Israel to recruit retirement-age reservists for new brigade unit: Report
Israel’s military is planning to create a new light brigade unit composed of retirees and volunteers, including ultra-Orthodox citizens, due to a troop shortage, according to Israeli news site Walla.
The unit, called Brigade 96 or “David’s Division”, is expected to have 40,000 personnel, both men and women, according to Walla.
They will include soldiers, commanders and officers from infantry brigades, special units and other security organisations, it said.
The plan comes as Israel’s government moves forward with a bill increasing reservists’ retirement age by one year, in an effort to boost troop numbers more than eight months into the Gaza war.
Israel to impose extra tax on salaried workers this month to address budget deficit: Report
Israel’s government will impose an exceptional tax on salaried workers in June to help reduce the budget deficit caused by the country’s war on Gaza, according to the Israel Hayom newspaper.
The tax will be equivalent to one working day, deducted from employees’ June salaries, the report said.
The development affects both public and private sector workers.
Earlier this month, Israel’s Finance Ministry announced that its budget deficit for the past 12 months had jumped to 137.7 billion shekels ($37bn), equivalent to 7.2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).
Six senior Israeli figures call on US Congress to ‘disinvite’ Netanyahu: Report
Ex-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, former Mossad chief Tamir Pardo and four other senior political figures have published a joint letter in the New York Times, calling on the leaders of the US Congress to prevent Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from giving a speech to US lawmakers on July 24.
“Congress has made a terrible mistake” by inviting him, the letter said, adding that “Netanyahu’s appearance in Washington will not represent the State of Israel and its citizens”.
The address “will reward his scandalous and destructive conduct toward our country”, the claimants said, stressing that the prime minister “failed to come up with a plan to end the war in Gaza or free dozens of hostages”.
“Congressional call for him should have been conditional on resolving these two issues, as well as calling for new elections in Israel,” the letter concluded.
Explosion rocks Israeli-Palestinian co-existence organisation in Israel’s Lod city
An explosion went off last night at the office of an Israeli organisation that promotes co-existence with Palestinians, damaging its premises, the NGO says.
Police suspect the explosion, at the office of the Abraham Initiatives in the central Israeli city of Lod, was caused by a grenade, according to a statement from the NGO cited by Israeli media. The explosion did not cause any casualties.
The organisation said it expects “police and law enforcement to carry out a speedy and fundamental investigation into the serious incident, and bring the perpetrators to justice”.
