Palestinians report Israeli airstrike in Gaza Strip

High Court okays house demolitions for Jaffa Gate terrorists

The High Court approves the demolition of the homes of two Palestinian terrorists who carried out a deadly attack at the Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem in December 2015.

Anan Abu Habsah and Issa Assaf, both 21 and both from the West Bank village of Qalandiya, stabbed Rabbi Reuben Birmajer as he left the Old City. A second Israeli fatality, Ofer Ben Ari, 46, was hit by police fire during the ensuing chaos. Both later died of their wounds.

The judges reject an appeal against the demolition presented by the terrorists’ families, Israel Radio says. The families had argued that there was no need for further punishment as both terrorists were killed during the attack.

The court also rejects the claim that the house demolitions discriminate between Arabs and Jews.

The demolitions will take place within five days, the court rules.

Israeli security personnel at the scene where two Palestinian stabbed three Israelis at the Old City’s Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem on December 23, 2015. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Saudi king condemns ‘disgraceful’ Orlando shooting

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman has condemned the killing of 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, official media says.

“We received with great regret the news of the armed terrorist attack in Florida and the resulting casualties and victims,” Salman says in a message of condolence to US President Barack Obama.

“We condemn and denounce this disgraceful criminal act which is not accepted by religion or international norms and conventions.”

— AFP

Iranian FM: Soul-searching needed to fight extremism

The war on extremism is a global one, and finding solutions requires “a lot of soul-searching here in Europe,” says Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

Zarif says the most important first step is to figure out why some are attracted to “perverted ideologies of demigods who are financed by people looking for short-term gain at the expense of others.”

Speaking during the opening of a two-day conference on conflict mediation in the Norwegian capital, Zarif stresses that it is not only a problem for the Middle East. He says some of those “who are beheading innocent human beings in Syria and Iraq (…) speak French and English with a perfect accent.”

“We need to look at economic deprivation. We need to look at promoting extremism. We need to look at political solutions to the problems and we also need to look at the underlying problems in our region,” Zarif says.

— AP

French officials: Police commander slain by jihadi recruiter

A Frenchman once convicted of recruiting jihadi fighters stabbed a police commander to death outside his suburban Paris home, recording the attack and posting it on Facebook Live, French officials say. The commander’s partner and the attacker were found dead inside the home after a three-hour standoff with police.

The couple’s 3-year-old was in the house in Magnanville, about 35 miles (55 kilometers) west of Paris, but was unharmed. A police official says that at one point in the video the attacker puzzled over what to do with the child.

The Islamic State’s Amaq news agency cites an unnamed source as saying an IS fighter carried out the attack late last night. While the extremist group has not officially claimed responsibility, French President Francois Hollande says this was “incontestably a terrorist act” and that France faces a threat “of a very large scale.”

Two people close to the attacker, identified as 25-year-old Larossi Abbala, are in custody, authorities say, without offering any further details about them.

French police officers block the road leading to a crime scene the day after a knife-wielding attacker stabbed a senior police officer to death Monday evening outside his home in Magnanville, west of Paris, on June 14, 2016. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

— AP

65 MKs urge pardon for man who killed his rapist

At least 65 MKs sign a letter to President Reuven Rivlin calling on him to pardon Yonatan Hilo, an Israeli serving a 12-year sentence for killing the man who raped and abused him.

The letter, drafted by Knesset Deputy Speaker Yoel Hasson (Zionist Union), notes that “Hilo, a young man of Ethiopian origin with no criminal record, had been exposed to verbal, physical and lasting mental abuse from a neighborhood bully,” Walla reports.

The Supreme Court last month overturned Hilo’s murder conviction in the 2010 death of Yaron Ayalon, convicting him instead of manslaughter and reducing his sentence from 20 years to 12.

Yonatan Hilo appeals his 20-year sentence for murder at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem on December 1, 2014. (Photo credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Liberman goes south to discuss Gaza border security

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman visits the Israel Defense Forces’ Southern Command headquarters in Beersheba for a briefing on the situation there.

Liberman meets with army officials to discuss “the IDF’s fortification plans and strengthening the defenses for the communities on the Gaza border,” the defense minister’s office says in a statement.

Liberman speaks with IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, Southern Command chief Maj. Gen. Eyal Zamir and Israel’s Coordinator of the Government’s Activities in the Territories Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, who is responsible for the border crossings with the Gaza Strip.

As he only entered his position last month, Liberman has been reviewing the IDF’s current state of affairs in meetings with the army’s top brass. Last week, he visited Israel’s northern borders for a similar briefing, where he said the area was in “good hands,” and threatened Israel’s enemies not to test the IDF.

שר הביטחון, אביגדור ליברמן, ביקר בפיקוד דרום לראשונה מאז כניסתו לתפקיד pic.twitter.com/cVCurjPi8w

— חדשות 10 (@news10) June 14, 2016

— Judah Ari Gross

Woman who died during Sarona attack confirmed as terror victim

The Defense Ministry officially confirms that Ilana Naveh, who is thought to have had a fatal heart attack during last week’s attack in Tel Aviv, will be awarded the status of terror victim.

The step means that the Naveh family will now be entitled to the same state benefits as the relatives of those who were killed in a terrorist attack.

The family of the Orthodox 39-year-old mother of four had refused to allow a postmortem on her body.

UEFA to Russia: Any more trouble and you’ll be out of Euro 2016

Russia will be disqualified from the European Championship if there is more violence by their fans inside stadiums in France, UEFA says, in a disciplinary panel ruling to punish assaults by Russian fans who charged a section of England supporters after the teams’ opening match in Marseille last week.

Russia will be expelled if its fans attack rival fans or stadium security staff at its two remaining Group B matches, or later at Euro 2016 if the team advances.

Russia’s “disqualification is suspended until the end of the tournament,” UEFA says. “Such suspension will be lifted if incidents of a similar nature (crowd disturbances) happen inside the stadium at any of the remaining matches of the Russian team during the tournament.”

Russia plays Slovakia in Lille on tomorrow and Wales in Toulouse next Monday.

— AP

French gunman who killed cop had ‘hit list’ of VIPs, police, rappers

The attacker who killed a French police commander and his partner at their home near Paris yesterday had a “hit list” of VIPs, police and rappers, the prosecutor says.

Larossi Abbala, 25, recorded his actions as he stabbed the commander to death, and posted the footage on Facebook Live, French officials say. The commander’s partner and the attacker were found dead inside the home after a three-hour standoff with police.

The couple’s 3-year-old was in the house in Magnanville, about 55 kilometers (35 miles) west of Paris, but was unharmed.

— Agencies

Orlando survivor: Gunman laughed as he killed

A man who survived the weekend massacre in Orlando says gunman Omar Mateen laughed as he shot dead a man in the bathroom at the Pulse gay club, after he failed to fit into the packed stall in which some 10 people were hiding.

“The scary part was that he didn’t say anything, and what’s scarier than that was when he shot the boy that was already shot, he laughed,” Norman Casiano, who escaped with four bullet wounds to the back, tells ABC’s Local 10 channel. “And as he’s laughing as he fires through the whole front of the stall… And that’s when I got my first wound, my first two wounds.”

Casiano says that pleas for Mateen to stop only served to encourage the violence.

“As we’re yelling at him, please please don’t do this, you don’t want to do this, just spare us… I guess that enticed him more and he put his gun over the top of the stall and just… fired.”

Rivlin ‘to consider’ pardon request for man who slew rapist

The office of President Reuven Rivlin confirms he has received a request to pardon a man who is serving a manslaughter sentence for murdering his rapist.

“The request will be considered in the manner of all requests,” says the president’s office.

— Raoul Wootliff

Jordan detains preacher over criticism for fighting IS

A preacher is arrested after posting an online video criticizing Jordan’s participation in the coalition battling the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, a judicial source says.

The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, says the state security court placed Amjad Qursha in preventative detention for 15 days after the video was posted on YouTube.

In it, Qursha “criticized Jordan’s participation in the international coalition against the terrorist Daesh (IS) organization in Iraq and Syria,” the source says.

The 49-year-old preacher is accused of “having committed unauthorized acts… that could affect the kingdom’s relations with a friendly country,” a reference to the United States which heads the anti-IS coalition.

In the video, Qursha says Washington “compelled” Amman to join the coalition. “Unfortunately, our feeble and fragile government has led us into a war that has nothing to do with us,” he says.

The married father of five lectures at the University of Jordan’s sharia (Islamic law) faculty.He is known as a moderate who appears frequently in discussions on official radio and television channels.

— AFP

Knesset panel upholds ban on MKs visiting Temple Mount

The Knesset Ethics Committee upholds a ban on lawmakers of all faiths from visiting the flashpoint Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

The decision is taken after a situation assessment by Jerusalem police chief Yarom Halevi, who tells the committee: “As of now — there is no change in the police position on the entry of Knesset members to the Mount.”

The panel says it will revisit the issue when there is a change in the position of the police and security establishment.

Netanyahu first ordered Jewish and Muslim lawmakers off the site late last year, after the outbreak in October of a wave of Palestinian violence and terror attacks centered around claims that Israel was attempting to take control of the Temple Mount.

MK Jamal Zahalka (center) on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem on Tuesday, September 29 2015 (courtesy Joint List)

Northern communities drill for mass evacuation in next Lebanon war

A decade after the start of the Second Lebanon War, Israel is holding a drill in northern communities pounded by Hezbollah rockets during the 33-day conflict.

The exercise focuses on the evacuation of communities in the Upper Galilee Regional Council, should Hezbollah fire a thousand rockets a day from Lebanon.

This is the biggest drill since the end of the 2006 war, and practices preparations for a significant combat event between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The drill was planned in advance but has no connection to the anniversary of the war, Channel 2 says.

It includes the evacuation of communities in the council, including the string of kibbutzim situated along the Lebanon border.

Israeli officials take part in a drill to practice evacuation procedures in the north (Screen capture: Channel 2)

Paul Ryan says Muslim ban not in nation’s interest

House Speaker Paul Ryan says a ban on Muslims entering the United States — as presidential nominee Donald Trump proposes — is not in the nation’s interest.

Ryan tells reporters in Washington, DC, that there should be a security test, not a religious test. He says the issue is “radical Islam,” not the Islamic faith.

Ryan has previously rejected Trump’s call for a ban on Muslims.

— AP

IS video shows suspect confessing to killing French police couple

Islamic State’s Amaq news agency releases a video showing the suspect in the knifing of a French police couple confessing to the killings.

The video of Larossi Abballa, released after his death, appears to be filmed inside the home of the couple as security forces closed in.

In the video, Abballa says: “I just killed a police officer and his wife.”

He adds: “The police are currently surrounding me.”

The video is edited, and the victims do not appear. Neither does the couple’s young son, who survived the attack.

— AP

Sa’ar urges crackdown on illegal Palestinian construction

Former Likud minister Gideon Sa’ar says Israel must clamp down on unlawful Palestinian building in the Jordan Valley.

“Illegal Palestinian construction at a significant rate in the Jordan Valley, mostly along transport routes, is a serious development that we must act on,” Sa’ar says during a visit to the area, according to Ynet.

“This is a challenge that demands an immediate and far-reaching response from the defense establishment,” he adds.

Olmert submits first furlough request

Former prime minister Ehud Olmert makes his first request for furlough from prison since starting an 19-month sentence for corruption in February.

Olmert is asking for time out of prison at the start of the summer, Walla says.

The former prime minister is eligible for furlough once he has completed the first quarter of his sentence.

The prison is looking into his request, according to Walla.

Livingstone doubles down on ‘Hitler backed Zionism’ claim

Former London mayor Ken Livingstone doubles down on his claim that Hitler supported Zionism, a comment that led to his suspension from the Labour party.

Speaking at an anti-Semitism inquiry by the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee, an unapologetic Livingstone maintains he is historically correct in his claim about Hitler, and says hundreds have stopped him on the street to tell him he’s correct.

“If I had said that Hitler was a Zionist, I would apologize for that, because it’s rubbish,” Livingstone tells the committee. “What I said was… that when Hitler won his election in 1932, his policy was that the Jews should be moved to Israel. He was supporting Zionism. He wanted all the half-million German Jews out. At that stage, his view was to move them out by the autumn of 1933. He negotiated a deal with a German Zionist organization that did lead to 66,000 German Jews being moved to what is now Israel.”

Labour MP Chuka Umunna tears into Livingstone, telling him that “by needlessly and repeatedly offending Jewish people in this way, you’ve not only betrayed our Labour values, but you betrayed your legacy as mayor.”

Chuka slams Ken, calling him: "a pinup for the kind of prejudice that our party was built to fight against" pic.twitter.com/e03D5STmRM

— Sunny Hundal (@sunny_hundal) June 14, 2016

WATCH: UK Jewish leader slams Livingstone’s ‘hateful’ comments on Hitler and Zionism

The head of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Jonathan Arkush, tells a parliamentary inquiry into anti-Semitism that he was “horrified” when he heard what he called Ken Livingstone’s “hateful” claim that Hitler supported Zionism.

“I felt a feeling of complete disbelief, especially as the row was raging with suspensions in the Labour party, people saying some really ridiculous things about Jews having big noses, or that Jews were this or that. Most recently someone said that Jews were apparently the financiers of the slave trade,” Arkush told MPs.

“As a British citizen, who lives and works in this country as I have done all my life, I could not believe that I was hearing someone in political life say that Hitler was a Zionist. To me it was the most, not just absurd and ridiculous thing, but it was a hateful thing to say.”

Adam Levine offers to pay funeral expenses for slain singer Christina Grimmie

Adam Levine has offered to pay for the funeral for slain singer Christina Grimmie.

Grimmie’s brother, Marcus, says in a post on his Facebook page that Levine — Grimmie’s coach on the sixth season of “The Voice” singing competition — had offered to pay for the cost of the funeral and flying her body home from Orlando, Florida, where she was killed Friday by a deranged fan while she was signing autographs following a concert.

He also says a GoFundMe page set up to help defray the costs of the burial has reached $100,000.

“I found out this morning, that Adam Levine personally called my mother and said he will pay for the funeral and her plane flight, and I was blown away,” Marcus Grimmie writes. “Now a friend just told me to look at the gofundme page and I see it is at 100k. Words cannot express…literally I have no words.”

— JTA

WATCH: Obama discusses fight against Islamic State

President Barack Obama discusses the effort to wipe out the Islamic State, two days after a Muslim gunman swearing allegiance to the jihadist group slaughtered 49 people at a gay club in Orlando.

Obama: Condemning all Muslims is doing terrorists’s work for them

Obama dismisses Donald Trump’s pledge to ban Muslims from entering the US as counterproductive and acting in the service of terrorists.

“If we fall into the trap of painting all Muslims with a broad brush… then we are doing the terrorists work for them,” he says in a statement from the White House.

“We hear language that singles out immigrants and suggest entire religious communities are complicit in violence,” he says.

“Where does this stop? The Orlando killer, one of the San Bernardino killers, the Fort Hood killer, they were all US citizens. Are we going to start treating all Muslim Americans differently? Are we going to start subjecting them to special surveillance?”

Such steps, Obama warns, “won’t make us more safe, it will make us less safe.”

Gunman said holding hostages at Walmart in Texas

Texas police say they are at a the scene of a Walmart store in Amarillo, following reports that there is an armed person inside who could have hostages.

Amarillo City tells people via Twitter to avoid a local Walmart due to an active shooter incident, the New York Daily News reports. The paper quotes an official in Potter County Sheriff’s Office as confirming that a hostage situation was underway.

According to the US media, there are no reports of injuries or deaths.

Mentally ill man stabs teen in France as ‘Ramadan sacrifice’

A 19-year-old girl is seriously wounded in northwestern France when she is stabbed by a man with a history of psychiatric problems, says the prosecutor in the city of Rennes, Nicolas Jacquet.

The 32-year-old man, who calls himself a Muslim, was obeying a voice in his head telling him to make a sacrifice for Ramadan, Jacquet says.

The young woman sustains three stab wounds, two in the wrist and abdomen. Her attacker, who has previously been treated for mental illness, is arrested, examined by a doctor and hospitalized immediately.

— AFP

Mystery surrounds fate of senior Hamas official

A senior official in Hamas has disappeared and members of the organization suspect that he has given himself up to Israel, Channel 2 says.

According to the report, the unnamed official has detailed information about the terror group’s extensive network of tunnels.

Clinton: Trump offered ‘rants’ and ‘lies’ in Orlando response

Hillary Clinton says Donald Trump offered “bizarre rants” and “demonstrative lies” in his response to the Orlando massacre.

In a point-by-point rebuttal to the presumptive GOP nominee’s address yesterday, Clinton says that Trump has to “distract us from the fact that he has nothing substantive to say.”

She says the Republican falsely identified the native-born shooter as an immigrant, arguing that Trump’s anti-immigration platform and ban on Muslims entering the country would not have “saved a single life.”

“The terrorist who carried out this attack wasn’t born in Afghanistan as Donald Trump said yesterday, he was born in Queens, New York just like Donald was himself,” she tells union members at a campaign event in Pittsburgh.

Clinton also says Trump falsely accused her of wanting to allow a flood of unverified refugees into the country and eradicate the second amendment.

“We need a commander-in-chief who can grapple with our challenges in all their complexity, with real plans that actually address them,” she says.

.@HillaryClinton: "Trump's words … are a recruiting tool for ISIS" pic.twitter.com/MQTcS8FCkt

— POLITICO (@politico) June 14, 2016

— AP

Report: Francis returns donation with ‘666’ in figure

Pope Francis has returned a donation from Argentina’s president partly because it contains the three-digit combination “666,” the Guardian says, citing an Italian publication “specializing in papal affairs.”

According to the Vatican Insider, the president made a donation of 16,666,000 pesos (approx. $1.2m) to an educational foundation backed by the pope, but Francis asked the foundation’s Argentine branch to return the money. The report says that Francis added a postcript reading: “I don’t like the 666.”

Police: Texas hostage situation ends, gunman shot dead

A hostage situation at a Walmart in Amarillo, Texas is over and the gunman is dead, local police say.

All the hostages are freed and are safe, according to law enforcement officials. Amarillo Police Department says its officers are inside the building, and that there are no confirmed gunshot victims.

NY Jewish man missing after paddleboard overturns off Long Island

A Manhattan Jewish man is missing after his paddleboard overturns in the Atlantic Ocean.

Gary Turkel, 41, a resident of the Upper West Side, was one of two men who fell into Long Island Sound on Sunday afternoon. The other man was able to swim to shore. A lifeguard said he had seen the man on the paddleboard in the water without a lifejacket, Longisland.com reports.

The Coast Guard deployed several units to locate Turkel, including a cutter, search and patrol aircraft, helicopters and patrol boats. Local police and fire units, as well as local volunteers, also are helping in the effort.

Rabbi Ari Perl of the Jewish Center of Atlantic Beach issues a call on Facebook for any information about Turkel.

UK gang who paid jewelers with Monopoly money get jail time

Members of a gang of British con men who used Monopoly money to swindle jewelers across the country are jailed for terms ranging from 22 months to seven years.

According to The Guardian, the quintet used the toy money to pay for expensive jewels, sometimes hiding the fake currency among genuine euro notes and sometimes hiding the word “Monopoly” with careful placement of the paper bands used to hold the bundles of cash together.

The report names London jeweler John Calleija, whose clients reportedly include royalty, as the worst hit in the scam. According to The Guardian, he lost over £6 million when the gang switched real money for fake money during their purchase of gems.

Israeli planes bomb Gaza near border — Palestinian sources

Palestinian news sources are reporting that Israeli warplanes have bombed an agricultural area in the eastern Gaza Strip near the border fence.

The strike is in the southeast of the Strip, according to the Palinfo news site.

There is no Israeli confirmation of the report.

There are no injuries reported in the incident.