world news
Jerusalem residents worry over Palestinian prisoners freed in Hamas deal
As Israelis rejoice in the release of some of the Hamas-held hostages from Gaza, a parallel difficulty is being created as Israel releases Palestinian prisoners who have been convicted – or accused of – terrorist activities.
In the first four days of the temporary Israel-Hamas ceasefire, which began last Friday, Israel released 150 Palestinian prisoners, 117 who – despite their terrorist activities – are under the age of 18, plus 33 women. Many of them were released to their homes in the Jerusalem area, sometimes right back into the neighborhoods where they committed their crimes, causing much concern among Jerusalemites.
In December 2021, Moriah Cohen, 28, was wounded when a then-14-year-old female terrorist stabbed her in the back as she was walking her five children to daycare in the east Jerusalem neighborhood where both assailant and victim live. The attacker, Nafoz Hamad, was among the Palestinian prisoners released this week. On Tuesday, police had to put a stop to a party in honor of Hamad. On Wednesday, an interim injunction was issued requiring her to have no contact with the Cohen family, who live across the street in the capital’s Shimon Hatzadik neighborhood.
Fear is Cohen’s foremost reaction to the return of her criminal neighbor.“It’s not fun to walk in the street near my house, knowing that the woman who stabbed me in front of my children is back home, perhaps peeking at me from her house. But I also feel great anger. How can that be a legal procedure? She got 12 years just two weeks ago, and here she is again. I didn’t believe it would happen, I couldn’t believe it. I saw the police here, that’s how I realized she did come back. I closed the curtains, still finding it hard to believe this was happening.”
The exterior of the Hamed home, literally facing Cohen’s, boldly displays a large banner featuring the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Ka’aba in Mecca – an unmistakable message to her Jewish neighbors.
Today, although Hamad is still only 16 years old, Cohen refuses to consider her as a youth who was just brainwashed and didn’t realize what she was doing.
“She never expressed any regrets, I believe she knew exactly what she was doing. She is a[n attempted] murderer, and I am convinced that she will continue to [attempt to] murder whenever she can,” said Cohen, two of whose children witnessed the stabbing. Her husband is a reservist presently serving in Gaza.
Palestinian prisoners released back into Jerusalem – and no one asked the municipality
THE PALESTINIAN security prisoners were first transferred to Ofer prison where they signed a document undertaking not to engage in further terrorism and were then released. The Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) Commissioner said that the agency was “Ready to respond to incidents of incitement and disorder.”
The prisoners who were transferred to Judea and Samaria were handed over to the Palestinian Authority at the Beitunia crossing; while those who are eastern Jerusalem residents were first transferred to a detention cell in the capital’s Russian compound and from there released to their homes.
Senior officials in the Jerusalem Municipality claim that no one in the government nor in the security forces checked with them in advance to ascertain whether the city could handle this influx of criminals who could disturb the relative peace in the capital. Despite the prevailing opinion that the residents of the eastern city are not interested in an escalation of the security situation, this part of the hostage release agreement is not popular.
Security forces have been ensuring that there are no victory celebrations or mass receptions for those let out of prison, with the sunsequent two days unfolding peacefully despite the bitter pill. However, this atmosphere did not last long.
The illusion was shattered on Thursday morning when two residents of the Tzur Bahar neighborhood, heavily armed with guns and ammunition, murdered three and injured 10 at the entrance to the city. The two terrorists, who were neutralized, are members of the same family and were released from prison a few years ago.
JERUSALEM MAYOR Moshe Lion said, “I am in daily contact with the police and we verify every issue and every aspect with them.”
“It’s not easy,” he added, “but the security forces are attentive to the city’s needs. We all agree on one thing: The majority of the 350,000 Arab residents of the east city are not interested in these terrorist acts and certainly do not join in – and we all have to live here together. But we know that one or two are enough to cause destruction. And that is what happened this morning [Thursday].”
Lion believes that we must live together with the Arabs in the city, but he also understands that without a clear system for the protection of people of Jerusalem, it is only a matter of time before what happened on Thursday is repeated. The terrorists from Zur Bahar were not the usual youth from eastern Jerusalem who go out with knives or scissors looking for Jews to stab.
Additionally, the Jerusalem Municipality quickly realized that the released minors are registered students in the municipal education system and, by law, must return to class. Municipal officials are currently deciding how to abide by the law without allowing their renewed presence in schools to encourage support for terrorism among the students in the east of the city. Education Minister Yoav Kish and his staff expressed strong opposition to the return of terrorist minors to the municipal education system. At a special meeting that took place on Wednesday at the ministry, several options were put forward to solve the problem – one of them was the establishment of a separate educational framework.
Meanwhile, the old city is empty. Most of the shops in the Arab shuk (market) are closed.
“There are no bar-mitzvahs at the Western Wall, no tourists, and no pilgrims,” said Ami Meitav, a tour guide specializing in the Old City.
“The Temple Mount is deserted, and very few Muslims come to Al Aqsa to pray – no one prevents them from coming, of course; but the feeling among them is that these days it might be better to stay away from Israeli security forces.
“But there is another, more significant reason. They understand that these days, the Israelis are a wounded people and that this is not the time. Many who used to come to pray at Al Aqsa, find it better to remain in their own neighborhoods and go to the local mosques. Some would say that it is better to pray in the mosque in Wadi Joz for example, and not run into Jews on the way to Al Aqsa.
“There is fear. During the first two weeks, a large number of Arab employees, including at the Jerusalem Municipality, didn’t show up at work. Today, I can say that those who have steady work – municipality, supermarkets, even in the medical professions – came back, but there are many who prefer to wait a little longer, and avoid any encounter with Jews in the city,” added Meitav. •
Everyone wants the Mossad on their side when it comes to the debate over the Philadelphi Corridor.
The Jerusalem Post has reported multiple times since May that the unchanging position of the Mossad is that Israel can and should withdraw from the corridor if that would bring back between 18-30 hostages and provided Phase 1 of the hostage deal with Hamas would allow the IDF to return to attacking Hamas in the corridor after around 45 days.
The Post and other outlets have also reported that Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and the IDF high command favor a deal under such terms, including temporarily withdrawing from the corridor to get some of the hostages back.
Yet on Sunday, an anonymous source who was present during the most recent diplomatic-security cabinet meeting leaked to the media that Mossad Director David Barnea supported Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s position not to withdraw from the corridor.In fact, the anonymous source went even further saying that Barnea did not think Netanyahu should move toward Hamas on the issue “even one millimeter.”
Although… actually, that is not what the anonymous source said if the leaked statement is looked at carefully. Rather, it made a messy and hazy statement about Barnea supporting the Israeli position on the corridor to the extent that it would be acceptable to the US.Anyone who has followed the US position knows that it wishes Israel had stopped the war in December-January and for sure by May, and has tried everything it could to pressure Netanyahu to withdraw from the corridor.
Now, once the US said it could not get Netanyahu to completely withdraw from the corridor, it started to explore if it could get Hamas and Egypt to agree to a small Israeli presence in portions of the corridor, while otherwise generally withdrawing. That is not the same thing as thinking that Netanyahu’s stance on the corridor is the right move.The Mossad is in a somewhat similar position.
Mossad’s current position
There are some points where the Mossad’s position is tougher than the US position, but generally, since May, Barnea has been closer to the US, IDF, and Gallant’s view that it is time to cut a deal, even temporarily sacrificing control of the corridor, than he has been to Netanyahu’s staunch opposition to concessions in that area.
Also, usually, when the Mossad puts something out backing Netanyahu in negotiations, it is in its own name, not in the name of some anonymous cabinet official.The absence of a direct statement of support for Netanyahu from the Mossad itself is deafening.
So why is someone (from Netanyahu’s side) trying to pretend that the Mossad stands with the prime minister on this? Bodies of six hostages, who had been alive until last week, were just recovered.Netanyahu is under the greatest domestic pressure in Israel to compromise that he has been under possibly since the start of the war.
As he explains his position to the public, if he can claim that the defense establishment is split – IDF versus the Mossad – then he does not stand alone. His position looks principled and part of a serious strategy instead of about politics. Likewise, Gallant and the IDF want the Mossad on their side so they can present a united professionals’ front versus a political front. The truth is even without the Mossad, there is some principled opposition to cutting a deal if the question is saving the most Jewish lives on a long-term basis by ensuring Hamas is destroyed. But this also requires saying out loud that Netanyahu would be willing to let hostages die as a price to achieve that goal – because that is what happened this past week. Netanyahu is not ready to do this, so instead he would prefer if the battle can be about who supports who and a divide within the defense establishment.However, the more hostages die, there also becomes less incentive for a deal to save the shrinking total number of them still alive.
Whatever the Mossad’s view is, there is no question at this point that Netanyahu is the decider about the question of saving hostages versus keeping the corridor.
World soccer’s governing body FIFA has delayed again its decision on a Palestinian bid to have Israel suspended from international soccer over the war in Gaza.
FIFA said late on Friday it would now consider the Palestine Football Association’s (PFA) proposals against the Israel Football Association (IFA) in October.
The PFA had submitted a proposal to suspend Israel in May, with FIFA ordering an urgent legal evaluation and promising to address it at an extraordinary meeting of its council in July.
FIFA said last month the legal assessment would now be shared with its council by Aug. 31.The Zurich-based body said it had now moved the assessment back to October.
“FIFA has received the independent legal assessment of the Palestine Football Association’s proposals against Israel,” FIFA said.
“This assessment will be sent to the FIFA Council to review in order that the subject can be discussed at its next meeting which will take place in October.”
FIFA declined to give further details of the assessment, or when in October the meeting would take place.
The PFA did not respond to requests for comment.
Accusations against the IFA
The Palestinian proposal accuses the IFA of complicity in violations of international law by the Israeli government, discrimination against Arab players, and inclusion in its league of clubs located in Palestinian territory.
The IFA has rejected the allegations.
The PFA has said at least 92 Palestinian players have been killed in the war, football infrastructure has been destroyed, its leagues suspended and its national team required to play World Cup qualifiers abroad.
In its proposal, the PFA wanted FIFA to adopt “appropriate sanctions” against Israeli teams, including the national side and clubs.
The IDF is doing a better job at catching Palestinian terrorists than Jewish ones.
Anecdotal evidence and statistical evidence both bear this out.
As of August 2024, there were 9,881 Palestinian security inmates being held by Israel.
3,432 Palestinians were being held in administrative detention along with 1,584 Palestinian “unlawful combatants,” 2,074 sentenced prisoners, and 2,791 pre-indictment or pre-conviction detainees.We also know that in the West Bank alone, close to 5,000 Palestinians have been detained over the course of the war.
Sometimes Palestinian terrorists are not immediately caught after an attack, but quite often they are, and it is very rare that they are not caught or killed within a period of weeks or months.
Yet, in multiple February 2023 incidents of Jewish terrorists attacking Palestinians in Huwara, we know that out of hundreds of Jewish attackers, less than 10 were arrested, and an even smaller number seem to be getting prosecuted.
So far out of over 100 Jewish terrorists who attacked the Palestinian village of Jit in mid-August, only four have been detained.
These trends are not new.
Outgoing IDF Central Commander for the West Bank, Maj. Gen, Yedhua Fuchs, said this in his final speech on July 8, current Shin Bet Chief Ronen Bar recently accused officials like National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir of sometimes indirectly and sometimes almost explicitly encouraging the phenomenon, and former Shin Bet and IDF Central Commanders have been sounding somewhat similar warnings on and off certainly since 2014.
The IDF and Shin Bet have also accused Ben Gvir of discouraging the police from reining in Jewish violence, whether in the West Bank or against humanitarian aid trucks trying to get to Kerem Shalom to bring food to Gaza Palestinians earlier in the current war.
There has been extremist Jewish violence against Palestinians with significantly below expectations arrests for many years, even though that violence is still at a much lower volume than Palestinian violence.
The problem isn’t bringing caught perpetrators to justice, that has been happening many times since 2014, when Palestinians have been killed by a Jew or Jews.
Once caught, Israel has pushed hard to prosecute such persons.
On August 15, the Jerusalem Post reported exclusively that the 2019 indictment against a full-bodied minor (his identity is under gag order) for the alleged killing of Palestinian female and mother Aysha Rabi in October 2018 could be close to a verdict in later 2024 or early 2025.
This would not be the only such case of Jewish terrorists facing justice for violence against Palestinians, with the 2014 murderer of Palestinian minor Muhammad Abu Khadir, Yoseph Chaim Ben David, and the 2015 murderer of the Palestinian Dawabsheh family, Amiram Ben Uliel, both sentenced to life in jail in recent years.
Elor Ben Azariah, Ben Deri, and other IDF soldiers have also been given prison time for killing Palestinians.
But this does not address the fact that most Jewish terrorists are never caught in the first place.
So why does Israel catch Jewish terrorists less often than Palestinian ones?
Some of it is the constant passing the ball back and forth between the IDF and the Police, neither of who wants the politically unpopular job of reining in Jewish violence against Palestinians.
Anyone who does that job “well” in recent years comes under attack by Ben Gvir and others who seem to always be opposed to indicting or convicting Jews accused of attacking Palestinians.
Top IDF sources have made it clear to the Post that the military’s main role is to fight wars against other foreign militaries like Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas, not to enforce law and order to block small-scale Jewish violence against Palestinians. They believe that the police should be handling Jewish violence in the West Bank, whereas the police, even before Ben Gvir, said they could not carry out large operations in Palestinian areas without the IDF taking the lead.
What has changed since Huwara in 2023 and now with Jit, is that the attacks by Jews on Palestinians are no longer solely small scale.
Now there is a pattern of large scale attacks even if the number of them is still small in relative terms.
During the Second Intifada, Israel decided that it could not view Palestinian terrorism from the West Bank as a mere “law enforcement” issue with very limited rules of engagement.
Rather, it was a terrorism issue, which meant more aggressive rules of engagement.
If a Palestinian throws a rock at an IDF vehicle and breaks the windshield and then flees, even if no one in the IDF vehicle was hurt and even though the Palestinian is running away, and as such no longer presents an immediate threat, IDF open fire rules allow shooting for the Palestinian’s legs to make sure he does not escape.
At Jit, despite over 100 Jews attacking Palestinians and the IDF soldiers “live being in danger” from the Jews as well, all they did was physically push the Jewish attackers out of the village and at most fire in the air.
Sources said that they failed to arrest any of the over 100 Jews because it was hard to catch the attackers running in all different directions at night.
But if the soldiers were allowed to shoot for the legs when trying to arrest Jews involved in large scale attacks, maybe they would have caught more of them. Maybe also fewer Jews would risk attacking Palestinians.
Confronted with this possible change to the open fire rules, both current and former IDF officials who handle such issues did not seem to view such a change as remotely likely.
Some said this question was very dependent on the unique circumstances on the ground, which only the commander seeing things in real time could decide. Others said that there was no principled reason why IDF soldiers could not open fire on the legs of fleeing Jewish attackers, but that this could only be employed if there was no less lethal way of arresting them.
Yet, these responses present the issue as if there is not already evidence that the IDF is doing an extremely poor job of catching such people.
4 out of 100 is a 4% success rate. Clearly, less lethal means are not working and whoever the commander on the ground has been has not acted aggressively enough. This was also the conclusion of the IDF probe issued on Wednesday of the Jit incident.
A much more honest read is that IDF soldiers shooting at Jews legs (even not trying to kill) to protect Palestinians would just be either too politically explosive or likely too many IDF soldiers would ignore the orders and fake some technical sounding reason why they could not fire (such as innocent people being mixed in with attackers.)
There might be creative alternatives. Firing some kind of tracer that cannot be removed or object which could sedate someone trying to flee.
A huge permanent contingent of soldiers guarding all crossover areas throughout the West Bank could succeed, but is also unrealistic in terms of resources.
In the meantime, it is not clear that the IDF has seriously contended with how it will prevent the next Huwara or Jit. If that does not change, no one should be surprised when another IDF probe comes out apologizing for failing to protect Palestinians.
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