Jacob Magid is the settlements correspondent for The Times of Israel.

The times of Israel is liveblogging events environment as they unfold.

A 28-year-old sumo wrestler has died in Japan after contracting coronavirus and suffering multiple organ failure, becoming the ancient sport’s first COVID-19 fatality, the national association say.

Shobushi, a lower-ranking wrestler belonging to the Takadagawa stable in Tokyo, died early this morning after battling the disease for more than a month.

He developed a fever over April 4-5 but had trouble contacting the local public health office because phone lines were constantly busy, the Sumo Association said in a statement.

He was then turned away by several hospitals before finally being admitted to a Tokyo hospital on the evening of April 8 after he started coughing up blood, it added.

An initial coronavirus test there came back negative but he then tested positive on April 10 after being transferred to another hospital, where he was placed in intensive care on April 19.

– AFP

A court in Ghana has sentenced three former government senior officials to significant jail time for purchasing spyware products from the controversial Israeli surveillance firm NSO Group, the Cyber Scoop news site reports.

Former national security coordinator Salifu Osman and telecommunications authority director-general William Tetteh Tevie have each been sentenced to five years in prison and telecommunications authority former board chairman Eugene Baffoe-Bonnie was sentenced to six years because he made $200,000 from the deal with NSO, Cyber Scoop reports, citing local media.

The high court in Ghana found that the officials had caused significant financial loss in the country due to their $4 million purchase of NSO Group’s signature Pegasus spyware, Cyber Scoop writes.

The court decision appears to represent the first time that a government official has been jailed for doing business with NSO.

NSO Group has previously claimed that it only licenses its software to governments for “fighting crime and terror” and that it investigates credible allegations of misuse, but activists argue the technology has been instead used for human rights abuses.

Three of NSO Group’s founders — Omri Lavie, Shalev Hulio and Isaac Zack — invest their personal money through a firm known as the Founders’ Group that has invested in the largely fraudulent binary options industry, The Times of Israel reported last month

Police have released 317 Israelis who were arrested after trying to break into a sacred compound at Mount Meron in northern Israel for the Lag B’Omer holiday Tuesday evening in defiance of government orders limiting entry to the site due to coronavirus fears.

The suspects were all fined for violating coronavirus guidelines.

Three Israelis charged with assaulting a police officer, remain in prison.

Police announce that they have opened an investigation into an apparent hate crime attack in the central West Bank village of Baytin northeast of Ramallah where residents awoke this morning to discover walls of several homes graffitied with Hebrew slogans.

The phrases spray-painted along with a Star of David included “I don’t sleep when blood is spilled here” and “our soldiers lives come before the lives of the enemy.”

Israeli and Palestinian rights groups lament that such attacks have become rather regular occurrences in the West Bank, while the suspects are almost never pursued by police.

— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) May 13, 2020

U.S. Secretary of state Mike Pompeo landed at the airport Ben-Gurion before the meeting at 10am with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

– Amichai Stein (@AmichaiStein1) may 13, 2020

IDF forces shot and killed a 14-year-old Palestinian during clashes that erupted during an early morning raid in the Fawwar refugee camp near Hebron, the Palestinian Quds News Network reports.

The victim has been identified as Zaid Fadel Al-Qaysiah. He was hit in the head and arrived at a nearby hospital in critical condition before doctors were forced to pronounce his death.

Two other Palestinians were injured by live fire used by IDF troops in clashes.

The Israeli military continued its hunt for the suspect who hurled the large rock that struck and killed 21-year-old soldier Amit Ben Ygal overnight Monday during a raid in the village of Yabad. Over a dozen have been arrested, but the IDF has not indicated that any of those suspects had been the one who threw the lethal stone.

— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@QudsNN) May 13, 2020

Residents of the central West Bank village of Baytin northeast of Ramallah have woken up this morning to discover an apparent price-tag, hate crime attack allegedly carried out by settler extremists.

The walls of two homes were graffitied with a Star of David and the Hebrew phrases “I don’t sleep when blood is spilled here” and “our soldiers lives come before the lives of the enemy.”

— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) May 13, 2020

US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman “experienced mild symptoms of upper respiratory tract”, said press Secretary of the Embassy ahead of the visit of US Secretary of state Mike Pompeo.

“He was tested for COVID-19 and the result was negative. Nevertheless, in an abundance of caution, State Department medical staff have recommended that Ambassador Friedman not be in proximity with Secretary Pompeo,” the spokeswoman adds.

A 28-year-old sumo wrestler has died in Japan after contracting coronavirus and suffering multiple organ failure, becoming the ancient sport’s first COVID-19 fatality, the national association say.

Shobushi, a lower-ranking wrestler belonging to the Takadagawa stable in Tokyo, died early this morning after battling the disease for more than a month.

He developed a fever over April 4-5 but had trouble contacting the local public health office because phone lines were constantly busy, the Sumo Association said in a statement.

He was then turned away by several hospitals before finally being admitted to a Tokyo hospital on the evening of April 8 after he started coughing up blood, it added.

An initial coronavirus test there came back negative but he then tested positive on April 10 after being transferred to another hospital, where he was placed in intensive care on April 19.

– AFP