Page 23 - Aaron Boxerman News Today

After two consecutive nights of rocket fire from the Gaza Strip to Israel, Hamas tells armed Gaza factions to “keep their fingers on the trigger.” “We call on our noble resistance in Gaza to keep their fingers on the trigger, to keep their rockets on standby to target the enemy’s fortresses and military and vital structures,” Hamas says in a statement. Hamas has not claimed direct responsibility for the rocket fire, which has been claimed by two other Gaza factions, the Popular Front ...

2 shares Palestinians and left-wing activists protest against the expulsion of Palestinian families from their homes in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. April 16, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90) RAMALLAH, West Bank — Jordan’s top diplomat on Wednesday handed the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah documents intended to help prevent Israel from evicting Palestinian families from part of East Jerusalem, he said. Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi made the trip to the West Bank ...

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees announces the launch of a digitalized education platform to prevent 540,000 students being left without schooling due to coronavirus or conflict. The platform, in Arabic and English, is to be used by Palestinian students in Jordan, war-torn Syria, Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza. It is designed to make remote learning an interactive experience, offering students quizzes and games, with each lesson accompanied by videos. The new “platform… is crucial fo...

Raam party chief Mansour Abbas speaks with reporters, April 19, 2021 (Tal Schneider/Zman Yisrael) Ra’am will consider supporting a bill for a special election for prime minister, a proposal floated by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies on the right to ensure Netanyahu’s political survival, Ra’am party chief Mansour Abbas told reporters on Monday. “Last Thursday, the law for direct elections for prime minister was set on the table. We in Ra’am are examining the law and it...

4 shares Palestinians leaving Jerusalems Old City outside Damascus Gate following noon prayers on Friday, April 16, 2021 (Aaron Boxerman/The Times of Israel) As Muslim worshipers flooded Jerusalem’s Old City on the first Friday of Ramadan, one could almost hear the collective sigh of relief: After a year of coronavirus restrictions that shuttered mosques, including during the Islamic holy month, the festivities were almost back to normal. As the noon prayer ended, tens of thousands stre...

A Magen David Adom paramedic holds up a vile of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, before inoculating Palestinians in a mobile clinic on February 26, 2021, at the Damascus Gate in Jerusalems Old City. (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP) Pfizer says its COVID-19 — used to inoculate more than half of Israel’s population — is 91% effective in preventing the disease up to six months after receiving the second shot, and poses no serious safety concerns, in updated data for over 12,000 people who took part...

9 shares Welcome to The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing: Your 15-minute audio update on what’s happening in Israel, the Middle East, and the Jewish world, from Sunday through Thursday. Today’s panel comprises founding editor David Horovitz and Palestinian affairs correspondent Aaron Boxerman, along with host/archaeology reporter Amanda Borschel-Dan. Today’s show opens with a role reversal as Horovitz quizzes Borschel-Dan on the “dazzling” archeological finds recently discover...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he is saddened by each of the over 6,000 COVID-19 deaths but asserts it is a relatively low figure. “Six thousand dead is a difficult number for every one of us, but it’s much less than other countries our size,” he tells the Ynet news site. The prime minister vows that “there will unequivocally not be another lockdown,” but then equivocates: New virus mutations could lead to such a result. In an interview with the Ynet news site, the premier als...

Health Ministry Director-General Chezy Levy tells reporters he estimates Israel will begin vaccinating children 12 and up against the coronavirus “around May-June.” He says the decision will depend on clinical trials being conducted by vaccine-makers, which he hopes “will be over around the end of spring, beginning of summer.” Chezy Levy, the director-general of the Health Ministry, at a COVID-19 vaccination center in Herzliya on December 20, 2020. (Flash90) He adds that there is no pla...

An Iowa journalist covering a protest for racial justice was blinded when a police officer shot pepper spray in her face, and jailed for hours, despite telling the officer repeatedly that she was just doing her job, according to video played at the reporter’s trial. Body camera video captured by Des Moines Police Sgt. Natale Chiodo showed Des Moines Register reporter Andrea Sahouri in custody on May 31, 2020, her eyes burning from pepper spray. She said she was with the newspaper and asked Of...