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Israel assassinated Iran’s top nuclear scientist using a remote-controlled AI “killer robot,” according to reports.
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh – dubbed the “mastermind of Iran’s nuclear program” – was taken out in a November 2020 operation that saw the unarmored vehicle he was traveling in targeted while on a road outside Tehran.
According to sources, it marked the “debut test of a high-tech, computerized sharpshooter kitted out with artificial intelligence and multiple-camera eyes, operated via satellite and capable of firing 600 rounds a minute.”
So sophisticated is the weapon that was used that Iranian investigators were reportedly left puzzled as to how the assassination occurred, and struggled to piece together a clear account of what transpired.
While Jerusalem has never commented on Fakhrizadeh’s death, the operation was reportedly sanctioned by officials in the US administration led by former President Donald Trump.
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The last two Palestinian prisoners who escaped from the Gilboa jail early this month were captured by Israeli security forces on Saturday night.
Munadil Nafayat and Iham Kahamji were arrested in Jenin in an operation that was carried out by the IDF, the Shin Bet and police special forces using intelligence gathered by the internal security service.
Clashes erupted as officers were leaving the city with the men in their custody, and Palestinian rioters reportedly threw rocks and explosives
“The Yamam, Shin Bet and the Haruv Reconnaissance Unit entered the city of Jenin, sealed off and surrounded the house, including gunfire around the building in which the fugitive terrorists were hiding. They came out unarmed and without resistance,” the IDF said in a statement, adding that “the two terrorists were caught alive and were handed over for interrogation by the security forces.”
The capture of Nafayat and Kahamji brings to an end a two-week-long manhunt that was sparked after six prisoners tunneled underneath a sink and managed to sneak out of the high-security penitentiary.
Mahmoud Ardah, Mohammed Ardah, Mohammed Qadri and jailbreak mastermind Zakaria Zubeidi were arrested in and near Nazareth last weekend.
In a joint operation with the ISA, @IsraelPolice and the IDF, the remaining 2 terrorists who escaped from “Gilbo’a Prison” were captured.
Both terrorists surrendered after being surrounded by security forces that acted precisely based on accurate intelligence.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) September 19, 2021
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Foreign Minister Yair Lapid will visit Bahrain later this month in the first-ever visit for an Israeli official to the Gulf country.
Israel’s top diplomat announced the trip in a conference call with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, as well as diplomats from Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Morocco.
The visit will come after Israel normalized diplomatic relations with Bahrain and other Arab states under the US-brokered Abraham Accords last year.
Lapid, who held meetings in Morocco last month and the UAE in June, said the “Abraham Accords club is open to new members,” as he announced the historic visit.
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US Democratic Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez has submitted an amendment to a defense spending bill that would block the sale of precision-guided weapons to Israel.
In a statement from her office, the New York lawmaker said the resolution’s aim was prohibiting “Direct Commercial Sales and Foreign Military Sales to any country that has engaged in gross violations of internationally recognized human rights, genocide, or war crimes.”
The amendment would suspend the transfer to Israel of Boeing Joint Direct Attack Munition tail kits under a $735 million contract. The kits transform unguided bombs into GPS-guided missiles.
Ocasio-Cortez tweeted to say the action was necessary because of “the bombing of Palestinian civilians, media centers,” the latter an apparent reference to the bombing of offices that were used by media organizations the Associated Press and Al-Jazeera, as well as Hamas operatives.
Amendments were also submitted that would prevent weapons sales to Saudi Arabia and Colombia over alleged human rights abuses.
In this year’s NDAA, I’ve intro’d 7 amendments, including blocking specific US weapons transactions to:
– Saudi gov over the murder of Jamal Khashoggi
– Colombia gov over its violent crackdown on protesters,&
– Israeli gov over the bombing of Palestinian civilians, media centers https://t.co/eMHIApDLAk— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) September 17, 2021