Israel

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett was on a surprise visit to the United Arab Emirates on Thursday, a snap trip that came as efforts to salvage a deal over Iran’s nuclear program were stalled amid a deepening standoff with Tehran.

The visit was Bennett’s second public trip to Abu Dhabi since Israel and the UAE agreed to normalize ties in 2020 after years of quiet cooperation, mainly over their shared concerns over Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

23 May 2022; MEMO: A senior Israeli lawmaker said, on Monday, the country risked a "religious war" after a court ruled in favour of Jews who had tried to pray at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque compound as nationalists planned a march near the Muslim holy site, Reuters reports.

Palestinian factions have denounced Israeli moves in Jerusalem's Old City including the Jerusalem Magistrates' Court's decision yesterday to rescind a restraining order against three Jews who had prayed while visiting the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

23 May 2022; MEMO: A diplomat from the US consulate in Jerusalem met the leader of an extremist Jewish organisation on Sunday following its removal from America's list of foreign terrorist organisations. The radical Orthodox Jewish group Kahane Chai (Kach) was founded by ultranationalist Israeli Rabbi Meir Kahane in 1971. Its members have in the past killed Palestinians as well as Israeli officials.

22 May 2022; MEMO: A lawmaker from Israel's Arab minority said on Sunday she was returning to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's coalition, restoring its tenuous hold over half of the seats in parliament after she briefly bolted in solidarity with the Palestinians, Reuters reports.

TEL AVIV/GENEVA, May 22 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Israel and Switzerland have confirmed their first cases of monkeypox, joining several European and North American countries in detecting a disease that is endemic to parts of Africa.

In recent weeks, more than 100 confirmed or suspected cases of monkeypox have been detected in the UK, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden as well as in the US, Canada, and Australia, raising fears the virus may be spreading.

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — An Israeli court on Sunday sentenced six Palestinian inmates to five years in prison for tunneling out of their cell last year and escaping from a high-security facility in the biggest prison break of its kind in decades.

The jailbreak sparked a massive manhunt in the country’s north and the occupied West Bank in search for the men, who were members of Palestinian militant groups. They were recaptured days later.

21 May 2022; MEMO: Joint List MK Sami Abu Shehadeh announced on Friday that he would request the start of the process of dissolving the Israeli Knesset on Wednesday, Israeli media reported.

"I will submit the Knesset Dispersal Law [for a vote] next Wednesday," he announced via Twitter. "This bad government must fall," he declared.

JERUSALEM, May 21 (NNN-PNA) – The Israeli health ministry, last night, reported the country’s first suspected case of monkeypox, after the viral disease has recently been detected across North America and Europe.

Earlier in the day, a man in his 30s, returning from western Europe, visited Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, with suspicious lesions of the virus, according to separate statements issued by the ministry and the hospital.

20 May 2022; MEMO: Israeli ruling coalition became a minority in the country's Knesset yesterday after an Arab lawmaker resigned.

Ghaida Rinawie Zoabi, an Israeli-Arab with the liberal Meretz Party, handed her resignation to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, leaving his party with only 59 seats out of a 120-seat parliament.

20 May 2022; MEMO: Israel's ruling coalition does not intend to surrender, despite recently becoming a minority government, its Foreign Minister and alternate premier declared on Friday, and Anadolu News Agency reports.

Striking an assertive tone, Yair Lapid tweeted that it was still too early to "mourn" the government's dissolution, admitting, however, that it was in a shaky situation after left-wing lawmaker, Ghaida Rinawie Zoabi, exited the coalition on Thursday over its harassment of Palestinians.