Israel Active

Israel’s IsraAID is working with local partners to provide humanitarian relief to victims of the magnitude 6.1 earthquake in Eastern Afghanistan. It plans to provide essential items such as bandages, sterile syringes, gauze, suture kits, tourniquets, pain killers, antibiotics, and basic medication.

United Hatzalah’s Khaled Hardan, a Muslim volunteer paramedic from Wadi Ara in northern Israel, flew to Warsaw to help ensure Jewish Ukrainians could undertake the journey to Israel. Khaled said, “I am happy that I was part of the team that was able to bring them to Israel.”

Apple’s R&D centers in Herzliya and Haifa currently employ 2,000 Israeli engineers working on Apple M1 chips and depth sensing camera. Apple also has 60 Palestinian Arab engineers at its Apple hub in the new PA city of Rawabi, run in partnership with PA company, ASAL Technologies.

Israel is among the first countries in the world to ban chicken cages for egg-laying hens and to move to non-cage systems. Israel’s new regulations also include providing regular care for chickens and bans on the practice of induced molting and beak trimming.

Israeli NGO Yozmot Atid empowers women from Israel’s geographical, social, and economic periphery. Its training program helps some 1,000 women each year start businesses and become financially independent. The NGO took dozens of senior Israeli executives on a tour of the businesses.

The IDF has appointed the first woman to command a brigade. Colonel Reut Rettig-Weiss will command the 99th Division's Artillery Brigade. She was previously the first woman to become battalion commander of the IDF’s Artillery Corps' SkyRiders drone unit.

In the latest IMD World Competitiveness Rankings, Israel is 25th overall of the 63 countries surveyed but World Number One for its total expenditure on Research & Development. Also 2nd for cybersecurity, 3rd for public expenditure on education, and 5th for women with degrees.

Israel is sending two special planes, 17 firefighters, and equipment to Cyprus to help the country combat blazes ravaging the north of the island. The decision was made following a request from the Turkish Cypriot authorities. The fire brigades of Israel, Cyprus, and Greece train together periodically.

The 3D mapping and analysis technology from Israel’s GeoX (see previously) is being used by a World Bank project to help Ghanaians avoid floods and mudslides. It is also helping design a dam for the Odaw River to protect 4 million people from its repeated floods.

Israeli archaeologists working in the Negev Bedouin city of Rahat have identified and excavated a 7th century mosque - one of the oldest in the world. It is located 2km from another 7th-century rural mosque that was excavated in 2019 and 5km from a 7th century abandoned monastery.