ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 466
The Times of Israel liveblogged Sunday’s events as they unfolded.
President Isaac Herzog awards the presidential medal of honor to five individuals for their “unique contributions to the State of Israel.”
The medal is awarded to songwriter and poet Rachel Shapira; Brig. Gen. (ret.) Pinhas Buchris; Arab-Israeli educator Dr. Dalia Fadila; educator Haim Perry; and Michael Siegal, former chairman of the board of The Jewish Agency for Israel.
“When we look at the people whom we are honoring today, we can be proud that these are our role models — as a nation and as a society,” says Herzog at the ceremony.
The bodies of 27 men believed to be Ethiopian nationals were discovered today in Zambia’s capital city, police confirm.
Police investigations indicate that the bodies, “all males aged between 20 and 38, were dumped… in Ngwerere area (of Lusaka) by unknown people,” Danny Mwale, Deputy Police Public Relations officer, says in a statement.
“They are all believed to be Ethiopian nationals,” Mwale says.
One man was still alive and was rushed to a hospital for treatment, he adds.
The 27 bodies have been taken to the University Teaching Hospital mortuary for formal identification and postmortems, he says.
The Likud party votes to approve leader Benjamin Netanyahu’s request to appoint MK Yariv Levin as the temporary Knesset speaker beginning tomorrow.
Levin, who served as speaker in the past, is expected to quit before the new government is sworn in. At that point, Likud is slated to have selected a permanent candidate for the post, and Levin is expected to receive a ministerial position.
NASA’s Orion capsule made a blisteringly fast return from the moon, parachuting into the Pacific Ocean off Mexico to conclude a test flight that should clear the way for astronauts on the next lunar flyby.
The incoming capsule hit the atmosphere at Mach 32, or 32 times the speed of sound, and endured reentry temperatures of 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Celsius) before splashing down west of Baja California near Guadalupe Island.
A Navy ship quickly moved in to recover the spacecraft and its silent occupants — three test dummies rigged with vibration sensors and radiation monitors. One of the dummies, nicknamed Zohar, was outfitted with Israeli technology.
Outgoing Prime Minister Yair Lapid meets with Mossad chief David Barnea and senior officials in the agency to bid them farewell ahead of his expected departure.
According to the Prime Minister’s Office, Lapid thanks Barnea and the rest of the agency for “their dedication and sacrifice for the security of the State of Israel.”
NASA’s Orion capsule and its test dummies are hurtling toward Earth to end a 25-day test flight around the moon.
One of the test dummies aboard the flight, dubbed “Zohar,” is wearing an anti-radiation suit from the Israeli company StemRad, co-developed with Lockheed Martin, to protect vital organs from harmful gamma radiation, on mannequins aboard the Orion.
Flight controllers target a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, just off the coast of Mexico’s Baja Peninsula. A Navy recovery ship is positioned within a few miles (kilometers) of the intended site.
Orion rocketed to the moon from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on November 16, and spent nearly a week in a wide, swooping lunar orbit, before heading home. The $4 billion demo should allow astronauts to strap in for the next lunar flyby in a couple of years.
Hamas authorities in Gaza announce the discovery of more than 60 tombs in an ancient burial site dating back to the Roman era.
Work crews have been excavating the site since it was discovered last January during preparations for an Egyptian-funded housing project.
Hiyam al-Bitar, a researcher from the Hamas-run Ministry of Antiquities and Tourism, says a total of 63 graves have been identified and that a set of bones and artifacts from one tomb was dated back to the second century.
She says the ministry is working with a team of French experts to learn more about the site.
American forces kill two Islamic State operatives in eastern Syria in a helicopter raid, US Central Command says in a statement.
IS sleeper cells continue to carry out deadly attacks in Syria and Iraq. For a few years, the group ruled swaths of both countries but lost its last stronghold in 2019.
US Central Command does not specify the location of the overnight operation, and claims there were no civilian casualties in its initial assessments of the operation.
The statement describes one of the two targeted IS leaders, Anas, as an “ISIS Syria Province official” involved in plotting attacks in eastern Syria.
“ISIS continues to represent a threat to the security and stability of the region,” CENTCOM spokesman Joe Buccino says in the statement. “The death of these ISIS officials will disrupt the terrorist organization’s ability to further plot and carry out destabilizing attacks in the Middle East.”
Outgoing Defense Minister Benny Gantz would not rule out the possibility that he would join the nascent government if the security situation in the country deteriorates.
“I will weigh everything on its merits,” Gantz says on Army Radio. “The State of Israel and its security has always been important to me and I will never be against the country, even if I fight against its government.”
Likud MK Yariv Levin will be appointed temporary Knesset speaker tomorrow, according to several Hebrew media reports.
Levin, who is expected to ultimately receive a senior ministerial post, will only serve in the role until a permanent appointee can be agreed upon.
Firebrand MK David Amsalem is considered a contender for the position.
The incoming government led a push to oust the current speaker, Yesh Atid MK Mickey Levy, even before the next coalition has been sworn in.
The election of a new speaker from the Netanyahu-led bloc is an essential pre-condition for the planned right-religious coalition to take office, since several of Netanyahu’s intended ministerial appointments and commitments to incoming coalition parties require changes to existing legislation, and the Knesset speaker exerts considerable control over the Knesset’s legislative schedule.
Hadash-Ta’al MK Ahmad Tibi accuses presumed incoming prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu of legitimizing Ra’am chief Mansour Abbas and then turning on him for political ends.
“Netanyahu legitimized and whitewashed Mansour Abbas and afterward made him out to be a terror supporter, all because of political interests, in the most disgusting way, like only he can,” Tibi says on a podcast with Nadav Perry.
After the 2021 election, Netanyahu was widely reported as being in coalition talks with Ra’am that ultimately fell apart, and Ra’am later joined the outgoing government, which ousted Netanyahu. During this year’s election campaign, many of the right-wing parties painted Ra’am as a backer of terror and portrayed the outgoing coalition as relying on terror supporters.
Tibi also says he supports the reunification of the Joint List political alliance, which once consisted of Hadash, Ta’al, Balad and Ra’am.
Facing a surge in COVID-19 cases, China is setting up more intensive care facilities and trying to strengthen hospitals as it rolls back anti-virus controls that confined millions of people to their homes, crushed economic growth and set off protests.
President Xi Jinping’s government is officially committed to stopping virus transmission, the last major country to try. But the latest moves suggest the ruling Communist Party will tolerate more cases without quarantines or shutting down travel or businesses as it winds down its “zero-COVID” strategy.
It isn’t clear how much infection numbers have increased since Beijing last week ended mandatory testing as often as once a day in many areas. But interviews and social media accounts say there are outbreaks in businesses and schools across the country. Some restaurants and other businesses have closed because too many employees are sick.
The virus testing site in Beijing’s Runfeng Shuishang neighborhood shut down because all its employees were infected, the neighborhood government said yesterday on its social media account.
Presumed incoming prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with a group of 13 UN ambassadors who are visiting Israel.
Netanyahu speaks with the delegation — which visited the UAE before arriving in Israel — about the “historical importance of the Abraham Accords,” according to his office.
Netanyahu also discusses the “ongoing struggle” against Iran’s attempts to gain nuclear weapons as well as the possibilities of expanding the Abraham Accords to other nations, his office says.
Police and volunteers will restart searches for Haredi teenager Moshe Klinerman — who went missing near Meron in March — according to the Kan public broadcaster.
Kan reports that the search will be reopened due to new information the police have recently received.
Several suspects have been arrested in the case over the past few months but later released without charge.
Authorities in Scotland say that the Libyan man suspected of making the bomb that destroyed a passenger plane over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 is in US custody.
Scotland’s Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service says in a statement: “The families of those killed in the Lockerbie bombing have been told that the suspect Abu Agela Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi is in US custody.”
Pan Am flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie on Dec. 21, 1988, leaving 270 people dead. It remains the deadliest terror attack on British soil.
In 2001, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was convicted of bombing the flight. He was the only person convicted over the attack.
“Scottish prosecutors and police, working with U.K. government and US colleagues, will continue to pursue this investigation, with the sole aim of bringing those who acted along with al-Megrahi to justice,” the Crown Office adds.
The Israel Defense Forces reportedly drops flyers in the Quneitra area of southern Syria, near the border with the Golan Heights, warning the Syrian army against collaborating with the Hezbollah terror group.
The flyers are dropped following reports by opposition media of an alleged Israeli airstrike in the as-Suwayda area last night.
There is no comment on the alleged strike by Syria’s state media or other regime-affilated outlets.
Israel frequently warns the Syrian army against working with the Iran-backed terror group in the area on Israel’s border.
The flyers matched the style of similar leaflets that have been dropped in Syria in the past and included the silhouette of an eagle — the symbol of the IDF’s 210th “Bashan” Division, which is tasked with defending Israel’s frontier with Syria and the Golan Heights. The IDF refused to comment on the matter.
طائرات مسيرة تابعة للجيش الإسرائيلي تقوم بإلقاء منشورات ورقية على قرى وبلدات #القنيطرة تؤكد من خلالها القصف الإسرائيلي الذي حصل منتصف ليلة أمس على #تل_قليب في #السويداء والذي استهدف موقعاً عسكريا pic.twitter.com/ho49LraGTB
— Nour Abo Hasan (@nourabohsn) December 11, 2022
Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion joins the Kay family and hundreds of friends to unveil a memorial plaque for Eli Kay, a 26-year-old South African immigrant shot dead by a Hamas terrorist one year ago today on the Hebrew calendar.
Standing on Shalshelet Street near the Western Wall plaza in Jerusalem’s Old City, Lion pledges that “terrorism will not win.”
Kay’s father, Avi, speaks in English about the diverse range of Israelis — religious, secular, Jewish and Arab — who have introduced themselves to him since the November 21, 2021, terrorist attack to tell him about their memories of his son.
Avi Kay has since taken up Eli’s position as a guide at the Western Wall.
The crowd — which included paratroopers from Kay’s 202nd Battalion and family members from South Africa — sings in the packed alley as they wait for Lion to arrive.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan tells Russian President Vladimir Putin that it is imperative the Kremlin “clear” Kurdish forces from northern Syria.
Erdogan has been threatening to launch a new military incursion into northern Syria to push out Kurdish forces that he blames for a November bomb blast that killed six people in Istanbul. A 2019 agreement between Moscow and Ankara ended another ground offensive by setting up a 30-kilometer (19-mile) “safe zone” to protect Turkey against cross-border attacks from Syrian territory.
Erdogan tells Putin in a phone call that is is “important to clear the [Kurdish fighters] from the border to a depth of at least 30 kilometers,” his office says.
Erdogan “stated this was a priority,” the Turkish presidency says.
Iran’s currency falls to a record low against the dollar, with nationwide anti-government protests now in their third month. A breakdown in negotiations to restore Tehran’s nuclear deal has also hurt the value of the rial.
Traders in Tehran are exchanging the rial at around 370,000 to the dollar today, up from 368,000 on Thursday. Iran’s currency was trading at 32,000 rials to the dollar at the time of the 2015 nuclear accord that dropped international sanctions in exchange for tight controls on Iran’s nuclear program.
France’s Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera says she wore a sweater with rainbow-colored sleeves to France’s World Cup quarterfinal in Qatar on Saturday in a message of support for gay rights.
Oudea-Castera, a former professional tennis player, watched the game from the VIP box as France beat England 2-1 to move a step closer to successfully defending its title.
The rights of the LGBTQ+ community and the use of the rainbow symbol have been a recurrent point of discussion at the World Cup in Qatar, where homosexuality is illegal.
“It was important to express my support for human rights on the whole, notably LGBT rights… and to do it in an unaggressive way with regards to Qatar, which is our partner,” she tells Franceinfo radio.
Aryeh Amit, a former senior police official, says that attempts by presumed future national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir will mark the end of the police.
“With the things Ben Gvir wants, he will become the police commissioner and the police commissioner will be a doormat — it’s the murder of the police and the murder of democracy,” Amit tells 103FM radio.
“We can’t allow politics to infiltrate the police. It must be completely free from political thoughts,” Amit adds.
Prime Minister Yair Lapid receives a COVID vaccine shot at his office in Tel Aviv.
“I call on citizens of Israel — and particularly those at risk — go out and get vaccinated in light of rising rates of COVID and the flu,” Lapid says in a statement. “This is the only way we can get through this winter easily and healthily and protect our loved ones: mom, dad, grandma and grandpa.”
There are currently 178 people with COVID hospitalized in serious condition in Israel, up from 144 a week ago and 107 a month ago.
