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4 Argentine Israelis dead, others missing from kibbutzes after Hamas attack
(JTA) — Argentina’s Jewish community is reeling after at least four people with local roots were killed in the Hamas attack on Israel Saturday, while several others are missing and feared kidnapped or dead.
The distress is being acutely felt in Buenos Aires, which until Saturday held the ignominious record of being the site of the worst terrorist attack on Jews since the Holocaust. Eighty-five people died in the 1994 bombing of the headquarters of AMIA, Argentina’s umbrella Jewish organization. At least 700 people died in Saturday’s surprise attack by Hamas, which like the assumed perpetrators of the AMIA bombing is linked with Iran.
Meanwhile, four of five people running for president in Argentina expressed solidarity with Israel during a televised debate Sunday. The fifth, Myriam Bregman, a left-wing candidate and self-identified atheist Jew, said that while “lamenting the civilian victims,” she blamed “the occupation and apartheid” of Israel for the violence.
Argentina is home to an estimated 180,000 Jews, the sixth-largest Jewish population of any country in the world. A long-faltering economy coupled with the violence of the AMIA bombing and other attacks in the 1990s have fueled a high rate of emigration to Israel for decades.
The dead in Israel include Rodolfo “Rody” Fabián Skariszewski, 56, who lived in Ohad, a small agricultural community in southern Israel. A graduate of the ORT Jewish high school in Buenos Aires and the Hechalutz Lamerchav youth movement, he was the father of three.
“I don’t know who I am without you,” his daughter Danielle wrote on Facebook. “You are my heart.”
Silvia Mirensky, 80, was also confirmed dead. Mirensky moved to Israel more than 50 years ago with her husband and sons, moving to Ein Hashlosha, a kibbutz near Gaza that, like others in the region, drew many immigrants from South America. According to her sister, who also lived on the kibbutz, she died when militants breached her security room and set it afire.
Ronit Rudman Sultan, 55, was killed at Kibbutz Holit along with her husband Rolan. She had lived in Israel for 35 years since moving there from Buenos Aires and is survived by two sons and a grandson.
News of the death of Abi Korin, 56, traveled especially quickly because his father, Moshe Korin, is a prominent communal leader, an educator who directed the Ramat Shalom primary school in Buenos Aires and served as AMIA’s culture secretary. Abi Korin moved to Israel in the 1980s and had three children; he was also a resident of Kibbutz Holit. “He fell fighting,” his daughter Sara told local media.
Several other Argentinians in Israel remain missing, all from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a community of about 400 that was hard-hit in the violence. Brothers Eitan and Iair Horn disappeared from the kibbutz, where Iair lives and Eitan was visiting. Friends who launched a campaign for their release, “Free the Argentinean Hostages,” also highlighted another missing woman from Nir Oz, Ofelia Roitman.
Also missing is Jose Luis Silberman, born in Buenos Aires, who has been living in Israel for 40 years, and his wife Marguit, daughter Shiri, and two sons Kfir (9 months old) and Ariel (3 years old).
Friends and family of the missing are hoping that they are among the more than 100 people that Israel believes Hamas is holding captive in Gaza.
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The post 4 Argentine Israelis dead, others missing from kibbutzes after Hamas attack appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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250,000 Palestinians have left Rafah since the partial withdrawal of the IDF
Displaced Palestinians, who fled their homes due to the war provoked by Hamas’s terror attacks, shelter in a tent camp, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, December 29, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Shadi Tabatibi
i24 News – Since the partial withdrawal of Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) from the Gaza Strip, approximately 250,000 Palestinians have relocated from the town of Rafah to other areas further north, particularly between Nuseirat and Khan Younes, south of the Wadi Gaza line.
This mass exodus follows the peak of the military operation in the Gaza Strip when Rafah was home to 1.3 million Palestinians.
Reports from Kan 11 channel indicate that Israel has approved an action plan in Rafah, allegedly in exchange for refraining from a large-scale attack against Iran. However, Biden administration officials have refuted these claims, stating that there has been no discussion of such a deal between Israel and the United States.
In response to the population movement, Israel has announced plans to establish 10,000 tents in the area outside Rafah within the next two weeks. Additionally, an additional 30,000 tents are being acquired for deployment at a later date.
Initially, the IDF intended to distribute leaflets urging residents of Rafah to leave the area this week.
However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opted to postpone this action to ensure continued American support in potential retaliatory measures against Iran following an attack attributed to the country.
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US House Passes $95 Billion Ukraine, Israel Aid Package, Sends to Senate
House Speaker Mike Johnson speaks to members of the media at the Capitol building, April 20, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ken Cedeno
The U.S. House of Representatives on Saturday with broad bipartisan support passed a $95 billion legislative package providing security assistance to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, over bitter objections from Republican hardliners.
The legislation now proceeds to the Democratic-majority Senate, which passed a similar measure more than two months ago. U.S. leaders from Democratic President Joe Biden to top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell had been urging embattled Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson to bring it up for a vote.
The Senate is expected to pass the measure next week, sending it to Biden to sign into law.
The bills provide $60.84 billion to address the conflict in Ukraine, including $23 billion to replenish U.S. weapons, stocks and facilities; $26 billion for Israel, including $9.1 billion for humanitarian needs, and $8.12 billion for the Indo-Pacific, including Taiwan.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed his thanks, saying U.S. lawmakers moved to keep “history on the right track.”
“The vital U.S. aid bill passed today by the House will keep the war from expanding, save thousands and thousands of lives, and help both of our nations to become stronger,” Zelensky said on X.
It was unclear how quickly the new military funding for Ukraine will be depleted, likely causing calls for further action by Congress.
Biden, who had urged Congress since last year to approve the additional aid to Ukraine, said in a statement: “It comes at a moment of grave urgency, with Israel facing unprecedented attacks from Iran and Ukraine under continued bombardment from Russia.”
The vote on passage of the Ukraine funding was 311-112. But significantly, 112 Republicans opposed the legislation, with only 101 in support.
“Mike Johnson is a lame duck… he’s done,” far-right Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene told reporters afterward.
She has been a leading opponent of helping Ukraine in its war against Russia and has taken steps that threaten to remove Johnson from office over this issue. Greene stopped short of doing so on Saturday, however.
During the vote, several lawmakers waved small Ukrainian flags as it became clear that element of the package was headed to passage. Johnson warned lawmakers that was a “violation of decorum.”
Meanwhile, the House’s actions during a rare Saturday session put on display some cracks in what generally is solid support for Israel within Congress. Recent months have seen leftist Democrats express anger with Israel‘s government and its conduct of the war in Gaza.
But Saturday’s vote, in which the Israel aid was passed 366-58, had 37 Democrats and 21 Republicans in opposition.
Passage of the long-awaited legislation was closely watched by U.S. defense contractors, who could be in line for huge contracts to supply equipment for Ukraine and other U.S. partners.
Johnson this week chose to ignore ouster threats by hardline members of his fractious 218-213 majority and push forward the measure that includes Ukraine funding as it struggles to fight off a two-year Russian invasion.
The unusual four-bill package also includes a measure that includes a threat to ban the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok and the potential transfer of seized Russian assets to Ukraine.
Some hardline Republicans voicing strong opposition to further Ukraine aid argued the United States can ill afford it given its rising $34 trillion national debt. They have repeatedly raised the threat of ousting Johnson, who became speaker in October after his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, was ousted by party hardliners.
“It’s not the perfect legislation, it’s not the legislation that we would write if Republicans were in charge of both the House, the Senate, and the White House,” Johnson told reporters on Friday. “This is the best possible product that we can get under these circumstances to take care of these really important obligations.”
Representative Bob Good, chair of the hardline House Freedom Caucus, told reporters on Friday that the bills represent a “slide down into the abyss of greater fiscal crisis and America-last policies that reflect Biden and (Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck) Schumer and (House Democratic leader Hakeem) Jeffries, and don’t reflect the American people.”
But Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who carries huge influence in the party, on April 12 voiced support for Johnson and in a Thursday social media post said Ukraine’s survival is important for the U.S.
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Amid Increased Pressure, Hamas Leadership Reportedly Mulls Leaving Qatar
Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani makes statements to the media with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in Doha, Qatar, Oct. 13, 2023. Photo: Jacquelyn Martin/Pool via REUTERS
i24 News – The political leadership mulls moving its base of operations out of Qatar, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday. It is understood the Gulf state is increasingly pressurizing the terror chiefs to accept a hostage-for-truce deal with Israel.
The report quoted an unnamed Middle Eastern official as saying the Hamas politburo chiefs were mulling a move to Oman.
“The talks have already stalled again with barely any signs or prospects for them to resume any time soon, and distrust is rising between Hamas and the negotiators,” the source was quoted as saying.
“The possibility of the talks being upended entirely is very real,” another Arab official told WSJ.
The post Amid Increased Pressure, Hamas Leadership Reportedly Mulls Leaving Qatar first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
