Israel Update 2.9.21

Rosh Hashanah greetings for a Happy & Healthy New Year to all my readers. There will be no Israel Update next week. HRG

 

GAZA

 

Barel Hadaria Shmueli, 21, a Border Police officer died on Monday. He had been shot in the head at close range by a Gazan attacker as he guarded the border on August 21. His plight had attracted nationwide attention and mass vigils outside his hospital took place.

Initial findings from the military’s investigation indicated that the troops were unprepared for the sudden rush of rioters toward the security fence. The soldiers stationed on the border did not immediately open fire at the masses that suddenly attacked the fence, out of concern that they might hit civilians who were in the area. Read more here

 

Gazans continued to riot along the border and launched airborne arson projectiles despite Israel having eased some restrictions on trade and movement. In response, the IDF launched airstrikes in the Gaza Strip late Saturday night. Read more here

 

 

As rioting continued for a third night, the head of the IDF said that “Calm and security would allow an improvement in civil conditions, but  rioting and terror will lead to a strong response or operation”.  Read more here

 

 

CORONAVIRUS IN ISRAEL

 

 (Last week’s figures in brackets for comparison)

Israel recorded 11,187 (8,800) new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, the highest single daily infection rate since the start of the pandemic and the third straight day of over 10,000 confirmed cases. Half of the cases confirmed on Wednesday were in the under 18  age group, among them 5,658 school children.

There are 1,109 people hospitalized, 666  (680) of them in serious condition, and 149 (186) on ventilators. Since the start of the pandemic, 7,090  (6909) people have succumbed to the virus.

According to the Health Ministry the fall in the number of seriously ill Israelis was attributed to the protection provided by the booster shot of the coronavirus vaccine already administered to 2,350,440  (1,772,367)people. Read more here

In one of the world’s largest deployments of home COVID tests, Israel is asked families to screen all children under the age of 12 before schools and kindergartens reopened on Wednesday. Unvaccinated over-12s are also being given tests. Read more here

 

 

 

VACCINATION CAMPAIGN

 

 

Israel on Sunday made booster doses of the COVID-19 vaccine available to everyone age 12 and up who had received the second shot at least five months ago. Read more here

 

 

RESEARCH

 

 

People with serious allergies can safely be inoculated with the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine with supervision, according to an Israeli study. Sheba Medical Centre, Israel’s largest hospital, set up a special clinic to oversee administration of vaccines to highly allergic people, with medical assessments done first and doctors on hand to treat the patients in the case of any serious reactions. Read more here

 

 

A team of scientists from the Technion has discovered why elderly people are more susceptible to COVID-19 and are working to reverse the aging process of the body’s immune system. Read more here

 

 

HAITI

 

 

For Israeli aid worker, Ben Katzir, IsraAid’s emergency coordinator in Haiti, every day helping Haitians in the wake of yet another devastating earthquake is like a month, because he and his team have so much work to do. Read more here

 

 

BAHRAIN

 

 

Bahrain’s first ambassador to Israel, Khaled Yousif al-Jalahma, arrived in Israel Tuesday afternoon to take up his post following last year’s agreement between the countries to normalize diplomatic ties.Read more here

 

 

 

DEFENCE

 

 

The Israel Navy participated in a combined maritime security patrol with the US Naval Forces Central Command’s 5th Fleet in the Red Sea for the first time on Tuesday as part of Israel’s move to CENTCOM’s area of responsibility from EUCOM. Read more here

 

 

 

INNOVATION

 

 

Beewise is an Israeli artificial intelligence start-up using robotic beehives to save global bee populations. They hope that round-the-clock monitoring and care for honeybees will help to protect pollinators, global food supply and agriculture.Read more here

 

 

 

CYBERSECURITY

 

 

Microsoft has fixed a serious problem after a warning from Israel-based Wiz, which notified them of an “unprecedented critical vulnerability” in its Azure cloud platform.Read more here

 

 

Cybersecurity giant Check Point has acquired Israeli startup Avanan which protects emails and cloud collaboration solutions like G-Suite and Slack from cyberattacks.Read more here

 

 

TOKYO PARALYMPICS

 

Israeli  swimmer Mark Malyar, 21, who was born with cerebral palsy, has won two gold medals.  He won the men’s 200-metre individual medley final in the SM7 category and also the 400-metre freestyle, breaking his own world record.He then went on to win a bronze medal takingthird place in the 100 metre backstroke. Read more here Read more here Read more here

 

 

Israeli swimmer Ami Dadaon,  who has cerebral palsy, won a gold medal in the 200-metre freestyle, breaking his own world record by six seconds. He also won a silver medal in the men’s 150-metre individual medley. Read more here

 

 

 

Rower Moran Samuel, 39, won a silver medal in the women’s 2,000-metre single sculls. She was a member of Israel’s national basketball team until 2006, when she suffered a spinal stroke and became paralyzed in her lower body. Read more here

 

 

NEW MUSEUM

 

Technoda, Israel’s first-ever medicine and science museum, has opened in Hadera, the museum  spans over 1,200 square metres and contains 120 exhibits. Read more here

 

 

POST-SCRIPT TO PM BENNETT’S WASHINGTON VISIT

 

 

Israeli PM Bennett’s meeting with President Biden was delayed as a result of  the suicide bombings in Kabul. Consequently Bennett, his team & the press corps unexpectedly spent Shabbat in Washington DC. Here’s an account of what happened by Lahav Harkov, including the setting up of an impromptu synagogue in a hotel room.Read more here

 

 

COMMENT & OPINION

 

Alan Baker: The right of families to know the fate of their relatives missing in armed conflict and the obligation to handle human remains with dignity and to return them to their families are basic, internationally accepted humanitarian norms and obligations that apply to all, in all circumstances…. Clearly, trading the return of missing soldiers and civilians for other less humanitarian negotiating items is tantamount to ignoring or downgrading the basic humanitarian obligations to unconditionally return missing soldiers and civilians.

The return of Israel’s missing civilians and the remains of its soldiers (held in Gaza) should override all other matters in contacts between Israel, UN, Egypt, Qatar and Hamas. It should not be relegated, conditioned or linked to negotiating issues such as civil economic and humanitarian development projects in the Gaza Strip or transfer of funds to Hamas. Read more here