Today’s Top Stories
1. “Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Ramadan Shalah has reportedly suffered a massive stroke and had to undergo surgery in an attempt to save his life, according to Hamas-affiliated media reports Tuesday,” reports Ynet. Other Arab reports picked up by the Times of Israel claim the 60-year-old terror chief has been in a coma for several weeks after being poisoned. Islamic Jihad denied an attempt was made on Shalah’s life.
Shalah, 60, is reportedly now in Lebanon and will not be able to fully return to work. The FBI’s $5 million reward for information leading to the terror chief’s capture or conviction still stands.
Islamic Jihad officials said the terror group’s leadership has already begun thinking of holding elections to find a replacement for Shalah, in case he is unable to resume his duties.
2. I’m undecided on how to judge this but Yasser Murtaja, the Palestinian photojournalist killed on Friday during clashes along the Gaza border, may have been a Hamas operative too. The Jerusalem Post and i24 News picked up on Walla! news (in Hebrew) reporting that Murtaja had been an officer in the Hamas security apparatus for years. It’s based on anonymous sources and Hebrew’s not my first language.
The report noted that in 2015, Murtaja had attempted to bring a drone into Gaza to aid in Hamas’s intelligence gathering. The sources told Walla! that Murtaja was constantly in contact with senior officials in Hamas’s internal security mechanism and many of those officials attended his funeral.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
3. Israel’s Labor party suspended ties with Jeremy Corbyn as antisemitism controversies continue plaguing the UK Labour party.
Meanwhile, the majority of UK voters agree that Labour has an antisemitism problem, according to a Deltapoll survey picked up by the Jewish Chronicle and The Guardian.
Clarification: in the letter the leader of the Israeli Labour @GabbayAvi sent to Mr. Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the British Labor Party, he made it clear: the suspension of relations is limited to Mr. Corbyn -himself-, rather than to the inter-party relations as a whole.
— חיליק בר Hilik Bar (@HilikBar) April 10, 2018
4. Media Fail: Images of Syrian Chemical Attack Victims Linked to Israeli Air Strike: Thanks to witless editors and automation, you’d think Israel gassed Syrian kids.
5. The Independent Publishing Lies in its Op-Eds: The Independent is entitled to publish opinion pieces critical of Israel. It’s not entitled to include false quotes and lies.
Israel and the Palestinians
• There’s a new controversy over a video of Israeli soldiers cheering as a sniper shot an apparently unarmed Palestinian near the Gaza border fence. The IDF said in a statement that the 1:20 long video didn’t show the wider context of a violent two-hour riot near Kissufim. The sniper was cleared but the cameraman wasn’t.
During the riot, means were taken in order to disperse it, including verbal warnings and calls to halt, using riot dispersal means and firing warning shots into the air.
After none of these were successful, a single bullet was fired towards one of the Palestinians who is suspected of organizing and leading this incident, while he was a few meters from the fence. He was hit in the leg and injured.
The army also said the soldier who did the filming was not part of the unit of soldiers who fired and that an inquiry was continuing. See Times of Israel coverage and this Jerusalem Post assessment.
• Despite publicly backing the Gaza “March of Return,” PA officials are privately opposed. Analysts told the Jerusalem Post that the clashes are A) boosting Hamas and sidelining Fatah in public opinion, B) raising fears of a spillover effect in the West Bank creating new security headaches for the PA, and C) complicating Abbas’ efforts to put new sanctions on Hamas and Gaza.
• Ynet takes a closer look at what’s known about the air field targeted by yesterday’s (Israeli?) airstrike. The Tiyas air base, also known as T-4, also served as an Iranian drone base. Of the 14 people killed in the attack were four seven were Iranian military advisers — including Mehdi Dehqan Yazdeli.
Yazdeli was reportedly a member of the Revolutionary Guards Aerospace Force, a division that operates drones, which further strengthen the assertion Iran’s drones array in Syria was the target.
• Israel to build two new desalination plants and expand water grid amid ongoing drought.
Around the World
The legal action over the 2012 killing is the first war crimes-related case against the Syrian government to reach court. It includes evidence from high-placed defectors who testify that reporters were tracked via their satellite phone signals.
Colvin, an American reporter who operated out of London, and Remi Ochlik, a French photographer, were killed “in a targeted rocket attack” on a makeshift media centre in the rebel-held city of Homs, the papers allege.
• Irish students, teachers endorse boycott campaign against Israelis.
Commentary
• Jerusalem hasn’t confirmed or denied a role in yesterday’s Syrian air strike, but all the commentary I’m seeing assumes the Israeli Air Force dunnit.
– Maj. Gen. (ret.) Yaakov Amidror: Israel won’t tolerate Iranian presence in Syria
– Zvi Bar’el: Russia’s tough rhetoric on Syria, Palestinians is a warning sign for Israel
– Ron Ben-Yishai: Israel signals Russia and Iran: We’re not scared of military conflict
– Charles Lister: Israeli airstrike on Syria a message to Iran, Russia — and Trump
– Herb Keinon: Never waste a crisis
– Alex Fishman: With friends like Trump and Putin, Israel has no one to rely on
– Patrick Wintour: Israel has launched countless strikes in Syria. What’s new is Russia’s response
– Prof. Eyal Zisser: Israel means what it says
– Brig.-Gen. (ret.) Dr. Shimon Shapira: The implications of the Syrian T-4 air base bombing
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Alex Ryvchin: West playing its part in Hamas propaganda war
– Ronni Shaked: For now, Palestinians are winning war of public opinion
– Pinhas Inbari: Gaza ‘Return March’ splits Hamas and organizers
– Yonah Jeremy Bob: Gaza violence puts Israel back on ICC radar
– James Kirchick: The antisemitism problem Corbyn created
– Pamela Druckerman: What are the French doing to protect Jews? A lot.
– Seth Siegel: Israeli lessons on defeating drought
Featured image: CC BY-SA tedeytan; Shalah via Wikimedia Commons; Colvin via Vimeo/Hugh Hood; jet Facebook/Israeli Air Force;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
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