News Briefs

IDF launching cyber branch

JERUSALEM (JTA) – The Israel Defense Forces will establish a branch to oversee operations related to cyberwarfare.

The new branch announced June 15 by Lt.-Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, chief of the general staff, must still be approved by Minister of Defense Moshe Yaalon, the IDF said.

Functioning as a separate branch of the military, the cyber command will oversee all cyberwarfare operations: cyberdefense, cyberattacks, cyberintelligence gathering and operational planning.

It is expected to take two years to officially launch the cyber command, the IDF said.

“The IDF is required to excel in every aspect of war, including the cyber dimension, which is becoming more significant every day,” Eisenkot said in a statement. “This new command will empower the IDF to perform better in these fronts and will utilize the technological and human advantage that already exists in Israel.”

Palestinians given more Temple Mount access during Ramadan

JERUSALEM (JTA)  Hundreds of Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza will be allowed to pray on the Temple Mount on Fridays during Ramadan.

Israel’s Defense Ministry made the announcement June 16, a day ahead of the start of the Muslim holy month. The Palestinians will also be allowed to visit family members inside Israel and the West Bank, the ministry said.

Meanwhile, the Orthodox Union has encouraged its members to participate in a letter-writing campaign calling for an end to anti-Jewish harassment on the Temple Mount, a site that is holy to both Muslims and Jews.

In a statement June 16, the OU noted that it was “neither endorsing entry upon the Har Habayit [Temple Mount] nor addressing the dispute surrounding the halachic permissibility of ascending the Har Habayit.”

The campaign by the Jerusalem-based Temple Institute calls on lawmakers to “guarantee the basic freedom and dignity of all citizens.”

“We call upon all Rabbis and Jews of conscience to stand-up and be counted as their people are attacked and harassed on our holiest site on a daily basis,” said Rabbi Chaim Richman, international director of the Temple Institute. “Had this type of anti-Jewish sentiment been expressed anywhere outside of the Jewish State, there would have already been outcry and thousands of people would have taken to the streets. The daily incitement and racism demonstrated to Jews has already led to bloodshed and its time that Jewish leaders worldwide take a stand, before more Jewish blood is spilt.”

Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount are not allowed to pray on the site. Jews are routinely harassed there, including by veiled Muslim women who shout insults at the visitors while following them around the site. Israel Police reportedly also hound the Jewish visitors to make sure they are not praying.

In a video spread on news websites, a Jewish visitor last week was prevented by Muslim rioters from drinking from a public drinking fountain on the Temple Mount. A second man who drank from a fountain was arrested by police.

A Knesset committee meeting on June 16 to discuss allowing an increased Jewish presence on the Temple Mount was halted shortly after it began due to fighting among lawmakers. During the meeting, Arab-Israeli lawmaker Jamal Zahalka of the Balad party warned that “blood will flow” if the status quo regarding Jewish prayer is changed, and lawmakers called each other fascist and terrorist.

Alleged Palestinian car rammer arrested

JERUSALEM (JTA) – The Palestinian man who allegedly rammed his car into a group of people at a West Bank bus stop in May was arrested and will be indicted.

Muhammed Arfaaya, 22, of Hebron, was arrested a month ago in a joint operation of the Israeli army, the Shin Bet security agency and the police, the agencies announced June 16. An indictment is expected to be submitted to the military court in the West Bank in the coming days, the IDF said.

Four Israelis were wounded, one seriously, in the incident, which took place on May 14 near the Alon Shvut settlement in the Gush Etzion bloc of the West Bank.

Arfaaya admitted during questioning to intentionally targeting Israeli civilians in the attack.He  also admitted to previously attempting terror attacks on several occasions. The attempts were unsuccessful, according to the IDF.

The attack occurred near the junction where last November an Israeli woman, Dalia Lemkus, was stabbed to death and a Palestinian man drove his vehicle into three soldiers waiting for rides. It also is the same junction where three Israeli teens were abducted in June 2014 and later murdered.

Recent months have seen a series of vehicular attacks on Israelis by Palestinian drivers in the Jerusalem area.