Reports: 1,500 Palestinians displaced amid IDF op in Hebron ...
Key updates
Eisenkot receives warm reception at Hostages Square as thousands rally for state inquiry into Oct. 7
Yashar party chief Gadi Eisenkot, the frontrunner to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tuesday’s election, arrives at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square as thousands of people gather there to demand a state commission of inquiry into the Hamas-led onslaught of October 7, 2023.
Eisenkot is greeted with enthusiastic applause and chants of “Who’s coming? The next prime minister.”
The packed crowd is dotted with Israeli flags, many emblazoned with the words “Hofshi Beartzenu” (Free in our Land), the name of an anti-government protest group.
The rally is organized by the October Council of families that lost loved in the Hamas attack and demand a statutory state commission of inquiry, which Netanyahu rejects.
Supporters of the opposition Democrats are also set to march over from Rabin Square, led by party head Yair Golan.
Houthis say strikes in past day targeted Saudi airports, oil infrastructure and airbase
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis says they targeted a range of Saudi assets in the past 24 hours, listing three airports including capital Riyadh’s, two oil facilities, a pipeline and an airbase.
Military spokesman Yahya Saree says the group targeted “King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, the capital of the Saudi enemy, in two phases,” the airports in Dammam in the east and Najran in the south. The group also targeted the southern Khamis Mushait air base as well as “crude oil pumping stations and the crude oil pipeline from east to west.”
Rebuking Netanyahu, Bank of Israel says crypto can’t be ‘route for bypassing sanctions’
The Bank of Israel comes out against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying that cryptocurrencies “cannot be used as a route for bypassing sanctions.”
“The right thing for Israel’s economy is preserving the economic relationships with our principal trade partners and focusing on preventing sanctions and their negative influence on the economy,” the central bank says in a statement. “This issue is within the responsibilities of the political echelon and it would be fitting if it acts to advance it.”
Israeli and Greek navies drill in the Mediterranean, in apparent message to Turkey
The Israeli Navy held a joint drill with the Hellenic Navy in the Mediterranean this week, the military says, in an apparent message to Turkey.
The drill involved Israeli missile boats and naval vessels from several Greek units, and was led by Israeli Navy chief Vice Adm. Eyal Harel and his counterpart, Vice Adm. Dimitrios-Eleftherios Kataras, along with the chief of the Hellenic National Defence General Staff, Gen. Dimitrios Choupis.
The IDF says the forces “practiced a variety of operational scenarios,” during the drill, including “identifying and thwarting threats in the maritime domain, sailing as a joint force, and sinking an enemy vessel using missile fire.”
“The exercise constitutes another step in deepening operational cooperation between the Israeli Navy and the Hellenic Navy, with the aim of strengthening joint readiness and preserving freedom of action in the Mediterranean,” the military says, adding that it also “marks a significant leap forward in naval military cooperation between the two countries.”
Harel, in remarks published by the IDF, says “the strategic partnership with Greece is a significant force multiplier, strengthening our ability to operate together, defensively and offensively, to safeguard security and freedom of navigation in the Mediterranean.”
Israel’s naval ties with Greece have deepened in recent years, particularly amid deteriorating relations with Turkey, once a close regional partner of Israel, and Greece’s traditional foe.
The drill’s announcement comes days after a maritime-boundaries deal between Libya and Turkey in the Mediterranean was ratified, which Israel, Greece, and other nations oppose.
Clashes erupt in Paris between police and demonstrators
Clashes break out in Paris after a demonstration over the high cost of living, with AFP reporters seeing police use batons and tear gas, and officials saying a water cannon was also used.
“The police started moving toward everyone, telling them to get down and back off. They were just taking people down, you know, beating protesters,” one demonstrator bleeding from a baton blow, who gives his first name as David, tells AFP.
‘Threat to national security’: Eisenkot rips Netanyahu for proposing Israel ready its economy to bust sanctions using crypto
Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot tears into Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for saying Israel should ready for mounting international sanctions and use cryptocurrency to circumvent them, accusing the premier of “dismantling the Israeli economy.”
“The BibiCoin vision is a threat to national security,” Eisenkot writes on X in a play on Netanyahu’s nickname. “After he finished dismantling Israeli society and weakening the IDF, Netanyahu has marked the next target: The dismantling of the Israeli economy for generations ahead.”
Eisenkot charges that Netanyahu “lost touch with reality… and is suggesting as a ‘solution’ to [Israel’s] international nadir that he himself brought upon us — disconnecting Israel from the global economy.”
“How will an Israeli tech firm with customers overseas receive payments or foreign investment? How will Google buy an Israeli company on the condition that it bypass an international bank and pay in crypto?” Eisenkot notes.
He warns that if Netanyahu’s vision if implemented, “Israelis will lose their pensions and all their investments, and many of them will leave the country,” resulting in “fewer jobs in the market, less money for health and education and the collapse of national security.”
French cops report ‘calm’ in Paris after over 100,000 demonstrators march, as clashes break out in other cities
Paris police say that 110,000 people marched in the capital today as part of nationwide demonstrations over the cost of living, and the situation is “calm.”
That contrasts with other French cities, including Lyon, Lille, Toulouse, Montpellier and Nantes, where clashes have broken out during demonstrations.
IDF razes buildings near site of deadly shooting amid continued operation in Hebron
Buildings and structures near the site of Friday’s deadly shooting attack at the northern entrance to the West Bank city of Hebron were razed by Israeli authorities over the weekend.
The structures were illegally built in Israeli-controlled Area C of the West Bank, where Israel has not given Palestinians building permits in years.
The army says the sites are being removed because they are illegal and due to the “security risks that they may pose.” In Friday’s attack, the two Palestinian gunmen used buildings near a temporary IDF checkpoint as cover to open fire on soldiers.
Meanwhile, troops are operating in Hebron in the neighborhood where the two gunmen, Mohammad Jaaba and Firas Jaaba, lived. According to IDF assessments, some 2,000 residents of the area are members of the Jaaba clan, which it says is affiliated with Hamas.
The IDF says civilians who “requested to evacuate” were allowed to leave the area temporarily through designated checkpoints after a security screening.
So far, the army says troops have scanned some 200 sites in Hebron and apprehended 10 suspects for questioning.
Houthis claim attack on naval base and military camp in Yemen’s Aden
Yemen’s Houthis claim an attack on a naval base and a military camp in Aden, the interim seat of the internationally recognized government, after blasts are heard there.
“Our armed forced targeted Saudi enemy concentrations at the so-called Al-Nasr camp and the naval base in Aden,” Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree says, adding that the sites are overseen by Saudi forces.
French police employ tear gas to prevent demonstrators from reaching city centers
French police fire tear gas to prevent protesters in several cities from advancing to the centers, in fresh nationwide demonstrations held a week after riots broke out, AFP journalists see.
Riot squads fire tear gas at protesters in Lyon, Lille, Toulouse and Nantes, hours after Interior Minister Laurent Nunez warned: “We will not tolerate any violence or any disturbance of public order.”
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