Israeli troops destroy home of Palestinian assailant amid protest
JERUSALEM — Israeli troops on Saturday demolished the home of a Palestinian man who killed a Jewish seminary student in a shooting ambush in the occupied West Bank five months ago, the military said.
The demolition took place around dawn in the village of Silat al-Khartiyeh, with troops swinging sledgehammers to break walls and setting off explosives. Residents threw stones and firebombs at soldiers who fired live rounds, the army said. Palestinian medics said three Palestinians were injured by live fire and others by tear gas inhalation.
Such demolitions have been denounced by rights groups as collective punishment, and the military suspended the practice for several years, starting in 2005, after concluding it did not serve as an effective deterrent. The army resumed demolitions several years ago and now carries them out routinely in response to attacks in which Palestinians kill Israelis.
In the most recent attack, two Palestinians from the West Bank killed three Israelis and wounded four in a mass stabbing in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish town of Elad in central Israel on Thursday.
As of Saturday, the suspected assailants, two young men from the town of Jenin, remained at large.
Officials familiar with the investigation said the attackers arrived in Elad in a vehicle driven by one of the victims and then killed him. At least one attacker also used an ax, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss details with the media.
At least 18 Israelis have been killed in five attacks since March, including another stabbing rampage in southern Israel, two shootings in the Tel Aviv area, and a shooting last weekend in a West Bank settlement.
Nearly 30 Palestinians have died in violence — most of whom had carried out attacks or were involved in confrontations with Israeli forces in the West Bank.
Hamas, the Islamic militant group ruling the Gaza Strip, claimed responsibility for one of the attacks in which two assailants killed a security guard at the entrance of a West Bank settlement last week.
Egyptian troops killed: At least 11 Egyptian troops, including an officer, were killed Saturday in a militant attack on a water pumping station east of the Suez Canal, the military said.
In a statement, it said at least five other troops were wounded in the attack, one of the deadliest against Egyptian security forces in recent years. Troops thwarted the attacks and were pursuing militants in an isolated area of the northern Sinai Peninsula, the statement added. It gave no further details or the attack’s location.
President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi mourned the death of the troops, vowing in a Facebook post to the continue fighting the militants and “uprooting terrorism.”
Two Northern Sinai residents said the attack took place in the town of Qantara in the province of Ismailia, which stretches eastward from the Suez Canal.
The militants ambushed troops guarding the pumping facility, before fleeing to the desert in Northern Sinai, according to the residents who spoke on condition of anonymity for their safety.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack.
Sinn Fein hails ‘new era’: The Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein, which seeks unification with Ireland, hailed a “new era” Saturday for Northern Ireland as it captured the largest number of seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly for the first time in a historic win.
With almost all votes counted from Thursday’s local U.K. election, Sinn Fein secured 27 of the Assembly’s 90 seats. The Democratic Unionist Party, which has dominated Northern Ireland’s legislature for two decades, captured 24 seats. The victory means Sinn Fein is entitled to the post of first minister in Belfast — a first for an Irish nationalist party since Northern Ireland was founded as a Protestantmajority state in 1921.
The centrist Alliance Party, which doesn’t identify as either nationalist or unionist, also saw a huge surge in support and was
set to become the other big winner in the vote, claiming 17 seats.
The victory is a major milestone for Sinn Fein, which has long been linked to the Irish Republican Army, a paramilitary group that used bombs and bullets to try to take Northern Ireland out of U.K. rule during decades of violence involving Irish republican militants, Protestant Loyalist paramilitaries and the U.K. army and police.
Papal visit to South Sudan:
Pope Francis, whose mobility has been limited of late by a nagging knee problem, is looking forward to visiting South Sudan in July, according to a joint message by the pontiff, the archbishop of Canterbury and a Scottish church official.
The Vatican on Saturday released the text of the message, which refers to previously announced plans by Francis to make a threeday pilgrimage scheduled to start on July 5.
The Holy See earlier announced that the pontiff would make the latest African pilgrimage of his nineyear-old papacy, beginning with a pastoral visit in Congo on July 2.
North Korean missile: North Korea flight-tested a ballistic missile that was likely fired from a submarine on Saturday, South Korea’s military said, continuing a provocative streak in weapons demonstrations that may culminate with a nuclear test in the coming weeks or months.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the launch occurred from waters near the eastern port city of Sinpo, where North Korea has a major shipyard building submarines. It said the short-range missile flew 372 miles at a maximum altitude of 37 miles but it didn’t immediately provide details about the submarine that would have been involved in the launch.
The U.S. military’s
Indo-Pacific Command said it a statement that while the launch did not pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel or territory, or to its allies, it “highlights the destabilizing impact of the DPRK’s illicit weapons program.”
Bahamas tourist deaths: Three unnamed U.S. tourists have died at a resort in the Bahamas after falling ill, officials of the Atlantic
island nation confirmed, and another was airlifted to a hospital for treatment.
Acting Prime Minister Chester Cooper issued a statement Friday saying that police are investigating and the cause of death was unknown, though foul play “is not suspected.”
The health minister, Dr Michael Darville, said Saturday that some hotel guests went to a clinic Thursday with nausea and vomiting, were treated and left. Three were later found dead.
A fourth was flown to a hospital in New Providence.