News Digest — 10/13/26
School Hiking Trip Tragedy, 1 Killed, 24 Injured: Injured Student Speaks To Netanyahu
New testimony about the moment leading up to the tragedy during the ORT Ma’alot Yeshiva High School hiking trip emerged on Monday evening (12th) during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Rambam Hospital in Haifa.
A student injured in the explosion told Netanyahu that one of the students had been playing with a piece of unexploded ordnance found in the area and unscrewed part of it, an action which he said led to the deadly blast.
The Prime Minister arrived at the hospital together with Education Minister Yoav Kisch to visit those injured in the incident on the Ramim Ridge in the Upper gGalilee and their families.
During the visit, Netanyahu spoke with Eitan Masaori, a 14-year-old student who sustained a shrapnel injury to his neck, and heard his account of the moments preceding the explosion and the injuries suffered by the students.
According to Masaori, the student who discovered the munition began playing with it and unscrewed part of it, after which the explosion occurred.
“Guys were thrown through the air, some fell into the bushes. There were two seconds of shock,” Masaori described.
The student said that despite being injured himself, he tried to help one of his friends.
“I realized I was injured. I saw that a friend was hurt, and I tried to help him,” he said.
Following the visit and the testimonies he heard, Netanyahu instructed the head of the IDF Home Front Command to reinforce public safety instructions and warnings regarding unexploded ordnance remaining in the field.
The Prime Minister requested that authorities emphasize the strict prohibition against touching unexploded ordnance, alongside conducting searches across extensive areas to locate additional munitions that could endanger civilians.
Education Minister Kisch announced that following the tragedy, he had ordered a 48-hour suspension of school trips in the northern border and Golan Heights areas, with trips planned for those regions to be redirected to alternative routes.
According to Kisch, a preliminary examination found that the trip during which the tragedy occurred had been approved, the route had been inspected, and all required guidelines had been followed.
Kitsch noted that the safety briefing ahead of the trip included a warning about unexploded ordnance.
The explosion on Monday afternoon (12th), during the school trip killed one boy approximately 14 years old and injured 24 others, including two boys who were seriously injured, ten students who sustained moderate injuries, and 12 who were lightly injured.
The IDF believes that the munition that exploded was a cluster munition fired by Hezbollah toward the area during the war, which had remained on the ground without detonating.
Tuesday morning (13th) the student killed was identified as 13-year-old Elazar Yair Wilensky. He is survived by his parents and was the youngest of five siblings.
Ethiopian Airlines Cargo Flight Denied Landing In Israel Due To Indonesian Pilot
An Ethiopian Airlines cargo flight from Addis Ababa was forced to turn around midair early Monday morning (12th), after Israel refused to let it land since the pilot is a citizen of Indonesia, according to multiple Hebrew media reports.
Israel does not have diplomatic relations with Indonesia.
The incident came less than two weeks after an attack aboard a Flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv, in which an Omani pilot stabbed his co-pilot in an attempt to crash the plane into Ben Gurion Airport, and was thwarted by the intervention of several passengers.
In the wake of the incident, it was revealed that hundreds of crew members from enemy states had flown into Israel, a major security risk.
The list of crew members on the Ethiopian Airlines flight was only sent to Israel after take-off, Channel 13 reported on Monday (12th). According to the Ynet News site, the plane returned to Addis Ababa, dumping its fuel in the sea along the way, where the pilot was replaced with another who was cleared to land in Israel.
Following the Flydubai attack, The Transportation Ministry reportedly tightened rules for foreign airlines flying to Israel, barring crew members who hold citizenship in countries without formal diplomatic relations with Israel from operating or traveling aboard Israel-bound flights.
Pilots and other aircrew holding citizenship from countries including Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, and Pakistan have reportedly been easily able to fly into Israel in recent years.
In the wake of the Flydubai incident, local media has reported that Israeli security bodies have been warning for years that the Transportation Ministry is not meeting its responsibilities in performing adequate security checks on foreign airlines and their crew members flying into Israel and inspecting Israeli flights operated by foreign carriers. The Transportation Ministry has responded that it doesn’t have the intelligence apparatus needed.
Channel 12 news reported last week that a letter sent by the Transportation Ministry the day after the attack stated that aircraft operators must not let citizens of enemy countries, pilot and crew, even travel on flights to Israel.
The letter reportedly warned the operators that the ministry will be conducting recurring assessments to ensure that they are implementing the necessary programs, measures, and procedures to address the threats and risks associated with flights to Israel, and noted that it will conduct “on-site audits” to ensure this is the case.
It also stated, the TV network reported, that the operators are responsible for ensuring that no pilots or cockpit crew members on flights that enter Israel’s Flight Information Region, or are even on board the aircraft, are citizens or dual nationals of a country that does not have diplomatic relations with Israel.
‘Dangerous Territory’: Herzog Slams Europe, where Jewish Life Is Contracting In Fear
Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Sunday (11th) criticized Europe for once again fostering an inhospitable environment for Jews, with communities shrinking in fear and insecurity as Israel is scapegoated and portrayed as evil.
“In a Europe that not long ago turned on its Jews and on itself, today Israel is demonized, while its Jewish communities contract in fear, found–once again– into a defensive posture between two identities, and denied–once again–simple, safe belonging,” said Herzog.
“Disagreeing with Israel on its strategy or on its political venue is legitimate debate. Constructive disagreement in goodwill can serve the goals we share,” he continued. “But that is not what is going on in Europe and in France. What we are seeing in Europe today is pure scapegoating. What we are seeing in Europe today is that blaming the Jews has become, once again, the default mode, the easiest solution, a cathartic and satisfying disguise for the anger and disappointment over Europe’s own failings and fears.
“This is dangerous territory. And it works against Europe’s own goals,” added Herzog.
The president made the remarks in Jerusalem to a visiting delegation from the Consistoire central Israelite de France, the central religious institution of French Jewry. The delegation, led by Consistoire President Elie Korchia, included community leaders, public officials and France’s Chief Rabbi Haim Korsia.
Herzog said any blanket rejection of Israel , efforts to isolate it and portray it as evil, and the failure to recognize the very real threats facing the country and its critical role in defending Europe against similar dangers amounted to a “grave error.”
“Calling for boycotts and sanctions is not simply morally wrong. It reflects a deep alienation from Europe’s own intellectual inheritance while speaking to the darkest shadows of its past,” he said.
“And let’s be clear: they serve no one. Boycotts and sanctions harm, first and foremost, the Palestinians, robbing them of jobs and income. At the same time, they absolve corrupt Hamas leadership of any responsibility for their rabid antisemitism or for their crimes against their own people,” he added.
Despite his criticism, Herzog expressed optimism about the future, calling for greater cooperation between Israel and France across a range of fields, and urged companies in both countries to deepen their collaboration.
“Across culture, academia and science, there is so much for us to exchange–so much goodness we can bring to the world. I believe in this with my whole heart,” he said.
(jns.org)
‘Legitimizes Antisemitism’: Israel Votes Against UN Durban Resolution
The UN adopted a resolution calling for the full implementation of the 2001 Durban Declaration, with 95 countries voting in favor, 5 against, and 37 abstaining.
During the debate, Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, condemned the attempt to grant further legitimacy to the Durban Conference, 25 years after it took place.
Danon recalled that images of Hitler were circulated during the conference. Zionism was equated with racism, and Jewish participants were physically assaulted.
He also noted that during this year’s gathering, Iran’s representative described Zionism as a “doctrine of supremacy.”
“The Durban Conference was supposed to combat racism, but instead became a platform for antisemitism and hatred of Israel. Twenty-five years later, the United Nations continues to celebrate this disgrace and attempts to rewrite history,” said Danon.
“Israel will not support a resolution that legitimizes antisemitism under the guise of fighting racism. Durban’s legacy deserves no further recognition, no further celebration, and no further legitimacy. It is time to remove this stain from the United Nations once and for all,” he added.
Israel and the United States withdrew from the original Durban Conference in 2001. Subsequent events faced increasingly broad boycotts from other countries as well, culminating in more than 40 countries refusing to attend the 2026 commemoration.
Just because The Entire World believes Something Does Not Make it True – Natan Sharansky
On Friday, (9th) the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced awarding the Nobel Peace Prize for 2026 to Navi Pillay, who led the 2025 UN commission that found Israel guilty of genocide against the Palestinians.
It was a general consensus for hundreds of years that Jews killed Christian children to collect their blood for the Passover Seder. Of course, the accusation was a lie.
A very intelligent Christian activist whom I met in a Soviet labor camp and who would become my best friend told me that while he knew Jews no longer used Christian blood, they must have done so a few hundred years earlier. Otherwise, how could such a widespread belief have come to be?
A genocide, according to the legal definition, comprises acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. This is exactly what the sadistic terrorists who rampaged our communities, raping, burning, torturing, and murdering everyone they could reach, intended to do on Oct. 7, 2023.
The great cultural Zionist Ahad Ha’am wrote in 1892 that there is no lie that cannot obtain universal acceptance if the circumstances favor it. In our time, the combination of Islamism, neo-Marxist ideology, Western apathy and appeasement, and primitive antisemitism have combined to create the perfect soil in which the new blood libel could grow.
“The soldiers in Israel’s people’s army come home every few weeks and report how much time and energy they spend on mitigating civilian harm: messaging and emailing about impending attacks, knocking on doors, halting strikes, and transporting people from one part of Gaza to another to separate them from the terrorists in their midst. What kind of genocide is it when the population of Gaza is larger today than it was three years ago?
Of course, the sight of Gaza in ruins is horrific. But every Israeli understands how and why we got here. We remember how the Oct. 7 terrorists returned to cheering crowds as they paraded the bodies of their victims in the streets. We recall who hid our hostages.
Just because the entire world believes something does not make it true. Our goal should not be to convince the rest of the world that we are right. Our existence does not depend on a vote in the UN. It depends on our own belief in the righteousness of Jewish civilization.
When our children and grandchildren ask us how the whole world can believe there is a genocide if, in fact, there is no genocide, we should stand firm in the conviction of what we know to be true. Only through such conviction will we outlive those who believe Israel is the closest evil to Satan.
The writer is a former political prisoner in the Soviet Union, former minister in Israeli governments, and former chairman of the Executive of the Jewish Agency for Israel. (Tablet)
