Israeli army chief Dan Halutz on Monday rejected a 24-hour ultimatum set by the captors of an Israeli soldier held in the Gaza Strip who are demanding the release of Palestinian prisoners. ”We will not give in to any blackmailing or to any ultimatum put forth by any terror organisation, and in this specific case, by Hamas,” Halutz told reporters.
Israel vowed on Thursday to continue air attacks in the Gaza Strip, despite global outcry over the killing of civilians in botched raids, as the Israeli and Palestinian leaders met in Jordan. Fourteen Palestinian civilians, including five children, have been killed in air strikes over Gaza in nine days, following an upsurge in cross-border violence.
An Orthodox Jew was threatened with divorce after blowing several thousand dollars on a parrot that swore like a trooper, Israel’s mass-circulation Yediot Aharonot daily said on Thursday. The man’s religious household in the Tel Aviv area was bombarded by insults such as ”son of a bitch” and ”homo” from the bird.
Israel has condemned a ”repulsive” vote by Britain’s main university lecturers’ union to boycott colleges and academics unless they publicly oppose government policy in the Palestinian territories. Education Minister Yuli Tamir said on Monday that the decision would only serve to undermine academic independence.
Hidden behind curtains in small booths decked along the wall of a dark internet café in the heart of Jerusalem, Jewish ultra-Orthodox teenagers explore a forbidden world. More and more ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi, youngsters are becoming interested in the secular world surrounding their tightly sealed society, and the web is today a central battleground between tradition and reform.
Former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, who has been comatose in a Jerusalem hospital since suffering a stroke in January, will be moved next week to a rehabilitation clinic, an official said. ”Sharon is going to move to the Sheba Medical Centre at the beginning of next week,” Yael Bosem Levy, a spokesperson for the Hadassah hospital said.
Israel’s supreme court on Tuesday rejected an appeal by Palestinians living on the outskirts of East Jerusalem against the construction of a new section of its West Bank barrier. Residents of al-Azaria, a Jerusalem suburb which is technically in the West Bank, had filed a petition against building work on the barrier.
Israeli settlers living in unauthorised West Bank outposts are prepared to leave if they are offered government-sanctioned alternatives in the area, the Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot reported on Tuesday. The conditional offer marks a departure from the settlers’ longheld policy of fighting all West Bank evacuations.
Israel’s 12th Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, has courted early disapproval for a weak coalition few believe can redraw the borders of the Jewish state. A veteran nationalist, who like his coma-stricken predecessor Ariel Sharon, underwent a sea change in his views in late career, Olmert has vowed to guide the nation on the path to peace.
Ehud Olmert was facing a revolt on Monday in the ranks of his Kadima party with senior figures furious at losing out on key portfolios to Labour rivals as the new Israeli coalition government is drawn. Newspaper headlines made uncomfortable reading for the prime minister designate with a number of top Kadima candidates in last month’s election accusing him of reneging on agreements.
Israel’s Cabinet on Tuesday declared ailing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon permanently incapacitated, marking the official end of his five-year tenure. Sharon (78) suffered a devastating stroke on January 4 and has been in a coma since. After the stroke, Sharon’s deputy, Ehud Olmert immediately stepped in as his temporary replacement.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who has been in a coma for the last three months, was to undergo surgery on Tuesday to restore part of his skull which had been removed by surgeons. Ron Krumer, a spokesperson for Jerusalem’s Hadassah hospital, said the 78-year-old remains ”serious but stable”.
Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert prepared on Wednesday to form a coalition to fix Israel’s final borders after his Kadima party won an election which has dramatically redrawn the political landscape. With nearly all votes counted, Kadima was poised to emerge the largest party in parliament only four months after its creation by Olmert’s coma-stricken mentor Ariel Sharon, although it did not secure enough seats to govern alone.
Binyamin Netanyahu, leader of the hawkish Likud Party, hopes to complete his political rehabilitation by returning to the prime minister’s office and resuming a post the Israeli public evicted him from in the May 1999 elections. As Likud leader, Netanyahu has been campaigning that he represents the ”true” Likud values.
Israel on Friday confirmed that the deadly H5N1 bird-flu strain had been found in thousands of poultry, as five people were admitted to hospital and the authorities moved to cull multiple flocks of fowl. Battling the country’s first outbreak of bird flu, the authorities ordered poultry in a quarantined area in the southern Negev desert to be exterminated.
Days before Israel’s military assault on Jericho prison it warned Britain and the United States that it would seize Palestinians held there under an international agreement for killing an Israeli Cabinet minister if the two countries withdrew their monitors. Dov Weisglass, one of the Israeli prime minister’s advisers, told Britain and the US that it would be better for international supervision at the prison to continue.
Acting Premier Ehud Olmert, the frontrunner for the March 28 elections in Israel, has fleshed out a key election promise in vowing to set Israel’s permanent borders within four years if his Kadima party wins. Olmert made the comments in an interview with the Jerusalem Post on Thursday.
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/ 14 February 2006
The jailing of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s son Omri has further thickened the stench of corruption in Israel, where the public has grown weary of political scandal in the newspaper headlines. Omri, a former MP, was handed a nine-month sentence over a string of charges linked to his father’s leadership campaign just a day after another MP was found guilty of corruption.
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/ 11 February 2006
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s life is in danger, a hospital spokesperson said on Saturday, after doctors discovered a ”serious deterioration” in his digestive tract. ”A serious deterioration of his digestive tract was discovered after an examination and doctors decided to operate,” said Ron Krumer, spokesperson for the Haddasah hospital.
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/ 8 February 2006
If you find bedroom sex boring, an Israeli company is now offering a romantic experience at an altitude of 30 000 feet. During the 45-minute flight, a couple can enjoy the luxury of a romantically decorated bedroom equipped with different accessories, the top-selling Yediot Aharonot daily reported on Wednesday.
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/ 7 February 2006
Israel on Tuesday vowed to continue its policy of targeting Palestinian militants after the air force conducted a third deadly strike on the Gaza Strip in less than three days. Seven Palestinian militants have been killed in a series of air strikes since Sunday, sparked by rocket attacks on Israel.
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/ 1 February 2006
Israel will make a decision in the next few days on transferring funds owed to the Palestinian Authority, which were frozen after Hamas’s election win, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said on Wednesday. ”We will take a decision on these transfers of funds in the next few days. We want some time to reflect,” Livni told public radio shortly before setting off on a visit to Cairo.
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/ 30 January 2006
Israel has decided to freeze funds to the Palestinian Authority, fearing the money could end up aiding terrorist elements, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced on Monday. ”It must be made very clear, we are not going to transfer funds which could finance terrorist attacks against our civilians,” Olmert said on public radio.
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/ 20 January 2006
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s breathing is improving and may soon be disconnected from a respirator, an Israeli daily reported Friday. Sharon has been unconscious at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital since suffering a devastating stroke on January 4.
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/ 16 January 2006
Ariel Sharon blinked his eyes on Monday as a tape of his grandson was being played, but medics treating Israel’s coma-stricken premier said it is too early to assess the significance of the development. Meanwhile, acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was officially named interim chairperson of Sharon’s Kadima party on Monday.
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/ 11 January 2006
Ariel Sharon’s progress since his massive brain haemorrhage has stunned doctors, but the Israeli premier still faces a long and rocky road to recovery, his chief neurosurgeon said on Wednesday. Sharon, who is being gradually awoken from a medically induced coma, is already moving ”his four limbs”.
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/ 10 January 2006
Doctors bringing Ariel Sharon out of a medically induced coma declared on Tuesday that the Israeli premier’s life was no longer in danger and that there were increased signs of activity in his brain. The 77-year-old Sharon remains in the intensive care unit at Jerusalem’s Hadassah hospital after suffering a massive brain haemorrhage six days ago.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was breathing unassisted on Monday while being gradually awoken from a deep coma so doctors can assess the extent of damage to his brain after a massive stroke. Doctors say he could survive, but have ruled out the chances of him returning as prime minister.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was being gradually awoken on Monday from a deep coma so his doctors can assess the extent of damage to his brain following a massive stroke. The procedure will be the biggest breakthrough in his condition since the 77-year-old former general has been wired up to a life support machine after a huge brain haemorrhage.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was rushed back to the operating theatre on Friday for emergency surgery to stop fresh bleeding in his brain as the country braced for the end of the Sharon era. Sharon, who has been prime minister since February 2001, was admitted to the hospital on Wednesday, little more than two weeks after he suffered a minor stroke.
A hospital official said early on Friday that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon remains in serious condition and will be in a medically induced coma the immediate future after a massive stroke, as Israelis and Palestinians grappled with the likelihood that the man who dominated politics in the region for decades would never return to power.
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/ 29 December 2005
Israeli artillery batteries and warplanes continued to bombard the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday after a deadline expired for Palestinians to evacuate a new security zone which is intended to stop rocket attacks, a military spokesperson said.