Israel Closes Main Gaza Goods Crossing In Response To Arson Attacks!
Israel
has shut the main cargo crossing with the Gaza Strip in retaliation for arson
attacks by Palestinians and attempts to infiltrate its territory.
Only "humanitarian
equipment", including food and medicine, will now be allowed through Kerem
Shalom. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to use a "heavy
hand" against the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which dominates Gaza.
A Hamas spokesman called the Israeli
move "a new crime against humanity". Palestinians have been launching
kites and balloons carrying containers of burning fuel and explosive devices
over the Gaza-Israel border since April. The devices have sparked 750 fires in
southern Israel, burning more than 2,600 hectares (6,400 acres) of forest and
farmland and causing hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage, Israeli
officials say.
The arson attacks began during mass
demonstrations along the border, at which thousands of Palestinians have
expressed their support for the declared right of Palestinian refugees to
return to their ancestral homes in what is now Israel and also demanded an end
to the blockade of Gaza imposed by Israel and Egypt. Israel and Egypt say the
blockade is a necessary security measure against militants. Gaza health
officials say more than 130 Palestinians have been killed and 15,000 others
injured by Israeli forces during the protests. Israel's military said the prime
minister had ordered the closure of Kerem Shalom on Monday "in light of
the ongoing arson terror and additional terror attempts, led by the Hamas
terror organization". The military will also stop Gaza's fishermen sailing
more than six nautical miles (11 km) offshore in the Mediterranean Sea, after
having extended the limit to nine miles (17km) for the past three months.
Mr Netanyahu said he and Defence
Minister Avigdor Lieberman had agreed to be "heavy-handed with the Hamas
regime in the Gaza Strip - immediately". "There will be additional
steps. I will not go into details," he added. Hamas, which has fought
three wars with Israel since 2008, called on the international community to
intervene immediately to prevent what it called a "new crime against
humanity". The Israeli non-governmental organisation Gisha, which promotes
freedom of movement for Palestinians, also condemned the Israeli decision.
"The damage being caused to
agricultural lands in Israel is grave and deplorable, but collectively
punishing nearly two million people in Gaza by closing its only official
crossing for the movement of goods is both illegal and morally depraved,"
it wrote on Twitter. Almost all of the goods imported to Gaza pass through
Kerem Shalom.
The
United Nations says 43,087 lorryloads of
goods arrived through the crossing in the first five months of 2018.
In May, 44% of the lorryloads carried construction materials; 29% food
products; and 1% medical supplies.
Israeli Un-Manned Spacecraft To Land On The Moon in 2019
An
Israeli non-profit organisation has announced plans to send the first
privately-funded unmanned spacecraft to the Moon later this year.
SpaceIL said the probe would be
launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in December on a Falcon 9 rocket built
by Elon Musk's SpaceX company. It is expected to land on the Moon in February
2019. The spacecraft will plant an Israeli flag on the Moon's surface and carry
out research into its magnetic field.
SpaceIL's
project began as part of the Google Lunar XPrize, which offered $30m (£23m) in
prizes to inspire people to develop low-cost methods of robotic space
exploration. However, the competition expired
this March, with the $20m grand prize for landing on the moon
unclaimed.
Despite the setback SpaceIL continued
developing its spacecraft, which is being built in co-operation with Israel
Aerospace Industries (IAI), a state-owned firm. So far it has spent about
$88.5m, much of which it has received from the South African-born Israeli
billionaire businessmen Morris Kahn.
Ido Anteby, CEO of SpaceIL, told a
news conference in the Israeli town of Yehud on Tuesday that its probe would be
the smallest yet to land on the Moon. It is about 2m (6.6ft) in diameter and
1.5m high, and will weigh only 585kg (1,300lb) at launch. More than 400kg of
that weight is fuel that will be burnt off by the time it lands on the Moon. The
spacecraft is a "hopper", which will land and then take off again
with the fuel left in its propulsion system, and then perform another landing
500m away, as required by the XPrize.
If successful, SpaceIL's mission will
make Israel the fourth country in the world to "soft land" a probe on
the surface of the Moon - after the former Soviet Union, the United States and
China. Mr Kahn said he hoped the mission would create an "Apollo
effect" for the next generation in Israel - a reference to the enthusiasm
for science, technology, engineering and maths triggered by Neil Armstrong's
Moon walk in 1969.
"This is a tremendous project,"
he added. "When the rocket is launched into space, we will all remember
where we were when Israel landed on the moon." Ofer Doron, head of IAI's
space division, said Israel was "going to show the way for the rest of the
world" to send a spacecraft to the Moon at a reasonable cost. Four other
teams are still competing against SpaceIL for the honour of winning the Google
Lunar XPrize - Moon Express from the US, Team Indus from India, Hakuto from
Japan, and Synergy Moon, an international group.
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