A senior Hezbollah commander responsible for a series of drone attacks across northern Israel since Oct. 7 was ironically taken out by a drone strike, according to reports.
Barji was believed to have been the mastermind behind the drone attacks that have plagued northern Israel since the Lebanese terrorists with Hezbollah launched their own assault on the Jewish state in solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza.
Those attacks included a strike against the Israel Defense Forces’ Northern Command headquarters in Safed on Tuesday — before Barji died the same day.
The key Israeli base was hit with an explosives-laden drone, with Hezbollah claiming responsibility for the attack in response to al-Tawil’s death Monday, as well as the killing of Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut last week.
The IDF said the attack on the Safed base triggered rocket sirens across multiple cities in northern Israel. The Israeli military said there were no casualties in Tuesday’s attacks.
The IDF did not comment on the drone strike that killed Barji.
But the Israeli military did acknowledge that it carried out a series of airstrikes against Hezbollah on Tuesday morning across southern Lebanon.
The IDF confirmed that a Hezbollah drone-launching squad was taken out before it could carry out its own attack against the Jewish state.
Along with Barji, Hezbollah confirmed that three other members were killed Tuesday when an Israeli airstrike hit a vehicle in the town of Ghandouriyeh, according to Reuters.
The Iranian-backed terror group identified the slain members as Sharif Sayyid Nasser, Issa Ali Nour a-Din and Hassan Abdel Hussein Ismail.
The footage, posted on CrownHeights.Info’s Instagram, leads viewers down stairs and through hallways to a dirt-filled room where a roughly 2-foot-by-2-foot grate has been removed from the wall of the building, which is adjacent to the Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters in Crown Heights.
The videographer then crawls through the hole, which leads to a 3-foot-high dirt tunnel that reportedly extends about 50 feet and around two corners to the headquarters’ location of its shuttered men’s ritual bath.
In the adjacent building’s dirt-filled room, clothes and other items can be seen scattered around, apparently left by the renegade diggers of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement.
The alleged rogue members of the movement advanced by the late Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson had reportedly been digging the tunnel under the 100-year-old synagogue for nearly a year.
The tunnel apparently was designed to reach the abandoned men’s mikvah — or ritual bath — around the corner to “expand” the synagogue, according to the Jewish outlet Forward.
The underground pathway was not discovered until last month, when neighbors reported suspicious noises coming from beneath their homes, Israel National News reported.
“Some time ago, a group of extremist students, broke through a few walls in adjacent properties to the synagogue at 784-788 Eastern Parkway, to provide them unauthorized access,” Rabbi Motti Seligson, spokesman for Chabad-Lubavitch, said in an emailed statement to The Post.
“Earlier today, a cement truck was brought in to repair those walls. Those efforts were disrupted by the extremists who broke through the wall to the synagogue, vandalizing the sanctuary, in an effort to preserve their unauthorized access.”
“They have since been arrested and the building closed pending a structural safety review.
“Lubavitch officials have attempted to gain proper control of the premises through the New York State court system; unfortunately, despite consistently prevailing in court, the process has dragged on for years,” Seligson said.
“This is, obviously, deeply distressing to the Lubavitch movement, and the Jewish community worldwide. We hope and pray to be able to expeditiously restore the sanctity and decorum of this holy place.”
Another statement from the headquarters added that “the group of young agitators” were “primarily in the U.S. on student visas.
“These individuals have been squatting in the synagogue and attempted to take control by demolishing walls to connect the basement to the adjacent building, intending to ‘expand’ the sanctuary,” it said.
“Steps are being taken to revoke their student visas and repatriate them to their countries of origin.”
After the tunnel’s discovery, the synagogue leadership called in structural engineers to assess the building damage, and on Monday, cement mixers arrived to fill it in, sparking a riot.
The group of renegade Orthodox Jewish men, thought to be mostly in their teens and early 20s, were filmed tearing down wood panels and wooden support beams as they desperately tried to get into their tunnel.
At least a dozen men were taken into custody, sources told The Post. Ten received criminal misdemeanor charges, another was charged with obstructing governmental administration, while one other received a summons for disorderly conduct, sources said.
No injuries were reported in the brawl.
The clash involves the headquarters and former home of Schneerson, a site that has been at the center of previous controversies.
A violent incident in 2004 over a plaque outside the building led to a lawsuit over who was the proper owner, and in 2006, a New York court gave control of the building to the Agudath Chaseidi Chabad.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued instructions this evening (Tuesday) not to demolish the homes of soldiers and reservists during wartime.
The Prime Minister's Office stated that to prevent a recurrence of incidents like today in Gush Etzion, Prime Minister Netanyahu ordered that as long as the war continues, the evacuation and demolition of the homes of soldiers and reservists of settlers in Judea and Samaria must be stopped.
Earlier today, Interior Minister Moshe Arbel contacted the legal advisor to the security system, attorney Itai Ofir, following the destruction of the houses, some of which belong to soldiers and reservists.
Arbel wrote, "This morning the Civil Administration, with the assistance of the Central Command and the police, evacuated and destroyed ten buildings in Pnei Kedem, claiming that these were built illegally. According to reports, the houses that were destroyed included two houses of reserve duty soldiers, who are currently serving the people of Israel and the citizens of Israel in the war in Gaza."
Arbel mentioned that "at the beginning of the war, the Land Enforcement Authority at the Ministry of Finance, responsible for fighting against illegal construction, with the consent of the Deputy Legal Adviser to the government, decided not to issue new orders, not to impose new fines, and not to take enforcement procedures during the war, even with regard to illegal buildings for which proceedings have been going on for a long time."
According to Arbel, "The decision was reached due both to the recruitment of hundreds of thousands of reservists who are unable these days to conduct a legal battle or settle their case with the Authority, and due to the needs of the Authority, many of whose employees have been recruited, as well as the prioritization of tasks which does not justify a focus at this time on taking draconian procedures against citizens, for not complying with the directives of planning and construction.”
In the letter, Minister Arbel claimed that "many of the residents of Pnei Kedem and other communities in Judea and Samaria are currently being recruited for a long and bloody war, that was launched by the murderous terrorist organization Hamas on October 7th. It is not reasonable that these soldiers, their family members or their neighbors, who also have relatives in the reserves, are among the hostages, murdered or evacuees, will now have to deal with the bureaucracy and regulations or worry that their homes will be destroyed."
In conclusion, the Minister wrote, "I demand that the enforcement on land be frozen until the end of the war, as has been done in other parts of the State of Israel, so should also be in Judea and Samaria. This is the most justified and appropriate solution during this period of time, also from a legal point of view, and there is no reason why it should not be adopted by the security establishment as well."
As reported a group of violent “Meshichist” Bochrim have taken full control of Chabad World Headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway, and smashed a wall down after digging an illegal tunnel to “expand the Bais HaMedrash”. When the NYPD arrived to make arrests, a brawl took place, as these Bochrim fought with the police.
Rabbi Chaim Dalfin, a respected author and historian, as well as a Lubavitcher Chosid made a video about the terrible Chillul Hashem which occurred at Chabad World headquarters, 770 Eastern Parkway, on Monday night:
“The fact that some Bochrim can do such things is because of the unfortunate Chinuch (education) that they got from youth. And the only ones who are to blame are their educators…and the other ones to blame are the leaders of our community are our Rbabonim, Meckaz Linyonei Chinuch…. they let people do what they want….. this is a result of a breakdown in leadership…..”
“Leadership…either you do what you need to, or get out of the kitchen! If it’s too hot in the kitchen, [get] out!…. you are not doing this properly… you are creating this monster. And if it means firing heads and getting new people, then so be it. If it means closing 770 for a week, Chas Vesholom, to get this all corrected, fine.”
General Yehuda Fuchs is a decorated IDF officer who has risen through the ranks to be the head of Central Command, which supervises the entire region of Judea and Samaria.
Fuchs has had significant success since Oct. 7th in maintaining security in the region by applying extreme pressure on terrorist enclaves and taking the battle to the towns where terror cells have been developing. With over 1200 arrests and some 300 terrorists killed in the region during this period, Fuchs has succeeded in containing the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist cells which had previously attacked settlers in a succession of severe attacks during 2023.
However Fuchs is not just a canny soldier but also a potential politician, and has been accused by settlers and right-wing politicians of using his position to implement his political views, which differ from those of the current government. Thus, Fuchs has been unilaterally undercutting official government policy by cutting down the number of forces allocated to the enforcement of Palestinian construction violations in Judea and Samaria, according to a Israel Hayom report last July. In this way Palestinians can and are paving the way for a future state via illegal land grabs in strategic regions of Judea and Samaria.
At the same time, Fuchs has been quick to crack down on illegal Jewish construction, razing a number of outposts even during the wartime period.
Fuch’s actions have not gone unnoticed. An article in the Washington Post called on President Biden to pay attention to the Israeli general who is quietly implementing the US policy of working towards a two-state solution.
In a particularly galling example of Fuch’s persecution of settlers, a Border Police force was sent to raze an outpost near Pnei Kedem east of Gush Etzion, claiming that the settlement was illegal. At the time, some members of the tiny settlement (6 families) were serving in reserve duty fighting for their country, but for some reason the Civil Administration chose this time to destroy their homes. One of the soldiers returned from a shift to find police destroying his home. All his attempts to enter and take some of his personal belongings were met with refusal from the police. “They’re treating me like Sinwar,” the soldier later said, although he reiterated that he would continue to fight for his country.
הלוחם שביתו נהרס ותועד מפונה על ידי השוטרים, ליד פני קדם במזרח גוש עציון, בהתייחסות ראשונה: pic.twitter.com/xNGt4VglYo
מאות שוטרים בהרס נרחב בגוש עציון: שישה בתים הוחרבו - ביניהם בתים של לוחמים במילואים
מאות שוטרי יס"מ ומג"ב מלווים בפקחי המנהל האזרחי וכלי הרס כבדים, פשטו סמוך לשעה 4 וחצי לפנות בוקר על מספר נקודות התיישבות הסמוכות לישוב פני קדם במזרח גוש עציון והחלו במסע הרס נרחב במקום. בנוסף… pic.twitter.com/Wglu0gOozd
BREAKING: Buses are now pulling up to @JMHSBklyn and dropping off illegals. School is closed tomorrow because illegals will be sleeping in the school’s gym. This is disgraceful! NYC is prioritizing illegals over Americans. pic.twitter.com/2jmKXfRTHXhttps://t.co/ViZiWlqTX5
