Israel and the West Bank
A Palestinian terrorist stabbed to death 13-year-old American citizen Hallel Yaffa Ariel in her bed in the West Bank neighborhood of Kiryat Arba on June 30th. Civilian guards shot and detained 17-year-old Muhammad Nasser following the attack. The IDF later arrested Muhammad’s sister and accused of encouraging terrorist activities.
Hamas praised the terrorists that killed Rabbi Miki Mark,—the head of a yeshiva in the West Bank—and seriously injured his wife in a drive-by shooting on July 1st on Route 60 near Beit Hagai. The Rabbi’s two daughters suffered injuries in the attack after the car flipped over on the road.
The IDF is investigating the death of a Palestinian teenager, and injuring of four others after an incident on June 21st when Israeli soldiers responded to stones and molotov cocktails being thrown on Route 443—a highway connecting Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. IDF soldiers mistook the teens and began shooting at their car that was driving on a West Bank road near Route 443.
A 15-year-old Jewish extremists received a 6-month restraining order from entering Judea and Samaria, preventing him from moving back to his parents home in the West Bank. The minor—who had violated several warnings from the government—has a history of violence against Palestinians and indictments against Israeli security forces. The restraining order is part of the government’s efforts to isolate right wing extremists that threaten state security in the West Bank.
An Israeli military court gave life sentences to four Hamas terrorists that participated in the killing of Eitam and Naama Henkin in Samaria on October 1st.
Shin Bet revealed that the five suspects responsible for a bombing in Hizma on May 10th, Remembrance Day, intended to carry out more and larger scale attacks in the Ma’ale Adumim area. Security forces arrested and interrogated the men, including Samar Mahmoud Dawd Halbiya, who had also produced cell phone activated bombs, 2 Molotov Cocktails, a large pipe bomb.
In the third consecutive day of confrontations, Palestinians protesters threw rocks at Jews praying at the Western Wall and injured a 73-year-old woman. Police arrested 11 masked assailants, and closed the Temple Mount to non-Muslim visitors for the duration of Ramadan.
Gaza
Israel will begin sounding a siren and sending follow up text messages to warn Israel’s southern residents about tunnel digging and terrorist infiltrations from Gaza into Israel.
The IDF struck four Hamas training sites in Gaza on July 1st in response to a rocket fire that hit a kindergarten in the southern Israeli town of Sderot. No injuries were reported from either incident.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal on June 24th, just days before Israel and Turkey signed the reconciliation deal. Sources close to the president said that the two discussed Turkey providing humanitarian aid to Gaza, and “bridging the differences” between Hamas and Fatah. Turkey is negotiating an exchange between Hamas and Israel, that would return the bodies of Israeli soldiers Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul that died during Operation Protective Edge in 2014, according a Saudi news website.
Sinai
An improvised explosive device (IED) detonated near a police vehicle in central Sinai, injuring six Egyptian officers.
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) removed the Sinai Peninsula from the agency’s worldwide no-fly zone warnings. Some airlines stopped flying above the Sinai Peninsula after the deadly crash of a Russian Metrojet in October.
The Egyptian military killed 33 gunmen, and injured 50 others after the military bombed ISIS occupied sites in the Northern Sinai villages of Beit Amira, al-Shalaq, al-Lufitat, and south Sheikh Zuweid. An Egyptian military source told Palestinian news agency Ma’an that the strikes are meant to foil attacks being planned against Egyptian security forces in the area.
Syria
Israel bombed two Syrian army targets after errant artillery fire damaged Israel’s security fence in the Golan Heights.
The United Nations Security Council unanimously voted to send peace keeping UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) to Camp Faouar in southern Syria, a base that was abandoned during fighting from Syria’s civil war.
Jewish Policy Center interns Mina Hamblet and Eliana Amundson compiled this report.
