Hi tech in the Negev Desert

https://www.jpost.com/jerusalem-report/article-892680

How the Negev desert became Israel's unlikely global tech powerhouse

From cyber hubs to climate tech, a once-dismissed vision is transforming the South into a global laboratory for solutions

A dozen years ago Avishay Braverman, then-president of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, announced his visionary plan to create a hi-tech campus in Beersheba. The idea was derided as yet another bombastic statement that would never come to fruition.

However, anyone who hasn’t visited Beersheba in the last decade would be astounded to see that the city, and the Negev desert that surrounds it, has emerged as Israel’s national cyber center, fostering collaboration among academia, multinational companies, and the IDF.

Israel’s South has long been the source of pioneering arid lands technologies. In recent years, the number of internationally recognized innovative desert-related projects has also skyrocketed.

There are, of course, many strategic partners to these extraordinary ongoing developments: the Israel Innovation Authority; Ben-Gurion University of the Negev; Elbit Systems; Dell Technologies; Soroka Medical Center; and Mor Research Applications, to name just a few of the principal institutions and consortia.

Pioneering spirit

One of the most influential organizations focusing specifically on the development of the Negev is the Merage Foundation Israel, a private philanthropy founded by David and Laura Merage in 1998.

The foundation, “based on the pioneering spirit, entrepreneurship, and innovation of Israel,” has dedicated much of its resources to Negev development, fostering projects and start-ups in climate technologies and R&D-based innovations in robotics and cyber security, to attract companies to the South.

The familiar statistic is still true: The southern Negev region constitutes 60% of Israel’s land but has less than 10% of its population.

“We knew from day one of the creation of this state that we needed to thrive in desert environments. And we have all this know-how that we should commercialize,” Merage Foundation CEO Nicole Hod Stroh told The Jerusalem Report. 

Laguna Innovation CEO Clive Lipchin helps to assemble the off the grid wastewater treatment and reuse system in the Al Furaa Bedouin community school near Arad. (credit: Laguna Innovation)

“If we transform the Negev into a global hub of desert innovation, agrotourism, and tourism, it will become an attractive magnet for young people who will want to move and work in the Negev. We really see it as a national existential opportunity,” she said.

“Necessity is the mother of invention” as that sometimes overused proverb goes. But it explains why major inventions in arid lands science and technology have been developed in the living laboratory of the Negev.

“We realized that there’s a lot of know-how in desert agriculture, water management, and renewable energy, but we weren’t very good at commercializing and monetizing that expertise,” Hod Stroh continued, relating that the Merage Foundation has provided platforms in several sectors connecting researchers and developers to potential investors.

Sustainable tech

To accelerate the development of technologies that enable sustainable living in arid climates, the Israel Innovation Authority established the DeserTech and Climate Innovation Center three years ago. Backed by Merage and five other major organizations, the center targets initiatives and new start-ups that have not yet found a market.

“We help them find resources, make connections, and – vitally – exchange knowledge with industry players,” said DeserTech director Sivan Cohen Shachari.

“The Negev is the metaphoric sandbox where these arid zones ideas can be tested, so we connect the projects to various sites, including agriculture,” she explained. “We help guide people with innovative ideas through all the processes.”

In other words: DeserTech matches needs with solutions and, with luck, business opportunities. In the last three years, DeserTech has shepherded more than 40 initiatives in various ways and expects another 20 projects in the near future.

One “quirky” example is the Russian immigrant entrepreneur who converted protein-rich waste from dates to produce high-quality fish food.

There are R&D agricultural projects throughout the Negev, each focusing on different needs in each micro-climate. How, for example, do you grow crops in saline water?

“No one in the world knew how to do this, but the researchers brought the solutions to local farmers, who succeeded and then gained a competitive advantage,” Cohen Shachari said.

“Farmers in Morocco or Azerbaijan also want to know how to do this. That knowledge can be shared, but it has a price tag.”

Offering solutions

One successful project that addresses the global problem of how to treat wastewater in communities that are off grid, – i.e., not connected to a central system – is Laguna Innovation.

“In most of the developing world, access to this kind of infrastructure is impossible, so sewage disposal becomes a real challenge, as does sanitation and hygiene, creating environmental and public health hazards,” Laguna co-founder & CEO Clive Lipchin told the Report. 

“For these communities, the problem is not only [accessing] drinking water but also how to get recycled water for agriculture,” he said.

The company used its system in the Negev’s unrecognized Bedouin villages and is now marketing it in Israel and abroad.

“Laguna Innovation is our role model of a system that was developed, tested, and validated in the Negev, a company that was established here,” declares DeserTech’s Cohen Shachari.

Working on a project at Synergy7’s Cyber & Robotics Lab in Beersheba. (credit: Merage Foundation Israel )

In the realm of encouraging ecotourism in the South, the Merage Foundation has set up a platform to develop wine tourism via the Negev Wine Consortium, made up of 30 (count them!) wineries and vineyards, proving it’s possible to produce wine in hostile desert conditions.

The foundation’s stated goal is to “promote sustainable and inclusive prosperity to the Negev region by strengthening the main drivers of economic growth and revitalizing city centers.”

In the competitive hi-tech environment, this includes cultivating entrepreneurship with a special focus on healthcare and biotech, indoor robotics, and cybersecurity.

Premier tech hub

In 2023, together with Dell, Elbit, Ben-Gurion University, and Soroka Medical Center, Merage won an Israel Innovation Authority tender to create the Synergy7 Tech Labs Hub.

As part of Beersheba’s transformation, what was once a huge bare brown lot next to Ben-Gurion University is now a premier hi-tech hub. This is the Gav-Yam Negev Advanced Technologies Park, where Synergy7 has its offices. The new high-rise park has become a center of cutting-edge cybersecurity development, artificial intelligence, and defense.

The Synergy7 consortium serves as a “venture studio” as CEO Harel Ram describes it – an infrastructure that attracts and supports companies and start-ups in biotech, robotics, and cybersecurity that want to do business in the South.

In the brief period between the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Gaza, hundreds of foreign delegations from all over the world visited Beersheba, curious about a remote region where there has been economic growth.

In meetings with many of the visitors, Synergy7’s Ram said he learned what their greatest concerns were.

“They mentioned cybersecurity, homeland security, and medical issues. I realized that we have some things to offer in all of these areas. In a word, crisis management,” he said.

“It’s very, very hard to establish a viable company,” Ram stated. “Does it answer a need? Does it offer something that will interest venture capitalists? It requires a lot of resources, which is what we are trying to provide. Synergy7 is now working with 300 companies, each in various stages of development, helping with business plans and presentations. All during these very difficult times.”

As Merage executive director Hod Stroh noted: “The foundation’s paramount question has always been ‘What problem can we solve?’ The world is hungry for solutions, and that opens more opportunities for meaningful intervention. It’s not just about funding someone but about leveraging a project, serving as a catalyst. This philosophy is behind all the projects the foundation supports.”■

https://www.jpost.com/jerusalem-report/article-892680

Smirking Muslima, Detained by ICE, Returns to Turkey

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15743451/rumeysa-ozturk-returns-turkey-ICE-blasts-US.html

Muslim student filmed screaming as she was detained by ICE issues scathing blast against the US as she returns to her native Turkey

Rumeysa Ozturk, the Tufts University graduate student who was arrested by plainclothes ICE agents last year, has finished her studies and returned to her native country of Turkey.

Ozturk's arrest in March 2025 quickly became a high profile example of the Trump administration going after international students.

Ozturk, who completed her Ph.D. in child study and human development, released a statement through the American Civil Liberties Union blasting the US government for its decision to detain her for six weeks.

'The time stolen from me by the US government belongs not just to me, but to the children and youth I have dedicated my life to advocating for,' she said.

She added that she returned home so she wouldn't lose 'more time to the state-imposed violence and hostility I have experienced in the United States - all for nothing more than co-signing an op-ed advocating for Palestinian rights'. 

On March 25, 2025, security footage showed Ozturk walking on a street in Somerville, Massachusetts, when a group of six people approached her from all angles. They were masked and presented identification badges.

She was heard screaming before she was put in handcuffs and whisked away in a black SUV. 

The Trump administration defended its arrest of Ozturk, arguing it fit into its mission to combat antisemitism on college campuses.

Rumeysa Ozturk, the Tufts University student that spent 45 days in ICE custody, announced that she returned to her native country of Turkey after finishing her studies. She blasted the US for subjecting her to 'state-imposed violence'

Pictured: Ozturk is led away on March 25, 2025, by plainclothes federal agents who arrested her on a street in Somerville, Massachusetts

The Department of Homeland Security said she was arrested after an investigation found that she had 'engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans'.

Former DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin pointed to an opinion piece Ozturk wrote in The Tufts Daily in March 2024 that 'recycled Hamas talking points and propaganda'.

The article criticized the administration at Tufts University for rejecting student claims that a genocide of Palestinians was taking place and for declining to divest from companies with ties to Israel.

Ozturk, who has denied she is antisemitic, was taken to processing facilities in New Hampshire and Vermont before she was flown to a detention center in Basile, Louisiana.

That detention center has been criticized for its allegedly poor conditions and possible abuse toward female inmates.

While she was in custody, her legal student status was revoked by the State Department, though a court later ordered the Trump administration to restore it.

This allowed her to finish her studies, though she was reportedly working on her thesis while she was imprisoned in Louisiana, more than 1,500 miles away from where she lived.  

Ozturk spent 45 days in detention and was released in May after federal judge William Sessions said her being locked up could chill 'the speech of the millions and millions of individuals in this country who are not citizens'.

Pictured: Tufts University students protest Ozturk's detention on March 26, 2025, the day after she was arrested

Pictured: After being released in May, Ozturk speaks with reporters outside the detention facility she was in for six weeks

'I put the government on notice that they should immediately introduce any such evidence, and that was three weeks ago, and there has been no evidence that has been introduced by the government other than the op-ed,' Sessions said.

In January 2026, an immigration judge in Boston, Roopal Patel, terminated the Trump administration's removal proceedings against Ozturk, stating that the government had 'no grounds' to deport her.

In April, the Trump administration fired Patel, who was appointed to the bench in 2024 by President Joe Biden.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15743451/rumeysa-ozturk-returns-turkey-ICE-blasts-US.html

Naval Operations Behind Enemy Lines

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-893279

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-893282

Israel breaks new ground at sea

The Navy has been carrying out more risky operations.

     Israeli Subs

One of the untold stories of Israel’s wars since 2023 has been the new cutting-edge activities and cooperation among Shayetet 13 (Israel’s equivalent of the US Navy Seals), the Mossad, and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency).

On Tuesday, Shayetet 13 invaded Naqoura, Lebanon, from the sea – the first time such an operation has occurred in Lebanon since 2000, the Israel Navy reported Thursday.

According to the military, this move was made as part of a new attitude by the IDF and the navy after the October 7 massacre of forward-leaning defense.

For the ground forces, this has manifested itself in creating buffer zones in Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria. For the navy, it has meant special forces carrying out more risky and aggressive operations behind enemy lines.

In one mission, five Shayetet 13 naval commandos were sent thousands of kilometers away from Israel with no support and no immediate rescue plan in the event of complications, the navy disclosed, without revealing dates and locations.

Shayetet 13 invades Naqura in first 

In yet another vaguely described mission, the navy said it had sent Shayetet 13 on a mission to a part of the world where it had never operated before.

The navy said its joint operations with the Mossad have reached new levels in recent years.

The navy declined to connect the dots regarding exact operations in which it had worked with the Mossad. But it did say the Naval Intelligence Division was directly involved in the killing of Iranian Navy commander Alireza Tangsiri and had facilitated IAF attacks against Iranian naval cruise missiles and sites related to submarines and other underwater threats.

Likewise, the navy said it had been involved in both intelligence and operations in eliminating five senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force liaison officials with Hezbollah in an attack on the Ramada Hotel in Beirut on March 8.

Until now, the navy’s involvement had been kept classified.

In that attack, the navy fired 14 missiles to kill the five officials, who were top commanders in Quds Force-Hezbollah intelligence and terrorist financing and had links to Palestinian terrorist groups in Lebanon.

The terrorist financing official was the key actor in transferring $770 million from Iran to Hezbollah over the past year, the IDF reported.

It is well known that the Mossad has for years been the main actor for locating and assassinating top Iranian officials, whether in Iran itself, or Quds Force officials overseas, including in Lebanon. The navy has also become involved in these efforts.

The IDF Intelligence Corps is also usually in the picture, and the navy said their work together in recent years has been unparalleled.

In Gaza, the Shin Bet took the lead for planning top-level Hamas assassinations.

While most of these were carried out by the IAF, on Thursday, the navy said it had also been involved in a number of these assassinations, working directly with the Shin Bet in new ways.

Last November 19, the navy worked with the IDF Intelligence Corps to assassinate Hamas naval commander Abdullah Abu Samael after Hamas significantly violated the ceasefire.

On March 16, the Shin Bet, the navy, and the IDF Intelligence Corps jointly assassinated Yunas Mahmoud Hasin Elian, a top Hamas naval commander.

Elian had been substantially responsible for attempts by Hamas to reconstitute itself as posing a naval threat to Israel, the IDF said.

On March 31, the navy, working with other Israeli intelligence agencies, assassinated Hezbollah’s commander for the southern front, Hajj Yusuf Ismail Hashem, it said.

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-893279

Israeli Navy hits Iran, Hezbollah, Syria, Yemen, and Gaza targets with precision strikes

     Chief of Staff visits the Navy

The Israel Navy has torn apart enemy forces in Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, and Yemen since 2023, raising Israel’s power in the Middle East to new heights, since most of its rivals have been wiped out militarily.

With over 1,000 naval combat soldiers at sea, logging over 26,000 operational hours in only 47 days of the current war with Iran and Hezbollah, the Navy said on Thursday that it has already undertaken or provided critical intelligence for 154 attacks.

95 of these attacks have been in Iran.

Of those 95 attacks, 68 of them were undertaken by US forces, but were entirely based on Israeli naval intelligence.

27 of those attacks were solely by the Israeli naval intelligence and carried out by the air force.

    Off Ashdod

This was a major jump from the Navy's involvement in the June 2025 war with Iran, in which it had a much smaller, though still lethal, role.

During the current war, the Navy has also struck 53 targets in Lebanon.

These attacks included 35 general attacks, 18 senior targeted assassination targets, and six special forces operations.

In addition, the Navy has attacked six targets in Gaza, mostly senior terror operatives, during the current war.

Previously, IDF Navy Lt. "G" told the Jerusalem Post that during Operation Rising Lion against Iran, "I was in a bunch of operations. To be part of these operations felt like a substantial contribution."

G added, "For two-and-a-half years, sometimes it was hard to see why the training mattered. But when you are on the frontlines at sea, it helps you connect everything you studied to something real and practical. The climax was against Iran, we had the chance to perform all of the skills which we learned during the course."

IDF destroys Syrian submarines, other naval capabilities

In December 2024, when the Assad regime fell, the Israeli military went after the Syrian military's capabilities to ensure that they would not be passed on to the next regime, with fears of new Syrian leader Ahmad al-Sharaa's jihadist past.

Although the Navy's involvement in these attacks has been discussed before, on Thursday, the Navy revealed far more nuance and detail about them.

According to the Navy, it destroyed 15 out of 21 Syrian naval ships.

These ships all included long-range missiles capable of reaching targets 80-200 kilometers away.

The Navy said that it struck these ships mainly at two bases: Latakia and Tel Baida, and that they were all destroyed within only a few hours.

Next, the Navy said there were complex reasons that could not be disclosed why the other six ships could not be struck.

It is well known that parts of the Syrian and Russian militaries were combined in terms of personnel and equipment at the time.

In addition, the Navy said it helped the air force destroy five advanced Syrian anti-aircraft batteries in 40 minutes, eliminating hundreds of powerful long-range missiles, including Styx missiles.

Overall, this eliminated 70-75% of a certain category of missiles.

IDF destroyed nearly all of Hezbollah's ship-to-ship missiles

The Israeli Navy disclosed on Thursday that it destroyed nearly all of the 100 advanced ship-to-ship missiles that Hezbollah possessed in 2023, destroying them between the fall of 2023 and 2024, before the major escalation with the terror group took place.

The idea was to disarm Hezbollah of many of its strategic weapons gradually over time, so that it would not sense how much weaker it was in the big and sudden moment when the IDF would hit it with all of its might, until it would be too late.

According to the Navy, 50% of these missiles were destroyed in Dahiyeh, Beirut, and another 50% in Darlat.

Further, the Navy revealed that it has mostly destroyed Hezbollah's Unit 1200, which had a substantial number of underwater drones before 2023.

The Navy said it destroyed nearly all of them within a few hours at a specific location where Hezbollah concealed them, thinking they would be safe.

Yemen's naval capability: 'You need to be independent'

In Yemen, the Navy disclosed that at least one of its targets was 150 kilometers inland, whereas most air force targets have been closer to the coast.

Lt. Y told the Post about his involvement in operations against the Houthis of Yemen at a distance of around 1,700 kilometers from Israel.

"No one can help you when you are that far away. You need to be independent. If there is a problem, no one can send a helicopter to perform a rescue. And I got to see up close the impact of the operation. Then there was nothing close to the great feeling when we finally returned home from so far away," said Y.

While Y declined to discuss the specifics of the operation against Yemen, the Post and other Hebrew media previously reported on June 10, 2025, that two of Israel's navy missile boats, one of them a Sa'ar 6, fired two long-range precision missiles from hundreds of kilometers away at the Houthi port in Hodeidah.

That attack marked the first time during the Israel-Hamas War that the Navy attacked Yemen.

Regarding that attack, some of the Houthi targets that were struck were platforms for ships to anchor on within the port.

Further, the IDF said that the explosive power of sea-to-land missiles would leave a lasting mark and increase deterrence in a different way than air-to-ground bombs.

Getting the Navy involved was part of Israel's broader strategy to deter foreign ships from using the port since naval vessels can remain in the area and strike repeatedly. They can also accomplish this much more easily than aircraft, which attack and then must immediately fly back to their home airbase before running out of fuel.

Moreover, because the Navy can remain at sea for an extended period, it can be more precise about the ideal moment to strike.

Nearly all of Hamas's naval commandos have been killed or wounded

The Navy disclosed on Thursday that Hamas had over 300 naval commandos in 2023, and that nearly all of them have been killed or wounded.

Despite that broad success, the Navy admitted that Hamas still has naval commandos and has continued to work to reconstitute that force.

Showing that it will not go along with this Hamas plan quietly, the Navy revealed that in the last two weeks, it has killed four Hamas naval commandos.

The Israeli Navy currently has around 10,000 soldiers in total to address all those fronts.

In addition, the IDF revealed on Thursday that for the first time, three submarines performed three separate operations simultaneously in completely different areas.

Late Thursday, Navy Chief Maj. Gen. David Saar Salame will conclude an unusually long four-and-a-half-year term and 39 years in the Navy.

Outgoing IDF Planning Directorate chief V.-Adm. Eyal Harel is replacing Saar Salame after IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir won a battle royale with Defense Minister Israel Katz to secure his appointment to the position.

The truth is that Harel was probably only collateral damage in a larger battle in which Katz was trying to force Zamir to pick IDF officers he deemed likely to be more loyal to him, such as for the US defense attaché position in Washington, DC.

That position has been vacant for several months, prompting Zamir to appoint IDF Brig. Gen. Arik Ben Dov, as the military's acting defense attache to the US, returned on December 11.

Given that there have been no developments since, it is possible that Ben Dov will continue to serve in an "acting" capacity, essentially on a permanent basis, at least through Israeli elections into late 2026 or even 2027.

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-893282

Warcrimes Lawsuit Filed Against Spanish PM at ICC

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2026/04/15/israeli-ngo-files-war-crimes-complaint-spains-pm/

Israeli NGO Files War-Crimes Complaint Against Spain’s PM : Iran Aid Enabled the Regime’s ‘Terror Machine’

Spain’s prime minister is facing a complaint at the International Criminal Court alleging his government enabled Iran’s “terror machine” through dual-use exports, with the legal group behind the filing arguing that responsibility for war crimes extends to those who provide the means.

The complaint, filed Tuesday by Israeli legal advocacy group Shurat HaDin under Article 15 of the Rome Statute, calls on prosecutors in The Hague to open a criminal investigation — and consider issuing an arrest warrant — against Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and other senior officials.

The complaint alleges that Spain’s socialist government approved the transfer of approximately €1.3 million in dual-use components to Iran in 2024 and 2025, including materials linked to detonators and explosive systems.

According to the filing, the items were not benign industrial goods but “critical components that enable explosive devices to function,” transferred under circumstances in which their use in attacks against civilians was foreseeable.

At the core of the case is the allegation that materials classified as civilian “dual-use” goods function as essential components in weapons systems.

Shurat HaDin argues that under international law, supplying essential components that render weapons operational can constitute aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against humanity — even when classified as dual-use.

The complaint further states that Iran — widely described as the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism — has long armed proxy terrorist groups, including Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis, which rely on such systems and rockets directed at civilian populations. The complaint also points to Iranian messaging as evidence that Tehran viewed Spanish policy as supportive.

Iranian state-linked outlets circulated footage and images showing ballistic missiles bearing stickers featuring Sánchez alongside the message, “Thank you, Prime Minister,” after the Spanish leader condemned U.S.-Israeli military operations as “illegal.”

Israeli officials seized on the imagery, with the Foreign Ministry warning that Iran’s regime was placing the Spanish leader’s words “on the missiles it fires at civilians in Israel and the Arab world.”

While Sánchez has repeatedly criticized U.S. and Israeli military actions — including in late March when he described the conflict as an “absurd, cruel and illegal” campaign — his government is accused of facilitating transfers of components ultimately used by the Iranian regime and its proxies.

In line with that stance, Sánchez’s socialist government denied American forces access to key bases and ultimately barred U.S. aircraft involved in the campaign from using Spanish airspace, with the prime minister telling lawmakers that “all flight plans involving operations in Iran have been rejected.”

Earlier reports in Spanish media during the initial phase of the operation, however, suggested logistical activity linked to U.S. missions continued to pass through Spanish facilities, highlighting a gap between political messaging and operational reality before the restrictions were fully enforced.

The policy drew a sharp response from Washington, with a White House official stating that the U.S. military “does not need help from Spain or anyone else” to meet its operational goals.

Relations between Israel and Spain have deteriorated sharply since Madrid recognized a Palestinian state in 2024 and escalated its criticism of Israel’s war against Hamas, with both countries withdrawing ambassadors.

Tensions escalated further last Friday when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Spain of hostility toward Israel and removed Madrid from a U.S.-led mechanism coordinating postwar Gaza stabilization efforts.

The deterioration in ties has also included repeated public rebukes, with Israeli officials summoning Spanish diplomats and condemning Madrid’s rhetoric toward the Jewish state in recent months.

In a move that drew additional criticism, Spain last Thursday announced it would reopen its embassy in Tehran during the ongoing ceasefire window, positioning itself as a potential mediator in talks with Iran.

Israeli officials condemned the decision that same day, warning it signaled dangerous proximity to a regime they accuse of sponsoring terrorism across the region.

Shurat HaDin President Nitsana Darshan-Leitner said the case centers on whether providing the components that enable attacks can make officials legally responsible for the consequences.

“When a prime minister enables, directly or indirectly, the transfer of components that strengthen the Iranian regime’s terror machine, he cannot continue to present himself as someone acting in the name of human rights,” she said.

“It is impossible to condemn Israel in the international arena, while at the same time assisting a regime that arms terrorist organizations and attacks innocent civilians,” Darshan-Leitner added, stressing that responsibility for war crimes “does not stop only with those who pull the trigger, but also extends to those who provide the means that enable the shooting.”

There was no immediate response from Spanish officials to the complaint.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2026/04/15/israeli-ngo-files-war-crimes-complaint-spains-pm/