Law enforcement in Germany has reopened a long-dormant investigation into the 1970 arson attack on a Jewish community center in the city of Munich that killed seven elderly residents, according to German media.

“On Jan. 31, 2025, the Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation into the arson attack on the Israelite Religious Community’s nursing home,” senior prosecutor Andreas Franck told the German tabloid newspaper Bild last week.

Franck, who also serves as the antisemitism commissioner of the Bavarian judiciary, will be leading the probe. He was recently contacted by a witness with new and “credible” information about possible perpetrators, Bild reported.

Fifty-five years later, the long-forgotten Feb. 13, 1970, attack, which took place during a wave of terrorism against Israeli and Jewish targets, remains unsolved.

One week before the arson, Palestinian terrorists opened fire on passengers lined up for a flight to Tel Aviv at Munich Airport, killing one person and injuring 23.

According to a report from German police at the time, the Palestinian terrorist organization that claimed responsibility for the Munich Airport attack denied any involvement in the fire at the Jewish community center.

On the night of the arson attack, unknown individuals set fire to a four-story building that housed a community center, a retirement home, and a synagogue, with 50 people inside, leaving 13 injured. Police later ruled the attack as arson after finding a gasoline can in the stairwell.

Five men and two women were killed in the attack: Regina Rivka Becher (59), David Jakubowicz (59), Rosa Drucker (59), Georg Eljakim Pfau (63), Leopold Arie Leib Gimpel (69), Siegfried Offenbacher (71), and Meir Max Blum (71). Among the victims, Jakubowicz and Pfau were survivors of Nazi concentration camps.

In 2012, fresh evidence suggested that the attack may have been carried out by an anti-Zionist anarchist group. However, Munich prosecutors later determined that the information was “inaccurate.”

In 2013, an anonymous source claimed in an article for the German magazine Focus that a member of the far-left extremist group Tupamaros West-Berlin (TW) was responsible for the attack. The investigation was closed in November 2017.

At the time of the arson, the West German government offered a reward of 75,000 marks ($20,500) for information leading to the capture of the arsonists responsible for the atrocity.

Then-West German President Gustav Heinemann condemned the attack, saying he was especially outraged because the victims had already endured immense suffering in their lives.

The post German Authorities Reopen Probe Into Deadly 1970 Arson Attack on Jewish Elderly Home first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

A plan for Gaza drawn up by Egypt as a counter to US President Donald Trump’s ambition for a Middle East Riviera would sideline Hamas and replace it with interim bodies controlled by Arab, Muslim, and Western states, according to a draft seen by Reuters.

The Egyptian vision for Gaza, which is due to be presented at an Arab League summit on Tuesday, does not specify whether the proposal would be implemented before or after any permanent peace deal to end the war triggered by the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel.

Trump’s plan, which envisioned resettling Gaza’s Palestinian inhabitants elsewhere, appeared to back away from long-standing US Middle East policy focused on a two-state solution and sparked anger among Palestinians and Arab nations.

Who will run Gaza after the conflict remains the great unanswered question in negotiations over the future of the enclave. Hamas has so far rejected the idea of any proposal being imposed on Palestinians by other states.

Cairo’s plan does not tackle critical issues such as who will foot the bill for Gaza’s reconstruction or outline any specific details around how Gaza would be governed, nor how an armed terrorist group as powerful as Hamas would be pushed aside.

Under the Egyptian plan, a Governance Assistance Mission would replace the Hamas-run government in Gaza for an unspecified interim period and would be responsible for humanitarian aid and for kick-starting reconstruction of the enclave, which has been devastated by the war.

“There will be no major international funding for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Gaza if Hamas remains the dominant and armed political element on the ground controlling local governance,” a preamble outlining the draft Egyptian plan’s objectives said.

Details of Egypt’s proposed framework for Gaza’s future have not been previously reported.

Egypt, Jordan, and Gulf Arab states have for almost a month been scrambling to formulate a diplomatic offensive to counter Trump’s plan. A number of ideas have been proposed, with Egypt’s considered the frontrunner.

Reuters was unable to determine whether Arab leaders would support the plan presented by Egypt.

The plan does not specify who would run the governance mission. It said it would “draw on the expertise of Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere to help Gaza recover as quickly as possible.”

The draft proposal was shared with Reuters by an official involved in Gaza negotiations who wished to remain anonymous because the draft has not yet been made public.

The plan firmly rejects the US proposal for mass displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, which Arab states such as Egypt and Jordan see as a security threat.

“President Trump has been clear that Hamas cannot continue to govern Gaza,” White House National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes said when asked about Egypt’s Gaza plan and whether the US would support it.

“While the [resident stands by his bold vision for a post-war Gaza, he welcomes input from our Arab partners in the region. It’s clear his proposals have driven the region to come to the table rather than allow this issue to devolve into further crisis,” Hughes said.

STABILIZATION FORCE

Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters the group knows of no such proposal by Egypt.

“The day after in Gaza must only be decided by the Palestinians,” he said. “Hamas rejects any attempt to impose projects or any form of non-Palestinian administration, or the presence of any foreign forces on the land of the Gaza Strip.”

The Egyptian draft does not mention future elections.

Egypt’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did the office of Israel‘s prime minister, whose support for any plan is seen as vital to secure a commitment that any future reconstruction will not be destroyed again.

Palestinian Islamist terror group Hamas has ruled the coastal enclave since 2007. It launched the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and started the Gaza war.

A Jan. 19 ceasefire brought a temporary end to the fighting, but the first phase of the deal expired on Saturday with no sign of an agreement to move to the second phase.

The Egyptian draft does not tackle the issue of what actions could be taken if Hamas refuses to disarm or step aside from politics.

The proposal envisions an International Stabilization Force drawn primarily from Arab states that would take over the role of providing security from the terrorist group, with the eventual establishment of a new local police force.

Both security and governance bodies would be “arranged, guided, and supervised” by a steering board. The draft said the board would comprise key Arab countries, members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the United States, Britain, the European Union and its member states, and others.

The plan does not detail a central governing role for the Palestinian Authority (PA), which opinion polls show has little support among Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

A Palestinian official told Reuters that, like the West Bank, Gaza falls under the PA’s jurisdiction – and it must be run by Palestinians.

“We agreed with the Egyptians on a committee made of Palestinian experts that will help the Palestinian Authority in running the Gaza Strip for six months. The committee is made of Palestinian experts and coordinates with the PA, and doesn’t answer to non-Palestinian bodies,” said the official, who asked not to be named for sensitivity.

RECONSTRUCTION BILL

Since Hamas drove the Palestinian Authority out of Gaza after a brief civil war in 2007, it has crushed all opposition there. Supported by Iran, it built an extensive security apparatus and military organization based around a vast network of tunnels – much of which Israel says it has now destroyed.

The plan does not say who would pay to rebuild Gaza, a bill estimated by the UN at more than $53 billion. Two sources have told Reuters that Gulf and Arab states would need to commit at least $20 billion in the initial phase of reconstruction.

Egypt’s proposal envisions that states on the steering board could establish a fund to support the interim governing body and arrange donor conferences to seek contributions for a longer-term reconstruction and development plan for Gaza.

The plan does not contain any specific financial pledges.

Oil- and gas-producing Gulf Arab states such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates could be vital sources of funding from the region.

The United Arab Emirates, for instance, sees Hamas and other militant groups as an existential threat and is unlikely to offer any funding until Hamas has been sidelined.

The foreign ministries in Qatar and the UAE and Saudi Arabia’s international media office did not immediately respond to requests for comment about Egypt’s plan, or to questions about their willingness to commit funds to rebuild Gaza.

The draft plan also calls on the steering board to coordinate with a Civil Society Advisory Board, consisting of academics, NGO leaders and other notable figures.

The post Egypt’s Alternative to Trump’s ‘Gaza Riviera’ Aims to Sideline Hamas first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Monday it had “neutralized” a man who was planning “terrorist attacks” on the Moscow metro and a Jewish religious institution in the Moscow region.

FSB officers attempted to arrest the suspect, but he resisted and was shot dead by return fire, the FSB said.

The suspect had planned to travel to Afghanistan and join a terrorist group following the attacks, it stated.

The post Russia’s FSB Security Service Says It Shot Dead a Man Targeting Moscow Metro, Jewish Site in ‘Terrorist Attacks’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.