Israel Thwarts Train Derailment Attempt in Galilee

File Photo: Israeli forces gather at the scene of an attack in the West Bank. Reuters file photo
File Photo: Israeli forces gather at the scene of an attack in the West Bank. Reuters file photo
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Israel Thwarts Train Derailment Attempt in Galilee

File Photo: Israeli forces gather at the scene of an attack in the West Bank. Reuters file photo
File Photo: Israeli forces gather at the scene of an attack in the West Bank. Reuters file photo

The police and Shin Bet Security Service said on Wednesday that their forces have thwarted an attempt to derail a train in northern Israel by placing an obstacle on the railway tracks.

An Arab Israeli man was detained and taken for investigation after the object was found on the railway line between the cities of Acre and Karmiel, the police said.

The man, a Galilee resident in his 20s, was arrested close to the tracks along Route 85, near the town of Jadeidi Makr, a few kilometers east of Acre. He was handed over to the Shin Bet security service for questioning.

Police said there was no damage or injury as a result of the incident, which occurred on the Rosh Hashanah holiday when the trains were not running.

Much of the information related to the ongoing investigation was placed under a gag order.

Israeli security forces are on high alert during the Jewish holidays, which began on Sunday and will last until mid-October.

Former senior police officer Shachar Ayalon, the CEO of Israel Railways, said the incident is very serious and that the Israeli security services should be concerned.

He said that a train traveling at a speed between 120 to 140 kilometers per hour can come off the rails if it hits an object, and the cars can flip over. He added that the conductor can’t avoid it because there’s no time or space to stop.

Ayalon noted that these trains usually carry between 800 and 1,500 passengers.

“The operation indicates the significant increase in terrorist intent, adding to its danger that the perpetrator is an Israeli citizen,” he said, noting that previous attempts were made before to derail trains.

He noted that patrols constantly roam the areas along railways and that monitoring devices, electronic sensors, and cameras were installed.



UN Races to Feed One Million Gazans after Truce

People walk past trucks loaded with aid waiting to cross into Gaza from the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing on January 19, 2025. (AFP)
People walk past trucks loaded with aid waiting to cross into Gaza from the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing on January 19, 2025. (AFP)
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UN Races to Feed One Million Gazans after Truce

People walk past trucks loaded with aid waiting to cross into Gaza from the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing on January 19, 2025. (AFP)
People walk past trucks loaded with aid waiting to cross into Gaza from the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing on January 19, 2025. (AFP)

The UN's World Food Program said Sunday it was moving full throttle to get food to as many Gazans as possible after border crossings reopened as part of a long-awaited ceasefire deal.

"We're trying to reach a million people within the shortest possible time," the WFP's Deputy Executive Director Carl Skau told AFP, as the Rome-based UN agency's trucks began rolling into the strip.

"We're moving in with wheat flour, ready to eat meals, and we will be working all fronts trying to restock the bakeries," Skau said, adding the agency would attempt to provide nutritional supplements to the most malnourished.

An initial 42-day truce between Israel and Hamas is meant to enable a surge of sorely needed humanitarian aid into the Palestinian territory after 15 months of war.

"The agreement is for 600 trucks a day... All the crossings will be open," Skau said.

The first WFP trucks entered Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing in the south and through the Zikim crossing in the north, the agency said in a statement, as it began trying to pull "the war-ravaged territory back from starvation".

"We have 150 trucks lined up for every day for the next at least 20 days," Skau said, adding that the WFP was "hopeful that the border crossings will be open and efficient".

There needs to be "an environment inside (Gaza) that is secure enough for our teams to move around," so that food "does not just get over the border but also gets into the hands of the people".

"It seems so far that things have been working relatively well.... We need to now sustain that over several days over weeks," he said.

Before the ceasefire came into effect, WFP was operating just five out of the 20 bakeries it partners with due to dwindling supplies of fuel and flour, as well as insecurity in northern Gaza.

"We're hoping that we will be up and running on all those bakeries as soon as possible," Skau said, stressing that it was "one of our top priorities" to get bread to "tens of thousands of people each day".

"It also has a psychological effect to be able to put warm bread into the hands of the people".

WFP also wants to "get the private sector and commercial goods in there as soon as possible," he said.

That would mean the UN agency could replace ready meals with vouchers and cash for people to buy their own food "to bring back some dignity" and allow them "frankly to start rebuilding their lives".

WFP said in a statement that it has enough food pre-positioned along the borders -- and on its way to Gaza -- to feed over a million people for three months.

Vast areas of Gaza have been devastated by Israel's retaliatory assault on the territory after the October 7 Hamas attack last year sparked the war.

The attack, the deadliest in Israel's history, resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed at least 46,913 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.