Shooting at the D.C. Jewish Museum startled me. So did a shooting in Gilbert
I was struck and saddened by two horrific shooting deaths last week.
The first was the tragic killing of two Israeli embassy employees in Washington, D.C.
The second was much closer to home with the senseless death of Mr. Manuel Vega Lopez in Gilbert, Ariz.
This hardworking family man and landscaper from Chandler went to a Gilbert house as requested by a homeowner to trim a tree.
Opinion: An Arizona family is dead. Could they have been saved by better gun legislation?
A 28-year-old occupant of the home shot Mr. Vega dead in the middle of the day, apparently thinking Mr. Vega was a vandal.
I have many questions about why the shooter (with his children and wife in the house) didn't call the police to handle the situation or didn't call his landlord before he shot Mr. Vega.
Opinion: When will Arizona voters get wise to Arizona's sorry excuse for a Legislature?
Then I realized that the root cause of both these deaths was the readily available access to guns that we refuse to stop in America.
The tragedies pile up and the damage rips apart the fabric of many families, as we slide slowly into a lawless society.
If only we could end our worship of guns.
Carol Mathis, Scottsdale
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Israeli Embassy workers and AZ landscaper didn't have to die | Letter
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Chicago Tribune
3 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
Israeli military kills at least 95 people in Gaza as the body of a Thai hostage is recovered
TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel said Saturday it retrieved the body of a Thai hostage abducted into the Gaza Strip during the Hamas-led attack that sparked the war, as Israel's military continued its offensive, killing at least 95 people in the past 24 hours, according to Gaza's health ministry. Nattapong Pinta had come to Israel to work in agriculture. Israel's government said he was seized from Kibbutz Nir Oz and killed early in the war, which began on Oct. 7, 2023. Thailand's foreign ministry said the bodies of two other citizens were yet to be retrieved. Thais were the largest group of foreigners held captive. Many lived on the outskirts of southern Israeli kibbutzim and towns, the first places overrun in the attack. Forty-six Thais have been killed during the war, according to the foreign ministry. Israel's defense minister said Pinta's body was retrieved from the Rafah area in southern Gaza. The army said he was seized by the Mujahideen Brigades, the small armed group that also took two Israeli-American hostages, Judih Weinstein and Gad Haggai, whose bodies were retrievedon Thursday. Israel's military later said it killed the head of the Mujahideen Brigades, As'ad Aby Sharaiya, in Gaza City on Saturday. Fifty-five hostages remain in Gaza. Israel says more than half are dead. Families rallied again Saturday evening in Israel, calling for a ceasefire deal to bring everyone home. Hamas issued an unusual warning about another hostage, Matan Zangauker, saying Israel's military had surrounded the area where he's held and that any harm that came to him during a rescue attempt would be Israel's responsibility. Israel's military didn't immediately comment. 'The decision to expand the (military) ground maneuver is at the cost of Matan's life and the lives of all the hostages,' Zangauker's mother, Einav, told the rally in Tel Aviv. A strike in Gaza City killed six members of a family, including two children, according to the Shifa and al-Ahli hospitals. Israel's military said the strike targeted the Mujahideen Brigades leader. 'This is the real destruction,' a man said as he carried the body of a small boy from the scene. Four Israeli strikes hit the Muwasi area in southern Gaza between Rafah and Khan Younis. In northern Gaza, a strike hit an apartment, killing seven people including a mother and five children. Their bodies were taken to Shifa hospital. 'Stand up, my love,' one weeping woman said, touching the shrouded bodies. Israel said it was responding to Hamas' 'barbaric attacks' and dismantling its capabilities. It said it takes all feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm. Staff at Nasser hospital, which received the bodies of six people over the past 24 hours, said they were killed while on their way to get food aid. Much of Gaza's population of over 2 million relies on aid after widespread destruction of agriculture as well as a recent Israeli blockade. Experts have warned of famine. Israel's army has warned that the aid distribution area is an active combat zone during nighttime hours. It said several suspects attempted to approach troops operating in the Tel al-Sultan area overnight 'in a manner that posed a threat.' The army said troops called out, then fired warning shots as the suspects advanced. An army official who couldn't be named in line with military procedures said the shots were fired about a half-mile from the distribution site. Over the past two weeks, shootings have occurred frequently near the new hubs where thousands of desperate Palestinians are being directed to collect food. Witnesses say nearby Israeli troops have opened fire, and more than 80 people have been killed, according to Gaza hospital officials. Israel's military has said it fired warning shots or, in some instances, at individuals approaching. The hubs are run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a new group of mainly American contractors. Israel wants it to replace a system coordinated by the United Nations and aid groups. A GHF spokesperson, speaking on condition of anonymity in accordance with the group's rules, said it didn't feed Gaza residents on Saturday and blamed Hamas threats. There was no immediate Hamas response. Israel accuses Hamas of siphoning off aid under the U.N.-led system. The U.N. and aid groups deny there's significant diversion of aid to fighters and say the new system — which they have rejected — allows Israel to use food as a weapon, violates humanitarian principles and won't be effective. The U.N says it has been unable to distribute much aid under its system because of Israeli military restrictions on movements and insecurity. Separately, Palestinians lined up at a soup kitchen in Gaza City for handouts on the second day of Eid al-Adha. 'I have been standing here for more than an hour and a half. I feel I have a sunstroke, and I am in need,' said Farida al-Sayed, who said she had six people to feed. 'I only had lentils, and I ran out of them.' Hamas-led fighters killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7 attack and abducted 251 hostages. Most were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Israeli forces have rescued eight living hostages and recovered dozens of bodies. Israel's military campaign has killed more than 54,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's health ministry, which doesn't distinguish between civilians and combatants. The offensive has destroyed large parts of Hamas-run Gaza and displaced around 90% of its population of roughly 2 million Palestinians.
New York Post
5 hours ago
- New York Post
IDF airstrike kills head of Palestinian jihadist group that helped Hamas kidnap, murder on Oct. 7
The leader of a brutal Palestinian jihadist group responsible for the kidnappings and cold-blooded murders of the Bibas family and an Israeli-American couple was killed in an airstrike, the Israel Defense Forces announced Saturday. Asaad Abu Sharia, head of the Mujahideen Brigades, was killed in a joint operation carried out in Gaza City on Saturday by the IDF and the Shin Bet, Israel's internal security agency, the groups announced in a joint statement posted on Telegram. 6 The IDF and the Shin Bet announced Saturday that they killed Mujahideen Brigades leader Asaad Abu Sharia. IDF/Telegram 6 Another high-ranking leader of the group, Mahmoud Kaheel, was killed in a separate airstrike. IDF/Telegram 'During the war, the organization he led was involved in instigating terrorist attacks against Israel and fighting against IDF forces operating in the Gaza Strip,' the statement read. Another high-ranking leader of the group, Mahmoud Kaheel, was killed in a separate attack, officials confirmed. 'The terrorists of the [Mujahideen] organization took a significant part in the murderous massacre on October 7, and were complicit in the kidnapping and murder,' they added. During the deadly 2023 attack on Israel, the group aided Hamas by raiding the Nir Oz kibbutz, which was home to Shiri Bibas and her two sons, Ariel and Kfir, American-Israeli couple Gadi Hagai and Judy Lynn Weinstein, and Thai national Nattapong Pinta. 6 Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas were kidnapped from their home during the Oct. 7 terrorist attack. Yifat Zailer / Facebook The Bibas' remains were handed over to Israel in February and Hagai's and Weinstein's bodies were recovered just this week by the IDF and Shin Bet. The remains of Pinta, 36, who had arrived to work on the kibbutz a year and a half prior to the attack, were recovered from Mujahideen Saturday in the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, also as part of the special joint operation, Defense Minister Israel Katz said. Pinta, like the other Nir Oz victims, is believed to have been killed in the early days of the war. 6 Nattapong Pinta was working on a kibbutz during the Oct. 7 attacks, sending money home to his family in Thailand. AP In total, 47 people were killed on the kibbutz during the onslaught and 76 were abducted — only four of whom are presumed alive. The bodies of seven captives from Nir Oz remain in the Strip, according to reports. Pinta, who had been working on avocado and pomegranate farms before being take captive, had been sending his earnings to his wife and young son back in Thailand in the hopes of helping her open a coffee shop, the Times of Israel reported. The father was one of 46 Thais who were killed while working in Israel. 6 Israeli soldiers deployed during an army operation in the West Bank city of Nablus in late May. ALAA BADARNEH/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock Fifty-five hostages remain in capticity in Gaza, but only 20 are believed to be alive. The IDF and the Shin Bet vowed Saturday to 'to locate and thwart all terrorists … who took part in the murderous massacre on October 7 and in holding Israeli hostages captive.' In recent weeks, Israel has expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip and announced Saturday that it had uncovered an underground tunnel route, including a command and control center run by Hamas under a European Hospital compound. 6 The IDF retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday. AFP via Getty Images And with a concerns growing in the region over a humanitarian crisis, the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation was forced to suspend operations on Saturday due to 'direct threats against GHF operations' by Hamas, according to reports. 'Hamas is the reason hundreds of thousands of hungry Gazans were not fed today,' the GHF said in a statement. With Post wires
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
Israeli woman missing in Crete, Greece, searches ongoing
Michal Peleg, 65, was last seen on Wednesday near her home in the village of Kavousi, a popular destination in eastern Crete known for hiking trails. An Israeli woman has been missing for three days on theGreek island of Crete, and local police, together with volunteers, are conducting a search operation. A professional Israeli search and rescue team is also en route to assist. Michal Peleg, 65, was last seen on Wednesday near her home in the village of Kavousi, a popular destination in eastern Crete known for hiking trails. According to her family, Peleg often goes for walks in the area and swims at a nearby beach. A rescue team from Harel Insurance's unit, with which Peleg is insured, is scheduled to arrive in Crete on Saturday. The team includes three Israeli rescuers. The Foreign Ministry said its Department for Israelis in Distress Abroad, together with the Israeli Embassy in Greece, is assisting in the search. 'Representatives from the Foreign Ministry are in constant contact with the family of the missing woman, as well as with Interpol, the insurance company's rescue team, and local police who have deployed search teams,' the ministry said. 'We hope the missing woman is found safe and sound as soon as possible.' Daniel Krasso, a member of the Harel 669 rescue team, said: 'On Friday evening, we received a request to locate a Harel insured who is missing in Crete. Accordingly, we immediately activated local search teams with the assistance of local police. At the same time, we prepared to dispatch a rescue team from Harel 669, consisting of three Israeli rescuers, to assist in locating the missing person.' He added that Harel 669 is coordinating with foot search teams, drones, and other technological tools to aid in the effort. 'We are in constant and direct contact with the insured's family and the Israeli Foreign Ministry,' Krasso said.
