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Hezbollah Rocket Hits Haifa Synagogue an Hour After Prayers
Illustrative. Israel’s Haifa port. Credit: Zvi Roger – Haifa Municipality.
JNS.org – A Hezbollah rocket struck a synagogue in Haifa on Saturday, just one hour after the end of a prayer service.
The Avot Ubanim synagogue complex suffered major damage from the strike, but no one was hurt.
“This is divine providence,” Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav told Israel Hayom.
Five people were lightly injured on the way to shelters in various areas of Haifa during the barrage.
Hezbollah launched 10 rockets in the barrage, setting off sirens in the Haifa Bay area, according to the Israel Defense Forces. Only some of the projectiles were intercepted.
Multiple fires in Haifa and the surrounding area were reported after the attack, as well as widespread power outages in Carmel Center.
“All emergency organizations arrived quickly,” said Amir Herel, commander of the Haifa district in the Home Front Command, according to Israel Hayom.
“There were no people in the synagogue, but in the surrounding buildings there were people who experienced a significant blast,” he said. “But as I said, most of the damage is not physical. There’s damage in many apartments, mainly windows. Some vehicles were also burned.”
Hezbollah launched a total of 80 projectiles into Israeli territory on Saturday, according to the IDF.
On Sunday morning, 20 rockets were launched at the Haifa Bay and Western Galilee regions, some of which were intercepted and some of which impacted in open areas, the IDF said.
Sirens also sounded in Acre and the Upper Galilee during the morning hours.
Report: IDF removing roadblocks near northern border
The IDF is removing military roadblocks near the border with Lebanon, Army Radio reported on Sunday. The move is in preparation for the potential return of displaced residents to their homes, according to the report.
“The reality in the north has changed. There are no longer areas where travel is impossible. There’s no need for detour routes anymore—civilians can now drive on these roads. Traffic is unrestricted due to the IDF’s control within Lebanese territory,” military sources told the news outlet.
Meanwhile, the IDF on Saturday night declared the areas of Metula and Kfar Yuval in northern Israel closed military zones. Entry is prohibited for civilians until Sunday night.
The move comes amid IDF ground operations in Southern Lebanon that began in early October.
IAF strikes Hezbollah targets in Tyre, Beirut
The Israeli Air Force overnight Saturday struck Hezbollah targets in the Tyre area in Southern Lebanon and in the Hezbollah stronghold of Dahieh south of Beirut. The targets included command centers, weapons storage facilities and terror infrastructure sites, according to the IDF.
In Tyre, the strikes targeted several military assets belonging to Hezbollah’s “Aziz” Unit, which according to the Israeli military is responsible for carrying out attacks against Israel from southwestern Lebanon.
Fifty Hezbollah targets were hit in Dahieh over the past week, according to the IDF, and the strikes continued on Sunday morning.
The IDF emphasized that civilians were given advanced warning before the strikes and many steps were taken to minimize the harm to noncombatants. The Israeli military accused Hezbollah of “systematically” embedding its infrastructure into Lebanon’s civilian population.
“This is a further example of Hezbollah’s cynical abuse of civilian areas for military activities that deliberately endangers the lives of Lebanese civilians,” the IDF said.
Lebanese government reviewing US ceasefire proposal
Beirut is reviewing a draft proposal for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanese officials told AFP on Friday.
A senior Lebanese government official confirmed that US Ambassador Lisa Johnson had presented a 13-point proposal to Lebanese officials on Thursday.
Johnson delivered the document to Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, the head of the Hezbollah-aligned Amal movement, according to the report.
The proposal includes a 60-day truce, during which Lebanon would redeploy its troops along the border.
According to the official, Jerusalem has not responded to the plan.
Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer discussed the proposal with US President-elect Trump during a visit to his Florida estate on Nov. 10, The Washington Post reported on Nov. 13.
The discussions at Mar-a-Lago centered on a ceasefire that would involve Western and Russian cooperation, according to the Post. The proposal calls for Moscow to prevent Hezbollah from resupplying via Syrian land routes.
Following his meetings in Florida with Trump, Dermer headed to Washington to meet on Nov. 11 and 12 with Biden administration officials, including Amos Hochstein, the president’s special envoy to Lebanon.
According to Israeli officials, the plan also includes moving the Hezbollah terrorist group north of the Litani River. The Lebanese military would then take control of the border area, overseen by the United States and Britain.
A source close to the Iranian terrorist proxy told the Post that Hezbollah would be willing to withdraw its forces north of the Litani as part of a temporary ceasefire deal.
Hezbollah began launching thousands of rockets, missiles and drones at Israel the day after Hamas launched its Oct. 7, 2023, massacre. More than 60,000 Israeli citizens remain internally displaced from their homes in the north due to the ongoing Hezbollah attacks.
Israel is closer to reaching a deal to stop the fighting with Hezbollah than it has been since the start of the war, but must retain the freedom to act in Lebanon should any deal be violated, Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen said on Thursday.
“We will be less forgiving than in the past over attempts to create strongholds in territory near Israel,” Cohen told Reuters.
A senior Israeli diplomatic official told Israel Hayom last Saturday that there has been a significant breakthrough in efforts to achieve a diplomatic settlement.
One potential sticking point, however, is the ability of Israeli forces to reenter Lebanese territory if Hezbollah attempts to rearm and reestablish itself.
The official emphasized that the IDF will retain operational freedom to respond to any security threats from across the northern border, regardless of any diplomatic arrangements.
However, a source close to Hezbollah told the Post that the group’s “condition for progress remains clear: Israel must be prohibited from conducting operations within Lebanese territory.”
Ali Larijani, senior adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, said on Nov. 15 that Tehran would support a decision by the Lebanese government and the country’s “resistance” to halt the war.
“We are not looking to sabotage anything. We are after a solution to the problems,” Larijani said after meeting with Berri and Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati.
If the ceasefire efforts fail, an Israeli military official told the Post that there are plans in the works to expand ground operations in Lebanon.
The post Hezbollah Rocket Hits Haifa Synagogue an Hour After Prayers first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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North London Synagogue, Nursery Targeted in Eighth Local Antisemitic Incident in Just Over a Week
Demonstrators against antisemitism in London on Sept. 8, 2025. Photo: Campaign Against Antisemitism
A synagogue and its nursery school in the Golders Green area of north London were targeted in an antisemitic attack on Thursday morning — the eighth such incident locally in just over a week amid a shocking surge of anti-Jewish hate crimes in the area.
The synagogue and Jewish nursery were smeared with excrement in an antisemitic outrage echoing a series of recent incidents targeting the local Jewish community.
“The desecration of another local synagogue and a children’s nursery with excrement is a vile, deliberate, and premeditated act of antisemitism,” Shomrim North West London, a Jewish organization that monitors antisemitism and also serves as a neighborhood watch group, said in a statement.
“This marks the eighth antisemitic incident locally in just over a week, to directly target the local Jewish community,” the statement read. “These repeated attacks have left our community anxious, hurt, and increasingly worried.”
Local law enforcement confirmed they are reviewing CCTV footage and collecting evidence to identify the suspect and bring them to justice.
This latest anti-Jewish hate crime came just days after tens of thousands of people marched through London in a demonstration against antisemitism, amid rising levels of antisemitic incidents across the United Kingdom since the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
In just over a week, seven Jewish premises in Barnet, the borough in which Golders Green is located, have been targeted in separate antisemitic incidents.
According to the Metropolitan Police, an investigation has been launched into the targeted attacks, all of which involved the use of bodily fluids.
During the incidents, a substance was smeared on four synagogues and a private residence, while a liquid was thrown at a school and over a car in two other attacks.
As the investigation continues, local police said they believe the same suspect is likely responsible for all seven offenses, which are being treated as religiously motivated criminal damage.
No arrests have been made so far, but law enforcement said it is actively engaging with the local Jewish community to provide reassurance and support.
The Community Security Trust (CST), a nonprofit charity that advises Britain’s Jewish community on security matters, condemned the recent wave of attacks and called on authorities to take immediate action.
“The extreme defilement of several Jewish locations in and around Golders Green is utterly abhorrent and deeply distressing,” CST said in a statement.
“CST is working closely with police and communal partners to support victims and help identify and apprehend the perpetrator,” it continued.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) also denounced the attacks, calling for urgent measures to protect the Jewish community.
“These repeated incidents are leaving British Jews anxious and vulnerable in their own neighborhoods, not to mention disgusted,” CAA said in a statement.
Since the start of the war in Gaza, the United Kingdom has experienced a surge in antisemitic crimes and anti-Israel sentiment.
Last month, CST published a report showing there were 1,521 antisemitic incidents in the UK from January to June of this year. It marks the second-highest total of incidents ever recorded by CST in the first six months of any year, following the first half of 2024 in which 2,019 antisemitic incidents were recorded.
In total last year, CST recorded 3,528 antisemitic incidents for 2024, the country’s second worst year for antisemitism despite being an 18 percent drop from 2023’s record of 4,296.
In previous years, the numbers were significantly lower, with 1,662 incidents in 2022 and 2,261 hate crimes in 2021.
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Germany to Hold Off on Recognizing Palestinian State but Will Back UN Resolution for Two-State Solution
German national flag flutters on top of the Reichstag building, that seats the Germany’s lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, in Berlin, Germany, March 25, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Lisi Niesner
Germany will support a United Nations resolution for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but does not believe the time has come to recognize a Palestinian state, a government spokesman told Reuters on Thursday.
“Germany will support such a resolution which simply describes the status quo in international law,” the spokesman said, adding that Berlin “has always advocated a two-state solution and is asking for that all the time.”
“The chancellor just mentioned two days ago again that Germany does not see that the time has come for the recognition of the Palestinian state,” the spokesman added.
Britain, France, Canada, Australia, and Belgium have all said they will recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly later this month, although London said it could hold back if Israel were to take steps to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and commit to a long-term peace process.
The United States strongly opposes any move by its European allies to recognize Palestinian independence.
Last week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the US has told other countries that recognition of a Palestinian state will cause more problems.
Those who see recognition as a largely symbolic gesture point to the negligible presence on the ground and limited influence in the conflict of countries such as China, India, Russia, and many Arab states that have recognized Palestinian independence for decades.
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UN Security Council, With US Support, Condemns Strikes on Qatar
Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani attends an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council, following an Israeli attack on Hamas leaders in Doha, Qatar, at UN headquarters in New York City, US, Sept. 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
The United Nations Security Council on Thursday condemned recent strikes on Qatar’s capital Doha, but did not mention Israel in the statement agreed to by all 15 members, including Israel‘s ally the United States.
Israel attempted to kill the political leaders of Hamas with the attack on Tuesday, escalating its military action in what the United States described as a unilateral attack that does not advance US and Israeli interests.
The United States traditionally shields its ally Israel at the United Nations. US backing for the Security Council statement, which could only be approved by consensus, reflects President Donald Trump’s unhappiness with the attack ordered by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Council members underscored the importance of de-escalation and expressed their solidarity with Qatar. They underlined their support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Qatar,” read the statement, drafted by Britain and France.
The Doha operation was especially sensitive because Qatar has been hosting and mediating negotiations aimed at securing a ceasefire in the Gaza war.
“Council members underscored that releasing the hostages, including those killed by Hamas, and ending the war and suffering in Gaza must remain our top priority,” the Security Council statement read.
The Security Council will meet later on Thursday to discuss the Israeli attack at a meeting due to be attended by Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani.