Benjamin Netanyahu

The U.N. refugee agency has expressed “disappointment” over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to withdraw from an agreement to resettle African migrants.

Under heavy pressure from his hard-line political allies, Netanyahu on Tuesday said he was canceling the deal with the UNHCR, just a day after announcing it at a nationally televised news conference.

Under the deal, the UNHCR would have resettled roughly half of the 35,000 African migrants in Israel in Western countries, while Israel would have absorbed the rest. Israeli hard-liners are opposed to allowing the migrants to remain.

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Thousands of Palestinians marched to Gaza’s border with Israel on Friday in the largest such demonstration in recent memory, and 15 were killed by Israeli fire on the first day of what Hamas organizers said will be six weeks of daily protests against a stifling border blockade.

It was the bloodiest day in Gaza since the 2014 cross-border war between Israel and Hamas.

Fourteen of the marchers were killed and more than 750 wounded by Israeli fire in clashes along the border fence, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. Another Palestinian was killed earlier Friday.

The Israeli military said thousands of Palestinians threw stones and rolled burning tires toward troops deployed on the other side of the border fence. It accused militants of trying to carry out attacks under the cover of mass protests, saying that in one incident, Palestinian gunmen fired toward soldiers.

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A still frame taken from video material released on March 21, 2018 shows a combination image of what the Israeli military describes is before and after an Israeli air strike on a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor site near Deir al-Zor on Sept 6, 2007. IDF/Handout via Reuters TV ATTENTION EDITORS – THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES. REUTERS IS UNABLE TO IMMEDIATELY VERIFY THE AUTHENTICITY OF THIS IMAGE. FOR REUTERS CUSTOMERS ONLY.

The Israeli military confirmed on Wednesday (Thursday NZ Time) it carried out the 2007 airstrike in Syria that destroyed what was believed to be a nuclear reactor, lifting the veil of secrecy over one of its most daring and mysterious operations in recent memory.

Although Israel was widely believed to have been behind the September 6, 2007, airstrike, it has never before commented publicly on it.

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Eduoard Philippe

PARIS (AP) — France’s government has presented a plan to better fight against racism and anti-Semitism, focusing on social media and prevention in schools.

Prime minister Edouard Philippe said Monday France will push for a Europe-wide effort to force internet giants to remove “heinous, racist and anti-Semitic” content.

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JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military said Sunday it destroyed a tunnel built by the Hamas militant group.

Military spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said the new tunnel was intended to connect to an old one that Israel partially destroyed in the southern Gaza Strip during the 2014 war, in what appears to be the first case of Hamas trying to “recycle” part of its devastated network

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JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s Shin Bet security service says a Palestinian has stabbed an Israeli in Jerusalem, seriously wounding him. Police said he was shot dead by officers at the scene.

The attack Sunday occurred in Jerusalem’s Old City, home to sensitive holy sites sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims.

The Shin Bet said the attacker was from the West Bank city of Nablus.

There has been a spike in violence since President Donald Trump’s Dec. 6 recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Palestinians seek east Jerusalem as their future capital and view Trump’s decision as siding with Israel.

On Friday, a Palestinian killed two Israeli soldiers and badly wounded two others when he drove his car into them in the West Bank.

Stabbings and car-ramming have been widely used by Palestinian assailants.

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