The Times of Israel is liveblogging Tuesday’s events as they happen.
Report: Five rockets shot toward Israel from Lebanon overnight
At least five projectiles were launched at Israel from Lebanon overnight but failed to cross into Israeli territory, the Walla news site reports, without citing a source.
During the night, a rocket siren sounded in Kibbutz Hanita near the Lebanon border in the Western Galilee.
There is no comment from the Israeli military and no claim of an attack from Hezbollah.
Trump agrees to FBI interview over attempted assassination
Former President Donald Trump has agreed to be interviewed by the FBI as part of an investigation into his attempted assassination in Pennsylvania earlier this month, a special agent says.
The expected interview with the 2024 Republican presidential nominee is part of the FBI’s standard protocol to speak with victims during the course of its criminal investigations. The FBI said on Friday that Trump was struck in the ear by a bullet or a fragment of one during the July 13 assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“We want to get his perspective on what he observed,” says Kevin Rojek, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office. “It is a standard victim interview like we would do for any other victim of crime, under any other circumstance.”
Trump says in a Fox News interview that he expects the FBI interview to take place Thursday.
Through more than 450 interviews, the FBI has fleshed out a portrait of the gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, that reveals him to be a “highly intelligent” but reclusive 20-year-old whose primary social circle was his family and who maintained few friends and acquaintances throughout his life, Rojek says. Even in online gaming platforms that Crooks visited, his interactions with peers appeared to have been minimal, the FBI says.
His parents have been “extremely cooperative,” with the investigation, Rojek says. They have said they had no advance knowledge of the shooting.
The FBI has not uncovered a motive as to why he chose to target Trump, but investigators believe the shooting was the result of extensive planning, including the purchase under an alias in recent months of chemical precursors that investigators believe were used to create the explosive devices found in his car and his home, and the deployment of a drone about 200 yards (180 meters) from the rally site in the hours before the event.
Police unhappy to be blamed for failing to curb chaos at IDF bases
Police say in a statement that all protesters have been cleared from the Beit Lid and Sde Teiman bases where right-wing activists rioted and broke in earlier.
The police statement notes that “contrary to reports, no complaints were received about threats from military officers.” It also seems to take a swipe at IDF officials who reportedly said police, and not soldiers, should be blamed for failing to head off the chaos at the bases.
“We are disappointed by the attempts to criticize police and their work,” the statement reads.
Storm pushes off Olympic surfing as Israeli Lelior hangs in
Israeli surfer Anat Lelior will have to wait to find out if she can advance to the Round of 16 at the Olympics after organizers called off a planned third day of qualification heats.
The decision to delay was made after the men’s third round on Monday, after the arrival of a storm wrecked a morning of phenomenal waves at Tahiti’s Teahupo’o.
Lelior is set to face Australia’s Tyler Wright in the second heat once the third round does get underway.
Badminton player Zilberman out of medal contention after second loss in Paris
Israeli Misha Zilberman has fallen to Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen in men’s singles badminton play in Paris, essentially eliminating him from medal contention.
Zilberman loses 21-9 21-11 in the Group P match in Paris, leaving him at the bottom of the group table alongside Nepal’s Prince Dahal, who he will face on Wednesday for an ultimately meaningless match.
On Saturday, Zilberman lost 21-17 19-21 21-13 to Ireland’s Nhat Nguyen, who will now face Axelsen for a chance to win the group and move to the Round of 16.
Some protesters at Beit Lid wore IDF uniforms, masks and carried guns; MK Gottliv spoke alongside them
Some of the far-right protesters who gathered at the Beit Lid base wore IDF uniforms and face masks and carried weapons.
Likud Knesset member Tally Gotliv was pictured alongside them, addressing the crowd.
המהומה בבית ליד: רעולי פנים חמושים במדים על משאית, לצד ח"כ גוטליבhttps://t.co/G5clWDCVSw
צילום: רענן בן צור pic.twitter.com/D66VJIM9sE
— ynet עדכוני (@ynetalerts) July 29, 2024
Gotliv had earlier posted on X that the soldiers arrested for alleged abuse of a terror suspect at the Sde Teiman detention center were being questioned at Beit Lid.
She encouraged her followers to come to the base on their behalf. “Come in your multitudes,” she urged.
Visiting Beit Lid base, IDF chief says right-wing riots are ‘bordering on anarchy,’ harm army and state
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi says rioting harms the military, during a visit to troops at the Beit Lid base in central Israel, after a right-wing mob stormed the facility in protest of the questioning of reservists suspected of abusing a Palestinian detainee.
“We came to Beit Lid… to make sure that nothing more serious happens. The arrival of rioters and attempts to break into the bases is serious behavior, against the law, bordering on anarchy, harming the IDF, the security of the state and the war effort,” he says.
IDF: Right-wing riots at army bases delay discussions of reprisal against Hezbollah
The IDF says the rioting by right-wing mobs at the Sde Teiman base in southern Israel earlier today and the Beit Lid base in central Israel this evening are directly harming Israel’s security.
Over the past day, the IDF says it has been preparing for its retaliation against Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the rioting has been a major distraction.
Top IDF officers, including Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, stopped critical discussions on the north to deal with the infiltration into the bases.
Halevi visited the Beit Lid base this evening following the rioting.
Meanwhile, several IDF companies from the West Bank and others on vacation are being dispatched to the Beit Lid base this evening, and several battalions will be there by tomorrow.
The incidents began after Military Police officers detained nine reservist soldiers at Sde Teiman this morning on suspicion of seriously abusing a Palestinian detainee several weeks ago at a detention facility at the base.
הלם בצה"ל מהתנהלות המשטרה (נטולת המפכ"ל).
גורמים צבאיים אומרים שבמצ"ח התחננו למשטרה שישלחו כוחות פינוי לבסיס בית ליד כדי למנוע את מראות שדה תימן אך המשטרה סירבה במכוון: "במשטרה אמרו לנו שחיילים יפתרו את זה. גם עכשיו בכירים במשטרה עושים הכל כדי להקטין את חומרת האירוע כמעודדים את… pic.twitter.com/GQEyQSVLyt— יואב זיתון (@yoavzitun) July 29, 2024
Not long after, some 1,200 right-wing activists, along with several ultranationalist lawmakers, gathered outside Sde Teiman in protest of the investigation of the reservists, with many of them breaching into the base. It was unclear how many exactly entered the facility.
There have been no reports of arrests by police.