Bennett on Texas synagogue standoff: ‘We pray for safety of hostages, rescuers’ – The Times of Israel

Texas governor says he’s monitoring synagogue hostage standoff

Texas Governor Greg Abbott says he is monitoring the hostage situation at a synagogue in the Texas city of Colleyville.

“The Texas Dept. of Public Safety is on the scene of the tense hostage situation in Colleyville, Texas,” Abbott, a Republican, writes on Twitter. “They are working with local and federal teams to achieve the best and safest outcome.”

Abbott’s first statement on the situation does not mention a synagogue and comes over five hours after law enforcement arrived on the scene. He did find time in the interim to tweet out an attack on Biden’s law enforcement policies.

The Texas Dept. of Public Safety is on the scene of the tense hostage situation in Colleyville, Texas.

They are working with local and federal teams to achieve the best and safest outcome.

I continue to monitor the situation through DPS.@TxDPS https://t.co/bAARmIifdb

— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) January 15, 2022

Biden briefed on Texas synagogue hostage situation

US President Joe Biden is briefed on the hostage crisis at a synagogue in the Texas city of Colleyville.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki says Biden “will continue to receive updates from his senior team as the situation develops.”

“Senior members of the national security team are also in touch with federal law enforcement leadership.”

.@POTUS has been briefed about the developing hostage situation in the Dallas area. He will continue to receive updates from his senior team as the situation develops.  Senior members of the national security team are also in touch with federal law enforcement leadership.

— Jen Psaki (@PressSec) January 15, 2022

Egypt arrests member of US-designated terror group after plane’s emergency landing

CAIRO — Egyptian authorities announce the arrest of a prominent member of a US-designated terrorist group. According to government media, the suspect was detained after a Turkey-bound flight from Sudan that he was on made an emergency landing in Egypt.

The Interior Ministry says in a statement that a man, identified as Hossam Menoufy, was arrested earlier in the week, but doesn’t provide further details.

A man with that name is known to be a member of HASM, a group previously implicated in several deadly militant attacks in Egypt. Authorities also say that HASM was responsible for a car bombing outside an Egyptian hospital that killed 20 people in 2019.

HASM, which the United States designated a terrorist group in 2018, is considered to be a splinter of the Muslim Brotherhood group. Egypt has long banned and declared the Brotherhood a terrorist organization.

Egypt has been waging a campaign against the Brotherhood since the country’s military in 2013 removed President Mohammed Morsi, who hailed from the group, after massive protests against his rule. Under President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, thousands of Brotherhood members but also other Islamists and many secular dissidents have been jailed. El-Sissi’s government has also continued to fight Islamic militants in the Sinai Peninsula.

Menoufy was sentenced in absentia in 2017 to life in prison, along with hundreds of others, for alleged involvement in the attempted assassination of a top judiciary official, according to the government-run Al-Akhbar Al-Youm newspaper.

HASM also claimed responsibility for the attack that killed an Egyptian National Security Agency officer and an attack that attempted to kill Egypt’s former top religious leader, Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa.

2 more MKs test positive for COVID

Another two Knesset members — Yesh Atid’s Moshe Tur-Paz and Yisrael Beytenu’s Alex Kushnir — have tested positive for COVID-19, further expanding the list of lawmakers who currently have coronavirus.

Bennett on Texas synagogue situation: ‘We pray for the safety of the hostages and rescuers’

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett says he is keeping close track of the apparent hostage crisis at a synagogue in the Texas city of Colleyville.

“We pray for the safety of the hostages and rescuers,” Bennett writes on Twitter.

US ambassador to Israel ‘closely monitoring’ hostage situation at Texas synagogue

The American ambassador to Israel says that he too is keeping tabs on the apparent hostage crisis at a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas.

“Praying for an immediate and safe end,” Tom Nides tweets.

I am closely monitoring reports of the hostage situation at Congregation Beth Israel in Texas, where the community is gathered for Shabbat services. Praying for an immediate and safe end.

— Ambassador Tom Nides (@USAmbIsrael) January 15, 2022

Twitter bans account linked to Iran’s leader over video threatening Trump

WASHINGTON — Twitter says it has permanently suspended an account linked to Iran’s supreme leader that posted a video calling for revenge for a top general’s assassination against former US president Donald Trump.

“The account referenced has been permanently suspended for violating our ban evasion policy,” a Twitter spokesperson tells AFP.

The account, @KhameneiSite, this week posted an animated video showing an unmanned aircraft targeting Trump, who ordered a drone strike in Baghdad two years ago that killed top Iranian commander General Qassem Soleimani.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s main accounts in various languages remain active. Last year, another similar account was suspended by Twitter over a post also appearing to reference revenge against Trump.

The recent video, titled “Revenge is Definite,” was also posted on Khamenei’s official website.

According to Twitter, the company’s top priority is keeping people safe and protecting the health of the conversation on the platform.

The social media giant says it has clear policies around abusive behavior and will take action when violations are identified.

As head of the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Soleimani was the architect of its strategy in the Middle East.

He and his Iraqi lieutenant were killed by a US drone strike outside Baghdad airport on January 3, 2020.

Khamenei has repeatedly promised to avenge his death.

Texas synagogue hostage taker reportedly demanding release of imprisoned sister

The suspect in an apparent hostage situation at a Texas synagogue is identified as Muhammad Siddiqui by ABC News, which reports that he’s holding the rabbi of the congregation and three others hostage.

Siddiqui claimed during the livestream to be the brother of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani national who was convicted in 2010 by a New York City Federal Court of attempting to kill US military personnel. She is currently serving an 86-year sentence at Federal Medical Center, Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas.

ABC, citing a source at the scene, says Siddiqui is demanding his sister’s release.

The report has not been confirmed.

Lapid speaks with Israeli consul-general in Houston about apparent hostage crisis

Foreign Minister Yair Lapid has spoken with Israel’s consul-general in Houston, Livia Link, about the apparent hostage crisis at the synagogue in Colleyville, according to a statement from his office.

The statement says Link is on the way to the scene.

“We are closely following the situation of the hostages and are in close contact with law enforcement authorities in America,” the statement adds.

Diaspora minister: ‘Praying for an immediate and safe end’ to Texas hostage crisis

Diaspora Affairs Minister Nachman Shai says he is closely following the hostage situation at a synagogue in the Texas city of Colleyville.

“Praying for an immediate and safe end,” Shai tweets.

Labor MK Gilad Kariv, a Reform rabbi, says he is praying the incident at Congregation Beth Israel ends without any injuries.

Monitoring closely from Israel the hostage situation unfolding at Beth Israel Congregation where the Jewish community gathered for Shabbat services in Colleyville, Texas. Praying for an immediate and safe end.

— נחמן שי- Nachman Shai (@DrNachmanShai) January 15, 2022

FBI negotiators ‘have contact’ with gunman at Texas synagogue, says local cop

The FBI has gotten involved in the hostage situation at the synagogue in Colleyville, a police sergeant in the Texas city tells CNN.

“The FBI negotiators are the ones who have contact with the person in the building,” Sgt. Dara Nelson is quoted as saying.

She adds that there is currently “no threat to the general public” and says the Texas Department of Public Safety is also involved.

Gunman heard speaking on Texas synagogue’s Facebook livestream during apparent hostage crisis

In a livestream on the Facebook account of a Texas synagogue where an apparent hostage situation is taking place, the gunman can be heard speaking on the phone, according to a reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

“I’m going to die. Don’t cry about me,” the man says repeatedly before the stream on Congregation Beth Israel’s Facebook page ends.

The incident comes as members of the reform synagogue attended Shabbat prayers.

“I’m going to die. Don’t cry about me,” the man has repeated over and over. “Are you listening? I am going to die,” he repeats over and over.

— Jessika Harkay (@JessikaHarkay) January 15, 2022

Iranian state TV reports the country’s first Omicron deaths

TEHRAN, Iran — Iranian state television says today that three Iranian citizens have died after they were infected with Omicron, the new, more easily spread variant of the coronavirus.

Iran first detected the Omicron variant in mid-December but this is the first time fatalities were reported. The TV report quotes Mohammad Hashemi, an official in the country’s health ministry, as also saying that a fourth person who was a confirmed case of Omicron was in critical condition. He doesn’t elaborate.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, COVID-19 has killed more than 132,000 people in Iran, the worst fatality rate in the Middle East. On August 24 alone, 709 people died of the illness. The number of deaths has decreased in recent months due to the vaccination, experts say.

Iran has stepped up vaccinations in recent weeks and now has reported that more than 53 million Iranians have received their second shot, and 12 million have received the third shot or booster. Iran has a population of about 85 million. When hard-line President Ebrahin Raisi took over in late August, only 7 million Iranians had been vaccinated.

Iran mostly uses the China-made Sinopharm vaccine, though the Russian Sputnik-V and the vaccine made by the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca are also in use.

The Omicron variant has already become dominant in many countries. Though it can infect those who have been vaccinated or had previously been infected by prior versions of the virus, early studies show it is less likely to cause severe illness than the previous delta variant. Vaccination and a booster still offer strong protection from serious illness, hospitalization and death.

Armed suspect said to take hostages at Texas synagogue

Police in Texas are responding to a hostage situation at a synagogue in the city of Colleyville, according to local media reports.

The Colleyville police department says its SWAT team is conducting operations in the area but doesn’t confirm reports that an armed suspect took hostages at Congregation Beth Israel.

“All residents in the immediate area are being evacuated. Please avoid the area,” the police say on Twitter.

We are currently conducting SWAT operations around the 6100 block of Pleasant Run Rd. All residents in the immediate area are being evacuated. Please avoid the area.

— Colleyville Police (@ColleyvillePD) January 15, 2022

Health Ministry lashes out at doctor for criticizing Omicron response, quarantine rules

The Health Ministry lashes out at a prominent doctor for criticizing Israel’s response to the Omicron variant of coronavirus and the government’s quarantine policies.

In an op-ed published today on the Walla news site, Dr. Idit Matot of Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital said decision-makers continue to be driven by “anxiety and a sense of fear” and noted that despite being more contagious, Omicron is less virulent than previous strains of coronavirus.

“It’s important to know: The numbers shown to us about coronavirus patients in hospitals — both mild (for the most part) and serious — have coronavirus, but the large majority of them aren’t hospitalized for coronavirus,” wrote Matot, who is director of anesthesia at the hospital.

She said two children being treated at the hospital — one for a cerebral hemorrhage and the other for a bladder infection — are listed as serious coronavirus cases, even though that is not what they are hospitalized for.

“Therefore, the publication of the number of serious patients with coronavirus that appears each day in the media is misleading,” she said.

Matot went on to say that a new approach was needed for Omicron and called for eased quarantine rules for children, particularly those who are asymptomatic.

“People are forced to be imprisoned in their homes. We are in a de facto lockdown and the country is on the verge of collapse. Have we gone crazy?” she said.

Hours later, the Health Ministry releases a statement against Matot calling her proposal to ease quarantine rules “unacceptable.”

“The policy Prof. Matot is suggesting is liable to lead to serious harm for at-risk groups and a rise in the numerous serious patients and mortality,” the ministry says.

“Unfortunately, Prof. Matot’s conduct, and the language in which she chose to express herself, raise concerns that the lust for publicity sometimes overtakes responsibility,” it adds.

It also hits out at Ichilov Hospital for posting excerpts from Matot’s op-ed on its Twitter account, saying this is “improper and forbidden.”

Hezbollah, Shiite ally to end boycott of Lebanese cabinet meetings

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group and its main Shiite ally, Amal, say they are ending their boycott of cabinet meetings after a three-month deadlock that has worsened the small nation’s unprecedented economic meltdown.

The two Shiite groups say today in a joint statement they’ll attend cabinet sessions to approve a new budget and measures for dealing with the two-year crisis, and to discuss a recovery plan. They say they will attend because of the accelerated economic deterioration in recent weeks.

The two groups had boycotted the cabinet since October, demanding changes in the national probe of the devastating August 2020 explosion in Beirut’s port and effectively paralyzing the government.

Hezbollah had called for the judge in the port blast to be removed, accusing him of bias. Judge Tarek Bitar has meanwhile faced a slew of legal challenges and lawsuits calling for his removal, which forced him to suspend the probe at least four times. The probe is currently suspended.

Bitar had summoned and charged several senior officials on charges of intentional negligence that led to the explosion, which killed more than 200 people and injured thousands. The two Shiite groups vow to continue their efforts to remove the judge investigating the port blast.

Prime Minister Najib Mikati welcomes the decision of two groups to end their cabinet boycott. He said earlier this month the state budget should be ready for discussion within days.

Lebanon’s economic crisis, which began unfolding in late 2019, is rooted in years of mismanagement and corruption by the same political class that has been in power for years. The crisis has driven more than half of the population into poverty, sent the national currency tumbling and inflation and unemployment soaring.

Israel signs secret deal to transfer natural gas to Lebanon — TV

In a first, Israel has signed an agreement to supply natural gas to Lebanon, Channel 12 news reports.

The network says the deal was brokered by US envoy Amos Hochstein and secretly signed this weekend. It will see Israel transfer gas from the Leviathan field to Jordan, from where it will be sent on to Lebanon by way of Syria.

The agreement was approved by the United States and was also coordinated with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to the report.

It says the deal was partly designed to provide Lebanon an alternative to Iran as it seeks to recover from a deep economic crisis.

Ex-chief of Supreme Court: Netanyahu asked me to speak with AG about plea deal

Former Supreme Court chief justice Aharon Barak says opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu asked him to speak with Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit about a possible plea deal in the former premier’s graft trial.

“I won’t deny that when I reached out to Mandelblit, Benjamin Netanyahu’s contribution to the country was always on my mind. He was one of the greatest defenders of the Israeli justice system, until his trial,” Barak tells the Ynet news site.

Barak says that in recent months, senior figures in Netanyahu’s Likud party asked him to initiate talks with Mandelblit.

“I asked them if Netanyahu sent them, they denied it,” he says. “I recently received a personal appeal from Netanyahu and I decided not to remain indifferent.”

Barak also says any plea deal must include a demand that the court convict Netanyahu of “moral turpitude,” which would bar him from public office for seven years.

Hundreds protest near AG’s home against possible Netanyahu plea deal

A few hundred people protest near Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit’s home in Petah Tikva, following reports that he has been holding talks with opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu about a possible plea deal in the former prime minister’s corruption trial.

The demonstrators are opposed to such an agreement.

בפתח תקווה, סמוך לביתו של היועמ”ש מנדבליט, מתקיימת הפגנה נגד חתימה על הסדר טיעון עם נתניהו@ittaishick pic.twitter.com/jbO8nNWV6k

— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) January 15, 2022

Over 50,000 new infections confirmed over weekend as serious cases jump to 387

New Health Ministry figures show over 50,000 new coronavirus cases have been confirmed this weekend.

The ministry says 39,015 people tested positive for COVID-19 yesterday and that another 11,351 Israelis have been diagnosed today, bringing active infections to 267,734.

The number of serious cases jumps to 387, including 93 people on ventilators.

The death toll stands at 8,303, up five from yesterday.

The positive test rate continues to rise, hitting 14.02 percent yesterday, while the R-rate — which measures how many people each COVID carrier infects — dips to 1.71.

Kazakhstan raises death toll in recent protests to 225

MOSCOW — A top law-enforcement official in Kazakhstan says that 225 people died during the violent demonstrations that shook the country this month, a significantly higher number than previously announced.

Serik Shalabayev, head of the criminal prosecution service in the general prosecutor’s office, says 19 police officers or servicemen were among the dead, news reports said. More than 4,300 people were injured, he says.

The previous official death toll was 164.

Demonstrations started on January 2 in the oil and gas-rich Central Asian nation to protest a sharp rise in fuel prices. They quickly spread nationwide, widened into a general protest against the country’s authoritarian government and descended into violence within several days, especially in Almaty, the country’s largest city. Protesters stormed government buildings and set them ablaze.

At the request of Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization sent a force of more than 2,000 soldiers, mostly Russians, to act as peacekeepers. The Russian Defense Ministry says today that its troops have returned home, but it was unclear if forces from other alliance countries remain in Kazakhstan.

Synagogue in southern West Bank torched in apparent act of arson

A building used as a synagogue at a memorial site in the south Hebron hills has been torched in an apparent act of arson, firefighting officials say.

The synagogue, located at Ziv’s Lookout, near the West Bank settlement of Ma’ale Hever and the Palestinian village of Birin, was found with its entire contents burnt, including Jewish prayer books and an empty Torah ark.

According to the Israel Fire and Rescue services, firefighters found several car tires inside the building, which were apparently lit on fire and hurled inside.

“The findings at the scene indicate arson,” the fire services say in a statement.

The site is dedicated to security guards Yehuda Ben Yosef and Yoav Doron, who were killed in a friendly fire incident in 2003, and has seen several incidents of vandalism and arson over the years.

Finance minister, Likud MK test positive for COVID

Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman says he tested positive for coronavirus, joining several other ministers who have contracted COVID-19 over the past week.

In a tweet, Liberman writes that he “feels good” and will quarantine at his home in the West Bank settlement of Nokdim.

“I will continue to lead a responsible economic policy from home, keep track of the data and plan steps ahead,” he says.

Also testing positive for coronavirus is Likud MK David Amsalem, swelling the list of lawmakers currently infected with COVID.