The Times of Israel is liveblogging Monday’s events as they happen.
Haley bests Trump in DC for first primary win
Nikki Haley has won the Republican primary in the District of Columbia, notching her first victory of the 2024 campaign.
Her victory Sunday at least temporarily halts Donald Trump’s sweep of the GOP voting contests, although the former president is bound to pick up several hundred more delegates in this week’s Super Tuesday races.
Despite her early losses, Haley has said she would remain in the race at least through those contests, although she has declined to name any primary she felt confident she would win. Following last week’s loss in her home state of South Carolina, Haley remained adamant that voters in the places that followed deserved an alternative to Trump despite his dominance thus far in the campaign.
The Associated Press declared Haley the winner Sunday night after DC Republican Party officials released the results.
Washington is one of the most heavily Democratic jurisdictions in the nation, with only about 23,000 registered Republicans in the city. Democrat Joe Biden won the district in the 2020 general election with 92 percent of the vote.
US says Central Command chief held talks on Gaza aid at Rafah, in Israel
The US Central Command says its chief Gen. Michael Kurilla visited the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt and met with senior Israeli officials during a trip to the region last week.
Kurilla was at Rafah on February 27, “where he met with representatives from several international and nongovernmental organizations, the Egyptian 2nd Field Army, and US embassy leadership to discuss the process of delivering humanitarian aid from Egypt into Gaza. The administrators described the challenges, opportunities, and level of support from the international community to increase the throughput of supplies into Gaza,” Centcom says in a statement.
In Israel, Kurilla met with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Israel Defense Forces head Herzi Halevi for “wide-ranging discussions on security concerns both within and outside of Israel. The conversations also focused on opportunities to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza,” the statement reads.
Kurilla also met with Mossad head David Barnea, officers from COGAT and Northern Command chief Ori Gordin during the trip.
Kurilla’s swing through the region also included stops in Jordan and Syria. In Jordan, he once again held talks on getting humanitarian aid into Gaza.
“These are challenging times in the CENTCOM region, and we rely on the professionalism, commitment and competence of our Service-members as well as the strength of our relationships with our partners to solve them,” he says in a statement.
Home of Dee family killer said demolished in Nablus raid
Palestinians report that the Nablus home of a Hamas terrorist accused in the killing of an Israeli-UK mother and her two daughters in an attack last year has been blown up in an overnight operation.
Pictures and videos show the home of Moaz al-Masri, on the fourth floor of an apartment building, reduced to a shell. Other floors appear intact and undamaged.
تغطية صحفية: لحظة تفجير قوات الاحـــتلال منزل الشـــ ـــهيد معاذ المصري في نابلس pic.twitter.com/IBHVTbhBMA
— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) March 4, 2024
There is no immediate comment from the Israel Defense Forces.
تغطية صحفية: منزل الشــ ــهــيد معاذ المصري بعد تفجيره من قبل قوات الاحـــتلال بمدينة نابلس pic.twitter.com/I5cLHLHU4W
— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) March 4, 2024
According to the IDF, Al-Masri was part of a cell that opened fire at Lucy Dee, 48, and her daughters Maia Dee, 20, and Rina Dee, 15, as they drove through the northern Jordan Valley on April 7, 2023. The daughters were declared dead at the scene, while Lucy was rushed to a hospital in critical condition but died three days later.
Moaz al-Masri, Hassan Qatnani and Ibrahim Jabr were killed in an Israeli military raid in early May, following a lengthy manhunt. Hamas said the three were members and claimed responsibility for the attack.
In June, the army published pictures of soldiers mapping the al-Masri home for demolition.
As a matter of policy, Israel regularly demolishes the homes of Palestinians accused of carrying out deadly terror attacks as well as their accomplices. The efficacy of the policy has been hotly debated even within the Israeli security establishment, while human rights activists denounce the practice as unjust collective punishment.
The demolition process generally takes several months, as the home needs to be mapped out, the High Court must address potential appeals by the family, and security forces often wait for an optimal time to enter Palestinian cities or neighborhoods for the operation.
The three members of the Dee family were dual Israeli-British nationals who lived in the West Bank settlement of Efrat, just south of Jerusalem, after moving to Israel some eight years ago.
Emanuel Fabian contributed to this post.
Hezbollah claims to shell border town, fight Israeli troops
The Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon claims to have shelled areas near the Israeli border community of Zarit.
There are no reports from the Israeli side of an attack, or of injuries or damage. No sirens sounded, according to the IDF’s Homefront Command.
Over the last three hours, the Iran-backed terror group also claimed to have confronted two separate groups of troops on the border in the area near Zarit and several kilometers to the east near Qatmoun.
There is no comment from the Israeli military.
Bus drivers said attacked near Jerusalem-area settlement
Two bus drivers required medical attention after being attacked by a gang of youths near the settlement of Givat Ze’ev, according to reports.
The drivers for the Elektra-Afikim bus company, which runs public lines to the settlement, had been idling at a rest area for buses near the settlement, just north of Jerusalem, when a group of young men began throwing stones and bottles at them, reports say.
Video from the scene shows a broken window at the back of one bus and police at the scene.
In response, Elektra-Afikim has canceled service between Jerusalem and the settlement for the night, according to the reports.