Adiv Sterman is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
The Times of Israel liveblogged Sunday’s events as they unfolded.
Iraqi officials say three more mass graves have been found in the northern town of Sinjar, where Kurdish forces backed by US-led airstrikes drove out Islamic State fighters earlier this month.
Qasim Simo, the head of security in Sinjar, said Sunday that the graves are believed to contain 80 to 100 bodies. Two graves have been found east of the town and one has been found within the town itself, bringing the total number of mass graves uncovered to five.
IS captured the town in August 2014 and began killing and enslaving members of the Yazidi religious minority, leading thousands of residents to flee into the mountains. A US-led coalition began carrying out strikes against the extremist group later that month, partly out of concern for their plight.
— AP
The Lod District Court sentences a Swedish citizen of Lebanese origin to a year and a half in prison, after the man was convicted of providing information to Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah.
Hassan Hizran, 55, was convicted in a plea bargain and was charged with contacting a foreign agent.
Germany is planning to deploy 1,200 troops to help France in the fight against Islamic State jihadists in Syria, its army chief says, in what would be the military’s biggest deployment abroad.
“From a military point of view, around 1,200 soldiers would be necessary to run the planes and ship,” army chief of staff General Volker Wieker tells Bild am Sonntag newspaper, adding that the mission would begin “very quickly once a mandate is obtained.”
“The government is seeking a mandate this year,” says Wieker.
— AFP
Around 100 Palestinians clash with IDF soldiers near the West Bank city of Tulkarem.
The IDF is using crowd dispersal means.
One Palestinian is reported to have been wounded during the clashes.
The government approves a plan to allocate NIS 100 million to strengthen Jerusalem’s economy.
The plan was submitted by the Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, Minister for Jerusalem Affairs Ze’ev Elkin, and Tourism Minister Yariv Levin.
The funds are expected to be used in order to promote tourism to the city, help small and medium businesses, and increase the number of university and college students.
Thousands of climate activists link hands near the site of the deadliest of the November 13 Paris attacks, pleading for leaders to curb global warming on the eve of a UN summit.
People of all ages join in a human chain stretching for two kilometers (1.2 miles) along a wind-blown Boulevard Voltaire in eastern Paris, the first organized demonstration since the bombing and shooting assault claimed by the Islamic State group that killed 130 people.
Out of respect for the dead, they leave a 100-meter (300-foot) gap in front of a makeshift flower and candle memorial set up outside the Bataclan concert hall where 90 people lost their lives.
Riot police are deployed to guard the area, with armed officers fanning out in front of the massacre site.
“Hear our voices! We are here!” cry the demonstrators ahead of the 195-nation UN summit, which aims to reach the first truly global accord to limit greenhouse emissions and avert a global climate disaster.
“For a climate of peace,” read banners held by the protesters.
— AFP
EU leaders will offer Turkey cash and a boost for its membership bid in exchange for its cooperation with the migrant crisis at a summit Sunday, but officials warn a final deal will involve “difficult” negotiations.
The European Union is expected to agree on a €3 billion ($3.2 billion) aid package for Turkey to help it stop the flow of refugees to Europe from the conflict in Syria, 2.2 million of whom are currently in Turkey.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is also set to win a deal for the opening in December of a new chapter in Turkey’s stalled accession talks for the 28-nation bloc.
“This meeting will provide new momentum to relations. It’s important in so many aspects because it’s the first EU-Turkey summit in 11 years,” Davutoglu tells reporters at Ankara airport as he left for Brussels.
“It had already been decided that Turkey should not shoulder the migrant problem alone. A joint action plan has been agreed.”
— AFP
A Border Patrol officer who was moderately wounded in a stabbing in Nahariya on Friday is released from the hospital.
A 16-year-old boy from the Galilee village of Abu Sinan suspected of the stabbing is still in police custody. The teenager’s lawyer claims his client suffers from a mental condition.
Iran is threatening to not fully comply with the nuclear deal signed with major world powers, if an investigation into allegations that the Islamic Republic attempted to develop nuclear weapons does not cease, according to Israel Radio.
The secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, Admiral Ali Smhani, tells the IRNA news agency that it would be impossible to implement the agreement without closing the investigation relating to matters of the past.
A Chabad rabbi is sentenced by the Tel Aviv District Court to two years in prison after being convicted of a major tax fraud involving millions of shekels.
Yosef Aharonov, who was head of Agudat Tze’iri Chabad (The Chabad Youth Society), admitted that he had for nine years received donations intended for the Chabad movement but did not report them. Also, the society’s employees did not report sources of income and received financial aid from the Education Ministry illegally.
Aharonov is also fined NIS 500,000.
Iran says there will be no final implementation of a nuclear deal with world powers unless a probe into allegations of past weapons research is closed.
The declaration, by a top security official, comes after the head of the UN nuclear watchdog said a report into the possible military dimensions of Iran’s activities would not be “black and white.”
Iran has always denied seeking to develop an atomic weapons capability, insisting its nuclear program is for peaceful energy production and medical purposes only.
Referring to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the July 14 agreement’s official name, Admiral Ali Shamkhani, said anything short of the watchdog’s probe being closed was unacceptable to Iran.
“Without the closure of the file regarding past issues, there is no possibility of implementing the JCPOA,” the official IRNA news agency reports him as saying.
Shamkhani is secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), the country’s highest security body, which was tasked with supervising the nuclear deal.
The committee reports to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final word on all policy decisions.
— AFP
Yemeni pro-government forces are battling to oust Iran-backed rebels from a southern province where they have made gains in recent weeks. Ground fighting and airstrikes by a Saudi-led coalition kill 12 rebels in Daleh province, military sources say. Four loyalists are also killed.
Daleh is one of five southern provinces which the coalition-backed loyalists retook from the rebels in a July offensive.
But the Shiite Houthi rebels and their allies managed to recapture the province’s second-largest city, Damt, earlier this month.
Further north, in Yemen’s third city Taez, where a loyalist garrison has been under rebel siege for months, three civilians were killed and at least 20 wounded by rebel mortar fire late on Saturday, medical and military sources say.
Loyalist troops and their coalition backers launch an offensive to try to break the siege earlier this month but it has made little headway.
— AFP
The commander of police’s special Lahav 433 unit, Major General Roni Rittman, is named as the top cop suspected of committing sexual offenses. Rittman’s connection to the case was previously placed under gag order.
An investigation was opened after a policewoman filed a complaint against Rittman. The woman said that in an incident that occurred five years ago, the officer approached her during a social gathering and whispered sexually suggestive comments in her ear. According to some reports he also tried to kiss her.
Rittman was questioned last week for over seven hours and was given a week’s leave as investigators decide how to move forward. Police officials said the man cooperated with his questioners.
The past few years have seen a string of sexual misconduct cases involving top police officers, many of whom were forced to retire due to the charges against them.
Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan names Zohar Dvir as Israel Police deputy commissioner.
The decision comes following a recommendation by Police Commissioner Roni Alsheich to appoint Dvir, 50, to the position.
A 23-year-old man is attacked in central Jerusalem and is lightly wounded.
He is taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.
Police are investigating the motive behind the attack.
The area near the entrance to the IDF’s Kirya base in Tel Aviv is evacuated following the uncovering of a suspicious object at a bus station nearby.
Police are investigating the object in order to determine if it contains explosives.
Russia’s counter-terrorism agency says security forces in Dagestan have killed three militants who had sworn allegiance to the Islamic State group, including one who had returned from Syria this year.
Police say nearly a third of the estimated 3,000 Russians who have gone to fight alongside IS fighters in Syria are from Dagestan, a predominantly Muslim republic in southern Russia where an Islamic insurgency has simmered for years.
The National Anti-Terrorist Committee announces that security forces had killed the three militants after they refused to surrender.
President Vladimir Putin says one of the goals of Russia’s air campaign in Syria was to prevent Russians fighting with IS from coming back. Most are deterred from returning by the knowledge that they would likely be killed or face long prison terms.
— AP
Government and business leaders plan to spend tens of billions of dollars in the next five years to develop clean energy technology in efforts to fight global warming, an official and a former official tell The Associated Press.
The initiative, which will be announced Monday along with the opening of the UN climate summit, involves Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates, US President Barack Obama and French President Francois Hollande, according to a French official and a former US official who weren’t authorized to talk on the record.
France, the US, India, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Canada and Norway have already decided to participate in the “ambitious” project that will aim at developing clean energies, the French official says.
The amount of money involved, from countries, companies and individuals would be in the tens of billions of dollars, according to the former US government official, who is familiar with the initiative, and a document obtained by the AP. The money would be geared toward research and development of technologies, such as energy storage that could make clean power from wind and solar more usable regardless of weather vagaries.
— AP
The army confirms that an Israeli motorcyclist killed in the afternoon after colliding with a Palestinian minibus at the Yitzhar Junction in the West Bank was an IDF soldier.
Initial reports say there is no indication that the accident was a terror attack.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says he’s deeply concerned about tensions between Russia and Turkey after Turkish F-16s shot down a Russian warplane last week.
Ban tells The Associated Press in an interview in Paris that he had urged “the leadership of the two countries first to de-escalate the tension” while they’re fighting against the Islamic State group in Syria.
Ban said that when there is “division and tension between coalition partners,” it will not be beneficial in mobilizing global commitment to fight terrorism and extremism.
Turkey shot down the Russian plane on Tuesday after it entered Turkish airspace from Syria and ignored several warnings to leave.
Ban is in Paris for the UN global climate conference that begins Monday.
— AP
Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush says rival Donald Trump is not prepared to be the nation’s commander in chief.
Bush says Trump is “uninformed” on major issues facing the US, especially defense and foreign affairs.
During an appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Bush says the 2016 front-runner is “not a serious leader.” He says Trump has offered conflicting opinions on his strategy on Syria and combating the Islamic State group.
Republican presidential candidate and former Florida governor Jeb Bush arrives at a campaign stop, Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2015 (AP/Rainier Ehrhardt)
Bush’s criticism of Trump comes a day after the billionaire businessman campaigned in the former Florida governor’s home state and dismissed Bush as a serious challenger.
Trump told thousands at a rally in Sarasota, Florida, that he would easily win the March 15 Florida primary because “I’m leading by a lot already.”
— AP
A Palestinian man is arrested by Israeli soldiers after he apparently crossed the Gaza Strip border fence into Israeli territory in the Eshkol Region.
The man is transferred to a security facility for questioning.
A man stabs his wife and then shoots himself in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Neve Ya’akov.
Their condition is not known.
Israel is resuming efforts to solve the mysterious disappearance of IDF soldier Guy Hever on the Golan Heights 18 years ago.
The searches are concentrated in several water reservoirs around the base where Hever served in the Golan Heights, near the town of Katzrin.
In August 1997, Hever, a sergeant, left his post at an artillery base on the Golan Heights, and left the camp carrying only his rifle. The base, Camp Thunder, was less than 23 kilometers (14 miles) from the Syrian border.
No trace of Hever has ever been found, and the case remains one of Israel’s most confounding mysteries.
Tireless searches by volunteer teams, soldiers, policemen, trained dogs, aircraft, and robots inserted into mined areas have all come up empty.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders to temporarily suspend diplomatic contacts with European Union institutions and representatives, due to the body’s ruling on the labeling of products made in West Bank settlements.
Netanyahu also says the Foreign Ministry will reassess its stance regarding involvement of EU representatives in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
The ministry clarifies that Israel will continue to maintain political contact with European countries such as Germany, Britain and France.
An Israeli driver is lightly injured and two cars are damaged after stones are hurled at the Atarot Junction, near Jerusalem.
The IDF is searching the area.
Iran’s official news agency is quoting the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as calling the recent Paris attacks “blind terrorism.”
The comments, reported by the IRNA news agency, are Khamenei’s first reaction to the attacks, in which extremist jihadists killed 130 people and injured scores of others. The government previously condemned the attacks, immediately after they occurred.
Khamenei says “the bitter events brought about by blind terrorism in France” moved him to issue the statement.
French President Francois Hollande says the European Union will need to monitor Turkey’s commitments “step-by-step” to help end Syria’s political crisis, fight terrorism and deal with a refugee influx that has spilled over into the 28-member bloc.
The French leader says that any funds of a 3-billion-euro ($3.2 billion) EU package to help Turkey deal with the migrants on its territory will be released progressively as Turkish commitments are checked.
Hollande also says verification measures need to be in place to check those coming through Turkey, because some “terrorists” have infiltrated the refugee flow.
Syrian refugees waiting to sign up for a return bus to the Syrian border, at the UN-run Zaatari refugee camp near Mafraq, northern Jordan, on October 1, 2015. (AP/Raad Adayleh)
Hollande cut out early from an EU-Turkey summit to head home for a meeting with China’s president ahead of the Paris climate conference due to start tomorrow.
Another woman claims Jewish Home MK Yinon Magal sexually harassed her.
Magal is facing allegations of sexual misconduct after two women came forward last Tuesday claiming that he made advances toward them during and after the period they worked for him at the Walla news site, where Magal was editor-in-chief.
The last complaint lodged against Magal came from a woman who was not a Walla employee, Channel 2 reports.
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