Tamra man to be indicted today on suspicion of contact with Hamas, Iranian intel operatives

Police investigating after teen run over and killed in Hadera, and driver hurt by gunfire

A 17-year-old was run over by a car and killed in the northern city of Hadera earlier this morning, in an incident that the police are treating as suspected murder.

The driver of the vehicle was lightly injured by gunfire, police say.

According to the police, the incident began as a confrontation between the two individuals and escalated to violence as the teen was hit and fatally injured by the vehicle.

The driver was then shot and lightly injured, although the police statement doesn’t clarify who is suspected of firing the shots.

He was taken from the scene for medical treatment.

Police clarify that the affair is being treated as a criminal matter, meaning there is currently no suspicion of it being a terror attack.

US sentences ex-head of Syrian prison to 60 years on torture charges

The former head of a notorious Syrian prison has been sentenced by a US federal judge to 60 years in prison for torture and immigration fraud, according to the Department of Justice.

Samir Ousman Alsheikh, 74, who has been in the US since 2020, allegedly ran Damascus Central Prison — known colloquially as Adra Prison — from approximately 2005 to 2008, where detainees were subjected to horrific abuse in the “Punishment Wing.”

A jury found Alsheikh guilty in March of “one count of conspiracy to commit torture, three counts of torture, one count of visa fraud, and one count of attempted naturalization fraud,” the DOJ says.

Three former prisoners testified during the trial about the abuse they suffered at the hands of Alsheikh, as well as the torture inflicted on other prisoners.

“The conviction in this case is a testament to the courage of his victims,” Assistant US Attorney General A. Tysen Duva says in a statement.

In addition to the torture charges, Alsheikh has been found guilty of immigration fraud after he lied about his past to gain entry to the United States in 2020.

“The message is clear: human rights violators who come to the United States will receive no safe harbor here,” Duva adds.

“We will find them, and they will be prosecuted and punished for their heinous crimes.”

A coalition spearheaded by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group and its allies toppled Bashar al-Assad’s government in late 2024, and after the collapse, Syrians flocked to prisons searching for missing loved ones.

Police internal affairs questions cop who shot and killed Arab man after car chase

The Department of Internal Police Investigations have questioned the Border Police officer who shot and killed an Arab man after a car chase Thursday in Umm al-Fahm.

Following the interrogation, the officer is released to house arrest for five days and ordered to stay away from police stations for two weeks as well as the northern Arab town for 30 days.

Police said Thursday morning that officers pursued a “suspicious vehicle” on Route 65 after the driver failed to comply with their orders to stop.

The chase ended in Umm al-Fahm. According to police, after the cars came to a halt and an officer approached on foot, the driver pounced on the cop, who opened fire.

The driver, identified as 38-year-old Alaa Mahameed, was later pronounced dead. The Umm al-Fahm municipality condemned the deadly incident and called for an independent commission to investigate it.

The shooting and alleged assault were caught on a security camera, with sources described as close to the officer quoted by Haaretz as saying the incident was also recorded on his body camera.

The newspaper also reports the DIPI investigation has found Mahameed was unarmed when he was killed.

♦️ תיעוד הירי על הצעיר, עלאא מחמיד, מאום אל-פחם, על ידי אנשי משמר הגבול. המשטרה טענה כי הירי התרחש לאחר שנרדף בכביש 65 ותקף את אחד משוטריה במהלך ניסיון מעצר.

משפחת המנוח: "הריגה ללא משפט"…

לעומת זאת, משפחה ועדי ראייה מקומיים אישרו כי הירי היה ללא כל הצדקה. pic.twitter.com/hsBbhtvnJn

— Asslan Khalil (@KhalilAsslan) September 17, 2026

Yousef Jabareen, head of the Arab-majority Joint List party, says during a condolence visit to the family that the security camera footage “contradicts the police account,” and that the family has heard from eyewitnesses that “Alaa did not pose a threat to the officers and he could have been stopped without being shot.”

Blaming the killing on anti-Arab incitement by the government, Jabareen says the officer should be “suspended immediately” and called for an “independent, transparent and genuine probe.”

The officer’s attorney, Moti Azulay, meanwhile tells Haaretz “the entire incident lasted a few seconds” and that the officer “sensed a genuine, immediate threat to his life.”

The officer, who “regrets the difficult way in which the incident ended,” acted out of self defense and had “no other practical option,” the lawyer says.

Russia and China veto US proposal for UN experts to keep monitoring sanctions on Iran

Russia and China veto a United Nations resolution that would have authorized UN experts to keep monitoring sanctions that were reimposed against Iran last year over its nuclear program.

The UN Security Council sanctions are still in effect, which freeze Iran’s assets abroad, halt arms deals with Tehran and penalize any development of Iran’s ballistic missile program, among other measures.

Using a provision in the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and major powers France, Germany and the United Kingdom triggered the “snapback” mechanism, which reimposed the sanctions on Sept. 27, 2025. It restored the Security Council sanctions committee and authorized a panel of UN experts to monitor implementation.

The United States drafted a resolution to extend the UN expert panel’s mandate for a year, coming as America also pursues a wider campaign to isolate Tehran from its remaining economic partners as the more than six-month-old war in Iran has hit a stalemate.

The proposal is defeated by a vote of 11-2, with Somalia and Pakistan abstaining, because of the Russian and Chinese vetoes.