Today’s Top Stories
1. Israel agreed to return the bodies of 10 Palestinians killed while carrying out terror attacks in recent weeks. YNet explains the deal:
According to the agreement that was reached, the funerals of these terrorists are to occur in the middle of the night and with only a limited number of family members present. Each family is to provide a financial guarantee to police – money that it will not get back if any of the burial conditions are violated.
The process of returning the bodies is expected to be lengthy and will continue only as long as the relatives meet the conditions.
2. Yet another Gaza tunnel collapse this morning. This one was under the Strip’s border with Egypt. A Palestinian — who was repairing the tunnel after it was damaged by Egyptian military flooding — was killed.
Past weeks have seen at least five separate tunnel collapses in the Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian reports, and Tuesday’s incident marks the tenth death. In the previous cave-ins, the victims were identified as members of Hamas, the Islamist group that rules the Palestinian enclave.
3. Injured Islamic State operatives in Sinai ‘are receiving medical treatment at Hamas hospitals in Gaza’ in exchange for cash and weapons.
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Israel and the Palestinians
• An Israeli man from a Bedouin town near Beersheva suspected of agreeing to help Tunisian jihadists infiltrate Israel is due to be indicted.
• The Israeli cabinet reportedly okayed work permits for 30,000 more Palestinians, primarily for construction, infrastructure, services, and agricultural workers.
• Israel’s war of words with Ban Ki-moon continues. Ambassador Danny Danon demanded the UN Secretary-General retract his remarks, saying that Palestinians were using Ban’s remarks to justify terror.
Danon explained in a letter sent to the Secretary-General that a spokesperson for Fatah excused last week’s terror attack at the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem’s Old City in which 19-year-old Border Police officer Hadar Cohen was killed by saying that the attack was spurred by “the violation of occupation,” against the Palestinian people and was “a natural response.”
“Palestinian terrorism is using your words to excuse its actions,” wrote Danon wrote in response to the statements made by the Fatah spokesperson.
“Your words have created two categories of terrorism: Terror against Israel, and then the rest of the world,” Danon explained.
See also HR senior editor Daniel Pomerantz: Is Murdering Israelis Just ‘Human Nature’?
• YNet picks up on a new Hamas music video simulating terror attacks celebrates ‘flying bus roof’
• Hamas executed an alleged collaborator who is said to have spied for Israel.
• Allexanda Kotey, a British national who was part of a team of Islamic State beheaders, traveled to the Mideast on George Galloway’s Viva Palestina convoy in 2009. A spokesman for Galloway, who is currently running for London mayor, said Galloway doesn’t recall meeting Kotey on the convoy. Daily Telegraph coverage.
"Aid" convoy to Gaza included ISIS beheader—now we know why same folks don't do flotillas for starving ppl in Syria. https://t.co/N3bxSkJEzF
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) February 8, 2016
• Likud party officials acknowledge for the first time that former settler leader Dani Dayan will not be Israel’s ambassador to Brazil. Times of Israel coverage.
During the committee session, Likud MK Anat Berko said that Israel must be careful that the Dayan affair does not set a precedent for other countries wishing to dictate to Israel which diplomats represent it.
Commentary/Analysis
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Khaled Abu Toameh: Iran infiltrates the West Bank
– Tony Badran: America makes a U-turn in the Mideast
– Jonathan Tobin: How not to help the Iranian people
Featured image: CC BY-NC Ed Stevenson; tunnel screengrab via Press TV News Video;
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