i24 News – Russia and Ukraine completed a prisoner exchange deal on Saturday, with each side releasing 103 prisoners, Moscow’s Interfax agency reported Saturday.

After 900+ days of Russian captivity, Ukrainian soldiers are told about the situation at the front.

They were quite surprised when they learned that Ukraine occupies part of the Kursk region. pic.twitter.com/fFTfcUQYcF

— Clash Report (@clashreport) September 14, 2024

According to Moscow, most of the released Russian prisoners were taken captive during the Ukrainian invasion of the Kursk region. The United Arab Emirates mediated between Kyiv and Moscow.

“At present, all Russian servicemen are on the territory of the Republic of Belarus, where they are being provided with the necessary psychological and medical assistance, as well as an opportunity to contact their relatives,” the official statement read.

The swap is the eighth of its kind since the beginning of 2024, and puts the total number of POWs exchanged at 1,994. Previous exchanges were also brokered by the UAE.

The post Russia and Ukraine Swap 103 POWs in UAE-Brokered Prisoner Deal first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

i24 News – The Jewish Chronicle terminated its association with contributor Elon Perry, whose reports made sensational claims about Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar’s supposed plan to smuggle Israeli hostages out of Gaza and make the way to Iran.

The story was called into question after an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson said the military was unaware of the documents that Perry claimed corroborate his claims. Perry said that his source was a senior Israeli official, leading some to conclude it was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who fed the talking point to the reporter.

Moreover, the JC — the oldest Jewish newspaper in Britain — found inconsistencies in Perry’s biography, particularly that he served as a commando soldier during the legendary Entebbe raid (where Netanyahu’s brother lost his life in 1976) and that he was a professor at Tel Aviv University.

“While we understand he did serve in the Israel Defense Forces, we were not satisfied with some of his claims,” the outlet wrote on its website. “We have therefore removed his stories from our website and ended any association with Mr Perry.”

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JNS.org – Scott Hayes, of Framingham, Mass., was charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon in Newton District Court on Friday and released on $5,000 bond, after the 47-year-old was arrested the night before at a pro-Israel rally in Newton, Mass.

Video footage, which the Daily Wire obtained, appeared to show a young man, who accused pro-Israel ralliers of committing “genocide,” run across a busy street in Newton, Mass., on Thursday and tackle one of the ralliers. At some point, the latter seemed to shoot the assailant.

At a press conference on Thursday night, Marian Ryan, the district attorney of Middlesex County, which includes the City of Newton, said that Hayes was charged with “assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and violation of a constitutional right causing injury.” The latter charge was apparently dropped on Friday.

“He looked terrible but he stood tall. They treated him like a criminal and kept referring to the ‘alleged victim,”” a source at the court room told Kassy Akiva, of Daily Wire, who first obtained and released the footage of the incident. (Akiva is a former JNS editor.)

“Regrettably, the answer to most of the questions you’re going to have is, ‘We are working on that,’” the county district attorney said at the Thursday evening press conference.

“What we do know at this point is that at approximately 6:40 tonight, the Newton Police responded to calls at Washington and Harvard Street, just a short distance from the station,” Ryan said. “There was a small group of individuals—pro-Israeli demonstrators, who were demonstrating on one side of the street. There was an individual, apparently completely randomly walking down the other side of the street. Words were exchanged back and forth across the street.”

The man across the street “at some point began crossing the street. Appears to have gone back to his side of the street. Ultimately came across and jumped upon one of the demonstrators,” the district attorney said. “A scuffle ensued. During that scuffle, the individual who had come across the street was shot by a member of the demonstrating group.”

The man who crossed the street “has sustained life-threatening injuries and is being treated at a local hospital,” she added.

In response to a question, she said that the attacker came “very rapidly” across the street and “tackled” the other man. “It’s our understanding that that was his gun and that he legally possessed that gun,” she said, of Hayes.

Asked to characterize the man—who had reportedly called the pro-Israel ralliers “sick” and accused them of “genocide”—as either “anti-Israel” or “pro-Palestinian,” the district attorney said, “I think it’s too soon to to get into that.”

George McMains, acting chief of the Newton Police, said that the department “will be providing extra patrols at the houses of worship over the next several days as well as beyond if we feel that’s appropriate or necessary.”

Ruthanne Fuller, the Newton mayor, called the incident “frightening.”

“The Newton Police Department acted quickly and immediately took a person into custody,” she said. “I have two asks. First, let the Newton Police do their work and get the facts straight. Second, I ask everyone to remain calm.”

The New England branch of the Anti-Defamation League stated that police appeared to act too “immediately.”

“ADL is aware that an anti-Israel protester was shot after charging across traffic and violently tackling a pro-Israel demonstrator to the ground,” the ADL wrote. “Reports that charges were immediately filed prior to completion of the investigation are concerning.”

“We encourage Newton Police and the Middlesex district attorney to conduct a thorough investigation of the entire incident,” the ADL added. “We are concerned about escalating tensions and remain in contact with law enforcement and community officials.”

Alan Dershowitz, a professor emeritus at Harvard Law School, told JNS that there is no question that the man who crossed the street and tackled the pro-Israel rallier committed a crime.

“I think the first thing that’s clear is that the person who assaulted the veteran should be arrested as well,” Dershowitz said. “The fact that he hasn’t been arrested raises some serious questions.”

The legal scholar told JNS that the question whether the shooter acted in self-defense “will be determined based on all the evidence.”

“The shooting raises questions that require a deep investigation as to precisely when the shot was fired, what the circumstances were, what the feelings and beliefs of the person who shot were,” he said. “That requires an extensive investigation.”

Dershowitz told JNS that he is concerned that the alleged shooter was charged before the investigation was complete.

“It seemed to me that the first person to be arrested should have been the person who did the initial assault, because there’s no doubt about that. That’s on videotape. You can see it,” he said. “So the fact that the person was not arrested, charges were not filed against the person making the original charges, raises serious questions about the fairness of the entire process.”

The Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston stated on Friday that “last night, at a small demonstration in support of the Oct. 7 hostages in Newton, Mass., there was a violent altercation and an individual was hospitalized.”

“While the details of what happened are still being investigated, there should be no question that violence of any kind in our democratic society is abhorrent,” the JCRC said. “People’s right to gather in civil, non-violent public demonstrations must be sacrosanct.”

“We take this moment to note that over the last 11 months, across our region there have been hundreds, if not thousands, of standouts for the hostages taken on Oct. 7. These rallies, demonstrations, runs and walks for the victims, a ‘hostage tunnel’ exhibit at Boston City Hall Plaza, and other ways in which our community and allies have come together to demand the return of the hostages to their families have all been peaceful and without incident,” the JCRC said.

“Regardless of motive or his role in the initiation of the violence, we pray for the full recovery of the individual who was injured last night,” it said.

The Combined Jewish Philanthropies stated on Friday that there was an “altercation” that “turned violent.”

“We denounce and condemn all forms of violence and support the right to assemble in ways that are peaceful and uphold our values as a people and as a community,” the CJP said.

At press time, a fundraising page for Hayes—which called him “an American Iraq war veteran” and said that he is not Jewish—had raised more than $120,000 from some 1,600 donations.

The post Dershowitz: ‘Serious Questions’ About Fairness of Newton’s Response to Shooting at Pro-Israel Rally first appeared on Algemeiner.com.