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2 Suspects Arrested after Car Attack in Jerusalem

A woman holds a poster bearing the image of 43-year-old Israeli hostage Dror Or as relatives and supporters of hostages held in Gaza since the October 7 attacks block the Ayalon highway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem near Latrun with burning barrels, during a protest calling for their release on April 19, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas. (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP)
A woman holds a poster bearing the image of 43-year-old Israeli hostage Dror Or as relatives and supporters of hostages held in Gaza since the October 7 attacks block the Ayalon highway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem near Latrun with burning barrels, during a protest calling for their release on April 19, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas. (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP)
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2 Suspects Arrested after Car Attack in Jerusalem

A woman holds a poster bearing the image of 43-year-old Israeli hostage Dror Or as relatives and supporters of hostages held in Gaza since the October 7 attacks block the Ayalon highway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem near Latrun with burning barrels, during a protest calling for their release on April 19, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas. (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP)
A woman holds a poster bearing the image of 43-year-old Israeli hostage Dror Or as relatives and supporters of hostages held in Gaza since the October 7 attacks block the Ayalon highway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem near Latrun with burning barrels, during a protest calling for their release on April 19, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas. (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP)

Israeli police said they have arrested two people after a car slammed into pedestrians in Jerusalem on Monday, lightly wounding three.
Footage of the incident taken by a CCTV camera and aired by Israeli media showed a car plowing into three ultra-Orthodox Jews, sending at least two flying over the dashboard, The Associated Press said.
Palestinians have carried out periodic attacks on Israeli cities and towns since the country’s war against Hamas began on Oct. 7. During that time, violence has surged in the West Bank.
Also Monday, Palestinian civil defense in Gaza said it had found 210 bodies on the grounds of a Khan Younis hospital, and Israel's chief of military intelligence resigned over the failure to prevent the Oct. 7 attack, the first senior official to do so.
The conflict, now in its seventh month, has sparked regional unrest pitting Israel and the US against Iran and allied militant groups across the Middle East. Israel and Iran traded fire directly this month, raising fears of all-out war.
The war was sparked by the unprecedented Oct. 7 raid into southern Israel in which Hamas and other militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250 hostages. Israel says Hamas is still holding around 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others.
The Israel-Hamas war has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, at least two-thirds of them children and women. It has devastated Gaza’s two largest cities and left a swath of destruction. Around 80% of the territory’s population have fled to other parts of the besieged coastal enclave.
The US House of Representatives approved a $26 billion aid package on Saturday that includes around $9 billion in humanitarian assistance for Gaza, which experts say is on the brink of famine, as well as billions for Israel. The US Senate could pass the package as soon as Tuesday, and President Joe Biden has promised to sign it immediately.

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Italy Plans to Return Ambassador to Syria to Reflect New Diplomatic Developments, Minister Says

Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks while meeting with members of the G7, on July 11, 2024, during the NATO summit in Washington. (AP)
Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks while meeting with members of the G7, on July 11, 2024, during the NATO summit in Washington. (AP)
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Italy Plans to Return Ambassador to Syria to Reflect New Diplomatic Developments, Minister Says

Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks while meeting with members of the G7, on July 11, 2024, during the NATO summit in Washington. (AP)
Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks while meeting with members of the G7, on July 11, 2024, during the NATO summit in Washington. (AP)

Italy plans to send an ambassador back to Syria after a decade-long absence, the country’s foreign minister said, in a diplomatic move that could spark divisions among European Union allies.

Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, speaking in front of relevant parliamentary committees Thursday, announced Rome’s intention to re-establish diplomatic ties with Syria to prevent Russia from monopolizing diplomatic efforts in the Middle Eastern country.

Moscow is considered a key supporter of Syrian President Bashar Assad, who has remained in power despite widespread Western isolation and civilian casualties since the start of Syria’s civil war in March 2011.

Peaceful protests against the Assad government — part of the so-called “Arab Spring” popular uprisings that spread across some of the Middle East — were met by a brutal crackdown, and the uprising quickly spiraled into a full-blown civil war.

The conflict was further complicated by the intervention of foreign forces on all sides and a rising militancy, first by al-Qaida-linked groups and then the ISIS group until its defeat on the battlefield in 2019.

The war, which has killed nearly half a million people and displaced half the country’s pre-war population of 23 million, is now largely frozen, despite ongoing low-level fighting.

The country is effectively carved up into areas controlled by the Damascus-based government of Assad, various opposition groups and Syrian Kurdish forces.

In the early days of the conflict, many Western and Arab countries cut off relations with Syria, including Italy, which has since managed Syria-related diplomacy through its embassy in Beirut.

However, since Assad has regained control over most of the territory, neighboring Arab countries have gradually restored relations, with the most symbolically significant move coming last year when Syria was re-admitted to the Arab League.

Tajani said Thursday the EU’s policy in Syria should be adapted to the “development of the situation,” adding that Italy has received support from Austria, Croatia, Greece, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Cyprus and Slovakia.

However, the US and allied countries in Europe have largely continued to hold firm in their stance against Assad’s government, due to concerns over human rights violations.