03b Israel

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President Trump opposed a recent Israeli plan to kill Iran‘s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, three U.S. officials told CBS News on Sunday.

The Israelis had the opportunity to assassinate Khamenei and Mr. Trump conveyed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that it wasn’t a good idea, one U.S. official told CBS News. They said the conversation between Netanyahu and Mr. Trump happened since Israel launched a massive attack on Iran last week.

Mr. Trump’s rejection of the proposal was first reported by Reuters.

 
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

 

Iranian Leader Press Office/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images

 

A senior U.S. official told CBS News on Saturday that there has been no direct contact between the U.S. and Iran. An Israeli official in Washington, D.C., told CBS News on Saturday that there is regular contact between the U.S. and Israel, with leaders having spoken Monday, Thursday and Friday.

During an interview with Fox News’ “Special Report with Bret Baier” on Sunday, Netanyahu did not directly confirm or deny Reuters’ reporting when asked about it.

“There’s so many false reports of conversations that never happened and I’m not going to get into that,” he said. “But I can tell you I think we do what we need to do. We will do what we need to do and I think the United States knows what is good for the United States and I’m just not going to get into it.”

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QUETTA, Pakistan: Pakistan has closed all its border crossings with neighbouring Iran for an indefinite period, provincial officials said on Monday (Jun 16), as Israel and Iran trade intense strikes and threaten further attacks.

“Border facilities in all five districts – Chaghi, Washuk, Panjgur, Kech and Gwadar – have been suspended,” Qadir Bakhsh Pirkani, a senior official in Balochistan province, which borders Iran, told AFP.

Crossing into Iran “has been suspended until further notice”, said Atta ul Munim, an official at one of the crossings in Chaghi district.

However, there was “no ban on trade” activities at the border and Pakistani nationals needing to return to their country from Iran can cross, he added.

“We’re expecting around 200 Pakistani students coming today,” Atta said.

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At least two dozen Israelis were killed and hundreds injured in Iranian strikes over the weekend, in retaliation for Israel’s incredibly effective strikes on Iranian military targets.

The state of Israel posted on X Monday that 24 civilians, including children, had been killed in the country in the Iranian strikes over the weekend, and that 500 more civilians in Israel were also injured. The Islamic terror-sponsoring Iranian regime targets innocent lives, Israel emphasized.

Israel also posted Sunday, “A 6-day-old baby was pulled from the rubble after an Iranian missile strike on central Israel. This is what the fanatical regime targets: our children, our families. We will not stand by. We will continue to defend our people from the world’s most dangerous regime — whatever it takes.” The baby appears to have survived, as he moves his arms on video while emergency personnel hold him.

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The UK has sanctioned two far-right Israeli ministers over “repeated incitements of violence against Palestinian communities” in the occupied West Bank.

Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich will both be banned from entering the UK and will have any assets in the UK frozen as part of the measures announced by the foreign secretary.

David Lammy said Finance Minister Smotrich and National Security Minister Ben-Gvir had “incited extremist violence and serious abuses of Palestinian human rights”.

In response, Israel said: “It is outrageous that elected representatives and members of the government are subjected to these kind of measures.”

The sanctions are part of a joint move by the UK, Norway, Australia, Canada and New Zealand announced on Tuesday.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned the move, writing on X: “These sanctions do not advance US-led efforts to achieve a ceasefire, bring all hostages home, and end the war”.

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Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich won’t be exploring London anytime soon. The United Kingdom sanctioned the two firebrands and imposed travel bans on them. The U.K. is not alone in acting against Ben-Gvir and Smotrich; Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Norway have joined in.

The foreign ministers of all five countries issued a joint statement on their decision to sanction the ministers and implement “other measures targeting” them.

“Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich have incited extremist violence and serious abuses of Palestinian human rights. Extremist rhetoric advocating the forced displacement of Palestinians and the creation of new Israeli settlements is appalling and dangerous,” the statement read.

The foreign ministers say that their actions against Ben-Gvir and Smotrich stem from issues in the West Bank, but that their measures “cannot be seen in isolation from the catastrophe in Gaza.”

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Greta Thunberg is on her way back to Europe after her “freedom flotilla” was intercepted off the coast of Israel. She and several other activists were supposedly trying to “break the siege” of Gaza and deliver “aid.” In the end, their mission turned into a predictably embarrassing spectacle, although the usual suspects will laud it regardless.

Israeli forces seized the flotilla and took Thunberg and her cohorts into custody on Monday, with pictures going viral of them being provided with sandwiches. They had reportedly eaten most of the “aid” they were set to deliver while sailing from Italy.

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“Hamas should think twice”: Late Sunday, a group of Hamas affiliates issued a call to action on Telegram, a social networking site they often use to coordinate their activities: “Resistance security is authorized to firmly confront anyone who cooperates with the enemy or its agents, and agents and mercenaries will be legitimate targets.”

They were talking about the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the joint U.S.-Israeli aid effort formed with the help of private contractors to replace the Hamas-tied UNRWA. The terror groups lamented the “American aid distribution centers” for operating with the goal of ending “UNRWA’s mission.” They also warned Gazans that “any cooperation with bodies other than UNRWA is considered a contribution to the enemy’s plans.”

A senior U.S. official confirmed to our Adam Kredo that the Trump administration is monitoring the situation. “These reports of Hamas threatening the GHF and its workers, many of whom are Americans, are deeply concerning,” the official said. “Hamas should think twice. We are watching closely.”

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Adalah, a legal rights group representing the activists, said at 10pm local time they had received confirmation that the group were being held at Ashdod port, just south of Tel Aviv, and were undergoing processing before being handed over to Israeli immigration authorities.

Demanding access to the passengers of the British-flagged yacht Madleen – which had sought to break the naval blockade on Gaza – Adalah said: “Unless they agree to leave immediately, they will be transferred to the detention facility in Ramleh.

“While authorities have indicated that those who consent to deportation may be allowed to fly out from Tel Aviv tonight, it’s unclear what conditions – such as signing documents or waiving rights – may be imposed.”

Earlier, organisers of the “Freedom Flotilla”, said there had been no contact with the 12 international activists for nearly 19 hours after the ship was intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters at around 2am on Monday.

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Harvard Divinity School (HDS) appointed Shaul Magid, a leftist Jewish philosopher who describes himself as a “counter-Zionist,” to a new position the university says it created as a way to combat “anti-Israeli bias.”

Magid, who has described the Jewish state as “illiberal” and “chauvinist,” will be the university’s inaugural Professor of Modern Jewish Studies in Residence. Harvard says the new position is part of its effort to stem the tide of anti-Semitism and anti-Israel ideology in its classrooms after its anti-Semitism task force found that “politicized instruction” in four of its schools “mainstreamed and normalized what many Jewish and Israeli students experience as antisemitism.”

The report’s authors said Jewish students were unable to “engage fully in academic and co-curricular life at Harvard” due to attacks from anti-Israel peers. They also warned about the “ease with which ‘anti-Zionism’ slips into what is effectively antisemitism,” citing an anti-Semitic cartoon students and faculty shared on social media.

The “politicized instruction” at the Divinity School, the report noted, includes subjecting Jewish students to “the embrace of a pedagogy of ‘de-zionization’” in which professors “attribute to Jews two great sins: first, in the Levant, the establishment of the State of Israel and the Palestinian Nakba; and second, in the United States, participation in White supremacy.”

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Rally is held as British PM Keir Starmer calls Israel’s actions ‘intolerable’, addressing lawmakers in Parliament.

Pro-Palestine campaigners have rallied against Israel’s punishing war on Gaza, gathering outside the British Parliament in London and demanding a full arms embargo and that hard-hitting sanctions be imposed on the Israeli government.

Wednesday’s march, organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), came as British Prime Minister Keir Starmer took weekly questions from parliamentarians.

Thousands of protesters created a “Red Line for Palestine”, wearing red while encircling the building.

Starmer told Parliament that Israel’s actions in the besieged and bombarded enclave are “appalling” and “intolerable”.

“It is right to describe these days as dark,” Starmer said. “We have strongly opposed the expansion of Israeli military operations, and settler violence, and the blocking of humanitarian aid.”

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Israel said that it will “act accordingly” to stop the Freedom Flotilla Coalition carrying climate activist Greta Thunberg, who is en route to the Gaza Strip.

Thunberg, 22, a Swedish eco-warrior, set sail this week aboard the Madleen hoisting a Palestinian flag with 11 other activists. It will try to reach the shores of the Gaza Strip to bring in some aid and raise awareness over the humanitarian crisis there.

“We are doing this because, no matter what odds we are against, we have to keep trying,” Thunberg said.

Greta Thunberg, with other activists from a human rights organization, meets with journalists in Catania, Italy. on Sunday ahead of their departure for the Mideast. (AP Photo/Salvatore Cavalli)

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed Wednesday that it was monitoring the flotilla.

“For this case as well, we are prepared,” IDF spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin told the Times of London. “We have gained experience in recent years, and we will act accordingly.”

 

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Israeli military says it shelled targets in Syria in response to a pair of projectile launches.

Syria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has condemned an Israeli strike on the Syrian province of Deraa, saying that it caused “significant human and material losses”, the state news agency SANA reports.

The strike came after the Israeli military said that two projectiles had crossed from Syria towards Israel on Tuesday, and fell in open areas in the Israel-occupied Golan Heights, though the Syrian Foreign Ministry said these were “reports that have not been verified yet”.

The ministry reiterated that Syria has not and would not pose a threat to any party in the region.

It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the projectiles.

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At least 32 people were killed and another 55 injured – some of them left with horrendous burns – after an Israeli air stroke hit a school in Gaza where women and children were sleeping

A fire breaks out on the Fahmi al-Jarjawi School where displaced Palestinians took refuge, following an Israeli attack in Gaza City(Image: Anadolu via Getty Images)

An Israeli air strike has hit a school inside Gaza with several children burned alive. At least 32 people were killed and another 55 injured – some of them left with horrendous burns. Fires broke out inside three classrooms in the school which was being used to shelter displaced families. Faris Afana, the ambulance service manager for Northern Gaza, said he arrived at the scene with crews to find the school ablaze.

He said: ‘There were sleeping children and women in those classrooms. Some of them were screaming but we couldn’t rescue them due to the fires. I cannot describe what we saw due to how horrific it was.” Local resident Rami Rafiq said: Flames were everywhere. I saw charred bodies lying on the ground. My son fainted when he saw the horrific scene.’ Horrific video footage posted online showed large fires consuming parts of the school.

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Palestinian groups slam the raids targeting exchanges in several cities in a widespread operation in the territory.

Israeli forces have raided money exchanges across the occupied West Bank, using live fire and tear gas as they stormed the city of Nablus, killing at least one Palestinian and wounding more than 30.

Exchange shops in the cities of Ramallah, Nablus, Hebron Arrabeh, el-Bireh, Bethlehem, Jenin and Tubas were attacked on Tuesday, residents said.

In the northern city of Nablus, Israeli soldiers raided a foreign exchange belonging to the Al-Khaleej company and a gold store, according to local media reports. They also fired smoke bombs in the centre of Jenin, and streets were closed in Tubas and Bethlehem in the occupied Palestinian territory.

The Ramallah-based Ministry of Health said one man was killed and eight injured by live ammunition during a raid in Nablus.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said it treated 20 people for tear gas inhalation and three injured by rubber bullets.

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A man was arrested at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York on Sunday following an alleged attempt to firebomb a branch office of the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, the Justice Department said in a statement.

The man, named Joseph Neumeyer, is a dual American and German citizen and was detained in Israel on May 19 after a hostile confrontation in which Neumeyer spit on a security guard in front of the office earlier that day, according to the Justice Department.

The guard tried and failed to detain Neumeyer, who ditched the backpack he was carrying to break free, the statement said.

A search of the backpack he left behind at the embassy after the confrontation “revealed three rudimentary improvised incendiary devices commonly known as Molotov cocktails,” the statement added. Officials were able to track Neumeyer to his hotel, where he was arrested.

On May 19, Neumeyer wrote on Facebook:

“Join me this afternoon in Tel Aviv. We are burning down the U.S. embassy.”
“Death to America. Death to Americans and f*** the West.”
“We are killing Trump and Musk now.”

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He’s not a conservative or a Trump guy, but Chris Cuomo set the progressive Left aflame last night. Since moving away from CNN, Mr. Cuomo hasn’t always been right, but when the stars align—he’s spot-on. On Wednesday night, Elias Rodriguez shot and killed Israeli Embassy staffers Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim at a young diplomats event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC. They were a couple, too, with an engagement proposal set for next week. Milgrim worked to foster peace between Israelis and Palestinians; the event aimed to find ways to deliver more aid to Gaza.

Rodriguez shouted, “Free Palestine,” as police arrested him. He’s a vicious antisemite. We know who he is, and yet, there’s this reticence from the Left to call what happened in DC what it is, which is an act of terrorism. It was an assassination.

“We know the shooter is a far-left activist caught on camera shouting ‘Free Palestine.’ And as he was arrested, he kept chanting the slogan and said, ‘I did it for Gaza,’ Cuomo said on his show on NewsNation. “So why the F are all these people on the left saying, ‘If true’ and ‘If that’s who he is’ and ‘If he’s not an IDF plant’?”

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Two Israeli Embassy staff members were shot and killed on Wednesday evening near the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington D.C., according to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

Washington D.C. police began investigating after reports indicated two victims had been shot across the street from the FBI’s Washington Field Office, near the museum, according to CNN. Around 10 p.m., Noem said the two killed were staff members for the Israeli Embassy, saying on X that the department is working to gather more information.

“Two Israeli Embassy staff were senselessly killed tonight near the Jewish Museum in Washington DC. We are actively investigating and working to get more information to share. Please pray for the families of the victims. We will bring this depraved perpetrator to justice,” Noem wrote.

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Two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington were shot and killed Wednesday evening while leaving an event at a Jewish museum, and the suspect yelled, “Free, free Palestine” after he was arrested, police said.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar identified the victims as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim. Lischinsky was a research assistant, and Milgrim organized visits and missions to Israel.

They were leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum when the suspect approached a group of four people and opened fire, Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith said at a news conference.

The suspect, identified as Elias Rodriguez, 31, of Chicago, was observed pacing outside the museum before the shooting, walked into the museum after the shooting and was detained by event security, Smith said.

When he was taken into custody, the suspect began chanting, “Free, free Palestine,” Smith said. She said law enforcement did not believe there was an ongoing threat to the community.