The Times of Israel is liveblogging Friday’s events as they happen.
Sponsor of bill to restrict administrative detention says Katz’s decision ‘moral, just’ MK Simcha Rothman, the chairman of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee and the sponsor of legislation to curtail administrative detention, welcomes the defense minister’s announcement that he is ending it for Israeli settlers as a “moral, just and correct decision.” A bill sponsored by Rothman — which would forbid the use of administrative detention or administrative restraining orders against Israeli citizens, unless they are members of a certain list of terror groups — is currently making its way through the Knesset. “The bill I submitted was intended to clarify exactly the basic values of the State of Israel and the necessary distinction between an enemy and a supporter,” he tweets. “In light of Minister Katz’s clear and welcome announcement, we will examine in the Constitution Committee how the implementation of the directive of the political echelon is carried out in the field and we will adjust the wording of the bill that is already on the committee’s table.”
Report: During Iranian missile attack, projectiles flew by dozens of civilian aircraft The Wall Street Journal reports that during Iran’s ballistic missile attack on Israel on October 1, dozens of aircraft were flying along a similar path as the missiles ascended, with some pilots and passengers seeing the projectiles as they streaked through the sky, mostly over Iran and Iraq. Though ballistic missiles fly high above commercial airline paths, they present a danger during their ascent and descent. Iran apparently gave no warning for flights to avoid the area as it launched its attack. With crews alarmed, many flights quickly changed their course due to the danger, the report says, using graphics to underline the risk posed to civilian aviation. The report notes that Iranian strikes and Israeli counterstrikes continue to be on the table, with no clear solution to protect civilian flights.
The defense minister’s decision to end administrative detention for Israeli settlers is welcomed by right-wing politicians. Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, a settler, celebrates. “There is a defense minister in Jerusalem!” he says. “Important and huge news… This is a correction of many years of mistreatment, and justice for those who love the land.” As a minor, Ben Gvir’s chief aide Chanamel Dorfman was the subject of administrative restraining orders, keeping him out of the West Bank due to allegations he was involved in rioting to protest the removal of illegal outposts. Finance Minster Bezalel Smotrich, a settlement advocate, says Katz “eliminated long-standing discrimination against settlers in Judea and Samaria and put an end to the injustice in which the settlers were second-class citizens and draconian and undemocratic measures were applied against them that trampled on their rights, measures that are not applied against any other population in the State of Israel except terrorists and dangerous enemies. “To the extent that such unacceptable phenomena [as settler violence] occur, God forbid, they should be handled by the police and the legal system in accordance with the procedures and rules of evidence of criminal law, just as they would be with any other citizen or population.” Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party had been pushing legislation which would forbid the use of administrative detention or administrative restraining orders against Israeli citizens, unless they were members of a certain list of terror groups. Likud MK Avichai Boaron, also a settler activist, says the move “reflects a supportive and warm approach toward the settlement movement and the settlers in Judea and Samaria. There is no doubt that this is a first sign heralding a new attitude, whose ultimate outcome will be full sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.”
Iran Guards chief: ICC arrest warrant for Netanyahu is ‘political death’ of Israel The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards describes the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yova Gallant as the “end and political death” of Israel. “This means the end and political death of the Zionist regime, a regime that today lives in absolute political isolation in the world and its officials can no longer travel to other countries,” Revolutionary Guards chief General Hossein Salami says in the speech aired on state TV. In the first official reaction by Iran, Salami calls the ICC warrant “a welcome move” and a “great victory for the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance movements,” in reference to terror organizations supported by Tehran.
New Defense Minister Israel Katz announces an end to administrative detention orders for West Bank settlers, a controversial policy of holding suspects without charge. While the practice is primarily deployed against Palestinians, it is also used against some extremist Jewish Israelis. It sees individuals held without charge for up to six months at a time. The detentions can be renewed indefinitely while allowing military prosecutors to keep suspects from being able to see the evidence against them. In a statement, Katz says that “in a reality where the Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria is subject to serious Palestinian terror threats and unjustified international sanctions are taken against the settlers, it is not appropriate for the State of Israel to take such a severe measure against the people of the settlements.” Katz met with Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar this week and told him that he had decided “to stop the use of administrative detention orders against Jewish settlers in Judea and Samaria, and asked him to put alternative tools in place,” his office says. Administrative detention policies allow the Defense Ministry to hold suspects without charge, while administrative restraining orders bar them from visiting certain areas or communicating with certain people. The tool is typically used when authorities have intelligence tying a suspect to a crime but do not have enough evidence for charges to stand up in a court of law. Katz says that “if there is suspicion of criminal acts, the perpetrators can be prosecuted, and if not, there are other preventive measures that can be taken other than administrative detention orders.” “I condemn any phenomenon of violence against Palestinians and taking the law into one’s own hands, and I also appeal to the settlement leadership to take a similar public position and express an unequivocal position on the issue,” the minister adds. Settler violence spiked after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack. Israeli authorities rarely arrest Jewish perpetrators in such attacks. Rights groups lament that convictions are even more unusual and that the vast majority of charges in these types of attacks are dropped. As recently as this past weekend, dozens of masked settlers set fire to several buildings and a car in the West Bank village of Beit Furik near Nablus, according to the IDF. There has been no news of arrests.
IDF says it killed senior Islamic Jihad commander in airstrike A senior commander in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group was killed in a recent airstrike, the IDF and Shin Bet announce. According to the military, Khaled Abu Deqa, who commanded Islamic Jihad’s rocket unit, was killed in a strike on Wednesday in the Deir al-Balah area of central Gaza. The IDF says Abu Deqa operated from within the Israeli-designated humanitarian zone in Deir al-Balah. Abu Deqa was responsible for rocket fire on Israel amid the October 7 onslaught and during the war, and was involved in numerous other attacks on Israel and IDF troops, the military says. To mitigate civilian harm in the strike, the IDF says it used a precision munition and aerial surveillance.