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12 arrested as fracas breaks out over tunnel at Chabad Headquarters

(New York Jewish Week) — Police arrested 12 people at the Chabad-Lubavitch movement’s world headquarters in Crown Heights, Brooklyn on Monday as chaos broke out during a dispute over a tunnel into the building.
The fracas broke out after a cement truck was brought in to repair the building’s walls and seal off the tunnel, whose purpose and the size of the tunnel remains unclear. No injuries were reported, according to the NYPD.
The incident occurred in a busy synagogue adjoining the Hasidic movement’s headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway, the office of the late Chabad leader Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, said Chabad spokesman Motti Seligson.
The building was previously the home of Schneerson’s father-in-law and predecessor, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, and it has become a symbol of the movement and its worldwide network of emissaries.
Footage from the scene on Monday showed chaos in the interior of the synagogue. Video clips that circulated online showed a small group of young men inside a hole in the wall that appeared to lead to a cavernous space, as police kept crowds of others away.
Other videos showed young men tearing wooden panels off walls, arguing with police, being handcuffed and being removed from the building.
The arrested individuals remained in custody and charges were pending, an NYPD spokesperson told the New York Jewish Week. The building has been closed for a structural safety review.
DEVELOPING STORY:
Chaos At 770: A chaotic scene at the Chabad headquarters in Crown Heights, after Bochurim ripped wooden panels to prevent a cement truck from sealing off the recently discovered tunnels.
The NYPD are on scene, and 770 will be closed shortly to regain control. pic.twitter.com/ETvEYqtqNI
— Frum TikTok (@FrumTikTok) January 8, 2024
Seligson wrote that the dispute was caused by a group of extremist students, who broke through walls in properties adjacent to the synagogue in order to gain unauthorized access.
The fracas broke out on Monday after a cement truck was brought in to repair the walls they had damaged and block the tunnel. The students caused the ruckus when they attempted to disrupt the repairs, Seligson said in a statement on X.
Efforts to repair the walls “were disrupted by the extremists who broke through the wall to the synagogue, vandalizing the sanctuary, in an effort to preserve their unauthorized access,” Seligson wrote.
He added, “This is, obviously, deeply distressing to the Lubavitch movement, and the Jewish community worldwide.”
In an official statement from Chabad-Lubavitch Headquarters, Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky said the community was “pained by the vandalism of a group of young agitators who damaged the synagogue below Chabad Headquarters.”
“These odious actions will be investigated, and the sanctity of the synagogue will be restored,” Krinsky said.
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The post 12 arrested as fracas breaks out over tunnel at Chabad Headquarters appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Saudi Arabia Rejects Israel PM Netanyahu’s Remarks on Displacing Palestinians

US President Donald Trump and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu talk in the midst of a joint news conference in the White House in Washington, US, Jan. 28, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
Saudi Arabia affirmed its categorical rejection of remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about displacing Palestinians from their land, the foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
Israeli officials have suggested the establishment of a Palestinian state on Saudi territory. Netanyahu appeared to be joking on Thursday when he responded to an interviewer on pro-Netanyahu Channel 14 who mistakenly said “Saudi state” instead of “Palestinian state,” before correcting himself.
While the Saudi statement mentioned Netanyahu’s name, it did not directly refer to the comments about establishing a Palestinian state in Saudi territory.
Egypt and Jordan also condemned the Israeli suggestions, with Cairo deeming the idea as a “direct infringement of Saudi sovereignty.”
The kingdom said it valued “brotherly” states’ rejection of Netanyahu’s remarks.
“This occupying extremist mindset does not comprehend what the Palestinian territory means for the brotherly people of Palestine and its conscientious, historical and legal association with that land,” it said.
Discussions of the fate of Palestinians in Gaza has been upended by Tuesday’s shock proposal from President Donald Trump that the U.S. would “take over the Gaza Strip” from Israel and create a “Riviera of the Middle East” after resettling Palestinians elsewhere.
Arab states have roundly condemned Trump’s comments, which came during a fragile ceasefire in the Gaza war that Israel has been waging against the terrorist group Hamas, which controls the narrow strip.
Trump has said Saudi Arabia was not demanding a Palestinian state as a condition for normalizing ties with Israel. But Riyadh rebuffed his statements, saying it would not establish ties with Israel without the creation of a Palestinian state.
The post Saudi Arabia Rejects Israel PM Netanyahu’s Remarks on Displacing Palestinians first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Egypt to Host Emergency Arab Summit on 27 February to Discuss ‘Serious’ Palestinian Developments

US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meet at the White House in Washington, DC, US, Feb. 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
Egypt will host an emergency Arab summit on 27 February to discuss what it described as “serious” developments for Palestinians, according to a statement from the Egyptian foreign ministry on Sunday.
The summit comes amid regional and global condemnation of US President Donald Trump’s suggestion to “take over the Gaza Strip” from Israel and create a “Riviera of the Middle East” after resettling Palestinians elsewhere.
The post Egypt to Host Emergency Arab Summit on 27 February to Discuss ‘Serious’ Palestinian Developments first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Thai Nationals Held Captive by Hamas in Gaza Return Home

Relatives hug a released Thai hostage, who was kidnapped during the deadly October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas and held in Gaza, as the hostages arrive in Thailand following their release, at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport, in Samut Prakan, Thailand, February 9, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha
When Surasak Rumnao, 31, left his home in Thailand’s rural Udon Thani province three years ago to go across the world to the southern Israeli town of Yesha for agriculture work, his family never imagined they would lose touch with him for over a year when he was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists in October 2023.
He and four others were reunited with their families this weekend after their release from captivity in Gaza.
Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists abducted more than 250 people, including Israelis and foreign nationals, in their October 2023 attack on Israel.
During the attack, Hamas terrorists killed more than 40 Thais and kidnapped 31 Thai laborers, some of whom died in captivity, according to the Thai government. Later that year, the first group of Thai hostages was returned.
Surasak’s mother, Khammee Rumnao, was relieved that her son was not mistreated and has returned to his home, about 620 km(385 miles) northeast of the capital, Bangkok.
“He mainly got to eat bread, he was looked after well and was fed all three meals (each day). He got to shower, he was looked after well,” Khammee said, and that he ate whatever his captors had.
Her son does not plan to go back and wants to use the knowledge he gained in his agricultural work in Israel at their home, she said.
His grandparents and other relatives came to their home to welcome him home.
His stepfather, Janda Prachanan, was elated.
“I couldn’t find the words to describe how happy I am, that my son is safe and finally home,” he said.
Earlier on Sunday, the other returnees, dressed in winter jackets, were met with tears of joy from their families who were waiting for their arrival at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport.
“We are all deeply touched to come back to our birthplace … to be standing here,” said Pongsak Thaenna, one of the returnees said. “I don’t know what else to say, we are all truly thankful.”
Thai Foreign Minister Maris Sangiampongsa, who met the hostages in Israel after their release last week, expressed relief.
“This is emotional … to come back to the embrace of their families,” he said. “We never gave up and this was the fruit of that.”
Before the conflict, approximately 30,000 Thai laborers worked in Israel’s agriculture sector, making them one of the largest migrant worker groups in the country. Nearly 9,000 Thais were repatriated following the October 7 attacks.
The workers primarily come from Thailand’s northeastern region, an area comprising villages and farming communities that is among the poorest in the country.
Thailand’s foreign ministry said a Thai national is still believed to be held captive by Hamas.
“We still have hope and continue to work to bring them back,” Maris said, adding that this includes the bodies of two deceased Thai nationals.
The post Thai Nationals Held Captive by Hamas in Gaza Return Home first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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