China urges citizens in Israel to leave 'as soon as possible'

China has urged its citizens in Israel to leave "as soon as possible", as tensions between Israel and Lebanon's Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah escalate.

"Currently, the situation along the Israel-Lebanon border is extremely tense, with frequent military conflicts," China's embassy in Israel said in a statement on Sunday.

"The security situation in Israel remains severe, complex, and unpredictable," the statement added.

The embassy urged Chinese citizens in Israel to "return home or relocate to safer areas as soon as possible".

Israel and Hezbollah threatened on Sunday to escalate their cross-border attacks despite international calls for both sides to step back from the brink of all-out war.

An Israeli air strike in a densely populated Hezbollah stronghold in southern Beirut Friday killed the head of Hezbollah's elite Radwan Force, Ibrahim Aqil.

It came after a series of coordinated communications device blasts on Tuesday and Wednesday across Lebanon that killed 39 people and wounded almost 3,000, and which were blamed on Israel.

China last month asked its citizens in Lebanon to leave after an Israeli strike in the country killed a senior Palestinian militant.

Agence France-Presse

Puma to end kit deal with Israeli national football team

BERLIN, Germany -- German sportswear maker Puma said Tuesday it would end a sponsorship deal with the Israeli national football team in a decision made before the beginning of the war in Gaza.

Following a strategy review carried out at the end of 2022, Puma would stop outfitting the Israeli team from next year, the company said.

"While two newly signed national teams –- including a new statement team –- will be announced later this year and in 2024, the contracts of some federations such as Serbia and Israel will expire in 2024," a spokeswoman said in a statement.

"These decisions were taken in 2022 in line with the regular timelines for the design (and) development of the team jerseys," the spokeswoman said.

The deal with Israel, which was signed in 2018, prompted calls to boycott the sportswear brand.

Campaigners accused Puma of endorsing illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank through its deal with the Israeli FA, which includes teams from the occupied Palestinian territory.

The outbreak in October of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, has strengthened longstanding calls to boycott products which support Israel.

The war was triggered when Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip carried out an unprecedented attack against Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 240 hostages -- 137 of whom remain in Gaza, Israeli officials say.

In response, Israel vowed to destroy Hamas and began intense bombardments and a ground offensive in Gaza that has killed at least 18,200 people, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Agence France-Presse

Intel to invest $25 bn in new Israel plant: government

JERUSALEM — US chip giant Intel will spend $25 billion on a new plant in Israel, officials said, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling it the country's single largest foreign investment.

The "agreement in principle" would see the semiconductor firm build the facility in southern city Kiryat Gat that would open by 2027 and operate at least until 2035, Israel's finance ministry said.

As part of the deal, Intel's taxes to Israel would rise from 5 to 7.5 percent, the finance ministry said in a statement.

Intel in return would receive a grant of 12.8 percent of its outlay, the ministry said, in line with Israel's capital investment encouragement law.

Netanyahu said the new plant would constitute "the largest investment in Israel".

"This is a great show of confidence in Israel's economy, and shows the strength of the free economy we built here and the technological economy developing here," the Israeli leader said.

The two sides would begin finalizing the deal in a process expected to take a number of weeks, according to the ministry.

A spokesman for Intel in Israel had no immediate comment.

Intel has been operating in Israel since the 1970s with development centers and a production site that employ some 12,000 people out of the company's global workforce of 130,000, the finance ministry said.

In 2017, Intel acquired Israel-based Mobileye, which makes technology for automated driving systems in vehicles, for just over 15 billion dollars.

Agence France-Presse

Israel booster jabs cutting severe COVID even as cases surge: experts

JERUSALEM - Israel's program of booster jabs has proved effective in reducing severe cases of COVID even as new infections hover near record highs, experts said, citing recent data.

Since taking office in June, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has insisted he will aim to avoid any new lockdown, a pledge his government has kept even as the country of roughly 9.3 million people regularly records more than 10,000 new Covid cases a day. 

Schools opened on September 1 and synagogues are set to welcome worshippers, with some restrictions, for Yom Kippur -- the Jewish calendar's most important day -- when services begin on Wednesday evening. 

To stay open, Israel has opted for a complex policy mix that has caused frustration for families forced to organise repeated Covid tests for their children to attend school or take part in other activities. 

The backbone of Bennett's strategy has been the rollout of a third shot of the PfizerBioNTech vaccine to everyone aged 12 and over, ignoring criticism that the booster jab is unnecessary and unfair. 

But the 49-year-old premier this week insisted his approach was working.

"Very many people were sceptical," he told his cabinet. "But our strategy is proving itself." 

Top public health experts, citing recent data, agreed, telling AFP even though daily cases remain high, the booster shot has stemmed the rise in severe Covid cases, warding off a crisis that was brewing last month. 

On Wednesday, a study in the New England Journal of Medicine also bore out the finding.

Researchers examined data relating to 1.1 million Israelis 60 and older, who had received two doses of vaccine at least five months earlier, then either received a booster or did not.

After 12 days, those who had a third shot were 11 times less likely to have a confirmed infection and 20 times less likely to develop severe Covid than those who did not.

- The third shot -

Israel's vaccination rollout that began last December was among the fastest in the world and brought infections to a trickle by June, when all pandemic restrictions were lifted. 

But when cases began surging again through the summer, health experts confronted a key question, said Gabi Barbash, a former health ministry director general now with the Weizmann Institute of Science.

Had the surge been caused by the PfizerBioNTech vaccine's waning effectiveness five months after the second jab, or, was the Delta variant's ability to break through vaccine protection to blame?

But weeks after the third jab rollout began, the severe case count -- which shot up from more than 70 in late July to 600 by mid-August -- has stabilised, currently standing below 700. Infections also remain very low among the triple jabbed.

Those factors, Barbash told AFP, make it clear that "waning immunity is what caused the fourth wave."

"And when such waning immunity meets such transmissible variants (like Delta), it is a disaster."

He acknowledged criticism, notably from the World Health Organization, that offering third jabs was unjust with some poor countries struggling to offer even a single shot. 

But Barbash argued that Israel's small population would not stress global vaccine supplies and underlined that had Israel not administered shots it could have seen 1,000 deaths per month. 

More than 7,400 Israelis have died from Covid-19. 

Cyrille Cohen, a life sciences professor at Bar Ilan University and a member of the health ministry's vaccine committee, cited data from the over 60 demographic to highlight the booster shot's impact. 

"If you are not vaccinated, you are around 35 times more likely to develop a severe case if you are over the age of 60, and around eight times more if you have two doses and no booster shot," he said. 

- Test, jab, test -

Israelis have voiced frustration at the challenges of booking Covid tests, especially during the high holiday season when families typically gather. 

Backlogs have also been caused by the high number of children who have been exposed to the virus and need negative tests in order to re-enter school. 

At a drive-through testing centre in Jerusalem, mother of three Julia Ortenberg told AFP that days after school started, a classmate of her daughter tested positive for Covid, forcing her class into quarantine. 

Ten days into the school year, 44,000 pupils were confirmed sick with Covid and 119,000 more in isolation, according to health ministry figures. 

Ortenberg said she was reluctant to vaccinate her 13-year-old son, but without the jab he would have had to follow classes on Zoom or get a negative Covid test every two days to attend in-person, which "wasn't an option". 

Her run-up to Yom Kippur involved a fraught attempt to book a test for her daughter to free her from isolation, taking her son for his second jab, and then taking her daughter for a second test. 

Cohen acknowledged the frustrations but said Israel was still "trying to find the right balance to live with Covid-19".

Agence France-Presse

UK panel does not recommend COVID vaccines for healthy 12- to 15-year-olds

UK advice contrasts with United States and Israel

LONDON - Britain's vaccine advisers said they were not recommending the vaccination of all 12- to 15-year-olds against COVID-19, preferring a precautionary approach in healthy children due to a rare side effect of heart inflammation.

The advice could see Britain pursue a different approach to the United States, Israel and some European countries, which have rolled out vaccinations to children more broadly.

However, a final decision has not been taken, as the British government said it would consult medical advisers to look at other factors, such as disruption to schools.

Many politicians and some scientists have spoken out in favor of vaccinating more children amid concern that COVID-19 could spread in schools that are reopening after summer holidays, further disrupting education.

Britain has reported more than 133,000 deaths from COVID-19 and nearly 7 million cases, and while transmission among children can be high, they are rarely severely ill from the disease.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) on Friday said children with underlying conditions that made them more at risk from COVID-19 should get vaccinated.

For healthy children, there was still a small benefit from receiving COVID-19 vaccination, and advisers said the risk-benefit was "finely balanced".

However, the JCVI said it wanted more information on the long-term effects of rare reports of heart inflammation, known as myocarditis, in young people following vaccination with Pfizer's shot.

Myocarditis is rare and normally mild, with patients usually recovering in a few days.

"Of course these vaccines do work and would be beneficial to children in terms of preventing infection and disease, but the number of serious cases that we see of COVID in children this age are really very small," JCVI member Adam Finn told Reuters.

"There are uncertainties about the long-term implications of (myocarditis), and that makes the risk-benefit balance for these children really quite tight and much tighter than we would be comfortable to make the recommendation."

UK health minister Sajid Javid, who sets policy for England, and his counterparts from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, wrote to the chief medical officers (CMOs) of the four nations, asking for further advice, "including on educational impacts".

"Given the importance of this issue, we would be grateful if you could provide your advice as soon as possible," the four health ministers said in a letter to the CMOs.

The JCVI is also expected to advise on a potential booster vaccine program for the elderly and vulnerable which could start this month.

JCVI member Finn said there would be an update on boosters "within the next few days."

-reuters-

Israel offers COVID-19 booster to all vaccinated people

JERUSALEM - Israel on Sunday began offering a COVID-19 booster to children as young as 12, and its prime minister said a campaign that began a month ago among seniors has slowed a rise in severe illness caused by the Delta variant.

Announcing the decision, top Israeli health officials said the effectiveness of the second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine waned six months after administration, making a booster necessary.

"The third dose brings us to the level of protection achieved by the second dose, when it was fresh," said Sharon Alroy-Preis, head of public health at Israel's Health Ministry.

"That means, people are 10 times more protected after the third vaccine dose," she told a news conference, where the expanded booster drive was announced.

Those eligible for the third shot can receive it provided at least five months have passed since their second jab - a timeframe shorter than an eight-month interval in effect in the United States, which is considering cutting the waiting time.

Hoping to curb the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant, Israel began administering the booster to its older population a month ago and has been gradually lowering the age of eligibility. It stood at 30 before Sunday's announcement.

So far 2 million people out of a population of 9.3 million have received three doses.

"There are already results: the increase in severe morbidity has begun to slow," Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said in a statement. "But we have to complete third doses for all of our citizens. I call on those aged 12 and up to go out and immediately take the third shot."

Israel and other countries have pressed ahead with booster plans despite opposition from the World Health Organization, which said more of the world should be vaccinated with a first dose before people receive a third.

The United States has said it will offer booster doses to all Americans, citing data showing diminishing protection. Canada, France and Germany have also planned booster campaigns. 

(Editing by Jeffrey Heller; editing by Barbara Lewis)

-reuters-

Getting a COVID-19 booster shot

Doctor Ziv Feldman receives a third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at the Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, Israel on Friday. Israel will offer a third dose of COVID-19 vaccines to people aged over 60 according to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett beginning Sunday as part of a “complementary vaccination program” as concerns mount over the more contagious Delta variant. 

-reuters-

Israel's health minister diagnosed with coronavirus

TEL AVIV - Israel's health minister and his wife were diagnosed with coronavirus and are in isolation following guidelines, the health ministry said on Thursday.

Yaakov Litzman, 71, an ally of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has appeared regularly alongside the premier to provide updates on the spread of the pandemic and new measures to combat it.

But Litzman has scaled back public appearances in recent weeks and the ministry's director-general has held daily briefings instead.

Litzman and his wife feel well, the ministry said in a statement.

"(An) epidemiological investigation will be carried out, and isolation requests will be sent to those who have come into contact with (him) and his wife in the past two weeks."

Netanyahu tested negative for the virus on Monday after a parliamentary aide was confirmed to have it. The right-wing premier, 70, was in self-isolation until late on Wednesday, but it was not immediately clear if he had any contact with Litzman.

Israel has reported at least 25 deaths and more than 6,000 infections. Tight curbs have largely confined Israelis to their homes, forcing businesses to close and causing unemployment to skyrocket to more than 24%.

Litzman heads an ultra-Orthodox Jewish party, and has appealed to his community to obey health ministry curbs after some rabbis and members cast doubt on the virus risk and chafed against stay-at-home orders.

Israeli officials describe the ultra-Orthodox as especially prone to contagion because their districts tend to be poor and congested.

Netanyahu announced new curbs on Wednesday to deter movement around Bnai Brak, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish town that has suffered a disproportionately large outbreak.

"The public now has to listen to the health ministry," Litzman said in an interview published on Tuesday in the Yedioth Ahronot newspaper.

"I proposed to the prime minister and interior minister today to put Bnei Brak on lockdown," he added. "The situation there is horrible. Every day we stall, we put lives at risk."

Reuters

Israel's confirmed coronavirus cases jump by 40 percent in 1 day

JERUSALEM - Confirmed coronavirus cases in Israel have jumped by 40 percent to 427 in the past 24 hours, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday, predicting a steeper rise as mass-testing is implemented.

Having urged Israelis to stay home and approved cyber-monitoring of their movements to reduce infection risks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at least 3,000 coronavirus tests would be conducted daily, including at new drive-through stations.

"We will reach a situation in which there are many hundreds of new patients each day, and possibly more," Moshe Bar Siman-Tov, director-general of the Health Ministry, told Israel's Army Radio.

Up from the 304 confirmed cases reported on Tuesday morning, five of the 427 patients were in critical condition, the ministry said.

There have been no reports of coronavirus fatalities in Israel or the Palestinian territories.

In the occupied West Bank, Palestinian health officials have confirmed 44 cases. None have been detected in the densely populated Gaza Strip.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

'Santa' gets a well-deserved rest

A man, part of a group of trained Santa Clauses from various countries, wears a Santa Claus-themed bathing suit as he floats in the Dead Sea, at Neve Midbar beach in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Tuesday. The group, composed of Santas from USA, Denmark, Germany and Romania, is currently on a 4-day post-Christmas visit in the Holy Land.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Fragment of Jesus' manger arrives in birthplace of Bethlehem

BETHLEHEM - A wooden fragment believed to be from the manger of Jesus arrived in His birthplace of Bethlehem on Saturday amid great ceremony after more than 1,300 years in Europe.

A Palestinian scout band playing bagpipes, drums and saxophones accompanied the relic as it arrived in Manger Square, an AFP reporter said.

Housed in Rome since the seventh century, the relic had been presented to the Franciscan custodians of the Holy Land as a gift from the Vatican.

Worshippers thronged the square as the chief custodian for the Holy Land, Francesco Patton, carried the ornate reliquary housing the relic into the Saint Catherine Church next to the Church of the Nativity, where he led Mass.

On Friday Patton told AFP that the seventh-century Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Sophronius, had sent the relic to Rome in around 640 as a gift to Pope Theodore I.

Now the item, about a centimeter wide by 2.5 centimeters (an inch) long, is to be installed "forever" in Bethlehem, he said.

"We venerate the relic because (it) reminds us of the mystery of incarnation, to the fact that the son of God was born of Mary in Bethlehem more than 2,000 years ago," Patton said.

Bethlehem has planned celebrations stretching until Christmas for the homecoming.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas had asked Pope Francis to repatriate the crib fragment during his visit to the Vatican for Middle East peace talks in December 2018, said Palestinian envoy to the Holy See, Issa Kassissieh.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

34 Palestinians dead as Islamic Jihad, Israel stop hostilities across Gaza Strip

GAZA/JERUSALEM - Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad and Israel halted hostilities across the Gaza Strip border on Thursday following efforts mediated by Egypt and the United Nations to end the worst surge in fighting in months.

Islamic Jihad said a truce went into effect at 0330 GMT, about 48 hours after Israel triggered the exchange of fire by killing the Iranian-backed faction's top Gaza commander in an airstrike, deeming him an imminent threat.

Gaza medical officials put the total death toll at 34 Palestinians, almost half of them civilians and including eight children and three women.

On the other side of the Gaza border, hundreds of rocket launches by militants paralyzed much of southern Israel, injuring dozens of people.

Hamas, Gaza's dominant faction, appeared to have stayed out of this round of fighting. That may have helped stem escalation.

An Egyptian official contacted by Reuters confirmed a truce had been reached. The Israeli military eased emergency regulations imposed on areas within range of Gaza rockets.

Islamic Jihad said Israel had accepted its demand to stop both the targeted killing of militants and sometimes lethal army gunfire at weekly Palestinian protests on the Gaza border.

"The ceasefire began under Egyptian sponsorship after the Occupation (Israel) submitted to the conditions set by Islamic Jihad on behalf of Palestinian resistance factions," Islamic Jihad spokesman Musab Al-Braim said.

But Israel said it would observe a more limited quid-pro-quo. "Quiet will be answered with quiet," Foreign Minister Israel Katz told Israel's Army Radio.

MISSILE STRIKE

In the deadliest incident of the two-day hostilities, eight members of a Gaza family were killed by an Israeli missile strike shortly before the truce took hold, said medical officials and residents.

They said all were civilians. But Israeli military spokesman Major Avichay Adraee said the head of the family, Rasmi Abu Malhous, who was among the dead, was the commander of Islamic Jihad rocket crews in the central Gaza Strip.

Neighbors left their homes to help rescue workers pull out the bodies of the family, some of which were completely buried in sandy earth. Civilians tried to test the pulse of one body before pulling it out.

Israel's allegation about Rasmi Abu Malhous could not be immediately confirmed by Reuters. Islamic Jihad did not claim him as a member.

Neither the two days of hostilities nor the sudden cessation shifted the dynamics of the underlying core conflict.

While Hamas has been open to long-term ceasefires, like Islamic Jihad it refuses to accept permanent coexistence with Israel.

Gazans are seeking to end years of an Israeli-led blockade. Refugees from the 1948 war of Israel's founding and their descendents make up most of the 2 million Palestinians in Gaza and are seeking the right to return to their former lands.

Israel rejects this as demographic suicide and sees no means of making peace as long as Hamas and Islamic Jihad are armed.

Katz said there would be no change to Israeli military policy in Gaza, contradicting the assertion of Islamic Jihad.

Targeted killings "will not cease," he said, and "the open-fire policy for which the Israel Defence Forces is responsible (at the Gaza border) will not change."

Gaza was mostly quiet at daybreak, with the exception of a lone rocket launch witnessed by a Reuters correspondent and the sounding of sirens in some outlying Israeli towns.

Markets in Gaza reopened as life returned to normal, though people expressed mixed feelings about the truce.

"We responded and made clear our blood was not shed in vain. Also a truce is good because we don't want our people to suffer more under the blockade," said one resident, Mohammad Al-Smairi.

UN mediator Nickolay Mladenov said the Gaza situation remained fragile, tweeting: "All must show maximum restraint and do their part to prevent bloodshed. The Middle East does not need more wars."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

WhatsApp says Israeli firm used its app in spy program

SAN FRANCISCO — WhatsApp sued Israeli cybersurveillance firm NSO Group in federal court Tuesday, claiming the company used the popular messaging service in a wide-ranging spy campaign on journalists and human-rights activists.

WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook, claims in the lawsuit that an NSO Group program used WhatsApp to spy on more than 1,400 targets in 20 countries, including 100 journalists and human rights activists.

Over the past six months, WhatsApp, working closely with Citizen Lab, a research group affiliated with the University of Toronto, discovered an attack on its users.

The investigation started last spring after Citizen Lab charged that NSO Group’s technology had exploited a WhatsApp security hole to hack the phone of a London lawyer. The lawyer represented several plaintiffs in lawsuits that accused NSO Group of providing tools to hack the phones of a Saudi Arabian dissident living in Canada, a Qatari citizen and a group of Mexican journalists and activists.

The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. NSO Group did not immediately respond to request for comment.

In its lawsuit, WhatsApp said that between April and May 2019, it discovered NSO Group tools were used to hijack the phones of its users. WhatsApp said that based on the country codes of the numbers targeted, NSO Group’s tools were used to hack the phones of people in Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Mexico.

WhatsApp said in a statement that it was informing affected customers with special WhatsApp messages. The company is seeking a permanent injunction banning NSO from its service and called on lawmakers to ban the use of cyberweapons like those sold by NSO Group to governments all over the world.

“We agree with U.N. Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression David Kaye’s call for a moratorium on these attacks,” WhatsApp said in a statement. “There must be strong legal oversight of cyber weapons like the one used in this attack to ensure they are not used to violate individual rights and freedoms people deserve wherever they are in the world.”

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Tel Aviv beaches fall foul in Israel's passion for plastic

TEL AVIV - In the early morning, when the only sound on Tel Aviv beach is the waves, Yosef Salman and his team pick up plastic debris left by bathers or cast up by the sea.

Working in heat and humidity with large rakes, they scoop plastic cups, cigarette ends, empty sunscreen tubes and soiled babies' nappies. 

Also present, but impossible to separate from the sand, are microplastics, tiny particles of plastic debris that have been broken down by sun and salt. 

"When it rains... you can see tons of plastic in the sand," says Ariel Shay, of the Plastic Free Israel movement, which organizes volunteer beach cleanups.

Despite the activities of environmental groups, Israel remains hooked on plastic.

A June report by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) ranked Tel Aviv's coastline as the third most polluted by plastic waste in the Mediterranean, behind Barcelona and southern Turkey.

Valencia, Alexandria, Algiers and Marseille were listed in fourth to seventh places.

With around four million inhabitants, Tel Aviv is Israel's most populous metropolitan area. 

"Every time I go to the beach now, I spend my time cleaning -- it's horrible!" complains Shani Zylbersztejn, with an eye on her nine-month-old daughter, who plays with a plastic fork freshly dug from the sand.

In the upper-crust town of Herzliya, just north of Tel Aviv, Limor Gorelik, of the environmental protection NGO Zalul, patrols the sands, offering beachgoers bamboo cups and reusable bags in a bid to wean them from single-use plastics.

BAD HABITS

Gorelik blames Israel's passion for plastic on a lack of education and on deeply ingrained habits, such as using disposable tableware for family picnics.

Observant Jews who want a beachfront lunch on Saturdays are forbidden from washing the dishes afterwards, because their faith bans them from working on the Sabbath. 

"They're not permitted to wash dishes so they use disposable plastic," Gorelik says.

Even plastic waste dumped in the bins that dot the beaches can end up in the sea, carried by the wind or by birds which rip open garbage bags in search of food.

Independent researcher Galia Pasternak has analysed coastal plastic pollution in Israel. 

According to her data, 60 percent of the waste on the beach comes from the bathers themselves.

Some is also borne by currents from Gaza and Egypt in the south or from Lebanon further north.

CASH FOR CLEANUPS

In 2005, Israel's environmental protection ministry launched a program offering local councils incentives for proven results in cleaning their beaches.

Subject to regular inspection, councils that meet requirements get funding, while failing authorities face cuts or even court, says Ran Amir, head of the environment ministry's marine division.

Amir cites the case of the popular Palmahim beach, south of Tel Aviv.

Palmahim municipal council was taken to court and fined over the state of the beach -- which has since become "one of the cleanest beaches in Israel today", he says.

The ministry's strategy in recent years has also included public service messages on radio and online, along with fines, recycling facilities and education, according to Amir.

"It think it has partially worked," says Pasternak, who helped set up some of those programs.

Zalul's Gorelik, however, says Israel is still trailing behind other countries. 

She says charges introduced in supermarkets in 2017 for plastic bags -- previously given away free -- are too low, at just 0.10 Israeli shekels (0.02 euros/ $0.03) each.

"It's not enough," Gorelik says, adding that even this modest measure does not apply to small grocery stores.

She points to new European Union restrictions on single-use plastics.

"Europeans are the leaders on the subject," she says.

"Here, we are very far away."

cmr/gl/scw/mjs/sw/par/kjm

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Under pressure from Trump, Israel bars visit by two US Democratic lawmakers

* Women had planned visit to Jerusalem, West Bank

* Both back pro-Palestinian movement to boycott Israel

* Israeli law allows banning entry of boycott supporters

* Trump had urged Israel to bar visit

JERUSALEM/WASHINGTON - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday barred U.S. Democratic congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar from making a planned trip to Israel, shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump called on his ally not to let them in.

Tlaib and Omar, the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, are members of their party's progressive wing and sharp critics both of Trump and of Israel's policy toward the Palestinians.

The moves, which were immediately condemned by many Democratic leaders in the United States as well as Palestinians, could help whip up support among Trump and Netanyahu's conservative voter bases as they head into election campaigns.

Israel holds a national election on Sept. 17 and Trump faces re-election in November 2020.

Tlaib and Omar have voiced support for the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement over Israel's policies toward Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Under Israeli law, BDS backers can be denied entry to Israel.

Omar called Thursday's decision an "affront" and "an insult to democratic values."

Israel had initially chosen to allow the visit. A source who took part in consultations Netanyahu held with cabinet members and advisers on Wednesday told Reuters that Israel backtracked due to pressure from Trump. The pressure was reported by the Axios news site on Saturday but denied by the White House.

"In a discussion held two weeks ago all the officials were in favor of letting them in but, after Trump's pressure, they reversed the decision," the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

In a tweet on Thursday, Trump wrote: "It would show great weakness if Israel allowed Rep. Omar and Rep. Tlaib to visit ... They are a disgrace!"

Asked if he had spoken to Netanyahu about the planned visit, Trump told reporters: "I don't want to comment about who I spoke to, but I think my social media statement pretty well speaks for itself."

"But I did speak to people over there," he added.

Trump's request appeared to contravene a U.S. government policy that says the United States seeks "equal treatment and freedom to travel" for all U.S. citizens regardless of ethnicity. It says those denied entry should be given a written explanation by Israel.

Trump has in recent months accused Tlaib, Omar and two other first-term Democratic congresswomen of color - dubbed "the Squad" - of hostility to Israel in a barrage condemned by critics as racist and widely seen as a way to drum up votes for 2020.

Omar is a favorite target. At a recent rally in North Carolina, supporters chanted "send her back" after Trump falsely accused her of supporting al Qaeda.

The 37-year-old lawmaker who represents a Minnesota congressional district immigrated to the United States from Somalia as a child. U.S.-born Tlaib, 43, has roots in the West Bank.

Omar has been criticized for statements critical of Israel, including a 2012 tweet referring to the country’s "evil doings" and a tweet this year saying that support for Israel is all about money. Omar has apologized for such statements.

Israel's ambassador in the United States, Ron Dermer, had said last month that Tlaib and Omar would be let in, out of respect for the U.S. Congress and the U.S.-Israeli relationship.

Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of the liberal Jewish advocacy group J Street, said Trump's strategy was about appealing to his conservative base, which includes evangelicals hawkish on Israel.

"This not a strategy that is primarily aimed at the Jewish community," Ben-Ami said. "It’s become another culture war issue."

'DENY ISRAEL'S LEGITIMACY'

No date had been formally announced for the congresswomen's trip, but sources familiar with the planning said it could begin over the weekend. They had planned to tour East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank, territories Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war, which Palestinians want for a state.

Netanyahu said that Israel had the utmost respect for Congress but that Tlaib and Omar were promoting legislation calling for boycotts against Israel.

"Only a few days ago, we received their itinerary for their visit in Israel, which revealed that they planned a visit whose sole objective is to strengthen the boycott against us and deny Israel’s legitimacy," Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu could easily feel he owes Trump a favor after some of the U.S. president's decisions, such as recognizing Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights, withdrawing from the Iran nuclear accord and moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

However, denying entry to elected U.S. officials was likely to further strain relations between Netanyahu, who has highlighted his close ties with Trump in his current re-election campaign, and the Democratic leadership in Congress.

"Israel doesn't advance its case as a tolerant democracy or unwavering U.S. ally by barring elected members of Congress from visiting because of their political views. This would be a shameful, unprecedented move," Democratic presidential hopeful and U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren said on Twitter.

U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer, the Senate's top Democrat, said in a statement: "Denying entry to members of the United States Congress is a sign of weakness, not strength. It will only hurt the U.S.-Israeli relationship and support for Israel in America."

Hanan Ashrawi, a senior Palestinian official with the Palestine Liberation Organization and founder of Miftah, a West Bank-based nongovernmental organization that is co-sponsoring the trip, called the decision to block it "an affront to the American people and their representatives."

"This ban is a clear case of discrimination and hostility based on political views and ethnic background, deserving of moral indignation and unequivocal condemnation in Palestine and the United States," Ashrawi said in a statement.

The Palestinians have broken off diplomatic ties with the Trump administration over what they see as its heavily pro-Israel bias.

Tlaib's grandmother and extended family live in the Palestinian village of Beit Ur Al-Fauqa.

"We were surprised today that they banned Rashida. It is unfair and racist that they banned her from visiting her country Palestine and her family in Palestine," said her uncle, Bassam Tlaib.

Netanyahu said that if Tlaib submitted a request to visit family on humanitarian grounds, Israel would consider it as long as she promised not to promote a boycott against Israel.

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Israel prepares to demolish homes on Jerusalem outskirts, stoking Palestinian fears

SUR BAHER, West Bank - Israeli forces began preparations to demolish homes near a military barrier on the outskirts of Jerusalem under the cover of darkness on Monday, in the face of Palestinian protests and international criticism.

Bulldozers accompanied by hundreds of Israeli soldiers and police moved in to Sur Baher, a Palestinian village on the edge of East Jerusalem in an area that Israel captured and occupied in the 1967 Middle East War.

Palestinians fear that the razing of village buildings near the fence will set a precedent for other towns along the route of the barrier, which runs for hundreds of kilometres around and through the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The pending demolition is the latest round of protracted wrangling over the future of Jerusalem, home to more than 500,000 Israelis and 300,000 Palestinians, and sites sacred to Judaism, Islam and Christianity.

Israel's Supreme Court ruled in June that the structures violated a construction ban. The deadline for residents to remove the buildings expired on Friday.

However, some residents said they would be made homeless. Owners said they had obtained permission to build from the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Israeli forces cut through the wire fence near the village early on Monday, allowing them easier access to the buildings.

Floodlights lit up a partly constructed multi-storey building as dozens of vehicles brought helmeted police and soldiers into the area.

They were filmed and photographed by Palestinian, Israeli and international activists who had mobilised to try and stop the demolition.

"Since 2 a.m. they have been evacuating people from their homes by force and they have started planting explosives in the homes they want to destroy. There are hundreds of soldiers here," said Hamada Hamada, a community leader in one of the threatened areas.

DEMOLITION PREPARATIONS

The sprawling village of Sur Baher straddles the line between East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Its political geography is complicated by the fact that parts of it lie outside the municipal boundaries of Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem but on the Israeli side of the barrier, cutting it off from the rest of the West Bank.

Palestinian officials say the threatened structures lie within areas that they should control. The Palestine Liberation Organization issued a statement accusing the Israeli court of aiming "to set a precedent to enable the Israeli occupying forces to demolish numerous Palestinian buildings located in close proximity" to the barrier.

Jamie McGoldrick, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator, and other U.N. officials called on the Israeli authorities last week to halt the demolition plans. They said 17 Palestinians faced displacement from the plans to level 10 buildings, including dozens of apartments.

The European Union issued a statement saying: "The continuation of this policy undermines the viability of the two-state solution and the prospect for a lasting peace."

However, the Israeli Supreme Court's 3-judge panel ruled unanimously in favor of demolition. "The petitioners took the law into their own hands when they began and continued building structures without receiving a special permit from the military commander," it said.

The court said construction close to the barrier could provide cover for attackers. The Israeli military had no immediate comment on Monday, and said it was checking the reports.

Israel credits the barrier - projected to be 720 km (450 miles) long when complete — with stemming Palestinian suicide bombings that peaked in 2002 and 2003. Palestinians call it a land grab designed to annex parts of the West Bank, including Israeli settlements.

In some areas of Jerusalem and the West Bank the barrier is a high concrete wall, but in Sur Baher it consists of two wire fences separated by a military patrol road and protected by watchtowers and electronic sensors.

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Israeli doctors ban gay conversion therapy as risks 'mental damage'

LONDON - A ban on conversion therapy by Israeli doctors will help protect gay people from treatments that claim to make them straight, but more work needs to be done with religious groups that support controversial 'cures', activists said on Wednesday.

Members who perform conversion therapy could now be expelled from the Israel Medical Association (IMA), which represents 90 percent of the country's doctors, if a complaint is filed to its ethics committee, said IMA spokeswoman Ziva Miral.

"The treatments to change one's sexual orientation have been found to be ineffective and could cause mental damage, such as anxiety, depression and suicidal tendencies," the IMA said in a position paper on the practice.

Conversion therapy, which can include hypnosis and electric shocks, is based on the belief that being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender is a mental illness that can be cured.

It is used in many countries, except Malta, Ecuador and just over a dozen U.S. states that have outlawed it, according to the ILGA, a network of LGBT+ rights groups. Several states are considering bans, including Britain, New Zealand and Australia.

Ruth Gophen, one of the authors of IMA's paper, published on Monday, said it was impossible to estimate how many Israelis have undergone conversion therapy because it is usually done secretly as most doctors view it as unethical.

Israel is one of a handful of Middle Eastern countries - along with Jordan and Bahrain - that allow same-sex relations, in a region where several states impose a death penalty.

But many religious communities in Israel, where three-quarters of its 9 million-strong population are Jewish, are deeply conservative.

Chen Arieli, chairwoman of the Israeli LGBT Association, described the IMA's ban on conversion therapy as a "breakthrough" but said outlawing the practice could make it harder to eradicate in communities where it is prevalent.

"We need to have a holistic approach regarding conversion treatment," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

"Our goal is to strengthen the religious LGBT organisations, to help them outreach (to) those youth that may be at risk of having conversion treatment."

Julien Bahloul, spokesman for the Association of Israeli Gay Fathers, which campaigns for gay couples to become parents, said he hoped parliament would now pass a law making conversion therapy illegal.

"The fact that professional people, doctors, say today that this kind of therapy ... is not acceptable and not in any way related to medicine is a huge victory for us," he said.

However, Bahloul cautioned that it would depend on the results of elections scheduled for April 9.

It is often not possible to form a government in Israel without going into coalition with smaller parties, many of which are religious.

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900-year-old gold coins found in Israel

CAESAREA, Israel - Rare gold coins and a golden earring have been discovered in the ancient Mediterranean port of Caesarea in northern Israel -- possibly left and never recovered as Crusaders conquered the area 900 years ago.

The Israel Antiquities Authority announced the find on Monday of a small bronze pot holding 24 gold coins and the earring.

According to the authority, it was found between two stones in the side of a well in a house in a neighborhood that dates back some 900 years, during the Abbasid and Fatimid periods.

The directors of the excavation, the IAA's Peter Gendelman and Mohammed Hatar, said the coins in the cache date to the end of the 11th century.

That makes it possible "to link the treasure to the Crusader conquest of the city in the year 1101, one of the most dramatic events in the medieval history of the city", an IAA statement said.

"According to contemporary written sources, most of the inhabitants of Caesarea were massacred by the army of Baldwin I (1100–1118), king of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem," it added.

"It is reasonable to assume that the treasure’s owner and his family perished in the massacre or were sold into slavery, and therefore were not able to retrieve their gold."

IAA coin expert Robert Kool said "one or two of these gold coins were the equivalent of the annual salary of a simple farmer, so it seems that whoever deposited the cache was at least well-to-do or involved in commerce".

Caesarea was constructed in the first century BC by King Herod at a time that Judea was part of the Roman empire.

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Israeli army unveils new 'smart' tank

JERUSALEM - The Israeli army on Thursday revealed details of a new tank it was developing, designed more for use in guerrilla warfare conditions.

The Merkava 4 Barak, scheduled to be operational in three years, will be the latest of the Israeli Merkava tank series, which has traditionally focused on combating the conventional forces of neighboring Arab states.

The military said the new model reflected an understanding that the theatres of conflict it faces are changing. 

"The enemy won't necessarily be states and armies, but rather an enemy that uses people," Brigadier General Guy Hasson, head of the army's armored corps, said.

The "dual-use" tank contains technologies including a sensor system that gives its commander a full view of the surroundings in his helmet.

The model -- which will also be equipped with a computer system based on artificial intelligence -- is designed to be more secure in the confines of guerilla clashes. 

The Israeli military has been using tanks along the border with Gaza, as tensions have risen during months of protests and clashes that have left over 140 Palestinians dead. 

Israeli tanks have fired on positions belonging to Gaza's rulers Hamas, as well as individuals accused of attempting to infiltrate into Israel.

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Israel says it attacked targets in Syria after Iranian rocket fire

JERUSALEM/BEIRUT—Israel said it attacked nearly all of Iran's military infrastructure in Syria on Thursday after Iranian forces fired rockets at Israeli-held territory for the first time.

It was the heaviest Israeli barrage in Syria since the start in 2011 of its war, in which Iranians, allied Shi'ite Muslim militias and Russian troops have deployed in support of President Bashar al-Assad.

The Syrian Army Command said Israel's attack killed three people and injured two others. A Britain-based war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the strikes killed at least 23 military personnel, including Syrians and non-Syrians.

Expectations of a regional flare-up, amid warnings from Israel that it was determined to prevent any Iranian military entrenchment in Syria, were stoked by U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement on Tuesday that he was withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.

The Trump administration portrayed its rejection of that agreement as a response, in part, to Iran's military interventions in the Middle East, underpinning Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's tough line towards Tehran.

Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the Iranian rockets either fell short of their targets - military bases in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights - or were intercepted.

The Golan attack was "just further demonstration that the Iranian regime cannot be trusted and another good reminder that the president made the right decision to get out of the Iran deal", White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told Fox News.

Israel said 20 Iranian Grad and Fajr rockets were shot down by its Iron Dome air defense system or did not reach targets in the Golan, territory Israel captured from Syria in a 1967 war.

The Quds Force, an external arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, carried out the rocket salvo, Israel said.

Syrian state media said Israel launched dozens of missiles and hit a radar station, Syrian air defense positions and an ammunition dump, underscoring the risks of a wider escalation involving Iran and its regional allies.

The foreign ministry said the attack indicated "the start of a new phase of aggression" against Damascus.

Russia's defense ministry said Syria had shot down more than half of the missiles fired by Israel, RIA news agency reported.

"We hit ... almost all of the Iranian infrastructure in Syria," Lieberman said, in a question and answer session at the annual Herzliya security conference in Tel Aviv. "I hope we finished this chapter and everyone got the message."

Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Conricus told reporters the Iranian attack was "commanded and ordered by (Quds Force chief General) Qassem Soleimani and it has not achieved its purpose".

Conricus said Israel responded by destroying dozens of Iranian military sites in Syria, as well as Syrian anti-aircraft units that tried unsuccessfully to shoot down Israeli planes.

"We do not know yet the (Iranian) casualty count," he said.

"But I can say that in terms of our purpose, we focused less on personnel and more on capabilities and hardware...to inflict long-term damage on the Iranian military establishment in Syria. We assess it will take substantial time to replenish."

There was no immediate comment from Iran.

In the Golan, Israeli schools opened as usual on Thursday morning after sirens sent residents to shelters overnight.

Lieberman said Israel was not seeking escalation on the Syrian front. But Tzachi Hanegbi, a cabinet minister close to Netanyahu, cautioned that more confrontation could come.

"I don't think I can tell you that one blow, as effective and crushing as the one they (the Iranians) received last night, is enough to convince a regime that is usually very fanatical and determined," he said on Israel Radio.

NEW FRONT

The Israelis fear that Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah are turning Syria into a new front against them. Israel says its occasional strikes in Syria aim to foil such an outcome.

Iran vowed retaliation after a suspected Israeli air strike last month killed seven of its military personnel at a Syrian air base.

Israel regards Iran as its biggest threat and has repeatedly targeted Iranian forces and allied militia in Syria.

On Tuesday, hours after Trump's announcement on the nuclear deal, Israeli rockets struck a military base in Kisweh, a commander in the pro-Syrian government regional alliance said.

That attack killed 15 people, including eight Iranians, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, though the commander said there were no casualties. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility.

Thursday's conflagration came hours after Netanyahu returned from a visit to Moscow, where he discussed concerns about Syria with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russia, like Iran, fights in Syria on the side of the Assad government.

Netanyahu said after the discussions Russia was unlikely to limit Israel's armed actions in Syria. The Israeli military said Israel had forewarned Russia of its strikes on Thursday.

"There should be work to de-escalate the tensions," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov was quoted as saying on Thursday by the Tass news agency. He called the situation "very alarming".

French President Emmanuel Macron also appealed for calm. (Additional reporting by Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem; Dahlia Nehme and Tom Perry and Ellen Francis in Beirut; Writing by Jeffrey Heller and Angus McDowall; Editing by Tom Perry and Mark Heinrich)

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