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A joint US-Israel delegation is planning a trip to the UAE and Bahrain in the coming days to continue working on implementing the normalization agreements signed in Washington last month, reports the Times of Israel.
The delegation is expected to fly from Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport to Manama on Sunday in what would be the first-ever commercial nonstop flight from Israel to the Gulf kingdom.
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IDF Special Forces have carried out a covert operation to destroy two Syrian outposts. The operation was conducted following Syria’s continued violation of the 1974 disengagement agreement with Israel.
In a secret operation that took place last week and was made known to the public on Tuesday, IDF Special Forces crossed the border into the demilitarized zone between Israel and Syria and destroyed two outposts belonging to the Syrian army, N12 reported.
The 1974 agreement established a buffer zone between the countries that would be patrolled by a special UN force called the Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF.)
Lt.-Col. Tal Goritzki explained that beyond punishing the Syrians for violating the deal, the mission had a wider significance.
“We know about the collaboration between the Syrian military and Hezbollah,” he told Israeli news outlet N12. “We won’t allow southern Syria to become southern Lebanon.”
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Though still formally at war, Israel and Lebanon on Wednesday initiated talks in a bid to resolve a long-standing dispute regarding the two countries’ naval border and rights over potentially gas-rich waters in the Mediterranean Sea.
The negotiations come after many years of diplomacy by the US, but Hezbollah has made clear that they are not to be taken as an indication of peace-making with Israel.
Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz also sought to temper any expectations, tweeting that: “We are not talking about negotiations for peace and normalization, rather an attempt to solve a technical, economic dispute that for 10 years has delayed the development of offshore natural resources.”
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Israel’s coronavirus cabinet has determined that the country is to remain in a state of lockdown, extending the current regulations until at least Sunday.
After the body convened, the Health Ministry and the Prime Minister’s Office issued a joint statement: “The decision to ease restrictions and allow for a gradual exit from the lockdown will require a constant and certain decrease in morbidity rates, and reaching that will take a few days.”
Minor changes have been made to the current rules to make allowances for close relatives to travel beyond the one kilometer limit to take part in weddings, and to permit professional athletes to resume training as part of “elite bubbles.”
The developments come as Israel’s Health Ministry registered 2,255 new cases of recorded coronavirus infections over the previous 24 hours. TIt also announced that the morbidity rate had declined to 5%, the lowest level since July.
In a pioneering study, Israel is conducting a large-scale investigation into coronavirus reinfection. So far, 81 patients were found to have contracted COVID-19 twice, raising concerns about whether people do, in fact, develop immunity to the pathogen.
Experts remain conflicted on the matter, with some arguing the phenomenon may be the result of viral mutation and others believing that certain people are simply susceptible to reinfection.
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