The Knesset’s coronavirus cabinet has agreed to a three-week national lockdown in Israel as cases continue to spike. The decision came ahead of the Jewish high holy days while Western Galilee Hospital in Nahariya is said to be overwhelmed and turning away new covid-19 patients. On Sunday, Haredi Minister Yaakov Read more…
In the third announcement of its kind in as many weeks, the Israeli and Bahraini Governments announced the normalising of relations. This follows a similar agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, and two Balkan states. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu traveled to Washington DC for a four day trip Read more…
LFI chair Steve McCabe has written for The House, click here to read the original. Relations in the Middle East are shifting. Labour Friends of Israel will help craft a new internationalist approach to the region, while standing up to anti-Semitism in our party Labour Friends of Israel this week Read more…
Last Saturday, about 20,000 protesters gathered outside Benjamin Netanyahu’s official residence in Jerusalem. With parallel gatherings held outside Netanyahu’s private residence in Caesarea and at over 300 bridges and major intersections nationwide, the demonstrations are in their eleventh consecutive week. Activists are calling on the prime minister to resign Read more…
LFI director Michael Rubin has written in the Jewish Chronicle. Click here to view the original. This week I start as Director of LFI. After five years of Jeremy Corbyn, and 10 years of increasingly right-wing government in Israel, friends of Israel have questioned if they can still find a Read more…
In a potentially significant development, a rapid Israeli COVID-19 breath test successfully completed clinical trials, according to a newly peer-reviewed study. The device uses nanotechnology to identify compounds from the lung that are present in the breath of coronavirus patients, and is being developed by Prof. Hossam Haick of the Technion-Israel Institute of Read more…
Hamas, the Gaza-based terror group, announced on Monday night that they had agreed a ceasefire with Israel. Shortly after Hamas’s statement, Israel’s military liaison to the Palestinians tacitly confirmed the agreement, saying it would reopen the border crossing, including to fuel deliveries, as well as the Gaza fishing zone to the Read more…
Israel saw the deadliest day of the coronavirus pandemic this week, as ministers prepared to meet today to consider a relaxation of some weekend restrictions. On Tuesday, the Health Ministry announced that 15 people died on Monday, the highest single-day death toll since the pandemic began. Three more deaths Wednesday morning Read more…
Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party is “approaching bankruptcy”, a former official has told the Jerusalem Post. The party is believed to be firing staff, facing huge debts to the banks and suppliers, and considering selling assets. The Likud, which has led Israel’s government since 2009, is believed to have been hit Read more…
Thousands of Israelis joined demonstrations calling for Benjamin Netanyahu’s resignation on Saturday night. An estimated 10,000 people rallied outside the prime minister’s official residence in Jerusalem – the largest gathering yet since the wave of protests started six weeks ago. There were also demonstrations in Tel Aviv and Haifa, outside Read more…
Israel successfully repelled a Hezbollah attack on its northern border on Monday amid rising tensions between the Jewish state and the Iranian-backed terror group. A spokesperson for the IDF said about five Hezbollah operatives had crossed several metres into Israel in the Har Dov area, also known as Shaba Farms, Read more…
The head of Hamas has admitted it refused a recent offer of $15bn in aid for Gaza because it was conditioned on the terror group giving up its arms. Ismail Hahniye said that the proposed aid package also contained a pledge that Israel and Egypt would lift their blockade of Read more…