Jun 21, 2017 4:49 PM Trump’s senior adviser Jared Kushner will fly back to U.S. after meeting Palestinian President Abbas in Ramallah Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law, at his Jerusalem office on Wednesday to discuss American efforts to resume the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. Trump’s envoy Jason Greenblatt and the U.S. ambassador, David Friedman, also attended the meeting, along with Israel’s ambassador in Washington, Ron Dermer, and Netanyahu’s adviser Isaac Molho. After meeting Netanyahu, Kushner’s 15-hour visit to the region will conclude with a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, after which he will fly back to Washington. Earlier, Kushner and Friedman visited with the family of Hadas Malka, a Border Patrol officer who was killed by Palestinian assailants in an attack in Jerusalem on Friday. According to a source briefed on the visit, Kushner conveyed Trump’s condolences to the family. During the visit, which lasted half an hour, Kushner and Friedman lit a candle at a memorial site erected for Malka in Ezer, where she lived.

Yazidi fighters gather on the summit of Mount Sinjar as they head to battle ISIS militants, in Iraq, Dec. 21, 2014. Photo by AP An official in a militia organized by Iraq’s Yazidi minority has issued a public call for Israeli assistance. Lt. Col. Lukman Ibrahim, speaking to Al-Monitor, said the militia needs weapons and aid, and would like Israeli assistance so it can fight Islamic State, or ISIS. He said the Yazidis support Israel and fight similar enemies. Israel has yet to respond to the Yazidi request. The militia, with 12,000 members, was organized in August to defend against ISIS, which has persecuted and killed the minority since capturing Yazidi cities last year. Most of the fighters are untrained. “We appeal to the Israeli government and its leader to step in and help this nation, which loves the Jewish people,” Ibrahim was quoted as saying by Al-Monitor. “We would be most grateful for the establishment of military ties — for instance, the training of fighters and the formation of joint teams. We are well aware of the circumstances the Israelis are in, and of the suffering they have endured at the hands of the Arabs ever since the establishment of their state. We, too, are suffering on account of them.” A Yazidi doctor who lives in Germany said that Yazidis and Jews can also find common ground in both being victims of genocide. “What happened to us is the biggest genocide since the Holocaust of the Jews in Europe,” said Dr. Mirza Dinnay, a pediatrician, told Al-Monitor. “In the Holocaust, the goal was to annihilate an entire people, the Jews. IS has a similar plan — to exterminate an entire people, the Yazidis.”

Jerusalem (CNN)The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has said that it wants to de-escalate hostilities on the Israeli-Lebanon border, a day after fighting left two Israeli soldiers and a Spanish peacekeeper dead, Israel’s defense minister said Thursday. Watch the video report here Hezbollah sent the message through intermediaries, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon told Israel’s Army Radio. “There are nonofficial channels between us and Lebanon to communicate through UNIFIL (United Nations peacekeepers in Lebanon), and indeed a message like that was received from Lebanon,” Yaalon said. On Wednesday, Hezbollah fired five antitank missiles at Israeli military vehicles in the disputed Shebaa Farms area, killing an officer and a soldier, the Israeli military said. Sgt. Dor Chaim Nini was 20; Capt. Yochai Kalangel was 25, Israel Defense Forces said.  Smoke from an Israeli shelling rises over Al-Majidiyah, Lebanon, on January 28. The attack took place near Shebaa Farms, also known as Har Dov, a disputed strip of land between Lebanon and Syria adjoining the Golan Heights, under Israeli control. Seven Israeli soldiers were injured, two of them moderately, the Israeli military said. Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the attack.