Iranian regime is ‘in deep trouble’ after war with Israel, Netanyahu says
The Times of Israel is liveblogging Sunday’s events as they happen.
Former prime minister Ehud Olmert labels Israel’s plan to move Palestinians in Gaza into a “humanitarian city” as essentially a concentration camp.
“It is a concentration camp. I am sorry,” Olmert tells the British Guardian newspaper in an interview about the plan laid out last week by Defense Minister Israel Katz.
“If [the Palestinians] will be deported into the new ‘humanitarian city,’ then you can say that this is part of an ethnic cleansing. It hasn’t yet happened,” Olmert says, calling it the “the inevitable interpretation” of the current plan to create a camp for hundreds of thousands of people.
“When they build a camp where they [plan to] ‘clean’ more than half of Gaza, then the inevitable understanding of the strategy of this [is that] it is not to save [Palestinians]. It is to deport them, to push them and to throw them away. There is no other understanding that I have, at least,” Olmert adds.
A young man was shot dead in his car in the city of Kafr Qasim this evening.
The vehicle of the victim, 21-year-old Muhammad Badawi, disappeared by the time officers had reached the crime scene, police say.
The disappearance of the “primary piece of evidence” constituted a serious disruption of the crime scene, a spokesman for law enforcement says in a statement.
In light of the situation, Central District commander Yair Hetzroni assigned the investigation to the Sharon Region’s special crimefighting unit. Police suspect Badawi was killed on the backdrop of “a violent dispute within the Arab community.”
Since the start of the year, 136 Arab Israelis have been killed in violent criminal incidents as violent crime soars. Four members of the community have been killed over the past three days.
On Friday night, two men — 45-year-old Noor Hariri and 33-year-old Rami Othman — were shot dead in the northern city of Shfaram.
Yesterday, two women were targeted in a shooting in Lod, which left Nadia Hinawi, 63, dead. Her 52-year-old sister in law, Kifa Hinawi, was critically injured in the shooting and taken to the hospital last night.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich in recent meetings that, following the proposed 60-day ceasefire with Hamas currently under discussion in Doha, Israel will resume its war against Hamas in Gaza, reports Channel 12.
“After the pause, we will transfer the population in the Strip southward and impose a siege [on northern Gaza],” Netanyahu reportedly told Smotrich, who is seeking guarantees from the premier that the war in Gaza will resume in full force after the ceasefire ends.
In closed-door meetings, Netanyahu framed Israel’s plan to separate the Gazan civilian population from Hamas and hold them in a strip of southern Gaza as a humanitarian necessity to allow the conflict to continue following the temporary truce, according to Channel 12.
Netanyahu assured the minister that he would follow through on the promise, pointing to the planning of last month’s conflict with Iran as the reason for failing to meet Smotrich’s prior expectations on destroying Hamas.
“Until now I’ve been busy with Iran — now I can make sure the military follows my instructions,” Channel 12 quotes the premier as telling Smotrich.
Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir have warned that they will withdraw from the government if any deal is agreed to that would end the war in Gaza with Hamas still in power. Both ministers have reportedly been summoned to meet with Netanyahu in recent days, as part of the ongoing efforts to reach a deal.
Israel Prisons chief Kobi Yaakobi, who faces possible criminal charges for ethical violations, implies he will resign from his post, should he be indicted by the attorney general.
“With the attorney general’s announcement........
© The Times of Israel
