Hamas declares cease-fire with Israel
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Hamas has declared a ceasefire with Israel in the Gaza Strip, a Hamas spokesman said early today, after a day of violence that saw one Israeli soldier and four Palestinians killed.
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said on Twitter that an agreement with “the occupiers” [Israel] had been reached with assistance from Egypt and the United Nations.
An Israeli military spokesman said she could not discuss political matters, but said Israel was not currently conducting any attacks in Gaza.
Israel Defense Forces spokesman Jonathan Conricus said the military had attacked 60 targets since Friday, including three Hamas battalion headquarters.
The Israeli army said earlier that its airstrikes were in response to a shooting attack on its soldiers posted along the southern Gaza border, where Palestinian protesters had gathered along the fence.
Four Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire in the ensuing clashes, the Gaza Health Ministry said. According to Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, three of those killed were Hamas members.
Israel said one of its soldiers, who was wounded by the Palestinian gunfire at the border, later died.
Man stabs bus passengers in Germany
BERLIN — A man armed with a kitchen knife attacked passengers Friday on a crowded city bus in northern Germany before being overpowered and arrested, authorities said. Ten people were injured, three of them seriously.
Authorities had no immediate information on the assailant’s motive for the afternoon attack on a city bus in Luebeck, near the Baltic coast northeast of Hamburg, but said they had no indication that he was politically radicalized or had any terrorist background.
Investigators found a flammable substance in a backpack aboard the bus, but no explosives.
The incident started when the assailant set fire to the backpack, prosecutor Ulla Hingst said at a Friday evening news conference in Luebeck.
The driver told investigators that he stopped the bus and opened all the doors to let passengers out after noticing the fire in his rearview mirror.
He then walked back to find out what was going on and was hit by the assailant, Hingst said. As the suspect left the bus, he stabbed people around him with a 5-inch kitchen knife. The attacker was overpowered by passengers outside the vehicle, then quickly arrested.
French aide who hit protester to be fired
PARIS — After a day of intense pressure, the office of President Emmanuel Macron of France said Friday that it would fire the aide who was identified this week in a video that shows him hitting a protester during a demonstration in May.
But the announcement did little to quash the barrage of criticism directed at Macron in what could become the most serious crisis of his presidency since he was elected over a year ago.
The aide, Alexandre Benalla, 26, was identified Wednesday evening by the newspaper Le Monde in a video from May 1 that shows him wearing a riot police helmet as he violently grabs, drags and hits a man during a labor protest.
The decision to fire Benalla, who has been detained as part of an investigation into the matter, came after officials had initially suspended him without pay for 15 days and stripped him of his role organizing security for presidential trips, a punishment that critics said was too lenient.
On Friday, the Paris prosecutor’s office also announced that Benalla had been taken into custody for questioning.
Honduran bishop resigns; pope accepts
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis on Friday accepted the resignation of a Honduran bishop accused of sexual misconduct with seminarians, the latest in a series of high-ranking clergy implicated in sexual improprieties with adults under their authority.
Francis had ordered an investigation into the allegations against Tegucigalpa Auxiliary Bishop Juan Jose Pineda Fasquelle last year. On Friday, the Vatican said Francis had accepted Pineda’s resignation.
No explanation was given. At 57, Pineda is well below the normal retirement age of 75 for bishops.
Pineda was the top deputy to Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, one of Francis’ main cardinal advisers, and his downfall is a blow to the Honduran archbishop.
Maradiaga had frequently left the archdiocese in Pineda’s care due to his obligations as a member of Francis’ kitchen cabinet, and poor health that has forced him to seek medical treatment overseas.
The Vatican investigation had focused on both sexual misconduct allegations against Pineda and financial mismanagement charges against Maradiaga.