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The Times of Israel liveblogged Sunday’s events as they unfolded.
2 Gazans accused of ‘collaborating’ with Israel sentenced to death
Two Palestinian men in the Gaza Strip were sentenced to death by hanging for allegedly collaborating with Israel, a Hamas-run military court announces.
The men, residents of Khan Younis, are said to have been passing on information to Israeli authorities since 2000.
Cabinet approves expanded stop-and-frisk bill
A bill expanding the rules by which police can stop and search potential suspects is approved by the cabinet.
The bill allows police officers to search a person’s body, clothing and belongings for weapons without probable cause in areas that are prone to violent incidents — even without reasonable suspicion that the potential suspect is carrying anything.
The existing law mandates probable cause for such searches.
A spokesman for the Public Security Ministry says the cabinet decision means the new law is in effect now, without need for a Knesset vote. Hebrew-language media sources, however, are reporting that it does need to pass through the Knesset.
3 Israeli Arabs arrested for firebomb attack
Three Israeli-Arabs from Jaffa have been arrested in connection with a firebomb attack on a police car earlier this month, the Shin Bet security service says.
The three admitted to carrying out the attack on October 8 out of nationalistic motives and in solidarity with the Palestinian people amid tensions on the Temple Mount, the Shin Bet says in a statement.
An 18-year-old and two minors of an undisclosed age were arrested in the joint police-Shin Bet investigation.
The 18-year-old was identified as Mahmoud Galoush, a Jaffa resident.
2 Palestinians arrested in Hebron after knife is found
Two Palestinian youths are arrested near Hebron after Border Police find batons, screwdrivers and a knife in the car they were traveling in.
Border Police and IDF soldiers are on high alert in the West Bank city after at least four stabbing attacks there over the weekend, including three on Saturday alone.
All four attackers were shot dead at the scene.
Voting for new parliament begins in Egypt
Egypt’s first parliamentary election since the 2013 ouster of Islamist president Mohammad Morsi and the election a year later of the army general, Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who removed him begins today, with the outcome likely to be a compliant legislature that will back, rather than challenge, the policies of the president.
An Egyptian woman walks past the entrance of a polling center, being guarded by army and police forces, before polls open during the first round of the parliamentary election in Giza, Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2015. Arabic on the banner, center, reads, “Gamal Abdel Nasser High School for Girls.” (AP/Nariman El-Mofty)
— AP contributed
New US military chief visits IDF headquarters
The United States’ new chairman of the joint chief of staffs, Joseph Dunford, visits the Israel Defense Forces headquarters in Tel Aviv as part of his official visit to Israel.
Dunford arrived yesterday for security talks with senior Israeli officials and to reaffirm America’s commitment to Israel, according to a report in the Associated Press.
He will also visit other countries in the region.
Ya’alon meets with new US military chief
Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon meets with Chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford in Tel Aviv as part of the latter’s official trip to Israel, which began yesterday.
The two discussed regional developments and the strengthening of defense ties between Israel and the US, according to Ynet.
“Israel is in the midst of a wave of terror led by Palestinians incited [to hate and violence]. We are acting against the threat and I believe we will win,” said Ya’alon in a statement to the press after the meeting.
Dunford said, “A foundation of [the US-Israel] relationship is the military to military relationship that we have enjoyed. And through all of the ups and downs, the military-to-military relationship has remained strong, it’s never wavered.”
“I certainly intend, in the time that I’m in this assignment, to ensure that this relationship continue to be strong,” he went on.
“I came here to hear about the regional challenges from those who know about them better than me. The challenges that we face, we face together,” he said.
Hezbollah says presence in Syria greater than ever
The head of Lebanon’s Hezbollah says his terror group is fighting a “critical and definitive battle” in Syria with a greater presence than ever before.
Hassan Nasrallah spoke during an event commemorating the death of leading Hezbollah figure Hassan Hussein al-Hajj, known as Abu Muhammad.
According to Al-Manar television, which aired the speech, al-Hajj died on October 10 fighting in Sahl al-Ghab, a strategic plain in northwest Syria where Hezbollah has dispatched fighters in support of the embattled regime of Bashar Assad.
Nasrallah says Hezbollah members fought “for 30 years on the border with Palestine and have now gone to Sahl al-Ghab, where Abu Mohammad died, to the borders with (Syrian provinces) Hama, Idlib, Latakia, and Aleppo.”
His group’s presence in Syria “is larger than ever before — qualitatively, quantitatively, and in equipment, because we are in a critical and definitive battle,” Nasrallah says.
— AFP
Palestinian rioters clash with troops in Hebron, Tulkarem
Palestinian rioters are throwing rocks, Molotov cocktails and rolling burning tires at security troops in the West Bank cities of Tulkarem and Hebron.
According to the IDF, some 100 people are participating in the riot in Tulkarem.
There were two separate riots near Hebron — one that has ended, and one ongoing.
In Hasam Shoter, according to the IDF, troops tried to disperse the riot with nonlethal means but having failed to do so, began using 0.22 Ruger rounds against the “main instigators.”
A riot near the settlement of Beit Hagai was dispersed not long ago.
Palestinian media report several injured in the riots.
PM to invite opposition heads for security briefing — except Joint (Arab) List
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to invite the heads of four opposition parties for a security briefing in the coming days.
Although he is required by law to only brief the head of the opposition, namely Zionist Union party leader Isaac Herzog, Netanyahu will extend the invitation to Yesh Atid’s Yair Lapid, Yisrael Beytenu’s Avigdor Liberman and Meretz party head Zehava Gal-on.
The head of the Joint (Arab) List party, Ayman Odeh, is not expected to receive an invitation.
The briefing is expected to focus on recent events in Israel, including the wave of stabbing and other attacks that has gripped the country in recent weeks and claimed the lives of seven Israelis.
Netanyahu recently called for a national unity government, and that issue is also expected to come up, according to a report on the Walla news website.
Palestinians clash with IDF along Gaza border
An unspecified number of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are throwing stones at IDF forces along the border fence with the Palestinian enclave.
Troops are responding with tear gas and other nonlethal means, according to the IDF.
Israel erects concrete barrier between Jewish, Arab neighborhoods in E. Jerusalem
Israeli police forces begin erecting a concrete barrier between the East Jerusalem Arab neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber and the Jewish neighborhood of Armon Hanatziv.
The barrier is intended “to prevent the throwing of firebombs at the houses on Meir Nakar Street [in Armon Hanatziv] and to prevent the loss of life. It means nothing more,” a police spokeswoman told The Times of Israel.
Last week, Israeli police began sealing off some Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem amid a sharp surge in stabbings attacks in the capital and the West Bank.
The majority of Palestinian stabbers in recent weeks have been residents of East Jerusalem neighborhoods, with at least five from Jabel Mukaber.
Last Tuesday, Armon Hanatziv was the scene of a deadly attack which saw two Palestinians board a bus in the neighborhood and start a stabbing and shooting spree. Two Israelis were killed in the attack.
On Saturday in Armon Hanatziv, a Palestinian teenager was killed when he tried to stab Border Police officers who stopped him for questioning.
IDF ups security for Palestinian olive harvest
The IDF says it’s beefing up its presence across the West Bank for the Palestinian olive harvest, which began last week amid the wave of violence.
The season has often created tensions between West Bank villagers who go out to harvest olive trees and Jewish settlers, with some incidents even leading to clashes.
Some plots of land where Palestinians harvest are near settlements or are claimed by settlement councils as theirs.
The IDF says its troops will be deployed across the West Bank in an effort to minimize the potential for violence.
Remand extended for 13-year-old Palestinian stabber
The 13-year-old Palestinian teenager who stabbed two people in a terror attack last week in Jerusalem’s Pisgat Ze’ev neighborhood will remain under arrest, police say.
His remand was extended today for eight more days.
The teen, Ahmed Manasra, remains hospitalized at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem.
Ahmad Manasra, one of two cousins who went on a stabbing frenzy in Jerusalem on October 12, 2015, is seen at the Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem on October 15, 2015. Manasra was hit by a car while fleeing the scene of the attack. (Courtesy)
He is accused of seriously injuring a 13-year-old boy and a 25-year-old man in a stabbing attack on October 12. His accomplice and cousin Hassan Manasra, 15, was shot dead by security forces at the scene.
He is said to have admitted to the attack, saying: “I went there to stab Jews.”
After the attack, Manasra became the focus of international media when Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel of “executing our boys in cold blood, as they did with the boy Ahmed Manasra and other children in Jerusalem and other places.”
The Prime Minister’s Office swiftly issued a statement, noting that Manasra was alive and had initiated a terror attack, and accusing Abbas of spreading “lies and incitement.”
That statement was followed by video footage of Manasra in hospital eating Jell-o.
Syria activists say 4 civilians killed in intense airstrikes
Russian and Syrian warplanes pounded targets in central and northern Syria, killing at least four civilians Sunday as ground troops battled insurgents and seized new territory, activists and the government say.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and activist news platform Syrian Revolution Talbiseh say warplanes believed to be Russian targeted mourners at a funeral in Homs province’s al-Ghanto village, killing four civilians. Homs-based activist Bebars al-Telawy say the civilians were burying a man who died from wounds sustained a day earlier when the planes struck.
Al-Ghanto, the town of Talbiseh and other areas north of the city of Homs were pounded with more than a dozen airstrikes today, including government helicopters dropping barrel bombs in the village of Ter Maela, the activists say.
The state-news agency SANA reported army troops began a ground offensive in the area.
— AP
Shooting attack reported in Beersheba; 5 said injured, attacker shot
According to initial reports, five people are injured in a shooting attack in Beersheba, in the city’s Central Bus Station.
The attacker was shot.
Magen David Adom emergency medical teams are on their way to the scene where people reported hearing gunshots.
2 Palestinian shooters open fire in Beersheba: at least 5 injured
According to Channel 2, at least five people were injured in a combined shooting and stabbing attack at the Beersheba Central Bus Station, one of them critically.
According to the report, two Palestinian gunmen opened fire in two different areas of the station. At least one of them is said to have been killed.
Casualties in Beersheba terror attack taken to hospital
The six people injured in the combined shooting and stabbing attack in Beersheba moments ago were taken to Soroka Hospital for treatment.
According to medics, two are in serious condition, two are moderately wounded and two sustained light injuries.
Initial footage from the Beersheba shooting, stabbing attack
Scene from the attack in the Beersheba. Credit: @IL_police pic.twitter.com/F42AVrSTQe
— Judah Ari Gross (@JudahAriGross) October 18, 2015
Security forces search for accomplices in Beersheba attack
Security forces are searching for any accomplices who may have helped two Palestinian gunmen in the combined shooting and stabbing attack in Beersheba tonight.
According to assessments, the two attackers were driven to the Central Bus Station, where the terror attack occurred.
2 assailants in Beersheba attack armed with rifle, pistol, knives
Police say the two Palestinian gunmen who opened fire at the Beersheba Central Bus Station were armed with a rifle, a pistol and knives.
Upon arrival, the two split up and began their attack in two different areas in the building, injuring at least six people.
One terrorist was killed by security forces, and the other was seriously wounded.
4 policemen among 6 injured in Beersheba terror attack
Four policemen are among the six people injured in the Beersheba terror attack in which two Palestinian gunmen opened fire in the city’s Central Bus Station.
The attackers are also said to have stabbed some of their victims.
One attacker was shot dead at the scene, and the other was seriously wounded.
One dead, 5 injured in terror attack in Beersheba
One of the victims in the terror attack in Beersheba tonight has died of his wounds.
At least 5 other people were wounded, one of them seriously, in the combined shooting and stabbing attack by two Palestinian gunmen.
Four of the six initially said wounded are police officers, according to police.
Beersheba mayor calls on residents not to take law into own hands
The mayor of Beersheba, Ruvik Danilovich, calls on residents of his city not to take the law into their own hands. The appeal follows a deadly attack at the Central Bus Station earlier tonight, which left one Israeli dead and five injured.
“Not all Arab citizens of Israel are terrorists, and we mustn’t make them so,” he tells Channel 2.
It is not yet clear who the attackers are. One was killed at the scene; the other was seriously wounded.
Police search for taxi that broke through checkpoint after Beersheba attack
Police are searching for a taxi that broke through a checkpoint on the road out of Beersheba, heading north to Tel Aviv.
The checkpoint was set up after the terror attack at the Beersheba Central Bus Station, in which one Israeli was killed and five others injured.
Hamas praises ‘quality’ terror attack in Beersheba
The Gaza-based terror group Hamas praises the terror attack in the southern city of Beersheba tonight, in which one Israeli was killed and five were injured.
In a statement on the Hamas website, spokesman Husam Badran “bless[es] the quality operation” and says it confirms “the determination of the [Palestinian] people.”
Israeli car shot at in West Bank; no injuries
Gunmen shoot at an Israeli car traveling near the Hawara checkpoint near Nablus in the West Bank, according to initial reports.
There are no immediate reports of injuries.
Police checking if 1 of 2 Beersheba gunmen was Eritrean national
Police say they are looking into reports that one of the two attackers at the Beersheba Central Bus Station may be an Eritrean national who was seeking asylum in Israel.
Security camera footage of the attack aired on Israeli TV seemed to show several people running from a man who is eventually shot several times by responding forces.
It may be that the man shown being shot was an Eritrean asylum-seeker, who may have been unconnected to the attack and shot by mistake.
Man stabbed to death in Kfar Qara
A 25-year-old man is stabbed to death in the Arab Israeli village of Kfar Qara. Another person is lightly injured in the incident.
The motive behind the stabbing is still being investigated.
Man killed in Beersheba attack identified as soldier
A man killed in tonight’s Beersheba terrorist attack is identified as an IDF soldier, Walla reports.
Security officer who shot terrorist recalls events
A security officer at Beersheba’s Central Bus Station who opened fire at the terrorist recalls the attack.
“I pulled my weapon and ran towards the perpetrator,” the officer, who identified as Ziad, tells the Nana news site. “He was lying on the floor — and I neutralized him.
“The shooting came from all directions,” the officer adds.
Celebrations reported in Lebanon after Beersheba attack
A Lebanese Internet site reports “heavy celebratory gunfire” at Palestinian refugee camps in the country to Israel’s north following the terrorist attack in Beersheba’s Central Bus Station.
Celebrations “erupted in the al-Beddawi and Ain el-Hilweh camps,” Lebanon’s MTV reports.
Only one terrorist carried out Beersheba shooting
A police investigation determines that only one terrorist carried out the attack in Beersheba’s Central Bus Station, Channel 2 reports.
Police also report that a foreign national, most probably an Eritrean migrant, was apparently shot by security forces, because he was mistakenly suspected to have been a second assailant.
Investigation sheds light on Beersheba attack
Police release new details about the Beersheba terrorist attack at the city’s central bus terminal.
According to the initial police investigation, a Palestinian man entered the station with a knife and a handgun, and began attacking civilians, soldiers, and security officials at the site.
The attacker went on to snatch an M-16 rifle from an IDF soldier, and began firing with his newly acquired weapon.
The terrorist was later killed by police gunfire.
An Eritrean migrant was mistaken for a second terrorist and was shot by security officials as well. He was severely wounded.
According to Ynet, one IDF soldier was killed in the attack and 11 other people were wounded.
Police find knife, handgun in terrorist’s bag
According to police, the knapsack of the Beersheba terrorist contained a knife, a handgun and ammunition.
MDA provide 102 doses of blood to Beersheba hospital
Magen David Adom blood services provide 102 doses of blood and blood components to the Soroka Hospital in Beersheba, in order to treat the wounded individuals from the shooting attack at the city’s central station.
Witness to Beersheba attack recalls incident
An eyewitness to the Beersheba terrorist attack recalls the incident at the city’s central bus terminal.
“The amount of shots fired was crazy, and I didn’t know what had happened,” a witness named Moran tells the Walla news site.
“I was in a store and all of a sudden we heard gunshots. We didn’t understand what was going and ducked down under the cash register. We heard shouts and shots. An Arab store clerk took us to the back of the store, but left the door open so that we could hear what’s going on outside,” Moran says.
Ahmed Manasra released from hospital
Ahmed Manasra, a 13-year-old who carried out the stabbing attack in Jerusalem’s Pisgat Zeev neighborhood, is discharged from the Hadassah Medical Center and transferred to detention.
Earlier today the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court extended his remand by eight days, although Manasra wasn’t present at the hearing.
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