News

Tel Hashomer, also known as the Sheba Medical Center, in suburban Tel Aviv, has set up a field hospital in Ukraine. Israel's field hospital is the first foreign medical team to arrive and begin caring for hundreds of refugees each day. Medical volunteers are caring daily for long queues of people, many of them elderly.

The Los Angeles Jewish Journal has published a first person account - https://jewishjournal.com/my-turn/346691/what-israel-is-doing-in-ukraine

More pictures of Israel's field hospital in Ukraine were published in the Jerusalem Post - https://www.jpost.com/international/article-702315

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken thanked Israel for its ongoing efforts to help facilitate an end to Russia’s destructive war with Ukraine as he and his Israeli counterpart, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid. Blinken told Lapid that any initiative to try to halt the conflict would be welcome as long as it is consistent with US, NATO, and European principles and that Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity are respected.

Read more about Israel's efforts for a diplomatic resolution: https://www.timesofisrael.com/blinken-tells-lapid-us-very-much-appreciates-israeli-mediation-in-ukraine

Israel Defense Minister Benny Gantz reported Israel has offered four times over the past year to provide emergency assistance to Lebanon and the Lebanese Armed Forces.

Gantz explained the Lebanese army is suffering from a shortage of basic supplies and has lost more than 5,000 soldiers that abandoned it recently.

Lebanon is dealing with an economic collapse, suffering and unemployment on a massive level, yet when Lebanon’s new Prime Minister Najib Mikati was sworn into office in September 2021, he said his government “will deal with anyone for the sake of Lebanon’s interest, with the exception of Israel, of course.”

Fortunately, this has not dissuaded Minister Gantz from repeatedly extending a neighborly arm of friendship and resource driven support, in hope that eventually the offer will be accepted and the rebuilding of the Good Fence relationship between the two countries can recommence.

Read more about Israel's repeated offers of support for Lebanon - https://www.timesofisrael.com/gantz-israel-offered-aid-to-lebanese-military-four-times-in-past-year/

Lebanon is on the verge of collapse. With enlightened and innovative leadership by the US, Israel is offering itself as an ingredient to a solution, and this may even help reduce the destructive influence of Hezbollah and Iran in the region, while helping to begin the rehabilitation of a nation that is suffering so much.
More: https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-said-to-ink-secret-deal-to-supply-natural-gas-to-lebanon-via-jordan and https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220116-us-reportedly-allows-israel-to-supply-gas-to-lebanon-via-syria-and-jordan

Israeli foreign minister, Yair Lapid, offers goodwill gesture to his Egyptian counterpart after meeting with President Sissi, bringing stone tablets, papyrus, idols and other stolen artifacts back to Cairo.
More: https://www.timesofisrael.com/as-lapid-visits-israel-returns-to-egypt-95-stolen-relics-smuggled-into-israel

Israel has become the world leader in desalination and having solved its own water crisis is now using that developed technology to aid its neighbors and solve the water crisis in the parched desert region that is the Middle East.

More: https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-signs-deal-doubling-water-supply-to-parched-jordan