The IDF was successful in thwarting an attempt to smuggle drugs from Egypt into Israel and captured the drugs, worth millions of shekels.

IDF spotters on Monday identified a number of suspects who tried to smuggle drugs from Egyptian territory into Israel.

IDF troops operating in the area commenced with an arrest procedure that included firing at the smugglers.

The soldiers thwarted the smuggling attempted and seized a number of bags containing drugs worth millions of shekels and a number of vehicles that were handed over to the Israel Police.

Israeli forces periodically clash with smugglers on the border with Egypt, a major smuggling route for drugs, weapons and women into Israel.

Israel in recent years has built a fence along the Egyptian border to block the flow of work migrants coming to the country from Africa through Egypt.

The tall fence has also been helpful in slowing down the prolific smuggling trade from Egypt into Israel, mostly the work of local Bedouin tribes.

The Palestinian Authority’s (PA) incitement in the media and its spread of a libel against Israel prompted a terrorist to murder Esther Horgan, a mother of six from Samaria, Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) has proved.

Muhammad Maruh Kabha, the terrorist who brutally murdered Horgan last month, told Shin Bet interrogators that he “decided to carry out a terrorist attack after he was influenced – inter alia – by the death of a security prisoner he knew, Kamal Abu Wa’er,” who died in prison from cancer.

Abu Wa’er, who was serving six life sentences for involvement in the murder of at least four Israelis, recently died of cancer in prison.

During his illness, the PA and Fatah launched an incitement campaign citing top officials who falsely claimed Israel was denying him proper treatment, and once Abu Wa’er had died, they intensified the libel that his death was caused by “deliberate medical neglect.”

Apparently believing this to be true, Kabha decided to kill an Israeli in revenge, and when he “identified a Jewish woman walking alone,” he took a rock and bludgeoned her to death.

The PA “does everything it can to demonize Israel and create hate among Palestinians,” the PMW noted in its report.

“One means is the spreading of libels, and one of those libels is that Israel treats imprisoned Palestinian terrorists inhumanely. For years, the PA has purported that Israel ‘tortures”’ terrorist prisoners, gives them experimental drugs rather than try to cure their illnesses, does Nazi-like experiments on them, intentionally infects them with diseases, deliberately neglects them medically, and refrains from treating severe diseases like cancer to cause their ‘slow death,'” PMW explained.

PMW note that the International Red Cross regularly visits the imprisoned terrorists and has never accused Israel of treating sick terrorist prisoners improperly.

In June 2020 a Red Cross official told PA TV “we visited more than 90% of those who are in these [20 different] prisons.”

The IDF has launched a manhunt for two terrorists who carried out a car-ramming and shooting attack against IDF soldiers in the Jenin area on Saturday.

Two terrorists in a vehicle attempted to run over and shoot at troops at an IDF security crossing at the village of Yabed, west of Jenin.

An initial inquiry shows that two cars were waiting at the checkpoint near Yabed. After the soldiers completed an inspection of the first vehicle which drove away, the two terrorists in the second vehicle sped toward the troops and attempted to run over them.

The vehicle hit a soldier who did not require medical treatment.

The second terrorist attempted to shoot at the troops but dropped his weapon. A Carlo submachine gun was recovered at the scene of the attack.

The soldiers did not respond or fire back at the vehicle as it sped away.

No IDF injuries were reported.

The IDF has launched a manhunt in the area to apprehend the cell.

The IDF has deployed advanced air defense batteries in the southern city of Eilat, preparing for a possible Iranian attack on Israel from Yemen.

Israel’s security establishment is on high alert in anticipation of a possible Iranian retaliatory attack to mark a year since Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Al-Qods Force of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), was assassinated by the US.

Some military officials have estimated that Iran will take advantage of the coming weeks before Joe Biden enters office to retaliate against Israel.

Iranian officials have vowed to retaliate, while Iranian-backed Houthi forces in Yemen have threatened to attack Israel.

Houthi General Mohammed Nasser al-Atifi told the Arab media outlet Al-Medean in December that his troops have “a bank of targets, both land and sea-based, at which it can strike the Zionist enemy.”

His troops “will not hesitate to attack them if the leadership decides to do so. Our military forces are prepared for this kind of attack,” he added.

The government voted Tuesday night to tighten the Coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions in Israel to stem the rapid spread of the virus in the country, possibly caused by the UK variant.

After a week and a half of a semi-lockdown, the government announced a series of restrictions that will essentially shut down the country almost completely.

The tight lockdown will be imposed from midnight on Thursday, for at least 14 days, and will include the complete closure of the education system and all non-essential businesses.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated at the beginning of the Cabinet meeting that “we see the Coronavirus running amok around the world. The British mutation is out of control. Britain is now under full lockdown after a massive mortality rate. Unfortunately, the new Coronavirus mutation is also leaping forward with us, but not at the same pace”.

Several cases of the new Coronavirus variant that was first identified in the United Kingdom and which is rapidly spreading around the world were found in Israel and multiple locations around the country.

“The hospitals are warning us that we are entering the most dangerous wave since the outbreak of the pandemic. The Health Ministry and the experts are warning us that we are in an emergency situation and that if we do not act immediately we will lose many hundreds of Israelis – and even more – who will die,” he said.

He called on all citizens of Israel to “make a final effort – together. We will make a tightened and immediate lockdown together with the continuation of the huge vaccines operation.”

“This is how we will save lives. This is how we will be the first in the world to emerge from the coronavirus. This is how we will open our economy and this is how we will get back to living,” he stated.

The Ministry of Health updated Wednesday morning that it documented 8,164 new infection cases over the past 24 hours.

Of the 121,816 tests done on Tuesday, a high 6.8% returned positive.

824 patients hospitalized with Corona are in serious condition, 207 of them are on life support.

Since the outbreak in February 2020, 3, 495 Israelis have died of the virus.