The Times of Israel liveblogged Tuesday’s developments as they unfolded.

Erdan slams IDF intelligence chief for ‘outrageous’ comment

Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan denounces comments attributed to Military Intelligence chief Herzl Halevi to the effect that the terror wave could escalate in the West Bank if there are no peace talks on the horizon.

The comments from January 24 were reported by Channel 10 on Monday night.

“I sat in on many meetings with him. I never heard him say anything like this,” Erdan tells Army Radio. “If this comment was made in a briefing to military reporters, I think it’s outrageous because we remember the days when there was a diplomatic process and the attacks and terrorism were far more powerful.”

Turkey backs truce, will continue strikes on Kurds

Turkey’s deputy prime minister says his country supports the ceasefire agreement for Syria but suggests that its military could continue firing on Syrian Kurdish groups in Syria if their militia “attack” Turkey.

Turkey has been shelling US-backed Syrian Kurdish militia positions in Syria, maintaining that it is responding to attacks or provocations.

Numan Kurtulmus tells journalists on Tuesday: “We hope that the PYD will not attack Turkey after Saturday. Of course, Turkey has the right to defend its territory.” He is referring to the Syrian Kurdish group, the Democratic Union Party.

Turkey views the US-backed PYD and its armed wing, the YPG, as terrorists because of their affiliation with Turkey’s own outlawed Kurdish rebels.

Kurtulmus also said that while Turkey welcomes the provisional truce agreed for Syria, it has “reservations and fears” about possible continued Russian airstrikes on civilians.

AP

Over 110,000 migrants entered Greece, Italy this year

A key migration watcher says more than 110,000 people have crossed the Mediterranean to Greece and Italy this year — about four months faster than that milestone was reached in a record-setting 2015.

The International Organization for Migration says more than 102,500 people crossed into Greece and more than 7,500 to Italy through Monday. IOM figures show that last year, that number of crossings wasn’t reached before June. By year-end, more than 1 million people had crossed.

Nearly half of those arriving in Greece this year are Syrians, and one-quarter are Afghans.

Separately on Tuesday, the UN refugee agency UNHCR says a study found 94 percent of Syrians and 71 percent of Afghans who arrived in Greece in January cited conflict and violence at home as their main reasons for traveling there.

AP

Children pose as they wait with other migrants and refugees in line for a security check after crossing the Macedonian border into Serbia, near the village of Miratovac, on January 26, 2016. (AFP / ARMEND NIMANI)

Children pose as they wait with other migrants and refugees in line for a security check after crossing the Macedonian border into Serbia, near the village of Miratovac, on January 26, 2016. (AFP / ARMEND NIMANI)

Man moderately hurt in Beersheba stabbing

A man in his fifties is stabbed and moderately injured in the southern city of Beersheba. The motive for the attack is not immediately clear.

Variety pulls pro-BDS ad accusing Israel of ‘apartheid’

Entertainment magazine Variety refuses to publish an advertisement that says, “Don’t endorse Israeli apartheid.”

Jewish Voice for Peace, or JVP, a group that supports the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel, announced Monday that the magazine initially accepted payment for the group’s ad but then said it could not publish it since “it would need to have a softer tone.”

The ad, whose top line reads “Free Trip to Israel at the Expense of Palestinians,” calls on Oscar nominees to refuse a free Israel trip worth $55,000 offered in their “swag bags.”

JVP says in a statement it had asked for suggestions of “specific edits,” but was told that: “The topic is too sensitive at this time and we will not be in a position to add it to next week’s edition.”

JVP Executive Director Rebecca Vilkomerson calls the refusal “a clear and disturbing example of the constraints on public debate about Palestine and Israel. Variety’s refusal to print our ad — especially in the context of the pro-occupation ads they have published in the past — illustrates a clear bias. Messages that support Israel are acceptable, while those that assert the humanity of Palestinians are censored.”

JTA

Saudi religious police arrested for attack on woman

Members of Saudi Arabia’s religious police are arrested for allegedly brutalizing a young woman outside a Riyadh shopping mall, local media reports on Tuesday.

The young woman’s case, filmed and put on line two weeks ago, led to a wave of indignation on the Internet.

Video purportedly shows members of the religious police, who enforce Islamic morality, chasing two women and then roughly handling one of them whose black abaya robe opened to reveal her leg.

The Asharq al-Awsat and Okaz dailies quoted the interior ministry as saying “the individuals implicated in this assault were arrested for interrogation.”

The reports did not say how many members of the religious police were detained. The agency is officially known as the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Mutawaa).

AFP

Turkey says Syria, Russia, IS, Kurds forming ‘terror belt’

Turkey’s prime minister is accusing Russia and Syria, along with Islamic State militants and US-backed Syrian Kurdish militia, of attempting to form a “terror belt” along its border with Syria and says his country won’t let it happen.

In the weekly address to legislators from his ruling party Tuesday, Ahmet Davutoglu says the aim is to establish a terror “structure” — made up of the Islamic State group and the US-backed Syrian Kurdish militia group YPG — in Syria’s north. Turkey considers the YPG a terrorist organization because of its links to Turkey’s outlawed Kurdish rebels.

“Turkey is aware of these games aiming to make Turkey a neighbor with a terror structure and will not allow it,” Davutoglu says.

AP

Beersheba stabbing not terror — police

The motive for the Beersheba stabbing — in which a man in his 50s is moderately wounded — is not terror-related, police say.

Judah Ari Gross

Iraqi Kurds rescue Swedish teen girl from IS

The Iraqi Kurdish government says its troops have rescued a Swedish teenager from the Islamic State group near the city of Mosul, which is controlled by the extremists.

A statement from the regional government, released on Tuesday, says the rescue operation by the Kurdish anti-terrorist forces took place on February 17 near the IS-held city of Mosul in Iraq.

The statement identifies the young woman by name, saying she is a 16-year-old from the town of Boras who “was misled” by an IS member in Sweden to travel to Syria and later to Mosul.

It also says the Swedish authorities and the teenager’s family had asked the Iraqi Kurdish government for help in the case. The young woman is currently in Iraqi Kurdish territory and will be transferred to Sweden.

AP

Death toll in last week’s Ankara bombing climbs to 29

Turkey’s Health Ministry says a man injured in last week’s suicide car bomb attack in Ankara has died of his wounds, raising the death toll to 29.

The ministry says the 66-year-old died in the hospital on Tuesday. Ten other people wounded in the attack are still being treated in hospitals, it says.

Also Tuesday, police detain three more people suspected of involvement in the bombing, the state-run Anadolu Agency says. Fourteen others were charged in connection with the attack over the weekend.

A Turkey-based Kurdish militant group has claimed responsibility for the Feb. 17 attack, which targeted buses carrying military personnel.

The government says, however, it has evidence that a US-backed Syrian Kurdish militia group carried out the attack in collaboration with Turkey’s own Kurdish rebels.

AP

Firefighters try to extinguish flames following an explosion after an attack targeted a convoy of military service vehicles in Ankara on February 17, 2016. (AFP / STRINGER)

Firefighters try to extinguish flames following an explosion after an attack targeted a convoy of military service vehicles in Ankara on February 17, 2016. (AFP / STRINGER)

Obama to unveil plan to close Guantanamo prison

President Barack Obama is expected Tuesday to make a final push to close the controversial US prison at Guantanamo Bay, hoping to honor a glaringly unfulfilled campaign promise.

With less than a year left in office, Obama will unveil options for closing Guantanamo in a statement at 1530 GMT, according to White House officials.

Around 90 suspected jihadists remain at Guantanamo, a facility which once housed upwards of 700 inmates and has become synonymous around the world with torture, indefinite detention and orange jumpsuits.

For years, Obama’s efforts to close the site have been thwarted by Republican lawmakers, many of whom see it as a useful tool in combating terror.

AFP

Illustrative: A sailor stands watch over a cell block in Guantanamo Bay's detention facility while detainees look through magazines and books, on March 30, 2010. (Joshua Nistas/US Navy/Department of Defense)

Illustrative: A sailor stands watch over a cell block in Guantanamo Bay’s detention facility while detainees look through magazines and books, on March 30, 2010. (Joshua Nistas/US Navy/Department of Defense)

IS captures key town in northern Syria

The Islamic State group has captured an important town in northern Syria, cutting supply lines for government forces between the northern city of Aleppo and central and western Syria.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says IS fighters captured Khanaser on Tuesday along with 12 hills around it.

The Aamaq news agency, which is affiliated with the extremist group, also reports that IS fighters are now in “full control” of Khanaser, southeast of the city of Aleppo.

The capture of Khanaser comes a day after Islamic militias assaulted government-held positions around the town, setting off intense clashes.

Khanaser lies along the government’s only access route to Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and once commercial center.

AP

Alleged Jewish extremist to remain in detention until June

The Lod District Court extends the detention order for Meir Ettinger until June 4.

Ettinger, the grandson of Meir Kahane and the suspected head of a Jewish terror group, has been held without being charged since August 2015.

In this file photo of August 4, 2015, alleged head of a Jewish extremist group Meir Ettinger appears in court in Nazareth Illit, Israel. (AP/Ariel Schalit, File)

In this file photo of August 4, 2015, alleged head of a Jewish extremist group Meir Ettinger appears in court in Nazareth Illit, Israel. (AP/Ariel Schalit, File)

Terror casualties nearly quadrupled in 2015 — Shin Bet

There was a 284% increase in the number of injuries in terror attacks from 2014 to 2015, according to new figures released by the Shin Bet.

In 2015, there were 239 people hurt, compared to 63 the year before. The majority of the 2015 injuries, 174 of them, occurred in the final three months of the year, as part of the wave of violence that continues to rock the country.

In 2015, the Shin Bet, along with the army and police, arrested 3,100 Palestinians, a third of them Hamas members. Israel indicted 1,933 Palestinians for a variety of charges.

Security forces seized 143 rifles, 34 handguns, dozens of pipe bombs, tens of kilograms of explosive material, and shut down three bomb-making labs, according to the Shin Bet.

In addition, 41 Israeli citizens were arrested in 2015 for supporting the Islamic State.

There was no change in the number of Jewish terror attacks between 2014 and 2015 — 16 in both years.

However, “there has been an increase in the severity of the attacks, and in the number of those injured, as a result of Jewish terror,” the Shin Bet says, specifically noting the Duma firebombing attack, which left a Palestinian infant and his parents dead.

Judah Ari Gross

Likud removes MK Hazan from committees

The Likud party removes scandal-ridden Likud MK Oren Hazan from the Knesset’s House and Foreign Affairs and Defense Committees.

The punitive measure comes after Hazan skipped a plenum session on Monday night, resulting in a loss for the coalition in a vote on a bill submitted by Likud MK Anat Berko.

Likud MK Amir Ohana will replace him.

Likud MK Oren Hazan laughing at a Knesset committee meeting in Jerusalem, October 26, 2015. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

Likud MK Oren Hazan laughing at a Knesset committee meeting in Jerusalem, October 26, 2015. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

Saudi Arabia tells its citizens to leave Lebanon

Saudi Arabia is urging its citizens to leave Lebanon, AFP reports.

Hazan blames Hanegbi for ousting him from committees

Hazan blames Likud MK Tzachi Hanegbi, the coalition chairman, for the decision to remove him from the committees.

“It’s sad that coalition chairman is covering up his failures — that stem from his frustration that Netanyahu didn’t appoint him a minister — to scapegoat me,” he tells Ynet. “I can only thank Hanegbi for giving me more time to dedicate to the important committees that do function, such as the Finance Committee and the State Control Committee.”

“Out of 59 Knesset meetings I attended 55, and when I wasn’t present, I was dealing with my health,” he says.

Italy summons US envoy over WikiLeaks spying reports

Italy’s Foreign Ministry says Tuesday it has summoned the US ambassador to Rome over reports of widespread US surveillance of ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi, among several other European leaders.

US ambassador John Phillips is called in “for clarification on the media reports that allege Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi and some of his close associates were subjected to wiretapping in 2011,” it says in a brief statement.

According to Italy’s La Repubblica and Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung, classified documents released by WikiLeaks reveal the National Security Agency (NSA) spied on leaders from German Chancellor Angela Merkel to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, as well as the party-loving Italian billionaire.

Another document shows the NSA listened in on talks between Berlusconi and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which Netanyahu asked Berlusconi to help him improve relations with Washington that were strained by plans for Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem.

AFP

UAE bans citizens from Lebanon

The United Arab Emirates warns citizens to avoid Lebanon travel, shortly after Saudi Arabia issues a similar directive, AFP reports.

More than 270,000 killed in Syria conflict — monitor

More than 270,000 people have been killed in Syria’s nearly five-year conflict, a monitor says Tuesday in a new toll released just a day after a ceasefire deal was announced.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a total of 271,138 people have lost their lives in the war which broke out in March 2011.

The dead include 79,106 civilians, of whom there are 13,500 children and 8,760 women.

Non-jihadist rebel fighters killed in the conflict number 46,452, while Islamists and extremist fighters — including foreigners — number 44,254.

The Observatory says the death toll also includes 97,842 pro-regime fighters, over half of them government troops.

AFP

Obama unveils plan to shutter Guantanamo

US President Barack Obama says the detention center at Guantanamo Bay undermines America’s national security and needs to be closed.

Obama says the detention center is counterproductive in the fight against terrorism because it’s used as propaganda to recruit terrorists and drains military resources.

The White House released Obama’s plan to close the facility on Tuesday, but the plan faces stiff opposition from the GOP-led Congress.

The plan calls for transferring remaining detainees to the United States and seeks up to $475 million in construction costs that would ultimately be offset by as much as $180 million per year in operating cost savings. It does not specify where in the US the detainees would go.

AP

This file photo taken on April 28, 2007 shows a guard yelling down from a guard tower at Camp #4 at Camp Delta in Guantanamo Bay Naval Station, Cuba.(AFP / AFP FILES / PAUL J. RICHARDS)

This file photo taken on April 28, 2007 shows a guard yelling down from a guard tower at Camp #4 at Camp Delta in Guantanamo Bay Naval Station, Cuba.(AFP / AFP FILES / PAUL J. RICHARDS)

Iran dismisses oil freeze as ‘very funny joke’

Iran’s oil minister on Tuesday dismisses an output freeze deal between the world’s top two producers Saudi Arabia and Russia as “a joke,” the ISNA news agency reports.

“Some neighboring countries have increased their production over the years to 10 million barrels per day and export this amount, then say let’s all freeze our oil production,” Bijan Zanganeh says.

“They freeze production at 10 million bpd and we freeze at 1 million bpd. This is a very funny joke.”

AFP

Court rejects Ettinger’s request for jail move

A Beersheba court denied Meir Ettinger’s request to move into a different branch of the prison where he is being held, officials announce.

Ettinger, who is being held under administrative detention, requested the move because he fears the other prisoners in his section, who are predominantly members of Palestinian terrorist organizations, a spokesperson for the court says.

However, the presiding judges note in their decision that Ettinger does not have any direct physical contact with the Palestinian prisoners and thus dismissed his request.

“But even if physical injury is being prevented, there should be an attempt to limit the contact, friction, provocation and exchange of threats as much as possible,” Judge Gad Gidon writes in his decision.

Ettinger was arrested in this summer and is being held without trial for his suspected involvement in multiple crimes, mostly against Palestinians.

Judah Ari Gross

Widow of off-duty soldier not angry at army

The widow of the off-duty soldier who was stabbed to death in a supermarket last Thursday welcomes the army’s decision to have soldiers on leave take their rifles home.

But Yael Weissman says she does not blame the army for her husband’s death. Tuvia Yanai Weissman, 21, was not armed during Thursday attack due to a directive that prohibits soldiers who are on leave for more that three days to take their guns with them. He had nonetheless requested permission to take his weapon and was turned down.

“We aren’t angry at the army, but we welcome the change in the policy of carrying weapons while off duty,” she tells Channel 2.

She says “thank God we have an army that” is “doing its job,” and “I trust them 100 percent.”

During the attack, the two — out shopping with their baby — were far away from the attackers, and her husband ran to help, she says.

“Yanai didn’t think twice,” she says. “When I lifted my head,” she adds, he was already gone.

Tuvia Yanai Weissman with his wife Yael and four-month-old daughter. Weissman was stabbed to death by Palestinian terrorists at a West Bank supermarket on February 18, 2016. (Facebook)

Tuvia Yanai Weissman with his wife Yael and four-month-old daughter. Weissman was stabbed to death by Palestinian terrorists at a West Bank supermarket on February 18, 2016. (Facebook)

White House to host meeting on countering IS propaganda

The Obama administration is convening a meeting at the White House this week to discuss efforts to counter the propaganda of the Islamic State.

The meeting scheduled for Wednesday afternoon involves government officials as well as representatives from advertising and social media companies and Silicon Valley.

The summit is aimed at brainstorming ways to counter social media propaganda used by Islamic State members that encourages disaffected young adults to join their cause in Syria or to commit violence closer to home.

A government official describes the summit as unrelated to technology encryption issues, and said the meeting was planned long before the current dispute between the Justice Department and Apple over access to a locked iPhone became public last week in a California court.

AP

Students at Montreal’s McGill U pass pro-BDS motion

Students at McGill University in Montreal vote to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel.

The nonbinding motion in the university’s student society carried Monday by a vote of 512-357, but only about 3 percent of the student body of nearly 30,000 cast ballots. It was the third time that the Student Society of McGill University has voted on BDS in the past 18 months.

On the same day, the Canadian Parliament passed a motion formally condemning BDS.

Despite passage of the motion, which was put forward by the fledgling McGill BDS Action Network, the McGill administration is not bound to implement BDS policies. The motion can only be fully ratified through an online vote by McGill students in the coming week.

JTA

Supporters of a boycott against Israel protest in Melbourne, Australia, in 2010. (Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)

File: Protesters urging a boycott against Israel. (Wikimedia Commons)

Egypt court orders release of brother of al-Qaeda leader

An Egyptian lawyer says a court in Cairo has ordered the release of the brother of al-Qaeda’s leader after he spent over two years in prison without trial over accusations he led a terrorist group.

Khaled al-Masri tells The Associated Press Tuesday that Mohammed Al-Zawahri, the brother of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri, will be placed under house arrest.

Al-Zawahri was arrested in August 2013, days after security forces stormed a sit-in by supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, killing hundreds.

Al-Zawahri was the leader of a jihadi Salafi group and was a close ally of Morsi.

He had been acquitted in one terrorism-related case. However, he remained in detention under a second case, for which he was never formally charged but was accused of forming terrorist organization.

AP

Home of Litman killer won’t be demolished

Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit rules that the home of a Palestinian terrorist won’t be demolished because the gunman’s father and brother handed him in to the Shin Bet security agency, Channel 2 reports.

Hebron resident Shadi Ahmad Matua, aged 28 and married with two children, is accused of killing Rabbi Yaakov Litman, 40, and his 18-year-old son Netanel, in a shooting attack in November in the West Bank.

A child looks at the photos of terror victims Rabbi Ya’akov Litman, 40, and his son Netanel, 18 who were killed on November 13, 2015 in a terror attack, at the wedding of Sarah Litman and Ariel Biegel. (Hadas Parush)

A child looks at the photos of terror victims Rabbi Ya’akov Litman, 40, and his son Netanel, 18 who were killed on November 13, 2015 in a terror attack, at the wedding of Sarah Litman and Ariel Biegel. (Hadas Parush)

The attorney general’s decision serves to encourage the families of Palestinian terrorists to turn in their relatives to the Israeli authorities, the TV report says.

Shadi Matua is believed to have killed Yaakov and Netanel Litman in a West Bank terror attack on November 13, 2015 (Courtesy Shin Bet)

Shadi Matua is believed to have killed Yaakov and Netanel Litman in a West Bank terror attack on November 13, 2015 (Courtesy Shin Bet)

Ya’alon opposes comparing Israeli, Palestinian bereavement

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon rejects any comparisons between the bereaved Israeli families of terror victims, and those of Palestinian terrorists.

“Any comparison between our bereaved and their bereaved has no place,” he says. “We are a society that sanctifies life and unfortunately, by them [the Palestinians], many sanctify death.”

Addressing the families of terror victims at a Yad L’Banim event, Ya’alon says “one must not compare the bereaved.”

The defense minister is echoing comments by Police Commissioner Roni Alscheich earlier Tuesday. Earlier this month, radio presenter Razi Barkai sparked outrage when he compared the grief of families of attackers and victims during an interview with Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan.

Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon (R) on February 23, 2016 (Diana Hananshvili/Defense Ministry)

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon (R) on February 23, 2016 (Diana Hananshvili/Defense Ministry)

‘Plan B’ for Syria if no peace in coming months — Kerry

Secretary of State John Kerry warns Tuesday that Washington is considering a “Plan B” to deal with Syria if Damascus and Moscow are not serious about negotiating a political transition.

Briefing US lawmakers, Kerry says he had told Russia’s President Vladimir Putin the United States would not wait more than a few months to see whether Moscow’s ally Bashar Assad is serious about talks.

But he would not be drawn on details of any “Plan B” that he would advise President Barack Obama to adopt if efforts to mediate a political deal to end the Syrian civil war fail.

Diplomatic sources and US press reports suggest the new plan would involve more direct US and allied military involvement, but Washington remains very cautious about being drawn deeper into the conflict.

“When I met with President Putin, I said to him very directly that the test is not going to be proven in six months or a year and a half, when the election is supposedly scheduled,” Kerry tells the Senate Foreign Relations Committee,

“We’re going to know in a month or two whether or not this transition process is really serious.”

AFP

Secretary of State John Kerry testifies during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, on Capitol Hill February 23, 2016 in Washington, DC. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images/AFP)

Secretary of State John Kerry testifies during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, on Capitol Hill February 23, 2016 in Washington, DC. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images/AFP)

Director Spike Lee endorses Bernie Sanders

Spike Lee, the actor and director for decades who has made poignant feature films about African-Americans, endorses Bernie Sanders for president Tuesday, urging voters to “wake up” to the candidate’s battle for financial equality.

“I know that you know the system is rigged,” Lee says in a new radio ad unveiled in south Carolina, where Sanders squares off with Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton in their primary Saturday.

“For too long we’ve given our votes to corporate puppets … Ninety-nine percent of Americans were hurt by the great recession of 2008, and many are still recovering. And that’s why I’m officially endorsing my brother Bernie Sanders,” he says.

AFP

Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. pauses for a photo with a supporter at a rally, Friday, Feb. 19, 2016, in Elko, Nev. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. pauses for a photo with a supporter at a rally, Friday, Feb. 19, 2016, in Elko, Nev. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Cruz calls for Guantanamo expansion, not closure

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz says the detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, should not be closed as President Barack Obama has proposed.

Instead, the Republican presidential hopeful says during a campaign stop Tuesday in Fernley, Nevada, that the facility should be expanded to house more terrorists.

Cruz says shutting down the Guantanamo Bay facility will result in the release of terrorists who will ultimately need to be recaptured. Cruz says he fears Obama may also turn Guantanamo Bay back over to the Cuban government.

The Obama administration on Tuesday sent Congress its plan to shut down the detention center and relocate detainees to a US-based prison.

Cruz also jokes about Obama’s planned visit to Cuba next month, saying “it wouldn’t be a terrible thing if he just stayed.”

AP

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