This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
JERUSALEM – Middle East/Israel Morning Brief
Torah scrolls in Israel desecrated in synagogue attack
Vandals on Sunday night broke into a synagogue located in a public bomb shelter on Bat yam's David Remez Street, throwing a Torah scroll on the floor and stepping on it, Israel National News reported.
The vandals used electric tools to saw open the Holy Ark, apparently with the knowledge that the noise would not be heard outside, since the synagogue was in a bomb shelter.
The scene was discovered early on Monday morning, by worshipers arriving at the synagogue for prayers. Police were called in, and according to the worshipers, the officers who arrived at the scene displayed indifference and left within a short time, saying that anyone bothered could file a complaint at the police station.
Avichai Shalom, one of the worshipers, said that the vandalism had been nationalist in nature, since, "No Jew would invest so much time in breaking into the Holy Ark only in order to desecrate the Torah scroll."
Released hostage: 'There are 2 million terrorists in Gaza'
Liri Albag, the 19-year-old Israel Defense Forces lookout released on Saturday after 477 days as a captive of Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip, told her parents that there are "two million terrorists" in the coastal enclave.
"Dad, there are two million terrorists there, make no mistake. I sat with children aged 8 and 4 who were cursing 'the Jews,'" Albag was cited as having told her father since being released as part of the truce deal, the Jewish News Syndicate reported.
Albag's family has emphasized that while she and the three other female IDF hostages released on Saturday experienced "insane things that are hard to tell everything about" during their 15 months in Hamas captivity, they are afraid to speak due to the fact that 90 hostages have yet to be freed from Gaza.
Former hostage Mia Shem, who was released during the previous truce with Hamas in November 2023, told Israel's Channel 13 News channel in an interview on Dec. 28, 2023, "Everyone there [in Gaza] is a terrorist.
Iranian young people 'hate Palestinians,' see Netanyahu as a hero
Sadegh Zibakalam, an Iranian author and political analyst, expressed awe at the number of Iranian young people who "hate Palestinians," Israel National News reported.
"You'd be surprised today," he said in a video shared by Iran International. "Since Oct. 7, 2023, you'd be surprised at the number of Iranians who HATE Palestinians. What happened to that sympathy? It's gone – it's evaporated."
"If someone would have told me that, 'Sadegh, a day would come that Iranian people hate Palestinians and they would praise [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu – of all the people – they would praise Netanyahu as the hero, I would've thought that he or she was out of his mind, he or she was talking nonsense, he or she didn't know ANYTHING about Iranian people. But I saw it with my own eyes during the past 15 months, the degree of hatred of younger generation of Iranians against Palestinian. And their hero was Netanyahu."
