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Israel’s Parliament to Vote on Ratifying Supreme Court Bill Next Week 

Demonstrators sit in water cannon spray fired by Israeli riot police during a protest against the Israeli government's judicial overhaul bill in Tel Aviv on July 18, 2023. (AFP)
Demonstrators sit in water cannon spray fired by Israeli riot police during a protest against the Israeli government's judicial overhaul bill in Tel Aviv on July 18, 2023. (AFP)
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Israel’s Parliament to Vote on Ratifying Supreme Court Bill Next Week 

Demonstrators sit in water cannon spray fired by Israeli riot police during a protest against the Israeli government's judicial overhaul bill in Tel Aviv on July 18, 2023. (AFP)
Demonstrators sit in water cannon spray fired by Israeli riot police during a protest against the Israeli government's judicial overhaul bill in Tel Aviv on July 18, 2023. (AFP)

Israel's parliament will hold final votes next week on a highly-disputed bill that would limit the Supreme Court's power, according to a Knesset statement on Wednesday.

The proposal by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's far-right coalition has sparked mass-protests nationwide and concern among foreign allies for Israel's democratic health.

Netanyahu has sought sweeping changes to the judiciary since returning to power late last year atop a religious-nationalist government. Since the uproar, many of them have been delayed.

The bill scheduled for discussion and ratification on Sunday and Monday would curb the Supreme Court's ability to void government and minister decisions or appointments by stripping the judges of the power to deem such decisions "unreasonable."

Proponents of the change say the Supreme Court has become too interventionist and that the change will facilitate effective governance.

Opponents say it will weaken the Supreme Court, which in a country that has no constitution and a one-chamber parliament that is dominated by the government - has a critical role in protecting civil rights and liberties.

Washington has urged Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption charges he denies, to seek consensus on judicial reforms.

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At Least 13 People Killed in Pakistani Strikes on Suspected Militant Hideouts in Afghanistan

In this file photo, taken on August 3, 2021, Pakistan Army troops patrol along the fence on the Pakistan Afghanistan border at Big Ben hilltop post in Khyber district. (AP/File)
In this file photo, taken on August 3, 2021, Pakistan Army troops patrol along the fence on the Pakistan Afghanistan border at Big Ben hilltop post in Khyber district. (AP/File)
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At Least 13 People Killed in Pakistani Strikes on Suspected Militant Hideouts in Afghanistan

In this file photo, taken on August 3, 2021, Pakistan Army troops patrol along the fence on the Pakistan Afghanistan border at Big Ben hilltop post in Khyber district. (AP/File)
In this file photo, taken on August 3, 2021, Pakistan Army troops patrol along the fence on the Pakistan Afghanistan border at Big Ben hilltop post in Khyber district. (AP/File)

Local Afghans and the Pakistani Taliban said Wednesday that civilians, including women and children, were killed after Pakistan launched rare airstrikes inside neighboring Afghanistan.
Pakistani security officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity in line with regulations, told The Associated Press that Tuesday's operation was to dismantle a training facility and kill insurgents in the province of Paktika, bordering Afghanistan.
Residents in the area told an AP reporter over the phone that at least 13 people were left dead, adding that the death toll could be higher. They also said the wounded were transported to a local hospital.
Meanwhile, in a statement, Mohammad Khurasani, the spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban or Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, claimed that 50 people, including 27 women and children, have died in the strikes.
Pakistan has not commented on the strikes. However, on Wednesday, the Pakistani military said security forces killed 13 insurgents in an overnight intelligence-based operation in South Waziristan, a district located along eastern Afghanistan's Paktika province.
The strikes are likely to further spike tensions between the two countries. Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban government denounced the attack, saying on Tuesday that most of the victims were refugees from the Waziristan region and promising retaliation.
The TTP is a separate group but also a close ally of the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021.
In March, Pakistan said intelligence-based strikes took place in the border regions inside Afghanistan.
Pakistan has seen innumerable militant attacks in the past two decades but there has been an uptick in recent months. The latest was this weekend when at least 16 Pakistani soldiers were killed when TTP attacked a checkpoint in the country’s northwest.
Pakistani officials have accused the Taliban of not doing enough to combat militant activity across the shared border, a charge the Afghan Taliban government denies, saying it does not allow anyone to carry out attacks against any country.