home page
Live Now
US secretary of state due to land in Tel Aviv later today ahead of meeting with Netanyahu, Herzog, before trip to Ramallah to see Abbas
Amy Spiro is a reporter and writer with The Times of Israel.
The Times of Israel is liveblogging Monday’s events as they unfold.
Security guards bust attempt to smuggle drugs from West Bank to Gaza
The Defense Ministry says security guards foiled an attempt to smuggle thousands of Captagon pills from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip this morning.
The ministry says the pills were hidden in the doors of office refrigerators. The shipment — en route to the Gaza Strip — was found at the Tarqumiyah Crossing, in the southern West Bank.
The drugs have been handed over to police for further inspection.
Captagon is an amphetamine-type stimulant manufactured mostly in Lebanon and Syria. Much of it has been bound for illegal recreational use in Saudi Arabia.
Israeli officials call it the “Islamic State drug,” as it was supposedly used by jihadists to prevent fear and fatigue during fighting in Syria and Iraq.
In Cairo, Blinken urges Israel and Palestinians ‘to calm things down’
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urges “calm” and “deescalation” after violence flares between Israel and the Palestinians, as he kicks off a Middle East tour in Cairo.
At a press conference in Cairo, Blinken urges “all parties to calm things down and deescalate tensions,” while also stressing the “importance of working for a two-state solution.”
Blinken is due to arrive in Israel in a few hours and meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as President Isaac Herzog.
He will travel to Ramallah tomorrow to meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
