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State Dept. condemns far-right Israeli minister for saying his right to travel in the West Bank is ‘more important than Arabs’ freedom of movement’
(JTA) – The State Department condemned far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir for saying that Jewish rights to freedom of movement in the West Bank trump those of the territory’s Arab residents.
Both Ben-Gvir and the Israeli prime minister’s office fired back, claiming that his statement had been misunderstood and that he had been referring to Israeli settlers’ rights to protection from Palestinian terrorist attacks.
Ben-Gvir lives in the Israeli West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba and made the comments in an appearance Wednesday on Israeli Channel 12.
“My right, my wife’s right, my children’s right to travel on the roads of Judea and Samaria is more important than Arabs’ freedom of movement,” he said, using the Israeli government’s preferred term for the West Bank.
Turning to Arab Israeli journalist Mohammad Magadli, Ben-Gvir said, “Sorry, Mohammad, but that’s the reality, that’s the truth. My right to life precedes the right to movement.”
The remark was criticized by a series of public figures and activist groups. The Palestinian Authority called it “racist and heinous,” and additional condemnations came from Israeli opposition politicians and liberal American Jewish groups. Palestinian-American supermodel and activist Bella Hadid went after Ben-Gvir’s comments on her Instagram page, which has nearly 60 million followers.
The State Department condemnation marked the latest diplomatic flare-up between Israel and the United States. The Biden administration has previously objected to inflammatory statements or actions from far-right members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition including Ben-Gvir.
A State Department spokesperson denounced Ben-Gvir’s comments, telling the Times of Israel that the United States “strongly condemn[s] Minister Ben-Gvir’s inflammatory comments on the freedom of movement of Palestinian residents of the West Bank.”
The spokesperson added that the U.S. “condemn[s] all racist rhetoric” and that remarks like Ben-Gvir’s are “incongruent with advancing respect for human rights for all.”
The administration has criticized Israeli settlement activity and supports the establishment of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. Human rights groups in Israel and abroad have documented that Palestinians face restrictions on their freedom of movement within the territory occupied by Israel, needing to traverse checkpoints and lacking access to some roads. Israel says that access roads to settlements, and restrictions on Palestinian travel, are meant to prevent terror attacks on Israeli civilians.
In the days since he made the remark, Ben-Gvir has doubled down while insisting that he was misunderstood. He has also received backing from Netanyahu’s office. Both say his statement was referring to the idea that Israeli settlers’ right to safety from lethal attack trumps Palestinians’ right to freedom of movement. In a video statement on Friday, Ben-Gvir said, “Not only do I not regret my words. I am saying them yet again.”
In the days before Ben-Gvir made the statement, Batsheva Nigri, an Israeli settler, was killed in a shooting attack near the West Bank city of Hebron, and an Israeli father and son were killed in a shooting in the northern West Bank. Since the beginning of the year, more than two dozen Israelis and more than 150 Palestinians have been killed in escalating violence.
In an English-language tweet on Thursday, Ben-Gvir maintained that his words, which circulated widely in a video clip that he also shared, had been misquoted by “the Israeli radical left.”
“I said yesterday on a TV broadcast that the right of Jews to live and not be murdered in terror attacks prevails over the right of Arabs in Judea and Samaria to travel on the roads without security restrictions,” he wrote in the tweet. That is why checkpoints should be placed on roads where regular terrorism and shooting by Jihadists are committed against Jews.”
In the Friday video, Ben-Gvir claimed that his statement accords with international law and said, “The right to life trumps the right to freedom of movement.”
In its statement, Netanyahu’s office said that “Israel allows maximum freedom of movement in Judea and Samaria for both Israelis and Palestinians,” and that Ben-Gvir was referring to “special security measures” that Israel’s military implemented in order to curb the threat of “Palestinian terrorists” who “take advantage of this freedom of movement to murder Israeli women, children and families by ambushing them at certain points on different routes.”
This is not the first time the Biden administration has admonished Ben-Gvir’s actions: The U.S. also slammed a visit he made earlier this year to the Temple Mount, which is revered by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and has been the setting for a number of violent clashes. Ben-Gvir, who is a former follower of the extremist Rabbi Meir Kahane and heads the Otzma Yehudit, or Jewish Power party, has previously been convicted of incitement to terrorism, and his appointment as national security minister was met with concern from observers in Israel and the U.S.
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The post State Dept. condemns far-right Israeli minister for saying his right to travel in the West Bank is ‘more important than Arabs’ freedom of movement’ appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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‘Totally Obliterated’: US Bombs Iran’s Nuclear Sites, Trump Declares Operation a Success
US President Donald Trump delivers an address to the nation alongside US Vice President JD Vance, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at the White House in Washington, DC, US, June 21, 2025, following US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria/Pool
The United States launched a large-scale military strike against Iran early Saturday, destroying key nuclear enrichment facilities, including the heavily fortified Fordow site.
US President Donald Trump said in a public address that the operation had “completely and totally obliterated” Iran’s nuclear capabilities and urged Tehran to “make peace,” warning that any future aggression would be met with even greater force.
The multi-pronged strike combined stealth B‑2 Spirit bombers deploying bunker-buster bombs with Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from submarines. Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan — all central to the Iranian nuclear program — were targeted in a coordinated assault. US military officials said the campaign neutralized Iran’s main enrichment operations.
Trump praised Israel’s role in coordinating the response and hailed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a key partner, saying the two leaders worked “as a team like perhaps no team has ever worked before.” Netanyahu, for his part, called the American action “unmatched” and said it signaled a shift toward restoring regional stability.
Iran’s foreign ministry condemned the operation as a breach of sovereignty and international law, vowing to respond with force. Hours after the strike, Iran retaliated by unleashing a salvo of roughly 30 ballistic and hypersonic missiles toward central Israel. Several missiles hit urban centers including Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan, Haifa, and surrounding areas, causing injuries to at least 25 civilians and extensive property damage. Israel closed its airspace and instructed residents in key regions to only venture out for essential activities. In response, Israeli jets struck military targets in Iran, including missile launch sites and rocket depots.
Domestically, Trump’s decision exposed sharp political divisions in Washington. Republican hawks applauded the move as decisive, while isolationists and some constitutional conservatives questioned the legality of bypassing Congress, demanding oversight before further military escalation. Meanwhile, the United Nations and key US allies, including Britain and France, urged caution and a swift return to diplomatic solutions.
Iranian state media reported that most nuclear material was evacuated from Fordow ahead of the strike, the Reuters news agency reported. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN’s nuclear watchdog, said it detected no spike in off-site radiation.
According to Arab sources cited in The Wall Street Journal, the United States sent messages via regional intermediaries to reassure Tehran that the strike was a one-off and not part of a campaign to topple the regime. A senior US official confirmed that the administration clarified it had no intention of pursuing regime change and that the door remained open to renewed negotiations.
US Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA), co-sponsors of a bipartisan resolution to block unauthorized military action in Iran, criticized Trump’s strike as unconstitutional. Massie called the move illegal, while Khanna urged Congress to immediately vote on their Iran War Powers Resolution “to prevent America from being dragged into another endless Middle East war.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), meanwhile, called for Trump’s ouster, claiming it violated the US Constitution and as such was an impeachable offense.
“The president’s disastrous decision to bomb Iran without authorization is a grave violation of the Constitution and Congressional War Powers. He has impulsively risked launching a war that may ensnare us for generations. It is absolutely and clearly grounds for impeachment,” she said.
Arsen Ostrovsky, a leading human rights lawyer and CEO of the International Legal Forum, rejected the criticism. He said Trump was acting well within his powers under Article II of the Constitution, which grants the president authority as commander-in-chief to protect national security.
“This is not without precedent,” Ostrovsky told The Algemeiner, pointing to former President Barack Obama’s operation to kill Osama bin Laden and former President Joe Biden’s airstrikes on Iranian proxies in Syria.
“Trump did not need the authorization of Congress in order to initiate a military strike,” he said, adding that the action was also supported by the War Powers Resolution of 1973 and Article 51 of the UN Charter, which affirms a nation’s right to self-defense.
Ostrovsky also defended the legality of Israel’s involvement, saying its campaign was not a sudden act of aggression but a response to a protracted armed conflict initiated by Iran.
“Faced with an existential and imminent threat from a nuclear Iran, the Jewish state had no choice but to act before it was too late,” he said. He described the strikes as “lawful, necessary, and proportionate under the Laws of Armed Conflict against a genocidal regime that had vowed to destroy the world’s only Jewish state and stood on the cusp of acquiring the means to do so, had Israel not acted.”
“In striking Iran’s nuclear weapons program, Israel and the United States made the world a safer place. They did it not only in their own defense, but in defense of the free world,” he concluded.
The post ‘Totally Obliterated’: US Bombs Iran’s Nuclear Sites, Trump Declares Operation a Success first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israeli Strike on Tehran Kills Bodyguard of Slain Hezbollah Chief
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi lays a wreath as he visits the burial site of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, on the outskirts of Beirut, Lebanon, June 3, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
A member of Lebanese armed group Hezbollah was killed in an Israeli air strike on Tehran alongside a member of an Iran-aligned Iraqi armed group, a senior Lebanese security source told Reuters and the Iraqi group said on Saturday.
The source identified the Hezbollah member as Abu Ali Khalil, who had served as a bodyguard for Hezbollah’s slain chief Hassan Nasrallah. The source said Khalil had been on a religious pilgrimage to Iraq when he met up with a member of the Kataeb Sayyed Al-Shuhada group.
They traveled together to Tehran and were both killed in an Israeli strike there, along with Khalil’s son, the senior security source said. Hezbollah has not joined in Iran’s air strikes against Israel from Lebanon.
Kataeb Sayyed Al-Shuhada published a statement confirming that both the head of its security unit and Khalil had been killed in an Israeli strike.
Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli aerial attack on Beirut’s southern suburbs in September.
Israel and Iran have been trading strikes for nine consecutive days since Israel launched attacks on Iran, saying Tehran was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons. Iran has said it does not seek nuclear weapons.
The post Israeli Strike on Tehran Kills Bodyguard of Slain Hezbollah Chief first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Financial Officer and Commander Eliminated by IDF in the Gaza Strip
Israeli soldiers operate during a ground operation in the southern Gaza Strip, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, July 3, 2024. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg/Pool via REUTERS
i24 News – The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), in cooperation with the General Security Service (Shin Bet), announced on Friday the killing of Ibrahim Abu Shamala, a senior financial official in Hamas’ military wing.
The operation took place on June 17th in the central Gaza Strip.
Abu Shamala held several key positions, including financial officer for Hamas’ military wing and assistant to Marwan Issa, the deputy commander of Hamas’ military wing until his elimination in March 2024.
He was responsible for managing all the financial resources of Hamas’ military wing in Gaza, overseeing the planning and execution of the group’s war budget. This involved handling and smuggling millions of dollars into the Gaza Strip to fund Hamas’ military operations.
The post Hamas Financial Officer and Commander Eliminated by IDF in the Gaza Strip first appeared on Algemeiner.com.