Middle East

Naftali Bennett: hard-right tech millionaire and Israel’s new PM

  JERUSALEM (AFP) — Naftali Bennett, a multi-millionaire former tech entrepreneur who made his political name with hardline religious-nationalist rhetoric, will be Israel’s new prime minister after parliament approved a new government on Sunday. The 120-member Knesset voted in favour of an improbable coalition put together by centrist Yair Lapid, with a razor-thin majority but enough to end veteran Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s 12 unbroken years at the helm. The coalition deal sees Bennett, an […]

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Biden congratulates Israel’s new prime minister Bennett in telephone call

  WASHINGTON,United States (AFP) — US President Joe Biden on Sunday offered incoming Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett his “warm congratulations” in telephone talks, the White House said, after an alliance of parties ousted Benjamin Netanyahu and formed a new government. “I congratulate Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Alternate Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, and all the members of the new Israeli cabinet,” Biden said in a statement issued shortly before the call. “Israel […]

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Israel’s Netanyahu ousted as ‘change’ coalition forms new govt

  by Maggy DONALDSON Agence France Presse JERUSALEM (AFP) — A motley alliance of Israeli parties on Sunday ended Benjamin Netanyahu’s 12 straight years as prime minister, as parliament voted in a new government led by his former ally, right-wing Jewish nationalist Naftali Bennett. Bennett, a tech millionaire and former special forces commander, was sworn in at the helm of an ideologically divided eight-party bloc united only by disdain for the country’s longest-serving prime minister. […]

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British woman dies in Cyprus after AstraZeneca jab

  NICOSIA, Cyprus (AFP) — A 39-year-old British woman died in a Cypriot hospital after a blood clotting incident after receiving the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, the official Cyprus News Agency said Monday. Charalambos Charilaou, the spokesperson for the state health services, told CNA that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) would investigate the death. The woman, treated at Nicosia General Hospital’s intensive care unit, received the first dose of the vaccine on May 6 in the […]

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Israel, Hamas ceasefire comes into force

by Sakher Abou El Oun with Ben Simon in Jerusalem JERUSALEM, Undefined (AFP) — A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, the Islamist movement which controls the Gaza Strip, came into force early Friday after 11 days of deadly fighting that pounded the Palestinian enclave and forced countless Israelis to seek shelter from rockets. Celebrations were heard on Gaza streets in the minutes after the truce began as cars honked their horns and some guns were […]

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Israel gov’t statement says “terrorist group” Hamas responsible for deaths, injuries of Israeli and Palestinian civilians

    (Eagle News) – The Israel government press office (GPO) said the Palestine militant group Hamas which is currently occupying and ruling Gaza was “responsible for the death and injury of tens of thousands of Israeli and Palestinian civilians.” In a statement issued Wednesday, May 19 by the State of Israel’s Prime Minister’s office and the GPO, it said that Hamas — a Palestine Islamist group tagged as a terrorist organization by the United […]

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Israel Prime Minister’s office issues Q & A statement to clarify latest Israel-Gaza conflict

PM Netanyahu’s office details how latest Israel-Gaza conflict started and clarifies alleged misinformation being circulated by the militant Palestine group Hamas (Editor’s note: Below is the Question and Answer format statement from the Israel government’s press office under the Office of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu clarifying questions on the latest conflict between Israel and Hamas-ruled Gaza. We are publishing it in full) ——— “Everything you needed to know about the latest escalation in Israel” […]

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Israeli strike puts sole Gaza Covid lab out of action: ministry

  GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories (AFP) — The Palestinian enclave of Gaza’s only Covid-19 laboratory is no longer able to carry out testing due to an Israeli air strike Monday on the clinic housing it, local authorities said. Al-Rimal clinic, in the town of the same name in the Gaza Strip, was partly destroyed, while the territory’s health ministry and the office of Qatar’s Red Crescent were also hit, officials said. Medical personnel at the […]

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Blinken urges Israel and Palestinians to ‘protect civilians’ and children

  COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AFP) — US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday urged Israel and Palestinians to “protect civilians, especially children”, reiterating that Israel “as a democracy has an extra burden” to do so. “We’ll continue to conduct intensive diplomacy to bring this current cycle of violence to an end” and “we are ready to lend support, if the parties seek a ceasefire”, Blinken told a press conference in Copenhagen. He reiterated Washington’s support […]

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Israeli air strike flattens Gaza building hosting AP, Al Jazeera

  GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories (AFP) — An Israeli air strike Saturday flattened a 13-floor building housing Qatar-based Al Jazeera television and the US news agency the Associated Press in the Gaza Strip. Israel “destroyed Jala Tower in the Gaza Strip, which contains the Al Jazeera and other international press offices,” Al Jazeera said in a tweet, with an AP journalist saying the army had warned the tower’s owner ahead of the strike. AFP journalists, […]

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Israel-Palestinian conflict escalates as rockets fly, street violence flares

  by Ben Simon with Adel Zaanoun in Gaza City Agence France Presse TEL AVIV, Israel (AFP) — Israel faced an escalating conflict on two fronts Thursday, scrambling to quell riots between Arabs and Jews on its own streets after days of exchanging deadly fire with Palestinian militants in Gaza. Despite diplomatic efforts to ease the crisis, which US President Joe Biden said he hoped would end “sooner than later”, hundreds of rockets flew across […]

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First rocket warning in northern Israel in latest hostilities

  JERUSALEM (AFP) — Israel’s army on Thursday said it had received a rocket warning in the north of the country, the first time the alert has been given there since hostilities soared between Israel and Palestinians earlier this week. The approximately 1,500 rockets fired from Gaza by Hamas militants since Monday had so far set off warnings in southern and central Israel, but not in the north, the army said. However in the small […]

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