The Times of Israel is liveblogging Wednesday’s events as they happen.
At DNC, rabbi outlines ‘redemption story’ that includes Israelis and Palestinians living in peace
CHICAGO — A Los Angeles rabbi touts a future in which Israelis and Palestinians “live in dignity and in peace,” in an invocation kicking off the second night of the Democratic National Convention.
“We have gathered together this week to craft a redemption story for America,” says Sharon Braus, who heads the non-denominational IKAR congregation.
“My faith is sustained by a redemption story. A people beleaguered and bereft, traversing the desert of a journey from degradation to dignity, from darkness to light,” she says alongside Imam Talib Shareef who delivers an opening prayer after her
“Holy One, help us write America’s redemption story… This story counters extremism with capaciousness and compassion.”
“It rejects the inevitability of war, affirming that every one of us, Muslim and Jew Christian, Black, white, Latino, AAPI, queer and straight, Israeli and Palestinian deserves to live in dignity and in peace,” she says to cheers from the gradually filling seats at the United Center.
Slated to address the crowd later tonight are former president Barack Obama, former first lady Michelle Obama, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and Senator Bernie Sanders.
Lebanese health ministry says 1 killed, 19 wounded in Israeli strikes on Bekaa Valley
Lebanon’s health ministry says early Wednesday that Israeli strikes in the country’s east killed one person, just over a day after similar strikes in the area.
“Israeli enemy strikes on the Bekaa” Valley killed one person “and wounded 19 others,” the health ministry says, noting the toll was provisional and without saying if they were civilians or fighters.
The strikes around midnight come little more than a day after similar raids in the Bekaa region that Israel said targeted “Hezbollah weapons storage facilities.”
Hezbollah announces deaths of 4 members after Israeli strike on cell of operatives
The Hezbollah terror group announces the deaths of four members killed “on the road to Jerusalem,” its term for operatives slain in Israeli strikes.
The announcement comes following an Israeli airstrike on a cell of Hezbollah operatives at a building in southern Lebanon’s Matmoura earlier today.
Their deaths bring the terror group’s toll since the beginning of the war in the Gaza Strip to at least 419.
Lebanese media reports several Israeli airstrikes in Baalbek
Lebanese media report several Israeli airstrikes in eastern Lebanon, in the Baalbek District.
The reports say explosions are heard as Israeli fighter jets flew over the area.
غارات معا دية عنيفة تستهدف البقاع pic.twitter.com/Aqw6TqYWmv
— مصدر مسؤول (@fouadkhreiss) August 20, 2024
The IDF last night struck Hezbollah weapon depots in the Baalbek area in response to a deadly drone attack on northern Israel.
أعمدة الدخان تتصاعد من البقاع بعد سلسلة غارات إسرائيلية https://t.co/cbvvJmzvSj pic.twitter.com/dc1sSj3Nwd
— Ali Bk (@Bk_Hanas) August 20, 2024