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Female Palestinian Arab terrorist shot and killed on the scene.

By JNS and World Israel News Staff

An Israeli man was lightly wounded in a Palestinian stabbing attack in the village of Huwara, near Nablus in Samaria, on Thursday.

The terrorist was shot dead at the scene.

Emergency first responders from Magen David Adom were dispatched to the scene of the attack.

In cooperation with an army medical team, the MDA first responders treated the victim before evacuating via ambulance.

The victim, a man in his 20s, was taken to hospital fully conscious and in stable condition.

“When we arrived at the scene, we saw the wounded man sitting fully conscious and suffering from a penetrating injury to his body,” said MDA volunteer Moti Dahan. “We immediately gave him medical treatment and with the help of an IDF medical force, he was taken to the hospital.”

The Israeli military has recently upgraded the road infrastructure in Huwara to increase security for Israelis driving on Route 60, the highway that runs through the village.

It comes after a series of Palestinian terrorist attacks taking advantage of the congestion that slows down vehicles entering the area, including the murder of brothers Hallel Yaniv, 21, and Yagel Yaniv, 19—Israelis shot by a Palestinian terrorist as they sat in traffic on Feb. 26.

The number of lanes on Route 60 at Einabus Square was doubled, from two to four. The IDF also removed a traffic circle at Yitzhar Junction that had been built as a traffic safety measure. Both projects are aimed at increasing speeds through the terror-stronghold village until the completion of a bypass road.

Also, a large number of IDF personnel have been deployed to the area and 13 new defensive positions were built to discourage attacks and to reduce response times in the event they take place.

The IDF’s Samaria Brigade has also bolstered security inspections, including the deployment of additional checkpoint barriers.

The post Israeli man wounded in Huwara terror attack appeared first on World Israel News.

The rate of Palestinian attacks is alarming: “It’s a miracle that we’re not attending funerals every day,” said one resident.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Israel is considering whether to initiate a sweeping anti-terror operation in Judea and Samaria due to the increasing rate of terror attacks in Samaria, Israel Hayom reported exclusively Thursday.

There is no agreement as yet on the matter, with the Shin Bet (Shabak) reportedly in favor of the policy change and the Defense Ministry and chief of staff as yet undecided.

Those backing the idea say that the ever-growing incitement in Palestinian areas to attack Jews could lead to a much greater number of deaths via terror attacks than a military operation.

The report added that the security apparatus is also weighing the possibility of increasing pre-emptive arrest operations of known terrorists and boosting the number of raids methodically, one quadrant at a time. Another idea is to help the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) security forces do their job.

The PA is believed to have lost control of wide swathes of their territory, especially in the cities of Nablus (Shechem) and Jenin. Its forces largely disappear during IDF raids, angering many Palestinians, and its officials appear helpless against the tide of rising support for Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s extremist rhetoric, both against Israel and the government in Ramallah.

According to the report, the IDF had been preparing to launch such a large-scale operation early last year after a similar rise in terror attacks, but stopped when elections were called and a new government installed. The plans have reportedly now been pulled out of the drawer for another look.

Residents and officials of Judea and Samaria have been calling for months for serious action to restore Israeli deterrence in the region. While the media only publicize the relatively few attacks in which people are injured or killed, they feel in constant danger, especially on the roads.

“A sense of security? There’s no sense of security,” Dassi Hershler of the Samarian town of Nofim told Ynet Thursday. “We rely on the army, which is doing its job faithfully, but at least once a day there’s a moment of panic. Maybe they’ll throw a rock at me? Maybe the person who stopped at a light in front of me will pull out a gun?”

Yitzhar resident Tuvya Ariel charged that the government has deserted its citizens under a “wave of terror.”

“The terrorists roam the highways unhindered and it’s only because of one miracle after another that we’re not attending funerals every day. The government has to wake up before it’s too late,” he said.

Nati Rom of Esh Kodesh described how one night he saw an object on the road and swerved around it, but that the car behind him ran over it and it exploded. “That’s just a drop in the ocean” of what is occurring, he maintained.

“It wasn’t like this in the past, certainly not this often. The Prime Minister and the Minister of Defense are not keeping their promises” regarding security, he said.

At a demonstration Tuesday by residents of Avnei Hefetz, where a shooting attack took place that morning, Samarian Regional Council head Yossi Dagan addressed the government, saying, “We elected you, come to your senses already. The entire nation of Israel expects you to close the checkpoints immediately.

“We said blood would be spilled here when they opened the checkpoints, the writing was on the wall. We will never agree to be ducks on a shooting range and never accept that Jewish lives will be abandoned here.”

Dagan had challenged the coalition in February to “to uproot all sources of terrorism, and collect all weapons in Judea and Samaria.”

The post Israel considering major anti-terror operation in Judea and Samaria – report appeared first on World Israel News.

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After pausing during Knesset recess, anti-government demonstrators resume massive protests across Israel, including blocking major roads and highways.

By World Israel News Staff

Anti-judicial reform demonstrators staged dramatic protests across Israel on Thursday morning, piling mannequins meant to look like dead bodies in front of Public Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s home and blocking major intersections throughout the country.

The Brothers in Arms protest group, whose members consist of military veterans and reservists, placed a giant tarp splattered with fake blood and dummies resembling corpses, some of which were dismembered, in front of Ben-Gvir’s house in Kiryat Arba, Hebron.

“Three months, 78 dead, one guilty,” read banners outside of the home, which appeared to criticize spiking murder rates and seemed to blame Ben-Gvir for the phenomenon.

More than three quarters of the 78 killed since Ben-Gvir’s tenure began in December 2022 were members of Israel’s Arab community, and most murders in the sector remain unsolved due to witnesses being notoriously uncooperative with police.

“Several dozen demonstrators from the extreme left [working] on behalf of Ehud Barak came this morning to demonstrate at the entrance to my house,” the lawmaker responded on Twitter.

“The truth is…you will continue to shout and hate, we will continue to work for the people of Israel.”

Some one thousand protesters blocked the Kfar HaYarok interchange, north of Tel Aviv, with police arresting at least one demonstrator. The Rokach-Namir intersection in the city itself, near Tel Aviv University, was blocked to traffic by protesters.

Junctions and highways near the central Israeli cities of Herzliya and Rananana were also blocked by protesters, along with the Nahalal Junction in the north.

At HaBima Square in Tel Aviv, protesters poured white liquid into the site’s iconic fountains, holding signs reading “Yes, we’re crying over spilled milk.” Organizers at HaBima said they were protesting the soaring cost of living in Israel, and told Hebrew language media that lowering prices should be the government’s priority, rather than judicial reform.

Also at HaBima, some dozen protesters who claimed to be representing the high-tech industry staged giant dominoes that appeared to be close to tipping over, alongside banners that read “if high tech falls, we all fall.”

Protesters also set up a mock military recruitment office in the ultra-Orthodox enclave of Bnei Brak in reference to a proposed law which would grant blanket exemptions from IDF service to the community.

The post ‘Corpses,’ chaos and blocked roads as ‘Day of Disruption’ returns appeared first on World Israel News.

Three Arab terrorists who murdered a UK-Israeli woman and her two daughters are eliminated during gun battle with Israeli soldiers in Samaria.

By World Israel News Staff

Israeli security forces eliminated three terrorists and wounded four others during a gun battle in the Palestinian Authority city of Shechem (Nablus) in Samaria Thursday morning.

IDF soldiers and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) forces entered the Old City of Shechem (Nablus) as part of a counter-terror operation.

The Israeli forces came under fire, sparking a gun battle with a group of terrorists.

According to a report by The Jerusalem Post, during the gun battle, an Israeli suicide drone was launched towards the building where the terrorists where holed up.

The drone reportedly entered through a window and detonated, killing three of the terrorists and wounding four more.

The terrorists killed Thursday morning have been linked to the murder of three dual UK-Israeli citizens in a drive-by shooting attack in the Jordan Valley last month.

Lucy Dee and her daughters Maia and Rina, residents of Efrat in Gush Etzion, were killed in the attack.

The Mayor of Efrat, Oded Revivi, lauded the IDF for the elimination of the terrorists responsible for the murder of Lucy, Maia, and Rina Dee.

“On behalf of the residents of Efrat, I thank the soldiers and commanders for their unceasing efforts on our behalf.”

“Together we will continue to embrace the members of the Dee family, gaining strength as a community and strengthening the town. Our strong approach alongside the elimination of terrorists is the best answer to terrorism.”

The post IDF eliminates terrorists who murdered Lucy Dee and her daughters appeared first on World Israel News.

The death of 16-year-old Brayden Bahme, affectionately known as “Fish Pockets,” has left the Cheney High School community in shock and mourning.

On April 27, the Cheney native tragically passed away after being fatally impaled through his eye during gym class in Washington State. Fire Chief Tom Jenkins reported the injury was not sustainable with life.

The tragedy quickly prompted an outpouring of remembrance and support from the community. To honor Bahme, a candlelight vigil was held at the school on Monday evening.

Many attendees donated fishing gear in tribute to the avid angler, and a GoFundMe page was established to cover funeral expenses. The fundraiser has since raised over $20,000, and the remaining funds will be used to create a youth fishing program in Bahme’s name.

A classmate and soccer teammate said in a Facebook Post Brayden was “one of the most nicest and most respectful students” they had ever met. Representative of his uplifting spirit, some of his friends remembered Brayden as “the life of the room” at school events.

The death of Brayden Bahme is a heartfelt reminder of life’s unpredictable, finite nature. His legacy will live on through donations to his GoFundMe page, the fishing gear given in his honor, and the youth fishing program bearing his name. Brayden Bahme will be remembered for his tremendous kindness, respect, and enthusiasm for the sport of fishing.

A brutal civil war is unfolding in Sudan, with opposing military factions engaging in all-out warfare across the nation. The clash between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has its roots in the downfall of the Sudanese dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019, when the two forces colluded to support a popular uprising. Now these groups are fighting for supremacy, catching the country in the crossfire. Also entangled in that fracas are Western civilians and the disparate handling of their plights is telling.

Since the crisis exploded, this threat has been ramping up. Tragic stories of woe from Khartoum and its environs have been filtering out. Many civilians from Europe and the U.S. are attempting to flee the chaos; their nationality seems to be playing a role in their success in that endeavor. European nations have successfully evacuated their citizens by air, while the United States has essentially said to its citizens that they should make their own plans and should not expect the help of the American government. This is in spite of the fact that we were able to exfiltrate our embassy personnel without incident. At least 16,000 Americans remain in Sudan, many of whom are struggling to escape a rapidly deteriorating situation. Two Americans have already died during this chaos.

The blasé attitude of the Biden administration in this situation has been galling, especially in light of the swift European response. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stated that “It is not our standard procedure to evacuate American citizens living abroad.” The State Department echoed these remarks, saying that it had reached out to Americans in Sudan with recommendations on “security measures and other precautions they can take on their own.” It also seemed to cast blame on those trapped in Sudan, claiming that the U.S. had warned them in advance. This disinterest in the well-being of Americans abroad is deeply distasteful, but not new.

The Biden administration rolled out this same playbook after its calamitous withdrawal from Afghanistan. Despite initially claiming that only 100 Americans were left in the country after our evacuation, the administration eventually admitted that it had understated this amount significantly. We also left behind nearly 80,000 Afghan allies, abandoning them to hostile Taliban forces. In early April, the Pentagon released a report on the withdrawal, laying the blame entirely on others and claiming that the Saigon-like scenes in Kabul were evidence of a successful airlift. These two events – Sudan and Afghanistan – show a worrying trend in American foreign policy under the Biden administration: a deliberate choice to leave American citizens in the lurch during foreign chaos. This is unbecoming of a hegemonic power, something history demonstrates.

Generally, the citizens of a world-spanning power tend to be protected from abuse abroad by the fact of their citizenship. This dates back to Roman times, when the concept of civis Romanus sum appeared. That statement, which translates as “I am a Roman citizen,” was shorthand for the deterrent effect that claims of Roman citizenship had on violent actors. Everyone knew that ill-treatment of a Roman citizen could bring the world down around them. This is discussed in the Bible in Acts, when Paul is harassed by local authorities:

The chief captain commanded him to be brought into the castle, and bade that he should be examined by scourging; that he might know wherefore they cried so against him. And as they bound him with thongs, Paul said unto the centurion that stood by, Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman, and uncondemned? When the centurion heard that, he went and told the chief captain, saying, Take heed what thou doest: for this man is a Roman. … Then straightway they departed from him which should have examined him: and the chief captain also was afraid, after he knew that he was a Roman, and because he had bound him.

Acts 22: 24-29

The fact of Roman citizenship forced Paul’s persecutors to desist; the certainty that the Empire would defend its own made an impact.

About 1800 years later, civis Romanus sum was revivified by a new world hegemon: the British Empire. One of the 19th century’s eminent statesmen, Lord Palmerston, brought the concept back in June 1850 when he addressed Parliament over the Don Pacifico affair. This situation involved British citizens being ill-treated by the Greek government after their property was destroyed. Palmerston saw this as an affront to British honor and the liberal cause of rule of law and sent gunboats to Greece to force a just resolution. In a speech to the Commons, Palmerston evoked civis Romanus sum:

I therefore fearlessly challenge the verdict which this House, as representing a political, a commercial, a constitutional country, is to give on the question now brought before it; whether the principles on which the foreign policy of Her Majesty’s Government has been conducted, and the sense of duty which has led us to think ourselves bound to afford protection to our fellow subjects abroad, are proper and fitting guides for those who are charged with the Government of England; and whether, as the Roman, in days of old, held himself free from indignity, when he could say civis Romanus sum; so also a British subject, in whatever land he may be, shall feel confident that the watchful eye and the strong arm of England, will protect him against injustice and wrong.

The Lords strongly dissented from Palmerston’s approach, but the public was enraptured, seeing him standing up for British rights against arbitrary foreign despotism. An article from the Weekly Chronicle of London details this positive response:

Palmerston is the most popular man in England. The crowds that have lined the approaches to the House of Commons to cheer him every evening, and the unanimous support of the Provincial Press shew it. His own defence of his policy has placed him at the head of our Parliamentary orators and established him as the first of our statesmen. The people of England are with him. They will support the Foreign Minister who enables “a British subject to consider himself in foreign countries as protected by the vigilant eye and strong arm of his government against injustice and wrong”; and the Minister who makes their sympathy with constitutional liberty patent to the world.

That assertive approach to defending the rights of British citizens would continue through the Victorian age and was mimicked by other powers, including the United States.

In 1904 America was a rising imperial power, with citizens and commercial interests spread across the globe. When Ion Perdicaris, an American businessman in Morocco, was kidnapped by the warlord Ahmed al-Raisuli, it stoked a major foreign policy crisis. Raisuli demanded major concessions from the Moroccan sultan, threatening to kill Perdicaris if his conditions were not met. President Theodore Roosevelt and his Secretary of State John Hay were outraged and, seeing this as an opportunity to show American resolve before the 1904 election, dispatched a flotilla of warships to the Moroccan coast. The threat of the ships’ guns and the Marines onboard forced the sultan into negotiations. After a break in the talks, Hay sent a famously curt ultimatum to the sultan: “Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead.” This forceful warning did the trick, and Raisuli’s conditions were met. Perdicaris was released and Roosevelt had his foreign coup. This bold action showed America’s resolve on the world stage and bolstered its reputation abroad.

The United States is far more dominant in 2023 than it was in 1904 – and it is at least as powerful as the British and Romans were in their heyday. So why have our leaders taken such a passive approach to endangered Americans overseas? This attitude implies that our government does not care about the fate of ordinary Americans when they are stuck in difficult situations abroad. When the administration takes care of its own by evacuating embassy personnel and refuses to do the same for regular citizens, this looks craven. Abandoning Americans to cope with foreign threats on their own will only result in more of those threats; deterrence breaks down when the State displays such ambivalence.

We need a new motto for times such as these: civis Americanus sum. This would entail a reassertion of American values like the rule of law, antipathy toward arbitrary government, and refusal to abandon our own. Not only do we have the ability to uphold these values, we have the obligation to do so. That does not mean a return to gunboat diplomacy – although it would provide a use for those currently-useless littoral combat ships. What it does mean is a determined commitment to defending the rights of Americans abroad when they are threatened or treated unfairly. Americans should not be seen as easy targets and should be able to travel with the knowledge that their nation has their back if danger arises. If American citizenship guarantees anything, it should be this.

The post What Does America Owe its Citizens Abroad? appeared first on Providence.

We are painfully reminded of the horrifying gun violence epidemic that continues to plague the United States after a shooting at a medical building in Atlanta, Georgia, on Wednesday, May 3. Ex-U.S. Coast Guardsman Deion Patterson, aged 24, has been arrested by police in connection with the crime.

On Wednesday morning, the incident left Amy St. Pierre, 39, dead and four other women ages 25-71, three critically and seriously wounded. The motive and whether Patterson knew or had targeted any of the victims remains to be seen. After the shooting, Patterson left the scene on foot and carjacked a pickup truck from a nearby gas station. Reportedly, an undercover police officer was able to identify him north of the city, which eventually led police to the culprit, which is currently being investigated.

Patterson was a member of the U.S. Coast Guard from July 2018 to January of this year. But no word has been made regarding why he was discharged from the U.S. Coast Guard. Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens released a statement on the incident. He referred to it as the latest addition to a “national epidemic of gun violence” that affects not only public places like parks and schools but also sacred spaces such as churches and hospitals. Unfortunately, this horrendous event has become all too common in our society.