The Times of Israel liveblogged Wednesday’s events as they happened.
Israeli sources say three Palestinian gunmen were killed in a drone strike on their car near the northern West Bank city of Jenin.
Defense sources tell Hebrew-language media that three Palestinians were killed in the strikes, and that their bodies had been seized by Israeli security forces.
Three assault rifles were also found in their car, the sources say.
The Israeli Air Force has reportedly conducted a Drone Strike against a Car used by Islamic Militants on the Outskirts of the City of Jenin on the West Bank; Emergency Services are on-scene with multiple Casualties said to have occurred. pic.twitter.com/Mb3PsMQQ1U
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) June 21, 2023
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant praises the forces who carried out a drone strike on a car carrying a suspected terror cell in the northern West Bank.
“I praise the security forces who a short time ago carried out a targeted elimination of a terrorist squad that fired towards Israeli territory, and had previously carried out several shooting attacks,” Gallant says.
We will take an offensive and proactive approach to combat terrorism, we will use all the means at our disposal and we will exact the heaviest price from every terrorist or terrorist emissary,” he says.
Hebrew media reports that Gallant had to personally authorize the drone strike, the first carried out by Israel in the West Bank in nearly two decades, as it represents a marked escalation in Israel’s efforts to combat terror in the territory.
An Israeli drone struck a cell of Palestinian gunmen who opened fire at a checkpoint in the northern West Bank, the military and Shin Bet security agency say.
According to a joint statement, the gunmen opened fire at the Jalameh checkpoint, north of the West Bank city of Jenin.
The Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet say that following the attack on the checkpoint, a drone carried out a strike on their vehicle.
The cell is responsible for a number of recent shooting attacks in the northern West Bank, the IDF and Shin Bet add.
It is not immediately how many Palestinians were killed or injured in the strike.
The strike marks the first targeted killing in the West Bank since the early 2000s.
Palestinian media reports claim an Israeli drone carried out an airstrike on a car near the northern West Bank city of Jenin.
The reports say medics are heading to the scene.
Footage from the area shows a car on fire. It is unclear if there are casualties.
There is no immediate comment from the Israeli army on the incident, and the details remain unconfirmed.
مصادر محلية: أنباء أولية عن قيام طائرات الاحتلال بدون طيار بقصف سيارة مدنية قرب قرية مقبيلة شمال شرق جنين. pic.twitter.com/q3O7gzg7pr
— وكالة شهاب للأنباء (@ShehabAgency) June 21, 2023
A California man who drove a stun gun into a police officer’s neck during one of the most violent clashes of the US Capitol riot is sentenced to more than 12 years in prison.
Daniel “D.J.” Rodriguez yells “Trump won!” as he is led out of the courtroom where US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson sentences him to 12 years and seven months behind bars for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack. Only two other Jan. 6 defendants have received longer prison terms so far after hundreds of sentencings for Capitol riot cases.
The judge says Rodriguez, 40, was “a one-man army of hate, attacking police and destroying property” at the Capitol.
“You showed up in (Washington) D.C. spoiling for a fight,” Jackson says. “You can’t blame what you did once you got there on anyone but yourself.”
Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone ‘s body camera captured him screaming out in pain after Rodriguez shocked him with a stun gun while he was surrounded by a mob.
Another rioter had dragged Fanone into the crowd outside a tunnel on the Capitol’s Lower West Terrace, where a line of police officers was guarding an entrance to the building. Other rioters began beating Fanone, who lost consciousness and suffered a heart attack after Rodriguez pressed the stun gun against his neck and repeatedly shocked him.
The United States condemns today’s rampages by settlers against Palestinian villages in the West Bank following yesterday’s terror shooting that left four Israelis dead.
“We condemn these violent acts and also extend our condolences to the families of those affected,” State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel says at the top of a press briefing during which he also reiterated the US condemnation of the Tuesday terror attack.
“Accountability and justice should be pursued with equal rigor in all cases of extremist violence,” Patel says, using the same talking point employed by the Biden administration after the settler rampage in Hawara four months ago.
Arrests in that attack were limited and no indictments have been made.
No arrests have been made in the past two days of settler attacks either.
“We welcome the IDF condemnation of these acts and expect the Israeli government to ensure full accountability and legal prosecution for those responsible for these attacks in addition to compensation for lost homes and property,” Patel says.
The US also condemns Israel’s decision to build 1,000 new settlement homes in response to yesterday’s terror shooting, saying it will further “incite tensions” with the Palestinians.
“Unilateral actions such as this one — such as settlement advancement — will only incite tensions and undermine the prospect of a two-state solution,” Patel says.
The Shin Bet security agency is recommending to Defense Minister Yoav Gallant that leaders of the settler rampages in West Bank villages be detained under administrative detention, Hebrew media reports.
The recommendations come after hundreds of settlers rampaged through several Palestinian towns and villages, setting fire to dozens of cars and homes following a deadly terror attack yesterday near the West Bank settlement of Eli.
The unsourced reports on both Channel 12 and the Kan public broadcaster say the Shin Bet believes that detaining the ringleaders will help restore calm.
The controversial practice of administrative detention, currently used by the defense minister against terror suspects, has individuals held without charge for up to six months at a time. The detentions can be renewed indefinitely while allowing military prosecutors to keep suspects from being able to see the evidence against them.
Administrative detention is primarily used with Palestinians — about 1,000 of whom are currently held in custody under the practice. The practice has also been used with a handful of Jewish Israeli terror suspects in recent years.
Palestinian media outlets are reporting that over 100 settlers from the Yitzhar area have entered the nearby Palestinian village of Urif and attacked residents.
According to Israeli medics, four settlers are hurt by stones hurled at them by Palestinians in the area.
There is no immediate comment from the Israeli army on the incidents.
Oref, Nablus
A pogrom is being launched in Oref, hundreds of settlers is currently attacking the village pic.twitter.com/BmbAryh4TM
— Younis | يونس (@ytirawi) June 21, 2023
Yesh Atid lawmaker Orna Barbivai launches her campaign for Tel Aviv mayor against five-term incumbent Ron Huldai.
Flanked by party lawmakers, the former minister and military general says that she “appreciates” Huldai and that he is a “good mayor” whom she voted for in the past, but believes that after a quarter-century, the city needs something “fresh.”
“I appreciate and I even like Ron. But the time has come for a change,” she says to a crowd of about 200 activists gathered at an event space on top of the Tel Aviv Municipality.
“There is no one, as talented as he is, that can do the same role for 25 years with the same ability. It’s time to pass the baton.”
The vote will be held on October 31. Barbivai is the sixth candidate to enter the race.
Her candidacy is part of what opposition leader Yair Lapid says is a “strategic decision” to try to party representatives elected as mayors in “cities with liberal values.”
Since its 2012 founding, Yesh Atid has carved a dominant role in centrist national politics. However, the party has yet to develop local-level depth, despite amassing a network of about 130 to 140 local branches and a significant volunteer base.
Party insiders say their municipal election strategy is two-fold, focusing both on developing power bases in local authorities as a counterweight to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline coalition and to develop the next level of national party leadership, through the municipal layer.
A strong explosion hits a building in Paris’s Left Bank, leaving four people injured and igniting a fire that sent smoke soaring over the domed Pantheon monument and prompted the evacuation of buildings, police say. The cause of the blast is not immediately known.
The facade of a building in the 5th arrondissement, or district, collapsed and emergency services are working to determine if anyone was still inside, a Paris police official says.
Florence Berthout, mayor of the arrondissement, says four people were in “absolute emergency” condition.
“The explosion was extremely violent,” she says, describing pieces of glass still falling from buildings.
The neighborhood was cordoned off and scores of emergency workers filled the area.
Paris police spokeswoman Loubna Atta says it was too early to determine the source of the fire and could not confirm reports it was a caused by a gas explosion.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant calls on settlers not to take the law into their own hands after hundreds rampaged through several Palestinian villages and towns, torching cars and homes.
“I want to take this opportunity to call on my brothers, the settlers, please don’t take the law into your hands, let the IDF do what it knows how to do best — to safeguard your security,” he says after completing an initial probe into the deadly terror attack yesterday near the West Bank settlement of Eli.
Gallant also vows that the security forces will reach terrorists wherever they may be.
Amos Yadlin, the former head of IDF military intelligence, says that some ministers who are demanding a major IDF offensive in the West Bank to tackle terrorism akin to the 2002 Operation Guardian of the Walls “don’t know what they are talking about.”
That military operation, focused on destroying the terrorist infrastructure behind the Second Intifada’s onslaught of suicide bombers, saw the IDF re-enter major Palestinian cities where the Palestinian Authority had hitherto held full control under the Oslo Accords, he elaborates.
“Israel had not previously entered Area A” — the major West Bank cities, notes Yadlin in a Channel 12 interview. “Nowadays, Israel [routinely] enters Area A, and goes wherever the PA is not functioning, on the basis of specific intelligence information.”
“Nonetheless,” adds Yadlin, the former head of the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, “the enemy is becoming familiar with Israel’s operational methods and is improving. The level of terrorism is rising — because there are weapons everywhere, and there is money everywhere, from Iran and Hamas. So different methods are needed.”
“It may be that the IDF, instead of overnight raids, may have to take control of more territory, for longer, but still in a focused manner — in places such as the Jenin refugee camp and other parts of the northern West Bank where the PA is not in control and from where the terrorism is being dispatched.”
He says the US recognizes that Israel has “legitimacy to take action” in the northern West Bank, after terror attacks like yesterday’s. “But legitimacy is very fluid. It can be lost in a second. It can be lost internally when there are, heaven forbid, losses [to Israeli forces]. It can be lost when Palestinian non-combatants are killed.”
And he stresses, “It disappears when Palestinian villages are burned and non-involved Palestinian residents are hurt. That is simply destroying Israeli legitimacy.”
Yadlin, once a Labor party candidate for minister of defense, says that the government has rightly designated the imperative to stop Iran’s nuclear drive, and the bid for normalization with Saudi Arabia, as being at the top of Israel’s national security agenda.
“If we follow the messianic agenda of the extremists in the government we will hurt ourselves,” he warns. “We want to stop Iran. We want to bring Saudi Arabia [to the peace table]. We need the Americans for that. We don’t want to harm the good relations we have with Egypt and Jordan. We don’t want the UAE to close down its embassy here.”
Therefore, says Yadlin, “there’s a whole national security envelope that requires a very carefully calibrated, very precise operation [in the West Bank], backed by legitimacy [from our allies]. If we embark on an operation against a background of burning Palestinian villages, we will do immense harm to ourselves and will not achieve the necessary operational success — of raising our security against terrorism.”
Official results of the Israel Bar Association (IBA) elections held yesterday give Amit Becher, an ardent opponent of the government’s judicial overhaul program, a landslide victory over his chief rival Efi Nave.
Becher receives 73% of the vote against just 20% for Nave, with Arkady Eligulashvilli taking 4% and Doron Barziali 3%.
Becher’s party slate for the IBA’s National Council, Hope for the IBA, also scores a resounding victory, taking 16 of the 28 directly elected seats on the panel.
Nave’s One IBA list takes just two seats on the council, while the Initiative – Zionist Legalism list which stridently opposed Becher garners three seats, and the remaining seven seats are divided up between four other slates.
The results put Becher in a commanding position to determine which two IBA representatives will serve on the crucial Judicial Selection Committee which selects judges to all courts in Israel, including the Supreme Court.
Should he succeed in appointing representatives to the committee who hold his anti-reform position, it will thwart Justice Minister Yariv Levin’s goal of appointing ultra-conservative justices to the Supreme Court who would oppose judicial intervention in Knesset legislation and government decisions.
The results may however spur Levin’s drive to pass legislation to change the composition of the Judicial Selection Committee itself, in order to take control of judicial appointments.
Three former aides to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will likely face criminal charges on suspicion of intimidating a state witness in his corruption trial.
The State Prosecutors office announces that Yonatan Urich, Yisrael Einhorn and Ofer Golan will face charges, pending a hearing.
The three are suspected of harassing state witness Shlomo Filber, a former Likud campaign manager and longtime confidant to Netanyahu. Filber is now a key witness for the prosecution in Netanyahu’s ongoing trial in three corruption cases.
The three, who were working for a Likud campaign at the time, are suspected of sending a van to Filber’s home with loudspeakers, blasting allegations that he had lied about the case.
Palestinian witnesses say a 27-year-old man identified as Omar Qatin, who was shot and killed during a settler rampage through the West Bank town of Turmus Ayya, was nowhere near Israeli forces when he was shot.
“He was just standing there, innocent, he is such a kind-hearted kid. He had no stones, he was totally unarmed, he was at least half a mile away from the military,” said Khamis Jbara, his neighbor.
Residents said Qatin was a father of two small children and worked as an electrician for the local municipality. “He works from 6 am to 6pm. He is a peaceful man.”
Police said they opened fire at a Palestinian suspected of shooting toward security forces.
AP contributed to this report
A campaign protesting against a police policy to arrest people who wave Palestinian flags in public and confiscation the flags takes to the roads of Tel Aviv, with images of watermelons using the colors of the Palestinian flag tacked onto the shared taxis which serve the metropolis.
The project, an initiative of the Zazim – Community Action movement that promotes civil rights and anti-racism, seeks to highlight the manner in which the police have on numerous occasions in recent years arrested people for waving Palestinian flags.
Just last week a young woman was arrested during the Haifa Pride Parade for waving a Palestinian flag, although the police claimed she attacked officers after they tried to confiscate her flag.
The Zazim group affixed its posters, with a picture of a watermelon in the colors of the Palestinian flag and stating in English “This is not a Palestinian flag” to 16 shared taxi vans which are in frequent use in the Tel Aviv area.
There is currently no law against flying the Palestinian flag, but the police make arrests on that basis claiming the flag creates a disturbance of the peace, a policy which National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai reiterated to police officers in January.
A bill to ban the flag from university campuses was recently introduced to the Knesset by a member of Ben Gvir’s far-right Otzma Yehudit party but the government since froze the legislative process for the measure following an outcry from university heads and civil rights groups.
“Our message to the government is clear: we will always find a way to circumvent any absurd ban and we will not stop fighting for freedom of expression and democracy – whether it is the pride flag or the Palestinian flag,” says Zazim director Raluca Ganea.
Police say an officer opened fire at a Palestinian suspected of opening fire toward security forces in the West Bank town of Turmus Ayya earlier.
The incident occurred amid a settler rampage in the Palestinian town, with hundreds of vigilantes setting fire to homes and cars.
Police say Yasam forces were called to the scene to secure firefighters attempting to put out the blazes, and at one point, Palestinians began to riot and hurl stones at the officers.
“During the riot, Yasam officers operating at the scene identified a shot fired toward them… in response, a Yamas officer who felt his life was in danger, fired a precise shot at a rioter suspected of shooting,” a police spokeswoman says, adding that the suspect was hit.
The Palestinian Authority health ministry reported that five people were shot in Turmus Ayya, including one who died.
Egypt’s foreign ministry calls for an “immediate cessation” of settler attacks on Palestinian villages in the West Bank after this year’s second deadly reprisal attack by Israelis.
The statement blasts Israeli authorities for failing to intervene and prevent the attacks in Turmus Ayya and other Palestinian villages where settlers torched dozens of buildings and cars.
“Egypt affirms its complete rejection of acts of intimidation and collective punishment targeting Palestinian citizens,” its foreign ministry says.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls on Israelis to obey the law on a day that saw settlers rampaging through Palestinian towns in the West Bank and Druze demonstrators clash with police in the Golan Heights.
“There are days where you have to state the obvious, Israel is a state of law and order,” Netanyahu says in a video statement. “Israeli citizens are obliged to obey the law.”
“We will not accept rioting, not in the Golan Heights, and not in Judea and Samaria,” he says referring to the West Bank by its biblical names.
“I give my full backing to the Israel Police and the security forces in their efforts to impose law and order,” he says.
“We will not accept any challenges to the security forces in these places or anywhere else. We are a country of laws,” he says.
Jordan’s Foreign Ministry blasts Israel’s plan to build 1,000 new settlement homes in the Eli settlement near where a deadly shooting attack took place yesterday.
Amman also slams settler reprisal rampages in Palestinian villages during which at least one Palestinian was killed.
Jordan calls on the international community to intervene in order to provide Palestinians protection and warns Israel against further violations of international law that risk burying the two-state solution for good.
The military says that five Arabic-speaking Israeli soldiers who filmed themselves joking about supporting Jenin and Palestinians in the wake of an IDF raid there this week have been sentenced to up to a month in jail.
The army says that four of the soldiers were sentenced to 30 days in the brig, while a fifth soldier got 21 days.
“The IDF condemns the comments made in the video,” the army says.
The video, which one of the soldiers posted to social media, shows a group of four men in IDF uniform laughing and speaking in Arabic, saying: “God supports Jenin,” “God supports Palestine” and “Israel can go to hell.”
The soldiers serve in the Logistics Corp and filmed the video while on a military base in the south.
The Israeli military says it condemns the “serious incidents” of settler violence in the West Bank town of Turmus Ayya, but makes no mention of several Palestinians reportedly shot.
“Israeli citizens set fire to Palestinian property a short time ago in Turmus Ayya. Security forces entered the town to put out the fires, prevent friction and collect evidence,” the Israel Defense Forces says in a statement.”
The citizens left the village and police have begun investigating the circumstances of the incident,” the IDF says
.”The IDF condemns these serious incidents of violence and destruction of property. Events of this type prevent the IDF and the security forces from focusing on their main mission, protecting the security of the citizens of the State of Israel and preventing terror,” the military adds.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemns comments from a coalition MK, a day after he said the LGBTQ community was more dangerous to Israel than terror groups.
“The comments from MK [Yitzhak] Pindus are not acceptable to Prime Minister Netanyahu and don’t represent the stance of the government of Israel,” says a statement from the Likud party, adding that the government was “committed to preserving individual freedoms, LGBTQ rights and the rights of minorities.”
Pindrus, a member of the United Torah Judaism party, blasted the LGBTQ community in an interview yesterday, saying it was a graver threat to Israel than Islamist terror groups and adding that it was his duty to prevent Pride marches.
“In my worldview, the most dangerous thing to the State of Israel — more than Islamic State, more than Hezbollah, more than Hamas — is the permissiveness regarding arayot, because that’s what the Torah says,” Pindrus told Chanel 12, using a term for sexual relationships and practices that are forbidden by the Bible and by Jewish law, including intercourse between men and many other examples not related to LGBTQ people.
The coalition’s next judicial overhaul bill will be discussed in a Knesset committee next week, after a debate planned for today was delayed following yesterday’s deadly terror attack in the West Bank settlement of Eli.
Proposing to amend Basic Law: The Judiciary, the bill would block the Supreme Court from evaluating government decisions for their reasonableness.
The Knesset’s Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee will discuss the bill on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.
According to the text of the bill, the courts, including the High Court of Justice, would no longer be able to even hold hearings over the “reasonableness” of a decision, or invalidate decisions made by the prime minister, the cabinet, ministers, or other elected officials merely based on their reasonableness.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant speaks to his Ukrainian counterpart Oleksii Reznikov, his officie says.
According to the Israeli readout, Gallant was briefed on developments on the ground, and expressed concern regarding the humanitarian situation in Ukraine.
“The parties also discussed the common threat posed by Iran, and its influence on the war in Ukraine, as well as its wider global impact,” the statement says.
Gallant also updates Reznikov on the progress of a missile-warning system Israel is developing for Ukraine.
Ukraine has long demanded Israel supply it with air defense systems, but Israel has so far refused in a bid to avoid angering the Russians, who have a large military presence in neighboring Syria.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is meeting with leaders of the Druze community amid massive riots in the Golan Heights.
Also attending the meeting are Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Moafaq Tarif and Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar.
“I view the events occurring now in the Golan Heights with great severity and concern,” Netanyahu is quoted as saying in a statement from his office.
At least eight protesters and 12 officers have been wounded in two days of violent protests against the establishment of a wind farm near the town of Majdal Shams.
The Palestinian Authority health ministry says a Palestinian man has been killed in the West Bank town of Turmus Ayya.
The man was brought to a hospital in Ramallah with a fatal gunshot wound to his chest.
The slain man is named by Palestinian media as 27-year-old Omar Qattin.
الشهيد عمر قطين (27 عاماً) الذي ارتقى برصاص قوات الاحتلال خلال التصدي للمستوطنين في ترمسعيا شمال شرق رام الله. pic.twitter.com/uQphstwTAK
— وكالة شهاب للأنباء (@ShehabAgency) June 21, 2023
It is unclear who shot the man.
Hundreds of settlers rampaged through Turmus Ayya earlier, setting fire to dozens of homes and cars. Israeli forces reached the scene and launched tear gas, according to Palestinian media.
Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai gives his “full backing” to police officers who are involved in violent clashes with Druze protesters in the Golan Heights.
A statement from police after Shabtai holds a situational assessment says that he has instructed police commander in the north to continue to engage in dialogue with Druze leaders, and calls on them to calm the situation.
Eight protesters are hurt, including four in serious condition. Twelve officers are lightly hurt.
The Shin Bet security agency has recorded 147 “significant” terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank this year, a spokesperson tells The Times of Israel.
According to the Shin Bet data, 120 of the attacks were shootings, while the rest were bombings or car-ramming attacks.
Since the beginning of the year, Palestinian attacks in Israel and the West Bank have killed 24 people, including 17-year-old Nachman Mordoff, 17-year-old Elisha Anteman, 21-year-old Harel Masood and 64-year-old Ofer Fayerman, killed yesterday near the settlement of Eli. Palestinian rocket fire from the Gaza Strip also killed two people in Israel in May.
Dozens of people have also been wounded in the attacks, some of them seriously.
The agency says security forces have foiled 375 significant attacks so far this year, including some 300 planned shootings.
“Significant attacks” is a term that encompasses shootings, bombings, vehicle rammings, and kidnappings.
Last year, Israeli security officials recorded nearly 300 shooting attacks, the vast majority in the West Bank, and said the military and Shin Bet foiled around 500 planned significant attacks.
The Palestinian Authority health ministry says three Palestinians are wounded by live fire during an attack by settlers and clashes with Israeli troops near the West Bank town of Turmus Ayya.
The ministry says they have been brought to a hospital in Ramallah for treatment.
It was not clear who opened fire in the town.
There is no immediate comment from the Israeli military or police on the incidents.
Hundreds of settlers rampaged through Turmus Ayya earlier, setting fire to dozens of homes and cars.
The Ziv Medical Center in Safed says it has received eight Druze protesters wounded in Golan Heights clashes with police.
Among the wounded are four in serious condition, including one with gunshot wounds who is being operated on.
Three others have serious head injuries and are being transferred by helicopter to Rambam hospital in Haifa.
Three others are moderately wounded and one is lightly hurt.
In addition, the hospital says it has treated 4 lightly wounded police officers, and another 8, apparently also lightly hurt, are currently on their way to the hospital
The mayor of the West Bank town of Turmus Ayya says settlers set fire to some 60 vehicles and 30 homes.
Residents say dozens of settlers rampaged through the main road of the town.
Witnesses say the Israeli army entered the town and settlers were withdrawing.
AP contributed to this report
Police say 12 officers have been hurt in violent clashes with Druze protesters in the Golan Heights.
The statement does not give details on their condition.
Several protests are also injured, including at least one who was shot by an officer.
בשעות האחרונות מתמודדים כוחות המשטרה בצפון מול הפרות סדר אלימות של אלפים בצפון הגולן, המוחים נגד עבודות להקמת טורבינות במקום. המפגינים מיידים אבנים וזיקוקים ומשליכים בקבוקי תבערה לעבר הכוחות ומסכנים את חיי השוטרים pic.twitter.com/PYbHnZi3Oa
— משטרת ישראל (@IL_police) June 21, 2023
Israel will authorize 1,000 new homes to be constructed at the West Bank settlement of Eli, the site of a deadly terror attack yesterday that killed four Israelis, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office says.
The decision was made in a meeting between Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
“Our response to terror is to hit it hard and build in our land,” the statement says.
Palestinians say that settlers are rampaging through the West Bank town of Turmus Ayya, setting fire to dozens of cars and homes.
Footage posted to social media from the town north of Ramallah shows cars and homes ablaze.
There is no immediate comment from the Israeli army, which has troops stationed around the town.
Troops are seen trying to eject settlers as black smoke rises above the town.
Turmassyah, Ramallah!
Israeli settlers launched a porgrom against Palestinians in the town.
Tens of cars and houses are burned pic.twitter.com/YkCRMU1Oti
— Younis | يونس (@ytirawi) June 21, 2023
The rioting comes after settler vigilantes tore through several Palestinian towns in the West Bank last night following a deadly shooting attack on a nearby settlement, setting cars and fields on fire, vandalizing homes and terrorizing residents in a grim repeat of an incident some termed a pogrom earlier this year, after another deadly Palestinian shooting attack.
Ukrainian leader Vlodymir Zelensky reacts to Russian leader Vladimir Putin calling him a “disgrace to the Jewish people,” saying that the Russian leader is the second king of antisemitism after Hitler.”
Zelensky, in an interview with the BBC, is asked about Putin’s comments last week.
Zelensky, who is Jewish and lost relatives in the Holocaust, appears taken aback and then says he wasn’t quite sure how to answer the question.
“It’s like he doesn’t fully understand his words. Apologies, but it’s like he is the second king of antisemitism after Hitler,” Zelensky says.
“This is a president speaking. A civilized world cannot speak that way. But it was important for me to hear the reaction of the world and I am grateful for the support,” he says.
Putin on Friday claimed Zelensky is seen as a “disgrace” to his faith by other members of the religion.
“I have a lot of Jewish friends,” Putin told an annual economic forum in Saint Petersburg. “They say that Zelensky is not Jewish, that he is a disgrace to the Jewish people.”
“This is not a joke and not an attempt at irony, because today neo-Nazis, Hitler’s disciples, have been put on a pedestal as heroes of Ukraine,” Putin added, according to the TASS Russian News Agency.
The Knesset torpedoes two opposition bills seeking to ban conversion therapy for minors.
According to the bills, engaging a minor in conversion therapy would carry criminal and civil penalties.
Labor party leader Merav Michaeli, who introduced one of the two related bills, says that the bill is part of a larger struggle to protect the LGBTQ community’s civil rights and safety.
“We are no longer talking about harming feelings, we are talking about harming rights, souls, bodies,” the lawmaker says.
She says, we are talking about “a man who, because of the coalition’s insulting and inciting words, set fire to a pride flag and almost injured an entire family. We are talking about the murder of a young woman at the pride parade. We are talking about physical threats against the LGBTQ+ community that have increased since you and this ugly coalition have been in power.”
The Hezbollah terror group established two tents in Israeli territory on the Lebanon border two weeks ago, and the army has yet to clear them out.
The story was first published by the Kan public broadcaster, citing details from a closed Knesset committee meeting.
The Israel Defense Forces says in a statement that “the matter is known and being handled with all the relevant parties.”
The tents, manned by armed Hezbollah members, were established over the internationally recognized Blue Line. Israel’s border fence is built entirely within Israeli territory.
The IDF says it aims to deal with the tents diplomatically and have a UN peacekeeping force remove the tents, but threatens that it may use force eventually.
As of now, the IDF believes the tents don’t pose a threat to Israel’s security.
The IDF has been working on a new border wall with Lebanon to replace an aging fence in the area. The engineering work has sparked several minor clashes on the border in recent months.
At least three people are hurt, including one person who was shot, as violent clashes break out in the Golan Heights for a second day between police and thousands of residents of the Druze town of Majdal Shams protesting against the construction of a wind farm in the area.
Police say protesters are burning tires and throwing rocks and firebombs at forces who are responding with riot control means.
Two of the wounded are in serious condition.
In one incident a group of demonstrators tried to overrun a police position and opened fire. Police returned fire, they say.
Several roads are blocked and police warn people not to come to the area.
The company constructing the wind farms says that it has legally rented the land from the owners, also residents of the town.
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