An Israeli Jew saved two Bedouin brothers from the fate of three other brothers who drowned last Thursday, it was revealed this week.

The brothers were swept off to sea by strong currents during their family’s visit to the Ashkelon coast. After four days of rescue efforts which involved the Israeli Navy, police ships, jet skis, helicopter, and divers, the third brother’s body, Nahed Sariye was discovered on Sunday, when he was buried along his brothers Suliman and Atef.

It now has emerged that two other brothers from the Sariye family had been saved by Yaakov Bruchim, a 22-year-old from Ashkelon. Bruchim was walking back home following prayers at his synagogue, when he saw a helicopter at Ashkelon’s DelilahBeach.

“I asked myself what was a helicopter doing at the beach,” Bruchim told Israel’s Walla! News. “Suddenly, I heard shouting and didn’t understand why.”

At that point, Bruchim saw the two brothers drowning and immediately jumped into the water and pulled one of the brothers, Salaam, 22, out to shore. He entered the deep waters again and pulled the other brother, Salman, 19, out as well.

Hassan Sariye, the father of the boys, said that although he lost three sons, he gained another in Yaakov Bruchim. “God took away three sons but gave us another,” the emotional father told Public Security Minister Yitzchak Aharonovitch, who visited the bereaved family on Tuesday.

“He [Yaakov] is one of those people who doesn’t care about race, gender, or origin. He is a beautiful face of Israel,” said Sariye.

Even after saving the two brothers, Yaakov continued to stay with the Sariye family for the four days of search and rescue until the other bodies had been found. “He’s here all the time,” said Hassan. “He is like my son, one of the brothers, and my home is open to him and his family 24 hours.”

The modest Bruchim explained that he “didn’t do anything, but if I could have done more, I would have.” “He is like my brother,” Bruchim said of Salaam. “With people like him, we can live in peace.”

The IDF raided several NGOs and civil society organizations in Ramallah early Tuesday, Ma’an reported.

IDF soldiers raided the offices of the Agricultural Work Committees, human rights group al-Dameer, and the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees, located in the Qaddura refugee camp.

Israeli forces confiscated files and computer hardware from the women’s committee before ransacking the office, witnesses said.

During the raid, clashes broke out with local youths and Israeli soldiers, who responded by firing tear gas.

Military forces also raided the offices of the Palestinian NGO Network.

Palestinian National Initiative chief Mustafa Barghouti said the Israeli raids were “piracy,” adding that targeting civil society organizations that serve the Palestinian public is unacceptable.

In February, Israeli forces raided two Palestinian television networks in Ramallah and briefly detained four employees.

The Jewish Press contacted the IDF Spokesperson and will publish their response as soon as it is received.

A report by the Taub Center for Social Policy Studies shows that Israel has the second most crowded roads of any Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) country, coming in under South Korea.

Israeli roads grew 70% more crowded between 1990 and 2008.

The report stated that part of the congestion is due to poor enforcement of laws protecting special bus lanes, and said that the rise in real estate prices in Israel’s largest cities is due in part to sluggish traffic.

The Sunday Times reported that Israeli spy satellites detected an Iranian ship loaded with rockets. According to the report, intelligence experts estimated that the shipment was intended to reach Gaza through the Red Sea, Sudan and Egypt.

The cargo was prepared for loading last week, at the time when Israel and the Hamas were negotiating the ceasefire. Israeli intelligence believes that it will be delivered from Iran to Sudan.

“We believe that Iranian warships anchored in Eritrea will accompany the weapons ship as soon as it will enter the Red Sea,” an Israeli source told the Times.

Meretz MK Zahava Galon says killing Jabri was not worthwhile and that Israel should negotiate immediately to stop the violence.

Chadash MK Dov Hanin asked, “When will they learn that after each assassination there will be revenge.”

Israeli leftists and Arabs decry defensive IDF operation on Gaza, calling for demonstration tonight in front Likud Tel-Aviv HQ.

Israel deported 15 international protesters arrested for trying to infiltrate an Israeli security zone set up around Gaza with their flotilla, Estelle.

Infiltrators hailed from Greece, Norway, Sweden, Spain, and Canada.

Israeli naval commandos boarded Estelle on October 20.  Estelle is Swedish-owned, Finnish-flagged.

The attempt follows in the wake of the Mavi Marmara, a ship carrying pro-Palestinian activists who claimed to be carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza in May 2010.  When Israeli commandos boarded the illegal vessel, they were attacked by the activists who stabbed several and beat others with pipes and sticks.  Defending themselves against the attackers, soldiers killed nine Turkish activists before quelling the attack.

Israeli med-tech company InSightec Image Guided Treatment has announced that it has been approved for US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) premarketing of its ExAblate targeted focused ultrasound treatment for the removal of bone tumors.

According to Globes online business magazine, the initial approval is for patients who cannot or will not undergo radiation therapy.

According to InSightec, 30% of bone cancer patients cannot undergo radiation treatment.

InSightec is controlled by Elbit Medical Technologies.

Eye from Zion, established in 2007 by Israeli businessman Nati Marcus, is a humanitarian organization dedicated to giving the gift of sight to poor people in developing countries.

Israeli volunteers travel anywhere they are needed to treat patients, sending experienced ophthalmologists, advanced equipment, and operating room nurses to cities in Ethiopia, Azerbaijan, Vietnam, Myanmar and dozens of other countries around the world.

Eye from Zion doctors also instruct the local health professionals in developing countries they visit in modern medical techniques – while also donating medicine and equipment – enabling the local medical teams to eventually function independently.

Nati Marcus explained to me, via email, his motivation for starting Eye from Zion:

Each person to whom we restore sight, especially the children, is a world unto itself.

Along with my usual work, we built an organisation that has restored the sight of thousands of blind people across the globe by performing eye operations by instructing medical groups in developing countries. I succeeded.

I am a businessman, but four years ago I decided to something more serious with my life that could change the life of people across the world.

Video about Eye From Zion’s work:

Hagiang, Vietnam

Ethiopia

Careroon

Monks in Myanmar after surgery

Girl in Myanmar after surgery

Eye from Zion founder Nati Marcus

Visit CifWatch.com.