Joshua Davidovich is The Times of Israel's Deputy Editor
The Times of Israel liveblogged Sunday’s events as they unfolded.
The powerful earthquake that shook central and southern Italy has forced the temporary closure of some of Rome’s most important tourist sites.
The Vatican’s St. Paul Outside the Walls basilica was closed for several hours on Sunday after some plaster fell, but was later reopened.
Vatican firefighters inspected St. Peter’s Basilica and the Vatican’s other basilicas but found no hazards.
The presidential palace also was closed so authorities could check for damage.
Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi canceled visits to City Hall as a precautionary measure.
The earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.6 has damaged historic churches in the town of Norcia, including the 14th century St. Benedict cathedral in one of the city’s main piazza.
— AP
Four Egyptian soldiers have been killed in the Sinai Peninsula, where the local branch of the Islamic State group regularly attacks security forces, the Egyptian army says.
The troops were killed during operations around El-Arish, close to the border with the Gaza Strip, army spokesman Brigadier General Mohamed Samir says.
Six jihadists were killed during the same operation and others were arrested, he says.
Egypt’s army has been battling an Islamist insurgency in the northern Sinai since the military overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.
— AFP
Longtime columnist Ari Shavit has quit his positions at the Haaretz daily and Channel 10 news, following fresh sexual harassment accusations that surfaced earlier in the day.
Shavit had previously been suspended after admitting sexually harassing a female journalist several years ago.
A second woman, a former J Street staffer, came forward earlier in the day saying that he had fondled her hand and harassed her in Baltimore in 2014.
“I am ashamed of the mistakes I made with regards to people in general and women in particular,” Shavit says in a statement carried by Haaretz.
“I am embarrassed that I did not behave correctly to my wife and children. I am embarrassed about the consequences of what I did.”
Syrian state media says that rebels fired shells containing toxic gas into government-held parts of Aleppo, leaving dozens of people including civilians in need of treatment.
State news agency SANA reports that 35 people were suffering from “suffocation” after shells carrying “toxic gases” hit the frontline district of Dahiyet al-Assad and regime-held Hamdaniyeh in Aleppo.
It says people were suffering from shortness of breath, muscle spasms and numbness, but were receiving treatment.
The head of Aleppo University Hospital, Ibrahim Hadid, tells state television that “36 people, including civilians and combatants, were wounded after inhaling toxic chlorine gas released by terrorists.”
The allegation comes on the third day of a rebel offensive to break a three-month siege of the opposition-held eastern part of Aleppo.
— AFP
Italian President Sergio Mattarella, visiting Israel on a state trip, plants an olive tree in a KKL-JNF grove in Jerusalem, saying he’s proud to do so “in light of the recent destruction in Italy.”
“The friendship between Israel and Italy is brave and strong and nothing will dampen it,” he says during a ceremony, according to a statement.
“I am happy to be able to send a message of peace and tranquility from this place to the people of Italy.”
Mattarella has remained in Israel despite a 6.6 earthquake striking Italy this morning, collapsing some buildings and leading to jitters, though no fatalities have been reported.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pushed off a cabinet vote on a controversial measure that would legalize an outpost slated to be razed, Hebrew media reports.
The measure, which would allow the state to retroactively legalize the Amona outpost, was to be voted on by coalition party heads. However, the vote will instead take place in a week.
Donald Trump is within one point of Hillary Clinton in a new poll just published by ABC news, showing the Republican candidate gaining fast on his rival amid a new email scandal.
The poll shows Clinton barely edging ahead of Trump 46 percent to 45%, with a 3% margin of error making it a veritable dead heat just over a week before the election. Only a week ago, the same poll showed Clinton leading Trump 50% to 38%.
The poll, produced by Langer Research Associates, was conducted among 1,160 likely voters October 25-28. FBI director James Comey announced Clinton’s emails were part of an investigation into Anthony Weiner on October 28.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says a vote on dismantling a new public broadcaster will come to a vote next week, Channel 2 reports, after a planned cabinet poll this week was derailed by Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon’s boycott of the meeting.
Critics say the controversial measure to take apart the yet-to-be-launched Kan public broadcaster is being enacted to give Netanyahu greater control over the media.
Netanyahu and his backers say the new broadcaster is a waste of money, and on Saturday a Likud source told the Israel Hayom daily that it had become a bastion of Yedioth Ahronoth publisher Arnon Mozes and other leftists.
US Secretary of State John Kerry says neither he nor his department had been contacted by the FBI over its renewed investigation into his predecessor Hillary Clinton’s emails.
“No, I haven’t been notified of anything, no, I haven’t been requested of anything, no, I’m not aware of the department being requested,” he says during a visit to Tipperary in southern Ireland.
Kerry said it would be up to the US Department of Justice and the FBI to respond to further questions about the probe, which has rocked the race for the White House in its final stretch.
“By the way, obviously as an American citizen — not to mention as a former nominee of the party — there’s a lot I’d love to say about what has been going on. But I can’t and I’m just going to remain out of this,” he says.
— AFP
Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway has responded to a tape of a man yelling “Jew S.A.” at media during a Trump rally the day earlier, calling his words “disgusting” and saying he does not represent the vast majority of the GOP candidate’s supporters.
“His conduct is completely unacceptable and does not represent our campaign or our candidate,” she tells CNN’s Jake Tapper. She also calls him “deplorable.”
In the video, a man in a “Hillary for Prison” T-shirt yells “Jew S.A.” repeatedly while pointing at reporters while making an illuminati hand formation. Others at the rally, chanting “U.S.A.” look on and smile at the man.
A Trump supporter chanted "Jew-S-A" at the media pen last night — @JakeTapper showed the clip to @KellyannePolls https://t.co/enApCUGx4D
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) October 30, 2016
Conway tells Tapper that if she had been at the rally she would have ordered he be removed. “I think what he had to say is disgusting.”
She also denies Trump has refused to seriously condemn anti-Semites and other racists who support him.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s top Palestinian rival and often-mentioned possible candidate to succeed him said Sunday he will not run for president in future elections for the Palestinians.
Mohammad Dahlan said he supports his “brother” Marwan Barghouti, not because of “the current crisis” but because according to opinion polls, Barghouti, who is currently in Israeli jail for multiple murder convictions, is the preferred choice of the Palestinian people.
The former Gaza strongman said he is willing to reconcile with Abbas, but asked for “the magic recipe” that could make it happen.
Anyone who thinks Fatah isn’t being run “like a private company,” he said, “is either disingenuous or deluded.”
— Dov Lieber
Saudi Arabia says it has broken up two militant plots, one targeting police officers and the other a plan to bomb a soccer match between the kingdom and the United Arab Emirates.
The Saudi Interior Ministry says the first plot involved killing police officers and that four Saudis who received instructions from an Islamic State leader in Syria were arrested.
The ministry says the second plot involved planting a car bomb at the soccer match between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates at a stadium in Jiddah.
It says two Pakistanis, a Syrian and a Sudanese national were arrested over that plot. It wasn’t immediately clear if the second plot involved the Islamic State group as well.
— AP
A 5-year-old boy has been very lightly injured in a rock throwing attack southeast of Jerusalem, according to initial Hebrew media reports.
The incident occurs near the T-junction between the settlements of Tekoa, Efrat and Maaleh Amos in the Etzion settlement bloc, a frequent site of stone-throwing assaults.
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Two cars suffer damage from rocks and the boy is treated at the scene.
The IDF says it is investigating the reports.
There are initial reports of a car-ramming attack near Beit Ummar in the southern West Bank.
Two police are reported hurt in the incident near the Palestinian town north of Hebron.
Police confirm they are “investigating reports of a possible car ramming attack in Beit Ummar.”
According to initial reports the two border guards were lightly injured in the incident.
Reports also indicated the driver of the car was subdued.
A spokesperson for the Border Police confirm two guards have been lightly wounded in the attack.
The Walla news website reports the driver of the car was shot and killed. A Border Police spokesperson says the driver is “apparently” dead.
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The Magen David Adom rescue service reports that three people have been injured in the West Bank car-ramming, though the border police maintain the count is 2.
It is not immediately clear how to account for the discrepancy.
“At 16:51 MDA was alerted that three pedestrians were injured by a car, in what seemed to be a car-ramming attack near Beit Ummar,” an MDA statement reads.
The three, all listed as men in their 20s, suffered light injuries with bruises to their bodies, MDA says.
Police confirm that three border guards have been lightly injured in the West Bank car-ramming attack.
They also confirm that the attacker was killed.
Channel 2 reports on Twitter that clashes have broken out between Palestinian protesters and troops in Beit Ummar following the incident.
Danielle Berrin, the US journalist who accused Haaretz columnist Ari Shavit of sexual assault leading to his eventual resignation and apology earlier today, calls his statement “admirable.”
“I’m grateful for Ari Shavit’s powerful, honest statement. His resolution to do ‘heshbon hanefesh’ – an accounting of the soul – is admirable,” she writes on Twitter.
I'm grateful for Ari Shavit's powerful, honest statement. His resolution to do 'heshbon hanefesh' – an accounting of the soul – is admirable https://t.co/OOGMIOuNHD
— Danielle Berrin (@danielleberrin) October 30, 2016
An earlier mea culpa by Shavit in which he described the encounter as a misunderstanding was panned by Berrin last week as “absurd.”
Shavit issued a statement resigning his posts at Haaretz and Channel 10 and expressing regret over his actions, after a former J Street staffer came forward and said he sexually harassed her as well.
“I am ashamed of the consequences of my deeds. In the past few days I have realized that until now I was stricken with blindness. For years, I did not understand what people were talking about when they spoke of privileged men who fail to see the damage they are causing others. I am now beginning to understand,” he wrote.
The Forward, which published the second woman’s accusation, says J Street stopped inviting Shavit as a speaker in 2014, seemingly after the encounter with the woman, indicating the group may have known about the incident.
A spokesperson for Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem says the 5-year-old injured in the West Bank rock throwing is being treated for light injuries.
The hospital says the boy was driving with his father when they were attacked, and the father managed to speed to a nearby IDF post, where the boy was given initial treatment and transferred to the hospital.
The Palestinian health ministry has confirmed the name of the car-ramming attacker: Khaled Ahmad Alyan, 23, from Beit Ummar.
— Dov Lieber and Judah Ari Gross
Hillary Clinton’s campaign is pressuring FBI Director James Comey to release more details about the emails he says could be related to the investigation into her use of a private email server, including whether Comey has even reviewed them himself.
Tim Kaine, Clinton’s running mate, says Comey owes it to the public to be more forthcoming about the emails under review by the FBI with only 10 days remaining before November 8 election.
Kaine’s message aimed to counter Republican rival Donald Trump, who has seized on the reignited email controversy in hopes of sowing fresh doubts about Clinton’s trustworthiness.
“As far as we know now, Director Comey knows nothing about the content of these emails. We don’t know whether they’re to or from Hillary at all,” Kaine said. The Virginia senator says if Comey “hasn’t seen the emails, I mean they need to make that completely plain. Then they should work to see the emails and release the circumstances of those once they have done that analysis.”
Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, says Comey’s handling of the matter is “inappropriate.”
Podesta urges Comey to be more transparent because the disclosure came “in the middle of the presidential campaign so close to the voting.”
— AP
At least 10 people have been injured in a crash between a bus and two cars in southern Israel, according to initial reports.
The accident took place on Route 31 near the Bedouin town of Hura, northeast of Beersheba.
The victims are said to have varying levels of injuries.
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For the first time in 21 years, an annual rally in memory of slain prime minister Yitzhak Rabin will not take place at Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square, with organizers blaming a budget shortfall.
Organizers say they are NIS 800,000 short of a needed total to put on the Saturday night event, which usually draws tens of thousands of people and is seen as a major event for the peace camp.
Much of the money is needed to pay for security, according to Haaretz.
“We raised almost the whole amount, we just have a gap that we haven’t managed to close before the deadline,” an organizer tells the paper. “It’s impossible to continue on like this forever. This should have been taken care of long ago.”
The Walla news site reports two men have been killed and another 18 injured in the car and bus collision near Hura in southern Israel.
Both men are said to be in their 30s.
The 18 injured include a young woman in serious condition, a man with moderate injuries and the rest with light wounds, according to the report.
A spokesperson for Soroka hospital in Beersheba confirms three people from the bus crash have been admitted to the hospital, but gives no other details.
Police confirm that two people have been killed in the Hura crash, and another 15 injured.
A statement from the police says they are investigating the crash, in which a bus and car apparently collided.
Route 31, which crisscrosses the northern Negev, is closed in both directions.
A seismologist at the British Geological Survey says experts can’t exclude the possibility that there will be more, or even stronger, aftershocks in the area near Norcia in central Italy.
Margarita Segou tells The Associated Press that the important thing to realize is that while the number of temblors will decline over time, “we cannot exclude the possibility of larger magnitude aftershocks.”
She cites other regions, such as a series of quakes in Japan earlier this year, which saw a similar pattern in which a quake is followed by a larger aftershock.
The earthquake Sunday that struck near Norcia in central Italy measured magnitude 6.6 and was the strongest to hit the country in 36 years.
— AP
The Ynet news website reports that the two fatalities in the southern car crash are twin brothers.
The 22-year-old woman who was seriously injured was a passenger in their car, according to the report. She suffered head trauma and has been rushed to Beersheba’s Soroka hospital.
Despite the apparent cancellation of the Rabin memorial rally on Saturday night, former Peace Now head Yariv Oppenheimer says he will still go to Rabin Square to mark 21 years since Rabin’s assassination.
“With or without a memorial, this Saturday night at 9 p.m., I will be at the square, lighting a candle. Share and come,” he writes on Twitter.
עם או בלי עצרת, במוצ״ש הקרוב ב-21:00 אני בכיכר, מדליק נר.
שתפו ובואו. pic.twitter.com/BzjuhYk6FD— יריב אופנהיימר (@yarivop) October 30, 2016
Others have also said they will hold unofficial ceremony for Rabin at the square Saturday night even without an official memorial.
Donald Trump’s wife will be making a rare appearance on the campaign trail with just days to go before Election Day.
Trump’s campaign manager Kellyanne Conway tweets that Melania Trump will deliver a speech Thursday in suburban Pennsylvania.
It will be her first appearance on the campaign trail since her speech at the Republican National Convention.
New: the next First Lady, @MELANIATRUMP, to deliver speech in suburban #Philly on Thursday. #MAGA
— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) October 30, 2016
That speech was well-received. But it was quickly overshadowed with allegations that she had plagiarized sections from a speech given by First Lady Michelle Obama.
Mrs. Trump has taken an unusually behind-the-scenes role in the election, choosing to stay home with her son instead of joining her husband on the trail.
The campaign did not immediately respond to questions about the topic of the speech or whether she would be accompanied by her husband.
— AP
Police have arrested 17 people after a melee broke out between soccer fans next to Beersheba’s Turner Stadium before a game between Hapoel Beersheba and Maccabi Tel Aviv.
The game between powerhouse Tel Aviv and upstart Beersheba, which shocked the country by winning the premier league cup last year, is being billed as “the game of the season,” and tensions are high, Channel 2 reports.
MK Yoel Rozbozov, a former judoka who now heads the Knesset’s sports caucus, calls on police to crack down on soccer hooliganism.
“It’s not possible that week after week, especially in the most central games, those which draw the most attention, we see weakness by those charged with enforcing laws in Israel,” he says in a statement.
Sources close to Netanyahu say the prime minister is threatening to bring down the government if the coalition doesn’t go along with his plan to dismantle a new, yet-to-be-launched public broadcasting corporation, Channel 10 news reports.
The channel reports that Netanyahu has meager support in the cabinet, and so will hold the future of the government over ministers’ heads to win their support.
Netanyahu was forced to shelve his plan to have the cabinet vote on the measure earlier today because Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon refused to participate, in protest. The measure is slated to come up next week.
Months after Israel and the US signed a massive defense aid deal, Treasurer Jack Lew is visiting the country for talks.
Lew held discussions with Israeli officials on the Iran nuclear deal and sanctions that remain in place, among other topics, US Ambassador Dan Shapiro says.
“It may be his last visit to Israel in his current job, and I have appreciated his friendship and his steadfast commitment to close US-Israel ties,” Shapiro writes.
A law enforcement official says FBI investigators in the Anthony Weiner sexting probe knew for weeks about the existence of newly discovered emails that might be relevant to the Hillary Clinton email investigation.
FBI Director James Comey said he was briefed Thursday about that development; he told Congress on Friday that investigators had found emails that were potentially relevant to the Clinton investigation.
The emails were found on a device that belonged to Weiner, the estranged husband of close Clinton aide Huma Abedin.
The official was not authorized to discuss the matter by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.
A second law enforcement official also said the FBI was aware for a period of time about the emails before Comey was briefed, but wasn’t more specific.
— AP
Moroccans are planning protests after a fisherman was crushed to death in a garbage truck — an incident some are comparing to the death of a Tunisian vendor in 2010 that sparked the Arab Spring uprisings.
According to Moroccan media, police confiscated and destroyed Mouhcine Fikri’s swordfish, protected from fishing during this time of the season. Footage circulating online appears to show Fikri jumping into a garbage truck to retrieve his fish, before being crushed to death.
Fikri’s death Friday in the northern city of Hoceima has drawn outrage on Moroccan social media and calls for protests in several cities Sunday evening. King Mohammed VI is calling for a thorough investigation.
The General Directorate for National Security released a statement denying local officers were involved in Fikri’s death.
— AP
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