Australia ‘outraged’ after IDF closes probe into 2024 strike that killed aid workers, including Australian * Elderly Palestinian woman, young girl wounded by shrapnel, three beaten during IDF operations near Nablus –
Key updates, Thursday:
Police say fire at West Bank home was due to electrical failure, contradicting Palestinian reports of settler arson attack
Responding to reports that a home was set ablaze by settlers in the southern West Bank overnight, Israel Police says forensic investigators determined that the fire broke out due to an electrical failure, not deliberate arson.
Palestinian media outlets had reported that Israeli settlers set fire to a home in Khillet al-Farra, in the South Hebron Hills. A video obtained by The Times of Israel shows the homeowner claiming that settlers told her personally to leave the area before throwing an incendiary device through her window and setting fire to the house.
In a statement, police say that arson investigators visited the site this morning and determined that a short circuit was to blame for the fire.
It adds that “no remains of a fire-accelerating substance were found at the scene,” which it says is in contradiction to the reports that the fire was started deliberately by Israeli settlers.
Settlers clashed with Israeli security forces during the evacuation of an illegal outpost in Area B of the West Bank, which is under Palestinian civil control, according to security sources.
The outpost was established near the Palestinian village of Deir Istiya, south of Nablus.
In an attempt to stop the evacuation, the settlers blocked a road and hurled stones at the Israeli security forces, the sources say.
Four suspects were detained and transferred to the police for further questioning, and the troops also confiscated a tractor and sheep at the outpost.
The evacuation of the outpost was carried out following an order signed by IDF Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth.
There is no immediate comment from the IDF, Civil Administration, or Israel Police on the evacuation.
Iran this morning executed a man over charges related to January’s nationwide protests, state media reports.
State media identifies the person as Qaem Hosseini, a foreign national, who, it says, took part in events that led to the killing of security force members during the protests.
Iran has executed dozens of people since the beginning of its war with the US and Israel, with large number of the executions being linked to the protest movement that engulfed the country at the beginning of the year.
According to Amnesty International, Iran conducts the second most executions of any country, after China.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says that the newly announced US “economic D-Day” against Iran is a “diversion from America’s own crisis: unprecedented debt & surging interest costs.”
“Doubling down on failed policies will only bring further defeat—and enmity of Iranians,” Araghchi says in a post on X. “US economic terrorism threatens global economy and sovereignty worldwide”
The post comes after US President Donald Trump announced what he called the “most crushing economic operation” ever taken against any country, which will target Iran with economic warfare.
Palestinian media outlets report that settlers set fire to a home in Khillet al-Farra, in the South Hebron Hills in the southern West Bank, overnight.
In a video obtained by The Times of Israel, the homeowner, Ila Nuwaja’a, says settlers arrived in the middle of the night, opened a window of the house, identified her by name and told her, “Go to Susiya” — another community in the South Hebron Hills — before throwing something through the window that rapidly set the house ablaze.
The family subsequently fled the home. No injuries are reported as a result of the fire.
Katz says Erdogan ‘dragging Turkey into dangerous adventures in Syria’
Defense Minister Israel Katz says that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is “dragging Turkey into dangerous adventures in Syria,” after the IDF bombed a Syrian air base this week due to what it says was a Turkish military buildup at the site, a claim both Damascus and Ankara have denied.
“Israel will not allow any entity to threaten its security,” Katz says in a Hebrew-language post on X.
“It is preferable for Erdogan to continue delivering empty, delusional speeches against Israel in the Turkish parliament rather than testing Israel’s resolve to defend itself,” he says.
Australian FM ‘outraged’ at IDF decision to close probe on 2024 killing of Gaza aid workers, including Australian citizen
Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong expresses “outrage” at Israel’s decision to close an IDF probe into an April 2024 attack that killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers, including Australian woman Zomi Frankcom.
Wong says her government was informed of the decision not to pursue a criminal investigation into the incident moments before it was announced yesterday, leaving officials no time to inform Frankcom’s family before it became public.
“There are still many unanswered questions,” Wong says.
Questions include why the convoy was struck three times in a designated humanitarian zone and why a senior brigade officer involved in the strikes was a signatory to a letter urging the restriction of aid to Gaza, Wong adds. Australia had yet to receive drone recordings from the attack, despite seeking them multiple times, she says.
“The Australian government does not believe that the removal of two officers from their positions and three officers being reprimanded is sufficient accountability for the deaths of seven people, including an Australian citizen,” Wong says.
The minister hours earlier summoned Israel’s envoy to Canberra Hillel Newman for a meeting. However, she won’t expel the ambassador, Wong says, citing a need to continue engaging diplomatically with Israel.
Newman tells reporters after the meeting that he is “very sorry” for Frankcom’s family, but did not apologize for her killing.
“One cannot attack findings of a court if the findings are not suitable to one’s political agenda,” Israel’s envoy says, adding that the finding of no criminal liability came “after two years of independent research.”
Report: Elderly Palestinian woman, young girl wounded by shrapnel, three beaten during IDF operations in Nablus area
The Palestinian Red Crescent says that a 70-year-old woman and a 15-year-old girl were wounded last night by shrapnel from IDF gunfire in the village of Qusra, south of Nablus.
No further details about the incident are immediately available. The military has maintained a presence in the village since last week due to an outpost established by settlers that blocked access to homes on the outskirts of the village.
Later, the Red Crescent says three people were injured after being beaten by IDF troops, according to the report, during a military operation in Nablus’s Rafidia neighborhood. No further details are immediately available.
The IDF has yet to respond.
Syrian FM says Turkish officers visited base hit by Israel but denies planned military deployment
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani denies to Axios that there are plans for Turkish forces to deploy at an air base in Syria that Israel bombed this week, which he says Damascus told Jerusalem before the attack.
“There was no Turkish military build-up at the base in any sense that would justify such an interpretation,” he tells the news site. “The base was, in fact, largely empty. It had not yet been fully rehabilitated or become fully operational, and the work there was still at the rehabilitation stage.”
“Therefore, linking the strike to a Turkish military presence at the base is not supported by the situation on the ground as it stood at the time,” Al-Shaibani adds, while acknowledging officers from Turkey’s military visited the Abu Duhur base days before the strikes as part of what he describes as “ongoing military cooperation in the areas of training and the exchange of expertise.”
“Syria is currently working to rebuild its military and civilian institutions and develop their capabilities. It therefore benefits from cooperation and training programs with a number of countries, not Turkey alone. Similar cooperation has taken place and continues with Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar and Russia,” he continues. “Syria is a sovereign state, and it has the right to establish relations of cooperation and alliance with any country, including Turkey.”
Al-Shaibani also tells Axios that his government has informed the Trump administration “that we do not trust Israel’s intentions towards Syria, and that we believe current Israeli policy, including its military escalation and actions on the ground, does not contribute to stability in Syria or the region.”
“Security cannot be one-sided. Just as we take Israeli security concerns into account, Israel must also take Syrian security concerns into account and seriously address our concerns regarding its expansionist policy and military operations inside Syrian territory,” he says.
Declaring ‘economic d-day,’ Trump says any country trading with Iran will be sanctioned
US President Donald Trump declares “ECONOMIC D-DAY” against Iran warning that any country doing business with the Islamic Republic will face “TREMENDOUS economic consequences.”
“Oil smuggling, swap lines, cash transfers, exchange houses, ship registries, front companies — It all needs to stop NOW. You know who you are,” Trump writes in his latest Truth Social Post.
Trump doesn’t elaborate on what he will do to countries that continue doing business with Iran.
“No one has given the Islamic Republic of Iran a greater opportunity to make a deal than me. TRAGICALLY, for them, they have failed to take it,” he writes.
On Tuesday, Trump declared that he wasn’t interested in talks with Iran, but by Wednesday, he said he’d be open to resuming them.
“Therefore, today, I am announcing the MOST CRUSHING ECONOMIC OPERATION EVER TAKEN AGAINST ANY COUNTRY!” Trump says.
The US president has made countless threats of devastating force and economic sanctions against Iran, only to walk those back, while claiming progress in negotiations toward a diplomatic agreement.
This time, Trump insists, it “will be economic warfare and isolation on an unprecedented scale.”
“Today, I am also announcing that ANY country that allows its financial institutions, businesses, airports or government entities to provide any type of lifeline to Iran will itself face TREMENDOUS economic consequences,” he writes. “This will be an ECONOMIC D-DAY, and we need all of our allies to stand with the United States of America to isolate and defeat the Iran threat.”
“These maniacs are on the ropes, and these HISTORIC MEASURES will cripple them and their ability to project terror worldwide,” he writes, without describing what the measures actually are. “IRAN WILL NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON.”
Iran has shown little indication that it is prepared to back down from its insistence on some degree of control over the Strait of Hormuz, despite Trump’s repeated threats.
Australia summons Israeli envoy after IDF declines to open criminal probe into 2024 strike that killed aid workers
Australia summons Israel’s ambassador over the Israeli military’s decision not to pursue criminal proceedings in connection with the death of an Australian aid worker in a 2024 airstrike in Gaza.
The IDF said on Wednesday it had found no basis to open criminal investigations into the killings of seven aid workers with the World Central Kitchen charity, including Australian Zomi Frankcom.
“This decision falls far short of the accountability we expect,” Foreign Minister Penny Wong says in a statement, adding Australia is “outraged” by the decision.
