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13-year-old Palestinian shoots 2 in Jerusalem as violence flares and government flexes
(JTA) — A 13-year-old Palestinian boy shot and wounded an Israeli man and his son outside Jerusalem’s Old City walls, police said, in one of multiple incidents over the weekend during the latest incident in an escalation of Israeli-Palestinian violence.
The shooting took place in the City of David neighborhood on Saturday, the day after a Palestinian shooter killed seven Jews outside a synagogue in an eastern Jerusalem neighborhood. The alleged assailant, who is from the neighboring village of Silwan, was wounded himself when the younger victim, an off-duty soldier carrying his weapon, returned fire.
Israeli officials said they would “seal” the boy’s home, a first step in Israel’s typical home-demolition penalty for those alleged to be responsible for deadly terror attacks. Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister who favors harsh penalties for Palestinians who engage in violence, said the government would seek to expand the home-demolition policy to include those whose attacks did not result in fatalities.
The policy change is one of several that the government said it would make after a Palestinian assailant killed seven people Friday in an attack outside a synagogue in the eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Neve Yaakov. The day before, Israeli troops killed at least 10 people, among them at least two civilians, in a raid in the northern West Bank city of Jenin.
In addition to expanding the use of the home-demolition penalty, the right-wing government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will also seek to increase the number of firearms permits available to Israelis and to heighten penalties for the family members of people who engage in terror, including by denying them the right to live in Israel, Netanyahu said on Sunday.
Palestinian militant groups had vowed to retaliate after the raid in Jenin, which Israel said preempted a major terror attack. Also on Saturday, security forces at the Kedumim settlement in the West Bank killed a Palestinian man who they said had a gun, and a Palestinian man attempted to fire on a restaurant in the West Bank. On Sunday, Israeli troops said they killed a man who was trying to enter the country from Syria.
Meanwhile, cars and a house were burned in a Palestinian village in the West Bank in suspected revenge attacks by Israelis. Violent attacks by Jewish settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank have skyrocketed in recent years.
The incidents come just days ahead of visits to the region by top U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and CIA chief Bill Burns. Burns’ trip was hastily planned in response to the raid in Jenin and the vows of retaliation by Palestinian militant groups.
Also on Saturday, Israel revealed the identities of the seven people murdered outside a building being used as a synagogue in Neve Yaakov, a “ring neighborhood” in eastern Jerusalem. They include a 14-year-old boy; a married couple where the wife was declared dead at the hospital where she worked; a Ukrainian woman who worked as a caretaker; and a man who had a grandson born in California hours after the attack.
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UK Court to Hear Challenge to Pro-Hamas Group Ban After Government Loses Appeal
Police officers block a street as pro-Palestinian demonstrators gather in protest against Britain’s Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s plans to proscribe the “Palestine Action” group in the coming weeks, in London, Britain, June 23, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Jaimi Joy
The British government on Friday lost its bid to block the co-founder of the anti-Israel group Palestine Action bringing a legal challenge over the banning of the group under anti-terrorism laws.
Huda Ammori, who helped found Palestine Action in 2020, was given permission to challenge the group‘s proscription on the grounds that the ban is a disproportionate interference with free speech rights, with her case due to be heard next month.
Britain’s Home Office (interior ministry) then asked the Court of Appeal to overturn that decision and rule that any challenge to the ban should be heard by a specialist tribunal.
Judge Sue Carr rejected the Home Office’s appeal, saying challenging the proscription in the High Court was quicker, particularly where people have been charged and are facing trial for expressing support for Palestine Action.
The court also ruled that Ammori could challenge the ban in the High Court on additional grounds, which Ammori said was a significant victory.
“It’s time for the government to listen to the overwhelming and mounting backlash … and lift this widely condemned, utterly Orwellian ban,” she said in a statement.
The Home Office did not immediately comment.
DIRECT ACTION GROUP BANNED IN JULY
Palestine Action was proscribed as a terrorist organization by the government in July, making it a crime to be a member, which carries a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.
More than 2,000 people have since been arrested for holding signs in support of the group, with over 100 charged.
Before the ban, Palestine Action had increasingly targeted Israel-linked companies in Britain, often spraying red paint, blocking entrances, or damaging equipment.
It accused Britain’s government of complicity in what it said were Israeli war crimes in Gaza. Israel has repeatedly denied committing war crimes in its two-year military campaign, which began after Palestinian Hamas terrorists attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Israel and Hamas agreed a ceasefire last week.
Palestine Action particularly focused on Israeli defense firm Elbit Systems, and Britain’s government cited a raid by activists at an Elbit site last year when it decided to outlaw the group.
The group was banned a month after some of its members broke into the RAF Brize Norton air base and damaged two planes, for which four members have been charged.
Critics of the ban – including United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk and civil liberties groups – argue that damaging property does not amount to terrorism.
However, Britain’s former interior minister Yvette Cooper, who is now foreign minister, previously said violence and criminal damage have no place in legitimate protest.
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UK Regulator Says BBC’s Gaza Documentary Broke Broadcasting Rules
Palestinians walk past the rubble of destroyed buildings, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Gaza City, Oct. 16, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Britain’s media regulator Ofcom said a BBC documentary about children’s lives in Gaza narrated by the 13-year-old son of a deputy agriculture minister in the Hamas-run government broke broadcasting rules.
It said the failure to disclose the position of the boy’s father was “materially misleading.” The UK and several other countries have formally designated Hamas, which took control of Gaza nearly two decades ago, as a terrorist organization
The BBC removed “Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone” from its online platform in February, five days after it was broadcast.
Its own investigation found in July that the program had breached its editorial guidelines on accuracy.
However, it said there was no evidence that outside interests had “inappropriately impacted on the program.”
Ofcom, which received 20 complaints about the documentary, said it had directed the BBC to broadcast a statement on its findings on a date to be confirmed.
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Pakistan, Afghanistan Extend Ceasefire as Doha Talks Set to Begin, Sources Say
Smoke rises, in this still image from handout video, said to show Pakistani forces conducting a drone strike on an Afghan Taliban border post, in Spin Boldak, Afghanistan, Oct. 15, 2025. Photo: ISPR/Handout via REUTERS
Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed on Friday to extend their 48-hour ceasefire until the conclusion of talks in Doha, according to three Pakistani security officials and one Afghan Taliban source.
A Pakistani delegation had already arrived in Doha while an Afghan delegation was expected to reach the Qatari capital on Saturday, said the sources, who did not want to be named as they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Kabul has instructed its forces to maintain a ceasefire as long as Pakistan refrained from any attack, Afghan Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid told Ariana News, a Pashto language local television news channel.
DOZENS KILLED IN DAYS OF FIERCE FIGHTING
A temporary truce between the South Asian neighbors on Wednesday paused days of fierce fighting that killed dozens and wounded hundreds.
Pakistan‘s military and foreign ministry and the Afghan defense ministry did not respond to requests for comment on the ceasefire and the talks in Doha.
Once allies, Islamabad and Kabul engaged in fierce ground fighting, and Pakistan also launched airstrikes across their contested frontier before they reached a 48-hour ceasefire that ended at 1300 GMT on Friday.
Militant violence in Pakistan has been a major irritant in its relationship with the Afghan Taliban, which returned to power in Kabul after the departure of US-led forces in 2021.
The latest conflict between the two countries was triggered after Islamabad demanded that Kabul rein in militants who had stepped up attacks in Pakistan, saying they operated from havens in Afghanistan.
SEVEN PAKISTANI SOLDIERS KILLED IN SUICIDE ATTACK
Seven Pakistani soldiers were killed in a suicide attack near the Afghanistan border on Friday, Pakistani security officials said.
The soldiers came under attack in a Pakistani military camp in North Waziristan district in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, and 13 were also wounded, five security officials said.
While one militant rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into the boundary wall of a fort that served as a military camp, two others tried to get into the facility and were shot dead, they said.
Six militants were killed in the suicide attack, the office of Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in a statement, without providing details on the number of soldiers killed.
Pakistan‘s army did not respond to a request for comment.
The identity of the attackers was not known and no group has claimed responsibility.
PAKISTAN ACTED AFTER LOSING PATIENCE WITH KABUL, SHARIF SAYS
Sharif said on Thursday that Pakistan “retaliated” after losing patience with Afghanistan following a series of militant attacks, but was ready to hold talks to resolve the conflict.
The Taliban denies giving haven to militants to attack Pakistan and accuses the Pakistani military of spreading misinformation about Afghanistan, provoking border tensions and sheltering ISIS-linked militants to undermine its stability and sovereignty.
Islamabad denies the accusations.
On Friday, the Pakistan Red Crescent said Afghanistan had handed over to it the bodies of seven Pakistanis – two security personnel and five civilians – who were killed during clashes earlier in the week.
Although the Islamic nations have clashed in the past, the fighting this month is their worst in decades. It has drawn the attention of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, who have mediated and sought to stop the fighting.
US President Donald Trump has said he can help resolve the conflict.