Hamas demands release of hunger-striking prisoners

‘US in charge of Syria coalition, so that’s who we asked for help’

The leader of the Druze minority in Israel, Sheikh Moafaq Tarif, says the Druze in Israel and abroad are “very concerned” by recent developments in the Syrian civil war and fear for the fate of their brethren there. The Druze leadership in Israel asked the US, European nations and the UN to act without delay to provide assistance to the Druze in Syria.

Tarif tells Israel Radio that the US is in charge of coalition strikes in Syria and it is therefore natural that it would be the US from which the community seeks help.

Following a massacre conducted by gunmen from the Al-Nusra Front rebel group in which several dozen Druze were killed last week, Sheikh Tarif says the group issued an apology and efforts are underway for dialogue. He expresses hope that the rebel group “understood the message” and added that “if the Druze will not live in peace in Syria, neither will those who harm them.”

Russia, Egypt conclude 4-day joint naval drill

Russia and Egypt concluded today a first-of-its-kind naval drill called “Bridge of Friendship.”

Ten ships from both sides took part in the drill, as well as F-16 fighter jets, Ynet reports. The four-day exercise testifies to the growing ties between Moscow and Cairo, which have strengthened especially regarding military cooperation since President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi rose to power.

Many ‘civilians’ killed in Gaza were in fact militants, Israel says

According to the report issued by the Foreign Ministry today on Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, the civilian death toll resulted from the conditions in which the fighting took place.

In all armed conflicts, the application of military force almost inevitably causes residual and incidental harm; this is even more so when the hostilities occur in the urban environment. The 2014 Gaza Conflict in particular involved high-intensity, protracted hostilities, including close-quarter combat and intensive urban warfare, exacerbating the risk of harm to civilians within the combat arena.

Such harm was also the direct result of rockets and mortars that were launched towards Israel from within the Gaza Strip but that fell short. Furthermore, much of what may have appeared to external parties to be indiscriminate harm to civilians or purely civilian objects was in fact legitimate attacks against military targets that merely appear civilian but were actually part of the military operations of these terrorist organizations.

Many allegedly “civilian” casualties were in fact militants. Harm to the civilian population also occurred as the result of unfortunate — yet lawful — incidental effects of legitimate military action in the vicinity of civilians and their surroundings, and as a result of the inescapable constraint of commanders not being infallible, intelligence not being perfect and technological systems sometimes failing.

Hotovely says ‘pardon cliché, but IDF is most moral army in world’

Deputy FM @TzipiHotovely on Israeli Gaza report: "We want to expose the truth. Pardon the cliche, but IDF is most moral army in the world."

— Raphael Ahren (@RaphaelAhren) June 14, 2015

Lives of West Bank Palestinians to be eased

Even as the army was dealing with several security incidents in the West Bank over the weekend, the security establishment is preparing to significantly ease the conditions of life of West Bank Palestinians, Ynet reports.

Some of the measures have not been taken for more than 20 years, and they will be taken in an effort to preserve the relative calm of the last few months.

Among the measures is a permit for Palestinian doctors to enter Israeli territory with their cars. Effectively, the permit allows drivers who own a car with a white Palestinian license plate to travel freely anywhere in Israel. The security establishment is considering giving a similar permit to other professionals in Palestinian society but at present not to the entire population.

Owners of quarries in the West Bank were allowed, for the first time in years, to use dynamite for controlled explosions in their quarries. This can save the quarry owner months of digging work. The explosions will be conducted by Israeli contractors only.

Additionally, large Palestinian factories in the West Bank received permission to use dual-use fertilizers, which can also potentially be used in making explosive devices. Effectively this would allow the factories to increase their workload and hire more employees.

All Palestinians older than 55 (men) and 50 (women) will be allowed to enter Israel freely. This would allow more Palestinians to work in Israel and conduct trade in it. The age in which Palestinians are allowed to enter Israel for a limited time to look for work was lowered from 24 to 22.

Large brush fire in Jordan Valley

A brush fire in the Jordan Valley has started spreading southward along the Jordan River and the IDF has instructed farmers in the area to evacuate.

Fire and Rescue teams have been trying to douse the flames for several hours but have so far been unsuccessful. The flames currently cover an area larger than a square kilometer.

Palestinians reject Israel’s Gaza war report

The Palestinians reject Israel’s claims that it did not target civilians in the 2014 Gaza war in which nearly 2,200 people were killed. Palestinians say the majority of those killed were non-combatants.

“Israel’s decision to deny having targeted civilians in Gaza is the logical extension of what it did in the Gaza Strip,” Ihab Bseiso, a spokesman for the Palestinian government in Ramallah, tells AFP.

— AFP

Hamas ’embedded military among civilians’

Foreign Ministry director general Dore Gold says that Hamas “embedded its own military capabilities in the heart of civilian infrastructure.”

Director general of the Foreign Ministry Dore Gold delivers a speech in Jerusalem, June 1. (AFP/THOMAS COEX)

Speaking at the Foreign Ministry upon the release of an Israeli report detailing the IDF’s conduct during Operation Protective Edge against Hamas in Gaza over the past summer, Gold says that throughout the war, Israel proposed “multiple” ceasefires.

Hamas “forced” civilian residents to remain in the war zone even after the IDF warned them to evacuate, according to the report.

“Hamas is responsible – directly responsible – for the high number of casualties,” Gold says.

— Raphael Ahren

Doctors told to refuse to force-feed prisoners

Israel Medical Association chairman Dr. Leonid Eidelman says he “has given doctors an instruction to act solely according to the demands of ethics and not to force-feed prisoners on a hunger strike.”

Eidelman says that “the doctor’s association views the intention to legislate force-feeding very severely. Our objection was expressed to [representatives of] government ministries and the government’s attorney general at every opportunity.”

FILE: Dr. Leonid Eidelman at a protest ahead of a doctors strike in 2011. (photo credit: Nati Shohat/Flash90)

Liberman slams as-yet unpublished UN report

Former foreign minister Avigdor Liberman says “one need not even wait to read the UN report on Israel’s conduct during Operation Protective Edge, which will be published in coming days, to know that it’s not worth the paper it’s written on.”

In a press statement, Liberman says the Schabas Committee, named after former chairman William Schabas, a Canadian jurist who resigned from the panel after it was revealed that he had once been employed by the PLO, is “in any case a committee that can only represent the stance of the PLO or even Hamas – even without its chairman who resigned.”

Liberman says the committee was “established by the UN Human Rights Council, which is a body whose substance is diametrically opposite its name more than any other, where ‘enlightened’ states like Cuba and Lybia are members.”

“It is obvious,” Liberman concludes, “that the Foreign Ministry’s report on Israel’s conduct during Protective Edge is seriously written and a thousand times more trustworthy than the expected UN report.”

Then foreign minister Avigdor Liberman arrives for a cabinet meeting, at the PM’s office in Jerusalem, on April 19, 2015. (Olivier Fitoussi/POOL)

12 killed in Tbilisi floods, as tigers and lions roam

Lions, tigers and even a hippopotamus escaped from a zoo in the Georgian capital Tbilisi, adding to chaos caused by flooding that killed at least 12 people, officials say.

Police and soldiers were hunting down the animals, recapturing some and shooting others dead, while rescuers airlifted scores of people trapped by the floods.

Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili called on Tbilisi residents to stay indoors while the animals were still at large, describing the damage to the city’s infrastructure as “substantial” after the River Vere burst its banks after hours of torrential rain.

“Our latest estimate is that the death toll is 12,” Tbilisi Mayor David Narmania tells journalists.

— AFP

A hippopotamus walks across a flooded street in Tbilisi on June 14, 2015. (Beso Gulashvili/AFP)

Soldiers who beat up Palestinian disciplined by bridgade commander

The IDF disciplined several soldiers after an incident over the weekend in which they were filmed beating up a Palestinian protester in the Jilazoun Refugee Camp near Ramallah.

One soldier was recorded calling the Palestinian by a swear word and was denied leave for 30 days. Two soldiers filmed beating up the man were given a suspended sentence of 28 days in a military jail. The platoon commander was reprimanded by the commander of the Kfir Brigade.

The military decided not to open a Military Police investigation against the soldiers but instead swiftly tried them in their unit and took disciplinary measures against them.

The Kfir Brigade commander, Col. Asher Ben Lulu, said the incident took place at the end of a violent protest in which Palestinians hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails at the soldiers and after the commanding officer at the scene was hit in the face by a rock.

Ben Lulu said the Palestinian seen in the clip created a deliberate provocation when he ignored their calls to stop approaching and grabbed the gun of one of them.

Egypt refers 58 Islamists to military trial

Egypt refers 58 Islamists suspected of links with the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood to a military court over alleged “terrorist attacks” against the police and public property.

The authorities have waged a deadly crackdown against the Brotherhood since the army overthrew Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, and accuse the movement of being behind attacks against security forces.

Prosecutors accuse the 58 Islamists, 37 of whom are in custody, of working for the Brotherhood and carrying out “terrorist attacks” between August 2013 and October 2014.

They are charged with “attempted murder of police officers, acts of sabotage against public buildings and property, resisting security forces and vandalism,” a prosecution statement says.

It says the accused wanted to deal a blow to the Egyptian economy, already battered by years of political turmoil, and sow terror among the people.

— AFP

Hyper Cacher hero honored in NY

The Muslim store employee who saved 15 French Jews during the terrorist attack on a kosher supermarket is honored in New York.

Lassana Bathily was feted on Friday by New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, who presented him with an official city proclamation honoring him for his actions in the Hyper Cacher attack in Paris on January 9.

Bathily, a Muslim immigrant from Mali who worked at the kosher supermarket, was in the basement when a gunman entered the store. He hid Jewish shoppers, including a 2-year-old child, in the supermarket freezer.

Paris kosher supermarket employee Lassana Bathily (screen capture: YouTube)

Bathily was flown to New York to be honored at the annual scholarship dinner of the NYPD Muslim Officers Society, the New York Daily News reported.

De Blasio called Bathily a “real hero” who “stood up to protect human life even when his own life is in danger,” according to the newspaper. The meeting took place at the Islamic Center of Brighton Beach.

— JTA

Hotovely says Israel may absorb Druze refugees

Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely says Israel will consider absorbing some Syrian Druze refugees, if their lives are placed in considerable danger.

She tells Israel Radio that the State of Israel is deeply committed to its Druze community, and will do everything it can to protect their brethren across the border.

Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Case closed against cop who beat Ethiopian soldier

Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein decides to end the investigation against a police officer who was filmed beating IDF soldier Damas Pakada in April. The video clip sparked a wave of protests from members of the Ethiopian-Israeli community against racism and police brutality.

The cop who assaulted Pakada without provocation won’t be charged, according to Hebrew media reports. The attorney general decided to leave the case to the discretion of the Israel Police disciplinary board, rather than pursue criminal charges.

Video footage showing policemen pummeling an Ethiopian-born IDF soldier, Damas Pakada, who alleged he was the target of a racist attack. (screen capture: YouTube)

Anti-Semitic joke backfires for Spanish official

An anti-Semitic joke that a newly elected official from the Spanish Indignados (Outraged) movement tweeted in 2011 unleashes a storm of criticism Sunday, a day after his group took over the Madrid city council.

Guillermo Zapata, who was chosen to become the capital city’s cultural councillor, closes down his Twitter account and apologizes for the damage he caused.

But the hashtag #ZapataDemision (Resign, Zapata) went viral in Spain, just one day after activists from the Indignados movement that organized mass street protests in 2011 became mayors in Madrid and Barcelona.

Zapata had made deeply offensive jokes about the Holocaust and gas chambers used by the Nazis during the World War II. In another tweet, he had also taken aim at a victim of an attack by Basque separatist group ETA.

In a statement posted on social media platform Tumblr on Sunday, Zapata apologizes, and says his jokes had been prompted by a debate on “the limits of humor.”

Claiming he does not identify with the content of his own tweets, Zapata says he was taking part in an online debate prompted by the sacking of a columnist of national daily El Pais, after he made a joke denying the Holocaust.

“Now some of those tweets, which were written within the context of a conversation on black humor, have been recovered with the goal of presenting them as though they represented my ideas — while in fact I do not defend them at all,” Zapata writes.

“I firmly condemn all forms of racism, and, of course, anti-Semitism. I believe the Jewish Holocaust teaches us a lesson that humanity must never forget, so that it is never repeated,” he adds.

— AFP

Turkey reopens border to Syrian refugees

Turkey begins accepting onto its territory Syrian refugees fleeing the battle between Kurds and Islamic State jihadists from the Syrian border town of Tal Abyad, an AFP photographer says.

Dozens of Syrian refugees, many carrying sacks of possessions, start passing through the Akcakale border gate onto Turkish territory as thousands more await their turn to cross on other side.

Syrians carry belongings back to the city center of the Syrian town of Tal Abyad, as seen from Turkey at the Turkish crossing of Akcakale in the southeast Sanliurfa province, on June 13, 2015. (AFP PHOTO / BULENT KILIC)

— AFP

Kurds advance to gates of key IS-held town

Kurdish militia advance Sunday to the gates of a strategic jihadist-held town on Syria’s northern border with Turkey amid fierce fighting with the Islamic State group, a local commander tells AFP.

“The clashes are ongoing now on the eastern edges of Tal Abyad, 50 meters (yards) from the town. We are fighting for control of the first checkpoint,” says Hussein Khojer, a commander with the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).

Tal Abyad lies on the Syrian-Turkish border and is used by IS as a gateway from Turkey into its bastion province of Raqa.

In this photo released on May 20, 2015, Kurdish fighters of the YPG flash victory signs as they sit on their pickup truck on their way to battle against the Islamic State group, near Kezwan mountain, northeast Syria. (The Kurdish fighters of the People’s Protection Units via AP)

“This advance comes after three days of very fierce fighting in the area,” Khojer says, adding that several Syrian rebel factions were fighting alongside the YPG.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirms the advance, telling AFP that the YPG had reached the town’s southeastern edges.

“They have reached the southeastern entrance of Tal Abyad, but they have not entered the town yet,” says Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.

— AFP

Lawyer slams AG’s ‘bizarre’ decision to drop Pakada case

The lawyer representing IDF soldier Damas Pakada slams the attorney general’s decision to drop the case against the cop who assaulted Pakada.

“This is a bizarre decision, full of internal contradictions which are not in line with the truth,” Eyal Abulafiya says, according to the Walla news website.

“The attorney general claims that Damas struck the cop first, and contradicts this later in his decision. Does the attorney general think the public is stupid or blind? Did he see a different video? It seems he tried to reach a solution that would appease the police,” he says.

Abulafiya vows to appeal the decision and bring the cop — who has not been named — to justice.

US Navy names ship for Jewish ex-rep

The US Navy christens a combat ship named after former US Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona.

Jill Biden, the wife of Vice President Joe Biden, broke a bottle of sparkling wine across the ship’s bow during the naming ceremony Saturday at the Austal USA shipyard in Mobile, Alabama.

Giffords stepped down from her congressional seat in January 2012 to recover from being shot in the head a year earlier at a political event in Tucson, Arizona. Six people were killed in the shooting by a lone gunman, including a 9-year-old girl.

Former Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, September 6, 2012 (AP/Charles Dharapak)

She and her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly, founded an organization that lobbies in support of gun control. Giffords was the first Jewish woman elected to statewide office in Arizona.

“The christening of the future USS Gabrielle Giffords marks the beginning of what is certain to be a long life for this great ship,” says Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus. “It is also a celebration of the skill and dedication of the men and women who have built LCS 10 and the courage of her namesake. This ship truly embodies the Navy motto of Semper Fortis — Always Courageous.”

—JTA

Hamas demands release of hunger-striking prisoners

Hamas calls for the immediate release of hunger-striking prisoners held by Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Gaza’s former Hamas premier Ismail Haniyeh appeals for the release of Khadar Adnan, who was imprisoned without trial by Israel and has been refusing food for about 40 days.

He also calls for the release of Islam Hamad, who has been held by Hamas’s rival in the West Bank and has been reportedly on hunger strike for 63 days.

Adnan is being held in “administrative detention”, a procedure under which Israel holds Palestinian prisoners indefinitely for renewable six-month periods.

Haniyeh says Israel “arrests and kills our sons and our brothers, while our brothers [Palestinian Authority] use the same means.”

— AFP

Israeli actor likens Likud voters to cattle

Speaking at an emergency cultural meeting in Jaffa focused on recent political steps by Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Culture Minister Miri Regev, Israeli actor Oded Kotler slams the latter.

“Imagine your world is quiet — without books, without music, without poems, a world where no one disturbs you and no one stops the nation from celebrating the 30 [Knesset] seats which are followed by a herd of straw and cud-munching cattle,” he says, referencing Regev’s Likud party, which won 30 seats in the last election.

The speech is met with applause from the crowd.

Erdogan lays out coalition plans

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Sunday he would ask Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) to form a coalition government, after it lost its overall majority in legislative elections.

Should the AKP fail in the talks, Erdogan says he would then ask the second-placed opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) to form the government.

And only if those talks failed, Erdogan says, would he use his right within the constitution to call early elections.

“It is unthinkable that the country is left without a government,” Erdogan tells Turkish media aboard his presidential plane while returning from a trip to Azerbaijan.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attends a news conference during a meeting with Romania’s President at the Cotroceni Palace in Bucharest on April 1, 2015. (photo credit: AFP PHOTO / DANIEL MIHAILESCU)

“I will first give the mandate (for talks) to the head of the political party that won the most votes,” he says, referring to Prime Minister and AKP leader Ahmet Davutoglu.

“If it (a coalition) cannot be established, I will then give the mandate to the head of the party that finished second,” he says, referring to CHP chief Kemal Kilicdaroglu.

Erdogan says snap elections would then follow if these talks failed, but says he preferred to term them “repeat elections” rather than “early elections.”

— AFP

Regev condemns actor’s ‘cattle’ remark

Culture Minister Miri Regev says Israeli actor Oded Kotler’s remark — likening Likud voters to “a herd of straw and cud-munching cattle” — reveals the “ugly and patronizing face of the speaker, Oded Kotler and some of the participants who clapped for him,” Channel 2 reports.

Minister of Culture and Sport Miri Regev speaks at the ministry on the day of her appointment, May 17, 2015. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Herzog criticizes Kotler for ‘cattle’ comment

Zionist Union chairman Isaac Herzog says Oded Kotler’s comment “has absolutely nothing in common with culture, love of mankind or pluralism.”

“Artists, too, need to know that in [taking part in] a difficult and justified argument we must remain civil and respect those who think differently,” he says. “Even when that position drives you out of your wits.”

Opposition leader Isaac Herzog seen during a Zionist Union party meeting at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem on June 1, 2015. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)