A Yahoo News report on Motzei Shabbos provided new information on the US elimination of Quds Force commander Gen. Qassam Soleimani during the presidency of Donald Trump. Soleimani was reportedly planning imminent attacks against US diplomats and military personnel. Past administrations had considered eliminating Soleimani but chose not to do so due to the risk of escalation. According to the report, Israel had a key role in keeping the option of eliminating Soleimani on the table despite resistance by some US defense officials. After the US made a decision to assassinate Soleimani, Israel provided the US with  multiple cellphone numbers used by the Iranian general to aid in pinpointing his location.

Just after 9:00 p.m. a barrage of rockets were fired from Gaza at southern Israel in the area of Ashkelon. The rocket fire came at the end of a very tense day in which more than 40 fires erupted in the Gaza periphery due to a deluge of balloon bombs being launched from the Strip. In response, Israel was set to close the fishing area in the Mediterranean Sea for Gaza fishermen. Hamas threatened more violence should this come to pass. It is likely that the rockets were launched at the beginning of Yom Yerushalayim, an already tense day, due to annual violence that erupts on this day as Hamas and other militant groups try to avenge the reunification of Jerusalem during the Six-Day-war in 1967.

Israel carried out airstrikes in the Gaza Strip after a terror group fired a rocket into Israel overnight Motzei Shabbos amid continued violent Arab riots in Jerusalem and along the Gaza border. New clashes between Israel and Israel Police broke out early Sunday morning as Arabs exited Har Habayis after all-night prayers marking Laylat al-Qadr, Islam’s holiest night. About 90,000 Arabs participated in the all night-prayers prayers at Har Habayis and chanted Hamas slogans, including: “Strike Tel Aviv. We’ll redeem al-Aqsa in spirit and in blood.” Riots also took place at Sha’ar Shechem and in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in east Jerusalem.

Yisrael Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Lieberman published a list of his demands this week for entering a national unity government. The demands include: The Drafts Law that already was passed in its first Knesset reading should be passed without any changes in the first month of the new government. The authorization of civil marriages. The removal of the Rabbanut’s monopoly on kashrus. The cancellation of the Supermarkets Law, allowing businesses to be open on Shabbos. The abolition of local religious councils. The authorization of local Rabbanim to conduct conversions. The promotion of the core curriculum in Chareidi schools.

The unrest in Jerusalem in recent weeks spread to Har Habayis on Friday evening, with hundreds of Arabs throwing chairs, rocks, bottles, and fireworks at police officers after prayers, the last Friday prayers of the month of Ramadan. Riots also broke out at the same time at Sha’ar Shechem. Seventeen Israel Police officers were injured, with about half evacuated to the hospital, including one officer who is in moderate condition after being hit in the face with a rock. Police officers dispersed the rioters using stun grenades, rubber bullets, tear gas, and other methods. According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, 205 Arabs were injured, including 88 who were hospitalized, mostly from injuries from rubber bullets.

YWN regrets to inform you of the sudden Petira of one of Yehuda Kranczer ZT”L of Detroit. He was 47. He was Niftar after suffering a massive heart attack while learning the Daf on Thursday morning. The news of his Petira sent the entire community into mourning, leaving hundreds of his friends and those he helped in shock and disbelief. The Niftar was one of the pillars of Chesed of the Detroit Community, and was involved in literally every single Chesed project in the community. He was a Hatzolah of Michigan volunteer (“M-36”), a Chaveirim volunteer, and part of a slew of other Chesed organizations. Friends tell YWN that although he spent his entire day doing Chesed, no one knew, as he kept everything quiet. “He was a big guy, with a massive heart”, a Hatzolah member told YWN.

Famed Israeli singer Motty Steinmetz and his manager Ruvi Banet were miraculously saved from a head-on collision this week on the way to a meeting in Lakewood, New Jersey. As they were driving in the pouring rain, a white jeep spun out of control, crossing two lanes and colliding head-on with the car in which Motty and Ruvi were traveling. In the video, Ruvi can be seen jumping out of the car to take a photo of the offending vehicle. Steinmetz, who was in the United States for a series of Lag B’Omer performances, told B’Chadrei Chareidim: “We were on the way to Lakewood for a meeting.

Shlomo Zalman Leibowitz, z’l, 18, of Tzfat, who lost his life in the Meron disaster, apparently had a sense of foreboding about his impending death, his mother said in an interview. Sora Leibowitz told Yediot Achranot: “Shlomo Zalman, z’l, called me on the way to Meron and said: ‘Ima, I’m on the bus. I don’t know how to explain this but I have a request for you.” “I don’t feel good about the fact that I’m going to Meron. I don’t have a good feeling. Daven for me very hard. I don’t know what’s with me. Daven for me, Ima, promise me. I don’t know why I decided to go.” “I don’t know what he was feeling when he called me and talked like that,” his mother said, breaking down into tears. “He was a special son, my bechor.

One of the survivors of the Meron disaster was the bochur Shalom Dovid, whose life was saved by a Border Police officer. “My friend and I were on the way out and I saw how crowded it was,” he told Channel 12 News. “So I told my friend that we need to leave but when we started going down the walkway, it was terribly crowded and suddenly we began slipping on the slippery incline and began falling. And when we reached the steps, each person fell on top of the next person.” “After everyone fell, a Border Police officer bent down to me and said: ‘Don’t scream, just breathe, just breathe in and out.'” “And while he was talking to me, he placed his legs on either side of my head. And if he wouldn’t have done that, my head would have been trampled.

Eliyahu Kamar of Ohr Yehuda spent the entire night of Lag B’Omer searching for his son Assaf on Har Meron and calling hospitals. When morning came and he failed to locate his son at any hospital, he began to accept the inevitable and reluctantly drove to Abu Kabir Institute of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv, He grimly got in line when he received a call from home. His son had just arrived home. His son had been stuck on buses leaving Meron and he couldn’t call since the cellular networks in the area had collapsed due to the heavy load of people frantically calling their relatives. Kamar told reporters that he knows how lucky he is. “I share in the pain of the families who weren’t zohech to be where I am. My heart is with them.” (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)