Arabs in Kfar HaShiloach (Silwan or Siloam) threw rocks Thursday at the entourage of the Head of the Jewish Home party, Minister of Science and Technology Rabbi Prof. Daniel Hershkowitz. No one was hurt and no damage reported. The incident took place when Minister Hershkowitz toured Jewish neighborhoods in eastern Jerusalem, including Maaleh HaZeitim (Ras el Amoud) and Abu Dis. When the minister and his aides were inside the Jewish-owned Beit Yehonatan at Kfar HaShiloach, Arabs began hurling rocks at the building. The minister and his aides were not even aware of the attack until they were informed of it by the Border Police who guarded them. The police informed them that rocks were thrown, and later told them that they had apprehended several suspects. The minister had planned to ascend to the roof of Beit Yehonatan and view the neighborhood from there but that plan was canceled because of the attack. "I came to eastern Jerusalem in order to see from up close the numerous building infractions by the Arabs and to strengthen the Jews living here,” Hershkowitz stated. “We were robbed of the 'green lungs' at Kfar Silwan and Nachal Kidron by the Arabs' massive illegal construction and it is unacceptable that the only enforcement activity will be against one Jewish house.”
Syrian mediators reached an agreement Friday for the release of some 300 cement workers kidnapped by the Islamic State jihadist group, a monitor said, but it was unclear exactly how many were freed. ISIS abducted the employees on Monday from Al-Badia cement factory outside the town of Dmeir, around 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of Damascus. Local figures from Dmeir mediated a deal with ISIS on Friday to let the workers go free, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The Britain-based monitor said that in effect, some 170 workers would be freed as others had already managed to escape. The Observatory later said that most of those kidnapped had finally reached their homes late Friday. A military source told AFP that he saw dozens of cement workers pass through a nearby regime-held military airport. "I am all right. Daesh (ISIS) let me go today and I went to the Dmeir military airport for a debrief and questioning, and then I went home," one man who had been kidnapped told AFP . ISIS reportedly abducted the employees during a major offensive on Monday around Dmeir. The ISIS-affiliated Amaq news agency said in an online statement that it released about 300 of the workers, but that it would not free 20 men accused of belonging to a pro-government militia. The statement said four of the cement workers were executed for being Druze, an offshoot of Islam considered heretical by ISIS. "I heard that Daesh executed some Druze. My relative (there) is Druze and I'm scared that he's one of them. My mother is beside herself with worry and we're very afraid of receiving bad news," a Damascus resident told AFP . Dmeir is divided between ISIS control in the east and rebel control in the west, but several key positions around it, including the military air base and a power plant, remain in government hands. On Friday, warplanes carried out fresh strikes around the Dmeir military airport, the Observatory said. ISIS has carried out mass kidnappings in previous offensives. In January, it abducted more than 400 civilians, including women and children, as it overran parts of Deir Ezzor province in the east. In northeast Syria last year, ISIS kidnapped at least 220 Assyrian Christians, many of whom have since been released through local negotiations. AFP contributed this report.