Erev Shabbos 28 Tishrei – Anti-Israel Greens’ Chief Polanski Loses UK Parliamentary Election – Stun Grenades and Batons as Peleg Protests Block Yerushalayim and Bnei Brak – Israel Shuts British Consulate in Yerushalayim & more…

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Police used stun grenades, batons and mounted officers on Thursday afternoon as Peleg Yerushalmi protesters blocked main roads in Yerushalayim and Bnei Brak over the arrests of bnei yeshivah.

The protests, called by Harav Azriel Auerbach, began at 4pm. In Yerushalayim, hundreds blocked the city entrance at Gesher HaMeitarim, disrupting the light rail. In Bnei Brak, protesters sat on Route 4 near the Coca-Cola bridge, closing it in both directions.

Video showed a policewoman pulling a protester’s tzitzis until they tore, and an officer throwing a stun grenade directly at a protester. A bachur holding onto a car fell to the road as the driver pulled away, and was taken to Shaare Zedek with light injuries. Police said he had held onto the vehicle of his own accord.

At least three people were arrested, with some reports saying four. The roads reopened at about 6.30pm.

Police Commissioner Danny Levy said: “Protest is a right, disrupting public order is not.”

The IDF said earlier that several bnei yeshivah had been arrested overnight. Crowds have prevented other arrests this week in Modi’in and Dimona.

Separately, a video showed Harav Elya Brudny praising a Lev L’Achim bachur who was jailed for refusing to enlist.

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani has refused to back down from his October 7 anniversary statement accusing Israel of genocide, repeating the charge six times at a press conference on Thursday.

On Wednesday, Mamdani marked three years since the massacre by describing “the horrific war crimes of October 7”, before accusing the Israeli government of an “ongoing genocide in Gaza”.

That evening he attended a vigil in Union Square organised by the left-wing group Israelis for Peace. Several hundred anti-Zionist protesters overran the site, chanting “Traitor, traitor, come on out” and “Long live Hamas”. Some grabbed candles and mockingly sang Hava Nagila.

Asked about the backlash, Mamdani said: “As for those protesting me, I am the mayor of New York City and this is what I signed up for.” He declined to say whether he would change the statement.

UJA-Federation of New York said the statement put “Jewish New Yorkers at risk”. Congressman Dan Goldman called it “reprehensible”, while the city’s Jewish Community Relations Council said the mayor “continues to fall short”.

Andy Burnham’s Labour Party won an election for the parliamentary seat vacated by former leader Keir Starmer on Friday, fending off a strong challenge from the left-wing Green Party chief, Zack Polanski, in a boost for the British prime minister.

Labour candidate Sagal Abdi-Wali, the leader of the local council, won the by-election in the central London constituency of Holborn and St Pancras with 12,292 votes, or 45%, compared with 8,928 or 33% for Polanski, the Green Party leader.

Labour had been widely expected to hold the seat, as Burnham seeks to repair his party’s damaged appeal among core voters in big cities after two bruising years in government under Starmer.
The result is a blow to Polanski, a Jewish, anti-Israel 43-year-old former actor and hypnotherapist, who has promised to make his party “an eco-populist” movement and draw support away from Labour — a strategy that had been working until Burnham came to power.

Two Latvian men have been arrested under the National Security Act after being found inside the perimeter of RAF Molesworth in Cambridgeshire, which hosts US and NATO intelligence centres.

Ministry of Defence Police found an abandoned vehicle near the base on Wednesday evening. A search uncovered a small breach in the fence, and the men, aged 36 and 32, who live in the UK, were found inside.

They were first held on suspicion of trespass and criminal damage, then further arrested for entering a prohibited place for a purpose prejudicial to the UK. Both remain in custody, and two addresses in the Peterborough area are being searched. Explosives officers checked the vehicle and found “nothing of concern”.

Counter Terrorism Policing said there was nothing to suggest a link to last month’s incident at RAF Fairford.

Separately, a 22-year-old man arrested in Westminster on Tuesday over the alleged Fairford plot has been released on bail. All seven suspects in that case are now on bail, and none has been charged. Police found petrol in three vans near the Gloucestershire base, which US bombers used for strikes on Iran. Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said there are “strong indications” of Iranian involvement.

A Russian guided bomb struck two passenger buses in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, on Thursday morning, killing at least 33 people and injuring 18, according to Ukraine’s emergency service.

Both buses caught fire. All public transport in Kramatorsk and nearby Sloviansk has been halted. President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that the toll may rise, saying: “This strike will not go without our response.” Russia also launched 142 drones overnight.

Zelensky visited Pryluky with Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, where a missile struck an apartment block on Wednesday, killing 22 people, including five children. Miliband called it “clearly a war crime” and announced 38 new sanctions, including on the oil companies Zarubezhneft and INK Capital, 12 shadow-fleet tankers and three crypto exchanges.

“Russia could end this war tomorrow,” Miliband said. “You cannot wait us out.”

In Pryluky, Chabad shliach Rabbi Yisrael Silberstein reported that the blast badly damaged the flats of Jewish families in two neighbouring buildings. One family was away, and a Jewish resident who was at home was unhurt. The town has about 250 Jews.

US President Donald Trump has said America will not attack Iran before the midterm elections on 3 November, citing “productive discussions” with the Islamic Republic.

In a post on Truth Social on Thursday, Trump said Iran was “in very bad condition, both Economically and Militarily” and that the US blockade would stay “in full force and effect”, but added: “We will not be attacking Iran at any time prior to the Midterm Elections.” He also wrote: “IRAN WILL NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!”

The announcement came a day after Axios reported that the Pentagon had told US Central Command to finish preparing to resume major combat operations.

Israel’s Channel 12 reported that US officers told IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir on Tuesday to prepare for “a massive attack on Iran within the next three weeks”, and that Zamir warned such a strike could lead to Israel’s 27 October election being postponed. The IDF declined to comment.

Also on Thursday, the US Treasury sanctioned 17 more vessels carrying Iranian oil. Iran’s nuclear chief, Mohammad Eslami, said Iran would not give up enrichment or hand over its uranium.

Secondary school pupils across France staged a fourth day of protests and blockades on Thursday, with burning bins and barricades outside schools and a rally in Paris.

Authorities say 375 schools were fully or partly closed, and about two dozen have been burned or destroyed. More than 6,600 people, mostly minors, have been arrested since the protests began.

Pupils are protesting over teacher shortages, absent teachers not being replaced, overcrowded classes, run-down buildings and long school days. The protests began on 21 September at a school in a deprived area of Paris.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez has suspended police use of stun grenades at pupils’ protests after a 15-year-old lost a hand on Monday. “I am suspending their use in the high school student protests until the facts of the incident have been clarified,” he said. Eighteen internal police investigations are under way.

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has promised a plan by the end of October and condemned “political leaders who use this anger to conduct their electoral battles”. Education Minister Édouard Geffray has announced an emergency plan to tackle teacher absences.

Britain’s consulate in Yerushalayim stopped operating as a consulate on Thursday after nearly 200 years, following an order by Israel.

As Israel’s 30-day deadline expired, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said the consul general and 19 diplomats would leave Israel, with seven allowed to stay on with “a very limited scope of activity”. Workers removed the “British Consulate General” plaque from the building in Sheikh Jarrah overnight.

“We did not want to reach this point, but the actions of the UK Labour Government brought us here,” Sa’ar said.

Israel acted in response to a series of British measures, including a ban on trade with settlements in Yehudah and Shomron, sanctions on settlers, curbs on some arms exports, and British claims of “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians.

Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said Britain does not accept that Israel has “the legal right to close the British Consulate General”. He said the building will stay open as the “UK Mission, Jerusalem”, serving Palestinians, and that Britain will not retaliate while talks continue.

The British Embassy in Tel Aviv is not affected.

Hadash MK Ofer Cassif was convicted on Thursday of aggravated assault on a police officer, less than three weeks before Israel’s general election.

The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court found it “proved beyond all reasonable doubt” that Cassif drove his car into a Border Police officer and then struck him on the head with an open hand. The incident took place in May 2022 at a protest in the southern Hebron hills, after the officer stopped Cassif from driving into a closed military zone.

The court rejected his claims of accident, self-defence and selective enforcement, and ruled that his parliamentary immunity did not allow him to “endanger people or obstruct police officers by driving a vehicle”.

The offence carries a minimum of three months in prison and a maximum of five years. Sentencing is set for January. The court has not yet ruled on moral turpitude, which could cost Cassif his seat. For now, he remains an MK and can run in the 27 October election.

Cassif called the verdict “open political persecution” and said he would appeal.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said: “Anyone who raises a hand against a police officer will face a determined and uncompromising police force.”

A senior US official has said Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has not been “a cooperative partner” in the US-led effort to rebuild Gaza, the Washington Post reported on Thursday.

“He has done a number of things to aggravate the situation,” the official said, pointing to the IDF’s advance, which has taken a further 10 per cent of the Strip beyond the 2025 ceasefire lines.

President Trump’s plan for Gaza has largely stalled amid disagreements over how, and in what order, Hamas disarms and Israel withdraws. Israeli leaders have repeatedly said no rebuilding can begin before Hamas disarms.

Separately, the New York Times reported that David Milstein, a senior adviser to US Ambassador Mike Huckabee, blocked, rewrote or held back embassy reports critical of Israel, including reports on settlement building and settler violence in Yehudah and Shomron. The paper said it spoke to 15 US officials.

Huckabee said he “personally and categorically” refutes the report, which he said was “so lacking in fact that it ranks up with other Times farcical endeavors”.