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The likelihood of a phased hostage-ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, based on Israel’s May proposal, is “close to zero,” according to a report by Israel’s Channel 12 on Sunday. Citing unnamed sources within the Israeli security establishment, the report noted “very broad pessimism” among Israeli negotiators, as talks have stalled despite initial optimism. The U.S., which had previously indicated plans to introduce a new bridging proposal within days, is now seen as unlikely to do so, further dampening hopes of an agreement. Israeli negotiators reportedly grew increasingly frustrated, having believed that an agreement between Israel and the mediators would be conveyed to Hamas. However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s insistence on maintaining control over the Philadelphi Corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border—a position not included in Israel’s May proposal—has been blamed for stalling progress. Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar reportedly hardened his stance in response. The situation was worsened when Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich stated that in addition to opposing an IDF withdrawal from the Philadelphi Corridor, he also objected to a withdrawal from the Netzarim Corridor and the release of Palestinian prisoners convicted of murder. According to Channel 12, Smotrich’s remarks essentially “wiped out” the May proposal. A senior Israeli negotiator informed the families of hostages that even the first phase of the proposed deal—a six-week ceasefire in exchange for the release of women, children, and elderly hostages—was unlikely to materialize. “The only way forward is to end the war,” the negotiator reportedly told them. The stalled negotiations have raised concerns of further escalation, especially in northern Israel, where hostilities with Hezbollah could intensify in the absence of a deal. The Biden administration, initially optimistic, is reportedly less hopeful now, with U.S. officials expressing “significant pessimism” after Hamas increased its demands, including the release of 100 additional prisoners serving life sentences. U.S. mediators are urging Qatar and Egypt to explore the limits of Hamas’s demands before any new proposals are presented. The stalled talks come amid growing pressure from hostage families, who have launched daily protests outside the IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv, urging the government to prioritize a deal. The situation has also sparked protests in Washington, where families of hostages are demanding more action from Israeli officials stationed in the U.S. Currently, 97 hostages are believed to remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 33 individuals confirmed dead by the IDF. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Former war cabinet member Benny Gantz has suggested that Israel should redirect its attention towards Hezbollah and the situation on the Lebanese border, cautioning that “we are late on this.”

The ongoing conflict has seen frequent cross-border exchanges between Israel and the Iran-supported Hezbollah, with the Lebanese terror group claiming its actions are in support of Hamas amid the Gaza war.

“We have enough forces to deal with Gaza and we should concentrate on what is going on in the north,” Gantz stated during a Middle East forum in Washington, DC, where he also labeled Iran and its allies as “the real issue.”

“The time of the north has come and actually I think we are late on this,” the former military leader and centrist politician remarked.

Gantz criticized Israel’s decision to evacuate a significant portion of the northern regions following the escalation with Hezbollah after the Hamas attack on October 7 that instigated the Gaza conflict.

“In Gaza, we have crossed a decisive point of the campaign,” he noted. “We can conduct anything we want in Gaza. We should seek to have a deal to get out our hostages but if we cannot in the coming time, a few days or few weeks, or whatever it is, we should go up north.”

“We are capable of… hitting the state of Lebanon if needed,” he asserted.

“The story of Hamas is old news,” he continued, emphasizing instead that “the story of Iran and its proxies all around the area and what they are trying to do is the real issue.”

{Matzav.com Israel}

A dramatic incident took place on Highway 6, one of Israel’s main highways, early Monday afternoon, when a large number of Israeli security forces with drawn weapons stopped traffic and arrested Palestinian terror suspects in the middle of a highway as a police helicopter circled above. Acting on Shin Bet intelligence about terrorists in a vehicle believed to be on the way to commit an imminent terror attack in the Sharon region, a large number of undercover police officers, Shin Bet operatives and special forces were dispatched to the area. Undercover police officers with drawn weapons and police officers in uniform suddenly jumped out of their vehicles and stopped a Mercedes van, ordering the occupants out of the vehicles and arresting them at the scene. The police later provided a brief update, stating that Highway 6 was closed to traffic from the Horeshim interchange northward due to a police operation related to a security concern. They confirmed that the suspicious vehicle was stopped, all its occupants were arrested for questioning and a bomb squad is examining the vehicle. The police later stated that 13 suspects from the vehicle were detained and transferred for questioning. No explosives or weapons were found in the vehicle or on the Palestinians and the threat of an imminent terror attack was ruled out. The van was driven by an Israeli who was transporting Palestinians who were in Israel illegally, including the main suspect, a Palestinian who is alleged to have entered Israel in order to commit a terror attack.       (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

A new report from The Telegraph claims that the BBC violated its own editorial guidelines 1,533 times during its early coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, according to a study led by British-Israeli lawyer Trevor Asserson, which found a “deeply worrying pattern of bias” against Israel in the BBC’s reporting. Asserson’s team, comprising around 20 lawyers and 20 data scientists, used artificial intelligence to analyze approximately nine million words of BBC coverage across multiple languages and platforms from the start of the war on October 7. Their 100-page report, due for public release on Monday, claims that BBC coverage disproportionately linked Israel to war crimes, genocide, and international law violations, while downplaying Hamas terrorism. The BBC’s Arabic service was singled out as one of the most biased outlets in global media. The report also criticized the BBC for mentioning Hamas’s designation as a terrorist organization only 3.2% of the time, despite its October pledge to describe the group as a “proscribed terrorist organization.” The study further alleges that several freelance journalists employed by the BBC had previously expressed support for Hamas without disclosing these biases. A BBC spokesman responded, raising concerns about the methodology used, especially its reliance on AI to assess impartiality. “We don’t think coverage can be assessed solely by counting particular words divorced from context,” the spokesman said, defending the network’s approach to achieving “due impartiality” and pledging to review the report. The findings were widely shared by Israel’s Foreign Ministry and hailed by Jewish community groups and media watchdogs. Gideon Falter, leader of the Campaign Against Antisemitism, called for “a transparent and unconstrained public inquiry,” while Laurence Julius, vice-chairman of the UK’s National Jewish Assembly, criticized the BBC for “nurturing an anti-Israel and antisemitic narrative.” British lawmakers also weighed in, with Sir Oliver Dowden, shadow deputy prime minister, stating that “serious questions should be asked,” and Conservative MP Greg Smith urging the government to ensure greater compliance with the BBC’s neutrality and fairness requirements. Trevor Asserson has a long history of challenging BBC coverage of Israel. He previously founded BBCWatch in 2000 and published several reports accusing the broadcaster of anti-Israel bias. He is now launching a new initiative, Campaign for Media Standards, aimed at monitoring bias across British media. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Several of the six Israeli hostages executed by Hamas in Gaza approximately ten days ago reportedly fought back against their captors, according to information relayed by the Israel Defense Forces to their families.

IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagari has informed the relatives of the victims—Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Ori Danino, Eden Yerushalmi, Almog Sarusi, Alexander Lobanov, and Carmel Gat—about the harsh conditions in which they were detained and their bravery during their final moments, as reported by Channel 12 and Channel 13.

Hagari, who met with the families recently, provided them with what Channel 12 news described as preliminary results from the army’s investigation into the event. This included details of the severe conditions endured by the hostages and evidence from the tunnel where they were executed.

The IDF suspects that the hostages were killed a day or so before the IDF reached the tunnel on August 31, according to the report.

“Several of the six are assessed to have defended themselves and struggled with those who shot them,” the report stated.

Channel 13 reported “forensic” findings indicating that “Hersh, Ori, Alex and Almog defended Eden and Carmel.”

The hostages were confined in a cramped tunnel, so narrow that it could barely accommodate two people side by side and too low for them to stand fully upright, as detailed in the Channel 12 report.

The tunnel lacked air vents, making breathing difficult for the hostages, the families were informed.

There were no restrooms or showers in the tunnel. The hostages had to clean themselves using water from the bottles they had.

Protein bars were discovered in the tunnel, but the hostages had very limited food, causing them to lose significant weight; Yerushalmi, for instance, weighed only 36 kilograms (80 pounds) before her death.

The tunnel contained a generator and a small flashlight that was often malfunctioning, a chess set, writing tools, and notepads. The IDF has returned the notepads to the respective families, as reported by Channel 12.

A family member, who chose to remain anonymous, told Channel 12 that the hostages “did everything to survive in impossible circumstances… and in the end Hamas murdered them… Their only demand was that the government save them, and the government failed in its mission.”

The IDF recovered the bodies of the six during the night of August 31 to September 1. An initial autopsy performed on September 1 revealed that they had been shot multiple times at close range two to three days prior.

Last week, Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu condemned the murderers, stating that the hostages had been killed “in cold blood. They riddled them with bullets… They shot them in the back of the head.”

{Matzav.com Israel}

President Joe Biden, the oldest commander-in-chief in U.S. history at 81, seems to have mastered the art of vacationing—so much so that his time off would take the average American worker 48 years to accumulate, according to a New York Post report. Apparently, running the country can be done from a beach chair. The Post‘s analysis revealed that Biden has spent a whopping 532 days on vacation, or 40.3% of his presidency, through August 2024. In simpler terms, he’s spent almost as much time lounging as he has pretending to run the country. With most Americans lucky to get 11 vacation days a year, it would take them nearly five decades to match Biden’s break time. “The image of Biden fast asleep and lying flat on his back in his chair at the beach while America and the world is on fire will define the Biden presidency,” quipped former White House budget office general counsel Mark Paoletta. Inflation is through the roof, the border is a disaster, and global tensions are boiling over—but don’t worry, Biden’s soaking up the sun. If you thought the workload might pick up after he dropped out of the 2024 race, think again. Biden’s extended R&R this summer has some speculating he’s “annoyed with fellow Democrats” for pushing him to step aside. Apparently, when the going gets tough, Biden heads for the nearest vacation spot. It’s worth noting that Trump, who was no stranger to criticism over his own trips, only spent 26% of his presidency on personal outings, while Obama, who was still spry compared to Biden, only spent 11%. Clearly, Biden’s got them both beat in the “vacation presidency” category. The White House, unsurprisingly, denies that Biden’s sun-soaked getaways are excessive. Spokesman Andrew Bates quipped, “It’s not a surprise that the same geniuses who attack President Biden for petting hero dogs and liking ice cream can’t count,” before assuring everyone that Biden works “hard every day, wherever he is”—whether that’s the Oval Office or a beach resort. So while the world watches crises unfold, rest assured, America: Joe Biden is hard at work… on his tan. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Question: How Do I Know Which Online Speakers Are Legitimate?

Stick to Orthodox rabbis who remain steadfast to the Torah. Give a list of the speakers you are interested in to a rabbi you trust, and he will tell you which ones are authentic.

WATCH:

Emergency personnel including Flatbush Hatzolah were on the scene of an MVA involving an overturned vehicle at Avenue P and Ocean Parkway, early Monday morning. Injuries were reported.

LISTEN:

https://matzav.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Bitachon4Life-Shiur-1311-Tikvah-Part-106.mp3

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Several waves of Israeli-attributed airstrikes hit central Syria overnight Sunday, targeting the Masyaf area, a city in Syria’s Hama province. According to Syrian media reports, at least 14 people were killed and 43 were injured in the strikes that were described in Arab media as the “most massive wave of attacks in years.” The strikes targeted positions of the pro-Iranian militias and the Revolutionary Guards in Syria. Reuters quoted two “regional intelligence sources” as saying that a major military research center for chemical arms production near Masyaf was struck several times. The center is believed to host a team of Iranian military experts involved in manufacturing precision surface-to-surface missiles. The strikes destroyed buildings and caused fires to break out in the surrounding forest area. Israel has not commented on the strikes. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

The Hezbollah terror group in southern Lebanon launched a drone attack on Israel on Monday morning at about 11 a.m., triggering a series of sirens in cities and communities across northern Israel. One of the drones scored a direct hit on an apartment on one of the upper floors of a 14-story residential apartment building in Nahariya. B’Chasdei Hashem, there were no injuries. The police stated: “The police are currently handling the scene of a rocket hit in Nahariya. Initial reports indicate that the impact site is in a residential area with no reports of injuries at this stage. Officers and bomb disposal units are now isolating the impact site and searching for additional shrapnel fragments to remove further risk to the public.” The video below shows the moment the drone hits the building in footage taken from security cameras: (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

LISTEN:

https://matzav.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Tefila4Life-Shiur-854-Source.mp3

On Sunday night, Syrian media reported a series of assaults allegedly carried out by Israel across multiple regions, including Hama, Homs, Tartus, and Damascus.

According to these reports, the attacks inflicted significant damage on a “scientific research institute” located in the Masyaf area of Hama’s countryside, which was struck by multiple missiles.

The reports also mentioned that various military positions were targeted during the strikes.

The Saudi Al-Hadath channel stated that a total of 15 missiles were launched in the attacks.

The reports suggest that this wave of Israeli assaults represents the most intense offensive in Syria in several years.

A Syrian military spokesperson informed local TV that “around 11:20 p.m., Israel launched an air strike from the direction of Lebanon against several military sites in the central area of Syria.”

The spokesperson added that Syrian defense systems engaged the incoming missiles and managed to intercept some. The reports indicated that the strikes resulted in the deaths of five Syrians and injuries to 15 others, with damage reported at the targeted locations.

Israel has yet to provide any comment on these reports.

In late August, Syrian media reported an air raid in Homs, which was attributed to Israel.

These reports claimed that the country’s air defense systems were activated in response to “hostile targets”. Al-Hadath further reported that the strike was aimed at a Hezbollah military installation.

Earlier that month, Syrian state media disclosed that four military personnel sustained injuries in an air raid on Homs, also attributed to Israel.

The reports mentioned that the assault originated from northern Lebanon and resulted in “some material damage.”

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based group affiliated with the Syrian opposition, reported seven injuries from the strike, including three members of pro-Iranian militias.

{Matzav.com Israel}

When Donald Trump and Kamala Harris meet onstage Tuesday night in Philadelphia, they’ll both know there’s little debate that Pennsylvania is critical to their chances of winning the presidency. The most populous presidential swing state has sided with the winner of the past two elections, each time by just tens of thousands of votes. Polling this year suggests Pennsylvania will be close once more in November. A loss in the state will make it difficult to make up the electoral votes elsewhere to win the presidency. Trump and Harris have been frequent visitors in recent days — Harris plans to return on Friday — and the former president was speaking in Butler County on July 14 when he was the target of an assassination attempt. The stakes may be especially high for Harris: No Democrat has won the White House without Pennsylvania since 1948. Pennsylvanians broke a string of six Democratic victories in the state when they helped propel Trump to victory in 2016, then backed native son Joe Biden in the 2020 race against Trump. “They say that ‘If you win Pennsylvania, you’re going to win the whole thing,’” Trump told a crowd in Wilkes-Barre’s Mohegan Arena in August. Republicans are looking to blunt Trump’s unpopularity in Pennsylvania’s growing and increasingly liberal suburbs by criticizing the Biden administration’s handling of the economy. They hope to counter the Democrats’ massive advantage in early voting by encouraging their base to vote by mail. Harris is looking to reassemble the coalition behind Biden’s winning campaign, including college students, Black voters and women animated by protecting abortion rights. Democrats also say it will be critical for Harris to win big in Philadelphia — the state’s largest city, where Black residents are the largest group by race — and its suburbs, while paring Trump’s large margins among white voters across wide swaths of rural and small-town Pennsylvania. The debate is set for the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. The city is a Democratic stronghold where Trump in 2020 notoriously said “ bad things happen,” one of his baseless broadsides suggesting that Democrats could only win Pennsylvania by cheating. Biden flipped Pennsylvania in 2020 not just by winning big in Philadelphia, but by running up bigger margins in the heavily populated suburbs around Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. He also got a boost in northeastern Pennsylvania in the counties around Scranton, where he grew up. Ed Rendell, a former two-term Democratic governor who was hugely popular in Philadelphia and its suburbs, says Harris can do better than Biden in the suburbs. “There’s plenty of votes to get, a Democrat can get a greater margin in those counties,” Rendell said. Lawrence Tabas, chair of Pennsylvania’s Republican Party, said Trump can make gains there, too. The GOP’s polling and outreach shows that the effect of inflation on the economy is a priority for those suburbanites, he said, and that the issue works in the party’s favor. “A lot of people are really now starting to say, ‘Look, personalities aside, they are what they are, but we really need the American economy to become strong again,’” Tabas said. Rendell dismisses that claim. He said Trump is veering off script and saying bizarre things that will ensure he gets a smaller share of independents and Republicans in the suburbs than he […]

President Joe Biden was so determined to leave Afghanistan that he disregarded advice against it, ignored requests from the Afghan government, and dismissed concerns from American allies.

This was one of the key conclusions drawn from the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s over two-year investigation into the disorderly and tragic Afghanistan withdrawal, according to a damning report published on Sunday.

“Throughout his lengthy service as a US senator from Delaware, his eight years as vice president, and nearly four years as president, Mr. Biden has shown distrust toward military experts and advisors. He has prioritized politics and his legacy over the national security of the United States,” the roughly 350-page report declared.

The Biden administration repeatedly misled and deceived the American public in an attempt to garner support for his unwavering belief that the US should quickly conclude its 20-year conflict in Afghanistan, the investigation revealed.

The prior administration, under President Donald Trump, had negotiated the Doha Agreement with both the Afghan government and the Taliban to bring an end to the US war in Afghanistan.

However, Biden moved forward with minimal regard for the agreement’s terms—regardless of the potential consequences—despite later blaming the same agreement for his decision, the report concluded.

The Doha Agreement, which was signed in 2020, outlined that the US would withdraw its forces from Afghanistan if the Taliban fulfilled specific obligations.

These included cutting ties with al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups, halting attacks on US and coalition forces, reducing violence against Afghan forces, and initiating negotiations with the Afghan government, the report stated.

But Biden’s unwavering determination pushed aside these critical provisions, according to the document.

Purely for Appearances

On February 4, 2021, then-State Department spokesman Ned Price announced that the US would begin reviewing the Taliban’s compliance with the Doha Agreement to assess whether a swift withdrawal from Afghanistan was appropriate.

Yet “during his testimony before the committee, contrary to his public remarks, Mr. Price admitted that the Taliban’s compliance with the Doha Agreement was actually ‘irrelevant’ to the Biden-Harris administration’s decision to leave Afghanistan,” the report found.

The administration’s “deceptions” and “false statements” only continued, according to the review.

“Press releases lacked crucial information about the Taliban’s non-compliance with the Doha Agreement, the ongoing terrorist presence in Afghanistan, the capabilities of the Afghan government and military with and without U.S. support, and NATO allies’ disagreements with the US withdrawal plan,” the report said.

“The Taliban violated key parts of the Doha Agreement, but the Biden-Harris administration insisted it was evaluating the group’s compliance,” the report said.

“In reality, the conditions were completely irrelevant to them.”

Expert Advice Dismissed

Biden made the decision to withdraw entirely despite the near-unanimous opposition from military leaders, according to the findings.

“Contrary to President Biden’s public statements, our investigation has uncovered that the secretary of defense, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the commander of US Central Command, the secretary of state, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the commander of NATO’s Resolute Support Mission and US Forces-Afghanistan all advised against withdrawing all US forces from Afghanistan—both during and after the interagency review,” the report said.

The Biden administration also disregarded the concerns of the international community, charging ahead despite objections from NATO nations that had supported the US effort in Afghanistan.

Afghan leaders themselves also pleaded for more time, arguing the country wasn’t ready for a complete US departure.

“General Haibatullah Alizai—former Afghan Army general—informed the committee staff that he begged American commanders on the ground for additional time, saying, ‘Just tell your leadership to stay with us for two more years. … We’re going to take the initiative … it’s in our favor and we can defeat the Taliban,’” the report noted.

Lack of Preparation

The report painted an image of an administration that was far more concerned with the political optics of the withdrawal than with planning for foreseeable events.

In a particularly pointed section, the report highlighted that Biden didn’t officially authorize a noncombatant evacuation operation (NEO)—the largest such effort in US history—until August 16, 2021, a day after Kabul had already fallen to the Taliban and just two weeks before the last US troops left the city.

“The failure to plan for a NEO had consequences not just for Americans and allies in Afghanistan, but also for US personnel on the ground who were forced to evacuate desperate civilians in a dangerous setting,” the report explained. “These concerns were sidelined by the Biden-Harris administration in favor of optics.”

“Rather than acknowledge their failure, US service members and foreign service officers were told to prioritize evacuating as many individuals as possible, regardless of the risks to their own lives.”

Implications for Harris

Vice President Kamala Harris was mentioned only sparingly in the report, a detail that led former committee senior investigator Jerry Dunleavy to resign from the investigation in protest.

“Harris was the last person in the room when President Biden decided to pull out all US forces from Afghanistan; she even boasted about this shortly after Biden gave the go-ahead,” the report emphasized, referring to earlier media coverage.

She was among 15 administration officials the report urged Congress to formally condemn for their role in the Afghanistan debacle.

The report’s publication comes just two days before Harris’s televised debate against Trump in Philadelphia. Some, like Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, have accused the committee of timing the release for political gain.

But the committee’s chairman, Michael McCaul (R-Texas), defended the timing in a Sunday appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” saying, “It’s taken me two years to get to this point because of obstruction—I’ve had to issue subpoena after subpoena.”

McCaul did fault Trump for excluding the Afghan government from the Doha Agreement negotiations, which took place under his administration.

Ongoing Investigation

Despite the committee’s release of its expansive report, its inquiry into the Afghanistan withdrawal is far from finished.

“There are still many unanswered questions regarding the [Department of Defense] … [concerning] what happened on the ground,” McCaul said.

The committee, which conducted 18 transcribed interviews, reviewed over 20,000 pages of documents, and held seven public hearings, is also pushing for reforms to the National Security Council and the State Department.

“Chairman McCaul’s report is riddled with cherry-picked details, inaccurate portrayals, and preconceived biases that have tainted the investigation from day one,” said Sharon Yang, a White House representative for oversight and investigations.

{Matzav.com}

Former Venezuelan presidential candidate Edmundo González arrived in Spain on Sunday after fleeing into exile in as part of a negotiated deal with Nicolas Maduro’s government that dealt a major blow to millions who placed their hopes in his opposition campaign. The surprise departure of the man considered by Venezuela’s opposition and several foreign governments to be the legitimate winner of July 28 presidential election was announced late Saturday by Venezuelan officials who just a few days ago ordered his arrest. González landed Sunday at a military airport near Madrid, accompanied by his wife and Spanish officials, Spain’s foreign ministry said. Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado tried to put a positive spin on his departure, assuring Venezuelans the 75-year-old retired diplomat would be back on Jan. 10 for a swearing-in ceremony marking the start of the next presidential term. “His life was in danger, and the increasing threats, summons, arrest warrants and even attempts at blackmail and coercion to which he has been subjected, demonstrate that the regime has no scruples,” Machado said on X. “Let this be very clear to everyone: Edmundo will fight from outside alongside our diaspora.” Despair in Caracas But on the streets of Caracas on Sunday the mood was one of despair at the loss of someone who, against the odds, reignited a movement to end more than two decades of single party rule. “What little hope we had left, it went with him,” said Laura Vargas, as she scrolled through the news on her cellphone while sitting on a park bench. González joins the swelling ranks of opposition stalwarts who once fought Maduro only to throw in the towel and seek asylum abroad in the face of a brutal crackdown. In Spain, he joins at least four former presidential hopefuls who were imprisoned or faced arrest for defying Maduro’s rule. Ever since the vote, he and Machado have been in hiding as security forces rounded up more than 2,000 people, many of them young Venezuelans who spontaneously took to the streets to protest Maduro’s alleged theft of the election. Venezuelan officials have yet to comment. Vice President Delcy Rodríguez said in a statement late Saturday that the government decided to grant González safe passage out of the country to help restore “the country’s political peace and tranquility.” Spain’s center-left government said the decision to leave Venezuela was González’s alone, and he departed on a plane sent by the country’s air force. González originally sought refuge in the Dutch ambassador’s residence in Caracas, the Netherlands’ government said Sunday, and later transferred to Spain’s diplomatic mission as the terms of his exit were negotiated in secret. Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares told Spanish broadcaster RTVE that his government will grant González political asylum as he requested. “Of course, I told him we were pleased that he is well and on his way to Spain, and I reiterated the commitment of our government to the political rights of all Venezuelans,” Albares said while en route to China for a state visit with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. The European Union’s foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, a former Spanish foreign minister, described González’s departure as “a sad day for democracy in Venezuela.” Referring to González as the apparent winner of the presidential elections, Borrell in a statement said the ”EU will […]

Authorities searched a rugged and hilly area of southeastern Kentucky on Sunday for a man who they believe may be linked to the shooting of nine vehicles and wounding of five people on a busy highway. Although they said they could not yet name him a suspect in Saturday’s shootings along Interstate 75, authorities said they consider 32-year-old Joseph A. Couch a “person of interest” and were searching for him in a remote area north of London, a community of about 8,000 people roughly 75 miles (120 kilometers) south of Lexington. “We’re going to go in and we’re going to find this guy,” Deputy Gilbert Acciardo, a spokesperson for the Laurel County Sheriff’s Office, told reporters Sunday. Authorities consider Couch, who is white, to be armed and dangerous, and they cautioned members of the public who might spot him not to approach him. Acciardo said law enforcement got a “lucky break” that led them to zero in on Couch as a person of interest, but that he couldn’t elaborate. Acciardo said authorities were notified at about 5:30 p.m. Saturday about gunshots along the highway near exit 49. An individual who was “off that exit” fired multiple rounds into the northbound and southbound lanes, striking nine vehicles and wounding five people, he said. The shooter was not in a vehicle at the time. “When our first two units got to the scene there, they said it was a madhouse: people on the sides of the road, emergency flashers going, bullet holes, windows shot out, nine vehicles shot. Can you imagine that? Just chaotic,” Acciardo said during a news conference. The wounded were hospitalized in stable condition early Sunday. Some had “very serious” injuries, including one person who was shot in the face, Acciardo said. Residents of Laurel County were on edge as authorities searched on foot Sunday in a remote wooded area near the highway that has only one business and a few houses nearby. London Laurel Rescue squad sent a drone to assist. State lawmakers from Laurel County urged residents in the area to stay home during the search. “We had numerous calls throughout the county and we’re still getting them this morning,” Acciardo said, of calls from concerned community members. “This is a remote area. If he was going to target some place that he wanted to do something like this, it was the perfect spot.” Rodney Goodlett, pastor of Faith Assembly of God in London, was helping direct traffic as parishioners gathered for a service Sunday morning. He said he expected the search to hold down attendance. “There’s definitely people … that probably won’t be here today — just nervous with the suspect still at large,” he said. Goodlett said the congregation was going to pray for the community, the wounded and the first responders, some of whom attend Faith Assembly, where around 275 parishioners pray each week. “This is tragic, obviously, that somebody would randomly do violent acts,” he said. “You hear media things taking place all around our country, but then when it hits home, it’s a little bit of a wake-up call.” Authorities believe there was only one shooter, and Acciardo said they do not think the shooting was sparked by road rage. Authorities released a photo of Couch and warned residents to be on […]

Mahmoud al-Habbash, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas adviser on religious and Islamic affairs, recently hailed terrorist attacks against Israelis as “resistance” in an interview with Egypt’s state-linked Al Qahera News television channel.

“What happened in Tubas, Tulkarem, Jenin and Nablus and Chevron is an Israeli continuation of the war of annihilation and expulsion against the Palestinian people and an attempt to empty the Palestinian homeland,” al-Habbash said in the interview, which aired on Sept. 3 but was discovered by the Palestinian Media Watch NGO on Thursday.

Al-Habbash’s comments referred to ongoing Israel Defense Forces’ counterterrorism operations throughout Palestinian Authority-controlled cities in Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley.

“Is there fighting in the literal and traditional sense of the word? Not at all,” he said. “Yes, there is Palestinian resistance, and this is our right, and it is the right of every Palestinian to defend himself. There is a unilateral war against the Palestinian people, and there are Palestinian attempts to respond and carry out self-defense.”

Al-Habbash, the Palestinian Authority’s top Sharia judge and a former minister of awqaf (“endowment”) and religious affairs, spoke days after terrorists linked to Abbas’s Fatah movement carried out a twin car bombing in the Gush Etzion area of Judea, wounding two Israeli soldiers and a security guard.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a “military” arm of the Fatah party, also claimed responsibility on Sept. 2 for a terrorist drive-by shooting that killed three Israeli police officers near the city of Hebron in Judea.

The IDF has confirmed that terrorist Muhannad al-Aswad had links to the Palestinian Authority and had served in Abbas’s presidential guard.

The U.S. State Department told JNS last week that Fatah and Abbas have “consistently” proven their commitment to peace with the Jewish state.

“The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which the U.S. designated as a terrorist organization decades ago, has claimed responsibility for these attacks,” a State Department spokesperson stated. “Despite some historical linkages in the past, it is important to note that this group is separate from the Fatah party,” the spokesperson claimed.

Arab media routinely describe the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades as Fatah’s “military wing,” and the ruling Palestinian faction has long expressed support for the terrorist organization, which Ramallah pledged to disband under an agreement with Israel brokered in July 2007.

In a statement issued during the 2014 Gaza war (“Operation Protective Edge”), the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades said that “Fatah’s Central Committee, Fatah’s Revolutionary Council and the regional Fatah leadership are supporting us, and they praised our Brigades’ efforts to attack the oppressing enemy [Israel].” JNS

{Matzav.com Israel}

Israel is committed to upholding the status quo on the Har Habayis, President Isaac Herzog assured U.S. Ambassador Jack Lew on Sunday after National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir issued a call for the construction of a shul at Judaism’s holiest site.

Herzog stressed his “unequivocal commitment to preserving the status quo at the holy site—in accordance with political agreements laid down since 1967 [with Jordan], and in the spirit of the rulings by leading rabbis and religious figures over the last 100 years,” an official told reporters.

Earlier on Sunday, Israeli lawmaker Yitzchok Kroizer, a member of Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit Party, ascended the Har Habayis in prayer.

According to a readout from the President’s Residence, Herzog in his meeting with Lew also touched on Sunday morning’s deadly terrorist shooting at the Allenby border crossing to Jordan, saying that “the peace agreements between Israel and its neighbors are a cornerstone of stability in the region, and we trust all parties will thoroughly investigate the incident and work to prevent future attacks.”

The Israeli head of state added, “This horrific act reinforces our resolve to stand firm in the face of terror, and we will continue to fight with determination against terrorism and extremist elements which seek to undermine our security, and the stability of the whole region.”

Herzog “expressed his concern for the stability in the region, with Iranian-backed terror continuing to threaten Israel on many fronts—especially over the upcoming period of Jewish religious festivals, and the year anniversary of the Hamas massacre of October 7,” per the readout.

Under a status quo arrangement reached with Jordan in the wake of the 1967 Six-Day War, Jews may visit the Har Habayis but not pray there.

Matthew Miller, the U.S. State Department spokesman, told reporters the following day that the proposed Jewish house of worship “on the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount” would “demonstrate blatant disregard for the historic status quo with respect to the holy sites in Jerusalem.” JNS

{Matzav.com Israel}

Two NATO members said Sunday that Russian drones have violated their airspace, as one reportedly flew into Romania during nighttime attacks on neighboring Ukraine while another crashed in eastern Latvia the previous day. A drone entered Romanian territory early on Sunday as Moscow struck “civilian targets and port infrastructure” across the Danube in Ukraine, Romania’s Ministry of National Defense reported. It added Bucharest had deployed F-16 warplanes to monitor its airspace and issued text alerts to residents of two eastern regions. It also said investigations were underway of a potential “impact zone” in an uninhabited zone along the Romanian-Ukrainian border. There were no immediate reports of any casualties or damage. Later on Sunday, Latvia’s Defense Minister Andris Sprūds said that a Russian drone fell the day before near the town of Rezekne, and had likely strayed into Latvia from neighboring Belarus. Rezekne, home to over 25,000 people, lies some 55 kilometers (34 miles) west of Russia and around 75 kilometers (47 miles) from Belarus, the Kremlin’s close and dependent ally. While the incursion into Latvian airspace appeared to be a rare incident, Romania has confirmed drone fragments on its territory on several occasions since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, as recently as July this year. Mircea Geoana, NATO’s outgoing deputy secretary-general and Romania’s former top diplomat, said on Sunday morning that the military alliance condemned Russia’s violation of Romanian airspace. “While we have no information indicating an intentional attack by Russia against Allies, these acts are irresponsible and potentially dangerous,” he wrote on X. Latvia’s military on Sunday similarly said that there were no indications that Moscow or Minsk purposely sent a drone into the country. In a public statement, the military said it had identified the crash site, and that a probe was ongoing. Sprūds, the Latvian defense minister, sought to downplay the significance of the drone incursion. “I can confirm that there are no victims here and also no property is infringed in any way,” Defense Minister Andris Sprūds told the Latvian Radio on Sunday, adding that any risks in the event were immediately eliminated: “Of course, it is a serious incident, as it is once again a reminder of what kind of neighboring countries we live next to.” Civilians reported killed in Ukraine In Ukraine, two civilians died and four more suffered wounds in a nighttime Russian airstrike on the northern city of Sumy, the regional military administration reported. Two children were among those wounded, the administration said. The Russian Defense Ministry claimed later that day that its forces struck foreign pro-Kyiv fighters in a village on Sumy’s northern outskirts. It was not immediately clear whether this was a reference to the same attack. In the Kharkiv region in the east, overnight shelling killed two elderly women, according to local Gov. Oleh Syniehubov. During the night, Ukrainian air defenses shot down one of four cruise missiles and 15 of 23 Iranian-made Shahed drones launched by Russia, Ukraine’s air force reported. It added that none of the cruise missiles had hit targets. Later on Sunday, three women were killed after Russian forces shelled a village in the eastern Donetsk region, Gov. Vadym Filashkin reported on the Telegram messaging app. Elsewhere in the province, rescue teams pulled the bodies of two men from the rubble of a hotel destroyed on […]