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1 dead, 5 wounded in shooting attack at Jerusalem checkpoint with long security lines
TEL AVIV (JTA) — Gunmen killed one soldier and injured five others Thursday in an attack at a West Bank checkpoint connecting Jerusalem and Israeli settlements to the south.
Israeli security sources say the attack was a failed attempt by Hamas, the Gaza-based terror group, to carry out a wider massacre in Jerusalem. Two of the attackers were from the southern West Bank city of Hebron, according to Israeli officials. In their car, security officials say they found outfits resembling IDF uniforms and enough weapons and ammunition for a larger-scale attack.
Following its Oct. 7 invasion of Israel, Hamas hoped to inspire attacks against Israelis in the West Bank. Since that date, the territory has seen a spike in violence, including an uptick in Israeli military raids on suspected terror cells. There has also been a rash of Israeli settler attacks on Palestinian villages, forcing their occupants out. Since Oct. 7, at least one other Israeli has been killed in a terror attack on a West Bank road, and more than 100 Palestinians have been killed, largely by Israeli forces.
Security at West Bank checkpoints has also increased since the war’s outbreak, forcing Israeli motorists to wait in long lines. Perhaps ironically, those long waits leave the drivers exposed to shooting attacks like the one on Thursday, said Oded Revivi, mayor of the nearby West Bank settlement of Efrat.
“In order to make sure that whoever enters Jerusalem is safe, you can sometimes have a roadblock which goes back for a mile,” Revivi told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “That is probably bigger, the amount of people that are stuck in there, than [live in] some of the Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria,” a biblical term for the West Bank.
“So all of a sudden, that becomes a target. Anybody who wants to do harm can just go into that traffic jam, everybody’s stuck in their cars, there is no first response unit there, there is nowhere to run away from,” he added. “And so there are different scenarios which make the reality very scary and very worrying.”
Oded Revivi, head of the Efrat Local Council, says West Bank residents are more vulnerable on the roads than in their homes. (Eliyahu Freedman)
The soldier killed on Thursday was Corporal Avraham Fetena, 20, from Haifa. The five other people wounded were also members of security forces.
Israel’s Shin Bet security agency identified one of the three terrorists, all of whom were killed during the encounter, as the 28-year-old son of Hamas’ former head in Hebron, according to local reports.
The checkpoint where the shooting occurred leads to a tunnel highway in the southern West Bank that was built to shield Israeli drivers from terror attacks when commuting between Jerusalem and Israeli settlements. A second major tunnel is currently being added to ease traffic. During the Second Intifada, a large fence was also built to prevent shooting attacks on the new road to Jerusalem, which is restricted to Israeli vehicles and leads to the checkpoint.
But even prior to Thursday’s shooting, Revivi said that local Israeli settlers’ “sense of security has definitely been hit extremely hard,” in spite of what he says is the “greatest army presence in the West Bank in the last 10 years.”
The Israeli government is offering weapons and funding for West Bank settlements to ramp up security, and to equip them to fend off the kind of attack Israel experienced on Oct. 7. But Revivi said the state needs to do more to ensure the settlers’ security.
“We have to understand at the end of the day that we only have one army, they’re the ones who’s supposed to provide security for all these different scenarios,” Revivi said. “And there’s absolutely no way that we can provide ourselves the level of security to the most extreme scenario based on civilian funds.”
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The post 1 dead, 5 wounded in shooting attack at Jerusalem checkpoint with long security lines appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Iran Says It Has Replaced Air Defenses Damaged in Israel War
The S-300 missile system is seen during the National Army Day parade ceremony in Tehran, Iran, April 17, 2024. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Iran has replaced air defenses damaged during last month’s conflict with Israel, Iran’s Defah Press news agency reported on Sunday quoting Mahmoud Mousavi, the regular army’s deputy for operations.
During the conflict in June, Israel’s air force dominated Iran’s airspace and dealt a heavy blow to the country’s air defenses while Iranian armed forces launched successive barrages of missiles and drones on Israeli territory.
“Some of our air defenses were damaged, this is not something we can hide, but our colleagues have used domestic resources and replaced them with pre-arranged systems that were stored in suitable locations in order to keep the airspace secure,” Mousavi said.
Prior to the war, Iran had its own domestically-made long-range air defense system Bavar-373 in addition to the Russian-made S-300 system. The report by Defah Press did not mention any import of foreign-made air defense systems to Iran in past weeks.
Following limited Israeli strikes against Iranian missile factories last October, Iran later displayed Russian-made air defenses in a military exercise to show it recovered from the attack.
The post Iran Says It Has Replaced Air Defenses Damaged in Israel War first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Calm Reported in Syria’s Sweida, Damascus Says Truce Holding
Members of Internal Security Forces stand guard at an Internal Security Forces’ checkpoint working to prevent Bedouin fighters from advancing towards Sweida, following renewed fighting between Bedouin fighters and Druze gunmen, despite an announced truce, in Walgha, Sweida province, Syria, July 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Karam al-Masri
Residents reported calm in Syria’s Sweida on Sunday after the Islamist-led government announced that Bedouin fighters had withdrawn from the predominantly Druze city and a US envoy signaled that a deal to end days of fighting was being implemented.
With hundreds reported killed, the Sweida bloodshed is a major test for interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, prompting Israel to launch airstrikes against government forces last week as it declared support for the Druze. Fighting continued on Saturday despite a ceasefire call.
Interior Minister Anas Khattab said on Sunday that internal security forces had managed to calm the situation and enforce the ceasefire, “paving the way for a prisoner exchange and the gradual return of stability throughout the governorate.”
Reuters images showed interior ministry forces near the city, blocking the road in front of members of tribes congregated there. The Interior Ministry said late on Saturday that Bedouin fighters had left the city.
US envoy Tom Barrack said the sides had “navigated to a pause and cessation of hostilities”. “The next foundation stone on a path to inclusion, and lasting de-escalation, is a complete exchange of hostages and detainees, the logistics of which are in process,” he wrote on X.
Kenan Azzam, a dentist, said there was an uneasy calm but the city’s residents were struggling with a lack of water and electricity. “The hospitals are a disaster and out of service, and there are still so many dead and wounded,” he said by phone.
Another resident, Raed Khazaal, said aid was urgently needed. “Houses are destroyed … The smell of corpses is spread throughout the national hospital,” he said in a voice message to Reuters from Sweida.
The Syrian state news agency said an aid convoy sent to the city by the government was refused entry while aid organized by the Syrian Red Crescent was let in. A source familiar with the situation said local factions in Sweida had turned back the government convoy.
Israeli public broadcaster Kan reported on Sunday that Israel sent urgent medical aid to the Druze in Sweida and the step was coordinated with Washington and Syria. Spokespeople for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Foreign Ministry and the military did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Druze are a small but influential minority in Syria, Israel and Lebanon who follow a religion that is an offshoot of a branch of Shi’ite Islam. Some hardline Sunnis deem their beliefs heretical.
The fighting began a week ago with clashes between Bedouin and Druze fighters. Damascus sent troops to quell the fighting, but they were drawn into the violence and accused of widespread violations against the Druze.
Residents of the predominantly Druze city said friends and neighbours were shot at close range in their homes or in the streets by Syrian troops, identified by their fatigues and insignia.
Sharaa on Thursday promised to protect the rights of Druze and to hold to account those who committed violations against “our Druze people.”
He has blamed the violence on “outlaw groups.”
While Sharaa has won US backing since meeting President Donald Trump in May, the violence has underscored the challenge he faces stitching back together a country shattered by 14 years of conflict, and added to pressures on its mosaic of sectarian and ethnic groups.
COASTAL VIOLENCE
After Israel bombed Syrian government forces in Sweida and hit the defense ministry in Damascus last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had established a policy demanding the demilitarization of territory near the border, stretching from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights to the Druze Mountain, east of Sweida.
He also said Israel would protect the Druze.
The United States however said it did not support the Israeli strikes. On Friday, an Israeli official said Israel agreed to allow Syrian forces limited access to the Sweida area for two days.
A Syrian security source told Reuters that internal security forces had taken up positions near Sweida, establishing checkpoints in western and eastern parts of the province where retreating tribal fighters had gathered.
On Sunday, Sharaa received the report of an inquiry into violence in Syria’s coastal region in March, where Reuters reported in June that Syrian forces killed 1,500 members of the Alawite minority following attacks on security forces.
The presidency said it would review the inquiry’s conclusions and ensure steps to “bring about justice” and prevent the recurrence of “such violations.” It called on the inquiry to hold a news conference on its findings – if appropriate – as soon as possible.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights said on July 18 it had documented the deaths of at least 321 people in Sweida province since July 13. The preliminary toll included civilians, women, children, Bedouin fighters, members of local groups and members of the security forces, it said, and the dead included people killed in field executions by both sides.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, another monitoring group, has reported a death toll of at least 940 people.
Reuters could not independently verify the tolls.
The post Calm Reported in Syria’s Sweida, Damascus Says Truce Holding first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Pope Leo Calls for End to ‘Barbarity of War’ After Strike on Gaza Church
Pope Leo XIV leads the Angelus prayer in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, July 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Yara Nardi TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
Pope Leo called for an end to the “barbarity of war” on Sunday as he spoke of his profound pain over an Israeli strike on the sole Catholic church in Gaza.
Three people died and several were injured, including the parish priest, in the strike on the Holy Family Church compound in Gaza City on Thursday. Photos show its roof has been hit close to the main cross, scorching the stone facade, and shattering windows.
Speaking after his Angelus prayer, Leo read out the names of those killed in the incident.
“I appeal to the international community to observe humanitarian law and respect the obligation to protect civilians as well as the prohibition of collective punishment, of indiscriminate use of force and forced displacement of the population,” he said.
The post Pope Leo Calls for End to ‘Barbarity of War’ After Strike on Gaza Church first appeared on Algemeiner.com.