Sydney caravan a ‘fake terrorism plot' and antisemitic attacks a scheme to divert police resources, authorities allege
The Australian federal police deputy commissioner Krissy Barrett said on Monday investigators now believed the caravan incident was concocted by criminals who wanted to cause fear for personal benefit.
'We are now confident these tip-offs were fabricated and the caravan plot was an elaborate scheme contrived by organised criminals domestically and from offshore,' Barrett said.
'This twisted self-serving criminality has terrorised Australians. What organised crime has [allegedly] done to the Jewish community is reprehensible and it won't go without consequences.'
The NSW police deputy commissioner David Hudson said Strike Force Pearl officers conducted 11 search warrants on Monday and arrested a further 14 people as part of their investigations into antisemitic attacks across Sydney. None of those arrested were directly linked to the 'caravan job', he said.
The deputy commissioner said 'organised crime elements' were behind the attacks to 'further their own causes'. None of those arrested had displayed any antisemitic ideology, Hudson alleged.
The same person or persons was pulling the strings for both the antisemitic attacks and the caravan incident to divert police resources so they could continue their criminal activity more easily, Huson alleged.
A couple allegedly named on a police warrant as part of the investigation into the caravan was previously charged in relation to a separate alleged arson and graffiti attack in Sydney's east.
NSW police in mid-February charged Scott Marshall, 36, over an incident in Woollahra on 11 December last year when an allegedly stolen car was set alight and anti-Israel graffiti was painted on cars, buildings and a footpath.
Marshall's partner, Tammie Farrugia, 34, was charged in mid-January in relation to the Woollahra incident. She was accused of participating in a criminal group and damaging property.
Marshall was arrested in Parklea prison last month – where he was being held on remand on unrelated charges – and charged with allegedly participating in a criminal group to contribute to criminal activity; destroying or damaging property as an accessory before the fact; and taking and driving a vehicle without the consent of the owner.
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NSW police allege Marshall and Farrugia were 'involved in preparing' the car and jerry cans ahead of the Woollahra attack.
The head of Strike Force Pearl told reporters in mid-February that the alleged 'principal offenders' behind the 11 December incident had not been arrested.
Neither Faruggia nor Marshall have been charged in relation to the caravan and Guardian Australia does not suggest any wrongdoing on their part.
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The Independent
4 hours ago
- The Independent
Gaza aid truck drivers face increasing danger from desperate crowds and armed gangs
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Though aid groups say it's still not enough, getting even that amount from the border crossings to the people who need it is difficult and extremely dangerous, the drivers said. Driving aid trucks can be deadly Thousands of people packed around the road Monday as two trucks entered southern Gaza, AP video showed. Young men overwhelmed the trucks, standing on the cabs' roofs, dangling from the sides and clambering over each other onto the truck beds to grab boxes even as the trucks slowly kept driving. 'Some of my drivers are scared to go transfer aid because they're concerned about how they'll untangle themselves from large crowds of people,' said Abu Khaled Selim, vice president of the Special Transport Association, a nonprofit group that works with private transportation companies across the Gaza Strip and advocates for truck drivers' rights. Selim said his nephew, Ashraf Selim, a father of eight, was killed July 29 by a stray bullet when Israeli forces opened fire on crowds climbing onto the aid truck he was driving. Shifa Hospital officials said they received his body with an apparent gunshot to the head. The Israeli military said it was unaware of the incident and that 'as a rule" it does not carry out deliberate attacks on aid trucks. Earlier in the war, aid deliveries were safer because, with more food getting into Gaza, the population was less desperate. Hamas-run police had been seen securing convoys and went after suspected looters and merchants who resold aid at exorbitant prices, Now, 'with the situation unsecured, everything is permissible,' said Selim, who appealed for protection so the aid trucks could reach warehouses. The U.N. does not accept protection from Israeli forces, saying it would violate its rules of neutrality, and said that given the urgent need for aid it would accept that hungry people were going to grab food off the back of the trucks as long as they weren't violent. Flooding Gaza with renewed aid would ease the desperation and make things safer for the drivers, said Juliette Touma, communications director at UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees. The danger for drivers is growing Ali al-Derbashi, 22, was an aid truck driver for more than a year and a half, but he quit after his last trip three weeks ago because of the increasing danger, he said. Some people taking aid off the trucks are now carrying cleavers, knives and axes, he said. He was once ambushed and forcibly redirected to an area designated by Israel as a conflict zone in its war against Hamas. There everything was stolen, including his truck's fuel and batteries, and his tires were shot out, he said. He was beaten and his phone was stolen. 'We put our lives in danger for this. We leave our families for two or three days every time. And we don't even have water or food ourselves,' he said. In addition to the danger, the drivers faced humiliation from Israeli forces, he said, who put them through 'prolonged searches, unclear instructions, and hours of waiting.' The war began Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 others. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, according to the latest figures by Gaza's Health Ministry, which doesn't distinguish between militants and civilians and operates under the Hamas government. The threats come from everywhere Nahed Sheheibr, head of the Special Transport Association, said the danger for the drivers comes from everywhere. He accused Israel of detaining drivers and using them as human shields. The Israeli military did not comment on the accusation. In recent days, men linked to a violent Gaza clan fired at drivers, injuring one, and looted a convoy of 14 trucks, he said. They later looted a convoy of 10 trucks. Hossni al-Sharafi, who runs a trucking company and was an aid driver himself, said he is only allowed to use drivers who have no political affiliation and have been approved by Israel to transport aid from crossings. Al-Sharafi said he was detained by Israeli forces for more than 10 days last year while transporting aid from the southern Kerem Shalom crossing and interrogated about where the truck was headed and how the aid was being distributed. Israeli officials did not comment on the accusations. Some drivers spoke of being shot at repeatedly by armed gangs. Others said their trucks were routinely picked clean — even of the wooden pallets— by waves of desperate people, many of whom were fighting each other for the food, while Israeli troops were shooting. Hungry families who miss out on the aid throw stones at the trucks in anger. Anas Rabea said the moment he pulled out of the Zikkim crossing last week his aid truck was overwhelmed by a crowd. 'Our instructions are to stop, because we don't want to run anyone over,' he said. 'It's crazy. You have people climbing all over the cargo, over the windows. It's like you're blind, you can't see out.' After the crowd had stripped everything, he drove another few hundred meters and was stopped by an armed gang that threatened to shoot him. They searched the truck and took a bag of flour he had saved for himself, he said. 'Every time we go out, we get robbed," he said. "It's getting worse day by day.' ——- Associated Press writers Julia Frankel contributed to this report from Jerusalem and Sally Abou Aljoud from Beirut. Mariam Dagga contributed from Khan Younis, Gaza Strip.
The Independent
6 hours ago
- The Independent
Hunger-striking women demand Israel return the body of Palestinian activist killed in settler clash
Nearly two dozen Bedouin women, enrobed in black, sat on the floor of a modest hut that baked under the desert sun of the Israel i-occupied West Bank. The room was quiet, the women still. The women are on a hunger strike to call for Israeli authorities to release the body of a beloved community leader killed during a clash with a Jewish settler last week. They say they will continue until the man's remains are returned for burial in his hometown of Umm al-Khair. Witnesses said Awdah Al Hathaleen was shot and killed by a radical Israeli settler during a confrontation caught on video. Israeli authorities said they would only return the body if the family agrees to certain conditions that would 'prevent public disorder.' The villagers say those include limiting attendance for a funeral that would normally draw hundreds and burying him at night in a nearby city. 'We want him to be buried here in Umm al-Khair and have a respectable funeral without any conditions. 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Their story won an Oscar, but their suffering continues The plight of Palestinians in this area of the West Bank, known as Masafer Yatta, was featured in 'No Other Land,' an Oscar-winning documentary about settler violence and life under Israeli military rule. Al Hathaleen, a political activist and an English teacher, was a contributor to the film and close friend of its Palestinian co-directors. It documents life in a region where Jewish residents are building new settlements and expanding old ones on hilltops ringing Palestinian villages — all while Israeli military bulldozers arrive frequently to demolish Palestinian homes they say amount to illegal construction. Palestinians say its nearly impossible to secure Israeli permits to build on their lands. Four Palestinians have been killed by settlers this year, according to UN data. Witnesses said that the confrontation that led to Al Hathaleen's death began after settler excavators began digging on village land. 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BBC News
8 hours ago
- BBC News
Verifying video after deadly Russian strike on Ukraine transport hub
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