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The Israeli military on Wednesday night allegedly conducted airstrikes near the central Syrian city of Homs. According to reports, Israel Defense Forces jets fired “a burst of missiles” at the T-4 Syrian airbase. The attacks are believed to have been launched from close to al-Tanf, a US-controlled area located along the Syria-Iraq border.
It comes just two days after the IDF purportedly struck military installations near Damascus.
The T-4 base, which is reportedly used by Iran to ship weapons into Syria, has been targeted at least four times in recent years. Israel has vowed to prevent the Islamic Republic, a key ally of the Assad regime, from establishing permanent military infrastructure in Syria, especially near the shared Golan Heights border.
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Israel on Wednesday recorded 3,150 new COVID-19 cases, the highest daily tally since the beginning of the pandemic.
In response, Israel’s coronavirus “czar,” Prof. Ronni Gamzu, warned that lockdowns could be imposed in cities with high infection rates. Given the steep rise in morbidity and mortality rates, Health Minister Yuli Edelstein is expected to back Gamzu’s demand to implement immediate closures in locales that authorities have designated “red zones.”
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The Trump Administration on Wednesday imposed sanctions on the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) due to her ongoing preliminary investigation into possible war crimes committed by US soldiers in Afghanistan. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the move against Fatou Bensouda and others as part of the administration’s push back against the tribunal, which has included severe criticism of the body over its efforts to probe Israel’s military activities in the West bank and Gaza Strip.
Neither the US nor Israel are signatories to the Rome Statue, the ICC’s founding charter, and thus both countries do not believe that the Hague-based court has jurisdiction to investigate alleged crimes by its citizens.
Antisemitism Watch: The BBC is investigating one of its journalists, Nimesh Thaker, over allegations that he created the anonymous “Not that bothered” Twitter account, which has disseminated anti-Israel propaganda.
Various posts have described Israel as “racist” and a “white supremacist state.”
After Jewish BBC host Emma Barnett recently condemned British rapper Wiley’s incendiary tweets about Jews, “Not that bothered” retweeted a message accusing Barnett of using “the same old ‘antisemitism’ excuse whenever people criticize Israel.”
In response to a public outcry, a BBC spokesperson said that the channel “takes allegations of this nature extremely seriously, and while we cannot comment on individual staff issues, we have robust processes in place to investigate any such matters with urgency.”
Over in the US, the department of Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Studies at San Francisco State University is slated to hold a Zoom discussion on September 23 featuring notorious Palestinian terrorist Leila Khaled.
British authorities in 1970 arrested Khaled — then a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist group — while she was carrying two grenades intended to be used to hijack an El Al flight from Amsterdam to New York City. But London later released her in exchange for civilians that were taken hostage in another PFLP hijacking.
This came despite the fact that a year earlier Khaled had participated in the hijacking of a TWA passenger plane that was diverted to Damascus while en route from Rome to Tel Aviv.
An unrepentant Khaled in 2019 said in an interview that, “Palestine will be liberated by resistance in all forms, primarily via ‘armed struggle’,” indicating that she still considers terrorism against Israelis to be legitimate.
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Hackers earlier this summer stole more than $7 million from an endowment fund belonging to the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, which on Wednesday revealed the details of the theft. It apparently took place when the organization’s entire staff was working from home due to coronavirus restrictions.
The federation’s leadership said it had retained the help of legal and cyber security experts to further investigate the hack.
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The Israel Police on Wednesday was put on high alert in Eilat after a man swam from Jordan into Israel, arriving at a beach in the southern resort city.
When questioned by security forces, the suspect said he was in despair due to the economic situation in Jordan and was seeking a better future.
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