Aug. 29: Gallant urges adding safe return of displaced northerners to war aims

IDF says it struck gunmen who hijacked aid convoy in southern Gaza

The IDF says it carried out a strike against a group of gunmen who hijacked an aid convoy in the southern Gaza Strip earlier today.

According to the military, a convoy of aid trucks from the American Near East Refugee Aid (Anera) organization entered the southern Rafah area with IDF coordination.

During the drive, “armed men took over a vehicle at the front of the convoy (a jeep) and began to lead it,” the military says.

Shortly after the hijacking, the IDF says it was able to determine that it could strike only the car with the gunmen, without harming the rest of the convoy. It then carried out the strike.

“There was no damage to the other vehicles in the convoy and it reached its destination according to the plan. The attack on the armed men removed the threat of them taking over the humanitarian convoy,” the IDF says.

The military says representatives from the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) unit spoke with members of Anera, who “confirmed that all the members of the organization who were part of the convoy, and the humanitarian aid, were safe and sound and reached their destination safely.”

“The presence of armed men in a humanitarian convoy without coordination is against the procedures and makes it difficult to secure the convoys and their workers and thus also harms the humanitarian effort in Gaza,” the IDF adds.

Pennsylvania Supreme Court rules in favor of Jewish family in free speech dispute over anti-hate signs

A Jewish family had the free-speech right to blanket their yard with signs decrying hate and racism after their next-door neighbor hurled an antisemitic slur at them during a property dispute 10 years ago, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court rules.

The court decides Simon and Toby Galapo were exercising their rights under the Pennsylvania Constitution when they erected protest signs on their property and pointed them squarely at the neighbor’s house in the Philadelphia suburbs — a total of 23 signs over a span of years — with messages such as “Hitler Eichmann Racists,” “No Place 4 Racism” and “Woe to the Racists. Woe to the Neighbors.”

A Montco family sued their neighbors over lawn signs that protested an antisemitic slur. A decade later, the Pa. Supreme Court said the signs were legal. https://t.co/0guvpE5zQo

— Philly Daily News (@PhillyDailyNews) August 28, 2024

“All homeowners at one point or another are forced to gaze upon signs they may not like on their neighbors’ property — be it ones that champion a political candidate, advocate for a cause, or simply express support or disagreement with some issue,” Justice Kevin Dougherty writes for the court’s 4-2 majority. He says suppressing such speech would “mark the end to residential expression.”

In a dissent, Justice Kevin Brobson says judges have the authority to “enjoin residential speech… that rises to the level of a private nuisance and disrupts the quiet enjoyment of a neighbor’s home.”

The neighbors’ ongoing feud over a property boundary and “landscaping issues” came to a head in November 2014 when a member of the Oberholtzer family directed an antisemitic slur at Simon Galapo, according to court documents. By the following June, the Galapo family had put up what would be the first of numerous signs directed at the Oberholtzer property.

The Oberholtzers filed suit, seeking an order to prohibit their neighbors from erecting signs “containing false, incendiary words, content, innuendo and slander.” Simon Galapo testified that he wanted to make a statement about antisemitism and racism, teach his children to fight it, and change his neighbors’ behavior.

Israeli doctors demand hostages be included in UN’s polio vaccine campaign in Gaza

People walk next to pictures of Israelis held hostage by Hamas terrorists in Gaza, in Jerusalem, August 22, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

The head of Israel’s association of public health physicians is calling on the United Nations to make sure that Israeli hostages held in Gaza are included in an upcoming polio vaccination campaign.

In a letter to the directors of the World Health Organization and UNICEF, Dr. Hagai Levine notes that two young brothers, Kfir Bibas, 1, and Ariel Bibas, 5, are among the hostages. He also says many of the adult hostages are overdue for booster shots.

“Given their vulnerable position and the lack of essential vaccinations, the hostages are at severe risk,” Levine, who also serves as head of the health division for the Hostage Families Forum umbrella group, writes in a letter.

EU foreign policy chief admits effort to sanction Israeli ministers unlikely to succeed

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell rings a bell to signify the start of a meeting of EU foreign ministers at the European Council building in Brussels, Aug. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell says he asked the bloc’s members to consider imposing sanctions on two Israeli ministers for “hate messages” against Palestinians, but admits there is no unanimity, which is required to move ahead with sanctions.

Borrell does not name either of the ministers, but in recent weeks he has publicly criticized National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich for statements he has described as “sinister” and “an incitement to war crimes.”

Borrell says EU foreign ministers held an initial discussion about his proposal at a meeting in Brussels today. He admits that there was no unanimity — which would be required to impose sanctions — but the debate would continue.

“The ministers will decide. It’s up to them, as always. But the process has been launched,” he tells reporters.

He says he had proposed that the Israeli ministers be sanctioned for violations of human rights. EU sanctions generally mean a ban on travel to the bloc and a freeze on assets held in the EU.

Diplomats say it is unlikely the EU would find the necessary unanimous agreement among its 27 members to impose sanctions on Israeli government ministers. Ireland, one of the EU’s most pro-Palestinian members, said it backed Borrell’s suggestion, but Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani dismissed the idea.

Israeli Paralympic gold medalist says ‘this is the minimum I can do for my country’

Israel's Asaf Yasur celebrates after winning a gold medal in taekwondo at the 2024 Paris Paralympics on August 29, 2024. (Lilach Weiss-Rosenberg)

Paralympic gold medalist Asaf Yasur says he is overjoyed with his win at the Paris Games, and dedicates the medal to his “beloved country.”

“There is no one happier than me, I have no words,” he says in an interview with Israel’s Sport5 broadcaster just minutes after his victory. “Thank you to my team, to my family who came, to the people of Israel who supported me, to all the people who took part in my journey to this point today.”

Yasur, 22, says he came into the day’s competitions saying “I want the gold, I’m going to fight for the gold, nobody will take it from me, and I fought for it.” The athlete says he faced a tough competitor in the final round in Turkey’s Ali Can Ozcan, “we both fought and the better man won.”

The athlete notes that it’s been almost a decade since he lost both his arms in an electrocution accident, “but let’s put that aside. I went through rehab, I went through a lot and today I’m an athlete in every sense.”

Yasur notes that three of his brothers are combat soldiers who spent significant time fighting over the past year during Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza as well as on the northern front, and they “give me so much strength.”

“With everything my country is going through… this is the minimum I can do for my country,” he says. “I pray that the hostages will come home, all of them, every one, that the soldiers will return home to their families healthy and whole, so that this war will end.”

The medal around his neck, he says, “is dedicated to my beloved country.”

State tells High Court conditions at Sde Teiman are greatly improved, only 24 being held there

Far-right activists protest against the detention of nine Israeli reserve soldiers suspected of abusing a Hamas terror suspect, at the Sde Teiman military base near Beersheba, July 29, 2024. (Dudu Greenspan/Flash90)

The state tells the High Court of Justice that it has greatly improved conditions at the now notorious Sde Teiman detention facility, and that standards of medical care and the provision of food comport with relevant government regulations.

According to the latest submission to the court in response to a petition from human rights groups calling for the facility to be shuttered due to the allegations of severe abuse against Sde Teiman inmates, there are now 24 detainees being held at the detention center, down from 28 at the beginning of August.

Of those however, 10 were brought to Sde Teiman in the last four days, seven of whom are still in the process of “preliminary in interrogation” and are being held in restraints, meaning either handcuffed, blindfolded or both.

Such restraints are used for no longer than four days after being brought to the facility, the state says, unless in “exceptional circumstances.”

One of the seven under “preliminary interrogation” is a minor and will be transferred to Ofer Prison after his questioning is completed, the state says.

The state adds that detainees are being provided with food in accordance with a “food chart” devised by a professional nutritionist in the IDF’s Technological and Logistics Directorate.

The submission also asserts that medical treatment provided at Sde Teiman is commensurate with “accepted medical standards” and “Health Ministry regulations,” adding that medical procedures requiring anesthesia are conducted either with full or partial anesthetic provided by an anesthesiologist “in accordance with professional protocols” used in public hospitals.

The state also tells the court that a new facility at Sde Teiman with conditions similar to that of the long-established military prison at Camp Ofer will be opened on September 17, and that this, together with the improvements at the original detention center, means the petition should be rejected.

Allegations of severe human rights abuses at Sde Teiman against Palestinian detainees emerged in recent months, with several media outlets and NGOs reporting an extreme use of physical restraints, amputations due to prolonged use of handcuffs, beatings and neglect of medical problems at the facility.

One IDF reservist soldier has already been indicted for suspected abuse at the facility, while five others are currently subject to pre-indictment legal proceedings and under house arrest on suspicion of sodomizing a detainee with an object, and other abuses.

Asaf Yasur wins gold in taekwondo, Israel’s first Paralympic medal in Paris

Israeli taekwondo athlete Asaf Yasur celebrates after a win at the 2024 Paris Paralympics on August 29, 2024. (Lilach Weiss-Rosenberg)

Israeli taekwondo athlete Asaf Yasur beats Turkey’s Ali Can Ozcan 18-12 in the final of the men’s under-58kg weight class at the Paris 2024 Paralympics, winning a gold medal.

It marks Israel’s first medal at the Paralympic Games, which began today following last night’s opening ceremony.

Following the match, the two athletes — who have faced each other in the past — exchange a friendly arm pat.

Earlier, Yasur beat Thailand’s Thanwa Kaenkham 23-6 in the quarterfinals and then won against Taiwan’s Xiang Wen Xiao 16-6 in the semifinal.

Yasur, 22, lost both of his arms in an electrocution accident while trying to retrieve a lost ball shortly before his 13th birthday. He arrived at the Paris Games ranked 1st in the world in his weight class after winning two gold medals at subsequent world championships.

Rejecting IDF claims, Palestinian pollster says ‘highly unlikely’ Hamas falsified its results, but vows to probe

Khalil Shikaki, the director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, at his office in Ramallah, June 14, 2011. (Yossi Zamir/Flash90)

Prominent Palestinian pollster Khalil Shikaki says it is “highly unlikely” that Hamas falsified the results of polls conducted in Gaza by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR), which he heads, rejecting claims by the IDF based on documents it said it found in Gaza.

“Our Gaza team worked with us for more than 20 years. But we will investigate all claims as part of a commitment to ensure full quality control,” Shikaki tells The Times of Israel.

Earlier today, the IDF claimed that it found evidence that the terror group was conducting clandestine actions to fraudulently influence the results of the polls, but said that the documents do not prove that PCPSR was cooperating with Hamas.

Shikaki maintains that the IDF claim is part of a “battle over narratives” between the military and the terror group.

“The center does not involve itself in politics, which is how I view this, the army against Hamas in the battle over narratives,” Shikaki says.

An alleged Hamas document released by the IDF shows the results of a PCPSR poll from March 2024, with both the original data and the falsified numbers. The published poll showed 71% of Palestinians supporting the October 7 Hamas attack, while the IDF says the actual data showed support from just 30.7% of respondents.

TV report claims early October documents show Shin Bet believed Hamas was deterred; agency slams ‘selective’ quotations

Two top secret Shin Bet documents, produced three or four days before October 7, indicate the degree to which “the conception” that Hamas was deterred from attacking Israel held sway in the agency, Channel 12 news claims.

The Shin Bet, in response, tells Channel 12 that its report is quoting “selective” excerpts from the documents that deliberately misrepresent their content.

The documents were produced after disturbances at the Gaza border fence and efforts to place mines at the fence and blow it up, shortly before the Hamas invasion and massacre on October 7, the TV report says. It does not quote a source and does not say to whom the documents were conveyed.

The report quotes one of the documents stating that “the renewal of understandings between Israel and Hamas on security quiet [between Gaza and Israel] in return for concessions will enable the preservation of public order for a protracted period. Hamas is maintaining [Yahya] Sinwar’s strategy — advancing the organization’s goals without getting involved in a round of fighting.”

A second quoted excerpt states: “The latest episode of friction [at the fence] ended in what Hamas considers to be a positive fashion because it attained economic achievements without being dragged into a military confrontation. We should seek a framework that will include significant dividends for the Strip in order to preserve the quiet.”

Channel 12 says the Shin Bet, in a response, confirmed the accuracy of the quotations but said that the excerpts were misrepresentative. For instance, the excerpts leave out the fact that the reference to a “framework” regarding the Strip related to efforts to advance a deal for four pre-October 7 captive and missing Israelis.” The selective quotes, the agency added, “omitted from the same sentence a clear statement by the head of the Shin Bet that ‘high alert must be maintained for a round of fighting amid an emergency on the [Gaza] front.'”

In its response, the Shin Bet also said that it will present all the “warnings and recommendations it conveyed to the political echelon to a state commission of inquiry” into the events surrounding October 7. There, it said, this material will be presented “in full, rather than excerpts from documents.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has to date rejected calls to establish such a commission.

The TV report says the Shin Bet’s position is that, unlike the IDF, it never declared that Hamas was deterred from a major attack on Israel. According to the Shin Bet, the TV report says, it recommended directly targeting figures in Hamas on October 1, but this demand was not accepted.

Hamas says it will cooperate with humanitarian pauses to facilitate polio vaccine drive

A worker unloads a shipment of polio vaccines provided with support from UNICEF to the Gaza Strip through Kerem Shalom, at a depot belonging to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry on August 25, 2024. (Eyad BABA / AFP)

A Hamas official indicated the terror group will cooperate with limited humanitarian pauses in fighting in Gaza to allow for a widespread polio vaccination campaign.

Hamas official Basem Naim tells Reuters: “We are ready to cooperate with international organizations to secure this campaign, serving and protecting more than 650,000 Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip.”

Earlier this week, Israel coordinated the entry of 25,100 vials of the polio vaccine to Gaza via the Kerem Shalom Crossing, enough to inoculate 1,255,000 people, just over half of the Strip’s population.

The IDF did not immediately comment on the move, announced by the World Health Organization, but it has previously established a number of “tactical pauses” in military activity in certain areas to enable the delivery and distribution of humanitarian aid.

Interior minister backs state commission into October 7, warning against civilian probe

Interior Minister Moshe Arbel attends a Knesset committee in Jerusalem on April 1, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Interior Minister Moshe Arbel of Shas issues a call to establish a state commission of inquiry into the October 7 attack, expressing concern that the independent civilian commission of inquiry could be exposing sensitive security information.

In a letter to Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, Arbel says he is concerned that documents and testimony brought in front of the private commission — in particular today by Opposition Leader and former prime minister Yair Lapid — “are violating information security laws” and potentially obstructing justice.

Arbel says that while he personally backs establishing a state commission — something Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected — a delay in any such investigation should not allow for the reveal of classified information.

In response, the civilian commission of inquiry says that if the government establishes a state investigation, it will halt its activities, but until then it will continue ahead with its probe.

Gallant reportedly telling ministers they must push for a deal or face imminent danger of multi-front war

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (center), Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (2R) and others at the 'pit' at the military headquarters in Tel Aviv, early on August 25, 2024. (Maayan Toaf/Defense Ministry)

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is presenting the security cabinet this evening with a document he drew up in recent days urging a hostage-ceasefire deal and detailing the potentially dire consequences for Israel of a failure to finalize such a deal, Channel 12 reports.

The report, citing an unnamed political source, says Gallant has shown the document to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and very few other senior officials and that he says it represents the view of the “defense establishment.”

The document reportedly presents Israel as standing at a “strategic crossroads.”

If Israel accepts and is able to finalize a ceasefire-hostage deal, this would not only achieve the return of the hostages, Gallant’s document reportedly states, but also enable a diplomatic arrangement to calm hostilities with Hezbollah across the northern border and prevent regional war. It could also impact Iran’s declared intention to avenge the killing of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last month.

In not going for a deal, by contrast, Gallant’s document reportedly warns, Israel would be leaving the hostages in captivity and would face the danger of an “imminent deterioration into multi-front war.”

Channel 12 notes that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, intent on fomenting a multi-front war against Israel, might therefore be expected to reject a deal for the very reasons that Gallant is pressing Netanyahu and Israel to accept it.

The report adds that a working-level Israeli delegation remains in Qatar and is making progress on various issues in the potential deal. But the talks are not focusing on Netanyahu’s demands — rejected by Hamas — for an ongoing Israeli presence at the Philadelphi corridor on the Gaza-Egypt border, to prevent Hamas from rearming across the border, and for a mechanism to prevent armed Hamas gunmen from returning to northern Gaza across the Netzarim Corridor. Israel’s security chiefs are widely reported to have assured Netanyahu that Israel can afford to withdraw troops from both those corridors in the context of a deal, while Netanyahu has reportedly adamantly rejected this assessment.

The TV report says the Americans are pushing the sides to wrap up everything, except for those two intractable issues, by next week. Then they will go to Israel and Hamas, present them with the deal as it stands, and push them to resolve the Philadelphi and Netzarim issues. If the sides fail to do so, the report says, the Americans will present their own compromise on the two disputed issues and demand the sides accept it. If one or other does not, the Americans will publicly assign blame.

Israeli Paralympian Ami Dadaon finishes 5th in first swimming final of Paris Games

Israeli Paralympian Ami Dadaon swims in the men's 50m breaststroke at the Paris Games on August 29, 2024. (Keren Isaacson)

Israeli Paralympic swimmer Ami Dadaon finishes fifth in the men’s 50m breaststroke in the SB3 disability class.

Dadaon, 23, is slated to also swim in the men’s 100m freestyle, 150m individual medley, 200m freestyle and 50m freestyle throughout the Games. The breaststroke is considered his weaker event.

Dadaon won three medals at the Tokyo Games — gold in the 50m freestyle, silver in the 150m individual medley and gold in the 200m freestyle, setting a world record. Dadaon, who was born with cerebral palsy, began swimming at age 6.

Iran’s president orders investigation after activists alleged police tortured man to death

Iran’s president orders an investigation into the death of a man in custody after activists allege he was tortured to death by police officers in the country’s north, the latest such fatality to gain the nation’s attention.

The order came from reformist Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, elected last month, who campaigned on a promise to halt such deaths in custody. In 2022, the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by the morality police for allegedly not wearing her headscarf correctly, sparked nationwide protests.

In the latest case, five police officers have already been temporarily detained as the investigation is ongoing.

Activists identified the dead man as 36-year-old Mohammad Mir Mousavi from the city of Lahijan in Gilan province, near the Caspian Sea. They say he was arrested on Saturday following a street brawl and died on Tuesday.

Police and the government offered few details on why the authorities chose to investigate Mousavi’s death.

IDF says documents found in Gaza show Hamas was falsifying prominent polling results

A handout IDF infographic it says is based on documents it located in the Gaza Strip showing falsified polling information. (IDF)

The IDF has recovered Hamas documents from the Gaza Strip that it says prove the terror group has been secretly falsifying the results of polls conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR).

Still, the IDF says that the documents do not prove that PCPSR was cooperating with Hamas, but rather that the terror group was conducting clandestine actions to fraudulently influence the results of the polls.

PCPSR is run by prominent Palestinian pollster Khalil Shikaki.

According to the IDF, the documents it recovered in Gaza “prove an extensive effort by the terror organization to falsify the results of [the PCPSR] polls, to create a false representation of the Gazan public’s support for the terror organization, especially after the massacre on October 7.”

An alleged Hamas document released by the IDF on August 29, 2024, appears to show how the terror group falsified polls by PCPSR. (Israel Defense Forces)

“These documents are part of a systematic process, the purpose of which is to disguise the collapse of the organization, and the collapse of public support for it,” the IDF accuses.

The military says the documents “emphasize the importance that the Hamas terror organization sees in the results of the polls, to falsify Palestinian support and to influence the Palestinian public and Arab and international public opinion.”

An alleged Hamas document released by the IDF shows the results of a PCPSR poll from March 2024, with both the original data and the falsified numbers. The published poll showed 71% of Palestinians supporting the October 7 Hamas attack, while the IDF says the actual data showed support from just 30.7% of respondents.

“The documents show that the falsified results are in favor of the organization and its leaders, with an emphasis on Yahya Sinwar,” the military says.

WHO says Israel has agreed to limited ‘humanitarian pauses’ to allow for Gaza polio vaccine drive

Polio vaccines arrive at the Kerem Shalom border crossing with the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel, August 25, 2024. (COGAT)

The World Health Organization (WHO) has “a preliminary commitment for area specific humanitarian pauses” in fighting in the Gaza Strip to allow for a polio vaccination campaign to be carried out, a senior WHO official says.

The United Nations is preparing to vaccinate an estimated 640,000 children in Gaza, where the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed on August 23 that at least one baby has been paralyzed by the type 2 polio virus, the first such case in the territory in 25 years.

Described as “humanitarian pauses” that will last three days in different areas of the war-ravaged territory, the vaccination campaign will start Sunday in central Gaza, says Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative in the Palestinian territories.

The IDF did not immediately comment. Amid the war, the military has frequently announced “tactical pauses” in military activity in certain areas to enable the delivery and distribution of humanitarian aid.

Earlier this week, Israel said it delivered 25,100 vials of the polio vaccine to Gaza via the Kerem Shalom Crossing, enough to inoculate 1,255,000 people, just over half of the Strip’s population.

Taekwondo Paralympian Asaf Yasur wins semifinal, securing silver or gold medal for Israel

Israeli taekwondo athlete Asaf Yasur (blue) competes at the 2024 Paris Paralympics on August 29, 2024. (Lilach Weiss-Rosenberg)

Israeli taekwondo athlete Asaf Yasur beats Taiwan’s Xiang Wen Xiao 16-6 in the semifinal of the men’s under-58kg in the Paris Paralympics, advancing to the final and securing Israel’s first medal of the Games.

In the final, to be held later tonight, Yasur will face either Azerbaijan’s Sabir Zeynalov or Turkey’s Alican Özcan, where he is guaranteed to walk away with either silver or gold.

Yasur, 22, lost both of his arms in an electrocution accident shortly before his 13th birthday. Paris marks his Paralympic debut, after he narrowly missed out on qualifying for the Tokyo Games.

Earlier, Israel’s Nina Gorodetzky lost to Switzerland’s Cynthia Mathez in her opening badminton match in the group round, and will face Japan’s Sarina Satomi tomorrow.

Gallant says war goals must ‘expand’ to include safe return of evacuated northern residents

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (center) holds a meeting in his office, August 29, 2024. (Shahar Keinan/Defense Ministry)

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant holds a meeting with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi and other defense officials to discuss “expanding the goals of the war” in light of the fighting in northern Israel.

“The task on the northern front is still ahead of us, the safe return of the residents. To meet this goal we must expand the goals of the war. I will bring the issue before the prime minister and the cabinet,” Gallant says in remarks provided by his office.

Currently, Israel’s official war aims are dismantling Hamas in Gaza and returning the hostages abducted by the terror group on October 7.

However, the IDF’s efforts to return the estimated 60,000 displaced Israelis from northern Israel back to their homes amid Hezbollah’s daily attacks has also been considered a war goal among many officials.

FM Katz accuses Iran of smuggling weapons into West Bank via Jordan

Foreign Minister Israel Katz awaits the arrival of his French and British counterparts at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem, August 16, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Foreign Minister Israel Katz accuses Iran of attempting to establish an “eastern terror front” against Israel via Jordan.

Katz — who has faced some criticism for his style of online diplomatic attacks — publishes an AI-generated image showing Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei as an octopus with many tentacles.

The foreign minister claims that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is smuggling weapons from Syria into Jordan, “attempting to destabilize the regime and turn the Israel-Jordan border from a peaceful one into a volatile front.” The weapons are then brought into the West Bank, he adds, “where an Iranian-Hamas terror infrastructure is being established.”

Katz calls for a security fence to be built “quickly” along the Israel-Jordan border, something that has been promised for more than a decade by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu but has been dismissed by security officials as a pipe dream.

Iran is working to establish an eastern terror front against Israel through special units of the IRGC, involved in smuggling weapons, funding, and directing terror organizations.

In the first stage, they smuggle weapons into the Kingdom of Jordan, mainly through the Syrian… pic.twitter.com/uO3Rw7iBGG

— ישראל כ”ץ Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) August 29, 2024

UN watchdog says Iran is continuing production of highly enriched uranium

Centrifuges line a hall at the Uranium Enrichment Facility in Natanz, Iran, in a still image from a video aired by the Islamic Republic Iran Broadcasting company on April 17, 2021, six days after the hall had been damaged in a mysterious attack. (IRIB via AP)

Iran’s production of highly enriched uranium continues and it has not improved cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog despite a resolution demanding this at the agency’s last board meeting, watchdog reports seen by Reuters show.

Iran’s stock of uranium in the form of uranium hexafluoride enriched to up to 60% purity, close to the roughly 90% of weapons-grade, grew an estimated 22.6 kilograms to 164.7 kilograms, one of the two confidential quarterly International Atomic Energy Agency reports sent to member states says.

According to an IAEA yardstick, that is 2 kilograms short of being enough, in theory, if enriched further, for four nuclear bombs.

Scientists say Gazan baby with polio infected with mutated strain due to WHO ‘failure’

Displaced infant Abdel-Rahman Abu El-Jedian, who suffers from polio, sleeps at a makeshift tent camp in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, Aug. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

A baby in Gaza who was recently paralyzed by polio was infected with a mutated strain of the virus that vaccinated people shed in their waste, according to scientists who say the case is the result of “an unqualified failure” of public health policy.

The infection, which marks the first detection of polio in the Strip in more than 25 years, paralyzed the lower part of one leg in the unvaccinated 10-month-old child. The baby boy was one of hundreds of thousands of children who missed vaccinations because of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

Scientists who have been monitoring polio outbreaks say the baby’s illness shows the failures of a global effort by the World Health Organization and its partners to fix serious problems in their otherwise largely successful eradication campaign, which has nearly wiped out the highly infectious disease.

The polio strain in question evolved from a weakened virus that was originally part of an oral vaccine credited with preventing millions of children worldwide from being paralyzed. But that virus was removed from the vaccine in 2016 in hopes of preventing vaccine-derived outbreaks.

Public health authorities knew that decision would leave people unprotected against that particular strain, but they thought they had a plan to ward off and quickly contain any outbreaks. Instead, the move resulted in a surge of thousands of cases.

Germany tightens security and asylum policies following deadly festival stabbing

After the fatal knife attack on Friday at the Solingen city festival, people lay flowers near the scene of the crime and light candles in memory of the victims in Solingen, Germany, August 25, 2024. (Gianni Gattus/dpa via AP)

Germany’s coalition government agrees to tighten security and asylum policies following a deadly stabbing attack linked to the ISIS terrorist group which has fueled far-right opposition and criticism of Berlin’s migration policies approach.

Three people were killed and eight wounded in the attack which took place during a festival marking Solingen’s 650 years. The incident has heightened political dispute over asylum and deportation rules ahead of next month’s state elections as the suspect was a failed asylum seeker from Syria.

The package introduces stricter gun regulations, including tighter ownership rules, a general ban on switchblades, and an absolute ban on knives at public events such as folk festivals, sporting events and trade fairs. Federal law officers will be authorized to use Tasers, and background checks for weapon permits will include new federal agencies to prevent extremists from obtaining weapons.

Berlin will also tighten asylum and residency laws and procedures, including lowering the threshold for “severe deportation,” when the deportee has committed a crime involving a weapon or dangerous tool. Criteria for excluding individuals from asylum or refugee status will be tightened, including harsher penalties for serious crimes, including for youth offenders.

Asylum seekers will be excluded from receiving benefits in Germany if they have claims in other European countries and refugees who travel to their home countries without compelling reasons risk losing their protection status, the document reads.

This rule would not apply to Ukrainian refugees, it says.

Turkish drone shot down by Iraqi air defenses over northern city of Kirkuk

Iraqi air defenses shot down a Turkish drone this morning over the northern city of Kirkuk, Iraqi military officials say.

The incident comes as the two countries have been attempting to develop closer economic and security ties, raising concerns amid the already volatile security situation in the region.

Brig. Gen. Abdul Salam, deputy commander of air defense, tells reporters that the drone came from the direction of Sulaymaniyah and crossed into Iraqi airspace. He says it was a Turkish drone and was shot down by the Iraqi air force in the Chiman area of Kirkuk.

The Iraqi air force says in a statement that the drone was issued a warning “according to protocol” and then was shot down by air defenses. It said the drone fell on a civilian house, causing “only material losses.”

There was no immediate comment from Turkish officials.

EU’s Red Sea mission says still no oil spill from tanker hit by Houthis

This photo released by the European Union's Operation Aspides shows fires burning aboard the oil tanker Sounion in the Red Sea on August 25, 2024. (European Union's Operation Aspides via AP)

The EU’s Red Sea naval mission Aspides says that no oil spill has been detected on the Greek-flagged oil tanker Sounion in the Red Sea, despite “multiple fires” detected on the main deck of the vessel.

The Houthis said yesterday that they had agreed to allow the towing of the Sounion, which has been on fire since Aug. 23.

The EU mission added that is ready to “facilitate any courses of action,” in coordination with European authorities and neighboring countries to avert a catastrophic environmental crisis.

Gallant says security readiness to be boosted in north, south ahead of new school year

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant attends an assembly session in the plenum hall at the Knesset, in Jerusalem on July 10, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant says he approved a plan to boost security preparedness in the north and south ahead of the new school year, which opens on Sunday.

In a statement from his office, Gallant says he held an assessment today with IDF chief Herzi Halevi and other security officials, during which it was decided to “add protective measures, increase the presence of the forces and hold a regular dialogue” with local leaders and education officials to ensure that students can study safely “even in a time of war.”

Incoming head of IDF’s Computer Service Directorate promoted to major general

Maj. Gen. Aviad Dagan (center) receives the rank of major general during a ceremony at the military headquarters in Tel Aviv, August 29, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

Aviad Dagan, the incoming chief of the IDF’s Computer Service Directorate, is promoted to the rank of major general.

Dagan, who began his military service in the Israeli Air Force, previously headed the directorate’s digital transformation division, and before that, he was the commander of the Hatzerim Airbase.

Amid the Gaza war, he has served as a navigator in the IAF’s 201st Squadron.

Dagan is due to enter the role of head of the Computer Service Directorate in the coming month, replacing Maj. Gen. Eran Niv, the IDF says.

A ceremony today is attended by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, other generals, and Dagan’s family.

Organizers of alternate October 7 memorial say it won’t clash with state-run ceremony

Relatives of Israelis held hostage by Hamas in Gaza take part in a rally for their release near the Israel-Gaza border, on August 28, 2024. (Flash90)

Amid an ongoing dispute over the official commemoration of the October 7 Hamas attack, the organizers of an alternative ceremony say they will hold their memorial at a different time than the government-run ceremony.

The families behind the alternate ceremony, who accuse the government of attempting to use the memorial to whitewash its failures before and during the attack, say their gathering is slated to start at 7:10 p.m. in Tel Aviv, and will begin with a moment’s silence.

According to reports, the state-run ceremony is expected to air at 9:15 p.m. that evening.

Many bereaved families have lambasted Likud’s Miri Regev, the overseer of the state-run ceremony, for her approach to the first anniversary of the attack. The minister has so far refused a number of compromise proposals to solve the dispute.

UK slaps travel sanctions on Hamas supporter and suspected Hezbollah financier

The British government announces it has imposed a travel ban on Mustafa Ayash, whom it sanctioned earlier this year for promoting terrorism and fundraising for Hamas through the social media channel Gaza Now, and suspected Hezbollah financier Nazem Ahmad.

The pair, who were already subject to asset freezes under domestic counterterrorism powers, now cannot enter Britain, it says.

The UN accused Israel of killing Mustafa Ayash in an airstrike in Gaza last year, but he was later arrested in Austria.

Hamas’s Rafah Brigade has ‘collapsed’ and 80% of Philadelphi tunnels neutralized, say military sources

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi (right) views a tunnel found along the Philadelphi Corridor in southern Gaza's Rafah, August 14, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

Hamas’s Rafah Brigade has “collapsed” as a result of the IDF’s ongoing offensive in the city in the southern Gaza Strip, military sources say.

The remarks come a week after Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the Rafah Brigade had been defeated.

According to the IDF, around 80% of Hamas’s tunnels along the Philadelphi Corridor, the Egypt-Gaza border area, have been neutralized.

The military has also seen Hamas operatives increasingly trying to escape from tunnels in Rafah and flee north to the Israeli-designated humanitarian zone. The IDF has successfully been ambushing Hamas gunmen in the area who have tried to flee, military sources add.

Majority of evacuated families lack school supplies, 20% don’t know where kids will go to school – survey

Residents from Kibbutz Nir Am, who were evacuated following the October 7 massacre on southern Israel, temporarily relocated at Herod's Hotel in Tel Aviv. January 3, 2024. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

Ahead of the new school year, which begins on Sunday, a survey shows that a majority of Israeli families evacuated from the northern conflict zone lack school supplies for their kids, and a significant minority don’t know which school their children will attend.

A full 60% of northern families “reported a lack of school supplies to provide for their children,” and 20% of evacuated northern parents said “they have no idea where their children will be studying come the first day of school,” according to a press release from the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ).

The IFCJ, which has provided significant assistance to evacuees, commissioned the survey from the Geocartography Group, an Israeli research institute, which conducted the online survey of over 800 adult residents, both Arab and Jewish, in August, the statement says.

The survey found that among evacuee families from the north, who have been scattered throughout Israel since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas conflict in late October, 35% of parents said their children will attend a local school where they are currently living, 32.5% said their children would attend a temporary school set up for evacuee students, and 20% were still uncertain where their children would attend school. A small minority, 2.5%, said they didn’t expect their children to attend school.

The survey also found that a full 82.5% of parents evacuated from the north said “their children are expressing more concerns and difficulties” about their situation compared to last year, and 65% said their children are “expressing higher levels of anxiety and fear.”

More than half of survey respondents felt that the high cost of living has hurt their financial ability to provide a good education for their children, and 82% of evacuated parents said they have had to cut back on buying clothes due to economic reasons.

IDF says at least 12 Palestinian gunmen killed in wide West Bank operation

IDF troops are seen amid a major operation in the West Bank, in a handout image published August 29, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

The IDF releases footage of troops neutralizing explosive devices amid an ongoing operation in the northern West Bank, during which the military says forces have so far killed at least 12 Palestinian gunmen.

The ongoing operation is focused on dismantling a Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror network in the Tulkarem area, as well as in Jenin and the Far’a camp near Tubas.

While the army says it has seen a relative decline in terror coming from the northern West Bank in recent months, it has also seen continued attempts by terror operatives to launch attacks.

After a series of smaller operations in the northern West Bank, the IDF decided to launch a more extensive operation, targeting three areas at once — Jenin, Tulkarem and Far’a — where terror operatives were seen as operating together.

The large-scale operation was also launched in part following an intended suicide bombing in Tel Aviv earlier this month. The attack was largely unsuccessful after the Hamas terrorist was killed when the bomb in his backpack exploded prematurely as he walked down a sidewalk, though one person nearby was wounded.

In the first 24 hours of the operation, the IDF says soldiers killed 12 gunmen and detained more than 10 others. Palestinian media put the toll at 17.

Five of them, including the leader of a Palestinian Islamic Jihad wing in Tulkarem’s Nur Shams camp, were killed in an exchange of fire with troops at a mosque in the West Bank city overnight. Another top member of Islamic Jihad was detained.

The IDF has carried out several drone strikes amid the operation.

Dozens of explosive devices were neutralized and weapons were also seized, the army says, releasing footage showing soldiers shooting at bombs planted along roads in the West Bank.

The IDF has also been ripping up roads in the West Bank where it says it has intelligence of explosive devices that were planted there. So far, dozens of bombs hidden underneath roads have been neutralized, the military says.

One soldier was moderately wounded and a member of the police’s Yamam counterterrorism unit was lightly hurt amid the operations, the IDF adds.

Israel Land Authority says it won’t serve demolition notice to rescued hostage

Rescued hostage Farhan al-Qadi, 52, meets his relatives and friends after arriving in the Khirbet Karkur village, near Rahat, Aug. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

An Israeli government body says that it will not serve a demolition notice to rescued hostage Farhad al-Qadi, though much of his village is slated for demolition by the state.

Al-Qadi, who was rescued on Tuesday by IDF troops from an underground Hamas tunnel in Gaza, hails from the Bedouin village of Khirbet Karkur, near Rahat. Since November, about 70% of Khirbet Karkur residents have been told the government plans to raze their homes because they were built without permits in a “protected forest” not zoned for housing, according to a lawyer representing them.

A spokesperson for the Israel Land Authority says that “in light of the situation” it will not serve a demolition notice to the al-Qadi family. But it would not comment on the plight of his neighbors or their lawyers’ efforts to save their homes.

For decades, Israel has been trying to convince scattered, off-the-grid Bedouin villagers that it is in their interest to move into government-designated Bedouin townships, where the government can provide them with water, electricity and schools. Bedouin leaders have rejected many proposals, saying they would destroy their lifestyle or send them to less desirable areas.

Hamas said to agree to 7-day truce for polio vaccinations; Egypt expects halt to last 3-5 days

Polio vaccines arrive at the Kerem Shalom border crossing with the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel, August 25, 2024. (COGAT)

Hamas has agreed to hold what it presents as a seven-day humanitarian truce in Gaza to carry out a vaccination drive against polio among the local population, the Arabic-language, London-based Al-Araby Al-Jadeed news site reports.

The outlet says Hamas spokesman Jihad Taha told it in an interview that the Palestinian terror group is urging all sides to go through with the temporary truce initiative, arguing that Israel must not be allowed to “evade or procrastinate and put in place alternatives by specifying places to start the vaccination process and not committing to any humanitarian truce.”

The outlet cites unnamed Egyptian sources as expecting a truce to kick off within days, lasting through daylight hours for 3-5 days, excluding places in the Strip where the IDF is operating.

The truce, reportedly discussed by Egypt and the US last week, would be independent of any Israel-Hamas deal, as talks have failed to yield a breakthrough.

The UN is preparing to vaccinate an estimated 640,000 children in Gaza, after the World Health Organization said a 10-month-old baby had been paralyzed by the type 2 poliovirus, the first such case in the territory in 25 years.

Last night, Channel 13 reported that Jerusalem had okayed temporary humanitarian truces in the Strip in order to facilitate polio vaccinations.

According to the report, the decision was made at US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s demand when he visited last week. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and security chiefs were said to have approved the step without updating the security cabinet ministers.

The Prime Minister’s Office denied authorizing the truce, but confirmed it had okayed “designating certain areas in the Strip.” It claimed the move was presented in the security cabinet and got its support.

CIA official: ISIS-inspired plot to attack Taylor Swift shows aimed to kill ‘tens of thousands’

Taylor Swift performs at Wembley Stadium as part of her Eras Tour on June 21, 2024 in London. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP, File)

The suspects in the foiled plot to attack Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna earlier this month sought to kill “tens of thousands” of fans before the CIA discovered intelligence that disrupted the planning and led to arrests, the US agency’s deputy director says.

The CIA notified Austrian authorities of the scheme, which allegedly included links to the Islamic State group. The intelligence and subsequent arrests ultimately led to the cancelation of three sold-out Eras Tour shows, devastating fans who had traveled across the globe to see Swift in concert.

CIA Deputy Director David Cohen addresses the failed plot during the annual Intelligence and National Security Summit, held this week in Maryland.

“They were plotting to kill a huge number — tens of thousands of people at this concert, including I am sure many Americans — and were quite advanced in this,” Cohen says. “The Austrians were able to make those arrests because the agency and our partners in the intelligence community provided them information about what this ISIS-connected group was planning to do.”

Austrian officials have said the main suspect, a 19-year-old Austrian man, was inspired by the Islamic State group. He allegedly planned to attack outside the stadium, where upwards of 30,000 fans were expected to gather, with knives or homemade explosives. Another 65,000 fans were likely to be inside the venue. Investigators discovered chemical substances and technical devices during a raid of the suspect’s home.

Austria’s interior minister, Gerhard Karner, previously said help from other intelligence agencies was needed because Austrian investigators, unlike some foreign services, can’t legally monitor text messages.

The 19-year-old’s lawyer has said the allegations are “overacting at its best,” and contended Austrian authorities are “presenting this exaggeratedly” in order to get new surveillance powers.

Touting ‘progress,’ US official claims Israel-Hamas ceasefire talks now ‘in the nitty-gritty’

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan says the negotiations over a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages have made progress.

Speaking to reporters in Beijing, he says “the negotiators are bearing down on the details, meaning that we have advanced the discussions to a point where it’s in the nitty-gritty, and that is a positive sign of progress.”

Officials from the United States, Egypt, Qatar and Israel have held several days of talks trying to hammer out an updated proposal that could be submitted to Hamas. But there has been no sign of a breakthrough, and Israel and Hamas remain far apart on key issues.

US officials have said they are closing in on a deal, while Hamas has accused the United States of adopting unacceptable demands by Israel and trying to force them on the terror group. Officials in Egypt, one of the key mediators, have also expressed skepticism.

“At the end of the day, nothing is done until it’s done. And so we’re just going to keep working at this until we finally get the ceasefire and hostage deal across the line,” Sullivan says.

Prison staff to be fired after probe finds systematic preferential treatment given to crime boss

Crime boss Kuthair Odeh at a court hearing, undated. (Walla video screenshot: used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

The Israel Prison Service says it will fire a series of employees and implement drastic changes after concluding that staff systematically and continuously granted a prisoner preferential treatment, handing him excessive privileges that allowed him to run operations for his crime organization while behind bars.

A committee tasked by IPS chief Kobi Yaakobi with investigation the treatment of crime boss Kuthair Odeh, who has been incarcerated for years, has found he was allowed to keep many banned items in his cell, including a knife, and was granted access to guards’ rooms and control of CCTV cameras, according to an IPS statement.

Odeh received extensive benefits such as better food, toiletries and fitness items, was allowed to go out to the canteen under protection, and “led a lenient and limitless life that was met with a soft and conciliatory response from the IPS, even though he would terrorize staff members who didn’t get their commanders’ backing,” the statement says.

“Due to the gravity of the findings, the commissioner has ordered immediate administrative proceedings, including firing, for a number of prison guards and officers, at all levels,” it says, adding that from now on there will be a “clear and determined policy of governance within prisons,” while punishing those who step out of line.

Yaakobi also orders staff to end the practice of negotiating with prisoners to prevent hunger strikes and riots.

Israeli taekwondo athlete advances to Paralympic semifinal; boccia player also scores win

Israeli taekwondo athlete Asaf Yasur competes at the 2024 Paris Paralympics on August 29, 2024. (Lilach Weiss-Rosenberg)

Israeli taekwondo athlete Asaf Yasur beats Thailand’s Thanwa Kaenkham 23-6 in the quarterfinals of the under-58kg men’s class at the Paris Paralympics, advancing to the semifinal.

Yasur, 22, was seeded directly in the quarterfinal, since he is ranked first in the world in his weight class. In the semifinal this evening he will face a competitor from either Taiwan or France.

Yasur lost both of his arms in an electrocution accident a few days before his 13th birthday.

Earlier today, boccia player Nadav Levi won his first match against the Netherlands’ Marco Dekker and will tomorrow face Tunisia’s Achraf Tayahi.

Irish FM: Dublin will back recommendation for sanctions on Israeli ministers, settler groups

Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin holds a joint press conference with his Spanish and Norwegian counterparts at the the Permanent Representation of Spain to the European Union in Brussels on May 27, 2024. (Kenzo TRIBOUILLARD / AFP)

Ireland’s foreign minister says his country will back EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell’s recommendation to impose sanctions on far-right Israeli ministers, as well as on settler organizations in the West Bank “who are facilitating [the] expansion of settlements.”

Speaking at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, Micheál Martin claims Israel is targeting Palestinian people as a whole and not just the Hamas terror group with its military campaign in Gaza, adding that he wants the European Union to review its ties with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

“This is a war against Palestinians, not just against Hamas. The level of civilian casualties and dead is unconscionable,” he asserts. “It’s a war on the population. No point in trying to fudge this.”

He says a recent ruling by the International Court of Justice that Israel’s military control of Gaza and the West Bank is unlawful obliges the EU to take action.

“It cannot be business as usual,” Martin tells reporters. “It is very clear to us that international humanitarian law has been broken.”

Israel has consistently and strongly denied its actions in Gaza are aimed at anything other than eliminating the threat posed by Hamas to Israeli civilians. It has repeatedly said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools and mosques.

Ties between the EU and Israel — which are major trading partners — are governed by a so-called Association Agreement. Ireland and Spain have been pressing their EU partners to examine whether Israel has broken the rules.

Martin also says that Ireland’s transport department is looking into reports that Israel may have transported weapons through Irish airspace without permission.

“Any cargo planes carrying weapons must seek exemptions. Exemptions have not been sought in respect of any flights,” he says.

Katz slams ‘blatant lie’ after EU’s Borrell accuses him of calling for displacement of West Bank Palestinians

Foreign Minister Israel Katz waits for the arrival of his British counterpart, David Lammy, and his French counterpart, Stephane Sejourne, at the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, August 16, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Foreign Minister Israel Katz slams EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, after the latter criticized statements made yesterday by the Israeli top diplomat about the IDF’s ongoing counterterror operation in the West Bank.

In those comments yesterday, Katz tweeted that it was “a war in every sense” and that “we need to deal with the [terror] threat exactly as we deal with terror infrastructure in Gaza, including the temporary evacuation of Palestinian civilians and any other step needed.”

In an English-language version of the tweet, Katz said: “We must address this threat by all necessary means, including, in some cases of intense combat, allowing the population to temporarily evacuation [sic] from one neighborhood to another within the refugee camp to prevent civilian harm and to enable the dismantling of terror infrastructures established there.”

Today, attending an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers, Borrell said that “it is still more worrisome the call from the minister for foreign affairs of Israel to displace people from the West Bank, doing more or less the same thing that they did with the people in Gaza. This is completely unacceptable.”

In reaction, Katz tweets: “This is a blatant lie, just like his previous falsehood regarding my statements about Gaza, from which he was forced to retract. I oppose the displacement of any population from their homes.”

Several attack drones impact in Golan, IDF says; no casualties immediately reported

Several explosive-laden drones launched from Lebanon impacted in the northern Golan Heights a short while ago, according to the IDF.

Suspected drone sirens had sounded in the northern communities of Ein Qiniyye, Kela and Sha’al during the incident.

There are no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

Media names hostage who died next to rescued captive al-Qadi as Aryeh Zalmanovich

Aryeh Zalmanovich. (Courtesy)

After a former Rahat mayor said rescued hostage Farhan al-Qadi had told him another captive died next to him at one point during his time in Gaza, Hebrew media names that hostage as Aryeh Zalmanovich, 85, whose death was confirmed in December.

There is no comment from the Israel Defense Forces or from the Hostage Families Forum.

“He said that one of the hostages, who was with him for two months, died next to him,” Ata Abu Madighem said in comments to the press broadcast Tuesday on Channel 12 news after meeting with al-Qadi in Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba.

“This story is breaking his heart. He has many [terrible] memories. But ultimately, he is talking about being saved, rescued.”

Abu Madighem, speaking to Kan TV, said the hostage who died was a Jewish man, adding he was not allowed to give more details.

Gallant hails Navy’s ‘very impressive’ submarine drill

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is seen on the deck of an Israeli Navy submarine during a drill off the coast of Ashdod, in an image released on August 29, 2024. (Ariel Hermoni/Defense Ministry)

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant visited a drill carried out by the Israeli Navy’s submarine flotilla this week, his office says.

Speaking from the deck of one of the submarines, Gallant says the 7th Flotilla has been “operating since the beginning of the war in all arenas, close to the coast, far from the coast, in the Mediterranean Sea, in the Red Sea and all over the Middle East.”

“We are seeing here a small part of Israel’s secret, strategic capabilities, very impressive things. And I want to say here to the citizens of Israel: You have someone you can trust,” he adds.

According to the Defense Ministry, Gallant was joined by the head of the Navy, Vice Adm. David Sa’ar Salama, the commander of the Ashdod Naval Base, Cpt. Eitan Paz, and the commander of the 7th Flotilla, Cpt. “Aleph” — who can only be identified by his rank and first initial in Hebrew.

Gallant was briefed on the submarine flotilla’s activities across the Middle East in recent months, his office adds.

IDF says it struck Hezbollah target in Lebanon, downed drone from Syria

Israeli fighter jets struck buildings used by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon’s Kafr Kila earlier today, the IDF says.

It publishes footage of the strikes.

Israeli fighter jets struck buildings used by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon's Kafr Kila earlier today, the IDF says.

Separately, fighter jets intercepted a drone that was heading toward Israel from Syria early this morning. The military says that the drone did not enter Israeli… pic.twitter.com/zCblUt9yMW

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) August 29, 2024

Separately, the IDF says fighter jets intercepted a drone that was heading toward Israel from Syria early this morning.

The military says the drone did not enter Israeli airspace.

Netanyahu accuses Lapid of lying, says PM was never warned about Hamas attack plans

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid (left) leads a meeting of his Yesh Atid party at the Knesset in Jerusalem, on May 20, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90); Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a statement on May 22, 2024. (Screen capture)

The Prime Minister’s Office accuses Opposition Leader Yair Lapid of lying after he claims Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ignored warning signs ahead of October 7.

“Yair Lapid is lying again. Prime Minister Netanyahu did not receive any warning about the war in Gaza — not a month before and not even an hour before October 7. The opposite is true and the protocols prove it,” the PMO claims in a statement in response to the Yesh Atid party chairman’s testimony before an independent civilian commission of inquiry into the attack.

“Lapid, who brought in workers from Gaza and gave free gas to [Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah while promising that this would prevent war, is the last one who can preach in matters of security,” it adds.

Lapid: Defense establishment failure to thwart Oct 7 ‘inexcusable’ but ‘does not negate political echelon’s responsibility’

Despite repeatedly warning the prime minister that national security had been eroded by his coalition’s efforts to advance its judicial overhaul agenda last year, “instead of acting, [the defense establishment] waited for the political echelon’s instructions,” Opposition Leader Yair Lapid tells an independent commission of inquiry probing the government’s failure to stop Hamas’s October 7 attack.

“There is no excuse for it, there can be no justification for it,” he continues.

Nonetheless, Lapid stresses, the IDF’s responsibility for the disaster “does not negate the political echelon’s responsibility” for the worst mistake in Israeli history.

“This catastrophe was preventable,” he insists.

He says “the discussion about Prime Minister Netanyahu’s motives or mental state is none of my business.”

“I cannot say here with certainty why he did not act in accordance with the intelligence material. I can tell you that the definition of the role of the prime minister and the cabinet, perhaps the most critical definition of that role, is the duty to stop everything in the face of this type and quality of intelligence and information, and mobilize the entire system to stop the threat. The first job of a prime minister in Israel is to prevent the death of civilians,” he argues.

Lapid: Netanyahu knew Israel was in great danger and a violent eruption was looming, but failed to act

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid testifies before the unofficial citizens' commission of inquiry into the failure to prevent and respond to Hamas's October 7 attack, on August 29, 2024. (Screenshot)

On August 21, 2023, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s military secretary Brig. Gen. Avi Gil gave both the premier and Opposition Leader Yair Lapid a security update during which he warned that Israel’s enemies — from Iran and Hezbollah to terrorist organizations in Gaza and the West Bank — had identified “weakness on the Israeli side,” Lapid tells an independent commission of inquiry probing the government’s failure on October 7.

These signs of weakness seen by Israel’s enemies, he says, included internal tensions and a loss of capability within the Israeli military “alongside an emerging crisis with the Americans.”

Lapid says he is determined “to debunk the claim” that the political echelon had not been updated that Hamas was no longer deterred from attacking Israel. He says he had been updated and so had the prime minister.

He recounts that IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi sought to meet with Netanyahu about the national security repercussions of the divide in Israel over the judicial overhaul, and was refused. Halevi instead resorted to writing to Netanyahu about the dangers. Says Lapid: Halevi wanted it on record that he had warned and been ignored.

At the August 21, 2023 briefing, Gil told Netanyahu and Lapid that Iran and terror groups in Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza “all identified weakness, an internal divide, tensions, and a loss of preparedness in the army, alongside an emerging crisis with the Americans.”

Gil’s presentation, which synthesized material from all the defense hierarchies, indicated that Israel’s enemies saw an opportunity to harm it, says Lapid.

While he considered this warning to be dramatic, Lapid says, “the prime minister — and here I am giving only a personal impression, so it can be disputed — seemed bored and indifferent to the issue, and did not comment on it.”

Over the next few weeks, Lapid says, he viewed classified intelligence material provided to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that indicated that deterrence had indeed eroded. He also saw highly classified material, made available to him as a former prime minister.

On September 18 at the committee, he “saw a further warning,” he says. “To me, what was written there was unequivocal: Israeli deterrence has eroded dramatically; our enemies think they have a rare opportunity to harm us,” Lapid says.

The material showed “Israel is at the greatest level of danger,” says Lapid.

Deeply troubled, Lapid recalls, he held a press conference on September 20 where, he reminds the commission, he warned of a looming multifront confrontation.

Lapid reads out to the commission what he said publicly on September 20, beginning with the following warning: “Ahead of Yom Kippur, I am compelled to warn the citizens of Israel: We are drawing close to a multifront confrontation. According to the security establishment, the number of alerts in Judea and Samaria is unprecedented. And the recent events at the Gaza border are precisely of the kind that in the past have led to rounds of fighting…”

Summing up this portion of his testimony, Lapid says the prime minister did know of the looming danger but ignored it. Netanyahu knew, the cabinet knew, “the defense establishment did warn,” and all the intelligence establishments warned repeatedly.

Lapid says it is important to “distinguish between the fact that on October 7 there was no tactical, concrete warning of the breaching of the fence, and the repeated strategic warnings of an eruption of violence and the loss of deterrence.”

Netanyahu, he charges, “knew that deterrence was weakened, and knew that the terror groups were watching [the rifts in] Israeli society.”

The prime minister also knew he had appointed ministers “who should not be anywhere near Israel’s sacred security,” says Lapid, naming Bezalel Smotrich, who he says was given an untenable role of responsibility within the Defense Ministry, and Itamar Ben Gvir, who as minister of national security is responsible for the police, border police and Temple Mount.

Netanyahu knew Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad saw “an opportunity,” Lapid says. “He knew it was the government’s responsibility to act on the warnings, and did not do so.”

Netanyahu was warned a year before Oct. 7 that Hamas saw its ‘moment had arrived,’ Lapid tells civilian inquiry

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid testifies before the unofficial citizens' commission of inquiry into the failure to prevent and respond to Hamas's October 7 attack, on August 29, 2024. (Screenshot)

On the evening before the Knesset voted to pass the so-called reasonableness law in July 2023, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid received a security briefing from Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, who provided him with “unprecedented warnings” about “the security consequences of the coup d’état and the internal rift it was causing,” the Yesh Atid party chairman says.

Lapid’s remarks, delivered in his testimony before an independent civilian commission of inquiry into the failures of October 7, refer to the government’s highly divisive judicial overhaul it advanced last year, which was derided by some critics as an attempted coup.

Pushing back against the frequent claim that the government had not received advance warning that Hamas was no longer deterred, Lapid states that “it was indeed informed. I was informed, and the intelligence material I saw was of course also seen by the prime minister and cabinet ministers.”

“During the months leading up to the disaster, the prime minister and cabinet ministers received a series of serious, unprecedented warnings. From the middle of 2023 there were more and more voices within the terrorist organizations that said that the moment they had been waiting for had arrived,” he says.

Lapid recalls asking Bar “if these warnings were also brought before the prime minister and cabinet ministers, and the answer was: ‘Of course they were.'”

“President [Isaac] Herzog also received updates regarding the growing security risk and expressed this in his talks with the prime minister,” Lapid adds.

“The next day, about two hours before the vote, I spoke with President Herzog on the phone, and he informed me that the prime minister had withdrawn from all agreements after having a tense meeting with [Justice] Minister Yariv Levin and following messages sent to him by ministers [Bezalel] Smotrich and [Itamar] Ben Gvir. I informed the media that all attempts at compromise had come to naught, and the government was presenting the law in its original and extreme version,” Lapid continues, adding that Defense Minister Yoav Gallant had “tried to reach an agreement with us” and that “his motive was purely security.”

IDF kills Palestinian Islamic Jihad intel commander who took part in Oct. 7 assault, dozens more gunmen in Gaza

IDF troops are seen operating in the Gaza Strip in this handout photo published on August 29, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

A Palestinian Islamic Jihad intelligence officer was killed in a drone strike in southern Gaza’s Rafah yesterday, the IDF says.

According to the military, Osama Gadallah served as a commander in Islamic Jihad’s military intelligence unit, and he also participated in the October 7 onslaught.

The IDF says that dozens more gunmen were killed by troops with the 162nd Division in Rafah in the past day.

Further north, in Khan Younis and on the outskirts of Deir al-Balah, the IDF says troops with the 98th Division also killed dozens of gunmen in clashes and by directing drone strikes over the previous 24 hours.

In the Netzarim Corridor in the Strip’s center, reservists with the 252nd Division directed a drone strike on a cell of gunmen, while carrying out pinpoint raids in the area, the military says.

In addition, the Israeli Air Force struck more than 40 targets across Gaza in the past day, which the IDF says includes buildings used by Hamas and other positions used by terror operatives to open fire at troops.

MK from Netanyahu’s party urges public to avoid cooperating with Israeli courts

Likud MK Hanoch Milwidsky attends a Knesset Constitution Committee meeting, March 13, 2023. (Erik Marmor/Flash90)

MK Hanoch Milwidsky of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party calls on the public to avoid cooperating with the Israeli court system.

“The court is a place without justice. It’s good to avoid arriving at the court. People should go to arbitration or rabbinical courts,” Milwidsky says, speaking with the ultra-Orthodox Kol Berama radio station.

Amit Becher, head of the Israel Bar Association, reacts on the same station, casting the suggestion as “complete societal disintegration and anarchy.”

Borrell asks EU states about sanctions on some Israeli ministers over ‘hate messages’

High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell attends a meeting with Vietnam's Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son (not pictured) at the Government Guest House in Hanoi on July 30, 2024. (Nhac NGUYEN / AFP)

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell says he has started the process of asking member states if they want to impose sanctions on “some Israeli ministers.”

“I initiated the procedure to ask the member states if they consider [it] appropriate to include in our list of sanctions some Israeli ministers [who] have been launching unacceptable hate messages against the Palestinians, and proposing things that clearly go against international law,” he tells reporters ahead of a meeting with EU foreign affairs ministers in Brussels.

He does not name any of the Israeli ministers to whom he is referring, but multiple reports have named Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir as among them.

Group sanctioned by US says move prompted by ‘distorted’ info, its actions are legal, nonviolent

Illustrative: Volunteers with the Hashomer Yosh (Guardians of Judea and Samaria) organization which was sanctioned by the US on August 28, 2024. (Screenshot from promotional campaign video for Hashomer Yosh; used in accordance with clause 27a of the copyright law)

Hashomer Yosh, a group sanctioned yesterday by the United States over settler violence, denies any involvement in violent or otherwise illegal activities in the West Bank, arguing that the move is based on false information provided by left-wing groups.

“We ask, why? And we have an answer,” Meir Bertler, the foreign relations chief for the nonprofit, tells the Kan public broadcaster. “The answer isn’t about the activities of Hashomer, which are legal and legitimate and coordinated with the government. It is about false and distorted information conveyed by left-wing groups.”

According to the US State Department, one of the primary activities of Hashomer Yosh is arranging for volunteers to provide help and support for some 26 illegal farming outposts in the West Bank.

Bertler says nobody in the group has been contacted and told what the sanctions entail.

He casts the organization’s activities as aimed at helping farmers protect and tend to their crops and livestock around the country, including in the West Bank.

Asked if this includes clashing with Palestinians, Bertler says: “No. Zero confrontations.”

He cites funding the group has received from multiple government ministries as evidence of its coordination with authorities, rejecting suggestions that it is operating as a “private police.”

“Hashomer Yosh does not engage in violent activity of any kind. The Americans have made a mistake that we are hoping to change and working to change,” he concludes.

Hostage relatives breach kibbutz fence, briefly run toward Gaza before turning back

Relatives of hostages run toward the Gaza Strip after passing through the Nirim perimeter fence on August 29, 2024. (Courtesy Hostages and Missing Families Forum)

Hostage relatives breach the fence of Kibbutz Nirim, after crying out to the captives via powerful loudspeakers, and head toward Gaza, which is about 2 kilometers away, in an attempt to run toward their loved ones.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum falsely says they have breached the Gaza border fence itself.

“The families in their great pain breached the fence to Gaza and ran toward the Gaza Strip to get as close to their loved ones as possible,” the Forum claims in a statement, citing 11 months of unsuccessful pleas that the government secure a comprehensive hostage deal.

The Forum says a short while later that the relatives heeded pleas by security forces and made their way back to Nirim.

Breaking: Hostages’ families are running toward Gaza, calling for their loved ones who are held for 328 by Hamas terrorists. @KnessetT @bringhomenow pic.twitter.com/uovQn1lLK7

— רותם גולן – Rotem Golan (@RotemGolan_) August 29, 2024

Correction: A previous version of this report erroneously said the hostage relatives had breached the Gaza border fence.

‘Do you hear us?’ Hostage relatives shout to loved ones via loudspeakers on Gaza border

Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg-Polin at the Gaza border on August 29, 2024. (Courtesy Hostages and Missing Families Forum)

Hostage family members gather at the Gaza border to call, yell and scream into powerful loudspeakers, with the hope their loved ones being held in captivity can hear their words.

“Edan Alexander,” calls Varda Ben Baruch, grandmother of the 20-year-old lone soldier from Tenafly, New Jersey, who was taken captive on October 7. “It’s Grandma and Grandpa, you are our soul, do you hear us? Idanaleh! Mom and Dad are waiting for you, we’re worried about you and waiting for your return home. Be strong, you’re strong, survive, we’re doing everything we can for you and for all the other hostages.”

With words of prayer, beseeching God, and, at times, berating the Israeli government, parents, siblings, children and grandparents call out to their loved ones, held hostage for 328 days in the tunnels and hideouts of Gaza.

“Nimrod, Dad is speaking, we’re here at the border,” calls Yehuda Cohen, whose son, Nimrod, was a soldier when he was taken hostage on October 7 from the Nahal Oz army base. “I will not give up until you come home, I will run everywhere in the world until we have a deal that will free you and the other hostages.”

Some parents sob, including Shira Albag, mother of Liri Albag, 19, one of the female surveillance soldiers held captive. Liri’s sister screams into the microphone, begging her not to give up.

Eli Shtivi (left) and Varda Ben Baruch in a yellow hat (right) at the Gaza border on August 29, 2024. (Courtesy Hostages and Missing Families Forum)

Eli Shtivi, father of hostage Idan Shtivi, drapes himself in a Jewish prayer shawl as he calls out to his son, telling him that Israel will give up on controlling Gaza’s Philadelphi Corridor in order to get him and the other hostages home, referring to one of the sticking points in the current hostage negotiations.

“It’s Mama, Hersh,” calls Rachel Goldberg-Polin in English, speaking to her son, Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was taken captive from a field shelter near the Supernova desert rave on October 7. “It’s day 328. We are all here. All the families of the remaining 107 hostages,” she says as she blesses him, telling her son that she is giving him the traditional blessing she offers during her morning prayers and on Friday nights.

“May God bless you and keep you. May God’s light shine upon you, and may God be gracious to you. May you feel God’s Presence within you always, and may you find peace,” says Goldberg-Polin.

2 rockets from Gaza hit open areas near Kissufim; no injuries

Two rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip at the border community of Kissufim this morning, setting off sirens.

According to the IDF, both rockets struck open areas, and there are no injuries.

Alarms sound in Gaza border town

Air raid sirens are sounding in Kissufim, a mostly evacuated kibbutz near the Gaza border.

There are no immediate reports of impacts or injuries.

Israeli forces kill 5 gunmen shooting from West Bank mosque, including local terror leader

Israeli military vehicles seen during a raid in the Nur Shams camp near the city of Tulkarem in the West Bank on August 28, 2024. (Flash90)

Overnight, Israeli forces killed five Palestinian gunmen who were hiding in a mosque in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, including a local terror leader, the IDF, police and Shin Bet say.

The IDF launched a large-scale operation in Tulkarem yesterday. Troops are also operating in the city of Jenin and the Far’a camp near Tubas as part of the operation. Yesterday, Palestinian media reported that 11 Palestinians had been killed amid the ongoing IDF operation, meaning the toll has now risen to 16.

In Tulkarem, troops of Border Police’s elite Yamam counterterrorism unit battled a group of gunmen who had been holed up in a mosque, following intelligence of their whereabouts provided by the Shin Bet, the joint statement says.

Five Palestinian gunmen were killed and one Israeli Yamam officer was lightly hurt in the exchange, according to the military.

Among the dead is Muhammad Jaber, known as Abu Shuja’a, who had been previously reported by Palestinian media to be the commander of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s local wing in the Nur Shams camp in Tulkarem.

على طريق أبو خديجة وأبو لبدة، يرتقي قائد كتيبة طولكرم محمد جابر "أبو شجاع" بعد عملية غادرة من جيش الاحتلال، رحمك الله يا بطل. pic.twitter.com/35EFbTXhJH

— كامل???? (@kamelshiakh22) August 29, 2024

The Shin Bet says Jaber was involved in planning and directing many terror attacks, including the killing of Amnon Muchtar in a terror attack in Qalqilya in June.

Another terror operative was arrested, according to the statement.

Palestinian media names the arrested individual as Mohammed Qassas, a member of Islamic Jihad’s local wing in Tulkarem.

Israeli UN envoy rejects Guterres’s criticism of West Bank op, says it’s aimed at foiling Iranian terror

Ambassador Danny Danon, Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations, speaks during a UN Security Council meeting on situation in the Middle East at the United Nations headquarters in New York City, August 22, 2024. (Permanent Mission of Israel to the UN)

Israel’s UN ambassador responds to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s criticism of the ongoing counterterrorism operation in the West Bank.

Danny Danon, who started his second stint at the United Nations on August 20, tweets that “Since October 7th, Iran has been actively working to smuggle sophisticated explosive devices into Judea and Samaria, intended for use in suicide bombings in the heart of Israeli cities.” Judea and Samaria is the biblical name for what is now known as the West Bank.

“The State of Israel will not sit idly by and wait for scenes of buses and cafes exploding in city centers,” Danon adds. “The IDF’s operations in Judea and Samaria have a clear goal: preventing Iranian terror-by-proxy that would harm Israeli civilians.”

IDF says Arab al-Aramshe rocket siren was false alarm

The rocket warning siren that sounded in Arab al-Aramshe a short while ago is determined by the IDF to have been a false alarm.

Rocket warning sirens sound in Western Galilee’s Arab al-Aramshe

Rocket warning sirens sound in the village of Arab al-Aramshe in the Western Galilee, close to the border with Lebanon.

US urges protection of Palestinian civilians amid IDF counterterrorism op in West Bank

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration urges Israel to “to take all feasible measures to protect civilian lives in the West Bank” in its first response to the IDF counterterrorism operation in the territory.

“We recognize Israel’s very real security needs, which includes countering terrorist activity in the West Bank,” says a statement from a State Department spokesperson to The Times of Israel.

“At the same time, we continue to insist that Israeli authorities take measures to protect all civilians from harm,” the statement continues.

“We also remain deeply concerned about maintaining stability in the West Bank and continue to urge Israel to take all feasible measures to protect civilian lives in the West Bank – just as we urge them to do in Gaza,” it adds.

UN’s Guterres calls for IDF to cease military operations in the West Bank after counterterrorism op

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres speaks during a UN Security Council meeting on the impacts of cyber threats on international peace and security at UN headquarters on June 20, 2024, in New York. (Yuki Iwamura/AFP)

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres calls on Israel to cease its military operations in the West Bank after the Israel Defense Forces said it had launched a large-scale counterterrorism operation on Wednesday in which at least 11 Palestinians were killed, mostly terror operatives.

In a statement attributed to Guterres, his spokesman Stéphane Dujarric says the secretary-general is “deeply concerned” by the latest developments in the West Bank, and “strongly condemns the loss of lives, including of children.”

The IDF had said earlier that two Palestinian gunmen were killed during clashes with Border Police officers in Jenin, and another three in a drone strike in a nearby village.  Four more Palestinian gunmen, who “endangered forces” carrying out a raid, were said by the military to have been killed in a drone strike in Far’a.

Palestinian media reported that another man was shot dead in Kafr Dan near Jenin, while another was killed in Nur Shams, bringing the day’s toll to 11, although the IDF did not immediately comment on the latest two deaths.

Guterres “calls on Israel to comply with its relevant obligations under international humanitarian law and to take measures to protect civilians and ensure their safety,” the statement continues. “He urges security forces to exercise maximum restraint and use lethal force only when it is strictly unavoidable to protect life.”

“These dangerous developments are fueling an already explosive situation in the occupied West Bank and further undermining the Palestinian Authority.”

The statement continues: “Ultimately, only an end to the occupation and a return to a meaningful political process that will establish a two-state solution will bring an end to the violence.”

“The United Nations will continue to work with all parties towards this end, to seek a de-escalation of the current situation and promote stability in the region,” it adds.

Guatemala probes child abuse claims against extremist Jewish sect Lev Tahor

Illustrative -- Lev Tahor women and girls in Canada (Screen grab/YouTube)

Guatemalan authorities are investigating allegations of child abuse within a Jewish sect that also faces accusations of forced marriages and adolescent pregnancies, an official says.

Officials tried to check the condition of the minors on Friday with a court order, but members of the Lev Tahor community restricted access to their farm in Oratorio, southwest of Guatemala City, authorities say.

“We’re very concerned about the situation within the community,” Lucrecia Prera, a lawyer representing the state in child and adolescent issues, tells AFP.

“There are reports that there are (forced) marriages, that there are pregnant girls, that there is abuse within the community,” she says.

One foreign teenager allegedly forced to marry at the age of 13 asked for help this year to return home, Prera says.

Members of the Lev Tahor sect, who settled in Guatemala in 2013, practice an extreme, fundamentalist form of ultra-Orthodox Judaism, in which women are required to wear black tunics covering them from head to toe.

Following a court hearing on Friday, Lev Tahor accused authorities on social media of carrying out “a reprehensible campaign of persecution against our community, motivated solely by religious intolerance and discrimination.”

It also accused Israel of involvement in “instigating these actions.”

Authorities estimate that around 100 minors live in the community, which is made up of roughly 50 families from Guatemala, the United States, Canada and other countries.

Although a judge was allowed to enter the premises on Friday and observe 29 children, “we cannot be certain whether the allegations (of abuse) are true or false, since we have not been allowed to carry out our work properly,” Prera says.

She denies the investigation amounted to persecution.

“It’s very important that people know that it’s not political persecution, it’s not religious persecution. What we are seeking is to ensure the comprehensive protection of the rights of children and adolescents within the community,” Prera says.

One dead, 10 injured in gas leak at Iran’s Revolutionary Guards facility in Isfahan

One person has died and 10 injured due to a gas leak at an Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps facility in Isfahan, Iran, the force says in a statement.

Iranian state media, quoting the statement, says: “The incident took place in a workshop at one of the Guards’ centers in the (central) Isfahan province.”