Some of the biggest names in Israel’s thriving tech industry are trading the office for the battlefield.
Following Hamas’ attack over the weekend, Israel has called on 300,000 reservists to join its war effort. That includes tech workers, who account for 10% of the Israeli workforce, per Bloomberg.
Tel Aviv was ranked No. 5 for the best global tech ecosystem in 2023, per The Global Startup Ecosystem Report. The industry’s economic impact is valued at $235 billion.
The tech leaders leaving their startups are reportedly ready for duty.
“I want to be part of the people who are protecting our country,” Itamar Friedman, co-founder and CEO of Israeli artificial intelligence startup CodiumAI, told The Wall Street Journal.
Friedman, who reported for reservist duty, raised $11 million for CodiumAI earlier this year with the help of OpenAI and other investors. He told employees to prepare to work without him for the foreseeable future, according to the outlet.
Shmuel Chafets, co-founder and chairman of the venture capital firm Target Global (one of Israel’s largest, overseeing $3.2 billion in funds), volunteered to join the Israeli army and was deployed to the Gaza Strip.
“We are seeing hundreds of thousands of people getting out of their lives, getting into uniform,” he told Bloomberg TV. “People have been rushing into military service.”
Global companies are also reporting a drop in Israeli staffers.
Cybersecurity firm Armis, which is based in San Francisco, lost about 15% of its Israeli workforce to the draft. “The expectation is that will go up,” said Nadir Izrael, the company’s chief technology officer, per Bloomberg.
Hundreds of Eritrean government supporters and opponents clashed with each other and with Israeli police Saturday, leaving dozens injured in one of the most violent street confrontations among African asylum seekers and migrants in Tel Aviv in recent memory.
Among those hurt were 30 police officers and three protesters hit by police fire.
Eritreans from both sides faced off with construction lumber, pieces of metal, rocks and at least one axe, tearing through a neighborhood of south Tel Aviv where many asylum seekers live. Protesters smashed shop windows and police cars, and blood spatter was seen on sidewalks. One government supporter was lying in a puddle of blood in a children’s playground.
Israeli police in riot gear shot tear gas, stun grenades and live rounds while officers on horseback tried to control the protesters, who broke through barricades and hurled chunks rocks at the police. Police said officers resorted to live fire when they felt their lives were in danger.
The clashes came as Eritrean government supporters marked the 30th anniversary of the current ruler’s rise to power. The event was held near the Eritrean embassy in south Tel Aviv. Eritrea has one of the world’s worst human rights records. Asylum seekers in Israel and elsewhere say they fear death if they were to return.
Eritrean protesters clash with Israeli riot police in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023.
Ohad Zwigenberg / AP
Police said Eritrean government supporters and opponents had received permission for separate events Saturday, and had promised to stay away from each other.
At some point, the promises were broken, said Chaim Bublil, a Tel Aviv police commander.
“A decision was made by the government opponents to break through the barriers, to clash with the police, to throw stones, to hit police officers,” Bublil told reporters at the scene.
He said the police had arrested 39 people and confiscated tasers, knives and clubs.
The Magen David Adom rescue service said at least 114 people were hurt, including eight who were in serious condition. The others had moderate or mild injuries. Of those hurt, 30 were police officers, said Bublil.
A spokesperson for Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital said it was treating 11 patients for gunshot wounds. Police said three protesters were wounded by police fire.
By late Saturday afternoon, the clashes had stopped. Police were still rounding up protesters, putting them on buses.
A supporter of the Eritrean government lies injured and covered in blood after he was hurt by an Anti-Eritrean government activist, during a protest against an event organized by the Eritrea Embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023.
Ohad Zwigenberg / AP
Many of the anti-government protesters wore sky blue shirts designed after Eritrea’s 1952 flag, a symbol of opposition to the government of the east African country, while government supporters wore purple shirts with a map of Eritrea.
Eritreans make up the majority of the more than 30,000 African asylum seekers in Israel. They say they fled danger and persecution from a country known as the “North Korea of Africa” with forced lifetime military conscription in slavery-like conditions. Eritrea’s government has denounced anti-government protesters as ” asylum scum ” who have marched against similar events in Europe and North America.
President Isaias Afwerki, 77, has led Eritrea since 1993, taking power after the country won independence from Ethiopia after a long guerrilla war. There have been no elections and there’s no free media. Exit visas are required for Eritreans to leave the country. Many young people are forced into military service with no end date, human rights groups and United Nations experts say.
Eritrean protesters clash with Israeli riot police in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023.
Ohad Zwigenberg / AP
In Israel, they face an uncertain future as the state has attempted to deport them. But despite the struggle to stay, in often squalid conditions, many say they enjoy some freedoms they never would have at home — like the right to protest.
Eritrean asylum seekers are often “hunted and harassed” by the Eritrean government and its supporters inside Israel, said Sigal Rozen, from the Tel Aviv-based human rights organization Hotline for Refugees and Migrants.
Events like the one held in Tel Aviv on Saturday are controversial because they raise money for the heavily sanctioned government and are used to pressure Eritreans far from home, said Elizabeth Chyrum, director of the London-based Human Rights Concern — Eritrea.
For those looking to leave the U.S., pursuing life as an expatriate is often an appealing option.
That’s especially true for those living in pricey locales, such as New York City or San Francisco, where the cost of living remains persistently high. In fact, New York continues to be the most expensive city in North America, ranking sixth in the world.
Relocating to work abroad, however, can also come with a hefty price tag, according to Mercer’s 2023 Cost of Living Ranking, which ranks 227 cities across five continents, comparing the cost of goods and services in each location.
The most expensive city in the world for expats: Hong Kong, which topped the list for the second consecutive year.
Here are the 10 most expensive cities for expats, outside the U.S.:
Hong Kong
Singapore
Zurich, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Basel, Switzerland
Bern, Switzerland
Tel Aviv, Israel
Copenhagen, Denmark
Nassau, Bahamas
Shanghai
As for the U.S., the data finds that the cost of living has increased in all American cities analyzed. In the global ranking, New York lands in sixth place, followed by Los Angeles (11th), San Francisco (14th) and Honolulu (15th).
Additionally, Detroit, Houston and Cleveland saw the greatest increases in cost of living among U.S. cities this year.
But keep in mind that cost of living is just one factor to consider when looking to move abroad. While Hong Kong is the most expensive city on the list, that doesn’t necessarily translate to a better quality of life. In fact, it ranks 78th in that category.
On the other hand, some global cities may offer expats a lower cost of living and, perhaps, a higher quality of life. Barcelona, Spain, for example, ranks 75th for highest cost of living, but 47th for best quality of life.
Get CNBC’s free Warren Buffett Guide to Investing, which distills the billionaire’s No. 1 best piece of advice for regular investors, do’s and don’ts and three key investing principles into a clear and simple guidebook.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday was rushed to a hospital, where he was assessed to be in “good condition” as he underwent a medical evaluation, his office said. Initial tests determined the Israeli leader was suffering from dehydration.
A statement from Netanyahu’s office said that he had spent Friday enjoying Israel’s Sea of Galilee at a time of high summer temperatures. It said he felt dizzy and his doctor instructed him to go to Sheba Hospital, near the coastal city of Tel Aviv.
The statement said initial tests found everything to be sound, and that it appeared Netanyahu was suffering from dehydration. It said doctors had ordered further tests.
Israel is currently in the midst of a heat wave, with temperatures in the mid-30s degrees Celsius, (mid-90s in Fahrenheit).
Netanyahu, 73, is Israel’s longest serving leader. He has served multiple terms stretching over 15 years in office. His current far-right government, a collection of religious and ultranationalist parties, took office last December.
Netanyahu is said to be in generally good health, though he was briefly hospitalized last October after feeling unwell during prayers on Yom Kippur, day when observant Jews fast.
Tens of thousands of Israelis have held weekly demonstrations against Netanyahu’s government to protest his plan to overhaul the country’s judiciary.
Netanyahu’s allies say the plan is needed to rein in the power of unelected judges. But his opponents say the plan will destroy the country’s fragile system of checks and balances and concentrate power in the hands of Netanyahu and his allies.
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid issued a statement wishing Netanyahu a “full recovery and good health.”
“Feel better,” Lapid said on Twitter.
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Thousands of Palestinian residents fled the Jenin refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Tuesday as Palestinian health officials said the death toll from Israel’s largest raid on the camp in nearly two decades had risen to 10. Meanwhile, at least eight people were injured in a car ramming attack on a crowded bus stop in the city of Tel Aviv, which the militant group Hamas claimed was a response to the ongoing Jenin raid.
As Israel’s operation inside the Jenin camp, which sits inside the West Bank city of the same name, continued for a second day, the Israeli army said it was seizing weapons and destroying command posts and tunnels belonging to Palestinian militant groups. Streets were torn up inside the camp, and gunfire and explosions were heard sporadically throughout the day as Israel troops and Palestinian militants clashed, though the fighting was reportedly less intense than on Monday.
Israeli forces intervene with Palestinians gathered to protest an ongoing Israeli raid in the Jenin refugee camp, in Jenin, West Bank, July 04, 2023.
Issam Rimawi/Anadolu Agency/Getty
Jenin Mayor Nidal Al-Obeidi said around 4,000 people had fled the refugee camp to seek shelter elsewhere, and Palestinians across the West Bank observed a general strike to protest the raid, according to The Associated Press.
“We are alarmed at the scale of air and ground operations that are taking place in Jenin and continuing today in the West Bank, and especially on air strikes hitting the densely populated refugee camp,” said Vanessa Huguenin, a spokesperson for the U.N. humanitarian office. She said she’d heard reports that three children were among the dead. Palestinian officials said those killed were between 16 and 23-years-old, CBS News partner network BBC News reported.
The charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said roads in the Jenin camp had been blocked or destroyed, and that paramedics were being forced to travel on foot amid gunfire and drone strikes to reach the wounded.
“The use of attack helicopters and drone strikes in such a densely populated area represents a marked increase in intensity and is nothing short of outrageous,” Jovana Arsenijevic, a coordinator for MSF in Jenin, said in a statement. “The hospital where we are treating patients was struck by tear gas canisters. Medical structures, ambulances and patients must be respected.”
On Tuesday afternoon, a 20-year-old attacker rammed his car into a bus stop full of people in Tel Aviv, Israel’s second-most populous city, before emerging and trying to stab people with a knife. The attacker was shot and killed at the scene by an armed civilian, police said.
Members of Israeli security and emergency personnel work at the site of a car ramming attack in Tel Aviv, July 4, 2023.
Getty
“In the first seconds you think it could have been a mistake by the driver,” a witness told BBC News. “He exited through the window, not the door — like in a movie — with a knife in hand and started chasing civilians. Now you understand it’s an attack. We ran for our lives.”
The militant group Hamas identified the attacker behind what it lauded as a “heroic operation,” and “legitimate self-defense” against the Israeli operation in Jenin.
Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, visited the scene of the attack in Tel Aviv and called for more Israeli citizens to take up arms, BBC News reported.
Multiple people were killed in two suspected terror attacks Friday by Palestinian militants in Tel Aviv and the West Bank Friday, as violence continues to escalate in the region. Israel also Friday launched airstrikes in southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. Imtiaz Tyab has the latest.
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Departing flights from the country’s main international airport were grounded, large mall chains and universities shut their doors, and Israel’s largest trade union group called for its 800,000 members — in health, transit, banking and other fields — to stop work. Local governments were expected to close the preschools they run and cut other services, and the main doctors union announced its members would also walk off the job.
The growing resistance to Netanyahu’s plan came hours after tens of thousands of people burst into the streets around the country in a spontaneous show of anger at the prime minister’s decision to fire his defense minister after he called for a pause to the overhaul. Chanting “the country is on fire,” they lit bonfires on Tel Aviv’s main highway, closing the thoroughfare and many others throughout the country for hours.
Israeli Airports Authority says flights out of Israel’s main international airport have been grounded after the nation’s largest trade union group launched a strike across a broad swath of sectors.
GIL COHEN-MAGEN via Getty Images
Thousands of protesters gathered Monday outside the Knesset, or parliament, to keep up the pressure.
“This is the last chance to stop this move into a dictatorship,” said Matityahu Sperber, 68, who joined a stream of people headed to the protest. “I’m here for the fight to the end.”
The overhaul — driven by Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption, and his allies in Israel’s most right-wing government ever — has plunged Israel into one of its worst domestic crises. It has sparked sustained protests that have galvanized nearly all sectors of society, including its military, where reservists have increasingly come out publicly to say they will not serve a country veering toward autocracy.
Israel’s Palestinian citizens, however, have largely sat out the protests. Many say Israel’s democracy is tarnished by its military rule over their brethren in the West Bank and the discrimination they themselves face.
The turmoil has magnified longstanding and intractable differences over Israel’s character that have riven it since its establishment. The protesters say they are fighting for the very soul of the nation, saying the overhaul will remove Israel’s system of checks and balances and directly challenge its democratic ideals.
Protesters gather with national flags outside Israel’s parliament in Jerusalem on Monday amid ongoing demonstrations and calls for a general strike against the hard-right government’s push to overhaul the justice system.
AHMAD GHARABLI via Getty Images
The government has labelled them anarchists out to topple a democratically elected leadership and says the plan will restore a balance between the judicial and executive branches and rein in what they see as an interventionist court with liberal sympathies.
At the center of the crisis is Netanyahu himself, Israel’s longest serving leader, and questions about the lengths he may be willing to go to maintain his grip on power, even as he battles charges of fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three separate affairs. He denies wrongdoing.
The firing of his defense minister at a time of heightened security threats in the West Bank and elsewhere, appeared to be a last straw for many, including apparently the Histadrut, the country’s largest trade union umbrella group, which had sat out the monthslong protests before the defense minister’s firing.
“Where are we leading our beloved Israel? To the abyss,” Arnon Bar-David, the group’s head, said in a rousing speech to applause. “Today we are stopping everyone’s descent toward the abyss.”
On Monday, as the embers of the highway bonfires were cleared, Israel’s ceremonial president, Isaac Herzog, called again for an immediate halt to the overhaul.
“The entire nation is rapt with deep worry. Our security, economy, society — all are under threat,” he said. “Wake up now!”
Opposition leader Yair Lapid said the crisis was driving Israel to the brink.
“We’ve never been closer to falling apart. Our national security is at risk, our economy is crumbling, our foreign relations are at their lowest point ever, we don’t know what to say to our children about their future in this country,” Lapid said. “We have been taken hostage by a bunch of extremists with no brakes and no boundaries.”
It was unclear if the threats posed by the strikes to Israel’s economy, which is already on shaky ground, would prompt Netanyahu to halt the overhaul. Israeli media reported that a lawyer representing the prime minister in his corruption trial threatened to quit if the overhaul was not halted.
The developments were being watched in Washington, which is closely allied with Israel yet has been uneasy with Netanyahu and the far-right elements of his government. National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said the United States was “deeply concerned” by the developments in Israel, “which further underscore the urgent need for compromise.”
“Democratic values have always been, and must remain, a hallmark of the U.S.-Israel relationship,” Watson said in a statement.
Netanyahu had reportedly spent the night in consultations and was set to speak to the nation, but later delayed his speech. Some members of Netanyahu’s Likud party said they would support the prime minister if he did heed calls to halt the overhaul.
The architect of the plan, Justice Minister Yariv Levin, a popular party member, was long a holdout, promising he would resign if the overhaul was suspended. But on Monday, he said he would respect the prime minister’s decision should he halt the legislation.
Still, Netanyahu’s hard-line allies pressed him to continue on. “We must not halt the reform in the judicial system, and we must not give in to anarchy,” National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said.
Netanyahu’s dismissal of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant appeared to signal that the prime minister and his allies would barrel ahead. Gallant had been the first senior member of the ruling Likud party to speak out against it, saying the deep divisions were threatening to weaken the military.
And Netanyahu’s government forged ahead with a centerpiece of the overhaul — a law that would give the governing coalition the final say over all judicial appointments. A parliamentary committee approved the legislation on Monday for a final vote, which could come this week.
The government also seeks to pass laws that would would grant the Knesset the authority to overturn Supreme Court decisions and limit judicial review of laws.
A separate law that would circumvent a Supreme Court ruling to allow a key coalition ally to serve as minister was delayed following a request from that party’s leader.
Netanyahu returned to power late last year after a protracted political crisis that sent Israelis to the polls five times in less than four years. The elections were all a referendum on Netanyahu’s fitness to serve while on trial for corruption.
A gunman opened fire on a crowded street in Tel Aviv, Israel, Thursday night, wounding three. The gunman was killed by police, Israeli authorities said.
“A short time ago, a report was received of a terror attack in Tel Aviv,” Israel Police said on Twitter. “A suspect shot 3 civilians who were wounded in different degrees. The terrorist was neutralised by police officers.”
The gunman was identified as a 23-year-old Palestinian associated with Hamas. The conditions of the three people who were wounded were not immediately given.
“There has been another terror attack in the heart of Tel Aviv tonight,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was in Rome at the time, in a statement. “We send our hopes and wishes for the speedy recovery of the wounded, and we strengthen the security forces and police who are fighting terrorists this night and every night.”
Video of the aftermath of the shooting, which occurred on Dizengoff Street, showed large crowds of people, including police, medical personnel and civilians, gathered around what appeared to be wounded victims lying in the street. The immediate area was quickly cordoned off by police.
Israeli security personnel works at the scene of a shooting attack in central Tel Aviv, Israel March 9, 2023.
Ammar Awad / REUTERS
An image on social media showed what was believed to be the attacker standing in the middle of the road as he pointed a pistol. The MADA rescue service said one of the wounded was in critical condition, while authorities said security forces in the area quickly killed the shooter.
Amateur video appeared to show the attacker trapped in an alley as several armed Israelis stood around the corner. A man could be heard shouting “close the window” to a resident. As the suspect ran out of the alley, he was shot multiple times.
The shooting came hours after an Israeli military raid killed three Palestinian militants in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli security forces said they raided the village of Jaba to arrest suspects wanted for attacks on Israeli soldiers in the area. The suspects opened fire on Israeli troops, who shot back and killed three people, all affiliated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group, police said.
The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the men as Sufyan Fakhoury, 26, Nayef Malaisha, 25 and Ahmed Fashafsha, 22, and said they were shot by Israeli fire during the military operation. A fourth man was hospitalized with a bullet wound to the head, authorities added.
Israeli police released a photo of assault rifles, pistols, ammunition and explosive devices they said troops confiscated in Jaba, just south of the flashpoint city of Jenin. Gunmen shot down an Israeli drone during the clashes, the military said.
The Jaba militant group, a fledgling militia of disillusioned young Palestinians who have taken up guns against Israel’s occupation, said members opened fire and hurled explosive devices at Israeli forces from a sedan — that now sits, smashed and bloodied, in the center of town. Residents said Israeli troops killed members of the group who had been recently incarcerated by Israel and had carried out a recent shooting attack at a nearby checkpoint.
Tens of thousands took to the streets across Israel to protest against a proposed overhaul to the country’s judicial system. Martin Indyk, Lowy Distinguished Fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations and former U.S. Ambassador to Israel, joins John Dickerson on “Prime Time” to discuss.
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Tel Aviv —Tens of thousands of Israelis turned out in the rain Saturday night to protest the country’s new government — led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — which includes far-right, ultraconservative and religious parties. The Netanyahu coalition’s proposed policies pose a threat to democracy and human rights in Israel, the protesters say.
More than 80,000 people demonstrated in Tel Aviv, according to local media, and smaller protests took place outside Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem, and in Haifa.
“This is a fight for our homes, for our future, for the future of our children,” Victor, 46, told CBS News.
People stage a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government at Habima Square in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Jan. 14, 2023.
Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Among what demonstrators oppose includes proposed judicial reforms that critics say would undermine the Israeli Supreme Court and Israel’s system of democratic checks and balances. The reforms would give Israel’s parliament the power to overturn supreme court decisions with a simple majority vote, as well as power over the appointment of judges.
“It is the same way as every modern liberal democracy has fallen,” Victor said. “This is the initial step…To divide and cancel the link between the different branches of government.”
The country was facing the “highest possible” stakes, Victor added.
The 73-year-old Netanyahu, who has been back in power in Israel for about two weeks, is his third stint as prime minister, and was elected despite facing criminal charges of corruption. Critics say his coalition’s proposed overhaul could make those charges go away.
Netanyahu’s return to power was made possible by a coalition of far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties who have announced intentions to roll back a number of social reforms which, if enacted, would undermine rights for women and LGBTQ+ people, and expand Jewish settlements in the West Bank, which is against international law.
“We came to protest against the government’s intentions and attempts to politicize the legal system, to weaken the supreme court, to politically influence the process of electing judges, thus making it harder for minorities to express themselves, for people to defend themselves against official or government oppression,” Dan, a pediatric dentist, who was demonstrating with his daughter, Tamar, told CBS News.
There was a large police presence in Tel Aviv ahead of Saturday’s demonstration, with traffic blocked off on surrounding roads. Police sources told Israeli media that law enforcement were instructed to be “very sensitive,” and let the protest proceed peacefully. There was no word of any significant violence or any injuries, local media said.
“What’s happening is really a direct threat to minority groups, to Palestinians as well,” said the 26-year-old Tamar, a master’s degree student in Middle Eastern history. “It’s important to emphasize that there’s a voice within the Jewish community. Also thinking of the Palestinians and supporting their freedom and their basic human rights, and the LGBTQ community, women. I mean, this coalition is extremely far-right, extremely religious.”
Tens of thousands of people protested in Tel Aviv Saturday night against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government’s proposed changes to the Israeli judicial system.
Despite pouring rain over the city, police estimated that more than 80,000 people flooded central Tel Aviv’s HaBima square and surrounding streets, according to Israeli media, while others took to the streets in Jerusalem for parallel protests.
Attendees held signs comparing Netanyahu to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and saying Israel was turning into the likes of semi-democratic Hungary and theocratic Iran.
Protesters told CNN they came out of fear for Israel’s future and to send a message to Netanyahu that the public wouldn’t stand for what they see as the dismantling of Israeli democracy.
Esther Hayut, the president of Israel’s Supreme Court, on Thursday attacked the proposed changes as “an unbridled attack on the legal system” and said they were “designed to force a fatal blow on the independence of the judicial system.”
The proposed reforms, announced last week by Israeli Justice Minister Yariv Levin, would seek to reform Supreme Court nominations via a review committee, and enable parliament to overturn Supreme Court rulings.
RAMALLAH, West Bank — Israeli forces killed at least four Palestinians in separate incidents on Thursday, including one who had stabbed a police officer in east Jerusalem and three others in Israeli raids in the occupied West Bank.
The violence flared as Israel tallied the final votes in national elections held this week, with former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expected to lead a comfortable majority backed by far-right allies.
Israeli troops operating in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank, a militant stronghold, killed at least two Palestinians, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad said one of those killed was a local commander. Residents said he was killed while at the butcher, where he was preparing meat ahead of his wedding this weekend.
The army said the militant, Farouk Salameh, was wanted in a number of shooting attacks on Israeli security forces, including the killing of a police officer last May. It said Salameh was killed after opening fire at soldiers, fleeing the scene and pulling out a gun.
Earlier Thursday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said a Palestinian man was killed by Israeli fire in the occupied West Bank. Israeli police said it happened during a raid in the territory and alleged the man threw a firebomb at the forces.
Late Thursday, Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip launched a rocket into southern Israel, setting off air-raid sirens in the area. The army said the rocket appeared to have been intercepted. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but in the past, Islamic Jihad has fired rockets in response to the killings of its members.
In a separate incident Thursday, a Palestinian stabbed a police officer in Jerusalem’s Old City, police said, and officers opened fire on the attacker, killing him. The officer was lightly wounded.
The violence came as a political shift is underway in Israel after national elections, with former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu set to return to power in a coalition government made up of far-right allies, including the extremist lawmaker Itamar Ben-Gvir, who in response to the incidents said Israel would soon take a tougher approach to attackers.
“The time has come to restore security to the streets,” he tweeted. “The time has come for a terrorist who goes out to carry out an attack to be taken out!”
The violence was the latest in a wave of Israeli-Palestinian fighting in the West Bank and east Jerusalem that has killed more than 130 Palestinians this year, making 2022 the deadliest since the U.N. started tracking fatalities in 2005.
The violence intensified in the spring, after a wave of Palestinian attacks against Israelis killed 19 people, prompting Israel to launch a months-long operation in the West Bank it says is meant to dismantle militant networks. The raids have been met in recent weeks by a rise in attacks against Israelis, killing at least three.
Israel says most of those killed have been militants. But youths protesting the incursions and people uninvolved in the fighting have also been killed.
Also on Thursday, Israel said it was removing checkpoints in and out of the city of Nablus. Israel had imposed the restrictions weeks ago, clamping down on the city in response to a new militant group known as the Lions’ Den. The military has conducted repeated operations in the city in recent weeks, killing or arresting the group’s top commanders.
Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, and has since maintained a military occupation over the territory and settled more than 500,000 people there. The Palestinians want the territory, along with the West Bank and east Jerusalem, for their hoped-for independent state.
CANBERRA, Australia — Australia has reversed a previous government’s recognition of West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the foreign minister said Tuesday.
The center-left Labor Party government Cabinet agreed to again recognize Tel Aviv as the capital and reaffirmed that Jerusalem’s status must be resolved in peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said.
Australia remained committed to a two-party solution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, and “we will not support an approach that undermines this prospect,” Wong said.
Former conservative Prime Minister Scott Morrison formally recognized West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December 2018, although the Australian embassy remained in Tel Aviv.
The change followed then-U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to shift the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. President Joe Biden has kept the embassy in Jerusalem as the U.S. steps back from its once-intense mediation between the Israelis and Palestinians, who have not held substantive peace talks in more than a decade.
Wong described Morrison’s move as out of step internationally and a “cynical play” to win a byelection in a Sydney locale with a large Jewish population.
Morrison’s Liberal Party ran Jewish candidate Dave Sharma who was defeated in the byelection but won the seat in the next general election.
Morrison’s government was elected out of office in May after nine years in power.
Nasser Mashni, vice president of the human rights group Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, thanked the government for “differentiating itself from the dangerous political posturing of the previous government.”
“This reversal brings Australia back into the international consensus — Australia must not pre-empt the final status of Jerusalem,” Mashni said in a statement.
“Israel asserts that the entire city is exclusively theirs, denying Palestinian connection to their ancient spiritual, cultural and economic capital,” Mashni added.
Opposition foreign affairs spokesperson Simon Birmingham did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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TEL AVIV, Israel — The Israeli military shot and killed two Palestinians during a raid in the occupied West Bank early Monday, Palestinian officials said.
The military alleged that the men tried to ram their car into soldiers, a claim that could not be independently verified. Palestinians and rights group often accuse Israeli troops of using excessive force against Palestinians, who live under a 55-year military occupation with no end in sight. Israel says it follows strict rules of engagement and opens fire in life-threatening situations.
The military said soldiers were attempting to arrest a suspect in the Jalazone refugee camp near the city of Ramallah when the two Palestinians allegedly attempted to run over soldiers with their car. The soldiers opened fire on the car, the military said.
The Palestinian Civil Affairs Authority, which coordinates on civilian issues with Israel, said the military shot and killed the two men. Their identities were not immediately known.
Israel has been carrying out nightly arrest raids in the West Bank since the spring, when a spate of Palestinian attacks against Israelis killed 19 people. Israel says its operations are aimed at dismantling militant infrastructure and preventing future attacks. The Palestinians see the nightly incursions into their cities, villages and towns as Israel’s way of deepening its occupation of lands they want for their hoped-for state.
The Israeli raids have killed some 100 Palestinians, making this year the deadliest since 2016. Most of those killed are said by Israel to have been militants but local youths protesting the incursions as well as some civilians have also been killed in the violence. Hundreds have been rounded up, with many placed in so-called administrative detention, which allows Israel to hold them without trial or charge.
The raids have driven up tensions in the West Bank, with an uptick in Palestinian shooting attacks against Israelis. They have also drawn into focus the growing disillusionment amongst young Palestinians over the tight security coordination between Israeli and the internationally-backed Palestinian Authority, who work together to apprehend militants.
Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war and 500,000 Jewish settlers now live in some 130 settlements and other outposts among nearly 3 Palestinians. The Palestinians want that territory, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, for their future state.
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Associated Press reporter Jalal Bwaitel contributed to this report from Ramallah, West Bank.
