Israel Update 14.4.22

Pesach (Passover) & Easter greetings to my readers. No Israel Update next week, hopefully back in a fortnight.

 

TEL AVIV TERROR ATTACK

 

 

The three victims of the terrorist shooting attack last Thursday night in Tel Aviv were laid to rest on Sunday. Eytam Magini, 27, recently got engaged. His friend, Tomer Morad, 27, is a recent university graduate in mechanical engineering. Barak Lufan, 35, a married father of three, served as head coach of the Israeli national kayaking team and had represented Israel at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics as a kayaker. The terrorist from Jenin was located hiding near a Jaffa mosque and fired 10 bullets towards Israeli officers who returned fire killing him. Read more here Read more here

 

 

The Jenin governor who called the terrorist a “Fatah fighter,” was later spotted at a mourners’ tent for him. The governor, a longtime Palestinian Authority security official and member of the ruling Fatah party, serves as PA President Abbas’s representative in Jenin. Read more here

 

 

 

PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY PAYMENTS TO CONVICTED TERRORISTS & THEIR FAMILIES

 

 

Israel’s Supreme Court on Sunday ruled that the P.A. can be held liable for terrorist acts, due to its policy of paying stipends to security prisoners in Israeli jails and the families of those killed during attacks on Israelis. Justice Yitzhak Amit, setting out the majority ruling, found that the decision to pay convicted Palestinian terrorists and those killed as part of the “struggle against Israel” makes the PA liable for their actions. Read more here

 

 

The P.A. pays out thousands of shekels to hundreds of relatives of Israeli citizens involved in terrorist operations. According to PA law, anyone who has murdered a Jew – or the perpetrator’s family – will receive a salary for life. Read more here

 

 

JOSEPH’S TOMB VANDALISED, JEWS ATTACKED

 

 

Palestinians set fire to Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus on Saturday night. Images on social media showed parts of the tomb inside the shrine smashed and charred. Under the Oslo Accords, Jewish worshippers are allowed to visit the site several times a year, in coordination with Palestinian security forces. The site was again vandalised on Monday and two Jews were shot & wounded trying to reach the Tomb. The Tomb was repaired on Wednesday. Read more here Read more here Read more here

 

 

 

OTHER ATTACKS

 

 

A female resident of Hebron, stabbed an Israeli Border Police officer on Sunday, and a policeman was lightly wounded after being stabbed by a Palestinian on Tuesday in Ashkelon. Both assailants were shot. Read more here Read more here

 

 

 

INCITEMENT

 

 

As a series of deadly terror attacks rocked Israeli cities in recent weeks, Palestinian social media seethed with incitement supporting the violence and encouraging future attackers. Read more here

 

 

 

COUNTER TERRORISM

 

 

 

Israel thwarted a major attack in Jerusalem planned for the eve of Passover on Friday night, as those planning the attack were arrested on Wednesday.Read more here

 

 

Two Palestinians attacking IDF soldiers with firebombs were shot.Read more here Read more here

 

 

 

CHRISTIAN ARAB POLICE OFFICER HONOURED

 

The city of Bnei Brak has decided to name a street after Sgt.-Maj. Amir Khoury, the Christian Arab police officer who was killed in March while apprehending a terrorist in their neighbourhood. Khoury’s father, Jeries, said “The decision to name a street after our son warms our hearts.” Read more here

 

 

 

RAMADAN

 

 

Yossi Dagan, Chairman of the Samaria Regional Council hosted local Palestinian leaders for Iftar break-fast in a display of co-existence. Among the 20 participants were Islamic sheikhs and clan leaders, who attend such interfaith coexistence gatherings despite the risk of retaliation they face from their fellow Palestinians. A spokesperson for the Palestinian participants, condemned the recent attacks on Israelis. There was also criticism of corruption and weakness in the Palestinian Authority. Read more here

 

 

President Isaac Herzog’s annual Iftar dinner, the traditional meal to break the Ramadan fast, brought around 200 guests to his official residence, including Arab Israeli public officials, religious and civil society leaders, members of the security forces and some foreign diplomats. Read more here

 

 

DEFENCE

 

 

Israel’s Defence Ministry revealed that a laser air defence system it is developing successfully shot down drones, rockets, mortars, and anti-tank missiles in a first series of tests last month.Read more here

 

 

 

NEW COVID VACCINATION STUDY

 

 

 

A new Israeli study strengthens evidence that getting fourth shots of the coronavirus vaccine curtailed deaths in Israel, showing that the Pfizer boosters halved the chances of death from COVID among severe hospitalized patients over age 60. The study also found that fourth shots halve the odds that a patient will need ventilation. Read more here

 

 

 

INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL AID

 

 

The director of Israel’s National Burn Centre at Sheba Medical Centre, Prof. Josef Haik, has arrived in Haiti to help patients who were badly injured on Dec. 14 when a fuel tank truck crashed and exploded, killing 65 people and burning dozens of others. Haik is leading a medical team in cooperation with the U.S. Burn Advocates Network (BAN) to hospitals in Haiti that are still overwhelmed with the wounded. Read more here

 

 

 

A delegation of Israeli medical and parliamentary officials flew to Ethiopia to investigate how Israeli hospitals can help Ethiopian hospitals treat civil war victims. Read more here

 

 

ALIYAH

 

 

The number of immigrants and potential immigrants to Israel from Russia in the past two months far exceeds the number of immigrants and potential immigrants from Ukraine, Israel’s National Security Council reported. From the start of the war on Feb. 24 to the first week in April, 8,371 immigrants and potential immigrants from Ukraine have landed in Israel. At the same time, 12,593 immigrants and potential immigrants from Russia have landed in Israel. In all of 2021, only 7,700 Russians made aliyah. Read more here

 

 

 

MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS

 

 

Innovative Israeli technology will use smart sensors to ensure vaccine safety. Thanks to a new study by Tel Aviv University researchers, instead of self-reporting, what people feel can be assessed objectively by continually monitoring physiological variables. Read more here

 

 

 

Israeli medtech startup Sanolla, a company that provides AI-powered diagnostic solutions for primary care physicians, has received  (US)  FDA clearance for the clinical use of its device VoqX, the first and only stethoscope that can listen to infrasound, acoustic sound waves that aren’t detectable by the human ear. Read more here

 

 

 

Scientists at Tel Aviv university say a special food supplement containing zinc, copper and chemicals that are found in fruit may help fight viruses, after they managed to inhibit virus replication in lab tests.Read more here

 

 

SEASONAL

 

 

Israel’s biggest matzah was presented on Sunday to President Isaac Herzog and his wife Michal. It’s 6 metres (6.5 yards) long, 106 centimetres (3.4 feet) wide, and weighs approximately 6 kilograms (13.2 pounds) with over 119,000 perforations. Read more here

 

 

President Isaac Herzog and First Lady Michal Herzog will be joined at their traditional Passover dinner (“Seder”) by lone soldiers and new Ukrainian immigrants. Read more here

 

 

SPACE

 

 

 

A space capsule carrying four astronauts, including Israeli Eytan Stibbe, has docked at the International Space Station. Stibbe, a former fighter pilot, is the second Israeli to go into space. He is carrying out 35 experiments for companies and research institutions. Read more here

 

 

 

COMMENT & OPINION

 

 

Samuel Green (former KSDS member): And then… gunshots? Five or six short ‘pops’ in succession. It sounded like it was outside my window. I didn’t look – I knew that if it was gunshots then I was best advised to stay away from windows… Then a second burst of fire…Then the sirens and screams…

I turned on the news and there was the name of my hitherto quiet little street, located just behind the main artery of Dizengoff, apparently the site of a first shooting. The pictures of my neighbourhood, the cafes and bars I walk past every day….

Messages are flooding in from around the world as the news spreads. It’s wonderful that people are in touch; it’s moving; it makes us feel loved. But it’s overwhelming.

“Are you OK?”, they ask. “We’re OK”, I reply. But we’re not. At least, I’m not. I can’t be ok. I’m traumatised. I heard real-life gunshots from my sofa. I was out last night; if this attack had taken place 24 hours earlier, I might well have been caught up in it. Read more here

 

 

 

Maurice Hirsch: The current terror wave in Israel was initiated and is being fuelled by the Palestinian Authority and PA Chairman Abbas’ Fatah party. In the run-up to Ramadan, the PA intensified its false rhetoric that Israel was seeking to escalate violence and destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Those calls were then used to incite hatred and spark terror attacks. Speaking on official PA TV on the first day of Ramadan, Supreme Shari’a Judge Mahmoud al-Habbash explained: In the same way as the Prophet Muhammad engaged in war during Ramadan, so too should Palestinians engage in jihad. Read more here

 

 

 

Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinians took to the streets in the West Bank and Gaza to cheer, dance, hand out sweets, and chant slogans in support of the terrorists to celebrate the recent terror attacks in Israel, another sign of the growing radicalization among the Palestinians and their refusal to recognize Israel’s right to exist…
Apart from demonstrating the Palestinians’ disrespect for human life and support for terrorism, the celebrations prove that a Palestinian who murders a Jew is a hero, whereas one who seeks peace with Israel is a traitor.
Palestinians want peace without Israel, not peace with Israel. That is why most Palestinians continue to support Hamas, whose charter openly calls for the elimination of Israel.
Palestinians are told by their leaders that the terrorism aims to stop Israel from “committing crimes” against the Al-Aqsa Mosque. This, of course, is completely false because since the beginning of Ramadan, tens of thousands of Muslim worshippers have been freely and safely accessing the mosque for prayers.
Continuing to pretend that the Palestinian Authority is a reliable partner for peace will only lead to further violence and bloodshed. It is time for the Biden administration to start banging on the table and demanding an end to the poisonous campaign to delegitimize Israel and demonize Jews. Read more here