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Israeli Athletes Win 6 Medals During First Few Days of 2024 Paralympics in Paris
Israeli para athletes have already won six medals at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris that began less than a week ago, including gold, silver, and bronze medal wins on Sunday.
Ami Omer Dadaon won silver in the men’s 150-meter individual medley SM4 disability class on Sunday. The 23-year-old Kiryat Ata resident also won gold, and set a Paralympic record, on Friday in the men’s 100-meter freestyle S4 disability class with a finish time of 1:19:33.
Dadaon, who has had cerebral palsy since birth, began swimming at the age of six. When he was 20, he became the youngest Israeli athlete to win a medal at the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo, where he won medals in three events.
Also on Sunday, Israeli para rowing athlete Moran Samuel won the gold medal in the women’s single sculls, after winning a bronze medal in Rio 2016 and silver at Tokyo 2020. The Paralympic medalist and world champion, 42, suffered a spinal stroke at age 24 that left her in a wheelchair. Samuel, who is a mother of three, began rowing in 2010 and represented Israel in non-para basketball prior to her spinal stroke. She began playing wheelchair basketball after her impairment, but she switched to para rowing because she wanted to represent Israel at the Paralympic Games. She went on to become the first rower from Israel to win multiple medals at the Paralympic Games when she took home silver in the women’s PR1 single sculls at the 2020 Games in Tokyo.
Para rowing duo Shahar Milfelder and Saleh Shahin on Sunday won bronze in the mixed double sculls. In 2005, Shahin — a 41-year-old Druze father of two from the Arab city of Shfaram in northern Israel — was working as a security guard at the Karni border crossing on the Israel-Gaza border when he was injured while protecting others from a deadly terrorist attack, in which six Israelis were killed and several others were wounded. Milfelder, 26, was diagnosed with cancer as a teen and had to have a portion of her pelvis removed.
On Saturday, Mark Malyar, 24, won bronze in the men’s 100-meter backstroke. Malyar was born with cerebral palsy and started swimming at the age of five. He won two gold medals and one bronze at the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo. He competes in para swimming for Israel alongside his twin brother Ariel.
Israeli taekwondo athlete Asaf Yasur, 22, won Israel’s first medal at the Paralympics this year when he secured the gold medal on Thursday in the under-58 kg category in the men’s K44 disability class.
The 2024 Paralympic Games had its opening ceremony on Aug. 28 and ends Sept. 8. Twenty-eight athletes are representing Israel in the Paralympics this year, including a survivor of the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks.
The post Israeli Athletes Win 6 Medals During First Few Days of 2024 Paralympics in Paris first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Exclusive: Israeli Officials Harshly Critical of Steve Witkoff’s Influence on US Policy on Gaza, Iran, i24NEWS Told
US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, Washington, DC, Jan. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
i24 News – Amid growing disagreements with the Trump administration over the composition of the Board of Peace for Gaza and the question of a strike on Iran, officials in Israel point to a key figure behind decisions seen as running counter to Israeli interests: Special Envoy Steve Witkoff.
The officials mention sustained dissatisfaction with Witkoff. Sources close to the PM Netanyahu told i24NEWS on Saturday evening: “For several months now, the feeling has been that envoy Steve Witkoff has strong ties, for his own reasons, across the Middle East, and that at times the Israeli interest does not truly prevail in his decision-making.”
This criticism relates both to the proposed inclusion of Turkey and Qatar in Gaza’s governing bodies and to the Iranian threat. A senior Israeli official put it bluntly: “If it turns out that he is among those blocking a strike on Iran, that is far more than a coincidence.”
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EU Warns of Downward Spiral After Trump Threatens Tariffs Over Greenland
European Union flags flutter outside the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on June 17, 2022. Photo: Reuters/Yves Herman
European Union leaders on Saturday warned of a “dangerous downward spiral” over US President Donald Trump‘s vow to implement increasing tariffs on European allies until the US is allowed to buy Greenland.
“Tariffs would undermine transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral. Europe will remain united, coordinated, and committed to upholding its sovereignty,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU Council President Antonio Costa said in posts on X.
The bloc’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas said tariffs would hurt prosperity on both sides of the Atlantic, while distracting the EU from its “core task” of ending Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“China and Russia must be having a field day. They are the ones who benefit from divisions among allies,” Kallas said on X.
“Tariffs risk making Europe and the United States poorer and undermine our shared prosperity. If Greenland’s security is at risk, we can address this inside NATO.”
Ambassadors from the European Union’s 27 countries will convene on Sunday for an emergency meeting to discuss their response to the tariff threat.
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Israel Says US Gaza Executive Board Composition Against Its Policy
FILE PHOTO: Displaced Palestinians shelter at a tent camp in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, January 14, 2026. REUTERS/Haseeb Alwazeer/File Photo
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Saturday that this week’s Trump administration announcement on the composition of a Gaza executive board was not coordinated with Israel and ran counter to government policy.
It said Foreign Minister Gideon Saar would raise the issue with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The statement did not specify what part of the board’s composition contradicted Israeli policy. An Israeli government spokesperson declined to comment.
The board, unveiled by the White House on Friday, includes Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan. Israel has repeatedly opposed any Turkish role in Gaza.
Other members of the executive board include Sigrid Kaag, the U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East peace process; an Israeli‑Cypriot billionaire; and a minister from the United Arab Emirates, which established relations with Israel in 2020.
Washington this week also announced the start of the second phase of President Donald Trump’s plan, announced in September, to end the war in Gaza. This includes creating a transitional technocratic Palestinian administration in the enclave.
The first members of the so-called Board of Peace – to be chaired by Trump and tasked with supervising Gaza’s temporary governance – were also named. Members include Rubio, billionaire developer Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.