News Digest — 2/13/19
Killer In Court: Smiling Palestinian Slayer Charged With Murder
The prime suspect in the brutal rape and death of 19-year-old Ori Ansbacher was arraigned in a Jerusalem court on Monday (11th) and charged with murder. Arafat Irfayia, 29, showed no signs of remorse and appeared to be smiling during the proceedings.
Ansbacher was walking in the woods in a nature reserve near Jerusalem when she was attacked by Irfayia, who left his home in Hebron with a knife. Her body was found Thursday (7th) and Irfayia was tracked down within 48 hours in a mosque near Ramallah.
Strong DNA evidence linked him to the killing. The knife used in the attack was found at the time of the arrest.
On Sunday morning (10th), Irfayia reenacted the killing for Israeli investigators at the scene of the crime.
Authorities have labeled the murder a “nationalistic crime” given the Irfayia family openly identifies with Hamas and Irfayia had distributed material for the terror group.
Given the ghastly nature of Ansbacher’s killing, several Israeli politicians have called for the death penalty.
Ansbacher, a native of Tekoa, was serving her year of national service at a youth center in Jerusalem. She loved nature and her friends have asked people to tour the country and post pictures of their trips in her memory.
(worldisraelnews.com)
Palestinian Parents Abandon Sick Children At Gaza Border
The Israel Defense Forces’ Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) unit revealed a disconcerting phenomenon: Sick children from the Gaza Strip who have received medical treatment in Israel are being abandoned at the Erez border crossing by a parent or other guardian, who took them into Israel for treatment and wants to stay in Israel illegally to work.
On Feb. 5, the father of a four-year-old Palestinian child abandoned him at the crossing in northern Gaza. The boy had received medical treatment in Israel and when it came time to return home via the crossing, the father left him with a stranger and remained in Israel illegally.
It was not the first such case. Children are being found without their parents at the crossing several times a month. The phenomenon began a few months ago and isn’t showing signs of slowing down, the army said.
The commander of COGAT in Gaza, Col. Iyad Sarhan, said, “the parent who was supposed to accompany his child and provide him with a sense of security chose to remain in Israel as an illegal resident and send his child back to Gaza alone without any familiar faces leading him home.
“This is an unacceptable phenomenon. As a father myself, I don’t understand how a parent abandons his child and leaves him in the hands of a stranger, without worrying about his welfare and safety,” said Sarhan.
“Those who choose to stay in Israel are violating the conditions of their entry permits,” Sarhan added. “As a human being and as a father, I hope that this will stop and the residents of Gaza will start prioritizing their children above everything else.”
(israelhayom.com; jns.org)
Egypt Pumps Toxic Gas Into Smuggling Tunnel, Killing Two Palestinians
Two Palestinians died Monday (11th) and nine others were injured after Egyptian troops pumped toxic fumes into a smuggling tunnel stretching into the Sinai Peninsula from the Gaza Strip.
The Hamas-run Gaza Interior Ministry was quoted by Wafa News who identified the two as 39-year-old Hamas officer Abdul Hamid al-Aker, who was killed during a security mission to inspect the tunnel,” and 28-year-old Sobhi Abu Qarshin, who died during a rescue attempt.
Nine other security personnel were rescued by civil defense teams from inside the tunnel and were rushed to the hospital.
The ministry did not say what gas was used by the Egyptians.
Egypt has in the past flooded Hamas tunnels along the Gaza Strip with sea water or sewage, and has destroyed hundreds of homes on the Egyptian side of Rafah to remove the smuggling tunnels used by Gazans.
In January, the Egyptian military announced that it had destroyed 37 cross-border tunnels linking the Gaza Strip to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula over the past year.
(wafa.ps; jpost.com)
Report: Mossad Helped Smuggle Nuclear Spy Out Of Iran
An Iranian nuclear technician with information about the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program was smuggled into the United Kingdom on New Year’s Eve last year in a joint operation involving M16, the CIA and Israeli Mossad, the Sunday Express newspaper reported on Sunday (10th).
According to the report, the 47-year-old nuclear technician had been “an Israeli asset for years” who also “helped plan” the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan in 2012. Roshan, a director of Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment facility, was killed by a magnetic bomb attached to his car in Tehran. His driver also died. Iran accused the Mossad of carrying out the assassination.
The plan to smuggle the alleged Israeli nuclear spy out of Iran, meanwhile, reportedly involved a “3,000-mile dash across Europe” and a final 22-mile crossing of the English Channel in a dinghy, hidden among other illegal Iranian immigrants.
Initially, the alleged spy was reportedly smuggled out of his homeland and into neighboring Turkey by the Mossad.
Britain, the report said, tried to conceal its involvement in the operation because it opposed the US withdrawal from the nuclear agreement with Iran and remained a party to it.
A British intelligence source told the Sunday Express: “The nuclear technician’s absence was noted quickly by the Iranians and we were informed that a special unit of The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had been dispatched. Once in France, the question of how to get him into Britain remained. We couldn’t simply fly him in. Though unusual, it was determined to infiltrate him into a group of fellow migrants preparing to cross the channel by boat.”
The report also said that M16 agents debriefed the nuclear technician on Iran’s nuclear plans before he was flown to the United States.
(express.co.uk)
Jerusalem Post: What’s Up With World Hijab Day?
People in more than 100 countries participated earlier this month in World Hijab Day, the latest outrage of what some are calling “Islamic indoctrination” in public schools.
World Hijab Day is an international event during which Muslim and non-Muslim women are encouraged to wear the hijab, the traditional Islamic head covering.
The event was founded in 2013 by New York resident Nazma Khan.
In recent years, U.S. public schools began taking part in World Hijab Day celebrations, generally planned and orchestrated by student clubs, such as the Muslim Student Association. But unlike most club activities, World Hijab Day was often celebrated during school hours and in classrooms by students, teachers, principals and other administrators.
Celebrations are known to have taken place in New York, Florida, Illinois, California and Missouri, among other places.
According to reports, the purposes of the events are several, but the focuses are to provide students with the experience of wearing Muslim religious headgear and to promote diversity. However, on the Official World Hijab Facebook page, organizers say that another one of their objectives is to show that Muslims rule the world.
“We rule the world,” they write. “And nobody knows that.”
Is it possible that World Hijab Day is seen by some Muslims as a victory in their religious struggle?
Now, imagine if Muslim students were encouraged to wear a kippah or a a nun’s habit.
(jpost.com)
