After a two-month search, Israel has taken vengeance on a Palestinian militant believed to have jubilantly displayed the severed head of an Israeli soldier, killing him with a helicopter-launched missile.
The helicopter attack in Gaza that killed Hazem Rahim and another militant late Thursday partly fulfilled a pledge by the Israeli army chief to "show no forgiveness" to the men who gloated over the corpses of six Israeli soldiers in May and held the body parts for ransom.
The missile pulverized a white Subaru driving through the crowded Zeitoun district of Gaza City. The Islamic Jihad organization identified them as its members, and the Israeli army said at least one of them was involved in the deadly roadside bombing.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The May 11 incident was one of the more gruesome in the recent conflict in Gaza: the bomb shattered an armored personnel carrier transporting explosives, scattering the remains of the six soldiers.
Militants paraded through the streets with body parts. Video footage flashed on Arab television showed two masked Islamic Jihad activists displaying the head of an Israeli soldier on a table.
Israeli security officials say they believe Rahim was one of the men in the video. He was known to be involved in the negotiations for the return of the remains, initially demanding the release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange.
Rahim's name was on an Israeli list of Palestinians to be hunted down for desecration of the soldiers' bodies, the officials said on condition of anonymity.
Also on Friday, Palestinian witnesses said a teenager in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip was killed by militants in an argument when he tried to stop them from planting a weapon near his house targeting Israeli patrols. Palestinian officials said the man was killed by Israeli gunfire.
Israel's relations with the EU plunged further with a warning from the regional group's foreign policy chief, Javiar Solana, that Europeans cannot be ignored in Mideast diplomacy.
Solana's two-day visit to Israel turned frosty after the EU voted as a bloc for a resolution in the UN General Assembly demanding that Israel dismantle the barrier it is building in the West Bank and compensate Palestinians for land that has been confiscated.
In a meeting with Solana on Thursday, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said the European vote would make it difficult for Israel to involve the EU in the peace process.
But Solana fired back that the Europeans will remain involved.
Europe "is a very important international power and is going to play a role whether you like it or not," he said on Friday.
Meanwhile, an Israeli court cleared the way for the deportation of an American Jewish member of the International Solidarity Movement, an organization that tries to protect Palestinians from Israeli military operations.
Jamie Spector, 32, a social worker from San Francisco, lost an appeal against an order barring her entry into Israel, and was to be deported early yesterday, said her lawyer, Gaby Lasky.
The decision came just two days after a judge overturned a similar ban against a member of the same organization on the condition that she not engage in political activity.
Two members of the group were killed by Israeli military personnel last year, with one woman crushed by a bulldozer as she opposed the army's destruction of Palestinian homes.
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
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