Week 18 - 14/05/2021

Published on 14 May 2021 at 17:41

Israel Continues Conflict with Palestine for a Fifth Day

Israel has intensified its assault on Gaza, as Palestinian militants continue to fire rockets into Israel on the fifth day of hostilities.

 

Israel's military said air and ground forces were involved in attacks on Friday but had not entered Gaza.

 

Meanwhile, clashes between Palestinians and the Israeli security forces spread across much of the occupied West Bank.

 

At least 122 people have been killed in Gaza and eight have died in Israel since the fighting began on Monday.

 

Jewish and Israeli-Arab mobs have also been fighting within Israel, prompting its president to warn of civil war.

 

Defence Minister Benny Gantz ordered a "massive reinforcement" of security forces to suppress the internal unrest that has seen more than 400 people arrested.

 

WHO Urges Counties to Delay Inoculation and Donate Vaccines 

Wealthier nations should postpone plans to give children and teenagers Covid vaccines and instead donate supplies to low-income countries, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) says.

 

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Friday urged countries to supply more vaccines to the global fair-access scheme Covax.

 

The international distribution of Covid vaccines remains vastly uneven.

 

Since the first vaccines were approved in December, wealthier countries have bought up most of the supply.

 

Many are racing to vaccinate as much of their population as possible.

 

Speaking at a virtual conference in Geneva on Friday, the WHO's Dr Tedros said he understood why some countries wanted to vaccinate children and adolescents, but said "right now, I urge them to reconsider".

 

Greece Tourist Season begins as Lockdown Lifted

 

Greece has launched its tourist season, lifting most remaining restrictions on movement and declaring "we are putting the lockdown behind us".

 

Although an average of 2,000 daily Covid cases are still being reported, vaccinations are being rolled out.

 

German tourists have begun flying in. From 17 May it will not be illegal for Britons to travel to "amber list" Greece, but they are advised not to.

 

Only for "green list" countries such as Portugal will rules ease significantly.

 

Greece still has several restrictions. However, the big changes are that residents no longer have to send text messages to a hotline whenever they leave their homes or go shopping, movement is allowed between regions, and a night-time curfew has now been limited to between 00:30 and 05:00.

 

A fifth of Greece's economy is seen as dependent on the tourism sector and 20% of workers are employed by it.

 

"We are opening our tourist industry to the world," Tourism Minister Haris Theoharis announced on Thursday evening in front of the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion outside Athens.

 

Irish Health Service Subject to Cyber Attack

A cyber attack on Irish health service computer systems is "possibly the most significant cybercrime attack on the Irish state", a minister has said.

 

Speaking on broadcaster RTÉ, Ossian Smyth said the attack "goes right to the core of the [health] system".

 

However, he also said that it was "not espionage".

 

The health service has temporarily shut down its IT system to protect it after the attack.

 

Mr Smyth, who is minister for public procurement and eGovernment, said it was an international attack.

 

He added: "These are cyber criminal gangs, looking for money.

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