The Vancouver Police Department (VPD) announced on Wednesday, May 1, that it had arrested a 44-year-old woman, who, during a rally on the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery the previous week, praised the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel—and referred to several terrorist organizations as heroes. The VPD’s Major Crime Section launched an investigation […]

The post Vancouver police made an arrest based on a viral video of a woman praising terrorists—a few days before she was spotted at the encampment at UBC appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.

Turkey has ceased all exports and imports to and from Israel as of Thursday, according to the Turkish trade ministry.

“Export and import transactions related to Israel have been stopped, covering all products,” the ministry said in a statement, citing the “humanitarian tragedy” in the Palestinian territories as the reason.

“Turkey will strictly and decisively implement these new measures until the Israeli government allows an uninterrupted and sufficient flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza,” the trade ministry added.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz responded forcefully to Ankara, accusing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of violating agreements by blocking ports for Israeli imports and exports.

“This is how a dictator behaves, disregarding the interests of the Turkish people and businessmen, and ignoring international trade agreements,” Katz wrote on X/Twitter.

Katz said he directed Israel’s foreign ministry to pursue alternatives for trade with Turkey, emphasizing a focus on local production and imports from other countries.

“Israel will emerge with a strong and daring economy,” he added. “We win, and they lose.”

The two countries had a trade volume of $6.8 billion last year.

Last month, Turkey imposed trade restrictions on Israeli exports over Israel’s ongoing war against the Hamas terror group in Gaza following the Oct. 7 massacre.

Thursday’s announcement by Turkey was the latest step in a recent wave of hostile moves targeting Israel, with Erdogan being one of the Jewish state’s harshest critics.

Just one day earlier, Turkey announced its intention to join South Africa’s so-far-unsuccessful case at the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of committing “state-led genocide” in Gaza.

That came after Erdogan in March threatened to “send [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu to Allah to take care of him, make him miserable, and curse him.” He previously accused Israel of operating “Nazi” concentration camps and compared Netanyahu with Adolf Hitler.

Weeks earlier, Erdogan said that Netanyahu was a “butcher” who would be tried as a “war criminal” over Israel’s military operations in Gaza. He has also called Israel a “terror state.”

Turkey hosts senior Hamas officials and, together with Iran and Qatar, has provided a large portion of the Palestinian terror group’s budget.

Several Western and Arab states designate Hamas, an offshoot of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, as a terror group.

However, Erdogan has defended Hamas terrorists as “resistance fighters” against what he described as an Israeli occupation of Palestinian land.

Israel withdrew all its troops and civilian settlers from Gaza in 2005.

Turkish-Israeli diplomatic relations have nosedived since the Hamas atrocities of Oct. 7, when the terrorist group that rules Gaza murdered 1,200 people in southern Israel and kidnapped 253 others as hostages, launching the ongoing war in the Palestinian enclave.

The post Turkey Halts Trade With Israel, Continuing Pro-Hamas Stance Since Outbreak of Gaza War first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

The widow of Tal Chaimi — a resident of Kibbutz Nir Yitzchak in Israel who was kidnapped and murdered by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7 — gave birth to a baby boy on Thursday at the Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva.

Ella Chaimi is now the single parent of four children, including 9-year-old twins and a six-year-old. “This birth is filled with mixed emotions as I welcome into the world our child who brings with him lots of joy while also remembering Tal, who was a wonderful husband and father,” she said in a released statement. “I wish he was here with us right now.”

Idit Engel, a midwife at Beilinson Hospital, said that Chaimi and her family “have been through devastation, and I hope that this baby brings them much joy.”

“I have known Ella for many years and have cared for her during her previous pregnancies,” added Beilinson’s Women’s Hospital Prof. Arnono Weisnizer. “I know her and her family well having previously worked in the Gaza envelope, and my heart breaks for what they have gone through. Their family has been through dark times, and the birth of this baby is a light for them and for the people of Israel.”

Tal, 41, was taken as a hostage by Hamas terrorists as they attacked Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak during their assault across southern Israel on Oct. 7. A third-generation member of the kibbutz, he was part of the Nir Yitzhak rapid response team and went out during the early hours of Oct. 7 to confront terrorists invading the community. Ella hid in the safe room of the family’s house with her children while Tal and the rest of the kibbutz’s response team were out protecting the community.

Tal’s death was confirmed by authorities on Dec. 13. He was killed on Oct. 7, and his body is believed to be held by terrorists in the Gaza Strip.

Nir Yitzhak was one of several communities attacked by Hamas on Oct. 7, during which the terrorists killed more than 1,200 people and took 253 others as hostages.

The post Israeli Widow Whose Husband Was Kidnapped, Murdered on Oct. 7 by Hamas Delivers Fourth Child first appeared on Algemeiner.com.