The International Criminal Court. Photo: ICC Website.

JNS.org – Israel has let into the Gaza Strip almost 900 kilotons of food in some 40,000 trucks over the past year, according to official data.

The data was released on Friday following the International Criminal Court’s decision the previous day to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister Yoav Gallant. Israel has roundly rejected the allegations, which it called false and antisemitic.

The food data appears to undermine the ICC’s reasoning for issuing the warrants, which it said was over suspicions that the two Israelis “knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, water, and medicine and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity.”

In addition to food, about 2,600 trucks containing more than 51,000 liters of water were let in, along with almost 30,000 tons of medical equipment. An additional 10,000 aid drops took place in 140 operations.

The water supply translates to 112 liters per person daily in the north of the Gaza Strip, 39 liters in the center, and 24 liters in the south.

More than 5.7 million vaccines, including polio vaccines, were administered, and 32,000 liters of fuel were let in as well as 26 kilotons of cooking gas.

In total, 57,480 trucks carrying 1,129,774 tons of aid have been delivered to the residents of the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led terrorists murdered some 1,200 people in Israel and abducted another 251, triggering a regional war and an ongoing war against Hamas.

The post Israel Has Let 900,000 Tons of Food into Gaza, Data Show first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

English and Hebrew editions of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – Israeli government ministers on Sunday voted to cut all connection with the left-wing Haaretz daily.

The Cabinet decision came, according to a statement from Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi’s office, in response to “numerous articles that harmed the legitimacy of the State of Israel in the world and its right to self-defense, particularly in light of the recent statements by the publisher of Haaretz, Amos Schocken, who expressed support for terrorism and called for sanctions against the government.”

Karhi explained, “We cannot allow a reality in which the publisher of an official newspaper in the State of Israel calls for sanctions against it and support the state’s enemies in the midst of a war, while international bodies harm the legitimacy of the State of Israel, its right to self-defense, and actually impose sanctions against it and against its leaders.”

At a Haaretz-organized London conference on Oct. 27, Schocken urged that sanctions be imposed on the Jewish state, accused the government of imposing apartheid rule in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, referred to Palestinian terrorists as “freedom fighters” and claimed that the Israel Defense Forces was carrying out a second nakba, or “catastrophe” (the Arab term for the creation of the modern-day State of Israel in 1948).

In response to the remarks, several Israeli government ministries vowed to cancel business ties with Haaretz, including the Foreign, Education, Culture and Sport, and Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism ministries.

Sunday’s government decision halts all state-paid advertising, state-funded subscriptions and other connections with the newspaper.

Haaretz lost hundreds of subscribers due to Schocken’s remarks, news site Walla reported earlier this month. The financial blow to the paper is “one that has not been seen in many years,” Haaretz stated, according to Walla, adding that during internal meetings there was talk of “a crazy rate of cancellations and a sharp drop in newspaper advertising.”

Meanwhile, Justice Minister Yariv Levin is seeking to advance a bill that would criminalize calls by Israeli citizens for international sanctions against the Jewish state. Under the proposed law, offenders could face up to 20 years in prison for public calls for sanctions against “Israel, its leaders, members of the security forces and Israeli citizens.”

According to Levin, calls for boycotts are “tantamount to encouraging and promoting a move whose actual purpose is the denial of Israel’s right to self-defense. This act is all the more serious when committed during an existential war and while our daughters and sons are being held in inhumane conditions by a murderous terrorist group.”

The post Israeli Gov’t Votes to Cut All Ties with ‘Haaretz’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Chabad Rabbi Zvi Kogan. Photo: @Chabad/X.

JNS.org – The body of Chabad emissary Rabbi Zvi Kogan, who went missing in the United Arab Emirates on Nov. 21, has been located by UAE intelligence and security services, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office and Foreign ministry said in a joint announcement on Sunday morning.

“Israel’s mission in Abu Dhabi has been in contact with the family from the beginning of the incident and continues to support them during this difficult time. His family in Israel has also been informed,” the statement read.

“The murder of Tzvi Kogan, of blessed memory, is a heinous act of antisemitic terrorism. The State of Israel will utilize all available means to bring the perpetrators to justice,” it continued.

Israel’s President Isaac Herzog said in response to the announcement that, “I mourn with sorrow and outrage the murder of Rabbi Zvi Kogan,” adding, “This vile antisemitic attack is a reminder of the inhumanity of the enemies of the Jewish people.”

The murder “will not deter us from continuing to grow flourishing communities in the UAE or anywhere—especially with the help of the dedicated commitment and work of the Chabad emissaries all over the world,” the statement continued.

Herzog thanked UAE authorities for their swift action on the case, and expressed his confidence that they would bring the murderers to justice.

“Our thoughts and condolences are with Rabbi Kogan’s wife and family. May his memory be a blessing,” the statement concluded.

Chabad said in response to the news that, “With great pain we share that Rabbi Zvi Kogan, Chabad-Lubavitch emissary to Abu Dhabi, UAE, was murdered by terrorists after being abducted on Thursday.”

The PMO said on Saturday evening that the Mossad was investigating the incident and reminded Israelis that the National Security Council (NSC) advisory for the Arab Gulf state was level 3, a moderate travel warning “with a recommendation to avoid any non-essential travel to the country, and for those who are in the country–take extra precautions.”

Kogan stopped communicating with his family on Nov. 20. He reportedly failed to arrive at meetings previously scheduled on that day, and his wife contacted the Chabad security officer, who notified authorities about his disappearance. He reportedly went missing from a location about an hour and a half from Dubai.

He was an emissary for the Abu Dhabi Chabad branch and ran a kosher supermarket in the UAE.

Chabad is one of the largest religious Jewish organizations in the world, with branches in scores of countries.

According to Channel 12, Kogan is believed to have been kidnapped and murdered by an Uzbek cell operating on behalf of Iran. His body was discovered in Al-Ain, an inland oasis city on the eastern border with Oman. The authorities found signs of violence on the body, and there were also indications of a struggle in Kogan’s car.

Kogan was found in his car in Al-Ain, with his phone turned off. Initial investigations revealed that three Uzbeks followed him after he left the supermarket, and they are suspected of being responsible for his murder. The use of Uzbek militants by Iran is a known tactic.

Israeli authorities are aware that the Uzbeks traveled to Turkey, and Israeli security agencies are coordinating with Turkish officials to uncover the truth. A delegation from Israel has been sent to the UAE to oversee the investigation.

An Israeli who lives in Abu Dhabi and is acquainted with Kogan told Ynet that the rabbi “is a nice guy who is very active in the community. His family is ruined, and the Israeli and Jewish community is appalled. Kogan was the assistant of Chabad’s chief rabbi in the Emirates, and formed and managed the kosher supermarket of the community.”

Kogan married two years ago, and his wife is the niece of Gabi Holtzberg, a Chabad emissary who was murdered in Mumbai in 2008.

Relations between Israel and the UAE were normalized in the fall of 2020 as part of the Abraham Accords. Despite criticisms from Abu Dhabi of Jerusalem’s conduct during its ongoing war against Iranian-backed terrorist groups, a senior Emirati official said late last month that normalization was not at risk.

The post UAE Locates Body of Missing Chabad Emissary Rabbi Zvi Kogan first appeared on Algemeiner.com.