Armed wing of Abbas-led Fatah claims responsibility for murdering Israeli couple
(JNS.org) A terror unit within Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party has claimed responsibility for Thursday’s murder of an Israeli Jewish couple.
The Abdel Qader al-Husseini Brigades, a terror group that is affiliated with Fatah’s al-Aqsa Martyr’s Bridgade, said Friday that it was behind the slaying of Eitam and Na’ama Henkin, Israelis in their 30s who were shot dead inside of their vehicle while driving home with their four children in northern Samaria. The four children were not wounded.
“With Allah’s help and in keeping with our right for resistance and our duty to sacred jihad, our forces on Thursday night carried out a necessary action in which they fired on a car of occupying settlers that left the settlement of Itamar, built on Palestinian lands in the south of the city of Hebron. They fired on the car and killed the settler and his partner,” the Fatah-linked terror group said.
Israeli leaders blamed Abbas for inciting the attack by announcing at the United Nations a day earlier that the Palestinians would no longer abide by the 1993 Oslo Accords.
“It has been proven again that the wild Palestinian incitement leads to acts of terrorism and murder such as we have seen this evening,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
“I think this is the result of Mahmoud Abbas’s incitement like we saw yesterday at the [U.N.] General Assembly. We need to be tough against any sign of violence and arrest the people [behind this attack],” Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked told JNS.org Thursday night at an event Boston.
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Islamic State reportedly gains ground near Israeli Golan Heights
(JNS.org) The Islamic State terror group is reportedly making gains in the Golan Heights region near the Israeli-Syrian border as rebel groups operating in the area face ammunition and weaponry shortages.
According to a spokesman from the Free Syrian Army, the moderate group fighting both the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad and Islamic State, there are around 500-700 Islamic State fighters currently active in the Syrian Golan Heights towns of Jamlah and Ash-Shajarah, which are adjacent to the Israeli border, the Times of Israel reported.
“The current situation is very bad,” the spokesman said. “No battles are taking place [with Assad forces] in our sector because there’s no ammunition.”
The report comes as the Syrian civil war takes the new twist of Russia’s military buildup and launch of airstrikes against enemies of Assad, its ally. While Russia is claiming to be targeting Islamic State, the U.S. has accused Russia of launching airstrikes against moderate Syrian rebel groups battling Assad.
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U.S. officials Kerry, Power miss Netanyahu U.N. speech over Obama video talk
(JNS.org) High-ranking American officials Secretary of State John Kerry and Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power missed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday due to a video conference with President Barack Obama, Breitbart News reported.
“Ambassador Power and Secretary Kerry were unable to attend Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech before the General Assembly because they were called into a meeting with President Obama, which they participated in via video teleconference,” a State Department Official told the website, without revealing the reason for the video conference.
Instead, the U.S. was represented at the speech by Alternate Representative of the U.S. to the U.N. for Special Political Affairs David Pressman, Alternate Representative to the U.N. General Assembly Richard Erdman, and Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro, said the official.
During his speech, Netanyahu reiterated Israel’s staunch opposition to the Obama administration-brokered Iran nuclear deal.
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Bar Kokhba-era antiquities site razed by Palestinian vandals
(JNS.org) An Israeli antiquities site that served as an encampment for Jewish leader Shimon Bar Kokhba during his revolt against the Romans from 132 to 136 C.E. has been destroyed by Palestinian vandals, Israel Hayom reported.
Discoveries made at the Kiryat Araba site, located in Judea and Samaria, have been a vital source of information about the period of the Bar Kokhba Revolt, and its destruction is a blow to research efforts.
In 1968, a winding, branching cave was discovered at the site, the first of the system of caves where Bar Kokhba hid to be discovered. A few years later, the Kfar Etzion Field School began conducting excavations at the site under the guidance of Professor Yoram Tsafrir, which turned up exciting finds and shed light on the final days of the revolt.
The cave was originally dug beneath the ancient community of Kiryat Araba, which is mentioned in scrolls found at Nahal Hever in the Judean Desert. The Nahal Hever scrolls also include military correspondence between Bar Kokhba and his fighters.
Field school director Yaron Rosenthal said Thursday that “while the cultured world is appalled at the destruction of ancient cities in Iraq and Syria by [the Islamic State terror group], we are witnessing broad-scale destruction of antiquities in our country.”
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Israeli couple shot dead in car in northern Samaria, four children rescued
(JNS.org) An Israeli Jewish couple was shot dead in their vehicle on Thursday night in northern Samaria.
According to Magen David Adom paramedics, Eitam and Na’ama Henkin, who were in their 30s, were found dead at the scene with wounds to their torso. Four of their children, including a 4-month-old baby, a 4-year-old, a 7-year-old, and a 9-year-old, were recused from the car and were unharmed.
The terrorist attack occurred near the Jewish communities of Elon Moreh and Itamar in Samaria. Israel is still searching for the terrorists behind the attack.
“It was a very difficult scene,” said Magen David Adom paramedic Boaz Malka, who was one of the first to arrive on the scene.
“We saw a vehicle in the middle of the road, and a man in his thirties lying next to it with wounds in his upper torso. Inside the car sat a woman in her 30s, also with severe wounds to her upper torso. They were without any signs of life, and unfortunately we were forced to pronounce them dead at the scene,” he said.
Israeli leaders blamed Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for inciting the attack by announcing at the United Nations a day earlier that Palestinians would no longer abide by the 1993 Oslo Accords.
“Abu Mazen’s (Abbas’s) marching order was answered this evening in Israel, and it is red with blood,” said Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett, leader of the Jewish Home party. “A nation whose leaders incite murder will never have a state, and that has to be said clearly. The time for talking is over. Now is the time for action.”
“It has been proven again that the wild Palestinian incitement leads to acts of terrorism and murder such as we have seen this evening,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said, “Tonight, bloodthirsty murderers claimed the lives of a mother and a father, leaving their young children orphaned. The heart breaks at the magnitude of such cruelty and hatred. We will continue in our brave and unwavering fight against this cruel and heinous terrorism—of this our enemies can be sure. This is our duty, and the only way we can ensure the right of the orphans who lost their parents tonight, along with the right of all our children and grandchildren, to live with security and in peace, everywhere in the Land of Israel.”
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Benjamin Netanyahu at United Nations: don’t sweep Iran threat under the rug
(JNS.org) In his latest widely anticipated address to the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used the international platform to amplify his opposition to the Iran nuclear deal and to warn the world body not to sweep Iran’s aggression and violations “under the Persian rug.”
“As leader of a country defending against Iran’s aggression, I wish I could take comfort in the claim this deal blocks Iran’s path to nukes,” Netanyahu said.
“I have long said that the greatest danger facing our world is the coupling of militant Islam with nuclear weapons,” and that the nuclear deal is the “marriage certificate of that unholy union,” he added.
For his prop this year—the Israeli leader’s bomb diagram from 2012is well-known—Netanyahu chose to use a copy of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s recently published book that outlines a long-term plan for Israel’s destruction.
“It’s not easy for Israel to oppose something embraced by the greatest powers in the world. Believe me, it would be far easier to keep silent,” Netanyahu said. “As the prime minister of the Jewish state, I refuse to be silent.”
Netanyahu’s most poignant moment in this year’s U.N. speech came when he lambasted the world body for its “utter” and “deafening” silence on Iran’s threats towards Israel, even taking a moment of silence on his own to stare down the General Assembly.
“The days when the Jewish people remain passive in the face of genocidal enemies, those days are over,” Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu touched on other issues related to the Iran deal, including his strained relations with President Barack Obama. Netanyahu said he “deeply appreciates” Obama’s commitment to securing Israel and that “we have no disagreement about the need to work together to secure our common future.”
Additionally, Netanyahu took aim at Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who declared on Wednesday at the U.N. that the Palestinians would no longer uphold the commitments of the 1993 Oslo Accords. Netanyahu criticized Abbas for his “rejectionism” and said he expects the Palestinian leadership to “abide by its commitments.”
“Israel remains committed to achieving peace with the Palestinians,” Netanyahu declared.
Netanyahu also told Abbas to stop “spreading lies” about Israel’s intentions at the Temple Mount holy site, saying Israel remains “committed to the status quo there.”
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Israeli baby injured in latest Palestinian rock attack
(JNS.org) A 6-month-old baby was lightly wounded Thursday by stones that were thrown by Palestinian rioters at cars near the Tekoa village in Judea and Samaria. The baby was in the vehicle with two siblings and his mother, who was unharmed but treated for shock.
“The stones shattered the windows of the car and glass was scattered all around myself and and my children,” the mother said, the Jerusalem Post reported. “It was very scary for us. People need to understand that stones can kill someone and there needs to be something we can do to stop it.”
In another incident, a woman was injured from glass shards after her car was bombarded with rocks. Last month, 64-year-old Jewish man Alexander Levlovich was killed when Palestinian rioters attacked his car with rocks in Jerusalem on Rosh Hashanah eve.
In recent weeks, Israeli police have been deploying extra forces and arresting rioters in a government-ordered “zero tolerance” crackdown on Palestinian rock and pipe bomb attacks against Jews.
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