Two rockets fired from the southern Gaza Strip were intercepted following sirens near the Gaza border, the IDF said.
The army added that no one was wounded.
Several Israeli protest groups have warned that opposition members who vote in favor of removing MK Ayman Odeh from the Knesset will no longer be invited to speak at their demonstrations.
A letter to opposition leaders by protest leaders said representatives of the opposition have “crossed a red line” and anyone who supports Odeh’s removal “we will consider from now on as a member of the coup d’état, and we will see him or her as complicit in the destruction of democracy.”
They added that they are “ashamed” of their “cooperation with a process that begins with the removal of a Knesset member from an Arab party, but will end with the sweeping disqualification of parties and individuals, with the aim of skewing the results of the next elections.”
“You are the next in line and you choose to look away, and you are knowingly playing into the hands of the government of negligence,” they said.
Sirens sounded in Kibbutz Kissufim, near the border with Gaza.
Israeli forces arrested members of a terrorist cell that was planning an imminent attack, a joint statement from the Israel Police, IDF and Shin Bet said.
The arrest was made in the village of Barta’a, which lies partly in Israel and partly in the West Bank.
According to the statement, forces raided a business located in the Israeli part of the village of Barta’a, which lies partly in Israel and partly in the West Bank, arresting two terrorists. They then arrested another member of the cell in a nearby village.
The police said the detainees have been transferred to the Shin Bet for questioning.
Israeli settlers have attacked two Deutsche Welle (DW) reporters in the West Bank, Germany’s international broadcaster said on Saturday. A correspondent and a cameraman were pelted with large stones and chased on Friday.
The pair were in the Palestinian village of Sinjil, north of Ramallah, to report on a planned protest against violence by radical settlers. They were reportedly able to escape unharmed, but the cameraman’s car was badly damaged.
DW director Peter Limbourg condemned the attack. “This attack cannot be justified by anything, and we demand quite clearly: the Israeli government must guarantee the safety of all journalists in the West Bank,” he said in a statement.
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The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation reported that it distributed 28,512 boxes of aid on Saturday across three distribution centers in the Gaza Strip. In addition to this aid, it said eight truckloads of potatoes were distributed at two sites on Saturday as part of an expanded pilot program.
“This morning we faced a stark reminder of the risks involved with delivering meals in a warzone: two American aid workers were wounded in a targeted terrorist attack: assailants threw grenades at Americans working at our distribution site in Khan Younis, injuring them as the day’s distribution concluded. Thankfully, both are in stable condition,” GHF said in a statement.
“Even amid violence and chaos, our team delivered over 1.8 million meals today. That is the story of GHF: a system that works, a team that endures, and a mission that will not be shaken. We will continue feeding the people of Gaza, safely, directly, and at scale.”
Demonstrations for the return of the hostages and against the government will be held on Saturday in a number of locations across the country, with the main weekly rally for the hostages taking place at Hostage Square at 8 P.M.
Ahead of the demonstrations, several relatives of the hostages gave a statement at the IDF and Defense Ministry headquarter’s Begin Gate.
Yotam Cohen, the brother of hostage soldier Nimrod Cohen, who participated, expressed concern about a deal that will not see the release of all of the remaining hostages. “We are very concerned that the proposal on the table will end with another partial selection deal, that the negotiations will explode again and that the war will resume,” Cohen said. “We fear that this time too, political considerations will leave the hostages behind, including Nimrod, my brother. If the war resumes, those who don’t return will never return – we will have dozens of Ron Arads,” he said.
According to him, “Everyone knows that Hamas has been defeated, it is clear to everyone that it will be possible to operate in the Strip just as the IDF operates in Lebanon and will also operate in Iran, and that this is the time to leverage the achievements. Ending the war and returning all the hostages is today the clear Israeli interest.”
Britain announced on Saturday that it was reestablishing diplomatic relations with Syria, as Foreign Minister David Lammy visited the Syrian capital, Damascus, in the first ministerial visit in 14 years.
“There is renewed hope for the Syrian people. The UK is reestablishing diplomatic relations because it is in our interests to support the new government to deliver their commitment to build a stable, more secure and prosperous future for all Syrians,” Lammy said.
According to a statement from the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, the U.K. will support Syria’s development with a new aid package of 94.5 million pounds to provide “urgent humanitarian aid to Syrians, support Syria’s longer-term recovery through education and livelihoods, and support countries hosting Syrian refugees in the region.”
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy also announced a donation of 2 million pounds to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, in addition to the 800,000 pounds the U.K. has already donated this year, “as they help the Syrian Government fulfil their commitments to eliminate Assad’s chemical weapons once and for all.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has fired his spokesperson, Omer Dostri.
While sources close to Netanyahu have confirmed this, Dostri did not respond to Haaretz’s inquiry on the subject.
About two weeks ago, the Prime Minister’s Office announced the appointment of another office spokesperson “in light of the heavy media load of the war.” The new spokesperson, Ziv Agmon, was set to work alongside Dostri, who has held the position since August.
In the months leading up to his appointment as spokesperson, Dostri called for the occupation of the Gaza Strip for “encouraging immigration” of Palestinians and for the establishment of settlements in its territory. He also criticized U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration, Israeli anti-government protesters and the media.
IDF troops facilitated the evacuation of two Gaza Humanitarian Fund aid workers on Saturday who were wounded by two grenades that terrorists threw into a distribution site in Rafah, where civilians were present, the army said in a statement.
“The terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip continue efforts to sabotage the distribution of humanitarian aid at the designated aid sites intended for the civilian population. In doing so, they are cynically and deliberately harming civilians in the Gaza Strip,” the statement said.
