERS REUNITED

Two sisters abandoned at a train station in South Korea 47 years ago and adopted by different families discovered one another and met in February thanks to a DNA test they both took with Israeli company MyHeritage., which is is the world’s largest genealogy platform with DNA samples of 100 million registered users.

BDS DEFEAT IN THE U.S.

The National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE) has endorsed the work of a Georgia-based exchange programme with Israeli officers which has been targeted by BDS activists. They said thatthe programme “works continuously to improve public safety,” and that NOBLE members have benefited from it for decades.

COMMENT & OPINION

Nadav Shragai: Palestinians on Friday crowded into the Golden Gate area of the Temple Mount, which has been under a closure order since 2003 because of Hamas activity there, as the police sought to avoid widespread, violent clashes. The Palestinian gambit is another step in their campaign to chip away at the status quo on the Temple Mount. Two new mosques have been built at Solomon’s Stables and at the site of the ancient Al-Aqsa mosque. There are restrictions on when and where Jews are allowed to visit the Mount… The Jordanians have installed a new Waqf council, which oversees the Temple Mount and its mosques, to include a former mufti of Jerusalem, now a Muslim Brotherhood member, as well as a number of officials from the Fatah movement and the Palestinian Authority. The new council and Hamas are spreading lies about Israel planning to build a synagogue at the Golden Gate.

Uri Akavia: For almost 70 years, the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has created a unique category of “registered refugee” status under which the children and grandchildren of a Palestine refugee, and all their descendants thereafter, are automatically considered “refugees from Palestine.”…More than 2 million “Palestine refugees” hold Jordanian citizenship, most of whom have been born in Jordan and have lived there their entire lives. In addition, 2/3 to 3/4 of the 1 million refugees registered by UNRWA in Lebanon and Syria have left those countries over the decades, with many acquiring citizenship in Western countries. But UNRWA’s numbers never decline….”Palestine refugees” living in the West Bank or Gaza were in fact internally displaced since they have never crossed the internationally recognized border of Mandatory Palestine. According to the rules applied by UNHCR, these people are not refugees. UNRWA is not a neutral humanitarian organization but rather a political actor aimed at perpetuating the Palestinian refugee problem.

Marcus Sheff: The report shows that UNWRA officials responsible for schooling the PA curriculum were presented with irrefutable evidence that American funds had been abused to inculcate intolerance; they pledged to create supplementary materials to rectify the issue. However, the findings further show that UNWRA took no such actions, but lied to Washington about having done so.

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