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PM urged to impose sanctions if Netanyahu carries out threat to annex parts of West Bank

Nearly 130 parliamentarians, including former Conservative cabinet ministers, have written to Boris Johnson urging him to impose economic sanctions against Israel if Benjamin Netanyahu’s new coalition government goes ahead with its threat to annex parts of the West Bank.

The letter, signed by the former Tory chairman Lord Patten and the former international development secretary Andrew Mitchell, says annexation would be clearly illegal under international law.

Israel’s foreign ministry reminds Egypt of peace deal after sci-fi drama El-Nehaya airs

An Egyptian science fiction drama that predicts Israel’s destruction has provoked an angry reaction from the Jewish state, including from the country’s foreign ministry, which reminded its neighbour of a decades-old peace deal.

Set in the year 2120, the series called El-Nehaya, meaning The End, imagines a bleak future with cloned robots, battered skyscrapers, and relentless violence.

Related: Ramadan TV dramas signal shift in Arab-Israeli relations

NSO Group allegedly connected to hacks of 1,400 people including human rights activists

WhatsApp has alleged in new court filings that an Israeli spyware company used US-based servers and was “deeply involved” in carrying out mobile phone hacks of 1,400 WhatsApp users, including senior government officials, journalists, and human rights activists.

The new claims about NSO Group allege that the Israeli company bears responsibility in serious human rights violations, including the hacking of more than a dozen Indian journalists and Rwandan dissidents.

Dang! Notorious spyware company NSO Group is marketing #COVID19 tracking in US, according to @NBCNightlyNews. Time to go CSI on screenshots of the product. THREAD pic.twitter.com/R6AnEC8Urw

Two popular Middle Eastern series stir surprise with pro-Israel messages backed by Saudi Arabia

Nightfall during Ramadan in the Middle East is drama time, when Arab soap operas accompany evening feasts with fare of feuds, historical heroes and villains and forbidden love. This year though, programmers have broached new ground using the popular shows to highlight a normalisation with Israel.

Two series broadcast across the region in the first three days of the Muslim holy month have stirred both surprise and contention – one by daring to explore the Jewish history of the Gulf, the other by suggesting that Israel may not be an enemy and that Palestinians have been ungrateful for Saudi Arabia’s support.

Prime minister will remain in office for 18 months before handing position to his rival

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his main rival, Benny Gantz, have agreed to form a national unity government, ending a year-long political crisis that has seen the country hold three back-to-back elections.

A copy of the power-sharing agreement said Netanyahu, currently the interim leader, would remain in the role for 18 months before handing over to Gantz, a former army chief, for the remainder of a three-year term.

Related: US to give Palestinians $5m in coronavirus aid – 1% of what Trump cut

Thousands of people in Tel Aviv staged a protest against Benjamin Netanyahu while attempting to maintain physical distancing due to the coronavirus pandemic. Protesters in Rabin Square wore masks and tried to keep two metres apart while voicing their anger at the prime minister, who is under criminal indictment in three corruption cases, in which he denies any wrongdoing

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Countries diverge on exit strategy as Europe’s coronavirus death toll nears 100,000

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European countries are diverging on how and when to reopen their shuttered societies, as Germany, the Czech Republic, Norway and others prepared to lift some restrictions on Monday while France and Spain ruled out any relaxation for several weeks.

The confirmed coronavirus death toll in Europe approached 100,000 on Sunday, according to the Johns Hopkins University tally, but infection rates continued to slow, heaping pressure on governments to start easing the economic and social burden of a weeks-long shutdown.

President accused of damaging Palestinian ability to cope with pandemic by cutting funding

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The United States has announced it will give $5m to the Palestinians to help them fight the coronavirus epidemic, roughly 1% of the amount Washington provided a year before Donald Trump cut almost all aid.

The US ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, a former Trump bankruptcy lawyer, announced the aid package on Twitter, saying he was “very pleased” the US would provide money for Palestinian hospitals and households.

Arie Even, 88, was infected during social worker visit to retirement home in Jerusalem

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As a child in Hungary, Arie Even survived the Holocaust by taking shelter with his mother and brother after his father was sent to a notorious concentration camp.

Even’s well-connected grandfather found refuge for them in a Swiss-protected home in Budapest before they were rushed to another shelter, under the cover of night, thanks to the Swedish embassy and the efforts of the famed diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who saved tens of thousands of Jews before mysteriously disappearing. The next day, Even’s grandfather was shot and his body was dumped in the Danube River.