An Iranian state-owned warehouse west of Tehran was reportedly hit by a mysterious explosion. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-affiliated Tasnim News Agency reported that a fire broke out near Karaj, the city where in June an attack occurred targeting a nuclear facility allegedly used to produce uranium enrichment centrifuges.
The explosion was the latest in a series of blasts and malfunctions that have plagued Iranian facilities. The Islamic Republic has blamed Israel for many of these incidents. Last month, former Mossad intelligence agency Director Yossi Cohen hinted that the Jewish state was indeed behind recent attacks targeting Tehran’s nuclear infrastructure.
The development came on the backdrop of comments by the leader of Iran’s terrorist proxy in Lebanon, Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah, who declared: “There are no people in the Israeli entity, they are all occupiers and settlers.” Nasrallah delivered his speech at the opening of a conference titled “Palestine is Victorious.”
He also emphasized that the US-designated terrorist group is “facing the American hegemony” in Iraq and Syria, while insisting that the conflicts with Washington and Jerusalem were intertwined. “Every massacre committed by the enemy [Israel] is an American massacre, and every aggression of this enemy [Israel] is American aggression,” Nasrallah said.
Israel will send South Korea some 700,000 doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccines that are set to expire at the end of July as part of a deal signed between the two nations. In return, Jerusalem will receive the same number of doses from Seoul later this year.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett called the diplomatic initiative a “win-win” for both countries.
The deal comes just weeks after the Palestinian Authority backed out of a similar arrangement that would have seen Ramallah receive up to 1.4 million doses from Israel over the next months. In mid-June, the PA rejected a first batch of some 90,000 inoculations that it claimed were too close to their expiration date; this, despite the fact that Israel immediately thereafter used at least some of the same vaccines to immunize youths aged 12-15.
According to the PA’s own health minister, the Palestinians have the capacity to immunize some 80,000 individuals per day.
Meanwhile, the Israeli Health Ministry released data showing that the Delta variant of the pathogen reduces the Pfizer vaccine’s effectiveness to prevent symptomatic infections to 64 percent. The data revealed that in May, when the strain was less prevalent, the vaccine was 94.3 percent effective. However, the study also found that the vaccine is still highly effective at preventing serious symptoms and hospitalization.
Over 5.6 million people — out of Israel’s population of more than 9.3 million — have received at least one jab. Of those, close to 5.2 million have also received a second dose.
The coronavirus cabinet is slated to meet on Tuesday to weigh a series of new restrictions to counter the rise in new cases.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Russian President Vladimir Putin held their first phone call. Almost a month after taking office, Bennett spoke to his counterpart about matters ranging from security issues to the immigration of Russian Jews to Israel.
Bennett reportedly thanked Putin for his involvement in securing the return of missing and captive Israelis. Russia was instrumental in the February release of an Israeli woman who sparked an international incident when she crossed the border into Syrian territory. She was returned home following a week of Moscow-mediated negotiations.
Israel’s premier also paid tribute to the “historic bond” that links the people of Israel and Russia following a wave of immigration from the former Soviet Union that began in the late 1980s.
“I expect that your work at the helm of the government will facilitate a further development of constructive bilateral cooperation along all directions,” Putin conveyed via a press release shortly after the new Israeli government was sworn in.
The two leaders agreed to meet face-to-face in the near future.
Tuesday marks the 79th anniversary of the day that Anne Frank and her family during World War II began hiding in the annex of a house in Amsterdam.
The celebrated diarist, along with her parents and sister, fled Nazi Germany and eventually took up residence alongside another family in the attic in the Dutch capital on July 6, 1942.
Anne Frank kept a detailed account of her life in hiding until she and her family were discovered by the Gestapo on August 4, 1944.
Translated into more than 70 languages, “The Diary of a Young Girl” became an international bestseller after it was edited and published by Anne’s father Otto in 1952.
Anne and her sister Margot were murdered at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in February 1945, just two months before it was liberated. Anne’s mother Edith Frank perished in the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1945.
HonestReporting is pleased to inform you that it is organizing a mission to Israel from October 5-12, 2021.
The behind-the-scenes trip includes:
- 5-star accommodations at the Inbal Hotel, Jerusalem
- Exclusive briefings by political, defense and academic leaders
- Tour of the Lebanon border with an anti-terrorism expert
- Insider’s look into the complexities of the disputed West Bank
- Examination of Israel’s vibrant democracy at the Supreme Court
- Meetings with influential journalists… and much more!
For more information, please contact us.
Recommended Reading
- Iran’s Ayatollahs: Track Record vs. Speculation (Yoram Ettinger, Jewish News Syndicate)
- Report: Israel Used Swarm of Drones to Attack Hamas Terrorists (Brittany De Lea, Fox News)
- President Rivlin’s Bust Unveiled During Final Week in Office (Times of Israel)
- 11 Adventures in Israel and How They Changed My Life (Danya Belkin, Israel21C)
