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Palestinian Terrorists Fire Rockets Into Israel, Tanks Advance in Gaza
Israeli soldiers walk near a tank, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, near the Israel-Gaza Border, in southern Israel, May 9, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
The Palestinian terrorist group Islamic Jihad fired a barrage of rockets into Israel on Monday as fighting raged in Gaza and Israeli tanks advanced deeper in parts of the enclave, residents and officials said.
The armed wing of Islamic Jihad, an Iranian-backed ally of Hamas, said its fighters fired rockets towards several Israeli communities near the fence with Gaza in response to “the crimes of the Zionist enemy against our Palestinian people.”
The volley of around 20 rockets caused no casualties, the Israeli military said. But the attack showed Palestinian terrorists in Gaza still possess rocket capabilities almost nine months into an offensive that Israel says is aimed at neutralizing threats against it.
Violence also flared on Monday in the West Bank, where the Palestinian health ministry said a woman and a boy were killed in the city of Tulkarm during an operation by Israeli forces. A day earlier, an Israeli strike in the same area killed an Islamic Jihad member.
In some parts of Gaza, militants continue to stage attacks on Israeli forces in areas that the army had left months ago.
Israeli tanks deepened incursions into the Shejaia suburb of eastern Gaza City for a fifth day, and tanks advanced further in western and central Rafah, in southern Gaza near the border with Egypt, residents said.
The Israeli military said it had killed a number of terrorists in combat in Shejaia on Monday and found large amounts of weapons there.
Hamas, the terrorist Islamist group that governs Gaza, said its fighters had lured an Israeli force into a booby-trapped house in the east of Rafah and blown it up, causing casualties.
The Israeli military announced the death of a soldier in southern Gaza without providing details. Israel‘s Army Radio said the soldier was killed in Rafah in a booby-trapped house — a possible reference to the incident reported by Islamic Jihad.
Also in Rafah, the Israeli military said that an airstrike killed a terrorist who fired an anti-tank missile at its troops.
Israel has signaled that its operation in Rafah, meant to stamp out Hamas, will soon be concluded. After the intense phase of the war is over, its forces will focus on smaller scale operations meant to stop Hamas reassembling, officials say.
The war began when Hamas-led fighters burst into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killed 1,200 people, and took around 250 hostages, including civilians and soldiers, back into Gaza.
In response, Israel launched a military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’ military and governing capabilities in Gaza. Hamas-controlled health authorities in Gaza say nearly 38,000 people have died during the Israeli offensive, although experts have cast doubt on the reliability of such figures coming out of the enclave, which among other issues don’t distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Israel says 317 of its soldiers have been killed in Gaza and that at least a third of the Palestinian dead are fighters.
CEASEFIRE EFFORTS STALLED
Arab mediators’ efforts to secure a ceasefire, backed by the United States, have stalled. Hamas says any deal must end the war and bring a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Israel says it will accept only temporary pauses in the fighting until Hamas is eradicated.
Israeli authorities released 54 Palestinians it had detained during the war, Palestinian border officials said.
Among them was Mohammad Abu Selmeyah, the director of Al Shifa Hospital, arrested by the military when its forces first stormed the facility in November.
Israel said Hamas had been using the hospital for military purposes. The military has released the hospital’s CCTV footage from Oct. 7 showing gunmen and hostages on the premises and has taken journalists into a tunnel found at the complex.
Hamas has been widely criticized for its military strategy of embedding its terrorists within Gaza’s civilian population and commandeering civilian facilities like hospitals, schools, and mosques to run operations and direct attacks.
Hamas has denied using hospitals for military purposes; however, The Algemeiner has previously reported how the terrorist group touted its presence at Al Shifa in Arabic while rejecting the notion to English-language sources.
Abu Selmeyah rejected the allegations altogether on Monday and told a press conference at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al-Balah that detainees had been abused during their detention and that some had died.
Israel in May said it was investigating the deaths of Palestinians captured during the war as well as a military-run detention camp where released detainees and rights groups have alleged abuse of inmates.
The military did not immediately comment on Abu Selmeyah’s remarks.
The post Palestinian Terrorists Fire Rockets Into Israel, Tanks Advance in Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Three Israeli Hostages, Including Dual US and French Citizens, Set for Release in Gaza on Saturday
A view of a banner depicting Keith Siegel, who is a dual US citizen seized during the Oct. 7 attack on Israel and taken hostage into Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, is seen with other images of hostages in Tel Aviv, Israel, April 28, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
Hamas said on Friday it would free the father of the youngest hostages seized in its Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel and two others including a dual US citizen and a dual French citizen in the next exchange of Gaza hostages for Palestinian prisoners.
Yarden Bibas, Keith Siegel, and Ofer Kalderon will be handed over on Saturday, said Abu Obeida, spokesperson for the armed wing of the Palestinian terrorist group, in a post on his Telegram channel.
The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office confirmed on Friday that Jerusalem has received the names of the three hostages who are set to be released from captivity in Gaza under the Israel-Hamas ceasefire.
“A detailed response will be provided after reviewing the list and updating families,” Netanyahu’s office said.
Yarden Bibas is the father of baby Kfir, only nine months old when he was kidnapped, and Ariel, who was four at the time of the cross-border attack.
There was no word on the fate of Kfir and Ariel, or on their mother Shiri, who was taken at the same time. Hamas said in late 2023 that they had been killed by Israeli bombardment, in the early months of the Gaza war.
Video of their capture began circulating soon after they were seized. It showed a terrified Shiri clutching her small children in a blanket as they were bundled into captivity surrounded by terrorist assailants.
The father, Yarden, 34 at the time of the attack, was also abducted and a clip circulated showing him bleeding from a head injury suffered from hammer blows.
Israeli-American Keith Siegel, who was taken hostage with his wife Aviva, was seen in a video released by Hamas last year. His wife was released in the first hostage-for-prisoner exchange in November 2023.
Ofer Kalderon’s two children Erez and Sahar, abducted alongside him, were also freed in the first exchange. The joint French–Israeli national’s family said they were waiting with “immense joy mixed with paralyzing anguish” for his release.
On Thursday, Hamas freed three Israeli and five Thai hostages in Gaza while Israel freed 110 Palestinian prisoners after delaying the process in anger at the swarming crowds engulfing one of the hostage handover points.
Under the ceasefire deal that halted more than 15 months of fighting, 33 hostages held by Palestinian terrorists in Gaza are to be freed in the first six weeks of the truce in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, many of whom have been serving life sentences in Israel for terrorist activities.
Fifteen hostages, including the five Thai workers, and 400 prisoners have so far been exchanged, and Hamas has told Israel that eight of the 33 are now dead. Ninety Palestinian prisoners, including nine serving life sentences and 81 serving long-term sentences, are to be swapped for the three Israelis on Saturday, Hamas’s prisoner information office said.
Netanyahu has drawn criticism in Israel for not having sealed a hostage deal earlier in the war after the security failure that enabled Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists to burst across the border and storm nearby Israeli communities.
But there has also been opposition to the current deal, which some critics in Israel have said leaves the fate of most of the hostages in the balance and Hamas still standing as Gaza‘s dominant entity, despite months of warfare and the death of its Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar.
The truce has enabled a surge in international humanitarian aid to Gaza civilians amid dire supply shortages.
Hamas-led terrorists started the war with their surprise invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Around 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 hostages were abducted in the attack in Israel, the deadliest single day for Jews since the Holocaust.
Israel responded with a military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities in neighboring Gaza.
Around half the hostages were released in November 2023 during the only previous truce, and others have been recovered dead or alive during Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
More talks on the implementation of the second stage of the deal, due to begin by Feb. 4, are meant to open the way to the release of over 60 other hostages, including men of military age, and a full Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza.
If that succeeds, a formal end to the war could follow along with talks on the mammoth challenge of reconstructing Gaza.
The post Three Israeli Hostages, Including Dual US and French Citizens, Set for Release in Gaza on Saturday first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Jews in Australia Up Security, Conceal Identity After Spate of Antisemitic Attacks
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks to the media during a press conference with New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon at the Australian Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, Aug. 16, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Tracey Nearmy
Jewish students in Sydney returned to school on Friday with a heightened security presence, days after police said they foiled a planned antisemitic attack in the city using a trailer filled with explosives.
A spate of attacks in recent months have alarmed the country’s Jews, drawn criticism from Israel, and placed pressure on the government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who faces re-election in polls that must be held by May.
Antisemitic graffiti was sprayed on three sites including the Mount Sinai College in the city’s east early on Thursday, one of almost a dozen incidents in the city in recent months that police say appeared to be coordinated.
Students there returned on Friday after Australia‘s summer break, with police and private security stationed outside the building.
“We’re really grateful that the police are here and protecting us,” said Gina Ferrer, a mother dropping off her child at the school.
“I love this country, I think it’s the best country in the world, but for the first time in my life I actually feel really let down by Australia.”
Matt Thistlethwaite, the federal lawmaker for the area that has a high Jewish population, said he had been working with local police to increase patrols in the area.
SECURITY HEIGHTENED
Australia has been grappling with a series of antisemitic attacks on synagogues, buildings, and cars since the beginning of the Israel-Gaza war in late 2023.
Police in New South Wales state, which includes Sydney, said on Wednesday they had found explosives in a caravan, or trailer, that could have created a blast wave of 40 meters (130 feet).
There was some indication the explosives might be used in an antisemitic attack that could have caused mass casualties, police said.
The escalating attacks have prompted Jews to hire security guards for private events and remove visible signs of their Jewish identity, according to security companies and community leaders.
Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of Executive Council of Australian Jewry, the umbrella group for Australia‘s Jews, said some Jews were removing skull caps worn by men as a symbol of faith while outside, and taking down mezuzah, a parchment scroll containing Hebrew verses traditionally attached from the doors of Jewish homes.
“The more of these attacks that we see, and particularly given their gravity and the scale, people will begin to question how they can live in Australia as Jews, and that will then force them into a very difficult choice,” he said.
Stephen Vogel, founder of Sayeret Security, a private security company catering to the Jewish community in Sydney, said he had seen an increase in business in recent weeks.
“People are a little bit more nervous at the moment and want to have security for them for their functions, just to mitigate any potential risk,” he said.
The post Jews in Australia Up Security, Conceal Identity After Spate of Antisemitic Attacks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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German Official Under Fire for Claim Israel Stokes ‘Disinformation’ Against UNRWA
Security personnel work at the UNRWA headquarters, in Jerusalem, May 10, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad
i24 News — The German commissioner for humanitarian aid, Ina Heusgen, is facing intense criticism for her claim that Israel is waging a “disinformation” campaign against UNRWA and caused the deaths of 100,000 people in Gaza.
Sources familiar with a closed German parliament (Bundestag) meeting on Wednesday exclusively told i24NEWSthat Heusgen lashed out against the Jewish state and its efforts to root out Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip.
Heusgen claimed Israel conducts a “policy of disinformation” against The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
According to Israel’s government, dozens of UNRWA employees played a role in Hamas’s slaughter of over 1,200 people on Oct. 7, 2023.
Heusgen claimed only 9 UNRWA workers had links to Hamas, and they were immediately kicked out. She added the UNRWA employees were fired even though “the Israeli allegations could not be independently verified.”
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told i24NEWSabout Heusgen’s remarks that “casting UNRWA as a victim is just garbage” and he added that “denial is used as a weapon” by Heusgen.
Cooper said her refusal to recognize UNRWA’s role in the massacre and UNRWA’s “pro-war” school curriculum “is a denial of what happened on Oct. 7.”
He termed Heusgen’s denial “the same psychosis regarding if anyone can get away with denying the Shoah, it is playing out right now.”
Cooper, who participated this past week in a German Justice ministry event on combating antisemitism in Berlin, said, “I would love to ask Heusgen in a meeting, ‘Have you given any thought that Hamas built hundreds of kilometers of terror tunnels under UNRWA facilities? Did UNRWA ever go to the Israelis or western journalists to say there is a highway of terrorist tunnels under the Gaza Strip?’”
The German foreign ministry official, Heusgen, added, without evidence, that Israel killed 100,000 people in Gaza. She continued that “you have to ask yourself whether the military response was the right solution.” She noted, “The debate is very difficult here in Germany when it comes to criticism of the Israeli government.”
The Bundestag session became intensely personal for Heusgen, who said, “My husband [Christoph Heusgen] is not an antisemite. Ehud Olmert called him after Wiesenthal’s allegations and told him that he didn’t think he was an antisemite.”
The Simon Wiesenthal Center listed the former German ambassador to the UN, Christoph Heusgen, in its 2019 list of top 10 outbreaks of antisemitism for his remarks equating Israel with the Hamas terrorist organization during a United Nations Security Council session.
On Jan. 6, Israel’s ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor, blasted Christoph Heusgen for urging Germany to enforce the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Prosor wrote on X: “It took Heusgen 20 days to whitewash Hamas’s barbaric massacre — an ‘action’ in his terms — claiming it didn’t happen in a vacuum. He cherry picks international law to fit his anti-Israel agenda. For years, he has twisted its principles to put Israel in the dock, constantly demonizing and delegitimizing Israel while justifying war criminals’ repulsive attacks.”
Don’t confuse me with the facts—Heusgen’s version. When there’s an agenda, reality is bent to fit.
It took @MSCheusgen 20 days to whitewash Hamas’ barbaric massacre—an ‘action’ in his terms—claiming it didn’t happen in a vacuum.
He cherry picks international law to fit his… pic.twitter.com/p8Rbs76yDf
— Ambassador Ron Prosor (@Ron_Prosor) January 6, 2025
Prosor did not immediately respond to an i24NEWS press query about Ina Heusgen’s attacks on the Netanyahu administration’s UNRWA policy.
Ina Heusgen was embroiled in a nepotism scandal in 2017. The German media reported that her husband secured her a high-earning job at the UN by using his government contacts. The Heusgens did not respond to i24NEWS press queries.
Rabbi Cooper said, “I applaud Israel’s decision to kick out UNRWA. UNRWA is an advocate for the deadly status for Palestinians and keeping them as refugees.” The Biden and Trump administrations have refused to fund UNRWA.
Germany is one of the major funders of UNRWA. In March 2024, Berlin announced that it is providing EUR 45 million to the agency.
Cooper said, “I am hoping that more serious voices will emerge from German officials. What Germany’s says and does on issues of antisemitism and terrorism are extraordinarily important.”
Germany’s ambassador to Israel, Steffen Seibert, did not immediately respond to i24NEWSpress queries. According to the IDF, since the start of ground operations in the Gaza Strip on Oct. 27, 2023, 405 soldiers have fallen in combat. Hamas officials claim that Israel has killed more than 47,000 people in Gaza. Hamas does not distinguish between terrorists and civilians. The Hamas number of 47,000 plus fatalities cannot be independently verified. It is unclear what the source for Heusgen’s 100,000 dead in Gaza is.
The post German Official Under Fire for Claim Israel Stokes ‘Disinformation’ Against UNRWA first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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