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Terror suspects arrested in India had photos of Mumbai Chabad center, police say
(JTA) — Law enforcement officers in Mumbai found photos of the city’s Chabad center among the possessions of two terror suspects, leading police to boost security at the building that was the site of a deadly attack in 2008.
The discovery of the photos was announced over the weekend by the Anti-Terrorism Squad in the Indian state of Maharashtra, according to Indian press reports. The photos were found a phone belonging to the two suspects, who were arrested on July 18 and are accused of planning a terror attack in another location. According to the Times of India, they are members of Sufa, an Islamist terror group. Officials also reportedly discovered explosive powder among their possessions.
The Chabad center in Mumbai was the site of a 2008 terror attack that killed six Israeli and American victims, including Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, the Hasidic emissary couple who headed the Chabad. Their son Moshe famously survived because of the bravery of his Indian nanny Sandra Samuel, who moved to Israel with him after the attack.
The 2008 attack was part of a string of terror attacks in the area by the Islamist group Lashkar-e-Taiba that killed more than 160 people.
“We feel great, thank God,” Rabbi Israel Kozlovsky, who co-directs the Chabad center with his wife Chaya Kozlovsky, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. He said the center attracts some 10,000 visitors per year and has full-time security. The Kozlovsky family has been in Mumbai for 11 years.
“It’s clear that from moment to moment there are people who wish us ill,” he said. “When they catch them, that feels good. When they don’t catch them, that is the problem.”
Israeli officials have faced threats elsewhere in India. In 2021, a bomb exploded outside the Israeli embassy in New Delhi with no injuries. In 2012, an Israeli diplomat’s wife and her driver were injured when her car was bombed.
Chabad centers have also been the subjects of alleged terror surveillance elsewhere. Greek police in March announced that they had arrested two men they suspected of planning terror attacks on Jewish sites, including at the Chabad of Athens and a kosher restaurant it operates. In that case, police said they suspected the men of being part of a network based in Iran, which has in recent years accelerated its efforts to attack Jewish and Israeli targets abroad.
Kozlovsky is not worried that Sunday’s announcement will significantly deter people from visiting the Chabad in Mumbai.
“The reaction every Jew should have is that you expel darkness with light,” he said. “That’s what we always try to do, to increase our activity.”
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The post Terror suspects arrested in India had photos of Mumbai Chabad center, police say appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.