After three straight nights of rocket attacks emanating from the Gaza Strip, the ruling Hamas terror group reportedly rejected a cease-fire offer from Israel. According to the Lebanese pro-Hezbollah newspaper Al-Akhbar, Hamas told a third party it would turn down proposals to restore calm so long as Israel continues its “current policy” in Jerusalem.
The report said the terror group threatened that the alternative would be “an explosion in various areas, especially Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza, even if…things develop into a major conflict.”
Both Egypt and Jordan have warned that their attempts to broker a truce might fail.
Gaza-based Palestinian terror groups over the weekend fired more than 40 projectiles into Israel. They claimed the attacks were a response to unrest in Jerusalem, where Arab residents have violently rioted for several days after Israel imposed restrictions on congregating near the Old City’s Damascus Gate.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas praised the rioters, applauding them for their “steadfastness in the face of Israeli schemes aiming to control the holy city.” He also commented on reports that the PA may delay or even cancel upcoming legislative elections. Abbas said the ballot would only take place if Israel allows voting in the eastern part of Jerusalem, a statement construed by many as a possible pretext to cancel the election. According to polls, the PA leader’s Fatah faction is likely headed for defeat.
Since the start of the Syrian civil war, Israel attacked Iranian targets in the country at least 200 times, former US secretary of state John Kerry disclosed to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. In a leaked tape published by The New York Times, Zarif revealed that Tehran’s security establishment often kept him in the dark.
The leaked conversation, recorded last year by an ally of the Iranian regime, was not intended for publication. Zarif can be heard saying he was “astonished” by Kerry’s confession. He also criticized the power of the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). “In the Islamic Republic the military field rules,” Iran’s top diplomat said. “I have sacrificed diplomacy for the military field rather than the field servicing diplomacy,” he added.
Specifically, Zarif claimed that Qasem Soleimani, the former commander of the IRGC’s Quds Force, tried to convince Russia to torpedo the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that Zarif gave the interview but said that his words had been taken out of context. A spokesman condemned the leak as “unethical politics.”
Meanwhile, the US and Iran are still discussing a possible return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. A high-level Israeli delegation on Monday is slated to arrive in Washington to voice objections to the US position. The team will be headed by Mossad chief Yossi Cohen and National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat.
More good news on Israel’s fight against the coronavirus: in the 24-hour period ending Monday morning, the Jewish state recorded only 36 new cases of COVID-19, the lowest figure in many months. The positivity rate of those tested for the pathogen fell to just 0,4%.
According to the Health Ministry, there are currently less than 1,700 active coronavirus cases in Israel, including 146 in serious condition and 87 on respirators. By comparison, just three months ago Israel had over 80,000 active cases, with thousands of new positive tests recorded daily.
The Jewish state has already fully immunized 55 percent of its population, administering more than 10 million doses. As a result of this successful vaccination campaign, the government has almost fully reopened the economy.
Demonstrations were held around the world on Sunday in protest of a French court’s decision not to prosecute the murderer of Sarah Halimi. Earlier this month, the country’s highest appeals court upheld an earlier ruling that the man who killed Halimi, a Jewish woman in her sixties, would not stand trial.
While the court acknowledged the antisemitic nature of the murder, the judges decided that Kobili Traoré was “too high” on marijuana to be held criminally responsible for his actions.
Massive rally in Paris in memory of Sarah Halimi & to protest the high court's decision that her murderer was not criminally responsible for his crime. #JusticeForSarah
pic.twitter.com/OitCtOBRZp— European Jewish Congress (@eurojewcong) April 25, 2021
Answering a call by Jewish organizations, thousands of people filled the plaza in front of the Eiffel Tower on Sunday, raising signs that said “Justice for Sarah.” Other cities in France organized simultaneous protests, in parallel to those organized in London, Rome, Brussels, The Hague, New York, Miami, Los Angeles and Tel Aviv.
International media initially ignored the decision to acquit Traoré. In the hours and days after the news broke, it received no coverage on any of the world’s biggest news sites. After a social media campaign by HonestReporting that reached hundreds of thousands of people, several outlets moved to publish articles on the matter.
Recommended Reading
- What Triggered the Uptick In Violence? – Analysis (Herb Keinon, Jerusalem Post)
- TikTok-Inspired ‘Attack-a-Jew’ Posts Are a Continuation of Everything That’s Come Before (Rabbi Steven Burg, Jewish News Syndicate)
- Fatah and the Legislative Council Elections: The Split and Its Implications (Yohanan Tzoreff and Kobi Michael, Institute for National Security Studies)
- Was the Deputy Head of the Iranian Quds Force Assassinated? (Dr. Ardavan Khoshnood, Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies)
- Associated Press Changes Spelling of ‘Anti-Semitism’ to ‘Antisemitism,’ Joining Leading Experts (Algemeiner)
