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Israel Bolsters Security Amid Deadliest Wave of Terrorist Attacks in Years

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Israel Bolsters Security Amid Deadliest Wave of Terrorist Attacks in Years

BNEI BRAK, Israel — Israel safety forces bolstered their presence throughout the nation and the occupied territories early Wednesday, the morning after a Palestinian gunman killed 5 individuals within the fifth assault in lower than two weeks.

The current surge in violence and fears of much more assaults prompted the Military to ship reinforcements to the occupied West Financial institution, the place the gunman behind Tuesday evening’s assault lived. Forces additionally deployed alongside the boundary between Israel and Gaza. The police mentioned they had been turning their focus nearly solely to counterterrorism operations whereas scaling up their presence on the streets.

The assault got here on the eve of Land Day, an annual Palestinian commemoration of Arab protests in 1976 in opposition to state efforts to expropriate non-public Palestinian land in northern Israel. These protests helped catalyze Palestinian nationwide consciousness.

“After a interval of quiet, there’s a violent eruption by those that need to destroy us, those that need to harm us at any worth, whose hatred of Jews, of the State of Israel, drives them loopy,” Prime Minister Naftali Bennett mentioned in a video he recorded himself as a result of he’s presently contaminated with the coronavirus and isolating. “They’re ready to die — so that we are going to not stay in peace.”

Although there was no speedy declare of accountability, a number of Palestinian militant teams praised the assault together with an official from Hamas, the militant group that runs the Gaza Strip. He mentioned the assault was a response to a landmark diplomatic summit on Monday in southern Israel, the place international ministers from 4 Arab nations met on Israeli soil for the primary time, a gathering that bolstered Israel’s regional legitimacy to the dismay of Palestinians.

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However Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, broke from his normal behavior of remaining silent after terror assaults in Israel and condemned the taking pictures, as did a outstanding Arab-Israeli politician.

The assault was the most recent in a wave of violence that has killed 11 individuals in Israel, making March one of many deadliest months in Israel, exterior of a full-scale conflict, in a number of years.

Up to now few weeks, officers have repeatedly expressed considerations that violence will escalate as soon as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins later this week, begins. Ramadan is often a time of heightened rigidity between Palestinians and Israelis, and Ramadan-related disputes helped stoke the tensions that led to an 11-day conflict in Gaza final yr.

Ramadan this yr was already anticipated to be extra tense than normal as a result of it should converge with Passover and Easter — a uncommon incidence anticipated to result in extra Muslims, Jews and Christians gathering at shared spiritual websites in Jerusalem.

Video circulating on social media on Wednesday confirmed a heavy Israeli navy presence within the gunman’s house village close to the West Financial institution metropolis of Jenin. Some West Financial institution Jewish settlements shut their gates to Palestinian employees, in keeping with Kan, the Israeli public broadcaster. However tens of hundreds of Palestinian employees had been allowed to go away the West Financial institution for day labor in Israel as normal, Kan reported.

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Israel captured the West Financial institution from Jordan in 1967 and has occupied it ever since. The Israeli Military maintains a heavy navy presence there, partially to keep up its management over the realm and partially to guard the tons of of hundreds of Jewish settlers who’ve moved to the West Financial institution since 1967. Its forces mount every day incursions into the practically 40 % of the territory below the administration of the Palestinian Authority.

Greater than 80 Palestinians had been killed by troopers and settlers within the West Financial institution final yr, and at the very least 15 up to now in 2022, in keeping with the United Nations.

Many of the victims of the current assaults have been Israeli Jews, however some had been additionally members of Israel’s Arab minority, and at the very least two had international passports.

Particulars started to emerge concerning the victims of the assault, whose funerals started on Wednesday morning. One was recognized as Avishai Yechezkel, a 29-year-old trainer and rabbi, who was killed whereas going for a stroll close to his condominium in Bnei Brak, the spiritual metropolis in central Israel the place the assault occurred, in keeping with an Israeli information outlet.

A second sufferer, Amir Khoury, 32, was an Arab-Israeli policeman who died within the hospital after a shootout during which he helped kill the attacker, the police mentioned. Mr. Khoury drove a bike towards the shooter, permitting his companion, seated behind him, to shoot on the assailant.

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A 3rd sufferer was recognized as Yaakov Shalom, a 36-year-old Bnei Brak resident, and the remaining two had been Ukrainian residents, the Ukrainian embassy mentioned Wednesday morning. It was not instantly clear whether or not they had been just lately arrived conflict refugees, or longtime twin nationals of Israel and Ukraine.

Among the many Palestinian militant teams that praised the assault was the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which is loosely affiliated with Fatah, the secular occasion headed by Mr. Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president.

The assault on Tuesday adopted one other unusually brazen assault in northern Israel on Sunday evening, when two Islamic State supporters killed two policemen, one in every of them a member of Israel’s Arab Druze minority.

That assault got here lower than every week after one other in southern Israel during which a Bedouin extremist stabbed three individuals to demise and killed a fourth in a automobile ramming.

Mansour Abbas, an Arab Israeli politician who leads the primary impartial Arab occasion to affix an Israeli authorities, condemned the assault.

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“All of us stand collectively within the face of a murderous wave of terror,” he mentioned. Terrorists, he added, don’t distinguish between Arabs and Jews.

Within the Israeli media on Wednesday morning, reactions ranged from calls for for a decisive safety response to requires calm, amid fears that any drastic motion may inflame the state of affairs additional.

“The ball is now in Israel’s courtroom,” wrote Alex Fishman, navy affairs correspondent for Yedioth Ahronot, a serious centrist newspaper. “Any mistaken transfer, any emotional and swiftly made determination, is liable to ship us again to the darkish days of numerous suicide bombing assaults inside Israeli territory.”

Irit Pazner Garshowitz contributed reporting from Tzur Hadassah, Israel, and Rawan Sheikh Ahmad from Haifa, Israel. Reporting was contributed by Gabby Sobelman in Bnei Brak, Israel.

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New Lonely Island Song ‘Sushi Glory Hole’ Premieres on ‘SNL’; Raps About Secret Sushi Spots Around NYC

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New Lonely Island Song ‘Sushi Glory Hole’ Premieres on ‘SNL’; Raps About Secret Sushi Spots Around NYC

In the first Lonely Island song of the 50th season of “SNL,” the beloved trio of Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer debuted “Sushi Glory Hole,” a humorous take on a fictional app where you can find sushi in a hole in a bathroom around New York.

“SNL” alumna Maya Rudolph, who has been portraying presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris during the new season, was on hand for the video. “Gentleman, what do you have for us today?” she asked in the video opener.

“Sushi glory hole,” rapped Samberg. “Imagine that. Instead of getting strange [expletive] you’ll be getting a snack.” A long refrain of “Hear us out, hear us out, hear us out,” played on loop as the trio tried to get others on board with their idea.

Dressed as 1980s businessmen, the Lonely Island members, and Bowen Yang, rapped about sushi in bathrooms, with suggestive lyrics, singing, “So drop to your knees and get ready for some fish.” The digital short featured funny evocative imagery of slices of sushi being presented through holes in bathroom walls. The trio rapped, “Hit the bathroom stall, and find a sushi-sized hole in the bathroom wall.”

“Hit the map,” they said, showing a phone with a lit-up map with “SGH” locations all around Manhattan, where one could find a sushi glory hole. They rapped on, defending the unorthodox food-related business idea, saying, “You got nothing to fear. It’s not weird. It’s sushi being through a hole in the wall.”

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They rapped about the different ideal circumstances for a “SGH.” Samberg sang about sushi glory holes in nightclubs and how it’s better than eating in the middle of a street. “Make a wish and prepare for some shockingly high-grade fish.”

“Don’t leave, hear us out. No substitutions or special requests,” they said.

Stand-up comedian Nate Bargatze was this episode’s guest and musical group Coldplay was the musical guest.

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Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei defends missile barrage against Israel in rare sermon

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Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei defends missile barrage against Israel in rare sermon

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared in a rare sermon Friday that his country’s ballistic missile attack on Israel earlier this week was “legal and legitimate” and that the “resistance in the region will not back down even with the killing of its leaders.” 

The public address from Khamenei was his first during Friday prayers in Tehran in nearly five years, according to the AFP.  

Khamenei said Iran will not “procrastinate nor act hastily to carry out its duty” in going after Israel, Reuters reports. 

The news agency cited him as saying that Tuesday’s barrage of nearly 200 missiles fired by Iran at Israel was “legal and legitimate” and the minimum punishment for Israel’s “crimes.” 

IRAN WARNS OF ‘DECISIVE RESPONSE’ IF ISRAEL CROSSES ‘RED LINES’ 

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Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during Friday Prayers and a commemoration ceremony of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Tehran, Iran, on Oct. 4. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/West Asia News Agency/Reuters)

“The resistance in the region will not back down even with the killing of its leaders,” Khamenei reportedly added, mentioning recently slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah during the speech. 

The remarks came as the Israel Defense Forces announced Friday that Mohammad Rashid Sakafi, the commander of Hezbollah’s Communications Unit, was killed in an airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon. 

“Sakafi was a senior Hezbollah terrorist, who was responsible for the communications unit since 2000,” the IDF wrote on X. “Sakafi invested significant efforts to develop communication capabilities between all of Hezbollah’s units.” 

ISRAEL BANS UN SECRETARY-GENERAL OVER ANTI-ISRAEL ACTIONS 

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Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks in Tehran

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Friday that Iran’s missile attack on Israel this week was “legal and legitimate,” Reuters reports.  (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/West Asia News Agency/Reuters)

National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said earlier this week that the Iranian missile attack on Israel was “defeated and ineffective” and that the U.S. military coordinated with the IDF to repel the strikes.  

“U.S. naval destroyers joined Israeli Air Defense units in firing interceptors to shoot down inbound missiles. President Biden and Vice President Harris monitored the attack and the response from the White House Situation Room, joined in person and remotely by their national security team,” Sullivan said during a briefing.  

Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system

Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepts rockets during the missile attack, as seen from Ashkelon, Israel, on Tuesday, Oct. 1. (Reuters/Amir Cohen)

 

“This is a significant escalation by Iran, a significant event, and it is equally significant that we were able to step up with Israel and create a situation in which no one was killed in this attack in Israel… We are now going to look at what the appropriate next steps are to secure, first and foremost, American interests and then to promote stability to the maximum extent possible as we go forward,” he added. 

Fox News Digital’s Michael Dorgan contributed to this report. 

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Protests across Europe as Gaza war anniversary nears

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Protests across Europe as Gaza war anniversary nears

The war in Gaza, which started on 7 October last year, has seen more than 41,000 Palestinians killed and decimated the Strip. Almost 100 Israelis are still being held hostage by Hamas, with fewer than 70 believed to be alive.

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Thousands of people have staged protests in capitals across Europe in support of Palestine in the run-up to the first anniversary of the war on 7 October.

Huge rallies took place in several major European cities, with rallies expected to continue over the weekend and peak on Monday, the date of the anniversary.

Italy

In Rome, several thousand demonstrated peacefully until a smaller group tried to push the rally toward the centre of the city, in spite of a ban by local authorities who refused to authorize protests, citing security concerns.

Some protesters, dressed in black and with their faces covered threw stones, bottles and paper bombs at the police, who responded with tear gas and water cannons, eventually dispersing the crowd.

At least 30 law enforcement officers and three demonstrators were injured in the clashes, local media reported.

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The rally in Rome had been calm earlier, with people chanting “Free Palestine, Free Lebanon,” waving Palestinian flags and holding banners calling for an immediate stop to the conflict.

United Kingdom

In London, thousands marched through the capital to Downing Street amid a heavy police presence.

The atmosphere was tense as pro-Palestinian protesters and counterdemonstrators, some holding Israeli flags, passed one another.

Scuffles broke out as police officers pushed back activists trying to get past a cordon.

At least 17 people were arrested on suspicion of public order offences, supporting a proscribed organisation and assault, the Metropolitan Police said.

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Spain

Thousands also took to the streets of Madrid to demand a ceasefire in Gaza.

The protests were peaceful and there were no reported incidents of altercations with police.

“Outrage at this situation, thousands and thousands of people killed in Gaza, now in Lebanon, there are already more than 2,000, more than 10,000 people missing. This has to be stopped one way or another,” said Enrique Quintanilla from the ‘Disarm Madrid’ group.

Germany

In the northern of Hamburg, about 950 people staged a peaceful demonstration with many waving Palestinian and Lebanese flags and chanting “Stop the Genocide,” the DPA news agency reported, citing a count by police.

Two smaller pro-Israeli counterdemonstrations took place without incident, it said.

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Serbia

A smaller protest of around 200 people happened in Belgrade with protesters chanting “Free Palestine” and expressing their anger at their government’s support for Israel.

“The main message is that we, citizens of Serbia and Belgrade, are against arms exports to Israel. The Republic of Serbia is exporting arms to Israel. Since October 7 last year, the value of weapons exported to Israel from Serbia is at least 20 million euros. We are against that,” said protest organiser, Mihajlo Nikolic.

Rallies were also planned in several other countries across Europe including Greece, the Netherlands, Denmark and Switzerland.

Increased security

Security forces in several countries warned of heightened levels of alert in major cities, amid concerns that the conflict in the Middle East could inspire new terror attacks in Europe or that the protests could turn violent.

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Pro-Palestinian protests calling for an immediate cease-fire have repeatedly taken place across Europe and around the globe in the past year and have often turned violent with confrontations between demonstrators and law enforcement officers.

A bloody year

On 7 October last year, Hamas launched a surprise attack into Israel, killing 1,200 Israelis, taking 250 people hostage and setting off a war with Israel that has shattered much of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

More than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed since then in Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between fighters and civilians.

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Nearly 100 Israeli hostages remain in Gaza, with fewer than 70 believed to be alive. 

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