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[Video below.] Severe weather continued to wreak havoc across New Jersey on Monday, as part of the roof at a BJ’s Wholesale Club in Ocean Township collapsed during intense flooding, while communities in Paramus remained busy clearing widespread storm damage left behind over the holiday weekend.

The partial roof collapse occurred at approximately 11:30 a.m. at the BJ’s Wholesale Club on Route 35 in the Oakhurst section of Ocean Township, according to the Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office.

Authorities said 27 people were inside the store when the collapse occurred. Miraculously, no injuries were reported.

Officials said two individuals were briefly trapped beneath the damaged structure but were able to free themselves without assistance before safely evacuating the building along with everyone else. Ocean Township Police Chief Michael Sorrentino and Monmouth County Sheriff Shaun Golden confirmed that all occupants exited the store safely.

“This incident is another reminder of how quickly severe weather can create dangerous and unpredictable conditions,” Golden said.

The National Weather Service issued a Flash Flood Warning for Ocean Township that remained in effect until 3:15 p.m. Monday as torrential rain inundated roads and businesses.

The Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office released images showing several vehicles submerged in deep floodwaters along Route 35.

“Please stay clear of the area and allow emergency personnel to safely respond,” the sheriff’s office urged in a social media post.

Elsewhere in New Jersey, cleanup operations continued Monday in Paramus, where crews spent the day removing fallen trees from homes, roadways, vehicles, and power lines following powerful storms that struck on Saturday.

Residents said the continuing threat of severe weather has left many families anxious as recovery efforts continue.

Neighborhood after neighborhood, work crews used heavy equipment to clear piles of storm debris left scattered across the community.

“From first look, it doesn’t look too bad. But I am curious to see what we are supposed to do next,” homeowner Kevin Kim said.

Kim, who purchased his home just one month ago, said he is still waiting to learn the full extent of the damage to his roof.

“All of the wind started to just pick up, and we saw this first tree fall, and then it landed right in front of our doorstep. And while we were looking at that, we saw this one start to slowly fall and then it – when it hit the roof – the whole house shook,” Kim recalled.

Throughout Paramus, trees crashed onto homes, vehicles, fences, roadways, and utility lines, leaving many neighborhoods without electricity. Numerous residents are relying on generators while waiting for service to be restored.

“The timeline, earliest, would be sometime today. The latest estimate would be Friday this week,” Mary Ferrazzano said.

Paramus Mayor Chris DiPiazza said municipal offices have fielded roughly 250 calls from residents since the storms struck Motzoei Shabbos, with emergency crews continuing to respond around the clock.

“We are asking our residents to just be patient. Our departments are all hard at work,” DiPiazza said.

{Matzav.com}

Israel has officially launched work on the proposed Tziklag Airport, a new international airport expected to accommodate up to 10 million passengers annually, as officials prepare for a dramatic increase in air travel over the coming decades.

According to a report by Kan News, planning for the Tziklag project is now underway, with the project’s planning centers expected to open in early 2028.

The report said the Tziklag project is advancing more rapidly than the long-discussed Ramat David Airport proposal, raising the possibility that the northern project could ultimately be shelved. However, officials involved in the Ramat David initiative told Kan 11 that both airports could still be built. Others argue that such a scenario is unlikely, citing the multibillion-shekel cost of constructing two major airports as well as unprecedented opposition from residents near the proposed Ramat David site.

The push for a second major airport comes as passenger traffic at Ben Gurion Airport continues to surge. Last Thursday, approximately 85,000 travelers passed through the airport in a single day—the highest daily total since the outbreak of the “Roaring Lion” war. The Israel Airports Authority expects that record to be broken again within days.

During the current month alone, Ben Gurion Airport is expected to handle roughly 2.3 million passengers, despite the fact that more than half of the foreign airlines that suspended service to Israel have yet to resume operations.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent war, approximately 24 million passengers traveled through Ben Gurion Airport in 2019. By 2040, annual passenger traffic is projected to reach about 40 million, underscoring the need for a second major airport to ease the growing demand.

The planned Tziklag Airport is expected to have the capacity to serve approximately 10 million passengers each year.

{Matzav.com}

Asher Binyamin W., a 25-year-old resident of Bnei Brak who is facing charges of spying for Iran, claims that he and other inmates have been subjected to abuse by the Israel Prison Service. The allegations were first reported by Army Radio.

According to W., prison guards have thrown stun grenades at inmates even when there was no disturbance taking place. He further alleges that prisoners have been beaten, forcibly restrained, ordered to kneel, and threatened by guards pointing rifles at their heads.

Israel’s High Court of Justice ruled on Sunday that W.’s petition regarding the alleged abuse should be heard by the Tel Aviv District Court.

The allegations come months after W. sought a renewed hearing on his detention, arguing that a major investigative error by the Shin Bet significantly undermined the prosecution’s case against him.

In February, approximately 15 months after his arrest and the filing of national security charges against him, W. petitioned the Tel Aviv District Court for a review of his detention. He is accused of passing information to an Iranian agent.

His defense argued that the Shin Bet made a critical error in analyzing computer data, resulting in a flawed timeline that substantially altered the evidentiary picture and ultimately led prosecutors to amend the indictment.

W.’s attorneys, Elad Ret and Noam Barkovitz of the Public Defender’s Office, contended that the evidence supporting his detention had effectively collapsed. They pointed to an incident in which W. allegedly photographed the home of a nuclear scientist near the Weizmann Institute and transmitted the images to a foreign contact. The original indictment claimed that W. knew the homeowner was a professor of nuclear physics.

According to a report by Ynet, prosecutors based that allegation on computer records indicating that W. had searched the scientist’s name on Google before taking the photographs, suggesting he knew the target’s identity in advance. The defense, however, maintained that W. consistently told investigators he had no idea who lived at the home when he took the pictures and only searched the scientist’s name after returning home. They argued that investigators dismissed his explanation without adequately examining it.

A forensic expert retained by the defense concluded that investigators failed to account for Israel’s time zone when extracting the computer data, creating a three-hour discrepancy between the actual search time and the time listed in the indictment. After correcting the timestamps, the Google search was shown to have taken place at 5:50 p.m.—after the photographs had already been taken.

As a result, Ynet reported that prosecutors amended the indictment, revised the factual allegations, and reduced the most serious charge. Instead of accusing W. of providing information to an enemy with the intent of harming Israel’s security—a crime punishable by life imprisonment—he is now charged with the lesser offense of providing information that could have benefited an enemy.

{Matzav.com}