JNS.org — The target of an attempted bombing by Hezbollah in Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park a year ago was former Israeli Defense Minister and Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Moshe Ya’alon, the Israel Police revealed on Wednesday.

“On Sept. 15, 2023, an explosive device exploded in Yarkon Park in Tel Aviv with no casualties; the investigation was assigned to the Central Unit of the Tel Aviv District Police and the Israel Security Agency (ISA),” the statement said.

A probe, which included an analysis of security cameras “focusing on relevant parties who used to frequent the area of ​​the attack at the relevant time,” led to the conclusion that Ya’alon was targeted, it added.

The terrorist group “had installed a camera on the body of the explosive charge in such a way that it was possible to observe movements on the park’s trails remotely,” but failed to hurt Ya’alon, according to the police.

The news came a day after the ISA revealed that a cell associated with Iran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah was responsible for placing the explosive, which was planted next to a tree in the bustling park in the north of the coastal metropolis.

Ya;alon, 74, was named chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in 2002, retiring three years later after 37 years of military service. He subsequently served as minister of defense on behalf of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party in successive governments before running for Knesset together with former IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz in 2019.

יעד פיגוע המטען בפארק הירקון לפני כשנה הוא הרמטכ״ל ושר הביטחון לשעבר משה בוגי יעלון, שמונה חשודים נעצרו

בתאריך 15.09.23 אירע פיצוץ מטען בפארק הירקון בת”א ללא נפגעים והחקירה הוטלה על היחידה המרכזית של מחוז ת”א והשב”כ. במסגרת החקירה עלה חשד, כי הפעלת המטען הינו אירוע פיגוע חבלני…

— משטרת ישראל (@IL_police) September 18, 2024

In related news, the ISA announced on Tuesday that it had thwarted a second attempt by Hezbollah to assassinate a former senior security official. According to the ISA, the attack involved an explosive device and was intended to be carried out in the coming days.

The security agency described the explosive device as a “type of Claymore anti-personnel mine known to be used by Hezbollah,” similar to the charge used in the planned attack on Ya’alon in September 2023.

The planned terrorist attack was said to have been prevented “in the final stages of implementation,” the ISA noted, adding that the targeted Israeli official has been updated by security forces and that additional details could not be provided “at this stage.”

Arab media reported on Wednesday that the intended target of the bombing was Aviv Kochavi, who was the IDF chief of staff between 2019 and 2023. Hezbollah operatives surveilled the retired military leader at a “sports facility” he used to frequent in Tel Aviv, according to the reports.

Hezbollah has attacked northern Israel nearly daily since it joined the war against the Jewish state in support of Palestinian Hamas on Oct. 8, firing thousands of rockets, missiles and drones. The attacks have so far killed more than 40 people and caused widespread damage. Tens of thousands of civilians remain internally displaced due to the violence.

On Tuesday, Hezbollah blamed Jerusalem for the pager explosions that wounded some 3,000 of its operatives and killed 12 in Lebanon and Syria on Tuesday, warning that Israel will get “its fair punishment.”

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Finland’s President Alexander Stubb defended his country’s decision to buy arms from Israel despite the war in Gaza, saying it had no link to Finland’s unwillingness to recognize an independent Palestinian state at the present time.

Finland is acquiring a ground based, high altitude, missile defense system called David’s Sling from Israel. Helsinki considers the system a high priority for its own defense due to neighboring Russia’s ongoing missile attacks on civilian and military targets in Ukraine.

Stubb, who took office in March, has defined his and Finland’s new foreign policy stance as “values-based realism,” which he has said was about “achieving things in the world as it is,” instead of “promoting only the world how I want to see it.”

In an interview with Reuters on Tuesday, Stubb said the time was not right to recognize a Palestinian state, even though its Nordic neighbors, Sweden, Iceland, and most recently Norway, have done so.

“In the case of Israel and Palestine, values-based realism is prevalent in our thinking on the recognition of Palestine in the sense that we want that recognition, not if, but when it happens, to have an impact towards a two-state solution and a peaceful solution,” he said.

Last month, Stubb told Finnish diplomats that Finland’s recognition of a Palestinian state was “a matter of time” and that the right time would be picked strategically to promote peace in the Middle East.

He said the decision had “nothing to do with” the arms deal with Israel.

“In that one, I only look at realism, in other words, the fact that we need those weapons. So that’s when I look at Finnish security.”

The post Finland’s President Defends Decisions to Buy Israeli Arms, Not Recognize Palestinian State first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Egypt will not accept any changes to the security arrangements that were in place on its border with Gaza before war broke out between Israel and Hamas last October, the Egyptian foreign minister said on Wednesday.

Security on the border, and whether Israel will maintain a troop presence along a 14-km (9-mile) buffer zone known as the Philadelphi Corridor, have become a focal point of months-long talks aimed at securing a ceasefire and the release of hostages in Gaza.

Israeli troops entered the buffer zone in May as they pursued an offensive around Rafah.

Egypt, which is a mediator in ceasefire talks, says Israel must withdraw and that a Palestinian presence needs to be restored at the Rafah crossing between Egypt‘s Sinai Peninsula and Gaza.

“Egypt reiterates its position, it rejects any military presence along the opposite side of the border crossing and the aforementioned [Philadelphi] corridor,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty told reporters during a press conference in Cairo with US counterpart Antony Blinken.

Abdelatty also said that any escalation, including blasts that wounded Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon on Tuesday, would create hurdles for the completion of a Gaza ceasefire deal.

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