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Annexation plans hit bump as settler leaders protest Trump plan map
Hardline leaders of Israel's settlement movement are threatening to derail Benjamin Netanyahu's efforts to annex parts of the West Bank. The prime minister told his Likud party on Monday that he intended to press ahead with applying Israeli sovereignty to West Bank settlements and the Jordan Valley (pictured) after 1 July. "This is an opportunity that should not be missed," Netanyahu reportedly said. However, some settler leaders are claiming that the map published in January's US peace plan will leave dozens of settlements in enclaves, with only one access route, surrounded by a future Palestinian state, and no room to expand. Launching a lobbying campaign in Israel, leaders of the settlers' Yesha Council claimed: "We need to act to persuade the decision-makers that they have to support the sovereignty map of the settler leaders — and not the one by Trump administration representatives." Under the coalition agreement between Netanyahu and Benny Gantz, the leader of the centrist Blue and White party, Israel's new government will "engage in dialogue" with the international community over annexation, "with the aim of preserving security and strategic interests including regional security, preserving existing peace agreements and working towards future peace agreements". Gantz, who serves as defence minister, and his ally foreign minister Gabi Ashkanazi, are believed to favour a more cautious approach, seeing the coalition agreement as a way to bar unilateral moves.
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PA refuses to accept aid from UAE after it arrives on historic flight to Israel
The Palestinian Authority is refusing to accept tonnes of coronavirus aid from the United Arab Emirates because it arrived on the first ever direct flight (pictured) from the Gulf state to Israel. The aid was being held at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport while United Nations officials seek ways to distribute it. The UAE, like most Arab states, do not have diplomatic relations with Israel. The supplies - which include ten ventilators, personal protective equipment, lithium batteries for charging relevant hospital equipment and cleaning materials - are now believed to be headed for a holding facility in the Israeli city of Ashdod. The PA last week said the flight from the Abu Dhabi to Israel was "a tool for normalisation" and accused the UAE of using the aid as a "pretext" to improve its ties with Israel. Relations between Israel and the Gulf states have improved in recent years in response to their shared fear of Iranian expansionism in the Middle East. But, underlining the sensitivities involved, the UAE's state-run news agency issued a statement saying only that aid was being dispatched "to curb the spread of COVID-19 pandemic and its impact in the occupied Palestinian territory". There was no acknowledgment that the aid had been flown to Israel. While UN Middle East Envoy Nikolay Mladenov lauded the UAE shipment, Iran issued a strong condemnation. The Islamic republic's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called it "the biggest treachery against their own history and the history of the Arab world".
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Israel reopens bars, restaurants and tourist attractions
Israel continued to move out of its tight lockdown this week as bars, restaurants and tourist attractions were given the green light to reopen on Wednesday. Social distance and hygiene rules will be strictly enforced and customers are being told they must wear masks, except when they're eating. However, smaller facilities will be allowed to operate at normal capacity, with venues which normally allow more than 100 people to enter must work at 85 percent of capacity. Informal education including after-school activities, youth groups and classes were also allowed to resume on Wednesday, while the number of people permitted to travel in private cars and taxis was also increased. The government has also come to an agreement with teaching unions to extend the secondary school academic year from 30 June to 13 July. Government-run day camps will also be extended into August to allow parents to return to work. As of Thursday, 16,793 people in Israel had tested positive for the coronavirus and 281 people have died. In the West Bank and East Jerusalem, 554 people have tested positive; two people have died. In the Gaza Strip, 61 people were diagnosed, 18 of whom recovered, and one person has died. The gradual loosening of restrictions does appear to have produced a slight uptick in cases in Israel, however. The total number of cases reported on Wednesday night represented a rise of 36 new cases in a day, the biggest daily rise since 8 May, when 55 new cases were discovered. Read full article
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