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Houthi Missile Explodes Over Central Israel
Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi addresses followers via a video link at the al-Shaab Mosque, formerly al-Saleh Mosque, in Sanaa, Yemen, Feb. 6, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
JNS.org – Israeli air defenses on Sunday morning intercepted fragments of a surface-to-surface missile launched from Yemen that exploded over central Israel.
The attack triggered sirens in central Israel and the Tel Aviv area at around 6:30 a.m.
According to the Magen David Adom emergency service, five individuals suffered light injuries while running for shelters. They were treated on the scene before being referred to hospitals, according to MDA.
The Israel Defense Forces confirmed the attack was launched from Yemen, after correcting an initial report that a missile had been launched from the east.
“The explosive sounds heard in the last few minutes are from the interceptors. The result of the interception is under review,” according to the IDF.
In July, a Houthi drone killed a man in central Tel Aviv, in response to which Israel struck Yemen’s Hodeidah port. The Iranian terror proxy has launched dozens of drones and missiles at Israel in support of Hamas in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023.
Hazam al-Assad, a member of the Houthi militia’s political bureau, tweeted on Sunday morning, hours after the attack, that “whether you are in underground shelters or out of them, you must listen carefully this afternoon to what this great leader, who speaks the truth and acts with integrity, will say,” along with a picture of Houthi leader Abd al-Malek Badr al-Din al-Houthi.
He claimed that the missile was “very powerful and hypersonic,” and had ” bypassed all defenses and hit a military area in Lod near Ben Gurion Airport.”
Fragments of an IDF interceptor hit a train station in Modi’in, causing damage, with images from the scene showing shattered glass and damage to an escalator. No injuries were reported.
Other interceptor fragments reportedly fell in an agricultural field near Lod, a city just under 10 miles southeast of Tel Aviv. Four firefighting teams were working to control a blaze that broke out near Moshav Kfar Daniel as a result, which posed no immediate danger to nearby homes.
The Israeli security establishment’s initial assessment is that the missile disintegrated in the air, according to Channel 12 News. Based on the initial investigation, it appears that Israel’s Arrow defense system intercepted one of the fragments while the Iron Dome system shot down others.
The interceptor fragments fell in open areas, except for the shrapnel that hit the train station. The fragments of the Houthi missile itself landed in an open area in the Ben Shemen area.
Ben Gurion Airport was operating on a regular schedule Sunday, with 62,000 passengers expected to pass through Israel on 375 flights.
On Friday, the Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza said it had fired two rockets toward Tel Aviv. The IDF said that one of the projectiles fell in the sea, and the other did not cross into Israeli territory. Residents of the Gush Dan region of central Israel reported a loud explosion.
Hamas said it had launched “two M90 rockets” toward Tel Aviv, with a source from the terror group telling the Hezbollah-aligned Lebanese news site Al Mayadeen that the rockets were launched from Khan Yunis, where the IDF is currently operating.
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Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd
Magdeburg Christmas market, December 21, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Christian Mang
i24 News – A suspected terrorist plowed a vehicle into a crowd at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, west of the capital Berlin, killing at least five and injuring dozens more.
Local police confirmed that the suspect was a Saudi national born in 1974 and acting alone.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his concern about the incident, saying that “reports from Magdeburg suggest something bad. My thoughts are with the victims and their families.”
Police declined to give casualty numbers, confirming only a large-scale operation at the market, where people had gathered to celebrate in the days leading up to the Christmas holidays.
The post Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister
A person waves a flag adopted by the new Syrian rulers, as people gather during a celebration called by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) near the Umayyad Mosque, after the ousting of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, Photo: December 20, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo
Syria’s new rulers have appointed Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the insurgency which toppled Bashar al-Assad, as defense minister in the interim government, an official source said on Saturday.
Abu Qasra, who is also known by the nom de guerre Abu Hassan 600, is a senior figure in the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group which led the campaign that ousted Assad this month. He led numerous military operations during Syria’s revolution, the source said.
Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa discussed “the form of the military institution in the new Syria” during a meeting with armed factions on Saturday, state news agency SANA reported.
Abu Qasra during the meeting sat next to Sharaa, also known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, photos published by SANA showed.
Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir said this week that the defense ministry would be restructured using former rebel factions and officers who defected from Assad’s army.
Bashir, who formerly led an HTS-affiliated administration in the northwestern province of Idlib, has said he will lead a three-month transitional government. The new administration has not declared plans for what will happen after that.
Earlier on Saturday, the ruling General Command named Asaad Hassan al-Shibani as foreign minister, SANA said. A source in the new administration told Reuters that this step “comes in response to the aspirations of the Syrian people to establish international relations that bring peace and stability.”
Shibani, a 37-year-old graduate of Damascus University, previously led the political department of the rebels’ Idlib government, the General Command said.
Sharaa’s group was part of al Qaeda until he broke ties in 2016. It had been confined to Idlib for years until going on the offensive in late November, sweeping through the cities of western Syria and into Damascus as the army melted away.
Sharaa has met with a number of international envoys this week. He has said his primary focus is on reconstruction and achieving economic development and that he is not interested in engaging in any new conflicts.
Syrian rebels seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8, forcing Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war and ending his family’s decades-long rule.
Washington designated Sharaa a terrorist in 2013, saying al Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad’s rule and establishing Islamic sharia law in Syria. US officials said on Friday that Washington would remove a $10 million bounty on his head.
The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, caused one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times and left cities bombed to rubble and the economy hollowed out by global sanctions.
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Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels
View of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) building in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash90.
i24 News – Sweden will no longer fund the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) and will instead provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza via other channels, the Scandinavian country said on Friday.
The decision comes on the heels of multiple revelations regarding the agency’s employees’ involvement in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
Sweden’s decision was in response to the Israeli ban, as it will make channeling aid via the agency more difficult, the country’s aid minister, Benjamin Dousa, said.
“Large parts of UNRWA’s operations in Gaza are either going to be severely weakened or completely impossible,” Dousa said. “For the government, the most important thing is that support gets through.”
The Palestinian embassy in Stockholm said in a statement: “We reject the idea of finding alternatives to UNRWA, which has a special mandate to provide services to Palestinian refugees.”
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel thanked Dousa for a meeting they had this week and for Sweden’s decision to drop its support for UNRWA.
“There are worthy and viable alternatives for humanitarian aid, and I appreciate the willingness to listen and adopt a different approach,” she said.
The post Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels first appeared on Algemeiner.com.