'#' : location.hash;window._cf_chl_opt.cOgUQuery = location.search === '' && location.href.slice(0 location.href.length - window._cf_chl_opt.cOgUHash.length).indexOf('?') !== -1 '?' : location.search;if (window.history && window.history.replaceState) {var ogU = location.pathname + window._cf_chl_opt.cOgUQuery + window._cf_chl_opt.cOgUHash;history.replaceState(null "\/liveblog_entry\/kafr-kanna-resident-accused-of-plotting-ramming-attack\/?__cf_chl_rt_tk=WBBeOLPj1a._r1EaiWTSjBsAoOdomKj2uuXZweSsr_Q-1746518833-1.0.1.1-LpYm5FFVkmmN2VocuWFcXnOV0Lse6DqBiqIk6EO4iSA" + window._cf_chl_opt.cOgUHash);cpo.onload = function() {history.replaceState(null ogU);}}document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(cpo);}()); "\/liveblog_entry\/victim-of-haifa-stabbing-attack-named-as-hassan-karim-dahamsheh-70-from-kafr-kanna\/?__cf_chl_rt_tk=_jeKjGGK3LbIlpgCHPDmr1APUPno9.ogh46XC.R4uU8-1746518837-1.0.1.1-AZ4sUS1GiH_hG9Q9mK_me26Dx4qpF0eXyVhNFoRDEJs" + window._cf_chl_opt.cOgUHash);cpo.onload = function() {history.replaceState(null By submitting the above I agree to the privacy policy and terms of use of JTA.org The attack on Monday happened one day after the Israel-Hamas ceasefire formally expired and Israel halted the entry of aid to Gaza An Israeli man was killed in a stabbing spree in Haifa in what Israeli authorities are treating as a terror attack The attack on Monday happened one day after the Israel-Hamas ceasefire formally expired and tensions threatened to escalate in the region Israel announced over the weekend that it would stop all entry of aid into Gaza as it seeks to pressure Hamas to accept a new proposal to extend the ceasefire The victim on Monday was named as Hassan Karim Dhamshe The suspect was named as Druze Israeli Jethro Shahin the attacker stabbed the victim in the back repeatedly and was shot dead by a security guard A 15-year-old was also reportedly wounded in the attack Terror attacks by members of Israel’s Druze community — a minority mostly based in northern Israel that is known for serving in the military — are extremely rare. Later on Monday, Druze leaders as well as the suspect’s relatives disputed the idea that the stabbing was a terror attack as opposed to a crime borne of mental illness said the suspect had been repeatedly hospitalized for mental health issues The suspect’s father also said his son suffered from mental illness and that he was surprised to hear of the stabbing The string of recent attacks has added to mounting Israeli-Palestinian tensions as Israel and Hamas are at odds over the extension of the ceasefire that formally expired on Sunday The initial plan for the ceasefire called for a second stage in which Israel would fully withdraw from Gaza in exchange for the release of the remaining living hostages held by Hamas plan for an extension of the current ceasefire through the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan Hamas would release half of all the hostages at the start of the new phase of the truce calling on Israel to stick to the initial agreement JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent I accept the Privacy Policy This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page Israeli security forces have detained four Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and three Arabs in the northern Israeli town of Kafr Kanna overnight The Israeli army said in a statement broadcasted by its radio that it detained four Palestinians in the West Bank over involvement in activities against Israeli targets Israeli forces routinely conduct detention campaigns against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank on claims that they are "wanted" by Israeli authorities Over 7,000 Palestinians are currently languishing in prisons throughout Israel according to the Palestinian Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs the Israeli police said that its troops arrested three Arab Israeli citizens in Kafr Kanaa for involvement in clashes against security troops after the funeral of a young man who had been shot dead after allegedly trying to attack policemen with a knife A general strike was declared in all Arab towns across Israel on Sunday in protest of the shooting of 22-year-old Khair al-Din Hemdan an incident that the police argued was self-defense after he tried to assault its personnel with a knife during a raid to arrest another Arab resident of the town The police noted that policemen fired some rounds in the air at first but had to shoot on Hemdan when their lives became at risk the Islamic Movement in Israel held the police responsible for the killing said that the police shot Hemdan dead from a close range after a quarrel "The whole thing started when a police patrol car arrived at night to arrest an Arab man," Awawdeh told Anadolu Agency "Hemdan was at the scene and got into an argument with police who shot him dead from a range of one meter," he added local journalists rushed to compare Kafr Kanna to Ferguson invoking the shooting of African-American teenager Michael Brown as a parallel example of a racial divide The conflict between the Arab minority of Israel and the State is not truly an American-style “civil rights” struggle Arabs in Israel cannot be classified as second-class citizens when senior Israeli officials including Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman continue to portray them as enemies from within While the Arabs in Israel experience exclusion and brutality just as African Americans do they also face — to use a popular phrase — an existential threat Read also: The difference between Israel’s racist cops and America’s The so-called Liberman Plan proposes transferring territory in Israel populated by Arabs to the Palestinian Authority in exchange for territory in the West Bank populated by Israeli settlers Liberman grumbles that it makes no sense to create a Palestinian state devoid of Jews while Israel has turned into a bi-national state with over 20 percent Arabs In other words, the Israeli foreign minister wants an Israel completely devoid of Arabs This week, Netanyahu echoed the Liberman Plan In response to the shooting and the protests it sparked the prime minister publicly challenged Arab protestors to go and live under Palestinian rule in the West Bank and Gaza he invoked what he described as their lack of loyalty to the State of Israel In a radical move, Netanyahu also ordered his interior minister to look into whether Israel could strip citizenship from those Arabs who dared to speak out in support of a Palestinian state Liberman had already proposed loyalty tests for the Arab minority threatening to deny citizenship to those who failed there is no chance whatsoever that similar statements would ever be directed at Jewish citizens President Barack Obama—or any other American official—had issued a formal statement threatening to revoke the citizenship of African Americans who chose not to keep their mouths shut There are plenty of reasons why such a scenario is unimaginable Even at moments of great racial tension in America nobody is going to threaten the citizenship clause of the Fourteenth Amendment American history may be littered with both white-sponsored and black-sponsored “Back to Africa” movements they don’t hold much sway in either the White House or Congress these are the exact sort of measures that authorities are debating Read also: Why are Palestinian citizens expected to be loyal to Israel? namely Israel’s self-definition as a “Jewish democratic state.” and regardless of what happened in Kafr Kanna a state cannot be both Jewish and democratic unless by “democracy” you mean an exclusively “Jewish democracy.” Israel’s basic laws and policies are predicated on Jewish exclusiveness and privilege but it is a democracy for — if not exclusively of — its majority Jewish population that many in the Arab community view their Israeli “citizenship” as a mere political fiction And when the State of Israel kills its Arab citizens in cold blood one is left to wonder exactly what moral mandate it has to demand their unconditional loyalty He is currently a PhD candidate in Arabic and Islamic Studies at Georgetown University Lawrence McMahon is a historian-cum-labor union staffer living in Baltimore candidate in history at Georgetown taking a hiatus from his dissertation working as editorial assistant for the flagship quarterly publication of a major U.S Our team has been devastated by the horrific events of this latest war The world is reeling from Israel’s unprecedented onslaught on Gaza inflicting mass devastation and death upon besieged Palestinians as well as the atrocious attack and kidnappings by Hamas in Israel on October 7 Our hearts are with all the people and communities facing this violence We are in an extraordinarily dangerous era in Israel-Palestine The bloodshed has reached extreme levels of brutality and threatens to engulf the entire region are seizing the opportunity to intensify their attacks on Palestinians The most far-right government in Israel’s history is ramping up its policing of dissent using the cover of war to silence Palestinian citizens and left-wing Jews who object to its policies one that +972 has spent the past 14 years covering: Israeli society’s growing racism and militarism We are well positioned to cover this perilous moment – but we need your help to do it This terrible period will challenge the humanity of all of those working for a better future in this land Palestinians and Israelis are already organizing and strategizing to put up the fight of their lives Can we count on your support +972 Magazine is a leading media voice of this movement a desperately needed platform where Palestinian and Israeli journalists and thinkers can report on and analyze what is happening "\/liveblog_entry\/arab-mayors-pressured-zoabi-to-stay-in-coalition-says-kafr-kanna-chief\/?__cf_chl_rt_tk=F7nrT6uMy1sGrRHEPuz1PcvFVYuI8uutGlaKZp76MOQ-1746518861-1.0.1.1-DQrbxgcMHUJTZdqJu9fmRT.Uk4nrhG7cqk5FmZxpXto" + window._cf_chl_opt.cOgUHash);cpo.onload = function() {history.replaceState(null The twisted logic of Peres’ Grapes of Wrath operation was all about hitting civilian targets That was the reason refugees sought shelter in Qana’s UN base in the first place Yigal Sarna, a journalist for Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, published a dramatic and serious accusation over the weekend against Naftali Bennett Bennett was the commander of a small IDF unit that operated inside the “Security Zone” that Israel occupied in South Lebanon during the 1996 military operation Grapes of Wrath Bennett decided on his own to diverge from his orders ordered supporting fire from the regional artillery unit — and those shells hit the UN refugee camp in Kafr Qana One hundred and two civilians and UN workers were killed and Israel was forced to end its military operation The incident was later known as the Kafr Qana massacre Bennett got some surprising support from the chairman of the board of B’Tselem Israel’s preeminent human rights organization who served in the same unit and took part in the mission claimed on Facebook that there was nothing wrong with Bennett’s actions that night and that in any case he couldn’t have been held responsible for the killing Other members of Maglan came out in support of Bennett as well The blame lies much higher in the chain of command: those who came up with the twisted logic behind Grapes of Wrath and most notable then prime minister Shimon Peres IDF chief of staff Amnon Lipkin Shahak and head of Northern Command Amiram Levin took a similar path as “Operation Accountability” in July 1993: Massive bombing of the Shi’ite villages in South Lebanon in order to cause a flow of civilians north thus applying pressure on Syria and Lebanon to restrain Hezbollah Such twisted ideas were bound to lead to a disaster Grapes of Wrath began with dropping leaflets above Shi’ite villages calling on the population to leave Unpopulated areas around the villages were also bombed most civilians fled north or searched for shelter in refugee camps At some point the army began bombing the villages themselves I remember this day vividly because I was leading a small force of several infantry soldiers and a tank inside the strip when I was ordered to shoot at several buildings in a village on a hill north of us We were under the impression that they were military targets Only after taking down a handful of them did I understand that my commanders were marking random targets – houses they believed were empty (but had no real way of knowing) – in an effort “to increase the pressure” on the civilian population (half a million Lebanese ended up being displaced during the operation) Yet it’s clear that the logic here – to deliberately hit civilian targets – was even worse than in the Qana incident where at least formally there was some operational logic behind the shelling (an attempt to lay down cover fire for Bennett and his men) I must add that it took me several days to understand what it was exactly we were doing – at whom and why we were shooting – and another several years until I internalized the full meaning of this event resulting in a change of my entire thinking about the army and the politics of war and peace Shimon Peres lost the 1996 elections to Netanyahu because of the Qana incident (the massacre made Peres lose the support of many Palestinian citizens of Israel much of the Israeli left never learned its lesson and is still supporting devastating military operations against civilians – ones that far surpass anything we ever did in South Lebanon many in the so-called peace camp should look inward Translated from my Hebrew blog at Local Call Noam Sheizaf is an independent journalist and editor He was the founding executive director and editor-in-chief of +972 Magazine he worked for Tel Aviv’s Ha-ir local paper where his last position was deputy editor of the weekend magazine He is currently working on a number of documentary films The Gospel of John tells the story of a miracle at a wedding in Cana of Galilee which has been described as the first of the miracles of Jesus and proof of his prophethood Galilee continues to witness its own marvels But on the second day of Eid al-Fitr in May 2021 rather than a wedding in Galilee’s Kafr Kanna there was a full-on battle between villagers and heavily armed intruders who transformed our holy festival into a scene of carnage My handcuffed father then came out of his office and ordered us to never give in to our fear and to look after our mother At around 5pm, I heard the sound of voices speaking in Hebrew and an unfamiliar clamour coming from the street. I hurried out of the kitchen to tell my father, Kamal al-Khatib, that something was happening - only to discover that members of Israel’s counter-terrorism unit had pulled our front door off its hinges I returned to find my mother and two siblings in the living room flanked by police who pointed weapons at their faces Other members of the unit surrounded my father in his office seizing his personal belongings and rifling through the room I sat down next to my mother and brothers and began to drink my coffee I rushed back to my room to grab my mobile phone I wrote a post on Facebook about police storming our home and arresting my father then opened the window and began a live broadcast filming the forces in the street below as they placed my father in a brown van to take him away Several other vans were in place to block the street and guard the arrest operation the sound of voices on our street grew louder I saw officers fire stun grenade towards dozens of young men who had gathered The young men threw stones; police responded with tear gas and rubber-coated bullets I continued my live broadcast for around 10 minutes Even though my throat was filled with tear gas I continued to record everything I could - until a stun grenade struck the window and forced me to relocate I went up to the roof of our home, but soon realised I couldn’t film from there either, because several young men had climbed up the minaret of the mosque next to our home, draped in the Palestinian flag we had to close all the windows and doors amid the strong smell of tear gas which was now being fired almost from our building itself towards the protesting youth The Israeli occupation forces had essentially commandeered our building and yard as their military barracks from which they despicably attacked the village youth.  brothers and I sat watching through security cameras - the only way we could see anything This continued until a new contingent of Israeli police arrived to storm the home again; they took the security camera computer and dismantled our wooden storeroom door using it as a barricade against the incoming stones Dozens of officers then climbed to the roof of our building to fire from there but hearing heavy gunfire and chants of “God is great” We didn’t know whether my father was still in the van outside We remained that way for around an hour and a half until a group of men from the village knocked on our door their clothes smeared in blood - but they reassured us that the Israeli forces had left our village which had been turned into a war zone just a short time ago but it was with great difficulty that they carried out this operation They had to summon dozens of Israeli police vehicles thanks to the villagers who had resisted with all their might blocking streets and defending the dignity of our village with every stone they could lay their hands on.  In this way, Kafr Kanna united to face the occupation forces who robbed us of our sense of safety, transforming our village into a place of terror - all to put a man on trial over a Facebook post in which he wrote: “Long live Gaza long live Jerusalem!” He was then charged with incitement That night, dozens of young men were wounded during clashes with occupation forces in and around our village We were then apart from my father for the 18 days he spent in al-Jalamah prison near Haifa where he was repeatedly dragged to and from courtrooms If he wanted to maintain a decent appearance he had to trim his beard with nail clippers since he wasn’t allowed scissors - and there was no mirror there Police resorted to lowly and foul methods of interrogation to force him to confess to trumped-up charges, such as calling for violence, inciting terrorism, leading a banned organisation, and being a member of a banned organisation (the Islamic Movement) He was released from prison on 20 June 2021 on condition that he leave the village of Kafr Kanna for 45 days and not engage with anything on social media platforms or meet in a group of more than 15 people for three months.  More than a year and a half has passed since an Israeli court in May 2021 issued orders to force families in the occupied East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah to vacate their homes, making room for Israeli settlers. The move fuelled protests, as did the occupation’s escalating crackdown on Al-Aqsa Mosque The confrontations extended to include Palestinian citizens of Israel, as hundreds of people in the ‘48 territories stood in solidarity with the families of Sheikh Jarrah and against the storming of Al-Aqsa mosque.  What we lived through - what we are living now and what every Palestinian experiences - is the price of defending our right to our land the Palestinian citizens of Israel or  ‘48 Palestinians' whose identity the state of Israel is dedicated to stripping - at times by attempting to incinerate our consciousness and at others by trying to isolate us from our people in the occupied West Bank Gaza and Jerusalem through laws that aim to suffocate and criminalise us During the events of 2021, I believe the ’48 Palestinians' were a definitive factor in shaping a new and different image of the history of our people’s struggle after Oslo - not only because we all united as one people to defend Al-Aqsa Mosque and Sheikh Jarrah but because we stood face-to-face with the occupier These were days full of terror and anxiety the likes of which we had never witnessed before Settlers marked the doors of our homes with the word "Arab" in Hebrew making it easier for them to find us and individually attack us in mixed cities We were attacked by settlers on live broadcasts who rejoiced over beating the lone Arab they found in their midst We avoided leaving the borders of our villages to cross into Jewish towns for daily tasks we had not known that we had such a solid spirit of resistance within us - one that would refuse to accept living without an identity or dignity until we were forced to do so and what every Palestinian experiences - is the price of defending our right to our land as Palestinians.  The events that transpired in our village of Kafr Kanna on that night in May 2021 were not unique; the occupation continues to storm Palestinian homes every day and every night and terrorising families in the occupied West Bank - or annihilating them through air raids in Gaza This war has never been a war against those who speak up against Israeli aggression and no one is exempt from the occupation’s scheming The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye Copyright © 2014 - 2025. Middle East Eye Only England and Wales jurisdiction apply in all legal matters Middle East Eye          ISSN 2634-2456                      Police shot and killed 22-year-old Khir Hamdan in the village of Kafr Kanna overnight on Saturday after he attempted to attack them with a knife A security camera that captured the shooting show that Hamdan was fleeing from the officers when they shot him which ostensibly means he posed no threat to the lives of the policemen at that moment The video shows Hamda trying to attack a riot police unit (known in Hebrew as “Yassam”) van that arrived in the village with what appears to be a knife the policemen exit the vehicle and Hamdan backs off and starts running away Hamdan’s family blames the officers for the “cold-blooded murder” of their son, who they claim posed no threat when shot. A demonstration against the killing was set to take place Saturday afternoon. Police told Ynet that Hamdan “tried to stab the policemen during the arrest of a village residents We are continuing to look into the matter.” The event took place just two days after Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich essentially endorsed the extra-judicial killing of murder suspects in the wake of last week’s terror attack in Jerusalem Aharonovich’s statement is an affront to the rule of law which require police to shoot in order to neutralize a threat One must wonder whether Aharonovich’s statement influenced those policemen who acted Saturday morning in Kafr Kanna Israel Police announces it will open an investigation into Hamdan’s death roughly 80 youths clashed with police forces in the run-up to the demonstration Police were using sponge-tipped bullets and putrid “skunk” water canons to disperse the demonstrators Haggai Matar is an award-winning Israeli journalist and political activist and is the executive director of +972 Magazine Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker A quarry found near ancient Cana gives evidence that stone vessels in first-century Israel were a valued commodity for religious reasons and it adds historical context to Jesus’ first recorded miracle at a wedding say archaeologists and scholars familiar with the excavation is carved out of a chalkstone hillside south of the modern town of Kafr Kanna—one of two plausible sites for the Biblical town of Cana The other major candidate for the site of old Cana—favored by most scholars today—is the town of Khirbet Qana is the first time a workshop where stone vessels were crafted has been found in the northern Israel region of Galilee It gives evidence of a thriving trade in stone vessels Biblical Archaeology Review wrote in a summary of the excavations The project is sponsored by Ariel University the University of Malta and the Biblical Archaeology Society told the Arutz Sheva news outlet that the stone vessels were a daily part of the religious lives of first-century Jews who used the stone because according to Jewish law it could not become ritually impure Archaeologist Yitshak Magen wrote in Biblical Archaeology Review that most ritual purity laws were related to rites inside the Temple until the Second Temple period (538 B.C.-A.D when those laws were expanded to everyday Jewish life “It made sense to purchase a vessel that could not become unclean,” Magen said “for once a vessel became ritually unclean had to be broken”—a practice prescribed in Leviticus 11:33 While the excavation team doesn’t claim a connection to the Gospel of John’s account of Jesus turning water into wine during the wedding celebration at Cana Adler says the findings show historical context “The evangelist [John] was clearly familiar with the fact that Jews were using stone vessels for ritual purposes,” Adler told Arutz Sheva “It is certainly possible—perhaps even likely—that large stone containers of the type mentioned in the wedding at Cana story may have been produced locally in Galilee in a cave similar to the one we are now excavating.” The Biblical account is specific about the volume of Jesus’ miracle: “Now there were set there six waterpots of stone according to the manner of purification of the Jews containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece” (John 2:6) The discovery of the quarry only strengthens the claims of historicity in the Gospel accounts the Thompson Professor of Biblical Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary and an expert in New Testament backgrounds “Certainly a first-century stone vessel factory near Cana would support the picture we have in John 2:6,” Keener told Decision much of John’s topography fits first-century conditions too well to be an accident.” Keener added: “Scholars have long noted John’s correct knowledge of Jerusalem’s topography despite the likelihood that John was writing more than two decades after Jerusalem’s destruction This would offer another piece of information that illustrates how his accounts are consistent with local conditions illustrations that in turn are consistent with our other evidence that this Gospel reflects genuine eyewitness memory of first-century events in the land in which the author followed Jesus.” who holds the Bryant Chair of Archaeology at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary says the wedding celebration John describes likely would have drawn a significant crowd from the nearby villages but both places are in the same vicinity not far from Nazareth “It’s the Lord’s first miracle,” Warner says According to the Biblical Archaeology Society the site was discovered in 2001 with only preliminary findings Last summer included the first full-scale excavations The Scripture quotation is taken from the Holy Bible