Israel’s parliament has passed a law approving the death penalty for Palestinians convicted of murdering Israelis, a measure critics condemn as discriminatory and inhumane. The bill’s passage on Monday marked a major victory for Israel’s far-right, which has long pushed the measure. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to the chamber to vote yes in person. The law makes the death penalty — by hanging — the default punishment for West Bank Palestinians convicted for nationalistic killings. It also gives Israeli courts the option of imposing the death penalty on Israeli citizens convicted on similar charges but legal experts say the language rules out Jewish citizens of Israel. The law is expected to face legal challenge in Israel’s Supreme Court.
The FBI says a man with an assault-style rifle who crashed his pickup truck into a Detroit-area synagogue earlier in March was carrying out an attack inspired by the militant group Hezbollah and was seeking to kill many Jewish people. The head of the FBI in Detroit, Jennifer Runyan, disclosed the new information Monday about the March 12 attack. She said Lebanon native Ayman Ghazali made video recordings minutes before the attack, saying he wanted to kill as many as he could. Ghazali then smashed his truck loaded with fireworks and gasoline into the building and exchanged gunfire with a guard at Temple Israel before fatally shooting himself. The truck caught fire but did not explode. None of 150 children and staff members were injured.
FBI says the man who drove into a Detroit-area synagogue planned a Hezbollah-inspired terror attack.
Israel’s military says it intercepted a missile launched from Yemen toward Israel for the first time. The Houthis, a rebel group backed by Tehran that holds Yemen’s capital, did not immediately acknowledge launching the strike early Saturday. Attacks have appeared to intensify in the war in the Middle East including strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities and an Iranian missile attack that wounded U.S. service members and damaged planes at a base in Saudi Arabia. The Iranian ambassador to the United Nations on Friday said Tehran has agreed to “facilitate and expedite” humanitarian aid through the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. President Donald Trump has reiterated his desire for Saudi Arabia and Israel to normalize ties when the war ends.
British police have arrested two men over an arson attack that destroyed four ambulances from a Jewish charity. They're treating the fire as an antisemitic hate crime. Police say the two suspects are in custody in London. Commander Helen Flanagan has called the arrests a breakthrough. She says CCTV suggests three people took part in the attack. Police do not call it a terror attack. They're investigating an online claim from a group with possible Iran links. The fire started early on Monday in the Golders Green neighborhood. Oxygen cylinders exploded and nearby windows shattered. MI5 says it has disrupted many Iran-backed plots.
Jewish and Muslim communities in the United States observed some of the most sacred holidays of their respective religions despite increased security measures and concerns over hateful rhetoric as the war in the Middle East continues. Leaders from local communities stressed efforts to build interfaith dialogue and continue religious observations undeterred by an increase in antisemitic and Islamophobic rhetoric in recent years. Experts have blamed the rise of hateful rhetoric on new technologies, polarized politics and foreign conflicts. Local leaders say that interfaith dialogue and not cowering to hateful actors is the best response to the increase in hateful violence and rhetoric.
Police in London are investigating a suspected antisemitic hate crime attack after four vehicles belonging to a Jewish ambulance service were set on fire. Though it has not been classified as a terrorist incident, counterterror officers have been put in charge of the investigation. Detectives are working to determine whether a claim of responsibility from a group with alleged links to Iran is authentic. The London Fire Brigade says ambulances belonging to Hatzola Northwest, a volunteer organization that provides emergency medical response, were damaged by the fire early Monday morning. Multiple oxygen cylinders on the vehicles exploded, causing windows to break in an adjacent apartment block. No one was injured.
Robert S. Mueller III, the FBI director who transformed the nation’s premier law enforcement agency into a terrorism-fighting force after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and who later became special counsel in charge of investigating ties between Russia and Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, has died. He was 81. His family says in a statement that Mueller died Friday night. At the FBI, Mueller overhauled the bureau’s mission to meet the law enforcement needs of the 21st century. His 12-year tenure began a week before the Sept. 11 attacks. Later, he was special counsel in the Justice Department’s investigation into whether the Trump campaign illegally coordinated with Russia to sway the outcome of the 2016 presidential race.
The U.S. government’s top intelligence official has told lawmakers that Iran’s government “appears to be intact but largely degraded.” However, Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, repeatedly dodged questions about whether President Donald Trump had been warned about the fallout from the weeks-old war, including Iran's attacks on Gulf nations and its effective closure of the vital Strait of Hormuz. Gabbard also stated in prepared remarks to the Senate Intelligence Committee that U.S. attacks on Iran last year had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program and that there had been no effort since then to rebuild that capability. The statement was notable given Trump’s repeated assertions that a war with Iran was necessary.
Pakistan and Afghanistan have declared a temporary pause in escalating fighting. Wednesday's announcements came two days after Afghanistan blamed Pakistan for a deadly airstrike in Kabul that it said killed hundreds of people at a drug rehabilitation hospital. Both say they are suspending fighting ahead of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan, and at the request of Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar. The three countries have been trying to mediate a cessation of hostilities since Afghanistan and Pakistan renewed cross-border fighting in February, and had also been involved in helping broker a ceasefire between the two last October.