Israeli authorities have put an extremist Jewish settler into detention for five months without charges or trial to head off violence aimed at stopping Israel's Gaza Strip pullout, and a newspaper reported yesterday that dozens more suspected militants could be arrested.
Israeli frequently uses the practice, known as administrative detention, against Palestinians it considers as a security threat, but it rarely employs it against Jews. But with Jewish extremists planning to resist the summer pullout, the army and politicians have discussed using the detentions to contain expected violence.
On Sunday, police arrested Neria Ofan, a 34-year-old West Bank settler, at an army roadblock, and said they plan to hold him until the end of September. Officials, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said Ofan was suspected of "involvement in terror."
Ofan's wife, Naomi, told Israel Army Radio the detention was part of a campaign to muzzle opponents.
The Haaretz newspaper reported that Israeli army officers want to place dozens of Jewish extremists under administrative detention. Sharon aide Ilan Cohen told Army Radio there would not be "wholesale administrative detentions, on the contrary," but did not explain further.
Ofan, who has been questioned by police in the past though never charged, advocates Jewish control of a disputed Jerusalem holy site, known to Jews as Temple Mount and to Muslims as Haram as-Sharif. Extremist Jews have threatened to storm the shrine in the summer to divert police and soldiers from Gaza to Jerusalem, and thereby stop the pullout.
Israeli police prepared for possible clashes between Jews and Muslims yesterday at the holy site, a flashpoint for Israeli-Palestinian tensions. A small group of Jewish extremists, Revava, had initially said its supporters would attempt to enter the shrine at the start of each month on the Jewish calendar.
A handful of demonstrators showed up the shrine a month ago, and were kept out by police. Access to Israelis has been restricted since Israel captured east Jerusalem and its holy sites in the 1967 Mideast war.
Yesterday, which marks the start of the month of Iyar on the Jewish calendar, no demonstrators showed up. However, police severely restricted access to Muslims, in order to prevent possible friction.
Police clashed briefly yesterday morning with 200 Palestinians who had gathered nearby to protest the restrictions. The Palestinians threw stones and bottles at police, who responded with stun grenades. Israeli Vice Premier Shimon Peres, meanwhile, warned that destroying Jewish settlers' homes in Gaza could jeopardize the planned Israeli pullout from the area this summer.
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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