A Palestinian terrorist who attempted to kill a Jewish activist died after a shootout with police and security officers.
Moataz Hejazi shot and wounded Yehuda Glick, an American born settler who has been leading a campaign to allow Jews to pray on the Temple Mount. He has been a target of Muslims who believe Jews should be banned from even setting foot on Temple Mount.
“Anti-terrorist police units surrounded a house in the Abu Tor neighborhood to arrest a suspect in the attempted assassination of Yehuda Glick,” Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. “Immediately upon arrival they were shot at. They returned fire and shot and killed the suspect.”
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, ignoring the fact Hejazi attempted to kill a Jewish leader, said Israel’s police killing Hejazi is “tantamount to a declaration of war.” He called for a “day of rage” Friday against all Israelis.
Palestinians threw rocks at police as they attempted to capture and ultimately had to kill Hejazi. Hejazi had been in prison for 11 years for previous attacks on Israel.
A 3-month-old American baby is dead after a terrorist attack in Jerusalem.
Police officials say that an Arab man drove his vehicle into a crowd of people near a light rail stop around 6 p.m. local time. The stop was less than a 1,000 feet from the Israeli National Police Headquarters.
“The vehicle ran over a number of people, including several Americans, as they exited the train, and the suspect was shot when he attempted to flee the scene by foot,” an official told the Jerusalem Post.
“Nine people were injured, three seriously, including an American infant who died after sustaining critical injuries.”
The suspect is reportedly in critical condition with multiple gunshot wounds.
The Arab man comes from a neighborhood where Arabs were angry that nine Jewish families had moved in two days ago.
Police and IDF forces across Israel are on high alert Friday because of the possibility of clashes between Jews and Muslims as two major holidays collide on the same day.
Yom Kippur and Eid al-Adha overlap for the first time in over 30 years.
Reinforced police units have been deployed in cities that have significant Muslim minorities: Jerusalem, Jaffa, Haifa and Acre. The military has closed the West Bank and the Gaza Strip which is usually done during the major Jewish holidays.
Yom Kippur is a major day in Israel where devout Jews ask God to forgive them for their sins. Almost all businesses close and TV and radio stations usually are off the air.
The Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha lasts three days and consists of family celebrations and events.
Israeli officials did not say if the increased security will end after Yom Kippur or ocntinue through the end of the Muslim holiday.
In their first meeting since the 50-day Israel-Hamas war, President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu struck a cordial tone.
Netanyahu praised President Obama for his commitment to destroy the Islamic terrorist group ISIS and his willingness to stand with Israel against Islamic terror. Obama said that Israel was dealing with a “turbulent neighborhood.”
Obama said there needs to be new and different efforts to end violence in the region.
“We have to find ways to change the status quo so that both Israeli citizens are safe … but also that we don’t have the tragedy of Palestinian children being killed as well,” Obama said.
Netanyahu also took time to praise Obama and the U.S. Congress for their support of more funding for the Iron Dome rocket defense system. The PM said the system saved “so many lives” during the conflict with Hamas.
However, the PM took a more aggressive tone when he said that further steps need to be taken to keep Iran from becoming a nuclear power.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called out the hypocrisy of world leaders in condemning and attacking the Islamic terrorist group ISIS while not seeing the similarities between ISIS and Hamas.
Netanyahu spoke to the general assembly of the United Nations on Monday.
“Last week, many of the countries represented here rightly applauded President Obama for leading the effort to confront ISIS, and yet weeks before, some of these same countries, the same countries that now support confronting ISIS, opposed Israel for confronting Hamas. They evidently don’t understand that ISIS and Hamas are branches of the same poisonous tree,” Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu laid out the similarities between the groups including their expressed desire to destroy the nation of Israel.
“As Hamas’ charter makes clear, Hamas’ immediate goal is to destroy Israel, but Hamas has a broader objective. They also want a caliphate. Hamas shares the global ambitions of its fellow militant Islamists, and that’s why its supporters wildly cheered in the streets of Gaza as thousands of Americans were murdered in 9/11, and that’s why its leaders condemn the United States for killing Osama bin Laden whom they praised as a holy warrior,’ Netanyahu explained.
Netanyahu said that ISIS must be destroyed and that Israel will back the effort to eliminate the extremist group.
A Syrian aircraft has been shot down over the Golan Heights by Israeli defense systems.
The shooting down of the aircraft is the first time since the beginning of the Syrian Civil War that the battle has crossed into Israeli territory in a major way. Until this point, only stray mortar fire had struck Israeli territory.
Israeli Defense Forces say that the plane was a MiG-21 fighter jet and a surface-to-air missile took the plane down. The wreckage of the plane landed in Syria and the pilot reportedly was able to eject and land in Syrian territory.
Syrian government spokesman tried to claim the shooting down of the plane meant Israel was supporting the terrorist group ISIS. World leaders immediately dismissed the Syrian claim as “absurd.”
In what is likely an attempt to strengthen their hand before talks with Israel in October, Islamic groups in the Gaza strip have agreed to allow a unity government to take control of the region.
The ceasefire that had been struck in August between Israel and Hamas called for the Palestinian Authority to take over as civil administration for the region. The deal with Hamas and Fatah announced today in Cairo calls for the unity government to take over immediately.
The deal was brokered by Egyptian intelligence services.
“All civil servants will be paid by the unity government because they are all Palestinians and it is the government of all Palestinians,” said Azzam Ahmed of Fatah on Thursday.
The groups reportedly have agreed to eliminate “all the obstacles” to a national unity government. They will also negotiate with the UN and Israel over border crossing access.
However, in what might be a blow to potential talks, the leaders of the unity government said they want Israel tried for war crimes.
The head of the Israeli Navy has stated that he will put his ships everywhere if that’s what it takes to defend the nation of Israel.
“We will guard, protect and act in any enemy coast, and fight bravely for the nevy and the state of Israel,” Admiral Ram Rothberg said during a memorial ceremony.
The ceremony was to remember the INS Dakar and held on the INS Tanin.
“Without a doubt, this power, operationally and strategically, is very important for Israel, the IDF and the navy,” Adm. Rothberg stated. “More than four decades passed since INS Dakar’s last voyage… Although the threats have changed, and today you have the most modern equipment, the most advanced technologies, and the most quality means, the mission remains the same mission that the INS Dakar personnel were sent on, and the responsibility is the same. To protect the Israeli coast, sea waters, and working with all of the IDF’s branches to achieve the relevant goals.”
The Admirals in attendance at the event said the new submarines will allow them to gain intelligence in places they have been unable to visit in the past.
A video smuggled out of a mosque in the Gaza strip shows a Muslim sheikh wielding a rifle and calling for violence against Israel as the only way to establish a Palestinian state.
Sheikh Lyad Abu Funun is shown in the video released by Middle East Media Research Institute. In the speech, he declares that Israel did not succeed on any level during the 50-day war for disarming Hamas terrorists.
“The Israelis came to conquer the Gaza Strip. Did they succeed in doing so? No, they did not. They came to take these weapons away from us,” Funun yells. “Do I still hold this weapon or not? They came to take these weapons away from us. Did they succeed?”
Those attending the event chanted “Allah Akbar” while the sheikh gave his rant.
The video also shows another part of the sermon where Funan says the weapons are the only way.
“This war has proven that these weapons are our only means to liberate our land,” Funan said. “These weapons are our only means to liberate the Al-Aqsa Mosque. These weapons are our only means to establish the Islamic state. These weapons are our only means to reestablish Muhammad’s caliphate. These weapons are our only means to instate the law of Allah.”
The Islamic terrorist group ISIS announced plans to attack Israel and eventually the U.S. in a magazine they produced called “Dabiq”.
The terrorists say the conflict with Hamas has made Israel a target for their campaign of violence.
“As for the massacres taking place in Gaza against the Muslim men, women and children, the Islamic State will do everything within its means to continue striking down every apostate who stands as an obstacle on its path toward Palestine,” one article states. “Our actions speak louder than its words and it is only a matter of time and patience before it reaches Palestine to fight the barbaric Jews and kill those of them hiding behind the gharqad trees — the trees of the Jews.”
The magazine was named for a town where the terrorists believe Muslims and Westerners will fight before the apocalypse.
The magazine ends with the group telling their followers that they wlll eventually conquer the entire Arabian Peninsula, Rome and then will defeat the anti-Christ.
“ISIS’s tactics span all media, with devoted Twitter accounts and YouTube channels, including ones that showed the horrifying — and slickly shot — execution of photojournalist James Foley,” Josh Kovensky of the New Republic writes. “… much of Dabiq’s content focuses on a coming apocalypse, while pulling out the same glossy stops that one would expect from an American magazine.”
