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Hamas Claims Responsibility for Jerusalem Terror Attack in Which Three Killed, Six Wounded
Israeli officials work at the scene of a Palestinian terrorist attack in Jerusalem, Nov. 30, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
Hamas claimed responsibility for the murder of three Israelis on Thursday morning by Palestinian terrorists as they waited at a bus station in Jerusalem.
The terrorists approached the bus stop at the entrance of Israel’s capital city around 7:40 am local time and opened fire at the civilians, killing three people and wounding six others. Police said two off-duty soldiers and an armed civilian in the area fired back, killing the attackers.
The terrorists were reportedly armed with an M-16 assault rifle and a handgun. A police search of their vehicle found hundreds of rounds of ammunition of ammunition.
The victims were 73-year-old Rabbi Elimelech Wasserman, a judge in the rabbinical court in Ashdod; a 67-year-old school principal from Beit Shemesh named Hanna Ifergan; and 24-year-old Livia Dickman from Har Nof.
Of the injured, two were listed in serious condition, three in moderate condition, and one in good condition, according to Israeli emergency services.
Hamas, the Palestinian terror group that rules Gaza, said in a statement that the two perpetrators — brothers Murad (38) and Ibrahim (30) Nemer, from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sur Baher — were “jihad-waging martyrs,” adding that the terrorist attack was in response to Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
“The heroes of our people are mobilizing to avenge the blood of the martyrs,” added Hamas, which called for an “escalation of resistance.” The terror organization launched the current war with Israel with its Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israeli communities.
Hamas also said the attack came in response to the killing of two children in the West Bank on Wednesday. Two kids, aged 8 and 15, as well as two senior terror commanders, were killed by Israeli forces in Jenin. Hamas claimed the 15-year-old as one of its members.
According to Israel’s Shin Bet security agency, the Nemer brothers were members of Hamas who were previously jailed for terror activity. Murad was jailed between 2010 and 2020 for planning terror attacks linked to Gaza, and Ibrahim was jailed in 2014 for undisclosed terror activity.
Political reaction to the attack was swift.
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has been a public opponent of the recent ceasefire and hostage-prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas, said Thursday’s attack was a violation of the temporary truce.
“With one hand Hamas signs a ceasefire, with the other it sends terrorists to murder Jews in Jerusalem,” he said. “This is not a ceasefire but rather a continuation of the conception of containment [of terror attacks] and concession that brought us murdered people, which gives [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar hope that he can exit this conflict with the upper hand.”
Speaking at the scene of the attack, Ben-Gvir praised his policy of arming more civilians and called on the government to increase its attacks on Hamas, saying, “We have to speak to Hamas only through intentions, only through the war.”
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich echoed this call, tweeting, “We are at war on all fronts… We will pursue and destroy them with God’s help everywhere.”
War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz, a former chief of staff of the army, also spoke about the attack on social media: “This attack is further proof of our commitment to continue the fight with strength and determination against the murderous terrorism that threatens our citizens. In Jerusalem, Gaza, Judea and Samaria, and everywhere,”
His statement appeared to be in response to international pressure on Israel not to continue its campaign against Hamas once the ceasefire ends.
Newly minted US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew shared on X/Twitter that “we unequivocally condemn such brutal violence.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who was visiting Israel, said Thursday’s shooting was a reminder “of the threat from terrorism that Israel and Israelis face every single day… My heart goes out to the victims of this attack.”
In a separate incident on Thursday, two Israeli reservist soldiers were lightly injured in a car-ramming attack at a checkpoint in the northern west Bank, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said. Other soldiers at the scene shot and killed the driver.
The post Hamas Claims Responsibility for Jerusalem Terror Attack in Which Three Killed, Six Wounded first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran Says Eight Arrested for Suspected Links to Israel’s Mossad Spy Agency
The Mossad recruitment ad. Photo: Screenshot.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Saturday they had arrested eight people suspected of trying to transmit the coordinates of sensitive sites and details about senior military figures to Israel’s Mossad, Iranian state media reported.
They are accused of having provided the information to the Mossad spy agency during Israel’s air war on Iran in June, when it attacked Iranian nuclear facilities and killed top military commanders as well as civilians in the worst blow to the Islamic Republic since the 1980s war with Iraq.
Iran retaliated with barrages of missiles on Israeli military sites, infrastructure and cities. The United States entered the war on June 22 with strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
A Guards statement alleged that the suspects had received specialized training from Mossad via online platforms. It said they were apprehended in northeastern Iran before carrying out their plans, and that materials for making launchers, bombs, explosives and booby traps had been seized.
State media reported earlier this month that Iranian police had arrested as many as 21,000 “suspects” during the 12-day war with Israel, though they did not say what these people had been suspected of doing.
Security forces conducted a campaign of widespread arrests and also stepped up their street presence during the brief war that ended in a US-brokered ceasefire.
Iran has executed at least eight people in recent months, including nuclear scientist Rouzbeh Vadi, hanged on August 9 for passing information to Israel about another scientist killed in Israeli airstrikes.
Human rights groups say Iran uses espionage charges and fast-tracked executions as tools for broader political repression.
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Body of Idan Shtivi, Murdered on Oct. 7, Retrieved from Gaza in Special IDF Operation
Idan Shtivi. Photo: Courtesy of the family
i24 News – The body of Idan Shtivi, a 28-year-old murdered by Palestinian jihadists at the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, was recovered in a joint operation by the IDF and Shin Bet in central Gaza, it was cleared for publication on Saturday.
Shtivi’s remains were returned to Israel alongside the body of Ilan Weiss, another hostage killed during the October 7 massacre.
“Idan Shtivi was abducted from the Tel Gama area and brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists after acting to rescue and evacuate others from the Nova music festival on October 7th, 2023. He was 28 years old at the time of his death,” read an IDF press release.
“Following an identification process conducted at the National Center for Forensic Medicine, along with the Israel Police and the Military Rabbinate, the Hostages and Missing Persons Headquarters notified his family.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Shviti “was a gifted student of sustainability and governance, and a courageous individual” who acted heroically on October 7, helping others flee.
“He was killed in the process and his body was abducted to Gaza by Hamas. My wife and I send our heartfelt condolences to the Shtivi family. So far, 207 hostages have been returned, 148 of them alive. We will continue to act tirelessly and decisively to bring back all our hostages—living and deceased.”
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Woman Stabbed at Ottawa Grocery Store in Latest Antisemitic Attack
A social media post by the alleged attacker, Joseph Rooke of Cornwall, Ontario. Photo: Screenshot via i24
i24 News – The stabbing of a Jewish woman at an Ottawa grocery by a man with a long history of antisemitic posts on social media, the latest antisemitic hate crime in Canada, sparked outrage and prompted condemnation from officials including the prime minister.
Both the victim and the attacker are in their 70s. The woman is reportedly in serious condition.
The suspect was identified as Joseph Rooke, who has authored a series of lengthy rambling screeds on social media, ranting against Israel and Jews.
“Judaism is the world’s oldest cult,” he writes in one post, going on to say “over time jews have become insidious in governments, businesses, media conglomerates, and educational institutions in order to do what they do better than anyone else. Jews are the world’s masters of propaganda, gaslighting, demonization, demagoguery, and outright lying. Using their collective wealth they have become masters of reprisal.”
“I am under no obligation whatsoever, legal, moral, or otherwise, to like jews and I do not. If that means I meet the jewish definition of an anti-semite, so be it.”
Canada has seen a steep spike in antisemitic attacks over the past two years, including a recent incident in Montreal where a Hasidic Jew was beaten in front on his children.
After Prime Minister Mark Carney condemned the incident, many, including former Israel’s ambassador the US Michael Oren, pointed out that Carney’s rhetoric and policies contribute to the increasing insecurity of Canada’s Jewish community through uncritical embrace of outrageous and easily disprovable allegations that Israel and its supporters were guilty of the worst crimes against humanity.