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By: WIN Staff & JNS
An aid mission to the Republic of Cyprus, dubbed Operation Wings of Fire, left Monday afternoon, on instruction from the prime minister and with the approval of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Minister of Foreign Affairs Eli Cohen, an Israeli government press release said..
Crews and firefighting aircraft, led by the National Security Ministry under the command of the Israel Police Air Division and in cooperation with the Israel Fire and Rescue Authority and the IDF, left for Limassol, the second-largest city in Cyprus, in order to help extinguish the huge huge wildfires in Limassol.
This is pursuant to a personal request by Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for emergency assistance, based on the strong bilateral partnership between the two countries.
The crews and equipment were transported by the IDF Shimshon aircraft in the framework of the firefighting operation. The aircraft will assist in extinguishing the huge wildfires that are raging in Cyprus due to the extreme weather, which includes a heat wave, strong winds and high temperatures.
The mission, under the command of Snir Shafir, includes two ‘Air-Tractor’ firefighting aircraft, a crew of four pilots, a trained ground crew, wildfire experts, and equipment including approximately six tons of Israel Fire and Rescue Service flame retardants.
Approximately two weeks ago, a mission returned from Operation Firebirds, in which Israel assisted Greece in extinguishing huge wildfires in several regions, not for the first time.
The rapid deployment of the Israeli mission to Cyprus was made possible by the cooperation of all agencies taking part in the assistance operation: The National Security Council in the Prime Minister’s Office, the National Security Ministry, the Israel Fire and Rescue Authority, the Israel Police Air Division – which operates the Elbit firefighting aircraft, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Population and Immigration Authority, the National Emergency Management Authority, the Defense Ministry, Israeli Ambassador to Cyprus Oren Anolik and the Israeli Embassy in Cyprus.
In other news, JNS reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s son Yair is being surveilled by private investigators hired by left-wing activists, Channel 14 reported on Sunday.
Yair Netanyahu has been traveling abroad for the past few months and as a member of the prime minister’s family is assigned a security detail. However, according to the report, that hasn’t prevented his monitoring.
The Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), which is the organization tasked with protecting Netanyahu’s son, told Channel 14 that “the incident is recognized and [being] handled by the security forces.”
According to the report, the private investigators were hired by elements of the protest movement against the government’s judicial reform initiative.
Examples cited in the report include an incident in Puerto Rico a few months ago, in which a private investigator twice attempted to rent a room in the same resort Yair Netanyahu was in. The PI tried to rent the room in the name of a person involved in the anti-reform protests, but was initially denied as his credit details did not match the name. He came back the next day with the correct details.
In another incident, at Miami Beach, Yair Netanyahu’s security guards noticed someone taking pictures of him and approached the individual, who was identified as a private investigator.
