Luke Tress is an editor and a reporter in New York for The Times of Israel.
The Times of Israel liveblogged Thursday’s events as they happened.
US Special Representative for Palestinian Affairs Hady Amr is asked during a webinar with Americans for Peace Now whether US President Joe Biden could recognize the state of Palestine on undefined borders in order to promote a two-state solution.
“It’s not where the president is to be honest, but it’s a fair question,” Amr responds.
Later on in the webinar, Amr is asked whether the Biden administration will allow the PLO to reopen its diplomatic mission in Washington, which was shuttered by former president Donald Trump in 2018.
“I don’t anticipate any developments in the immediate term,” Amr says.
“It’s a great question for the Palestinian leadership,” he adds, hinting that the onus is on Ramallah to alter its welfare policy to cease payments to security prisoners and their families. Congressional law bars diplomatic activity by Palestinian representatives on its soil so long as such stipends continue.
Palestinian leaders have long defended the payments, describing them as a form of social welfare and necessary compensation for victims of Israel’s callous military justice system in the West Bank.
The International Monetary Fund warns in a report that Lebanon’s failure to implement reforms could have “irreversible” consequences for the crisis-hit country and risks jeopardizing economic and social stability.
Lebanon has been mired since 2019 in an economic collapse that has seen the local currency lose around 98 percent of its value against the dollar and impoverished most of the population.
In April 2022, Lebanon and the IMF reached a conditional agreement on a $3-billion-dollar loan needed to save the economy, but officials have yet to enact the substantial changes required to kickstart the 46-month financing program.
“The continuation of the status quo presents the largest risk to Lebanon’s economic and social stability, taking the country down an unpredictable road,” the IMF says in a report.
“Without reforms, the economy will remain depressed with irreversible consequences for the country,” it says.
Police are gearing up for an escalation in protests that is expected over the weekend and early next week, the Kan public broadcaster reports.
Police expect a large turnout at demonstrations against the judicial overhaul, as the government appears set to renew its push to advance parts of the legislation.
Law enforcement intelligence does not expect any surprises, however, the report says. A group of protesters blocked off a Tel Aviv highway earlier today, without giving any warning.
Anti-government protesters are planning to block off Ben Gurion International Airport on Monday, drawing a warning from police.
The police force is also preparing for expected demonstrations by Druze Israelis against the planned construction of a wind turbine facility in the Golan.
The construction was paused for the Eid al-Adha holiday, but will resume next week.
Hundreds of officers from around Israel will be dispatched to the north over the weekend to handle the expected protests against the wind farm on Sunday.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Justice Minister Yariv Levin charge Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara with negligence in a meeting held to discuss anti-government protesters.
The closed-door meeting was held earlier today to discuss protesters demonstrating outside the homes of coalition lawmakers.
Ben Gvir demands Baharav-Miara and State Prosecutor Amit Aisman present indictments filed against protesters in the past six months, according to Hebrew media reports.
Levin says, “There were so many road blockages and disturbances outside the homes of MKs. Has there been anyone who was charged for their part in organizing?
“Stop passing responsibility onto the police. You are responsible,” Levin says.
Aisman and Baharav-Miara say indictments have been filed, but they don’t know how many, and that they are not responsible for enforcing the law in the field.
Netanyahu blasts the legal authorities for not prosecuting demonstrators who blocked access to Ben Gurion International Airport. Netanyahu was forced to take a helicopter to the airport to catch a flight abroad earlier this year.
“In what country in the world do people block off an airport and don’t get prosecuted?” Netanyahu says.
More than 2,000 pilgrims suffer medical heat stress during the hajj pilgrimage, Saudi officials say, after temperatures soared to 48 degrees Celsius (118 degrees Fahrenheit) during the annual rites.
Over 1.8 million people are performing the days-long hajj, mostly held outdoors at the height of the Saudi desert summer. Many elderly were among the worshipers after a COVID-era maximum age limit was scrapped.
Saudi officials say about 1,700 heat stress cases were recorded on today alone — as huge numbers of pilgrims remain at the holy sites, a day after the main rituals finished — adding to the 287 reported earlier.
Officials do not provide a death toll but at least 30 people have died during the pilgrimage, according to numbers announced by various countries which did not list causes of death.
The real figure for heat stress — which includes heatstroke, exhaustion, cramps and rashes — is probably far higher, as many sufferers are not admitted to hospitals or clinics.
People struggling in the heat is a common sight, especially after the day-long outdoor prayers at Mount Arafat where overheating phones shut down and shade was hard to find.
A group of protesters opposed to the government’s planned judicial overhaul block Tel Aviv’s central Ayalon highway, as evening traffic is at its peak.
The demonstrators gather on the road after a rally outside the home of Likud MK Boaz Bismuth in the adjacent city of Ramat Gan.
Bismuth earlier this week vowed to push forward the contentious legislation “step by step.”
The protesters clear the highway after around 30 minutes.
בשיא העומס ובהפתעה: כמה מפגינים חסמו את נתיבי איילון במחלף ההלכה@yonatanraveh11 (צילום: שב"פ) pic.twitter.com/QCng7F33eQ
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) June 29, 2023
Israel’s Mossad spy agency names Yousef Shahbazi Abbasalilo as the Iranian terrorist sent to lead a planned terror attack against Israeli targets in Cyprus, and states that he was caught by its operatives in Iran and confessed to the plot.
Mossad says Abbasalilo was given weapons for the attack from senior officials in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, as well as instructions regarding the attack, which Mossad says was to target Israeli businessmen in the small island nation.
Mossad says Abbasalilo confessed during questioning to the planned attack and described his efforts to carry it out.
The information led to the dismantling of the plot’s infrastructure by Cypriot security forces.
“We’ll get to every person that advances terrorism against Jews and Israelis all over the world, including on Iranian soil,” a senior Mossad official says.
The Mossad releases a video of Abbasalilo discussing the planned attack.
Mossad releases video of Iranian terror operative discussing planned attack in Cyprus pic.twitter.com/BPfCr2iwox
— Luke Tress (@luketress) June 29, 2023
Military chief Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi tells graduating pilots that he trusts they will always answer when duty calls, as many reservists have threatened not to show up for service as the government advances the judicial overhaul.
“You are finishing this course today, after a long and complex training period. You are taking off on missions for the next thirty years, during which you will fly in the standing army, and in reserves, and I know that you will always show up when called upon to defend the country. This is the principle on which the IDF was founded,” Halevi says.
People in the crowd at a pilots graduation ceremony at the Hatzerim Air Force base in southern Israel turn their backs as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks.
The military had asked participants not to bring signs or otherwise shout political statements, amid ongoing disputes over the government’s planned judicial overhaul.
Yesterday at a ceremony for graduating IDF cadets, some in the crowd turned their backs when Netanyahu spoke.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant tells the graduating pilots that Israel will not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon.
“Iran has reached an advanced stage in the development of its nuclear program. We will not allow nuclear weapons in the hands of Iran,” Gallant says.
“We will not put up with the Iranians’ attempts to expand into our region. We will act against them, defeat them and return Iran to its natural place, thousands of kilometers east of the State of Israel,” he adds, referring to Iran’s terror proxies across the Middle East.
President Isaac Herzog says reservists have the right to protest the government’s judicial overhaul, but says refusing to show up for duty cannot be accepted.
“The right to protest is a basic right in any democratic state, including in Israel,” Herzog says at the ceremony.
“But threats to refuse have no place, they weaken our security resilience,” Herzog adds.
Reservists have ramped up threats in recent days to refuse to show up for duty, as the government advances its plans to overhaul the judicial system.
A few dozen Iraqi protesters briefly breach the Swedish embassy in Baghdad over the burning of the Quran by an Iraqi living in Sweden.
The demonstrators, supporters of firebrand Shiite Muslim leader Moqtada Sadr, enter the building and remain inside for about 15 minutes before leaving peacefully as security forces deploy.
The protesters rallied outside the embassy in response to a call by Sadr who demanded the removal of the Swedish ambassador, echoing outrage in Muslim countries over the Quran burning yesterday in Stockholm.
Sadr’s supporters also torch rainbow flags that represent the LGBTQ community, after the powerful cleric suggested this would be “the best way to provoke” those who back Quran burnings.
Stockholm’s foreign ministry says in a statement it was “well informed about the situation. Our embassy staff are safe.”
Salwan Momika, 37, who fled to Sweden from Iraq several years ago, stomped on the Quran before setting several pages alight in front of Stockholm’s largest mosque yesterday.
A toddler dies after being locked in a car in Jerusalem, where the temperature climbed into the mid-80s °F.
The parents say the 3-year-old boy was not forgotten in the vehicle, but went inside the car himself. Other reports put the boy’s age at 4.
Medics attempted resuscitation efforts and brought the child to a Jerusalem hospital after finding him in critical condition, but the rescue attempt was unsuccessful.
“The boy was hot to the touch, and had apparently been inside the closed vehicle for a long time,” a first responder from Magen David Adom says.
A spokesperson for a medical group says the child was from East Jerusalem and was locked in the vehicle during Eid al-Adha celebrations.
The boy had been playing with other children when he was accidentally trapped in the vehicle, the Walla news site reported.
The former American ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, is taking a position at the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs as a Senior Adviser for Regional Integration.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says Shapiro will “support US efforts to advance a more peaceful and interconnected region, deepen and broaden the Abraham Accords, and build the Negev Forum.”
Pleased to announce former U.S. Amb. Daniel Shapiro is joining @StateDept_NEA as Senior Advisor for Regional Integration. Dan will support U.S. efforts to advance a more peaceful and interconnected region, deepen and broaden the Abraham Accords, and build the Negev Forum.
— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) June 29, 2023
Blinken announced earlier this month that the Biden administration would create the new position.
Shapiro was the ambassador to Israel in 2011-2017.
An organizer of the protests against the government’s judicial reform is arrested at a demonstration outside a minister’s home in Tel Aviv.
The protester, Moran Zer Katzenstein, is released about an hour after being detained at the rally outside the home of Minister for the Advancement of the Status of Women May Golan, of Likud.
Katzenstein’s group, Women Building an Alternative, said, “We went to protest with bells, a legal protest with no violence, beneath the home of Minister May Golan.”
“We went to remind her that she too could be the next one harmed by this dangerous, anti-democratic legislation,” the group says.
Labor party leader Merav Michaeli blasts the arrest, saying, “The Israel Police must be neutral and objective. You’re not a political police force.”
The sister of an IDF soldier whose body is believed held by the Hamas terror group berates Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a memorial event in Jerusalem, blaming him for not retrieving her brother’s remains.
“You know exactly where he is and you won’t look me in the eye. You’re to blame,” says Ayelet Goldin, the sister of Hadar Goldin. “Look at this grieving sister in the eye.”
She shouts down Netanyahu as he leaves the memorial event marking nine years since the operation in which Goldin was killed.
“What is in the grave for the past nine years? Tzitzit and a bloody uniform,” she says.
“What are your values? You’re abandoning soldiers and civilians,” she says. Netanyahu does not appear to offer a response.
Hamas is believed to hold the remains of two soldiers, and two living Israeli civilians, in Gaza.
איילת גולדין, אחותו של חלל צה"ל הדר גולדין, התפרצה לעבר ראש הממשלה נתניהו באירוע לציון 9 שנים למבצע צוק איתן: "אתה יודע בדיוק איפה הוא, אתה אשם. אני מחנכת את הילדים לאור הערכים שלך אח שלך, מה הערכים שלך? אתה מפקיר חיילים ואזרחים"@HGoldich pic.twitter.com/IblYA4FYN4
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) June 29, 2023
Israeli security forces detonate an old minefield in the Golan Heights.
The Defense Ministry says the mines were placed there by Israel following the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
Video from the scene shows a series of blasts throwing up a massive plume of dust.
Israeli security forces detonated an old minefield in the Golan Heights earlier today. pic.twitter.com/YlZDCK7D9t
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) June 29, 2023
Efforts to remove mines on Israel’s borders are dangerous and have been painstakingly slow, leaving the Golan and southern Arava region with a number of fenced-off minefields.
Accidents are rare, but occasionally occur.
President Isaac Herzog will address a joint session of Congress in Washington, DC on July 19, leaders of both US parties announce.
A message from House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell, and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries says the visit will “commemorate the 75th anniversary of the statehood of Israel and reaffirm the special relationship between our two nations.”
Herzog is expected to also meet with US President Joe Biden, and will meet with Jewish leaders in New York City, where he will spend Shabbat.
Prime Minister Netanyahu dismisses the proceedings in his corruption trial while addressing his supporters outside the Jerusalem District Court.
“This is entertainment, a [TV] series. I know you’re in deep shock,” Netanyahu says to supporters. “The truth will come to light.”
“You’ve come to see the best show in town,” Netanyahu says.
Public Diplomacy Minister Galit Distel Atbaryan feuds with the Foreign Press Association, after her newly created ministry put out an English-language video on social media warning people not to trust foreign reporting about Israel.
“Fight the fake: A quick guide in reading the news about Israel” cited several leading international news agencies, newspapers and networks, accusing them of bias against Israel.
The Foreign Press Association accuses Distel Atbaryan of “launching an unprovoked attack on the foreign media.”
The association says it sent a letter to the ministry and other officials “expressing our objections to this language, the false impressions it could cause and our concerns that it could even promote violence against journalists.“
The Government Press Office said in response that the video exposed examples of bias, but that the office nevertheless rejects blanket condemnation of the foreign press, the association says.
Atbaryan says on Twitter, “The video won’t be taken down, and my war for the truth has only just begun.”
“Israel is a democratic nation that maintains freedom of expression and opinion, but as public diplomacy minister I won’t allow biased coverage in our backyard without a response,” she says.
אז למה התדמית של ישראל כלכך שלילית בעולם המערבי?
הנה אחת הסיבות המרכזיות לכך:
בישראל פועל קומץ מצומצם של כתבים מסוכנויות זרות.
הקומץ הזה (שמונה קצת למעלה מ 100 איש) מפרנס את כל גופי התקשורת בעולם.
הוא מכתיב את הידיעות על ישראל ומשפיע על דעת הקהל של מאות מליוני צופים באירופה… pic.twitter.com/VxbEk6n7nt
— Galit Distel Atbaryan – גלית דיסטל אטבריאן (@GalitDistel) June 29, 2023
The Paran Regional Brigade in southern Israel gets a new commander, Col. Shemer Raviv, after the previous commander, Col. Ido Sa’ad, was dismissed following a deadly attack on the Egyptian border earlier this month.
In his departing speech, Sa’ad mentions the three soldiers killed by an Egyptian policeman in the attack on June 3, Staff Sgt. Ohad Dahan, Sgt. Lia Ben Nun, and Staff Sgt. Ori Yitzhak Iluz.
“Their absence is unbearable. We must move forward, learn from the incident and improve from it,” he says.
“You must know that I am leaving the brigade with my head held high, I am very proud of what I have done and I know that the members of the brigade will continue and improve in order to carry out the task of protecting the Negev in the best possible way,” Sa’ad adds.
He will be moved to another position in the IDF in light of the deadly attack.
Raviv, who previously was head of operations in the 98th Paratroopers Division, says it is “a great privilege” to take command of the Paran Brigade.
An indictment is filed against a suspect in the central city of Holon for alleged sexual offenses against around 40 underage girls.
Sergey Ostov, 27, carried out the alleged abuse over the internet.
He’s suspected of abusing another 400 girls located in foreign countries.
Ostov is indicted for 39 serious crimes.
He allegedly contacted girls ages 10-17 online and pushed them into performing lewd acts using threats, payments and coercion.
Ostov was arrested in January at the request of authorities in Finland, Ynet reports.
The Hezbollah terror group, the Palestinians, and a number of Muslim and Middle Eastern countries condemn the burning of the Quran by an Iraqi living in Sweden, warning such acts “inflame” the feelings of Muslims around the world.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah calls on Sweden to put an end to such acts “rather than hiding behind freedom of speech.”
It urges religious authorities and Muslim and Arab nations to take “all the necessary steps” to compel Sweden and other countries to prevent the recurrence of such incidents and stop “the spread of a culture of hate.”
The Palestinian foreign ministry condemns what it says was a “flagrant attack on human rights, values of tolerance, acceptance of others, democracy and peaceful coexistence among followers of all religions.”
Under a heavy police presence, Salwan Momika, a 37-year-old who fled to Sweden several years ago, yesterday stomped on the Quran before setting several pages alight in front of Stockholm’s largest mosque.
Police in the Swedish capital had granted him a permit for the protest in line with free-speech protections, but said later they had opened an investigation into the man over “agitation.”
The incident occurred as Muslims around the world began marking the Eid al-Adha holiday and as the annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia was drawing to a close.
Iran joins in the condemnation, calling the Quran burning “provocative, ill-considered and unacceptable.”
Dozens of tech workers protest against the coalition’s efforts to remake the judiciary in the central city of Ra’anana, as the government resumes its legislative push.
The protesters wave Israeli flags at a traffic junction and hold signs that says, “Save our startup nation,” and, “Without democracy, there is no academia.”
עכשיו ברעננה???????????? pic.twitter.com/0Cnh2gLAoQ
— מחאת רעננה???????? (@RaananaProtests) June 29, 2023
Business leaders and tech leaders have consistently warned that the judicial overhaul will hurt the economic sector by discouraging foreign investment.
Hollywood media mogul Arnon Milchan says during Prime Minister Netanyahu’s corruption trial that the premier did not help him obtain a US visa, denying a central charge in the case.
Milchan says, “Netanyahu didn’t help.”
“I got one sentence from him — I don’t give out visas and I cannot help,” Milchan tells the court.
One of the main charges in Case 1000 of Netanyahu’s trial is that the prime minister helped Milchan secure a ten-year US visa at the same time as Milchan was plying Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, with lavish gifts of champagne, cigars, clothing and jewelry worth NIS 462,000 ($127,000).
Milchan offered similar denials during yesterday’s court hearing.
Milchan has been testifying during the trial remotely from the UK throughout the week.
The prime minister’s wife, Sara Netanyahu, went to the UK for the proceedings. The two exchanged a hug during yesterday’s hearing.
At the start of today’s proceedings, Deputy State Attorney Liat Ben Ari issues a warning, saying, “Do not make contact with the witness again.”
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