Adiv Sterman is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
The Times of Israel liveblogged Thursday’s developments as they unfolded.
Hussein Abu Khdeir demands that the homes of the minors convicted in the brutal 2014 murder of his son, Muhammed Abu Khdeir, be demolished.
“We do not accept the [court’s] verdict for the minor, and we will appeal to the Supreme Court,” he says following the Jerusalem District Court’s decision to hand down a life sentence to one of the minor convicted in the kidnapping and murdering the Palestinian teenager. A second minor received 21 years for the grisly 2014 revenge attack.
“The court must order that the home be demolished; anything less is not enough. When a 14-year-old murders a Jew he receives a life sentence. If there is no apartheid and no racism they should also give him a life sentence and demolish his home.”
A life sentence for a minor is nearly unprecedented.
Another man, Yosef Haim Ben-David, 31, was also convicted in the attack, but has not yet been sentenced while the court considers his claim that he suffers from a mental illness and was not responsible for his actions at the time. The names of the two have not been released for publication because they are minors.
Both were also fined NIS 30,000 by the court for the 2014 attack, in which the three kidnapped Abu Khdeir and then beat him and burned him alive in a nearby forest.
Abu Khdeir was abducted and killed on July 1, 2014, two days after it emerged that three Israeli teens who had been abducted three weeks earlier in the West Bank had been killed by their Palestinian kidnappers shortly after their disappearance.
The violence was a major contributing factor in the breakout of a war with Gaza war that followed a week later.
The funeral procession for a Border Police officer who succumbed to wounds she sustained during a shooting and stabbing attack near Jerusalem’s Old City yesterday begins at the military cemetery in Yahud.
Hadar Cohen, 19, from Or Yehuda, was rushed to Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus in critical condition after she was wounded in the attack. Hospital officials said she was shot in the head, and she was pronounced dead a short while later. “We succeeded in stabilizing her condition for a time, but her head wound was so severe she never had a chance,” a hospital spokeswoman said.
Another policewomen was in serious but stable condition at the hospital, with wounds all over her body, including her head, the spokeswoman said.
The three attackers, identified as Ahmed Abou Al-Roub, Mohammed Kameel and Ahmad Rajeh Ismail Zakarneh, all hailing from the northern West Bank, arrived at the scene armed with apparently locally fabricated “Carl Gustav” rifles, knives and two pipe bombs, police said. Police initially suspected a third item found at the scene was a bomb, but sappers determined it was an abandoned bag.
A third victim, identified only as a 20-year-old Israeli, was lightly wounded and treated at the scene.
Cohen was drafted into the Border Police only two months ago, and was still in training as she patrolled the area outside Damascus Gate on Wednesday.
https://twitter.com/JudahAriGross/status/694911042028179457/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Cohen is survived by her parents, a brother and a sister.
Cohen was part of a three-member squad that spotted the three Palestinians behaving in a suspicious manner and asked to see their identification papers. As one attacker withdrew his ID card, the others opened fire and pulled out knives to attack the officers.
According to police, Cohen managed to return fire before she was mortally wounded, despite being surprised by the attackers.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu says tens of thousands of Syrians are heading toward the border following airstrikes in the province of Aleppo, Reuters reports.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says he could leave the Ecuadorian embassy in London on Friday pending an opinion by a UN panel on his alleged rape case — but Britain says it would have to arrest him.
Assange, who is wanted for extradition on a rape accusation in Sweden and has lived in the embassy since June 2012, says he expected to be treated as a free man if the panel rules in his favor.
In September 2014, Assange filed a complaint against Sweden and Britain to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, claiming his confinement in the embassy amounted to illegal detention.
“Should I prevail and the state parties be found to have acted unlawfully, I expect the immediate return of my passport and the termination of further attempts to arrest me,” he says in a statement.
If the UN group rules against him he said “I shall exit the embassy at noon on Friday to accept arrest by British police as there is no meaningful prospect of further appeal,” he adds.
The British government says it was under an obligation to arrest him in both eventualities.
“An allegation of rape is still outstanding and a European arrest warrant in place, so the UK continues to have a legal obligation to extradite Mr Assange to Sweden,” a government spokesman says.
“We have been consistently clear that Mr Assange has never been arbitrarily detained by the UK but is, in fact, voluntarily avoiding lawful arrest by choosing to remain in the Ecuadorian embassy.”
— AFP
A plane scheduled to fly from Madrid in Spain to Saudi Arabia is evacuated of all passengers and crew following to a bomb threat.
The threat is specific to the flight and does not affect other operations at the Madrid airport, Reuters reports.
The plane is removed from the airport.
Hundreds of people take part in the funeral of Hadar Cohen, 19, a Border Police officer who succumbed to wounds she sustained during a shooting and stabbing attack yesterday near Jerusalem’s Old City.
Another policewomen who suffered serious wounds in the attack comes to the funeral at the Yehud Military Cemetery as well.
Cohen was drafted into the Border Police only two months ago, and was still in training as she patrolled the area outside Damascus Gate on Wednesday.
Cohen is survived by her parents, a brother and a sister.
Cohen was part of a three-member squad that spotted three Palestinians behaving in a suspicious manner and asked to see their identification papers. As one attacker withdrew his ID card, the others opened fire and pulled out knives to attack the officers.
According to police, Cohen managed to return fire before she was mortally wounded, despite being surprised by the attackers.
Doctors at the HaEmek Medical Center in Afula refuse to force feed Palestinian journalist Mohammed al-Qiq, despite a decision by the Ethics Committee at the hospital that allows them to do so. Al-Qiq has been on hunger strike for over two months to protest his detention by Israel.
Mahmoud Hamid, an Israeli doctor and member of the Doctors for Human Rights organization, says he is “very concerned about Qiq’s situation, but is encouraged by the refusal of the medical staff to treat him forcibly.”
Qiq, a 33-year-old father of two and a correspondent for Saudi Arabia’s Almajd TV network, was arrested on November 21 at his home in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
He is being held under Israel’s controversial administrative detention law, which allows the state to hold suspects for renewable six-month periods without trial.
He has been refusing food since November 25 in protest against the “torture and ill treatment that he was subjected to during interrogation,” according to Addameer, a Palestinian human rights organization.
He has appealed against his internment but Israel’s Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to order his release although it said it would follow his health on a daily basis.
The Shin Bet, the Israeli domestic security service, says Qiq was arrested for “terror activity” as part of the terror group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.
Yesh Atid head Yair Lapid tells several EU ambassadors during a meeting at the EU offices in Ramat Gan that it is “intolerable and inexcusable” for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to host the families of Palestinian terrorists just hours after three Palestinians killed an Israeli Border Police officer and injured a second in the capital yesterday.
In an apparent reference to Israeli human rights or left wing groups, Lapid adds that “it’s a scandal that foreign governments give money to associations and organizations whose purpose is to change the regime in Israel.”
“You are not strict enough in tracking your money. It goes to the organizations of the BDS, which are deeply involved with Hamas,” he says.
Sweden’s Migration Agency says it expects around 100,000 asylum seekers in 2016, fewer than the 163,000 last year, but warns that its estimates remain uncertain given Europe’s struggle to control the migration crisis.
“One can hardly speak of forecasts now. The future depends entirely on the decisions and actions taken at the European Union level and in Sweden,” agency director Anders Danielsson says in a statement.
Sweden, a country of 9.8 million, was one of the EU states with the highest proportion of refugees per capita last year as Europe battles its worst migration crisis since World War II.
The migration agency says it was basing its 2016 planning on a scenario of around 100,000 asylum seekers, but gave an upper estimate of 140,000 should Turkish and European authorities be overwhelmed and if Swedish border controls prove ineffective.
Conversely, if border controls work properly and more restrictive measures are put in place, Sweden might receive as few as 70,000 migrants.
“We need to steer the number down towards 70,000 and preferably even under that,” Immigration Minister Morgan Johansson tells reporters.
“If we see the numbers beginning to rise to a level that we can’t manage, then we’ll have to do more.”
Danielsson tells Swedish news agency TT that the crisis was “definitely not over.”
“The only thing we know is that the pressure on Europe will be at least as strong or even stronger in 2016 than in 2015,” he says.
— AFP
British daily The Guardian has named Daniel Taub as the former Israeli envoy reported to have been refused an extension to his ambassadorship over unauthorized late night visitors to his official home.
Taub served as Israel’s most recent ambassador to the UK until June 2015.
According to Hebrew media reports, Taub had requested an extension to his four-year term as ambassador but was turned down by the Foreign Ministry after repeatedly breaking security protocol by accepting late-night visitors who had not passed the necessary security clearance.
The Foreign Ministry, while not denying the reports, rejects rumors published online Tuesday that Taub was involved in an illicit scandal, insisting there had been “no criminal or disciplinary” wrongdoing, according to the Guardian.
An expert in international law, Taub had been a candidate for the position of the Foreign Ministry’s chief legal adviser. Haaretz reports that the committee responsible for high-level public service appointments this week blocked Taub’s candidacy based on the reported security breaches.
The Civil Administration confiscated a tent provided by the Red Cross to a Palestinian family from Khirbet Susiya, whose house was destroyed by Israeli authorities two weeks ago, Israeli human rights group B’tselem says.
At least 21 civilians, including three children, are killed in Russian strikes on rebel-held districts of Syria’s Aleppo city, a monitor says.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the strikes on six neighborhoods of the northern city had also wounded many, and that the toll could rise.
The raids come as government forces press an offensive north of the city, backed by Russian warplanes, to encircle rebels in the east of Aleppo city.
Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman says it was first time his organization had been able to confirm Russian air strikes on Aleppo city since Moscow began its intervention on September 30.
Until now Russian strikes had been concentrated on Aleppo province, he says.
Aleppo city has been divided between rebel control in the east and government control in the west since shortly after fighting there began in mid-2012.
In an operation launched on Monday, government forces have now almost encircled the east of the city, cutting the main rebel supply route from the Turkish border and breaking an opposition siege on two towns on the same road.
— AFP
The Russian military says it has “reasonable grounds” to suspect that Turkey is making intensive preparations for a military invasion of neighboring Syria.
Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov says in a statement that the Russian military has registered “a growing number of signs of hidden preparation of the Turkish armed forces for active actions on the territory of Syria.”
He says images of a checkpoint on the Turkish-Syrian border taken in late October and late January show a buildup of transportation infrastructure that could be used for moving in troops, ammunition and weapons.
— AP
Two 13-year-old Israeli Arab girls who stabbed and lightly injured a security guard in the central city of Ramle say they carried out the attack as “revenge for the situation in the Al-Aqsa Mosque.”
During an investigation, the girls say that Israel is “killing Palestinians,” according to the Walla news site.
A day before Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas hosted the families of Palestinian attackers in his office in Ramallah, three Knesset members from the Joint (Arab) List met with the relatives of attackers as well, Ynet reports.
The three MKs are Hanin Zoabi, Jamal Zahalka, and Basel Ghattas.
Supreme Court suspends the detention without trial of a Palestinian journalist who has been on hunger strike for more than two months, but he cannot leave the hospital without permission. His family will be allowed to visit him.
Mohammed al-Qiq, 33, was said to be on hunger strike for 72 days to protest being held under Israel’s controversial administrative detention law, which allows the state to hold suspects for renewable six-month periods without trial.
The court says the order was being suspended due to his poor health.
AFP contributed to this report.
The Israel Prize recipients in the study of chemistry and physics research are Professor Meir Lahav and professor Leslie Leizerovich from the Weizmann Institute.
The Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories tweets a throwback Thursday image, reminding followers of the time when the Gaza-based terrorist group Hamas called for suicide missions.
http://twitter.com/cogat_israel/status/695278183533408256
COGAT was unavailable for comment over who came up with the idea to post such a peculiar tweet.
The Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court extends by five days the remand of two minors from Ramle who are suspected of stabbing a guard at the city’s central bus station this morning.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu requests of Knesset speaker Yuli Edelstein to examine the punitive measures that may be used against the Joint (Arab) List MKs who visited the families of Palestinian terrorists, Tal Shalev, a diplomatic correspondent for i24 News reports.
Earlier, the Zionist Union issues a statement saying that the visit by the MKs from the Joint List encouraged the continuation of terror and the murder innocent people.
MKs from the Joint List met with relatives of Palestinian terrorists killed by Israeli security forces as they were carrying out attacks, including the relatives of terrorists who murdered Israelis in the recent wave of terror attacks.
A Palestinian organization representing the “families of shahids” invited all lawmakers from the Joint List, a list comprising all Arab parties in the Knesset, to meet in Jerusalem. Three MKs from Balad, one of the parties comprising the list, showed up for the meeting.
According to Israeli media sources, the three MKs, Hanin Zoabi, Jamal Zahalka and Basel Ghattas met the parents of the murderers a day before Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas hosted them in his Ramallah office.
Ze’ev Elkin, the Minister of Immigration and Absorption says he always “argued that Balad MKs work for terrorist groups… and their place is outside of the Israeli parliament.”
He calls to “stop the disgrace.”
A Palestinian organization representing the “families of shahids” invited all lawmakers from the Joint List, a list comprising all Arab parties in the Knesset, to meet in Jerusalem. Three MKs from Balad, one of the parties comprising the list, showed up for the meeting.
According to Israeli media sources, the three MKs, Hanin Zoabi, Jamal Zahalka and Basel Ghattas met the parents of the murderers a day before Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas hosted them in his Ramallah office.
One of the minors accused of involvement in the murder of the Palestinian Dawabsheh family from the West Bank village of Duma only admitted to taking part in the act after investigators used physical force, transcripts from the investigation show, according to Channel 10.
The minor was not charged with assisting in the firebombing of the family’s home, despite him admitting to the contrary.
New intelligence assessments show that the number of Islamic State group fighters has dropped in Iraq and Syria but is rising in Libya, a senior US defense official says.
According to the official, reports suggest there are 19,000 to 25,000 IS fighters in Iraq and Syria, compared to an earlier range of 20,000 to more than 30,000. The newly declassified numbers back up recent comments from military commanders and other defense officials who have argued that the US-led coalition airstrikes are having an impact on Islamic State militants and causing them to lose ground in both countries.
The decrease in Iraq and Syria, however, may explain some of the increase of IS in Libya from a couple thousand to about 5,000.
The official says that military operations in Iraq and Syria have killed IS fighters and made it more difficult for them to move into the region or recruit others. As a result, some appear to be going into Libya, where wide swaths of territory are ungoverned.
The official also said that the intelligence community’s ability to accurately count the number of militants has improved, as the US and its partners get more troops on the ground and surveillance in the skies.
The official was not authorized to discuss the numbers publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
A day after an attack in which Border Police cadet Hadar Cohen was killed, police say they are considering avoiding placing new recruits at the Damascus Gate site in Jerusalem’s Old City and elsewhere, Channel 2 reports.
Border Patrol officials say the current policy of placing servicemen and woman at flash points by the end of basic training may be revisited.
A Saudi military spokesman says the kingdom is ready to send ground troops to Syria to fight Islamic State group provided coalition leaders agree at an upcoming meeting in Brussels.
Brig. Gen. Ahmed Asiri tells The Associated Press that Saudi Arabia has taken part in coalition airstrikes against IS since the US-led campaign began in September 2014, but would now provide ground troops.
The United States is scheduled to convene a meeting of defense ministers from countries fighting IS in Brussels this month.
“We are determined to fight and defeat Daesh,” Asiri says, using the Arabic acronym for IS. He doesn’t elaborate on how many troops the kingdom would send. Saudi Arabia is deeply involved in Yemen’s civil war, where it is fighting Iranian-backed Shiite rebels.
— AP
