Israel

04 March 2022; MEMO: Israeli interior minister, Ayelet Shaked, announced that her government would take a decision to set up seven to twelve new residential areas in the Negev region "to house new Jewish immigrants."

"We think tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of immigrants will arrive from Russia, Ukraine, and former Soviet states," Shaked told Channel 7, adding that the new communities would "bolster the Negev" and would be "necessary to absorb the expected wave of new immigrants."

02 March 2022; MEMO:Israel will not be bound by any agreement on Iran's nuclear pogramme, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said yesterday.

"It seems that in the near future your hands will be full," Ynet News reported Bennett telling Mossad agents. "Your important mission will be to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear capabilities."

"It is a task that you have been dealing with for years now, but it looks like we are getting closer to the moment of truth. This is the money time."

01 March 2022; MEMO:Israel has rejected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's request to supply his country with weapons, according to a report in Yedioth Ahronoth. The request came during a telephone conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Friday. However, Israel has announced that two planes loaded with humanitarian aid for Ukraine are flying to Poland today.

01 March 2022; MEMO:Leader of Israeli opposition Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday criticised the Israeli government for failing to take action against a potential nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers.

"In the face of the nuclear agreement with Iran, the government of Israel does nothing in the face of the rush towards the nuclear agreement that will enable Iran to obtain nuclear weapons against us, an agreement that will arrive soon," Netanyahu said.

01 March 2022; MEMO:Some 211 rights groups and NGOs yesterday called for the international community to respect Amnesty International's report which labelled Israel an apartheid state, Quds Press reported.

JERUSALEM, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday and offered humanitarian aid, his office said, while an Israeli report said Zelenskiy asked for Israeli mediation with Russia.

"Prime Minister Bennett reiterated his hope for a speedy end to the fighting, and said that he stands by the people of Ukraine in these difficult days," Bennett's statement said.

25 Feb 2022; MEMO: Israel yesterday announced that it is ready to receive thousands of Jews wishing to flee Ukraine following the Russian military operation there, Anadolu reported.

"We are ready to accept thousands of Jewish immigrants from Ukraine," Minister of Immigration and Absorption, Pnina Tamano-Shata, was quoted as saying by Israel's Kan news agency.

"Our door will be open to anyone who wants to come. We will find solutions that go beyond what we are prepared for," she added.

24 Feb 2022; MEMO: Thousands of detainees are forced into isolation for years, including minors, by the Israel Prison Service (IPS), according to the NGO Physicians for Human Rights.

Figures published by the prison service reveal 1,587 inmates had been held in complete solitary confinement in the first ten months of 2021, including 66 minors.

By the end of August of the same year, another 1,134 prisoners, among whom 53 were minors, were held in "individual seclusion" or "two-person seclusion".

23 Feb 2022; MEMO: Israeli officials are reportedly worried that US sanctions on Russia over its possible invasion of Ukraine could harm Tel Aviv's security interests in neighbouring Syria.

According to a report by the Israeli news site, Walla!, anonymous Israeli officials expressed to it their concerns that, due to Israel's close ties with the US, any sanctions that the latter imposes on Russia will affect the former's ability to properly coordinate with Moscow in Syria to negotiate security issues.

24 Feb 2022; MEMO: Palestinian Ahmed Manasra is suffering from a psychological disorder due to isolation and harsh prison conditions since his detention in 2015, his family said yesterday.

In a statement, Manasra's family stressed that he needs a proper and professional diagnosis, treatment with appropriate medications and an end to his isolation.

The family said that he was violently beaten when he was detained in 2015 when he was 13, and he had a fracture in his skull.