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Israeli Intelligence Arrests Hamas Cell in Jerusalem

Religious Jews in a Jerusalem suburb during Purim celebrations (EPA)
Religious Jews in a Jerusalem suburb during Purim celebrations (EPA)
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Israeli Intelligence Arrests Hamas Cell in Jerusalem

Religious Jews in a Jerusalem suburb during Purim celebrations (EPA)
Religious Jews in a Jerusalem suburb during Purim celebrations (EPA)

The Israeli intelligence (Shin Bet) arrested a Palestinian cell in Jerusalem that transferred $250,000 from Turkey to finance alleged terrorist activities and pay families of martyrs and prisoners.

The Israeli Public Prosecution has submitted an indictment to a court in Jerusalem against four citizens from Sur Baher and Beit Hanina, on the outskirts of Jerusalem.

They were accused of running a terrorist group, encouraging terrorist activities, financing terrorism, tax offenses, and money laundering.

The Shin Bet claimed the detainees were assigned to carry out military operations that led to clashes during the holy month of Ramadan.

The Shin Bet and the Israeli police arrested the four suspects last month, but a media blackout was imposed, which was removed Friday during the trial.

The indictment named the detainees as freed prisoner Khaled Sabah, a senior Hamas official in Jerusalem, his two sons Munib and Musab and Firas Tawtah, claiming some were trained outside the country.

Tawtah is accused of using the Zakat Committee that he leads for funneling money to Hamas and collecting and distributing $8.6 million between 2007 and 2021.

The police claimed that Sabah had recently met with Khaled Atoun and Musa Ekry, Hamas top officials, who currently live and work in Turkey, and that they appointed Sabah in charge of "Hamas" funds in Jerusalem.

A sum of $250,000 was recently handed over to him for financing Hamas' activities during Ramadan, but he was unable to bring such a large sum across the border, and he started entering the money in small amounts.

The operators urged Sabah to find a way to enter the money, so he deposited it in a Turkish bank account and spent the amount from his Palestinian bank account.

Israeli authorities confiscated $246,000 in cash that was found in his home.

The indictment added that Sabah's two sons aided him as members of Hamas, and the money was transferred to Hamas activists and their families and persons convicted of offenses of terrorism and breach of public order.

The Shin Bet claimed Sabah met in Turkey with Hamas leaders, including Zakaria Najib, who was convicted of kidnapping the soldier Nahshon Waxman in 1994.

The indictment added that during his last month's visit to Turkey, Sabah's ​​responsibilities were expanded, and he was appointed as the head of Hamas in Jerusalem to advance its military activity in the city.

Sabah was asked to form and move military and organizational infrastructure in Jerusalem and prepare for Ramadan month.

It claimed that Mosab helped his father and formed a link with Hamas's leadership in Turkey, and Munib helped relay messages between the officials in Turkey and collected money on his father's behalf.

In 2012-2022, Tawtah collected nearly $150,000 for the charity to be transferred to the families and orphans affiliated with Hamas.

The charity had a total income of $8.6 million between 2007 and 2020, the indictment read, which were transferred to the martyrs' families.

The association also transferred a large part of the money to orphans not affiliated with Hamas.

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Arab World

Israeli Death Penalty Bill for Palestinian Murder Convicts Faces Vote

Israel Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Itamar Ben Gvir shake hands as the Israeli government approve Netanyahu's proposal to reappoint Itamar Ben-Gvir as minister of National Security, in the Knesset, Israeli parliament in Jerusaelm, March 19, 2025 REUTERS/Oren Ben Hakoon
Israel Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Itamar Ben Gvir shake hands as the Israeli government approve Netanyahu's proposal to reappoint Itamar Ben-Gvir as minister of National Security, in the Knesset, Israeli parliament in Jerusaelm, March 19, 2025 REUTERS/Oren Ben Hakoon
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Israeli Death Penalty Bill for Palestinian Murder Convicts Faces Vote

Israel Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Itamar Ben Gvir shake hands as the Israeli government approve Netanyahu's proposal to reappoint Itamar Ben-Gvir as minister of National Security, in the Knesset, Israeli parliament in Jerusaelm, March 19, 2025 REUTERS/Oren Ben Hakoon
Israel Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Itamar Ben Gvir shake hands as the Israeli government approve Netanyahu's proposal to reappoint Itamar Ben-Gvir as minister of National Security, in the Knesset, Israeli parliament in Jerusaelm, March 19, 2025 REUTERS/Oren Ben Hakoon

Israel's parliament is expected on Monday to vote on a bill that would make the death penalty a default sentence for Palestinians convicted in military court of killing Israelis, a measure that Israel's European allies say would unfairly target Palestinians under military occupation.

The measure includes provisions requiring sentencing within 90 days with no right to clemency. It was devised by Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right national security minister who along with other ardent supporters has worn noose-shaped lapel pins in the run-up to the vote, Reuters reported.

The bill's critics say it aims at Palestinians in the West Bank by instructing military courts in the occupied territory to impose the death penalty in cases involving killings of Israelis, except in "special circumstances". Those courts only try Palestinians and have a near-100% conviction rate, rights groups say.

The vote on the bill is the latest action by members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing coalition to cause concern among Israel's allies in Europe, who have also been critical of Jewish settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

Netanyahu's Likud party was expected to vote in favor of the bill. Israeli media reported that he had previously asked for some elements of the measure to be softened to head off an international backlash.

The original bill had mandated the death sentence for non-Israeli citizens in the West Bank convicted of deadly terrorist acts. The revised legislation that is up for a vote on Monday includes the option of life imprisonment.

Even before the vote on its passage, the bill drew criticism from the foreign ministers of Germany, France, Italy and Britain, who said it had a "de facto discriminatory" character toward Palestinians.

"The adoption of this bill would risk undermining Israel's commitments with regards to democratic principles," the ministers said in a joint statement on Sunday.

A group of United Nations experts has said that the bill includes "vague and overbroad definitions of terrorist", meaning the death penalty could be meted out over "conduct that is not genuinely terrorist" in nature.

Ben-Gvir has argued that the death penalty would deter those considering an attack similar to the Hamas-led assault of October 7, 2023, that killed nearly 1,200 in Israel. Israel's subsequent military assault in Gaza has killed more than 72,000.

Amnesty International, which tracks countries imposing death penalty laws, says there "is no evidence that the death penalty is any more effective in reducing crime than life imprisonment."

Israeli rights groups have said they will challenge the bill at Israel's Supreme Court if it becomes law.

Israel abolished the death penalty for murder in 1954. The only person ever executed in Israel after a civilian trial was Adolf Eichmann, an architect of the Nazi Holocaust, in 1962.

Military courts retained the option of imposing a death sentence but have not done so so far.

Some 54 countries around the world permit the death penalty, including a handful of democracies such as the United States and Japan, according to Amnesty International. The group says that the global trend on the death penalty is toward abolition, with 113 countries having outlawed it for all crimes.

The Israeli rights group B'Tselem says that military courts in the West Bank, where Palestinians are tried for alleged crimes, have a 96% conviction rate and have a history of extracting confessions through torture.

Ben-Gvir, known for keeping a portrait in his living room of a Jewish gunman who killed 29 Palestinian worshippers in a West Bank mosque, has overseen an overhaul of Israeli prisons that have led to widespread allegations of torture, starvation, and abuse of Palestinian prisoners.

Israel denies systematic abuse of prisoners in its jails.

Abdallah Al Zughari, the head of the Palestinian Prisoner's Club, said that Palestinians in Israeli jails had already been subject to "slow killing practices" that have led to the deaths of more than 100 prisoners since October 7, 2023.

The death penalty bill, should it become law, would pose a "major threat to the lives of detainees," Zughari said.

Arab World

Syrian Leader Pledges to Work with Germany on Migration, Recovery

Interim Syria President Ahmed al-Sharaa smiles during the Concordia Annual Summit in New York, Monday, Sept. 22, 2025. (AP)
Interim Syria President Ahmed al-Sharaa smiles during the Concordia Annual Summit in New York, Monday, Sept. 22, 2025. (AP)
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Syrian Leader Pledges to Work with Germany on Migration, Recovery

Interim Syria President Ahmed al-Sharaa smiles during the Concordia Annual Summit in New York, Monday, Sept. 22, 2025. (AP)
Interim Syria President Ahmed al-Sharaa smiles during the Concordia Annual Summit in New York, Monday, Sept. 22, 2025. (AP)

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Monday pledged to work with Germany to enable more Syrians to return home and rebuild their country after its devastating civil war, as he made a historic visit to Berlin.

Europe's top economy is home to the largest Syrian diaspora in the European Union at more than a million, many of whom arrived during the peak of the migrant influx in 2015-2016.

After meeting Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Sharaa said that "we are working with our friends in the German government to establish a 'circular' migration model", AFP reported.

This would "enable Syrians to contribute to the reconstruction of their homeland without giving up the stability and lives they have built here, for those who wish to stay", he said.

Merz, who has made a tougher immigration policy a priority since taking office last year, also said he and Sharaa were "working jointly towards more Syrians being able to return to their homeland".

Sharaa was speaking on his first trip to Germany since ousting his country's longtime strongman Bashar al-Assad in late 2024.

He has managed to build relations with Western governments and made several overseas trips, including to the United States, France and Russia.

As a result, many international sanctions on Syria have been lifted to help the country rebuild after a bloody 14-year civil war.

Earlier, Sharaa told a foreign ministry forum in Berlin that Syria had experienced a "huge amount of destruction" during its long conflict, saying that Syrians "want to catch up with the rest of the world" as Germany did after World War II.

He pointed to investment opportunities in Syria's energy, transport and tourism sectors, describing his homeland as very diverse and with "a great wealth of human resources".

Merz said Germany wanted to "support" reconstruction in Syria as it struggles to rebuild after a long and bloody civil war, adding that a German government delegation would travel to the Middle Eastern country in the next few days.

However, Merz also said that he had stressed to Sharaa in their meeting "that many joint projects in the future will depend on our finding a state governed by the rule of law".

Arab World

Lebanon Judge Completes Investigation into Port Blast

A view shows the partially collapsed grain silos, damaged in the August 4, 2020 Beirut port blast as Lebanon marks third anniversary of the explosion on Friday, in Beirut Lebanon August 2, 2023. REUTERS/Issam Abdallah
A view shows the partially collapsed grain silos, damaged in the August 4, 2020 Beirut port blast as Lebanon marks third anniversary of the explosion on Friday, in Beirut Lebanon August 2, 2023. REUTERS/Issam Abdallah
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Lebanon Judge Completes Investigation into Port Blast

A view shows the partially collapsed grain silos, damaged in the August 4, 2020 Beirut port blast as Lebanon marks third anniversary of the explosion on Friday, in Beirut Lebanon August 2, 2023. REUTERS/Issam Abdallah
A view shows the partially collapsed grain silos, damaged in the August 4, 2020 Beirut port blast as Lebanon marks third anniversary of the explosion on Friday, in Beirut Lebanon August 2, 2023. REUTERS/Issam Abdallah

Lebanese judge Tarek Bitar has completed his investigation into the 2020 Beirut port blast, a years-long case that involves possible charges against dozens of people, a judicial official told AFP on Monday.

Since 2023, the investigation into the massive Beirut port explosion, which killed more than 220 people on August 4, 2020, has been in jeopardy after Hezbollah led a campaign demanding the removal of Bitar, who was later hit with dozens of lawsuits to remove him from the case.

Bitar resumed his investigation last year as Lebanon's balance of power shifted following a 2023-2024 war between Israel and Hezbollah that weakened the Iran-backed militant group.

"The investigating judge in the Beirut port explosion case, Tarek Bitar, decided to conclude his investigations into the case and referred the entire file to public prosecutor Jamal Hajjar," the official told AFP.

The number of defendants in the case reached around 70 people, including politicians, security and military officials and civil servants, according to the official.

The prosecutor will study the file and present his opinion and then refer it again to Bitar "who will issue his indictment and determine the responsibility for each of the defendants".

Bitar is supposed to "make a decision regarding about 20 defendants who appeared before him since the beginning of 2025" on whether to "detain them, set them free or conditionally release them", the official said.

Bitar has already made his decision regarding the remaining 50, including politicians and judges who refused to appear before him for questioning, according to the official.

No one is currently detained in relation to the port blast.

Lebanese authorities say the explosion was triggered by a fire in a warehouse where tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertiliser had been stored haphazardly for years, despite repeated warnings to senior officials.