‘Hamas wants an Islamist state in the West Bank’
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‘Hamas wants an Islamist state in the West Bank’
An interview with Maj. Gen. Kamil Abu Rokon, the IDF’s Coordinator for Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT).
By Yoav Limor
(March 15, 2021 / Israel Hayom) In November 2020, many months after cutting all ties with Israel, and with the declaration of Israeli sovereignty in parts of Judea and Samaria off the table, the Palestinian Authority agreed to renew security and defense cooperation with the Jewish state. The formal announcement came after lengthy behind-the-scenes contacts. The person behind those talks, which went on even when ties between Jerusalem and Ramallah were severed, was the Coordinator for Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), IDF Maj. Gen. Kamil Abu Rokon.
25 shares A medical worker prepares a vaccine against the COVID-19 at a municipality vaccine center in Tel Aviv, Israel, Dec. 31, 2020. (Gideon Markowicz/JINI via Xinhua)
Israelis will spend yet more time under lockdown after ministers approved a late one-week extension to restrictions after a record month of deaths.
Despite a vaccination programme that has proven to be a model for countries everywhere, a third of all Israelis to have died of coronavirus died in January 2021.
According to Health Ministry data, 1,433 people died last month, bringing the total death toll to 4,796 – an incredible percentage that led the cabinet to act.
Alongside extending the country’s internal lockdown, lawmakers also extended the travel ban to and from Israel, until midnight on 7 February, and increased fines for those violating lockdown restrictions, up to £2,216.
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Dec. 16, 2020
Earlier this week Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu boasted that he was “continuing to work around the clock to bring in millions of vaccines.” And in fact, the campaign to vaccinate Israelis against COVID-19 is scheduled to begin shortly. The size of the population, the existence of a suitable logistical infrastructure for storing and transporting the vaccines at the requisite low temperatures, and an effective HMO system put Israel in a better position to conduct a broad, speedy national vaccination campaign compared to other countries – and even more so compared to territories like the West Bank and Gaza.
While in Israel people are debating whether to be vaccinated, in the West Bank and Gaza it isn’t clear where they will get vaccines from, when they will get them, and who will pay for them. “We’re in a state of uncertainty; it isn’t clear when vaccines will arrive in quantities that can serve most of the population,” said a senior official