A recent report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) suggests that China's suspected intelligence-gathering capabilities in Cuba are expanding, with one alleged site situated close to the US naval base at Guantánamo Bay. The Washington DC-based think tank's findings, reported by Business Insider, raise concerns about the growing reach of China's surveillance operations in the Caribbean.

According to the CSIS analysis, which utilized satellite imagery and open-source information, four "active" sites in Cuba have been identified as potentially capable of conducting electronic surveillance operations. These facilities are believed to be linked to China, though the exact nature of their operations remains unconfirmed.

The report's findings are particularly noteworthy due to the strategic location of one of the suspected sites. Its proximity to the Guantánamo Bay naval base, a key US military installation, underscores the potential intelligence value of such operations.

The Cuban government has not yet responded to these allegations. Similarly, Chinese officials have not commented on the CSIS report or the claims of surveillance operations in Cuba.

The post China's alleged spy network in Cuba expands near US naval base appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter 

Now, new details have emerged: According to the information stolen by Team HDP, Venezuela also hosts Palestinian terrorist cells involved in money laundering, drug dealing, and terrorist activity, among other crimes. It was also revealed that Cuba's foreign intelligence agency plays a central role in the matter.

One of the Palestinian cells, according to the information from Venezuela's Directorate General of Military Counterintelligence, allegedly belongs to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of the Fatah faction. The cell reportedly consists of at least four men identified as "doctors," whose cover includes working for Venezuela's national social security agency in Merida state in the country's northwest. "Fawaz Snofar," "Mahmoud Khalaf," and "Muhammad Abu-Rah" are some of the names that appear on the list.

The report alleges that the Palestinian "doctor" cell is responsible for the deaths of several patients due to medical malpractice, possibly the result of their questionable medical bona fides. One of the names mentioned on the list, "Khaled Badawi," is said to be of Pakistani origin and allegedly belongs to several Palestinian terrorist groups. Under the guise of being a doctor, his name was connected to activity in Merida, "a region in which uranium, thorium and coltan mines currently operate."

An Israeli source told Israel Hayom's Arab Affairs correspondent Daniel Siryoti that one of the names on the list is indeed known to the Israeli security services after he was questioned in Israel for throwing rocks at IDF soldiers as a 16-year-old. "Consequently, he was expelled from the country and forbidden from returning until the age of 21," the source said.

As stated, the report also sheds light on the role of a spy agency the Israeli public is likely less familiar with – the Cuban Intelligence Directorate, commonly known as G2. Aside from Iran, Cuba is a key ally of the regime in Caracas.

"The Cuban G2 are the architects of the reforms within the [Venezuelan] regime's intelligence services," explains Ivan Simonovis, an expert on Venezuelan intelligence matters and a former long-time intelligence operative himself who, among other things, created the first Venezuelan police tactical team and later also served as security chief of the Metropolitan District of Caracas.

Simonovis, 61, was arrested in November 2004 and accused by the Hugo Chávez government of the violence that took place in Caracas in April 2002. In 2009, he was found guilty and sentenced to 30 years in prison. Due to deteriorating health, Simonovis was granted house arrest to receive medical treatment in September 2014. Five years later, he fled to Miami, where was granted political asylum.

Addressing the Hezbollah terrorist cells supposedly based on Margarita Island, as revealed by Israel Hayom, Simonovis said: "Over the past 20 years, numerous mosques have been built on the island and massive amounts of people of Middle Eastern origin moved there. No one knows who they are and what they do exactly. It's easier to run into a Middle Easterner on the island than a native resident."

Simonovis also identified the man to which all roads apparently lead: Petroleum Minister and former Venezuelan Vice President Tareck El Aissami.

"They [Hezbollah operatives] trust him and prefer doing business with someone familiar. El Aissami's father is a known Syrian activist with longstanding ties to terrorist organizations," said Simonovis.

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

The post In addition to Hezbollah, Venezuela a safe haven for Palestinian terrorists appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Iran next week will become the first country outside of Cuba to start producing one of the Communist-run island's homegrown COVID-19 vaccines on an industrial scale, Cuban state-run media said on Wednesday.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

The allies are under severe US sanctions they say have long encumbered access to medicines and medical inputs, motivating them to be self-reliant. Both have produced a raft of experimental COVID-19 vaccines, some with patriotic names like Cuba's Soberana 2 – or Sovereign 2.

Preliminary Cuban data from late-phase clinical trials suggests Soberana 2 and its other most advanced COVID-19 vaccine Abdala are among the world's most efficient, with more than 90% efficacy, although critics say they will remain skeptical until it publishes the figures in international, peer-reviewed journals.

Iran's Pasteur Institute agreed earlier this year to collaborate with Cuba's Finlay Institute, which developed Soberana 2, to implement phase-three clinical trials of the shot in the Islamic republic, leading to its approval for emergency use early in July.

Iran and Cuba will produce millions of doses of Soberana 2 in the Middle Eastern country under the name PastuCovac, Finlay Institute chief Vicente Vérez Bencomo said during a visit to Tehran this week, according to Cuban state-run media on Wednesday.

"Usually you need 15 years to develop a vaccine from zero to the industrialization phase but we did all the steps in a year," he was quoted as saying, "and the evidence is that it works very well."

Cuba's biotech sector has a long history of vaccine development, producing 80% of vaccines used in the Caribbean island nation and exporting some of them.

Mexico, Vietnam, Argentina and Jamaica are among the countries that have expressed an interest in producing or buying its COVID-19 vaccines.

That could provide an economic and diplomatic boon to the cash-strapped country, which has faced recent criticism over its crackdown on unprecedented protests as well as support for its demand that Washington lift its trade embargo.

Cuba and Iran, listed among the world's 20 highest COVID-19 caseloads per capita, blame US sanctions for hampering their pandemic response, including vaccine development.

The sanctions theoretically exempt medical products but often in practice dissuade foreign pharmaceutical companies from trading with them and banks from processing transactions with them.

Washington last month issued guidance easing the way for delivery of products to combat the pandemic to some heavily sanctioned countries including Iran, though not to Cuba.

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

The post Cuba says Iran to start producing one of its COVID-19 vaccines appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Cuba said on Thursday its two-shot Soberana 2 vaccine, delivered with a booster called Soberana Plus, had proven 91.2% effective in late stage clinical trials against the coronavirus, following similar news about its Abdala vaccine.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

The announcement came from state-run biopharmaceutical corporation BioCubaFarma, which oversees the Finlay Institute, the maker of Soberana 2, and the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, the producer of Abdala. Last month, Abdala was found to have a 92.28% efficacy.

While the Cuban efficacy claims have not been peer reviewed, the results, if accurate, would catapult the US-boycotted Caribbean island nation into the select group of the United States, Germany and Russia that produce vaccines with efficacy of more than 90% -- Novavaz, Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Sputnik V.

Cuba's biotech sector has a long history of vaccine development, producing 80% of vaccines used in the country and exporting some of them.

Communist-run Cuba is the first country in Latin America and the Caribbean to successfully develop a coronavirus vaccine.

The import-dependent island is in the throes of an economic crisis with activity falling 10.9% last year and 2% the first half of 2021 as the pandemic kept the tourism industry shuttered and Trump-era sanctions on top of the decades old trade embargo hammered finance and trade.

Cuba says it has a total of five candidate vaccines in the pipeline, with Abdala and Soberana 2 expected to be quickly authorized for emergency use by local regulators and sent up for approval to the World Health Organization.

The local authorizations would open the way for other countries to purchase the vaccines or produce them. Mexico, Argentina and Vietnam have expressed interest in production and Iran says it is producing Soberana 2 after trials in that country.

Both vaccines are "low" tech, meaning they use a traditional approach deploying a part of the virus's spike protein which helps the virus enter and infect cells, to build up the immune system.

These vaccines are generally less expensive to develop and easier to store and transport as they do not require extremely low temperatures.

The three shot Abdala, named after a poem by apostle Jose Marti, is given in two-week intervals, while Soberana 2, translated as sovereign in English, is administered in four-week intervals.

Cuba is facing its worst COVID-19 outbreak since the start of the pandemic following the arrival of more contagious variants, setting new records for daily coronavirus cases at over 3,500 this week.

Authorities have already started administering the up-to-now experimental vaccines en masse as part of "intervention studies" they hope will slow the spread of the virus.

About 1.5 million of the country's 11.2 million residents have been fully vaccinated to date.

Cuba reported a total of 218,376 COVID-19 cases and 1,431 deaths through Wednesday.

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

The post Cuba says Soberana 2 COVID vaccine is 91.2% effective appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

In Miami, Cuban culture is everywhere – it influences everything from the food, to the music, to the overall atmosphere of the city. But what many don't know is that Jewish culture also has an influence.

                                         Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

It surprises some to find out that there is actually a large contingent of Jewish Cubans – who refer to themselves as "Jubans" across the city.

i24NEWS senior national correspondent Michael Shure sat down with a few "Jubans" to find out more about their influence.

This article was originally published by i24NEWS.

The post Cuban Jews in Florida keep rich heritage alive appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

But slowly, the oldest Jewish cemetery in Cuba is beginning to be rehabilitated, along with the memory of many of the island's early Jewish forebears.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

The restoration is the result of an initiative by the government-run city historian's office to spruce up Havana ahead of the 500th anniversary of its founding in November. Across the city, streets are being paved, monuments are being polished and historic sites are being restored.

There is also an effort to recover long-forgotten sites – among them the almost completely neglected Jewish cemetery in the Guanabacoa neighborhood on Havana's east side.

"I feel very great peace and calmness when I visit the cemetery. … For me it's like being with my mother, my only sister and my nephew," Adela Dworin, president of the Hebrew Board of Cuba, said standing beside a grave adorned with small rocks that are used by Jews to pay homage to the dead.

The rocks, which are believed to symbolize eternity, lie near inscriptions bearing names of the buried. Many have words of consolation written in Yiddish or Spanish and are adorned with the Star of David.

"The people buried here escaped fascism during the war. They're the founders of the community who bought these lands to make it a cemetery," said David Prinstein, vice president of the Hebrew board. "It has historical and sentimental value."

For many years, he said, the Jewish community was unable to raise the $200,000 needed to completely overhaul the grounds. Jews in the US contributed to the upkeep of some burial plots, but the cemetery as a whole was largely left to deteriorate.

Pilar Vega, an engineer in the historian's office, told local TV there are about 1,100 grave sites in the cemetery. About 50 have been repaired and 150 more are expected to be cleaned up before the end of this year, she said. She didn't say whether the entire cemetery would be refurbished, though she added that a special room where bodies are ritually washed and dressed according to Jewish burial rites has also been fixed up.

Vega didn't say how much the state has spent on the project.

The restoration effort in Havana comes as Cuba finds itself struggling with a severe economic crisis, which experts have blamed on a combination of a Trump administration trade embargo and the halt of Venezuelan shipments of subsidized fuel that Cuba used to generate electricity and earn hard currency on the open market. The country's lack of liquidity has now made it difficult to pay creditors and suppliers, resulting in a shortage of basic products like chicken and flour.

Over the years, the Jewish community has not been immune to the island's political ups-and-downs.

Many Jewish families left the country after the 1959 revolution, leaving behind their dead in accordance with Jewish custom that prohibits bodies from being exhumed unless they are taken to Israel. Others abandoned their religious traditions amid the deep secularism that took hold during the first few years of the Castro government. Some Jews moved to Israel amid the periodic economic crunches in the ensuing decades.

"Families leave and many even forget those left here," lamented Prinstein, who said the cemetery had also been looted throughout the decades of neglect.

It was not until the 1990s that Judaism on the island regained strength, partly due to the efforts of a noted surgeon, José Miller. He helped Jews scattered throughout Cuba reconnect with their roots at a time that the communist government discouraged religious denominations. Miller, who died in 2006, is buried in a prominent place in the cemetery.

Some 1,500 Jews live in Cuba now, most of them elderly.

Land for the cemetery in Guanabacoa was bought in 1906 by members of the island's first Hebrew society. It was inaugurated in 1910 by Jews and their descendants from Central and Eastern Europe, many of whom fled persecution in the period between World Wars I and II.

The cemetery also has a 3-meter (10-foot) monument paying tribute to the 6 million Jews who died in the Holocaust. A half dozen bars of soap that the Nazis made with human fat from the concentration camps are buried nearby.

Dworin, who lost nearly her entire family during World War II, said she was a schoolgirl in Cuba when the memorial was inaugurated in 1947. Her parents had left a small town in modern-day Poland before war erupted in 1939, but her grandmother and uncles stayed behind, she said.

On a recent day, a group of workers' scrubbed tombstones and reconstructed various installations at the cemetery. Other repairs have also become more visible such as a paved street nearby.

"We are not the country's only problem. There are many places that require the attention of the historian's office, so we are eternally grateful for their interest and friendship to the Jewish people," Dworin said.

The post Oldest Jewish cemetery in Cuba renovated in honor of Havana's 500th anniversary appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.