Tamar Pileggi is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
The Times of Israel liveblogged Wednesday’s events as they unfolded.
IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot says reducing Iran’s sphere of influence in the region is more important than defeating the Islamic State jihadist group.
Addressing the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense committee, Eisenkot says “decreasing Iranian influence in the areas near Israel’s borders is no less important than defeating IS, and for Israel perhaps even more.”
He says in the 11 years since the Second Lebanon War, Israel has significantly upgraded its operational and intelligence capabilities, and that it now has “capabilities it never had before.”
The United States lifts a ban on carrying large electronic devices such as laptops in the cabin of US-bound flights from Turkey’s main international airport, according to Turkish Airlines and local media report.
“Dear Passengers, #WelcomeOnBoard to our US-bound flight. Please fasten your seatbelts and enjoy your own electronic devices,” Turkish Airlines, the country’s flag carrier, says on Twitter late last night.
The ban’s lifting comes after Turkey began using sophisticated tomography imaging devices for X-ray and ultrasound screening at Istanbul’s Ataturk International Airport.
Ataturk is the only airport in Turkey with direct flights to the United States.
— AFP
Four people have been arrested and an arms cache found after overnight terror raids in Brussels linked to a bikers’ club called the Kamikaze Riders, according to federal prosecutors.
“During one of the house searches, various weapons were found. In all, four persons were arrested and taken in for questioning,” prosecutors say in a statement.
A spokesman says the raids were linked to the Kamikaze Riders, which has been implicated in terror offences.
A source close to the investigation says the raids in the gritty Anderlecht district found at least two Kalashnikov assault rifles while reports spoke of explosives also being discovered.
The statement from prosecutors adds that the raids were “completely independent” from the probe into the deadly November 2015 Paris and March 2016 Brussels attacks, which were claimed by Islamic State and carried out by jihadi cells based in the Belgian capital.
— AFP
The Knesset plenum rejects a bill proposed by Zionist Union MK Nachman Shai that would enshrining in law plans to build a non-Orthodox prayer section at the Western Wall in Jerusalem.
“This is nothing is new. The government is choosing a tactic of deferring and suspending in order not to deal with the Western Wall deal,” the opposition lawmaker says.
Shai’s bill was introduced earlier today move aimed at countering a government decision to suspend a 2016 agreement with Liberal Jewish movements that would establish an area for pluralistic worship at the holy site.
The Reddit user who claimed responsibility for the altered video depicting US President Donald Trump body slamming someone with CNN superimposed over his head has apologized for the video.
The Reddit user who goes by the handle “HanAssholeSolo” also apologized for other offensive content he posted, which included anti-Semitic and racist imagery, CNN reported last night. He also has removed that content from his Reddit account, according to CNN.
“First of all, I would like to apologize to the members of the reddit community for getting this site and this sub embroiled in a controversy that should never have happened,” he says in the apology.
“I would also like to apologize for the posts made that were racist, bigoted, and anti-semitic. I am in no way this kind of person, I love and accept people of all walks of life and have done so for my entire life. I am not the person that the media portrays me to be in real life, I was trolling and posting things to get a reaction from the subs on reddit and never meant any of the hateful things I said in those posts.”
— JTA
Israel and India sign a series of agreements to cooperate in the fields of technology, water and agriculture.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the cooperation marks a “match made in heaven” as he stands alongside the visiting prime minister of India, Narendra Modi.
The agreements are the centerpiece of Modi’s three-day visit to celebrate 25 years of diplomatic relations and strengthen his country’s already close ties with the Jewish state.
— AP
US President Donald Trump lashes out at China, pointing to a surge in its trade with North Korea as evidence that US reliance on Beijing to rein in Pyongyang was misplaced.
“Trade between China and North Korea grew almost 40% in the first quarter. So much for China working with us – but we had to give it a try!” Trump says in an early morning tweet.
Trump posted the tweet as he was about to depart on a trip to Europe that will include a meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping at a G20 summit in Germany.
It came a day after North Korea conducted an apparently successful test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of striking the United States.
— AFP
The Tel Aviv district psychiatrist says the elderly Holocaust survivor who burned a nurse to death at a Holon clinic in March is fit to stand trial.
Asher Faraj, 77, burned to death 55 year-old career nurse Tova Kararo after the flu shot he received from her made him feel weak and unwell.
After Faraj’s arrest, his family members told the court he suffers from an unspecified mental illness, and that he had previously sought psychiatric care.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi vows to increase cooperation with Israel on a wide range of fields, notably water technology, agriculture and counter-terrorism.
Speaking after he and Netanyahu signed a series of agreements, Modi says, “We are aware of strategic threats to regional peace and stability. We have witnessed terror, so has Israel.”
“Prime Minister Netanyahu and I agreed to do much more together to protect our strategic interests and also combat growing radicalization in the region and West Asia,” he says.
In remarks, Netanyahu says that Indian leader’s visit and the bilateral agreements signed are the first step of a “historic journey.”
“You are making history. We are making history together,” he says, adding that this was a “deeply touching moment” for him.
He recalls a date he had 30 years ago in an Indian restaurant in India with his future wife Sara. “It produced two fine children,” he quips. “The food was great.”
The Israel-India relationship, too, was a “marriage made in heaven,” he goes on, “but one grounded in reality.”
— Raphael Ahren
Netanyahu accepts Modi’s invitation to make an official visit to India.
“I invite you and Mrs Netanyahu and your family to visit India,” Modi says after meeting Netanyahu at Jerusalem’s King David Hotel to sign a series of bilateral cooperation agreements.
Netanyahu responds by saying: “I accept.”
According to the “India-Israel Joint Statement” circulated by diplomats from both countries, Modi extends a “warm invitation” to Netanyahu to visit in India “at a mutually convenient time.”
Earlier this month, Indian officials said the trip would likely take place toward the end of the year.
President Reuven Rivlin visited India eight months ago.
— Raphael Ahren
Former prime minister Ehud Barak endorses ex-Kulanu minister Avi Gabbay for leadership of the Labor party, ahead of the final round of voting next week, according to reports in Hebrew-language media.
In last night’s first-round vote, which saw incumbent Labor chairman Isaac Herzog removed from the running, newcomer Gabbay finished with 27% (8,395), trailing former party leader Amir Peretz who Peretz finished in the lead with 32% of the 10,141 votes cast.
Turkish police detained six suspected members of the Islamic State jihadist group planning a bomb attack on an opposition protest march, a provincial governor tells Turkish media.
Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu is on the final stage of a 450-kilometer (280-mile) “justice march” from Ankara to Istanbul to protest at the legal system under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Suleyman Kamci, who governs the central Anatolian province of Kayseri, said police detained six IS militants after “acting on a good tip-off,” the Hurriyet daily’s website reported.
“They were going to attack the march with a minibus,” he said. “A big provocation has been thwarted.” There was no immediate confirmation from national officials.
Two of the would-be bombers were detained in Kocaeli in northwestern Turkey — 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Istanbul and four others in Kayseri, Hurriyet said.
— AFP
Foreign ministers from four Arab nations that have sought to isolate Qatar over its alleged support for extremist groups have started talks in the Egyptian capital, Cairo.
Their meeting comes hours after the quartet — Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain — said they had received Qatar’s response to their demands for ending the crisis.
The four cut ties to Qatar early last month, accusing it of supporting hard-line militant groups in the region. Qatar denies supporting extremists and has defended its warm relations with Iran, with which it shares a massive undersea gas field.
The nations issued a 13-point list of demands last month, giving Qatar 10 days to comply. They later extended the deadline by another 48 hours at the request of Kuwait, which has acted as a mediator.
That deadline expired earlier today.
— AP
IDF Lt. David Golovenchik, who was fatally shot in a training accident near Hebron last night, is being laid to rest at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem.
The 22-year-old from the West Bank settlement of Efrat is as posthumously promoted to the rank of 1st lieutenant.
Golovenchik was killed when his subordinate accidentally discharged his weapon and hit him during a nighttime drill. An initial probe has indicated that in violation of safety protocols, soldiers neglected to clear their weapons of ammunition prior to starting the drill.
Visiting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is meeting this afternoon with Moshe Holtzberg, the now 12-year-old son of two Chabad emissaries, Rabbi Gavriel and Rivkah Holtzberg, who were killed in a November 2008 terror attack in Mumbai.
The attack on the Indian city’s Chabad House was part of a mass attack in the city by a Pakistani Islamist group that left 166 dead and hundreds injured. In addition to the Holtzbergs, four other Jewish visitors to the Chabad House were killed in the attack.
Modi is visiting Israel for a three-day trip in a “historic” and “groundbreaking” effort to deepen ties between the two countries.
A senior Palestinian official blasts US President Donald Trump’s United Nations envoy, accusing her of carrying out a “crusade” against the Palestinian people.
Hanan Ashrawi, a senior member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, says Nikki Haley was leading a “one-woman crusade … against Palestine and the Palestinian people individually and collectively.”
“Through an obsessive and targeted campaign of intimidation and threats, Miss Haley’s crusade does not miss an opportunity to put pressure on anyone that seeks to challenge Israeli impunity,” she adds.
In a statement distributed by the PLO, Ashrawi says Haley was “compounding the victimization of the Palestinian people and browbeating the institutions that are meant to defend their rights.”
Haley, she adds, is echoing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
— with AFP
Russia, Turkey and Iran failed at peace talks to hammer out details including the boundaries and policing of four safe zones in war-torn Syria, Moscow’s chief negotiator says.
Russian delegation head Alexander Lavrentiev says after the end of the latest two-day negotiations in Kazakhstan that documents outlining how the four zones should work “need finalizing” despite being “essentially agreed” between the three key powerbrokers.
Moscow and Tehran, which back Syrian President Bashar Assad, and rebel supporter Ankara agreed in May to establish four “de-escalation” zones in a potential breakthrough after more than six years of fighting that has claimed more than 320,000 lives.
While fighting dropped off in the weeks after the deal, it has ratcheted up in some areas since, and the international players have yet to finalize the boundaries of the zones or determine who will police them.
“We have not yet managed directly to establish the de-escalation zones,” Lavrentiev says, insisting however that “de facto” safe areas already existed on the ground. He adds that there had been no definitive agreement over the contentious issue of “which specific forces” would police the zones.
— AFP
The newly elected leader of the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas says that since Donald Trump took office, Israel has been using him to exploit divisions in the Arab world.
In one of his first public speeches since his election in May, Ismail Haniyeh says the West Bank will always “remain at the center of the conflict… no one can stop this.”
He adds that negotiating the release of Palestinian security prisoners with Israel is “closer than ever.”
— Dov Lieber
At least two of the suspects arrested in Brussels terror raids overnight were suspected of planning an attack, a source close to the investigation says.
The source, who asked not to be named, confirms media reports saying the two were brothers of Said Saouti, a member of the Kamikaze Bikers club who was jailed for six years in 2016 for belonging to a terrorist group.
— AFP
Foreign ministers of the Saudi-led bloc that has imposed sanctions on Qatar say they regret the emirate’s “negative” response to a list of demands to end a diplomatic crisis.
The ministers of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates “regret the negative response from Qatar,” they say, in a statement read out by Egyptian foreign minister Sameh Shoukry, after meeting in Cairo.
— AFP
Two ultra-Orthodox men are arrested in the Mea Shearim neighborhood of Jerusalem during a police operation to crack down on ultra-Orthodox violence directed at IDF soldiers.
According to reports, two uniformed police officers were sitting in a car in the neighborhood when local residents began to shout at them and pelt their vehicle with rocks, eggs and water bottles.
The arrests come amid ongoing protests by some members of the ultra-Orthodox community against Israel’s mandatory military draft.
Dozens of pro-government activists storm into the seat of Venezuela’s National Assembly as the opposition-controlled legislature was holding a special session to mark the country’s independence day.
Brandishing sticks and dressed in red, they set off fireworks in the interior gardens of the capitol building, unleashing chaos, according tyo AFP journalists at the scene.
Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir says that a boycott of Qatar will remain in place after the Gulf emirate rejected conditions to end a diplomatic crisis.
“The boycott will remain,” he says at a news conference in Cairo, after meeting with his counterparts from Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates over the crisis.
— AFP
Netanyahu vetoes an expansion project for the settlement of Beit El in the West Bank that would have seen the construction of 300 new housing units in the community.
The prime minister orders the proposal be removed from the agenda of the Ministerial Committee for Legislation’s Sunday meeting.
The prime minister publicly pledged to build the 300 units five years ago, following the court-ordered razing of five illegally built houses in Beit El’s Givat Ulpana neighborhood.
Last month, the Prime Minister’s Office released a statement saying Netanyahu met with Beit El Mayor Shai Alon and told him that the units would be approved for the next stage in September.
Jewish Home party MK Betzlel Smotrich in response calls Netanyahu’s move “undemocratic” and says pressure from the US was behind the flip-flop. He says he will bring the bill to the Knesset for a preliminary plenum vote, bypassing committee stage.
South Korean President Moon Jae-In calls for toughened sanctions against the North after its first successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile, as he condemned Pyongyang for the “major provocation.”
“That is a major threat and provocation. North Korea should stop immediately and that’s why we will examine possibilities of ramping up sanctions,” says Moon in Berlin before talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who also spoke in favor of the move.
— AFP
Hamas leader Ismail Haniya says recent talks in Egypt could lead to improving the humanitarian suffering in the impoverished Gaza Strip.
The head of the Palestinian terrorist group says it found Egyptian officials “ready to work to address the crises in Gaza” during a recent trip in which Hamas leaders, led by its Gaza head Yahya Sinwar, met with Egyptian officials in Cairo.
“The Egyptian authorities issued a package of measures and policies and fuel began to enter to the power plant, and work continues at the Rafah crossing to reopen it in the near future.”
“The result will have the effect of alleviating the burden of the siege against our people in the Gaza Strip,” Haniya says.
He has not given further specific details.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas says his government has expressed readiness to Trump to sign a peace agreement with Israel, but Palestinians have yet to receive a response from Netanyahu, according to reports in Hebrew-language media.
Abbas makes the remarks at a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris.
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