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World

Iran thwarts drone attack on military site – state media

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DUBAI, Jan 29 (Reuters) – A loud explosion at a military plant in Iran’s central city of Isfahan was caused by an “unsuccessful” drone attack, Iranian state media reported on Sunday, citing the defence ministry.

“One of (the drones) was hit by the … air defence and the other two were caught in defence traps and blew up. Fortunately, this unsuccessful attack did not cause any loss of life and caused minor damage to the workshop’s roof,” the ministry said in a statement carried by the state news agency IRNA.

Iranian news agencies earlier reported the loud blast and carried a video showing a flash of light at the plant, said to be an ammunitions factory, and footage of emergency vehicles and fire trucks outside the plant.

In July, Iran said it had arrested a sabotage team made up of Kurdish militants working for Israel who planned to blow up a “sensitive” defence industry centre in Isfahan.

The announcement came amid heightening tensions with arch-enemy Israel over Tehran’s nuclear programme. Israel says Iran is seeking to develop nuclear weapons. Tehran denies this.

“(The attack) has not affected our installations and mission…and such blind measures will not have an impact on the continuation of the country’s progress,” the defence ministry statement said.

There have been a number of explosions and fires around Iranian military, nuclear and industrial facilities in the past few years.

In 2021, Iran accused Israel of sabotaging its key Natanz nuclear site and vowed revenge for an attack that appeared to be the latest episode in a long-running covert war.

The blasts at sensitive Iranian sites have at times caused concern amid tensions over Iran’s nuclear programme with Israel and the United States.

Israel has long threatened military action against Iran if indirect talks between Washington and Tehran fail to salvage a 2015 nuclear pact.

Reporting by Dubai newsroom; Editing by Daniel Wallis, Cynthia Osterman and Josie Kao

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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World

Israel hits Gaza as conflict flares after West Bank clashes

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  • Rockets from Gaza set off alarm in Israeli communities
  • Cross-border fire followed Israeli raid in West Bank
  • Israeli raid killed at least nine Palestinians
  • Violence has surged in West Bank in past year

JERUSALEM/GAZA, Jan 27 (Reuters) – Israeli jets struck Gaza overnight on Friday in retaliation for two rockets fired by Palestinian militants, further escalating tensions after one of the worst days of violence in the occupied West Bank in years.

The rockets fired from Gaza overnight set off alarms in Israeli communities near the border with the southern coastal strip controlled by the Islamist movement Hamas but there were no reports of casualties.

The cross-border fire came after an Israeli raid on a refugee camp in the West Bank on Thursday that killed at least nine Palestinians, including militant gunmen and at least two civilians, the highest single-day death toll in years.

Another man died in a separate incident in al-Ramm outside Jerusalem, bringing the Palestinian death toll so far in 2023 to at least 30.

The raid, the latest in a near-daily series of clashes in the West Bank over the past year, came days before U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was due to visit Israel and the West Bank.

Palestinian officials said CIA director William Burns, who was visiting Israel and the West Bank on a trip arranged before the latest violence, would meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday. No comment was immediately available from U.S. officials in Jerusalem.

The months of violence, which surged after a spate of lethal attacks in Israel last year, have drawn fears the already unpredictable conflict could spiral out of control, triggering a broader confrontation between Palestinians and Israel.

[1/2] Smoke and flames rise during Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City, January 27, 2023. REUTERS/Arafat Barbakh

The U.S. State Department issued a statement on Thursday saying it was “deeply concerned” with the violence in the West Bank and urged both sides to de-escalate the conflict.

The United Nations, Egypt and Qatar have also urged calm, Palestinian officials said.

In Gaza, large rallies were planned for the afternoon following Friday prayers as residents inured to years of exchanges of rockets and airstrikes between Israel and Hamas feared further clashes.

“We didn’t sleep the whole night, bombing and missiles,” said 50 year-old Abdallah Al-Husary. “There is worry and there is fear, any minute a war can happen. With any clash in the West Bank, there can be war along the borders in Gaza.”

In the aftermath of Thursday’s raid, the Palestinian Authority, which has limited governing powers in the West Bank, said it was suspending a security cooperation arrangement with Israel that is widely credited with helping to keep order in the territory and preventing attacks against Israel.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who returned to power this year at the head of one of the most right-wing governments in Israel’s history, said Israel was not looking to escalate the situation, although he ordered security forces to be on alert.

The Israeli Defence Force said Friday’s air strikes in Gaza targeted an underground rocket manufacturing site and a military base used by Hamas.

Additional reporting by Ari Rabinovitch, Dan Williams and Ali Sawafta in Ramallah; Editing by Gerry Doyle and Edmund Blair

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Nidal Al-Mughrabi

Thomson Reuters

A senior correspondent with nearly 25 years’ experience covering the Palestinian-Israeli conflict including several wars and the signing of the first historic peace accord between the two sides.

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World

Tens of thousands of Israelis protest against Netanyahu justice plans

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TEL AVIV, Jan 21 (Reuters) – Tens of thousands of Israelis joined demonstrations on Saturday against judicial reform plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government that protesters say will threaten democratic checks and balances on ministers by the courts.

The plans, which the government says are needed to curb overreach by activist judges, have drawn fierce opposition from groups including lawyers, and raised concerns among business leaders, widening already deep political divisions in Israeli society.

“They want to turn us into a dictatorship, they want to destroy democracy,” the head of the Israeli Bar Association, Avi Chimi said. “They want to destroy judicial authority, there is no democratic country without a judicial authority.”

Netanyahu has dismissed the protests, now in their third week, as a refusal by leftist opponents to accept the results of last November’s election, which produced one of the most right-wing governments in Israel’s history.

The protesters say the future of Israeli democracy is at stake if the government succeeds in pushing through the plans, which would tighten political control over judicial appointments and limit the Supreme Court’s powers to overturn government decisions or Knesset laws.

As well as threatening the independence of judges and weakening oversight of the government and parliament, they say the plans will undermine the rights of minorities and open the door to more corruption.

[1/5] Israelis protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new right-wing coalition and its proposed judicial reforms to reduce powers of the Supreme Court, in Tel Aviv, Israel January 21, 2023. REUTERS/Ilan Rosenberg

“We are fighting for democracy,” said Amnon Miller, 64, among crowds of protesters, many bearing white and blue Israeli flags. “We fought in this country in the army for 30 years for our freedom and we won’t let this government take our freedom.”

Saturday’s protests, which Israeli media said were expected to draw more than 100,000 people to central Tel Aviv, come days after the Supreme Court ordered Netanyahu to fire Interior Minister Aryeh Deri, who leads the religious Shas party, over a recent tax conviction.

The new government, which took office this month, is an alliance between Netanyahu’s Likud party and a clutch of smaller religious and hard-right nationalist parties which say they have a mandate for sweeping change.

Netanyahu, who is himself on trial on corruption charges which he denies, has defended the judicial reform plans, which are currently being examined by a parliamentary committee, saying they will restore a proper balance between the three branches of government.

Likud politicians have long accused the Supreme Court of being dominated by leftist judges who they say encroach on areas outside their authority for political reasons. The court’s defenders say it plays a vital role in holding the government to account in a country that has no formal constitution.

A survey released by the Israel Democracy Institute last week showed trust in the Supreme Court was markedly higher among left-wing Israelis than among those on the right, but that there was no overall support for weakening the court’s powers.

Reporting by Emily Rose; Writing by James Mackenzie; Editing by David Holmes and Andrew Heavens

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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US

New poll shows Vallas, Garcia as frontrunners

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Chicago mayoral election: New poll shows Lightfoot in fourth

A new voter opinion survey shows where Chicago’s mayoral candidates stand.

CHICAGO – A new voter opinion survey finds Paul Vallas and Rep. Chuy Garcia leading the nine-candidate field for mayor of Chicago.  

The top two finishers in next month’s voting will compete in an April 4th runoff election.

And, despite spending several million dollars on campaign advertising in recent weeks, incumbent Lori Lightfoot has fallen to fourth place, behind teachers union staffer Brandon Johnson.

Pollster Matt Podgorski, of the political consulting firm M3, said, “The big takeaway that we saw is that Chuy Garcia and Paul Vallas basically flip-flopped spots. Now I’ve got Paul Vallas in first place with 26% and Chuy Garcia in second with 19%.”

New front runner emerges in Chicago mayoral race, FOX 32 exclusive poll shows

A new voter opinion survey in the race for Chicago mayor show Lori Lightfoot losing ground among the nine-candidate field.

Garcia’s been the target of a negative attack ad aired by Lightfoot this month. 

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The West Side congressman has not yet begun airing TV commercials of his own. A leader of Garcia’s campaign told FOX 32 Chicago News that once Garcia goes up on the air, he plans to stay up through Feb. 28, the day first-round votes will be counted by the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners.

Johnson, whose campaign relies heavily on cash from the teachers union, appears to have benefited from an aggressive schedule of paid media. He surged from just 3.2% in M3’s December survey to 12.2% this week. 

Mayor Lightfoot’s campaign spending did not stem a decline in support found by the survey. She fell from 14.5% in December to single digit territory this week: 9.8%.

Multi-millionaire businessman Willie Wilson also lost ground in the M3 poll. Wilson had 13.1% in December; 8.5% this week.

Chicago’s mayoral candidates debate affordable housing, taxes

Candidates were asked how they would handle attracting businesses to Chicago, affordable housing and improving mental health options for young people.

The M3 survey was conducted Jan. 15-17, prior to Thursday night’s mayoral debate. A total of 531 likely voters participated, including 49 who completed a Spanish-language version of the questions. It is accurate to within plus or minus 4.25 percentage points.

A spokesperson from Lightfoot’s campaign attacked the survey calling the race “complicated.” 

The Vallas campaign says the poll proves what they already knew. 

“Paul’s message of putting crime and Chicago’s safety first is clearly resonating with the voters and our campaign has the financial resources and support necessary to continue driving that message home over the next six weeks,” said Vallas campaign chief strategist Joe Trippi.

Mayoral candidate Brandon Johnson released a statement, saying: “The people of Chicago are ready for new leadership and we’re proving there is a better way forward…The city has turned the page on Mayor Lightfoot and business-as-usual politics. It’s time to move Chicago forward and usher in a new dawn of people-first policies.”

Candidate Willie Wilson also released a statement, calling the poll “garbage.”

The M3 pollster defended the integrity of the results based on how the likely voters were selected. 

“All likely voters in the city of Chicago, had an equal chance of being contacted. The response group was carefully balanced by race, region, gender, age, language, and even how they voted in 2020 for President,” Podgorski said.

Political Editor Mike Flannery’s Analysis

With Paul Vallas in first and Chuy Garcia second, they would currently be most likely to compete in the two-person, April 4th runoff election.

“The big takeaway we saw was that Chuy Garcia and Paul Vallas basically flip-flopped spots,” Podgorski said.

In a survey done earlier this week before Thursday night’s debate, Vallas had 26%, Congressman Garcia 19%, veteran teachers union staffer Brandon Johnson 12.2%, with Mayor Lightfoot falling to 9.8% in fourth place.

While the mayor’s negative attack ad may have contributed to Garcia’s loss of nearly nine percentage points since last month, it apparently hasn’t helped her. Lightfoot’s lost nearly five percentage points since last month’s M3 survey.

“We now see Brandon Johnson surging in in third place with 12%, while stunningly the incumbent Mayor Lori Lightfoot has dropped all the way down to fourth place,” Podgorski said. “In fact, in the survey, we specifically asked have you seen, read or heard any information about the candidate recently and those that said ‘yes,’ she was underwater by 30% in terms of how that influenced their opinion of her.”

Lightfoot may have been damaged by last week’s revelation that her campaign made inappropriate attempts to recruit students and faculty in both the public schools and city colleges.

Vallas celebrated these results, pushing them out to supporters in an email. Mayor Lightfoot, not so much. A spokeswoman called the poll deeply flawed — a claim rejected by Podgorski.

Fox 32 Chicago will host a Mayoral Forum on Thursday, Feb. 9.

Full details on the survey can be found in the PDF below:

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World

Israelis rally in three cities against Netanyahu legal reforms

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TEL AVIV, Jan 14 (Reuters) – Tens of thousands of Israelis demonstrated in three major cities on Saturday against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial reform plans, with organisers accusing him of undermining democratic rule weeks after his reelection.

Bestriding a religious-nationalist coalition with a solid parliamentary majority, Netanyahu, now in his sixth term, wants to rein in the Supreme Court in what he has described as a restoration of the balance of the three branches of government.

Critics say the proposed reforms would cripple judicial independence, foster corruption, set back minority rights and deprive Israel’s courts system of credibility that helps fend off war-crimes allegations abroad. Among those opposed are the Supreme Court chief justice and the country’s attorney-general.

After President Isaac Herzog appealed to polarised politicians to “lower the temperatures” of the debates, organisers of the demonstrations – held under chilly winter rain – sought to strike a note of national unity.

“Take an Israeli flag in one hand, an umbrella in the other, and come out to protect democracy and law in the State of Israel,” said centrist ex-defence minister Benny Gantz, who attended the Tel Aviv rally but, like other opposition figures, was not due to address it.

“We Are Preserving Our Shared Home,” read one demonstrator’s placard. Netanyahu was guilty of a “legal putsch”, said another.

[1/8] Israelis protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new right-wing coalition and its proposed judicial reforms to reduce powers of the Supreme Court in a main square in Tel Aviv, Israel January 14, 2023. REUTERS/ Ilan Rosenberg

Israeli media put the number in attendance at some 80,000, with thousands more at protests in Jerusalem and Haifa.

Social media footage showed a small number of Palestinian flags on display, in defiance of Netanyahu’s far-right allies. One of these, National Security Ministry Itamar Ben-Gvir, told Kan TV he wanted such flags removed but was awaiting the opinion of the attorney-general before ordering any crackdown by police.

The 73-year-old Netanyahu on Friday signalled flexibility on the reform plan, saying it would be implemented “with careful consideration while hearing all of the positions”.

Polls have diverged on public views of the reforms. Channel 13 TV last week found 53% of Israelis were opposed to changing the court appointments’ structure while 35% were in support. But Channel 14 TV on Thursday found 61% in favour and 35% opposed.

Critics of the Supreme Court say it is overreaching and unrepresentative of the electorate. Its proponents call the court a means of bringing equilibrium to a fractious society.

“Tens of thousands of people were at tonight’s demonstrations. In the election held here two and a half months ago, millions turned out,” tweeted Miki Zohar a senior lawmaker in Netanyahu’s conservative Likud party.

“We promised the people change, we promised governance, we promised reforms – and we will make good on that.”

Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Christina Fincher and Mark Potter

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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World

Syria says Israel strike puts Damascus airport briefly out of service

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AMMAN, Jan 2 (Reuters) – The Syrian army said on Monday an Israeli missile strike had briefly put the Damascus International Airport out of service, the latest in a string of strikes targeting Iran-linked assets.

A volley of air-launched missiles had hit the airport at 2 a.m., the army said in a statement. They had come from the direction of Lake Tiberias in Israel.

Missiles had also hit targets in the south of Damascus, killing two members of the Syrian armed forces and causing some damage, the army said.

The transport ministry said in an online statement that workers had removed debris from the strikes and that flights would resume by 9 a.m.

Earlier, two regional intelligence sources said the strikes had hit an outpost near the airport of Iran’s Quds Force and militias it backs. Their presence has spread in Syria in recent years.

The Israel Defence Force did not immediately comment on the attack.

Last year, Israel intensified strikes on Damascus International and other civilian airports to disrupt Tehran’s increasing use of aerial supply lines to deliver arms to allies in Syria and Lebanon, including Hezbollah.

Syria halted flights to and from the airport in June for nearly two weeks after Israeli strikes caused extensive damage to infrastructure, including a runway and a terminal.

Israel fired missiles at Damascus International again in September, when it also struck the country’s second-largest civilian airport in the northern city of Aleppo, putting it out of operation for several days.

Western and regional intelligence sources say Tehran has adopted civilian air transportation as a more reliable means of ferrying military equipment to its forces and to allied fighters in Syria, following Israeli disruption of ground supply.

Israel says its so-called “campaign between wars” in Syria began a decade ago, on Jan 30, 2013, with a strike against Russian-supplied SA-17 air-defence batteries that Damascus had intended to hand over to Hezbollah.

Four such strikes took place that year, but the pace had accelerated to around one a week currently, the chief of Israel’s armed forces, Lieutenant-General Aviv Kohavi, said last month.

Iran’s proxy militias, led by Lebanon’s Hezbollah, now hold sway in vast areas in eastern, southern and northwestern Syria and in several suburbs around the capital.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government has never publicly acknowledged that Iranian forces operate on his behalf in Syria’s civil war, saying Tehran has only military advisers on the ground.

Kohavi last month claimed credit for an air strike on a convoy that had entered Syria from Iraq, saying the target had been a truck carrying Iranian weaponry. read more

Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Bradley Perrett

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World

Netanyahu says Israel not bound by ‘despicable’ U.N. vote

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RAMALLAH, West Bank, Dec 31 (Reuters) – Israel condemned and the Palestinians welcomed on Saturday a United Nations General Assembly vote asking the International Court of Justice to provide an opinion on legal consequences of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories.

The Friday vote presents a challenge for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who this week took office at the head of a government which has set settlement expansion as a priority and which includes parties who want to annex West Bank land on which they are built.

“The Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land nor occupiers in our eternal capital Jerusalem and no U.N. resolution can distort that historical truth,” Netanyahu said in a video message, adding that Israel was not bound by the “despicable decision.”

Along with Gaza and East Jerusalem, the Palestinians seek the occupied West Bank for a state. Most countries consider Israel’s settlements there illegal, a view Israel disputes citing historical and Biblical ties to the land.

The Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ) also known as the World Court, is the top U.N. court dealing with disputes between states. Its rulings are binding, though the ICJ has no power to enforce them.

The U.N. General Assembly asked the ICJ to give an advisory opinion on the legal consequences of Israel’s “occupation, settlement and annexation … including measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem.”

Members of Netanyahu’s new government have pledged to bolster settlements with development plans, budgets and authorisation of dozens of outposts built without permits.

The cabinet includes newly created posts and restructured roles that grant some of those powers to pro-settler coalition partners, who ultimately aim to extend Israeli sovereignty to the West Bank.

Netanyahu, however, has given no indication of any imminent steps to annex the settlements, a move that would likely shake up its relations with Western and Arab allies alike.

The Palestinians welcomed the U.N. vote in which 87 members voted in favour of adopting the request; Israel, the United States and 24 other members voted against; and 53 abstained.

“The time has come for Israel to be a state subject to law, and to be held accountable for its ongoing crimes against our people,” said Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Palestinian Authority has limited self-rule in the West Bank.

Basem Naim, an official with Hamas, the Islamist militant group that controls Gaza, said it was “an important step toward confining and isolating the state of occupation (Israel).”

Writing by Maayan Lubell; Editing by Kim Coghill and Frances Kerry

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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World

Iran top legal cleric says morality police shut down

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  • Protesters call for economic boycott from Monday to Wednesday
  • Raisi visits Tehran University on Wednesday for Student Day
  • Interior ministry silent on the morality police’s status

DUBAI, Dec 4 (Reuters) – Protesters in Iran called on Sunday for a three-day strike this week, stepping up pressure on authorities after the public prosecutor said the morality police whose detention of a young woman triggered months of protests had been shut down.

There was no confirmation of the closure from the Interior Ministry which is in charge of the morality police, and Iranian state media said Public Prosecutor Mohammad Jafar Montazeri was not responsible for overseeing the force.

Top Iranian officials have repeatedly said Tehran would not change the Islamic Republic’s mandatory hijab policy, which requires women to dress modestly and wear headscarves, despite 11 weeks of protests against strict Islamic regulations.

Hundreds of people have been killed in the unrest which erupted in September after the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman who was detained by the morality police for flouting the hijab rules.

Protesters seeking to maintain their challenge to Iran’s clerical rulers have called for a three-day economic strike and a rally to Tehran’s Azadi (Freedom) Square on Wednesday, according to individual posts shared on Twitter by accounts unverified by Reuters.

President Ebrahim Raisi is due to address students in Tehran on the same day to mark Student Day in Iran.

Similar calls for strike action and mass mobilisation have in past weeks resulted in an escalation in the unrest which has swept the country – some of the biggest anti-government protests since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The activist HRANA news agency said 470 protesters had been killed as of Saturday, including 64 minors. It said 18,210 demonstrators were arrested and 61 members of the security forces were killed.

Iran’s Interior Ministry state security council said on Saturday the death toll was 200, according to the judiciary’s news agency Mizan.

Residents posting on social media and newspapers such as Shargh daily say there have been fewer sightings of the morality police on the streets in recent weeks as authorities apparently try to avoid provoking more protests.

On Saturday, Montazeri was cited by the semi-official Iranian Labour News Agency as saying that the morality police had been disbanded.

“The same authority which has established this police has shut it down,” he was quoted as saying. He said the morality police was not under the judiciary’s authority, which “continues to monitor behavioural actions at the community level.”

Al Alam state television said foreign media were depicting his comments as “a retreat on the part of the Islamic Republic from its stance on hijab and religious morality as a result of the protests”, but that all that could be understood from his comments was that the morality police were not directly related to the judiciary.

EXECUTIONS

State media said four men convicted of cooperating with Israel’s spy agency Mossad were executed on Sunday.

They had been arrested in June – before the current unrest sweeping the country – following cooperation between the Ministry of Intelligence and the Revolutionary Guards, Tasnim news agency reported.

The Islamic Republic has long accused arch-enemy Israel of carrying out covert operations on its soil. Tehran has recently accused Israeli and Western intelligence services of plotting a civil war in Iran.

The prime minister’s office in Israel, which oversees Mossad, declined to comment.

Iranian state media reported on Wednesday that the country’s Supreme Court had upheld the death sentence handed out to the four men “for the crime of cooperating with the intelligence services of the Zionist regime and for kidnapping”.

Three other people were handed prison sentences of between five and 10 years after being convicted of crimes that included acting against national security, aiding in kidnapping and possessing illegal weapons, the Mehr news agency said.

Reporting by Dubai Newsroom
Editing by Dominic Evans, Raissa Kasolowsky, William Maclean and Susan Fenton

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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World

Twin blasts in Jerusalem kill one in suspected Palestinian attack

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  • At least 14 injured in two blasts at bus stops
  • Hamas praises attack, does not claim responsibility
  • Explosions recall bus bomb attacks in 2000-05

JERUSALEM, Nov 23 (Reuters) – Two bombs exploded at bus stops on Jerusalem’s outskirts on Wednesday, killing a 16-year-old boy and wounding at least 14 other people in what appeared to be an attack by Palestinian militants, Israeli authorities said.

Police blamed the initial blast, during morning rush hour, on an improvised bomb planted near the city exit. The second – some 30 minutes later – hit a junction leading to an outlying settlement.

“There has not been such a coordinated attack in Jerusalem for many years,” police spokesman Eli Levi told Army Radio.

The devices were hidden in bags, packed with nails and appeared to have been detonated remotely by mobile phone, Kan Radio said.

CCTV footage showed the moment of the first explosion with a sudden cloud of smoke billowing from the bus stop. The site, cordoned off by emergency services, was strewn with debris.

Ambulance services said 12 people were taken to hospital from the first blast and three were wounded in the second. A 16-year-old Canadian-Israeli national succumbed to his injuries.

The United Nations, the European Union, United States and Canada condemned the attacks.

“Terrorism is a dead-end that accomplishes absolutely nothing,” the U.S. Embassy said on Twitter.

Benjamin Netanyahu, now negotiating with allies from religious and right-wing parties to form a new government after elections, said he would do everything to restore security.

[1/6] A damaged bus is seen following an explosion at a bus stop in Jerusalem November 23, 2022. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

“We still have a battle against terror that has lifted its head again,” the veteran former prime minister told reporters.

In Gaza, a spokesman for Palestinian militant group Hamas praised the Jerusalem explosions but stopped short of claiming responsibility. Abdel-Latif Al-Qanoua linked the blasts to “crimes conducted by the Occupation (Israel) and the settlers”.

The explosions, which echoed the bus bombings that were a hallmark of the Palestinian uprising of 2000-05, follow months of rising tension in the occupied West Bank after Israel launched a crackdown in response to deadly Palestinian attacks in its cities.

The coordinated blasts appeared to be a step up from a string of mostly Palestinian lone-wolf stabbing, shooting and car-ramming attacks this year.

Ultra-nationalist Israeli lawmaker Itamar Ben-Gvir, one of Netanyahu’s likely coalition partners, demanded tough action, saying security forces should go “house to house in search of guns and restore our deterrence power.”

Separately, Palestinian gunmen late on Tuesday seized the body of an Israeli Druze high school student from a Palestinian hospital in the West Bank city of Jenin following a car crash nearby, the teenager’s uncle told Reuters.

The Druze are an Arab community in Israel who serve in its armed forces. The youth’s father and some Israeli officials said the gunmen took him off life support before carrying him away. Reuters was not immediately able to confirm his condition.

Their reasons for the seizure were unclear. But families of slain Palestinian militants whose remains are in Israeli custody called for an exchange of corpses.

A diplomat source told Reuters the United Nations was mediating over the release of the teenager’s body and Israeli military said it expected that would happen soon.

Reporting by Maayan Lubell and Emily Rose in Jerusalem; Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza; Ali Sawafta in Ramallah Writing by James Mackenzie and Maayan Lubell; Editing by Kim Coghill, Robert Birsel, Gareth Jones and Mark Heinrich and Bernadette Baum

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World

Israel strikes air base in central Syria, killing two servicemen, Syrian military says

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AMMAN Nov 13 (Reuters) – Israeli missiles hit a major air base in Syria’s Homs province on Sunday, killing two servicemen and injuring three others, the Syrian military said via state news agency SANA.

Military sources said the air base, at Shayrat, was recently used by the Iranian airforce.

Syrian state media posted a short video of the “aggression” and said there were material damages, without elaborating.

One military source, who was not authorised to speak publicly, said the strikes had targeted a runway in the sprawling air base that is located southeast of Homs city.

Asked about the strike, a spokesperson for the Israeli military said it did not comment on foreign reports.

The runway and underground facilities at Shayrat, including aircraft shelters, have undergone a major expansion by the Russia military in the last three years, the military source said.

Russia, which maintains a major military presence in Syria, has forces stationed near to Shayrat air base and uses the base, security sources say.

Regional and intelligence sources say Israel has in recent months intensified strikes on Syrian airports and air bases to disrupt Iran’s increasing use of aerial supply lines to deliver arms to allies in Syria and Lebanon including Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights which monitors such events said a warehouse for Iranian militias and Hezbollah located within Shayrat air base were destroyed in Sunday’s strike.

Opposition military sources say Iranian militias hold sway in large swathes of western Homs province near the Lebanese border and to the east where they have a string of bases.

Iran, which poured thousands of it’s Shi’ite militias to help Syrian President Bashar al Assad win his battle against insurgents, says its military presence in Syria is limited to a limited number of advisors.

Israel has been mounting attacks in Syria for years against what it has described as Iranian and Iran-backed forces that have deployed there during the war, which began more than a decade ago.

Reporting by Yasmin Hussein,Ahmed Tolba in Cairo, Ari Rabinovitch in Jerusalem and Suleiman al-Khalidi
Editing by Gareth Jones and Susan Fenton

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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