An Israeli energy company has announced a $15bn deal to export natural gas to Egypt, highlighting the deepening strategic ties between the two countries as well as Cairo’s ambitions to become a regional energy hub.

In what Yuval Steinitz, the Israeli energy minister, hailed as the most significant deal with Egypt since the countries’ 1979 peace accord, Israel’s Delek Group said it had signed an agreement to supply 64bn cubic metres of gas over a decade to Dolphinus Holdings, a private Egyptian company.

Read more

Sergey Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister

The Russian foreign minister stressed today that Moscow does not support the Iranian calls for Israel’s destruction. “We have stated many times that we won’t accept the statements that Israel, as a Zionist state, should be destroyed and wiped off the map,” the top diplomat said.

“By the same token, we oppose attempts to view any regional problem through the prism of fighting Iran,” he noted. This is happening in Syria, Yemen and even the latest developments around the Palestinian issue, including Washington’s announcement of its decision to recognize Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, are largely motivated by this anti-Iranian stance.”

Read more

Jaakov Katz

JERUSALEM (AP) — An Israeli settler leader says the number of settlers in the West Bank grew at nearly twice the rate of Israel’s overall population last year.

Yaakov Katz says the settler population reached over 435,000 people last year, up 3.4 percent from the previous year. In comparison, Israel’s overall population grew 1.8 percent.

Read more

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Latest on police recommending indictments against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin (all times local):

9:05 p.m.

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, says police recommendations to indict him on corruption charges “will end with nothing.”

In a nationwide TV address, a stern-looking Netanyahu denied allegations that he accepted lavish gifts, including champagne and expensive cigars, from Hollywood mogul Arnon Milchan in exchange for doing favors.

He also is suspected of offering preferential treatment to a newspaper publisher in exchange for favorable coverage.

Read more

Lawmakers in Florida are trying to cancel Lorde’s upcoming shows in the state after the Kiwi songstress called off her performance in Israel.

Lorde cancelled her Tel Aviv concert in December, following pressure from fans and activists in the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, which is making a stand against Israel’s oppression of Palestinians.

The decision has seen Republican state Rep. Randy Fine this week pushing for Miami and Tampa to cancel Lorde’s April shows, the Orlando Weekly reported.

Fine based his actions on a Florida law which barred companies that received state funds from doing business over $1 million with organisations associated with BDS.

Read more.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said Friday it has embarked on a fundraising campaign that will likely include a ministerial-level donors conference next month to fill the gap left by the Trump administration’s sudden cut of tens of millions of dollars in funding.

Read more

Yosef Haim Ben David (centre)

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s Supreme Court has rejected appeals filed by three Israelis convicted in a high-profile murder of a Palestinian teenager in 2014.

Yosef Haim Ben David and two underage accomplices were convicted in 2016 of abducting 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khdeir and burning him to death. Ben David appealed the sentence, pleading insanity.

The court on Thursday upheld Ben David’s sentence of life plus 20 years. His two accomplices, both minors at the time, also appealed and their sentences, one to life in prison and the other to 21 years, were upheld.

Ben David and his accomplices said the killing was in revenge for three Israeli teens abducted earlier that summer and killed by Palestinians allied with the Islamic militant group Hamas. The incidents helped propel Israel to war in Gaza.

Source