Gilyonos for Shabbos attached

New weather warnings for ice have been issued for parts of the UK – and comes ahead of a three-day snow alert for this weekend.

The warning for ice is in place from 5pm today until 10am on Friday, and covers north west England, parts of Scotland and Northern Ireland.

A second warning for snow and ice is in place from 4pm today and covers north east Scotland.

Meanwhile, a yellow warning for snow is due to come into force at midday on Saturday and will last until 9am on Monday.

It covers all regions of England apart from the south west. Northern Ireland and some of west and north Scotland are also not affected.

There is also a snow warning for Scotland from midnight on Sunday until midday on Monday. The Met Office said there is a small chance of power cuts and mobile phone coverage may be affected.

There’s also a chance of travel delays on roads with some stranded vehicles and passengers, along with delayed or cancelled rail and air travel.

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The United States Army veteran who drove a pickup truck into a crowd of New Year’s revelers acted alone, the FBI said Thursday, reversing its position from a day earlier that he had likely worked with others in the deadly attack that officials said was inspired by the Islamic State group.

The FBI also revealed that the driver, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a US citizen from Texas, posted five videos on his Facebook account in the hours before the attack in which he proclaimed his support for the Islamic State and previewed the violence that he would soon unleash in the city’s famed French Quarter district.

“This was an act of terrorism. It was premeditated and an evil act,” said Christopher Raia, the deputy assistant director of the FBI’s counterterrorism division, calling Jabbar “100% inspired” by the Islamic State.

The attack killed 14, along with Jabbar, who was fatally shot in a firefight with police after steering his speeding truck around a barricade and plowing into the crowd. Dozens were wounded in the attack, including two Israeli tourists who sustained serious injuries.

It was the deadliest IS-inspired assault on US soil in years, laying bare what federal officials have warned is a resurgent threat of international terrorism. That threat is emerging as the FBI and other agencies brace for dramatic leadership upheaval after the administration of US President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

Seeking to assuage concerns about any broader plots, Raia stressed that there was no indication of a connection between the New Orleans attack and a Tesla Cybertruck explosion Wednesday outside the Las Vegas location of the Trump hotel chain.

The FBI continued to hunt for clues, but said that 24 hours into its investigation, it was now confident that the 42-year-old Jabbar was not aided by anyone else in the attack.

Officials have reviewed surveillance video showing people standing near an improvised explosive device that Jabbar placed in a cooler along the city’s Bourbon Street, where the attack occurred, but authorities “do not believe at this point these people are involved … in any way,” Raia said.

Investigators were also trying to understand more about Jabbar’s path to radicalization, which they say culminated with him picking up a rented truck in Houston, Texas, on December 30, and driving it to New Orleans the following night.

The FBI recovered a black Islamic State flag from his rented pickup and reviewed five videos posted to Facebook, including one in which he said he originally planned to harm his family and friends, but was concerned that news headlines would not focus on the “war between the believers and the disbelievers,” Raia said. He also left a last will and testament, the FBI said.

Jabbar joined the Army in 2007, serving on active duty in human resources and information technology and deploying to Afghanistan from 2009 to 2010, the service said. He transferred to the Army Reserve in 2015 and left in 2020 with the rank of staff sergeant.

Abdur-Rahim Jabbar, Jabbar’s younger brother, told The Associated Press on Thursday that it “doesn’t feel real” that his brother could have done this.

“I never would have thought it’d be him,” he said. “It’s completely unlike him.”

He said that his brother had been isolated in the last few years, but that he had also been in touch with him and he didn’t see any signs of radicalization.

The IDF now says it downed the missile fired from Yemen.

The military adds that it’s looking into reports that missile debris fell near the central city of Modiin.

There is no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which occurred shortly after 4:30 a.m., waking millions of people and sending them scrambling to air raid shelters.

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have launched missiles and drones at Israel nearly every day in recent weeks.

Israel on Wednesday took responsibility for a commando raid against an Iranian missile manufacturing site deep in Syria in September, an operation already widely attributed to the Israel Defense Forces.

The revelation of the raid, dubbed internally by the military “Operation Deep Layer,” came weeks after the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria, which was closely aligned with Iran. Assad had allowed Iran to use Syria to manufacture and deliver weapons to the Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon.

Members of the Israeli Air Force’s elite Shaldag unit raided the Scientific Studies and Research Center, known as CERS or SSRC, in the Masyaf area on September 8, to demolish an underground facility used by Iranian forces to manufacture precision missiles for Hezbollah.

The site lies more than 200 kilometers (124 miles) north of Israel, though only about 45 kilometers (28 miles) from Syria’s western coastline.

The IDF had been monitoring the site for more than five years, targeting its facilities numerous times, although it identified that the airstrikes were not sufficient to target some of the underground infrastructure established by the Iranians at CERS.

During the September 8 raid, IAF commandos reportedly rappelled down from helicopters and raided CERS, killing the few guards standing at the entrance to the site, before heading deep underground to the missile manufacturing facility.

The troops laid explosives inside the underground facility, before removing intelligence materials and documents and escaping unscathed.

The forces detonated remotely the underground site, along with the equipment inside used by Iran to manufacture missiles for Hezbollah.

According to some Israeli defense officials, the soldiers were on the ground for just over an hour.

As the helicopters were flying to the facility and during the raid, Israeli aircraft struck numerous targets in the surrounding area, including roads to the facility, reportedly killing at least 14 people and wounding 43.

The strikes were intended to both mask the approach of the helicopters and the ground operation, as well as prevent anyone from reaching the facility.

Israel had informed the US before the operation was slated to take place, and was not met with any resistance from the White House.

The details of the operation were first reported days after the raid by Middle East researcher Eva J. Koulouriotis, citing an unidentified security source. Later, the Axios news site and The New York Times published much of the same details, citing American and Western officials familiar with the operation.

The Masyaf area, west of Hama, was used as a base for Iranian forces and pro-Iranian militias and was repeatedly targeted by Israel in recent years. With the fall of the Assad regime in early December, Iranian forces withdrew from the site and Syria.

Western officials previously associated CERS with the manufacture of chemical arms. According to the United States, sarin gas was developed at the center, a charge denied by Assad regime authorities.

Israel has been carrying out airstrikes inside Syria since the outbreak of that country’s civil war in 2011, mainly targeting attempts to transfer weapons to Hezbollah or to keep Iranian fighters themselves from gaining a foothold near Israel’s border.

Following the fall of the Assad regime, the IAF carried out a major 48-hour bombing campaign in Syria, destroying most of the former regime’s military capabilities, in an effort to prevent advanced weaponry from falling into the hands of hostile elements.

Israel feared that the former Syrian army’s weapons could fall into the hands of hostile forces in the country, as well as the Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.

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Israeli Air Force (IAF) jets launched airstrikes on Thursday targeting a former Syrian military headquarters in Sasa, southwest of Damascus, near the Golan Heights, according to reports.

Saudi news outlet Al Arabiya reported that the strikes hit the headquarters of the Syrian Army’s 90th Brigade, a site known to host Iranian forces and terrorist proxies like Hezbollah. The base, one of the most critical armored brigades in Syria, reportedly housed anti-aircraft systems, electronic warfare equipment, Iranian Shahab missiles, and rocket launchers.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based war monitor, reported hearing “violent explosions” in the area following the strike.

In related developments, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar visited IDF soldiers stationed along the Syrian border. “The operations on the border are crucial to prevent threats to the communities in the Israeli Golan Heights,” Sa’ar said during his visit. He reaffirmed Israel’s commitment to national security, stating, “We will not allow another October 7th on any front.”

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For the UK Jewish Orthodox Community
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Erev Shabbos

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