Gavin Rabinowitz is a news editor at The Times of Israel
The Times of Israel liveblogged Monday’s events as they unfolded.
Police say that a man who wounded several people in the northern Swiss city of Schaffhausen was armed with a chainsaw. Police say that the attack “is not a terrorist act.”
Speaking shortly after the Monday morning attack, the police say they’ve issued a description of the man, who is on the run. They say five people were taken to hospitals, two with serious injuries, following the attack on Monday morning.
They say they have now identified the suspect, adding that he is about 1 meter 90 centimeters (6.2 feet) tall, bald and with an unkempt appearance. He’s believed to be driving a Volkswagen vehicle with Swiss plates.
— AP
The New York Times has appointed David Halbfinger as the new Jerusalem bureau chief.
Halbfinger, who is currently the deputy national editor for the paper, replaces Peter Baker, who left the post in December to help boost the Time’s coverage of the Trump administration.
Delighted to announce that @halbfinger has been named Jerusalem Bureau Chief for The New York Times.
— Michael Slackman (@meslackman) July 24, 2017
An explosion killed at least 15 people and injured 20 in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore today, rescue officials say, but it was not immediately clear what caused the blast.
“We have 15 confirmed (fatal) casualties and 20 injured,” Jam Sajjad Hussain, a spokesman for the Rescue 1122 service, tells AFP.
Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan put the death toll at 14 in a press conference minutes after the attack, adding that it may rise.
Most of the casualties were police officers and some bystanders, he said.
“It is not yet confirmed if it is an incident of terrorism or an accidental explosion,” the interior minister adds.
Lahore has been hit by significant militant attacks in Pakistan’s more than decade-long war on extremism, but they have been less frequent in recent years.
— AFP
Police say they have discovered the body of a woman in the central Israel city of Holon and are opening an investigation.
A court imposed a gag order on further details of the case.
— Jacob Magid
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, named heir to the region’s most powerful throne last month, is taking temporary charge of the country today as the king left on holiday.
Prince Mohammed’s father, King Salman, issued a royal decree deputizing his son to “manage state affairs and guard the interests of the people” during the monarch’s “personal break,” state news agency SPA reported.
On June 21, King Salman stripped the title of crown prince from his nephew Mohammed bin Nayef, naming 31-year-old Prince Mohammed, often known as MBS, as heir to the throne.
— AFP
Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett is backing his sometimes rival Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the crises with Jordan and over the Temple Mount.
“The government of Israel is acting with responsibility, unity and thoughtfulness in the face of a complicated diplomatic and security situation,” Bennett tells his party at a faction meeting at Knesset.
Bennett urges opposition leaders to stop criticizing Netanyahu and rally behind him. “This is a time for unity,” he says.
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation will meet in Istanbul next week for talks on the crisis around The Temple Mount.
The 57-member pan-Islamic organization will hold a ministerial meeting on Tuesday in Turkey, which currently holds the OIC presidency, a statement says.
Israeli authorities installed metal detectors at entrances to the highly sensitive site, which includes the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of Rock, after Arab gunmen shot and killed two Israeli police officers in an attack launched from the compound.
“The issue of the Al-Aqsa mosque is a red line,” the Jeddah-based OIC said in a statement released after a meeting in the Saudi Red Sea city.
“Attacking the Al-Aqsa mosque in any way and under whatever pretext will have serious consequence and will lead to instability in the region,” it added.
US President Donald Trump is questioning why those investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible collusion by members of his campaign aren’t digging into Hillary Clinton’s “crimes & Russia relations.”
In doing so, the president takes his latest swipe at Attorney General Jeff Sessions, including him in the list of people who he says should be investigating Clinton’s potential Russia links.
Trump tweeted Monday, “So why aren’t the Committees and investigators, and of course our beleaguered A.G., looking into Crooked Hillarys crimes & Russia relations?”
So why aren't the Committees and investigators, and of course our beleaguered A.G., looking into Crooked Hillarys crimes & Russia relations?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 24, 2017
Sleazy Adam Schiff, the totally biased Congressman looking into "Russia," spends all of his time on television pushing the Dem loss excuse!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 24, 2017
Sessions recused himself from the investigation earlier this year after it was revealed that he had met with a top Russian diplomat last year.
Trump condemned Sessions’ recusal in a New York Times interview last week, saying he never should have taken the job as attorney general.
— AP
Russia is deploying military police to monitor two safe zones being established in Syria, the defense ministry in Moscow says.
Senior commander Sergei Rudskoi says Russian forces had set up checkpoints and observation posts around a zone in the south-west and in another one covering Eastern Ghouta, near Damascus.
The two areas are part of a broader Moscow-backed plan to create four “de-escalation zones” in rebel-held parts of Syria.
The announcement marks the first deployment of foreign troops to bolster the safe zones as Moscow seeks to pacify Syria after its military intervention swung the six-year conflict in favor of President Bashar Assad.
— AFP
Singer and director Amir Fryszer Guttman will be buried Tuesday at 5:00 p.m. in the central city of Netanya, his family says, requesting participants wear white.
Guttman died Sunday, a day after his near-lifeless body was pulled from choppy water as he saved his niece from drowning in the Mediterranean. He was 41.
Guttman’s death capped a tragic period for the entertainer who had been misdiagnosed with cancer. His outing to the beach with friends and family on Saturday was supposed to be a celebration of his new lease on life.
A senior security official dispatched by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Jordan in an attempt to help resolve the crises over the attack at the embassy and the Temple Mount, has returned.
The unnamed envoy is to brief Netanyahu on his contacts there. Netanyahu was meeting with his security chiefs ahead of a security cabinet meeting later this evening.
There was no immediate word on if there was a breakthrough.
The United Nations Security Council is holding an emergency meeting over the Temple Mount crisis and the accompanying violence in the region.
Sweden, France and Egypt had called for “an urgent meeting for actions to calm the situation in Jerusalem.”
The meeting is closed to the public and the media.
The cabinet will likely vote to take down the controversial Temple Mount metal detectors after it meets later this evening.
Police are set to propose an alternative means of securing the holy site, Army Radio reports.
Israel place the metal detectors at the entrance to the site that holds the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock after three Arab gunmen emerged from the site and shot dead two Israeli police officers on July 14.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations is showing the world body a picture of the gruesome weekend killing of three members of a family in a West Bank settlement as the Security Council met to discuss the tensions around the Temple Mount.
“The Salomon family had gathered for the most joyous occasion, the birth of a new grandson. Instead, the night ended in a massacre. They sat down to eat the Sabbath meal when the terrorist entered their home. He stabbed his victims to death, murdering Yosef, the seventy-year-old grandfather, his daughter Haya, and his son Elad, all while the children were hidden in a room,” says Danon.
“Instead of condemning this act of terror and calming the situation, the Palestinians are trying to spread the lie that this unspeakable act of violence is Israel’s fault. Do not believe these lies,” says Danon.
“This attack is not an isolated incident. It is part of a wave of terror sweeping the free world by those brainwashed by hateful teachings.”
“The Security Council must demand that Mahmoud Abbas and the PA act immediately to end the terror and incitement before the lives of more innocent victims are lost,” he said.
Israel is working to calm the situation in Jerusalem following a flare-up of violence, but it will do whatever is necessary to maintain security at a holy site, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations says.
“We will enable everybody to come and pray on the Temple Mount, but at the same time we will do whatever is necessary to maintain security,” Ambassador Danny Danon tells journalists ahead of a Security Council meeting to discuss ways to de-escalate tensions.
Egypt, France and Sweden called for the talks following heavy clashes over the weekend.
The violence came after new security measures were put in place at the Temple Mount, following an attack on July 14 that killed two Israeli police officers.
Israel installed metal detectors at entrances to the site, which includes Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock, in a move the Palestinians denounce as a bid by Israel to assert control.
Asked whether Israel was prepared to remove the metal detectors, Danon says: “Our goal is to calm the situation” by allowing access to the holy site, but also to “maintain security at this important place.”
The Security Council was to hear a report from UN envoy Nikolay Mladenov during a closed-door meeting.
— AFP
Israel’s UN ambassador says he believes the standoff with Jordan over the killing of two Jordanians by an Israeli security guard near Israel’s embassy in Amman will be resolved “shortly.”
Danny Danon tells reporters at the UN headquarters in New York Monday that “we are resolving it with the Jordanians.”
Jordan reportedly wants to investigate the guard who opened fire and has prevented staff from leaving the premises. Israel says he has diplomatic immunity.
— AP
US President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace envoy has arrived in Israel in a bid to ease tensions over new security measures at the Temple Mount.
Jason Greenblatt is on his way from the airport to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Army Radio reports.
Police are planning to install very advanced cameras throughout the Old City of Jerusalem, in a bid to provide security to the holy site following the uproar over the installation of metal detectors at the gates, Channel 2 reports.
The advanced camera systems, which somehow will be able to detect if people are carrying weapons, are not yet available in Israel and will cost hundreds of millions of shekels, the report says.
In the meantime, security officers and existing regular cameras will suffice, it says, adding that the decision was taken after consultations with 4 leading private security companies.
More than 100 women who assembled for the Women of the Wall’s monthly Rosh Chodesh service at the Western Wall faced more intense heckling than ever, the group says.
The women, who smuggled in a small Torah scroll for the service, were attacked verbally and physically, the group says in a statement, hours after the service in the women’s section of the Western Wall plaza.
Young girls and women with their faces covered whistled, shouted, spit at and cursed the worshipers in an effort to shut down the service, which was held behind police barriers at the back of the women’s section.
Men also chanted, jeered and yelled vulgarities to drown out the women’s prayers, shouting invective such as “Reform are worse than ISIS,” and “Reform go home,” according to the Women of the Wall.
— JTA
Opposition leader Isaac Herzog is calling on the government to do all it can to preserve good relations with Jordan, in the wake of the shooting at the Israeli embassy.
“Jordan is a strategic ally,” Herzog says, adding that Israel must do what it can to ensure the functioning of the embassy is not harmed either.
“We must respect the king and his kingdom. We must respect his honor and standing, particularly when it comes to the Temple Mount.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to speak with Jordan’s King Abdullah II, in an effort to bring an end to the crisis over the embassy shooting.
An Israeli embassy security officer was stabbed and lightly wounded. He shot and killed the attacker and a bystander.
The call was set up by a senior security official who traveled to Amman to talk with Jordanian security officials, as a solution was sought.
Upon his return, it was revealed that the official was Shin Bet Chief Nadav Argaman.
The call with the king was delayed, as he is traveling in the US.
Channel 2 reported that Jordan will not let the security officer leave until Israel takes down the metal detectors put in place outside the Temple Mount
The Prime Minister’s Office denies that Jordan has conditioned letting an Israel security guard, who shot dead an attacker and a bystander, return to Israel in exchange for Israel removing metal detectors from the Temple Mount.
“The contacts between Israel and Jordan were conducted in an atmosphere of cooperation. There is no Jordanian demand to condition the return of the security guard with the removal of the metal detectors,” the PMO says.
Top White House aide Jared Kushner insists he had no improper contacts with Russian officials during Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, after appearing before a Senate committee investigating Moscow’s alleged meddling in the US election.
“The record and documents I have voluntarily provided will show that all of my actions were proper and occurred in the normal course of events of a very unique campaign,” Kushner, who is Trump’s son-in-law, says after a closed-door hearing of the Senate’s Intelligence Committee.
“Let me be very clear — I did not collude with Russia, nor do I know of anyone else in the campaign who did so. I had no improper contacts.”
— AFP
US peace envoy Jason Greenblatt is heading to Amman, Jordan following talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a senior administration official tells The Times of Israel.
Greenblatt is in the region to try to help resolve the crisis following the shooting at the Israeli embassy in Amman and the ongoing dispute over security measures at the Temple Mount.
— Eric Cortellessa
A crisis over new Israeli security measures at the Temple Mount must be resolved by Friday to avoid an escalation of violence, the UN envoy to the Middle East says
“It is extremely important that a solution to the current crisis be found by Friday this week,” says Nickolay Mladenov after briefing the UN Security Council.
“The dangers on the ground will escalate if we go through another cycle of Friday prayer without a resolution to this current crisis,” he warns.
— AFP
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has spoken by phone with Jordan’s King Abdullah II, in a bid to end the crises of the embassy shooting and the Temple Mount security measures.
Channel 10 reports that the two have agreed to a framework deal aimed at ending both disputes.
In addition, the Israeli security cabinet is meeting to approve the moves that would hopefully see the Israeli security guard returned home.
A woman in her 30s and her 1-year-old baby were killed in a car crash near the southern city of Beersheba, police say.
Police said a private vehicle collided with another that was stopped by the side of the road.
“The cause of the crash is being investigated,” police say.
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