ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 430
Elie Leshem is deputy editor of The Times of Israel.
The Times of Israel liveblogged Monday’s events as they unfolded.
Two assailants attempt to carry out a stabbing attack near the Tomb of the Patriarchs pilgrimage site in the West Bank city of Hebron, early reports say.
One soldier is lightly wounded, and both attackers are shot, the reports say. Their condition is not immediately clear.
The attack is the second of the day, after two police were stabbed outside the Old City of Jerusalem in the morning.
In a statement, the Israel Police describe the incident in Hebron:
Two hours ago, two terrorists, residents of Hebron, arrived to carry out an attack against Border Police officers near the Tomb of the Patriarchs. It appears as through the terrorists approached the police officers, and when they were near them pulled out knives and tried to stab them. The Border Police officers stationed there opened fire at the terrorists. It appears as though one terrorist has been neutralized while the other is in critical condition.
It isn’t immediately clear what the police mean by “neutralized,” a euphemistic term that could mean dead, but also incapacitated.
— Judah Ari Gross contributed
One of the alleged stabbers in Hebron has been pronounced dead, police say, adding that the other is in critical condition.
Police add that no Israelis are injured in the attack, dispelling initial reports that said an officer was lightly hurt.
— Judah Ari Gross
FBI agents and police converge on an apartment near a New Jersey train station where one of five devices found in a backpack exploded earlier today while a bomb squad robot was attempting to disarm it.
It isn’t immediately clear if there is a connection between the dwelling and the blast at the Elizabeth train station at around 12:30 a.m.
— AP
The New York Police Department publishes the name and picture of a man wanted in connection with an apparent bombing overnight Saturday in New York City.
In a tweet, J. Peter Donald, the NYPD’s assistant commissioner for communication and public information, names Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28.
Wanted: Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28 year old male, is being sought in connection with the Chelsea bombing. #nyc pic.twitter.com/hSxhMqO7Qh
— J. Peter Donald (@JPeterDonald) September 19, 2016
So far, authorities have been maintaining that the apparent bombing, which injured 29 in the city’s Chelsea neighborhood, wasn’t linked to “international terrorism.”
According to NBC News,Ahmad Khan Rahami is wanted in connection with apparent bombings in both New York and New Jersey.
Rahami is a resident of Elizabeth, New Jersey, where five explosive devices were found overnight Sunday at a train station.
The FBI says Rahami, a naturalized Afghan citizen, is “armed and dangerous.”
It isn’t immediately clear whether the apartment raided in Elizabeth earlier today is his residence.
As he has done several times in recent months, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump cites Israel as his example for the success of “profiling” in the prevention of terror attacks.
“Our local police, they know who a lot of these people are,” he tells Fox News. “They’re afraid to do anything about it because they don’t want to be accused of profiling.
“You know,” he continues, “in Israel, they profile. They’ve done an unbelievable job, as good as you can do… They profile. They see somebody that’s suspicious, they will profile.”
He says Americans are reluctant to follow Israel’s example due to political correctness, “and this is only going to get worse.”
Trump on Fox about bombings: "local police, they know who a lot of these people are" but they're afraid of profiling pic.twitter.com/CLZrJkqLn3
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) September 19, 2016
New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo reverses a previous assessment to the effect that the attack overnight Saturday in Manhattan was not linked to “international terrorism.”
In light of new evidence, he tells CNN, “I would not be surprised if we did have a foreign connection to the act.”
Meanwhile, Mayor Bill de Blasio reiterates the FBI’s warning regarding suspect Rahami.
“I want to be very clear that this individual could be armed and dangerous,” he says, according to The New York Times. “Anyone seeing him should call 911 immediately.”
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, left, and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo talk with area residents on Sunday, September 18, 2016, while touring the site of an explosion that occurred on Saturday night in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York. (Justin Lane/EPA via AP, Pool)
Separately, de Blasio says New Yorkers should brace for a larger police presence throughout the city.
“In the coming hours we are going to be able to say a lot more about what happened here,” he says in an interview with the ABC show “Good Morning America.”
“It is certainly leaning more in the direction that this was a specific act of terror,” he adds.
According to French reports, two teenage hackers linked to a “pro-Israel cyber terrorist” are suspected of triggering a false terror alert Saturday afternoon in Paris when they claimed they were being held hostage by terrorists.
The two confirmed that they had contacted security forces through a terror alert app and claimed assailants had taken hostages at Saint-Leu church. During the alert, French security forces cordoned off an area of central Paris, before announcing that it was a “false alarm” and there was “no danger.”
“We said there had been hostages taken in the church and that there were ten North Africans with arms and suicide belts,” The two suspects, aged 16 and 17, tell the BFM TV channel, according to a Daily Mail translation.
“We did not think it would work. We just did it for the thrill and to become known. If people panic then that’s their fault,” they’re quoted as saying.
The report links them to far-right French-Israeli hacktivist Gregory Chelli, who denies any connection to them in a Facebook post.
The French Interior Ministry says the two unnamed teens are being accused of orchestrating a “malevolent act.”
A Palestinian man who, together with a second man, allegedly assaulted officers in Hebron earlier today with a knife, and was shot, has died of his wounds, Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center says.
The second alleged attacker died at the scene.
— Judah Ari Gross
A policewoman stabbed in the neck by a Palestinian earlier today in Jerusalem is in “very serious but stable” condition after surgery at the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in the city.
In a statement, the hospital says she is in an induced coma in the intensive-care unit, where she is connected to a respirator.
— Judah Ari Gross
Celebrity rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto is to be released from Nitzan Prison in the central Israeli city of Ramle on Sunday, three months before the end of his term.
A prisons release committee stresses that the rabbi’s ill health — he has cancer — is the primary reason for accepting his appeal to be freed early.
Pinto told the committee, “I feel like a criminal… I’m not a rabbi anymore… I exploited my position…. I feel regrets and am ashamed at myself… I want to repent,” Israel TV’s Amotz Shapira tweets.
The rabbi, who enjoys an international following among celebrities and business leaders, as well as high-powered contacts in the Israeli government and elsewhere, was sentenced to a year in prison and a fine of NIS 1 million ($260,000) for bribing a police officer.
— Sue Surkes
Police release CCTV footage showing the stabbing attack this morning outside the Old City of Jerusalem.
The grim footage shows the attacker repeatedly stabbing one of the victims, a police officer, who then turns around and shoots him.
The White House says President Barack Obama was briefed throughout the night and early Monday on the investigation into the bombs found in New York City and New Jersey.
Spokesman Josh Earnest says the White House is following the situation closely. He says Obama will comment publicly “relatively soon.”
He was expected to comment Monday afternoon after a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.
— AP
Osama Qawasmeh, the official spokesperson for PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party, calls for Palestinian unity in the face of what he terms Israeli “massacres and crimes” against Palestinians, “especially in Jerusalem and Hebron.”
Earlier today, Palestinian assailants attacked police in Jerusalem and in Hebron. All told, three alleged attackers were killed, while two Israeli officers were injured, one seriously.
Qawasmeh says Israel is carrying out “organized state terrorism in order to blow up the situation, and… impose a security rather than political solution.”
He calls for an “immediate” Arab and Islamic response at the upcoming UN General Assembly to put pressure on Israel and “protect the Palestinian people.”
Qawasmeh ends by calling “Israeli executions of Palestinians” a product of “literal orders from Tel Aviv.”
— Dov Lieber
The United Nations special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Nickolay Mladenov, issues a statement calling on Israelis and Palestinians to “take measures to preserve calm” in the midst of a new spate of violence:
I am disturbed by the recent violence over the past week. During this latest upsurge in attacks in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, at least six Israelis were injured. Five Palestinians and one Jordanian national were killed while carrying out or allegedly carrying out attacks.
I reiterate the United Nations position that there can be no justification for terror and violence. I call upon authorities on both sides to take measures to preserve calm and avoid escalation, especially during the upcoming period of the Jewish High Holy Days.
Hillary Clinton says she understands how to fight terrorism and is the only candidate running for president who “has been part of the hard decisions to take terrorists off the battlefield.”
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks with members of the media at Westchester County Airport in White Plains, New York, September 19, 2016. (AP/Matt Rourke)
The Democratic presidential nominee is taking questions from reporters about the weekend bombings in Manhattan and New Jersey, which officials say increasingly look like acts of terrorism with a foreign connection.
Clinton calls the attacks “a serious challenge” that the country can meet in “concert with our values.”
That is a dig at the proposals of Republican nominee Donald Trump, who has said he would bar immigration from nations with ties to terrorism.
Shimon Peres’s office says in an email that the former president’s condition “remains unchanged” six days after he suffered a stroke.
“He continues to be in stable condition and his respiratory support is being reduced,” the email says. “His medical team continues providing the same treatment as before.”
Syria’s armed forces announce an end to a week-long ceasefire brokered by the United States and Russia, blaming rebel groups for its failure.
“Syria’s army announces the end of the freeze on fighting that began at 7:00 pm (1600 GMT) on September 12, 2016 in accordance with the US-Russia agreement,” a statement carried by state news agency SANA says.
It says rebel groups “did not commit to a single element” of the deal.
— AFP
The Afghan-born American wanted in connection with weekend bombings in New York and New Jersey is taken into custody on Monday following a shootout with police.
Ahmad Khan Rahami is taken into custody by police in Linden, New Jersey, law enforcement officials are quoted as saying by NBC television. Police in Linden are not immediately reachable for comment.
— AFP
President Obama says investigators are focusing on a “person of interest” in the New York and New Jersey bombings, but see no connection to the stabbings in Minnesota.
Obama says the country is “extremely fortunate” nobody was killed in the bombings. He says he’s spoken to the governors of New Jersey and New York and pledged all needed federal assistance.
He is speaking at about the time police in New Jersey arrest Ahmad Khan Rahami, wanted in connection with the bombings.
The president is echoing FBI officials who have said they’re investigating the Minnesota stabbings as a potential act of terrorism.
Obama is urging Americans to report suspicious activity to law enforcement.
Obama is in New York for the annual UN General Assembly gathering.
— AP
Two police officers were hurt in the shootout with New York and New Jersey bombing suspect Rahami in Linden, says the mayor of the suspect’s neighboring hometown, Elizabeth.
“Mr Rahami is currently under arrest. This occurred on Elizabeth Avenue in the city of Linden,” Elizabeth Mayor Chris Bollwage tells CNN.
“One police officer in the city of Linden was shot in the chest and one was shot in the hand. Mr. Rahami also sustained shots,” Bollwage adds.
ABC footage shows Rahami, 28, stretchered into an ambulance, sporting a bloodied bandage on his right arm and moving his head from side to side with his eyes open.
— AFP contributed
Police allow shop owners to reopen their stores in the area surrounding the scene of a stabbing attack earlier today outside Jerusalem’s Old City.
Following a "situational assessment," police decided to reopen shops on Sultan Suleiman St. and surrounding areas. https://t.co/WylQKvI0oi
— Judah Ari Gross (@JudahAriGross) September 19, 2016
— Judah Ari Gross
The police arrest the three brothers of 20-year-old Ayman Kurd, the East Jerusalem man who stabbed two police officers outside the Old City this morning.
According to Channel 2, the three are suspected of expressing support for the stabbings, and police are checking whether they helped him to carry out the attack.
