All West Bank land crossings will be closed during Tuesday's election in Israel, the country's military says, and Palestinian workers will be barred from entering all settlements.
The restrictions come amid a crackdown in the occupied West Bank after Palestinian gunmen killed two Israeli soldiers in the territory. The Israel Defense Forces announced a "ban on the entry and exit of Palestinian workers throughout Judea and Samaria and the Jordan Valley, including industrial zones, as well as the closure of all land crossings" on Tuesday.
It said most workers would also be barred from settlements from Sunday, with the exception of industrial zones and a limited number of other areas. Before the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, more than 100,000 Palestinian workers were permitted to enter Israel. Since then only a small fraction have had their permits restored.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a major operation on Friday in response to the killing of two Israeli soldiers by two Palestinian gunmen in an attack on a checkpoint. Three other Israeli soldiers were injured, and the gunmen were also killed.
The Israeli military have been demolishing homes and businesses in the city of Hebron, with hundreds of families having been displaced.
FULL ARTICLE AT: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c6y93ylpl5p2o
The big row over military service that could shape Israel's future
Furious protesters are denouncing Israeli security forces as "Nazis" - but this is not a scene from a pro-Palestinian rally on the streets of London or Paris. This clash is in the heart of Israel, in which hundreds of ultra-Orthodox men in white shirts, black fedoras and long black frock coats face off against the military police.
The flashpoint is a building in the city of Modi'in, midway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, where a young ultra-Orthodox Jewish (or Haredi) man lives. The police have come to arrest him after he failed to report for military service.
The clash in early October, seen by the BBC in a video, is one of many in recent months in which one of the deepest schisms in Israeli society has become ever more exposed. This widening fault line is playing out against the backdrop of the wars Israel is currently fighting, including the unresolved conflict against Hamas in Gaza - as well as increasing violence by extremist settlers against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
Once a tiny minority, the ultra-Orthodox remain a group apart even as their numbers expand year by year. Currently, they are estimated to make up about 14% of the population, and the birth rate within the community remains far higher than among other Israelis. If their numbers continue to grow at a similar rate, they could make up one-third of the Jewish Israeli population by 2050.
As the ultra-Orthodox community becomes bigger, so has the debate around the expense of supporting them with stipends so they can devote themselves to full-time religious study. Subsidies to the group are estimated to cost the government 35bn shekels (£8.4bn) per year and, until recently, they were exempted from military service. Now they're no longer an insignificant minority, they're facing pressure to engage more with wider Israeli society.
FULL ARTICLE AT: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cmvg7w0x742do
Why is Ukraine so reliant on Starlink can Europe plug the gap?
Ukraine is in desperate need of a new satellite internet service, but a fast and reliable alternative to Elon Musk's Starlink network simply doesn't exist - yet.
Last week's sudden slowdown of the service in Ukraine, which affected Kyiv's ability to defend itself from Russian attacks, has shown how vulnerable the country can be, and sharply increased Europe's urgency to have its own military-grade satellite network.
There are a few alternatives, but they are all lagging behind Starlink, which is the world's largest satellite constellation. France's Eutelsat, with its OneWeb internet service, is the main alternative - but it only has about 600 active satellites, compared with Starlink's 10,000-plus.
The EU is working on a new network to rival Starlink, Iris², however it won't be up and running until 2029. For Ukraine's troops on the ground, several of whom spoke anonymously to the BBC, reliable connectivity is the difference between life and death.
"God forbid they shut it off completely, it would be an absolute catastrophe," said one. "I don't give a damn how much an alternative costs when our lives are on the line." For now, Ukraine's best bet is to join Govsatcom, the EU's satellite sharing network - but it cannot be used for military warfare like controlling drones.
That vulnerability was highlighted by Musk himself on Saturday when he accused Ukraine of violating Starlink's terms of service by using it for "drone strikes to kill people".
Saying that loophole was closed last week, he wrote on X: "Violation of those terms will result in end of service." He added: "Were Starlink to be turned off, the Ukrainian front line would collapse immediately".
FULL ARTICLE AT:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c65yn97xe7ypo
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