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Israel Update 24.3.22

ARAB TERRORIST ATTACKS

 

Four Israelis were killed and two others wounded Tuesday in a car ramming and stabbing attack at an outdoor shopping mall in Beersheba in Israel’s deadliest terror attack in years.  The terrorist from the Bedouin town of Hura, stabbed a woman to death at a gas station, then rammed a cyclist with his car, then stabbed several more people before being shot by Israeli civilians. The victims were Doris Yahbas, 49, a mother of three; Laura Yitzhak, 43, a mother of three; Rabbi Moshe Kravitzky, a father of four; and Menahem Yehezkel, 67. Read more here

 

 

Two first responders who arrived at the scene of Tuesday’s terror attack in Beersheba discovered their close relatives among the dead or dying victims. A police officer called to the scene found that his sister was among the victims. A paramedic realized the woman he could not save was his aunt. Read more here

 

 

Arab Israeli political parties quickly and harshly condemned the attack.  The Arab-Israeli terrorist’s extended family (clan) issued a statement:“We harshly condemn this terrorist act in Beersheba today that took the lives of innocent civilians.” Read more here

 

 

An Israeli jogger was lightly injured in a stabbing attack in Jerusalem on Saturday. The Arab assailant was shot and injured. Read more here

 

Two police officers were injured, one moderately and one lightly in a stabbing attack in East Jerusalem on Sunday. Read more here

 

 

 

IRANIAN THREAT TO ISRAEL

 

 

 

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett arrived in Egypt on Monday for a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan.
The meeting was part of an effort to forge a coalition with American backing among countries that would stand together against Iran.Read more here

 

 

Two Iranian drones shot down over Iraq last month by American fighter jets were set to explode in Israeli territory. Read more here

 

 

 

Billions of pounds due to be unlocked by the proposed Iran nuclear deal will be channelled to Iranian-backed militias wreaking havoc across the region with Israel “extremely troubled” by the likely prospect of Tehran spending currently frozen funds on arming and financing its proxies. Read more here

 

 

 

ISRAELI FIELD HOSPITAL OPENS IN UKRAINE

 

 

Israel’s state field hospital opened Tuesday afternoon in Mostyska, western Ukraine, with the first patients arriving soon afterwards. The  21 million shekel (£5m) facility fills 10 outdoor tents and has also converted multiple classrooms into hospital wards. The Israeli mission’s 100 staff members, 80 of whom are doctors & nurses sleep on site.

The first foreign field hospital to operate in Ukraine is able to service 150 patients at a time and includes a triage area, an ER ward, men’s, women’s and children’s wards, labour and delivery facilities, imaging and telehealth technologies, mental health services, a lab, a pharmacy and an outpatient clinic.

Read more here

Read more here

 

Israel co-ordinated its plans to set up the field hospital in Ukraine with Russia, giving Moscow the exact co-ordinates of the base to ensure it is not attacked.  The World Health Organisation has verified 43 Russian attacks on hospitals and health facilities in Ukraine. Read more here

 

 

OTHER ISRAELI AID TO UKRAINE

 

 

Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency service has announced that it is donating four bulletproof ambulances to assist medical teams and wounded civilians in Ukraine, in response to a request from the Ukrainian government. Read more here

 

 

 

Among the staggering number of Israelis who have dropped everything to go volunteer with refugees fleeing Ukraine to Moldova are professional medical clowns from the Dream Doctors project, who in normal times work in 30 hospitals across Israel. Read more here

 

 

Many Israeli medical professionals and organisations and others have travelled to Moldova to help Ukrainians caught in, or fleeing from, the war.  Read more here

 

 

“Israel has been stretching out its hand to aid in the crisis in Ukraine for several weeks, from the first minute in different, varied channels,” Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Monday…   “The Israeli public can be proud of the aid and contributions to the citizens of Ukraine….There are not many countries who have done as much,” he stated at a ceremony sending off the staff of an Israeli field hospital to be opened Tuesday in Mostyska, the first such facility any country has built in Ukraine. Read more here

 

 

Israel is sending a delegation of 15 Russian- and Ukrainian-speaking police officers to Poland to assist refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine to come to Israel. Read more here

 

 

UKRAINIAN REFUGEES & NEW IMMIGRANTS  IN ISRAEL

 

As at last Friday, since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, Israel has taken in over 12,600 Ukrainians, of whom only 3,650 were eligible to immigrate under Israel’s Law of Return. Read more here

 

 

Israel will grant basic services including health care and housing assistance to the thousands of Ukrainian refugees entering the country. Read more here

 

 

The government has taken over Terminal 1 at Ben Gurion Airport and turned it into a reception centre for refugees from Ukraine. A two-step process has been operating in a bid to clear a bottleneck of applicants for immigration from Eastern Europe. Read more here

 

Israeli authorities are planning 2,500 temporary caravan units to house Ukrainian immigrants in Ashdod, Rishon Lezion and Nof Hagalil. Read more here

 

 

 

More than 500 new immigrants arrived in Israel on Wednesday and another 400 were due to arrive Thursday. Read more here

 

 

UKRAINE/RUSSIA: ISRAEL’S MEDIATION EFFORTS

 

Ukrainian President Zelensky, speaking to Ukrainians on Sunday after addressing Israel’s parliament, said, “The prime minister of Israel, Mr. Bennett is trying to find a way of holding talks. And we are grateful for this. We are grateful for his efforts, so that sooner or later we will begin to have talks with Russia.” He added, “Of course, Israel has its interests, strategy to protect its citizens. We understand all of it.”  Read more here

 

 

CORONAVIRUS IN ISRAEL

 

 

Figures from last week, where available in brackets for comparison.

13,603 (6,738) people tested positive for the novel coronavirus on Wednesday. 301 (332) COVID patients are in serious condition, 130 (149) of whom are intubated.The death toll since the start of the pandemic stands at 10,455 (10,405). The R rate continues to climb and is at 1.42.(0.92) Read more here

 

 

 

TEST

 

 

Israel’s Breath of Health was featured on I24 News. Its trial at Israeli hospitals showed that it could replace the PCR test for COVID detection. Its blow test pattern analysis can be adapted to detect any pathogen – e.g., different cancers, Alzheimer’s, or diabetes etc.(TY Michael)
View here

 

 

DEFENCE

 

 

The Sky Dew system, a giant missile-detecting balloon is beginning operational use over northern Israel. Onboard sensors are designed to detect incoming long-range munitions & drones. Read more here

 

 

Two Israeli companies Steadicopter and Smart Shooter have teamed together to design and develop a Rotary Unmanned Aerial System (RUAS), the Golden Eagle unmanned helicopter, that has Artificial Intelligence-based precision fire capabilities.

The ever-increasing use of hostile weaponised aerial vehicles on the battlefield has brought about a range of new security threats to the forefront and has pushed defence companies to develop systems to counter enemy drones.  Read more here

 

 

MOROCCO

 

 

Israel and Morocco have signed an agreement to cooperate in civilian aerospace projects as the two countries push for closer economic ties after resuming their diplomatic relationship last year. Read more here

 

 

 

TECHNOLOGY

 

 

An Israeli team of researchers at the Weizmann Institute has built the country’s first quantum computer, one of about 30 quantum computers in the world in different stages and one of fewer than 10 that use ion traps. Read more here

 

 

 

COMMENT & OPINION

 

 

Dr Yoel Har-Even, head of Israel’s field hospital in Ukraine : Throughout my 26-year service in the army, I had the honour of joining and helping lead many of Israel’s previous humanitarian missions to war zones (in Rwanda and the Balkans) and natural disasters (in India and Nepal)… We go knowing that we, unfortunately, cannot help everyone. Indeed, we can only help a tiny fraction of those in need. This terrible war will take countless more lives than we will ever be able to save. But as the Jewish sages write in Ethics of the Fathers, “It is not incumbent upon you to finish the task, but neither are you free to absolve yourself from it.” Medicine provides hope without boundaries or borders. With the memory of my grandparents in my mind, I’m heading to Ukraine to do just that. Read more here

 

 

Lahav Harkov: When he addressed the Knesset on Sunday, Ukrainian President Zelensky dedicated the lion’s share of his speech to comparisons to the Holocaust. Rather than stir Israel’s legislators to solidarity (the speech) drew criticism for its inappropriateness…Former cabinet minister Yuval Steinitz said, “Every comparison between a regular war, as difficult as it may be, and the extermination of millions of Jews in gas chambers in the framework of the Final Solution is a total distortion of history. The same is true for the claim that Ukrainians helped Jews in the Holocaust….The historic truth is that the Ukrainian people cannot be proud of its behaviour… None of that changes the fact that…we must continue humanitarian aid to the citizens of Ukraine suffering from the war and pray for its end to come soon.”
Israelis know the history of the Holocaust very well. The Ukrainian Auxiliary Police rounded up Jews to be massacred in Babyn Yar, Lviv and Zhytomyr. About 80,000 Ukrainians volunteered for the SS, compared with 2,600 Ukrainians documented as having saved Jews. And before that, some of the worst pogroms in Jewish history were perpetrated in what is now Ukraine. Yet Israeli public opinion is strongly in favour of Ukraine in this war despite its bloody, violent history with Jews. Read more here

 

 

Ariel Bulshtein: If the Ukrainian president really wanted to appeal to the sensitivities of Israelis and point to the similarities to his people, who are doggedly and courageously fighting for their independence against a diabolical enemy, then the obvious and correct comparison was (this): Ukraine’s fight against Putin’s merciless onslaught is similar to Israel’s fight against Arab aggression. Read more here

 

 

Emily Schrader: This number of refugees accepted (by Israel) is far greater than (many) other countries, such as the US and the UK, and even more than some of Ukraine’s neighbours Furthermore, the Israeli policy is to admit any Ukrainian, Jewish or not, who has any relatives in the state of Israel.

Despite that, social media was filled with criticism of Israel due to inaccurate articles and content.  Read more here