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Israeli Air Force (IAF) pilots Lt. Col. Erez Sachyani, 38, and Maj. Chen Fogel, 27, were killed on Monday night when their military helicopter crashed off the coast of Haifa. A third crew member, a naval officer, suffered moderate injuries and is in stable condition at the Rambam Medical Center.
The military is investigating the circumstances of the event. According to a senior IAF officer, the helicopter had been in the air for around an hour before crashing. The incident is believed to have been the result of a technical malfunction.
Following the crash, IAF Commander Maj. Gen. Amikam Norkin grounded all Eurocopter AS565 Panther helicopters — the type that crashed — pending a maintenance review. Norkin also suspended training flights.
The AS565 Panther is a medium-weight multipurpose twin-engine aircraft used for a wide range of military roles, including combat assault, fire support, anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, search and rescue, and medical evacuation. The IAF has been using it for over 25 years.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett posted to Twitter: “This is a very sad night. In the name of Israel’s citizens, I ask to send deep, heartfelt condolences to the families of those killed in the helicopter accident and a speedy recovery to the wounded naval officer. The naval officers who were killed in the accident were some of the best of our boys. The people of Israel won’t forget their contribution, day and night, to the security of the state. May their memory be blessed.”
Defense Minister Benny Gantz tweeted his “deep, heartfelt condolences to the families of those killed in the helicopter accident and a speedy recovery to the wounded. I spoke to the IDF Chief of Staff [Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi], and I promise the IDF will investigate the incident and learn the necessary lessons. I want to thank the rescue forces who acted quickly and under difficult conditions to locate the helicopter crew.”
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The negotiations for Iran to return to compliance with the 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers will not lead to a good result for Israel, but Jerusalem is trying to mitigate the damage, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said on Monday as talks were set to continue in Vienna.
The renewed talks will bring “a lot of small achievements, not a big one” for Israel, Lapid predicted.
The country’s top diplomat added that Israel has successfully gotten the world to pay attention to the Iranian nuclear threat and negotiations. “At the beginning, [the Americans acted] like ‘let’s get this over with and move to the really important thing, China,'” Lapid said, adding: “That’s not what’s happening now. It’s a central issue.”
Lapid was confident that the other parties to the talks — the UK, France, and Germany, as well as Russia and China — are taking Israel’s position seriously. “We feel we succeeded to some extent — I don’t want to exaggerate — to get the world to listen to us,” he said.
Israel has maintained that, while it is working to influence its process, it is not committed to the agreement and retains the freedom to act, a senior diplomatic official with knowledge of Israel’s engagement on the Iran talks said, echoing public statements made by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
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The Health Ministry said on Monday that it would allow fully vaccinated tourists from some countries to enter Israel starting Sunday, January 9. Foreign travelers who have not been vaccinated or recovered will still not be permitted to enter Israel. Visitors from countries on the Health Ministry’s “red” no-fly list are also still barred from coming.
Israel reopened to foreign tourism in early November for the first time since the start of the pandemic, but at the end of that month once again banned foreign travelers in a bid to slow the entry and spread of the highly contagious Omicron coronavirus variant.
The Health Ministry recommended that Canada, France, South Africa, Hungary, Nigeria, Spain and Portugal be removed from its list of red countries. Travel to and from the United States and the United Kingdom remains forbidden. The newly shortened list is subject to approval by the Knesset Health Committee.
The easing of travel restrictions comes as Israel is experiencing a surge of infections driven by the Omicron strain. The Health Ministry said on Monday that 6,562 cases were confirmed the previous day — well over triple the number of a week earlier. In addition to Sunday’s cases, a further 2,305 diagnoses since midnight pushed active infections past 37,000.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett acknowledged that the lifting of travel restrictions may seem counterintuitive. However, the premier explained that when there were fewer active infections in the country, the spread of the virus from abroad had a much more significant effect on morbidity. But when there were already tens of thousands of cases in Israel, another 50 infections among travelers from overseas were “meaningless,” he said.
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Harry Potter star and activist Emma Watson came under fire on Monday after she shared an Instagram post expressing support for the Palestinians and criticizing Israel.
The British-Australian actor quoted Sara Ahmed, a prominent feminist scholar, and attached a picture of what appears to be a pro-Palestinian rally. The quote said: “Solidarity does not assume that our struggles are the same struggles, or that our pain is the same pain, or that our hope is for the same future. Solidarity involves commitment, and work, as well as the recognition that even if we do not have the same feelings, or the same lives, or the same bodies, we do live on common ground.”
Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan was quick to react, slamming her in a tweet. “Fiction may work in Harry Potter but it does not work in reality. If it did, the magic used in the wizarding world could eliminate the evils of Hamas (which oppresses women & seeks the annihilation of Israel) and the PA (which supports terror). I would be in favor of that!,” Erdan wrote, attaching a screenshot of Watson’s Instagram post.
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The Israel Defense Forces plans to launch a new company for women soldiers only, in order to cater to female religious women who wish to serve. According to reports in local media, the IDF made its decision following requests from the heads of religious studies colleges for women, who described students wishing to serve in combat units but running into difficulties due to their religious background.
“The IDF weighed the issue and decided to open the company in one of the co-ed battalions in the coming recruitment cycle [in March],” the report said.
Last June, the IDF deployed its first female Armored Corps soldiers on the Egyptian border, where they conducted border security missions. In March of last year, eight female commanders successfully completed the Armored Corps Border Protection Array training course, and they are set to command 19 female soldiers who were recruited in November to the Armored Corps.
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