Nearly half of Palestinians killed in Gaza war were armed, Israeli report finds
(JNS.org) A new Israeli Foreign Ministry report on last summer’s Operation Protective Edge found that nearly half (44 percent) of the 2,125 Palestinians killed were confirmed to have been armed members of Hamas or other terrorist organizations.
The 277-page report, titled “The 2014 Gaza Conflict: Factual and Legal Aspects” and published Monday, was formulated by a team of experts from Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office, Foreign Ministry, Justice Ministry, and Military Advocate General’s office.
The findings were released ahead of a United Nations Human Rights Council report on the Gaza war. The U.N. report is scheduled to be published this week and is expected to be disproportionately critical of Israel.
The Israeli report found that Hamas intentionally and strategically attacked from within civilian areas and used civilians as shields for military targets, thus committing war crimes.
“Hamas training and doctrinal materials found by IDF forces during the operation attest to Hamas’s intentional efforts to draw the IDF into combat in densely populated areas and to actively use the civilian population in order to obstruct the IDF’s military operations,” the report states.
In contrast to Hamas’s civilian shield strategy, the Israeli military made every effort to ensure compliance with international law and regularly went beyond its legal obligations in order to protect civilian life, according to the report.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that “anyone who wants to know the truth will read [Israel’s] report… Those who want to continue the baseless accusations can waste their time reading the U.N. report.”
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Israeli-developed micro-antenna to treat tiny digestive tract tumors
(JNS.org) Students at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem are developing an innovative micro-antenna to focus radiation on tiny tumors in the digestive tract.
The university said there is currently no treatment for tumors in the early stages of cancer when they measure less than 0.19 inches. The new antenna would eliminate the need to wait for the tumors to grow big enough to be treated, and also eliminate the need for invasive surgery.
The micro-antenna would be inserted into the patient’s stomach via an endoscopic ultrasound tube and would allow radiation to be focused on tiny tumors. Development of the technique is expected to be completed within a year, pending funding.
Students Anna Kochnev and Shayke Stern, who collaborated with Jerusalem’s Shaare Tzedek Medical Center on the project, presented their work at Hebrew University on Monday. Professors Yuri Feldman and Yaakov Nahmias, who served as mentors for the project, said, “The great opportunity here is one of preventing cancer from getting worse and requiring difficult chemotherapy treatment, which is also costly to the medical system.”
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U.S. lawmakers approve measure to penalize boycotters of Israel
(JNS.org) The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday approved a measure that could result in punitive measures against European companies that boycott Israel.
The measure, which was already approved by the U.S. Senate last month, is part of the larger Trade Act of 2015 that will arrive at President Barack Obama’s desk in the near future. Under the bill’s Trade Promotion Authority, the president would be granted wide leeway to reach a trade deal with the European Union.
The bill would essentially prevent the U.S. from engaging in free trade with a European trade partner (either the EU itself or a corporation) if the partner is involved in boycotting Israel, potentially barring such entities from submitting bids for government contracts in the U.S.
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Hundreds of thousands turn out for Tel Aviv gay pride parade
(JNS.org) Hundreds of thousands of Israelis and tourists turned out for Tel Aviv’s 2015 gay pride parade on Friday.
The parade began around noon Tel Aviv time and marched from the city’s Meir Park down to Charles Clore Park along the Mediterranean. It was estimated that around 180,000 people turned out, with about 30,000 tourists.
“Welcome to all our guests from abroad to the gay-friendliest city in the world,” Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai declared at the launch of the parade.
The Tel Aviv parade is Israel’s largest gay pride event as well as the largest of its kind in the Middle East, a region where homosexuals and transgendered people face brutal repression and human rights abuses.
This year’s parade focused on the promotion of the rights of the transgendered community.
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Europe’s largest cyber-tech firm to set up innovation center in Israel
(JNS.org) Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Security (SIT), Europe’s largest organization for applied scientific research, is set to establish a cyber-security innovation center in Israel.
Fraunhofer SIT announced that it will work with leading academic research institutions in Israel on “joint research activities to bridge the innovation gap and accelerate the development of secure software, systems, and services.”
Citing the recent cyber-attack targeting Germany’s Bundestag parliament, believed to be carried out by Russia, and other targeted attacks threatening enterprises and state institutions each day, Fraunhofer said its cooperation with Israel would help “address these challenges.”
“The Institute will join forces with Israel, which is widely regarded as the nation with the biggest experience and a very well trained workforce in this area, as well as one of the highest innovation capacities worldwide,” the company said.
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Norwegian insurance giant divests from two firms over Judea and Samaria
(JNS.org) The Norwegian insurance giant KLP has excluded two construction firms from their investment portfolio over their ownership of Israeli companies operating in Judea and Samaria.
“KLP is excluding Heidelberg Cement and Cemex on the grounds of their exploitation of natural resources in occupied territory on the West Bank,” the company announced Thursday, Haaretz reported. “In KLP’s opinion this activity constitutes an unacceptable risk of violating fundamental ethical norms.”
The two companies in question—Heidelberg Cement, a Germany company, and Cemex, a Mexican company—acquired the Israeli firms Hanson Quarry Products Israel and Readymix Industries Israel, who both run quarries in Judea and Samaria.
Both Heidelberg and Cemex stressed that most of the workers at their Judea and Samaria quarries are Palestinian and benefit from the same working conditions as Israelis.
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