Archive for Israel News

Israel’s offshore gas-fields to be protected by ‘Barak-8 Dome’

 

Following third & final series of successful tests, Israel’s offshore gas interests will shortly receive the advanced Barak 8 missile defense system to counter all foreign threats.

By Raphael Poch

 

Head of the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) told Israeli press Wednesday that the newly developed ‘Barak 8’ system which will be installed on Israeli naval ships will be able to protect Israel’s offshore gas assets.

Test of Barak 8 Missile system

Test of Barak 8 Missile system – Photo: IDF Spokesperson’s Unit

Following the successful tests of the new system in India, Yossi Weiss, CEO of the IAI, said that part of the mission of the project is to protect the Israeli offshore gas assets. Continue Reading »

Hamas: Christian Celebration of New Year’s Eve is Totally Forbidden in Gaza Strip

 

In another blow to the dwindling Christian population in Gaza, a Hamas spokesman says New Year’s Eve celebrations (a.k.a. Saint Sylvester’s Day to the Catholic Church in many countries) will not be allowed because it is “contrary to our traditions and an imitation of the West.”

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH

 

Hamas has banned New Year’s Eve celebrations throughout the Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian sources.

Hamas against new years eve celebrations. – Photo: J’POST STAFF,REUTERS

The sources said that owners of restaurants and hotels in the Gaza Strip have been warned not to hold parties on this occasion.

RELATED:

Ayman Al-Batniji, spokesman for the Hamas police, expressed astonishment over the intention of some hotels and venues to hold parties on New Year’s Eve. Continue Reading »

India successfully tests jointly developed IAI’s Barak 8 missile

 

view videoWATCH TEST: The Israel Aerospace Industries long range surface-to-air Barak 8 missile system, jointly developed with India, is said to have cost $1.4 billion to develop, can intercept and eliminate aerial threats at extended ranges.

By Yoav Zitun, Reuters

 

India successfully test-fired on Wednesday the Barak 8, a new long range surface-to-air missile capable of countering aerial threats at extended ranges, which was jointly developed with Israel.

The Israeli Navy testing the Barak 8 system last month

The Israel Aerospace Industries, which held a successful test of the Barak 8 missile last month, said that the two tests held by the Indian Navy on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning complete a series of three consecutive tests which “reinforces the impressive operational capabilities of the system,” said IAI director Yossi Weiss. Continue Reading »

Jordanian authorities arrested shop owner for defiling Israeli flag

 

The Jordanian shop owner was charged with ‘insulting & injuring relations with a friendly country’ after painting an Israeli flag outside his store for customers to wipe their shoes on.

By Cynthia Blank

 

Jordanian authorities have arrested a shop owner from the northern city of Irbid after he painted an Israeli flag outside his store for customers to purposely step on upon entering.

Jordanians burn Israeli flag – Reuters

The purported idea behind the flag was to express hostility toward the Jewish state in solidarity with the the recent wave of Arab terror attacks against Israelis.

The owner of the shop, Abed al-Fattah Ja’roun, 60, was charged with disrupting relations with a friendly country. Continue Reading »

WSJ reports: Obama orders NSA to spy on Netanyahu

 

WSJ reports that under Obama’s direction NSA’s “targeting of Israeli leaders & officials also swept up the contents of some of their private conversations with US lawmakers & American-Jewish groups.”

By i24news

 

Fearing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is working to derail the nuclear deal with Iran, the White House has authorized the National Security Agency to monitor the leader’s communications, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

Obama & Netanyahu – Photo : REUTERS

The report detailing the minutiae of NSA’s snooping and once more propelling into the spotlight Washington’s mistrust of the hawkish Israeli premier could usher in a new crisis in the already tense relations between Netanyahu and President Barack Obama’s administration. Continue Reading »

Jerusalem District Court Rejects Police Restrictions On Jews Raising Hands On Temple Mount

 

After Yehuda Etzion, a Temple Mount activist was barred from Judaism’s holiest site by local police because he happened to raise his hands as if ‘in prayer’, Jerusalem Court ruled that prohibiting such innocent gestures will lead to ‘slippery slope.’

By Roi Yanovsky

 

The Jerusalem District Court accepted Monday the appeal of the Temple Mount activist Yehuda Etzion, and in canceling his expulsion from the holy site ruled that it was permitted to raise one’s hands while visiting there.

Temple Mount activist Yehuda Etzion on the Temple Mount – Photo: Honenu

Etzion was barred from entering the Temple Mount last week on suspicion of violating the rules as he raised his hands as if in prayer. Continue Reading »

Fatah, headed by Mahmoud Abbas urges Arab children to ‘water the ground with (Jewish) blood’

 

No condemnations from the EU, UN or US as a new Palestinian initiative of incitement saturates social media via Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction, PA Security Force spokesperson (who’s also under the authority of Abbas), and from other Palestinians demanding more violence & bloodshed.

By Ari Yashar

 

Leading a new wave of incitement, Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction has called on Palestinian children to “water (the ground) with blood” to destroy Israel.

Security Forces official spokesperson Adnan Al-Damiri put a post on Facebook last week from the Fatah Shabiba youth movement addressed to Palestinian children, as translated and revealed by Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) on Tuesday. Continue Reading »

IDF Chief warns Nasrallah: ‘We’re ready’

 

view videoWATCH: IDF forms new elite brigade for northern border. Eizenkot, “We will change & evolve so the IDF can meet the challenges of the future.”

By Kobi Finkler

 

IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot sent a forceful message to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Monday during the Chief of Staff Prize of Excellence ceremony.

Certificates of merit were presented at the ceremony to the winning military units in various categories, including: brigades, battalions, reserve units, training units, combat support units and technology units.

“The importance of integration and unity within the IDF is reinforced these days, when we stand before a complex security reality,” Eizenkot asserted. Continue Reading »

Peace Now: Israel planning over 55,000 new homes around Jerusalem, E-1 areas

 

The Israeli organization claims one section of development east of Jerusalem would divide Arab continuity of the West Bank for a future Palestinian state.

By i24news

 

Israel is working to revive and extend plans for new Jewish settler homes in the E1 area of the West Bank, the Peace Now organization said Monday.

Jewish settlements in east Jerusalem — such as Har Homa which was originally built in the 1990s — are considered to be in breach of the Oslo accords by the Palestinians but not by Israel, which does not see east Jerusalem as occupied territory. – Photo: AHMAD GHARABLI /AFP/FILE

Peace Now is an Israeli organization that actively campaigns for a two-state agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. Continue Reading »

Since Pope Francis remains silent, Australian church rejects Muslim’s claim that Jesus was Palestinian

 

By JTA

 

Sydney- Jesus was not Palestinian, a major church denomination in Australia said after the Executive Council of Australian Jewry challenged an article in a political publication in which the birthplace of Jesus Christ was named as “Palestine.”

Visitors to the Palestinian territory were surprised to find Al-Quds University’s ‘martyr tree’ adorned with photos of the Palestinians killed in the commission of attacking Jews.

Continue Reading »

Ostrich nabbed for strolling Jerusalem streets

 

Jerusalem residents found the unaccompanied avian’s stroll highly amusing, with several of them taking pictures of, and with the ostrich, after she escaped from her owner’s home.

By Yael Freidson & Roi Yanovsky

 

Employees of Jerusalem’s veterinary service caught an ostrich that was walking freely through the Israeli capital’s Gilo neighborhood on Sunday afternoon. The Jerusalem Biblical Zoo checked and found that no ostriches were missing, meaning the bird must have escaped from a person who was privately raising it without reporting the fact to city authorities.

 

The ostrich in the streets of Jerusalem. – Photo: Shlomi Hazut

Jerusalem residents found the incident highly amusing, with several of them taking pictures of, and with, the ostrich. Continue Reading »

Israeli firm wins $70M Electronic Warfare system contract for IAF jets

 

The Israeli firm Elbit, will be providing Israel Air Force fighter-jets with advanced Electronic Warfare systems to dominate the skies & battlefields of the future.

By Arutz Sheva Staff

 

Leading Israeli defense firm Elbit Systems announced on Monday that it has been awarded a contract to supply advanced Electronic Warfare (EW) systems for Israeli fighter jets.

Israeli Air Force General Dynamics F-16B Netz – Wikimedia

 

The contract was awarded by the Directorate of Production and Procurement of the Israeli Defense Ministry, and is worth around $70 million.

Elbit will deliver the advanced systems over a five-year period, to be installed on all types of Israeli Air Force (IAF) fighter jets. Continue Reading »

Arab Media: Israel Air Force destroys 7 Hezbollah weapons caches on Syria-Lebanon border

 

Hezbollah denies Lebanese & Syrian media reports that the Israeli Air Force struck multiple Hezbollah positions north of the Qalamoun Mountains on the Syria-Lebanon border Saturday night.

By Israel Hayom

Arab media outlets said seven sites were targeted, and that considerable damage was noted in all of them. Some reports said the targets were Hezbollah weapon stockpiles, while others said the targets also included convoys traveling from Syria to Lebanon, believed to be en route to deliver long-range missiles to Hezbollah.

Israeli Air Force over the Golan Heights – Photo Major Ofer

Reports of potential casualties in the alleged strikes were ambiguous. Continue Reading »

Malaysia probed, possibly charged after Israel unable to participate in sailing championships

 

Malaysian hosts told Israel its surfers would not compete under Israel’s state flag, would not be allowed to use any symbol identifiable with Israel on their surfboards or cloths, nor should Israel win a gold medal, its national anthem would not be played.

By ALLON SINAI

 

World Sailing announced on Sunday that it is holding an investigation and seeking clarification from the Malaysian Organizing Authority of the Youth Sailing World Championships after Israel was unable to send a delegation to the event in Langkawi, Malaysia.

Windsurfer Yoav Omer – Photo: AMIT SHISEL/ISA

Israel’s Yoav Omer and Noy Drihan will not have an opportunity to defend their titles at the championships, which got underway on Sunday, after the Israel Sailing Association (ISA) said last week that it will not be participating in the event due to the demands made by the organizers and the fact the surfers had yet to receive visas. Continue Reading »

2 Palestinian terrorists killed after stabbing 2 IDF soldiers

 

2 IDF soldiers were hurt in Judea & Samaria, one moderately wounded, & the other lightly wounded.
• Earlier a soldier that was stabbed and lightly wounded near Jerusalem’s Central Bus Terminal, fought off his attacker, as a security guard there neutralized the Palestinian terrorist.

By Roi Yanovsky & Elisha Ben Kimon

 

Two soldiers were wounded on Sunday afternoon in a stabbing attack at Hawara checkpoint in the West Bank, hours after another soldier as lightly wounded in a stabbing attack in Jerusalem.

Scene of stabbing attack at Hawara Junction – Photo: Zacharia Sada

Givati Brigade soldiers were in the middle of a routine operation on Highway 60 near the town of Hawara, south of Nablus. Continue Reading »