ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 427
The Times of Israel liveblogged Tuesday’s events as they unfolded.
A man in his 30s has been killed in a suspected motorcycle bombing in the central city of Or Yehuda.
According to first responders, paramedics arrived at the scene to discover a man who was unconscious and suffering from systemic injuries, and they declared him dead at the scene.
The incident is just the latest in a string of criminal shootings and bombings in recent days and weeks which are suspected of being tied to a feud between underworld crime gangs.
In a rare statement issued by the Mossad, the spy agency categorically denies that its chief, David Barnea, met with Shikma Bressler, a leader in the anti-judicial overhaul protest movement.
“Complete fake news. The head of the Mossad did not meet with Shikma Bressler,” reads the terse message circulated by the Prime Minister’s Office in the name of the Mossad.
The statement comes after firebrand Likud MK Tally Gotliv was the one to make the claim in a post on social media.
“I heard that Ms. Shikma Bressler — who thought that right-wing elected officials are Nazis — met in a personal meeting with the Mossad chief,” posted Gotliv on X. “I also heard that someone rushed to put a gag order on it.”
Gotliv — a former criminal defense attorney — pointed out that she has parliamentary immunity and therefore was not afraid to violate a purported gag order, and demanded an explanation for the supposed meeting.
Following the Mossad statement, Gotliv posts again on X, noting the denial but claiming that her report came from a “reliable source.” She has so far not deleted her original tweet.
After video emerges of the latest spitting attack against Christians in the Old City, President Isaac Herzog tells the International Christian Embassy of Jerusalem’s Feast of Tabernacles that “the State of Israel will always preserve freedom of religion and worship.”
“We will insist on protecting all of the religious communities that make up the beautiful human mosaic of our country,” says Herzog, speaking by video, “and safeguard every site, religious leader, and human being from any vile expressions of hatred or intolerance.”
“This commitment goes to the very heart of who we are as a Jewish and democratic state,” he continues. “And it is not something we will ever compromise on.”
Several dozen protesters demonstrate loudly outside the Pais Arena in Jerusalem, where the International Christian Embassy of Jerusalem is holding its Israeli Night as part of its annual Feast of the Tabernacles.
They call out to those walking into the stadium that the ICEJ is a missionary organization, and hold a banner that reads “We should stand strong as proud Jews. Faithfully for Generations!”
No protesters have managed to infiltrate the event inside thus far, where Intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel addresses the crowd.
President Isaac Herzog sends a video greeting, pledging to protect freedom of worship for all faiths.
The Health Ministry says that a second Israeli in recent days has been diagnosed with dengue fever, but stresses that he was infected abroad, with no connection to the other Israeli who has tested positive.
The new case is found in someone who returned in mid-September from Thailand, the ministry says.
The ministry says it will carry out extermination efforts near the residence of the person in question, but did not specify where they live.
Last week, a man who returned recently from Mexico was found to be positive for the virus.
Dengue fever cannot be transferred via human contact, but if a mosquito bites someone infected with the disease, the mosquito can pass it on to another human.
The trial of Sam Bankman-Fried, former CEO of one of cryptocurrency’s biggest exchanges, begins with a jury set to determine if he committed massive fraud by stealing billions of dollars from clients.
The 31-year-old — once one of the most respected figures in crypto — now faces decades in prison and could see his name stand alongside Bernie Madoff and Elizabeth Holmes as the era’s most prominent fraudsters.
The first day of the trial is devoted to jury selection for a case that is set to last about six weeks. Bankman-Fried faces seven counts including wire fraud, securities and commodities fraud and money laundering.
Bankman-Fried enters the courtroom alone — without being escorted by security guards — uncuffed, and takes his place alongside his lawyers, an AFP journalist observes. Dressed in a gray suit and striped tie, his usually long curly hair is cut short.
An Iranian girl aged 16 has been left in a coma and is being treated in hospital under heavy security after an assault on the Tehran subway, a rights group says.
The Kurdish-focused rights group Hengaw says the teenager, named as Armita Garawand, has been badly injured in a run-in on the Tehran metro with female morality police officers.
This has already been denied by the Iranian authorities who say that the girl “fainted” due to low blood pressure and that there was no involvement of the security forces.
Iranian authorities remain on high alert for any upsurge of social tension just over a year after the death in custody of Mahsa Amini who had been arrested for allegedly violating the strict dress rules for women.
Hengaw says Garawand was left with severe injuries after being apprehended by agents of the so-called morality police at the Shohada metro station in Tehran on Sunday. It says she is being treated under tight security at Tehran’s Fajr hospital and “there are currently no visits allowed for the victim, not even from her family.”
National Unity party leader Benny Gantz calls on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take a prominent role in appointing the next Israel Police chief — and sideline the decision of far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.
“I call on the prime minister to remember his primary responsibility, to use his authority to interview himself the candidates for police chief and to be involved in this process,” Gantz says during a tour up north.
“We cannot leave this critical decision to the State of Israel and to its citizens in the hands of Ben Gvir,” he adds. “Someone who secretly records the police chief, leaks from sensitive meetings, fails daily in managing personal security, who is an anti-statesmanlike figure, cannot appoint the next police chief.”
Gantz says that Netanyahu must himself consult with the relevant professionals and appoint the next commissioner of the Israel Police “and not abandon this strategic position.”
Gantz reiterates his call to also replace Ben Gvir in his position with “a serious person with relevant skills.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vows that Iran will not stop Israel from achieving normalization with Saudi Arabia, responding to comments by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei earlier today.
“While the terror regime of Khamenei sows destruction and carnage, Israel is advancing progress and peace,” Netanyahu says in a video message from his vacation up north.
“Just like Iran did not prevent us from achieving the ‘Abraham Accords,’ Iran will also not prevent us from expanding further the circle of peace for the good of the citizens of Israel, peoples of the region and humanity as a whole.”
A Dublin school that employed a French former Nazi officer as a teacher who physically abused pupils over decades should apologize, according to former students cited by The Irish Times today.
Louis Feutren, who died in 2009, served in the notorious Nazi SS military unit during World War II and was a member of a Breton nationalist group “Bezen Perrot” that hunted for Jews and French Resistance fighters.
Born in 1922, Feutren was sentenced to death in France after the war before fleeing to Ireland in 1945, where he gained a university degree and taught French at St. Conleth’s College in Dublin from 1957 to 1985.
According to Uki Goni, who studied at St. Conleth’s in the 1970s and has coordinated a letter campaign sent to the school asking it to apologize over Feutren, the Frenchman regularly abused pupils during class.
In Goni’s letter, cited by The Irish Times, several testimonies by pupils recall physical abuse inflicted on them by Feutren even after a 1982 ban on corporal punishment in Irish schools.
The International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem is holding its Israeli Guest Night in Jerusalem this evening as part of its annual Feast of Tabernacles celebration.
The event will honor Yom Kippur War veteran Avigdor Kahalani, and will feature a video address by President Isaac Herzog. Intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel will be the senior Israeli official in attendance.
Diplomats from 18 countries are also expected to attend, according to the ICEJ.
International performers include an Iranian-born vocalist singing in Farsi and Hebrew, and a klezmer band made up of Israelis and Ukrainians.
Tomorrow, the Jerusalem March will take place, with thousands of Christian Zionists marching from Sacher Park to First Station in Jerusalem. Christians from Egypt, Turkey, Algeria, Iran, Indonesia and North Korea will participate, among others, according to ICEJ.
Protesters are expected at both events, with police cordoning them off tonight in the Teddy Stadium parking lot. Anti-missionary protests against a Christian gathering in Jerusalem turned violent in May.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemns attacks on Christians in Israel after a widely shared video of ultra-Orthodox Jews spitting at Christian worshippers in Jerusalem’s Old City.
“Israel is totally committed to safeguard the sacred right of worship and pilgrimage to the holy sites of all faiths,” Netanyahu writes on his English-language X account. “I strongly condemn any attempt to intimidate worshippers, and I am committed to taking immediate and decisive action against it.”
Netanyahu adds that “derogatory conduct towards worshipers is sacrilege and is simply unacceptable. Any form of hostility towards individuals engaged in worship will not be tolerated.”
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant hits back at Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei after the ayatollah warns Saudi Arabia against normalizing ties with Israel.
“The murderous terror regime in Iran has succeeded already in tearing apart several countries it controls, and now it is trying to sabotage peace efforts with empty threats,” says Gallant in a statement.
“Iran will continue to act to spread terror and destruction, and Israel to achieve security for its citizens and peace in the Middle East.”
In Riyadh for a UN postal conference, Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi meets with Ömer Abdullah Karagözoğlu, the chairman of Turkey’s Information and Communication Technologies Authority.
According to Karhi’s office, the two agree to strengthen bilateral cooperation in telecommunications and mail, especially in 5G infrastructure and e-commerce.
Karhi is leading an Israeli delegation to the Universal Postal Union’s 2023 Extraordinary Congress, accompanied by Knesset Economy Committee chairman David Bitan. He made the trip less than a week after his Likud colleague Haim Katz became the first Israeli minister to officially visit Saudi Arabia as the two nations move closer to establishing ties.
According to the Foreign Ministry, Israelis were at the Bangkok mall during a shooting attack today and managed to escape. The ministry tells The Times of Israel that it does not know if any Israelis are hurt in the incident.
Several people were killed and a number of others hurt in the shooting inside a mall, and the attacker was apprehended.
Thailand is a popular tourist destination for Israelis, many of whom are on vacation this week for the Sukkot holiday.
A spokesperson for Air Seychelles denies a report picked up by most mainstream Israeli news outlets of a flight to Tel Aviv making an emergency landing in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The report which initiated with Channel 12 news appears to have no basis, and there are no flights between Seychelles and Israel currently in the air.
This updates an earlier incorrect report.
The OECD calls on Israel to cut government subsidies to yeshiva students in order to improve the country’s economy.
In a new report issued today by the organization on every OECD member country, the global organization criticizes Israel on a number of fronts, including its treatment of the Haredi sector.
According to the OECD, “socioeconomic gaps remain wide” in Israel, as “certain groups, especially the Haredim (ultra-Orthodox Jews) and Arab-Israelis, are underrepresented in the thriving high-tech sector, and have low employment rates, working hours and wages.”
To address such a disparity, the OECD calls on Israel to “remove government subsidies for yeshiva students and condition childcare support on fathers’ employment.”
It also suggests that child-care options in Arab towns be boosted as well as budgets for schooling in Arab towns increased.
Separately, the OECD criticizes Israel on climate change, saying that its “share of renewable energy in electricity generation is one of the lowest in the OECD” and calling on it to address the issue in a number of steps.
Foreign Minister Eli Cohen joins the wave of condemnations against a group of ultra-Orthodox Jews seen spitting toward Christian worshippers in the Old City of Jerusalem.
“I condemn this disgusting phenomenon of spitting on Christians and harming any person because of his religion or beliefs,” Cohen says in a statement. “I call on all citizens of Israel to respect the tradition and faith of anyone who enters the holy city of Jerusalem.”
Some have defended the practice as being an “ancient Jewish custom,” though most figures have condemned the act caught on film yesterday.
Three people are killed and four wounded in a shooting at a Bangkok shopping mall, and the shooter has been arrested.
Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin tells reporters the attacker had been apprehended and the situation brought under control.
“Police are clearing the scene. The situation is easing,” Srettha tells reporters.
Yuthana Srettanan, director of the Erawan Emergency Center, says three people are killed and four wounded in the incident, in a message sent to reporters.
Three scientists win the Nobel Prize in physics for their work on how electrons move around the atom during the tiniest fractions of seconds, a field that could one day lead to better electronics or disease diagnoses.
The award went to Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier for their study of the tiny part of each atom that races around the center and that is fundamental to virtually everything: chemistry, physics, our bodies and our gadgets.
Electrons move around so fast that they have been out of reach of human efforts to isolate them, but by looking at the tiniest fraction of a second possible — one quintillionth of a second known as an attosecond — scientists now have a “blurry” glimpse of them and that opens up whole new sciences, experts said.
“The electrons are very fast and the electrons are really the workforce in everywhere,” Nobel Committee member Mats Larsson says. “Once you can control and understand electrons you have taken a very big step forward.”
The Foreign Ministry prevented three visiting foreign ministers of European countries from entering certain Palestinian towns in the West Bank in recent weeks.
The foreign ministers of Ireland, the UK and Norway all visited in recent weeks and requested to visit Palestinian towns in Area C of the West Bank, which is controlled by Israel, and were denied access, according to a report in Walla News today, citing two European diplomats.
“After consulting with security officials, we decided not to allow them into specific sites, not all of Area C,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman tells The Times of Israel, confirming the report.
UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly visited Israel in mid-September, about a week after Irish Foreign Minister Micheál Martin, both of whom met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Norway FM Anniken Huitfeldt — who is frequently vocally critical of Israel — met with her Israel counterpart, Eli Cohen, in Jerusalem in mid-September, but did not meet with Netanyahu.
