RSS
Paraguay’s President Visits Western Wall Same Day as Embassy Reopens in Jerusalem
Paraguayan President Santiago Peña praying at the Western Wall in Jerusalem on Dec. 12, 2024. Photo: The Western Wall Heritage Foundation
Paraguay’s President Santiago Peña visited the Western Wall in Jerusalem on Thursday morning along with his family and a delegation of Paraguayan politicians during his trip to the Jewish state to celebrate the opening of the new Paraguayan embassy in Israel’s capital.
Peña silently prayed at the religious site, placed a personal note between the stones of the Western Wall, signed the guest book, and ended his visit with a tour of the Western Wall Tunnels.
“I am here today to thank God because, three years ago, I came here to pray that I would be granted the position of president and the opportunity to serve my country,” Peña said. “It is an honor for me to say thank you here and to renew my commitment to do good for Paraguay, for Israel, and for the Jewish people.”
The president was accompanied by a delegation that included Paraguay’s president of Parliament, ministers, and additional parliament members. The group was welcomed by Rabbi of the Western Wall and Holy Sites Shmuel Rabinowitz and Western Wall Heritage Foundation Director Mordechai (“Suli”) Eliav, both of whom expressed gratitude for Paraguay’s steadfast support for Israel.
Peña and his wife Leticia Ocampos also attended on Thursday the opening ceremony for the new Paraguayan embassy in Jerusalem, an event that featured the affixing of a mezuzah at the embassy. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attended the dedication as well as Israel’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Gideon Saar, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion, and Paraguayan Ambassador to Israel Alejandro Rubin.
Paraguay first moved its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in 2018, but months later, under a new government, the embassy was moved back to Tel Aviv. Peña blamed the move on “internal revenge” and expressed joy about now returning the Paraguayan Embassy to Jerusalem at the opening ceremony on Thursday.
“I was very happy to see that during the time that I was minister of finance, the government of Paraguay took a very bold decision, a very ambitious decision to open the Paraguayan embassy in Jerusalem,” said Peña. “I was very sad a couple months later when a new administration, driven mostly by revenge, an internal revenge, nothing to do with the people of Israel, decided to move it back. I am very happy that this is taking place in this very moment that the world is living, where a lot of people talk but not many people act. For us, not only saying but doing is very important.”
Peña then told Netanyahu: “On behalf of all the Paraguayan people, we were with you, we are with you, we will stay with the people of Israel forever.”
Netanyahu spoke at the opening ceremony about the bilateral ties between Paraguay and Israel.
“There is a basic sympathy between our people and the people of Paraguay,” he said. “Because you too are a small people. You too are beset by great powers. You too suffered the specter of annihilation. We underwent the Holocaust, you underwent a massive massacre. But you didn’t lose faith, you didn’t disappear and you maintained yourself.”
“This desire, both to seize the future, to create this progress, to create the benefits for humanity, which is what you see in this building, is coupled with the understanding that we have a heritage and a commitment to our past and to our future that transcends time,” he added.
“Because if the Jewish people were able to not merely survive but to ford the torrential river between annihilation and salvation, to reconstitute our life here, to rebuild our capital, to be a thriving power and a thriving innovator for humanity. This means that there is hope for all nations of the world. And the one nation that we seize with great friendship and great sympathy and great love is Paraguay. Thank you for coming here. Thank you for opening the embassy.”
Netanyahu and Peña had a private meeting in the prime minister’s office after the embassy opening ceremony, and during their talk, the president invited the Israeli premier to visit Paraguay. The two world leaders then attended a reception at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where several memorandum of understandings (MOUs) and bilateral agreements were signed.
The post Paraguay’s President Visits Western Wall Same Day as Embassy Reopens in Jerusalem first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
The post Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
The post Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
The post US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say first appeared on Algemeiner.com.