Israel News

IDF confirms: Gaza Rocket Landed in Israel

IDF never activated sirens on Friday for Gaza frontier communities. No one hurt, no damages reported.

By JPOST.COM STAFF

A rocket launched from Gaza on Friday landed in the Eshkol Regional Council in southern Israel, the army said.

A rocket is launched from the northern Gaza Strip towards Israel. – Photo: REUTERS

The IDF had detected a projectile heading toward Israeli territory – the second such incident since Israel and Hamas reached a deal on August 26 to halt seven weeks of fighting. The cease-fire has largely been holding.

It was not immediately clear whether the rocket landed in Israel or within Gaza, as no sirens were heard in Gaza frontier communities. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: Gaza rockets, IDF

IN PICTURES: Rain pours in Israel

First massive rain & storm front covered most of Israel, ahead of what may be seen as a rainy weekend. Flooding reported in parts of central & northern Israel.

By Michal Margalit

Rain began to fall heavily Thursday evening, hitting the north and coast line, and is expected to continue with thunderstorms throughout Friday and Saturday in the Sharon region and Negev, as October comes to an end.

Tel Aviv – Photo: Yaron Brenner

Photo: Yair

Rain suprises beachgoers (Photo: Yaron Brenner)

Flooding in Ganey Tikvah (Photo: Naftali Yahlentzik)

Photo: Yair Yam Potzker

Photo: Motti Kimchi

View original Ynet publication at: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4586489,00.html

Category: Israel News | Tags: rainfall

PA Calls Assassin Terrorist That Shot ‘Freedom of Religion’ Activist, ‘Hero Defending Freedom’

PA Prisoner Affairs Minister hails shooter of prayer rights activist in Jerusalem, Yehuda Glick, lauding the terrorist’s history of arrest and assault on (Jewish) prison guards.

By Ari Yashar

Palestinian Authority (PA) Minister of Prisoner Affairs Issa Qaraqa on Thursday lionized Mu’taz Hijazi, the Islamic Jihad terrorist who tried to assassinate Temple Mount activist Yehuda Glick in Jerusalem on Wednesday and was later killed in a shootout with police.

“Hijazi was one of the heroes of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement who defended freedom and dignity,” Qaraqa wrote in a statement published by the Palestinian Arab Ma’an News Agency.

Calling Hijazi a defender of “freedom and dignity” is particularly ironic, given the fact that he shot Glick who has championed the effort to gain Jewish prayer rights on the Temple Mount – the holiest site in Judaism – where the Jordanian Waqf (Islamic trust) has banned Jewish prayer and discriminated against Jewish visitors. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: PA, Palestinian terrorist, Yehuda Glick

Israel Police Open Temple Mount for Limited Worship on Friday

Israel’s PM Netanyahu urges restraint following an assassination attempt by an Islamic terrorist on Yehuda Glick, a right wing Jewish activist.

By i24news

The Temple Mount will be open Friday to Muslim men over the age of 50 and to women of all ages, the Israeli police announced Thursday evening after on Wednesday it decided to close the compound until further notice amid the recent escalation in violence in east Jerusalem and Wednesday night’s attempted assassination on a Jewish right wing activist.

“Israeli soldiers walk in front of the Dome of the Rock in the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, in Jerusalem’s old city on October 19, 2014” – Photo: Ahmad Gharabli /AFP/File

“It was decided to restore [the compound] to normal… effective immediately,” police spokeswoman Luba Samri told AFP. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: Moshe Feiglin, religious rights, Temple Mount, Yehuda Glick

Israel Shows Seriously Parched California How to Deal With Catastrophic Drought

California’s Gov. Jerry Brown signed a strategic cooperation Agreement with Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu to receive aid from Israel, the world’s acknowledged expert on irrigation & water use.

By Israel Today Staff

California has been going through a catastrophic drought for three years now, which has cost the state’s economy at least $2.2 billion and left 500,000 acres of what was once rich, productive farmland fallow.

Prof. Eilon Adar (r), director of the Negev’s Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research with colleagues at Ben-Gurion University. – Photo: Dani Machlis/BGU

So where did California turn to for help? Not the Obama White House, but to Israel, the world’s acknowledged expert on irrigation and water use.

Category: Innovations & Discoveries, Israel News, The Diaspora | Tags: Ben-Gurion University, cooperation, Eilon Adar, Israel California, Jerry Brown, Water conservation, water technology

UN watchdog tells Israel stop building, defending & probe possible Gaza war crimes

The UN Human Rights Committee urges Israel stop violence against Palestinians, halt Jewish construction in the West Bank, stop confiscating land for settlement expansion, and take measures to withdraw all settlers (Jews) from West Bank.

By Reuters

GENEVA – UN human rights watchdog said Thursday that Israel should investigate all alleged violations committed by its forces during three recent wars in Gaza and ensure military commanders are brought to justice for any crimes.

Gazan children in wreckage left by IDF attacks – Photo: EPA)

A panel of independent experts urged Israel to halt construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, stop confiscating land for their expansion, prevent violence against Palestinians and take measures to withdraw all settlers. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: UNHRC

J’Post Exclusive: 2 Palestinian minors indicted for IDF courthouse suicide bombing attempt

The indictments: In revenge for Palestinians killed by the IDF, the 2 minors met on 21 September ’14 & decided to carry out a terror attack against high ranking IDF personnel.

By YONAH JEREMY BOB

Two Palestinian minors were recently indicted for trying to carry out a suicide bombing on an IDF military courthouse on September 22, in order to murder high ranking judges, prosecutors and others inside with seven explosives, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

IDF soldier binds Palestinian man’s hands – Photo: REUTERS

Although the indictment was filed last week, the Post‘s report is the first disclosure of the event which is sending ripples through the defense establishment both in terms of the audacity of the target and the young age of the intended suicide bombers. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: Military Court, Palestinian terrorism, Palestinian terrorists, suicide attack, suicide bomber

Sweden’s new center-left gov’t officially recognizes a Palestinian state

Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s Foreign Minister described Sweden’s official recognition as “a miserable decision that strengthens the extremist elements & Palestinian rejectionism.”

AP, Reuters

STOCKHOLM – Sweden’s center-left government on Thursday officially recognized the state of Palestine, becoming the first major European country to do so.

The new center-left Swedish government – Photo: AP

The EU member country joined only two other Western European countries — Malta and Cyprus — that have officially recognized a Palestinian state.

Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom said the Scandinavian country had decided on the move because the criteria of international law required for such recognition had been fulfilled. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News, The Diaspora | Tags: Avigdor Lieberman, Israel Sweden, Palestine, Sweden

SodaStream consolidates and moves to large new site in Israel’s Negev

SodaStream said move to new factory in southern Israel is not because Palestinian activists launched a campaign boycotting the company because the factory was located in an Israeli town in the West Bank.

By Dror Reich, Reuters and The Associated Press

SodaStream is shuttering its controversial West Bank plant next year as part of a plan to boost growth, the company said Wednesday.

The SodaStream plant in Mishor Adumim. – Photo: Bloomberg

The plant in the Ma’aleh Adumim industrial zone, which employs Palestinian workers, has made the at-home soda machine maker a target of the anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, and put the company at odds with European policies blocking the import of products made in West Bank settlements.

Category: Israel News | Tags: BDS, Buisness, Israel boycott, SodaStream

Palestinian terrorist who shot & wounded Yehuda Glick shot dead by Police

Israel Police commander Yochanan Danino praises Shabak security service, and Magav’s Yamam special forces for tracking down & eliminating the terrorist who shot Temple Mount activist Rabbi Yehuda Glick.

Watch: Rabbi Glick’s inspirational speech just moments before the shooting

By Yaakov Levi

Israel Police commander Yochanan Danino on Thursday praised his forces for tracking down and eliminating the terrorist who shot and seriously wounded Temple Mount activist Yehuda Glick Wednesday. Security forces on Thursday killed an Islamic Jihad terrorist, a resident of Abu Tor in East Jerusalem, whom it is believed was the shooter who targeted Glick.

Danino said that the quick elimination of the terrorist was a signal to others who were considering such actions that they would not escape. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: Palestinian terrorism, Yehuda Glick, Yochanan Danino

Jordan presents PLO resolution to UN Security Council for ‘Ending Israel’s Occupation’

Jordan, the only Arab nation on the UN Security Council, cited Palestinian worries of “the dangerously escalating tensions” in Jerusalem, as catalyst for seeking to introduce PLO resolution to council.

By MAYA SHWAYDER

NEW YORK — PLO ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour told the Security Council on Wednesday that, at the request of PA President Mahmoud Abbas, he would present a draft resolution that “contain[s] elements of parameters [of withdrawal] with a time frame to end the occupation.”

A United Nations Security Council meeting at UN headquarters in New York. – Photo: REUTERS

Jordan called the emergency session to discuss the Middle East and the “question of Palestine,” following a letter from the Palestinians addressed to the Security Council and the UN secretary-general, to meet and discuss the plans to build over the Green Line approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: PLO, Ron Prosor, UNSC

Rabbi Yehuda Glick, right-wing Temple Mount activist shot in assassination attempt in Jerusalem

Rabbi Yehuda Glick was taken to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in critical condition after multiple shots to upper body at close range during conference at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center.

By Noam (Dabul) Dvir

Rabbi Yehuda Glick, a prominent right-wing activist, was shot at point blank range outside the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem on Wednesday night.

Rabbi Yehuda Glick – Photo courtesy Temple Institute Heritage Foundation

Glick, 50, was shot in his upper body by a motorcyclist during an annual event organized by the Temple Mount and Eretz Yisrael Faithful Movement.

Magen David Adom paramedics evacuated him to the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in critical condition with injuries to his chest and abdomen. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: Palestinian violence, Yehuda Glick

israelandstuffcom | October 29, 2014

The IDF is officially recognized as ‘Strongest army in the Middle East’

Business Insider puts IDF at top of list of 15 strongest regional armies, saying Israel has space assets, drones, advanced jets, nuclear weapons, & “the Israeli Air Force is the best in the world.”

By Yoni Hirsch and Israel Hayom Staff

Although the balance of power and geopolitical interests have rapidly shifted in the Middle East in recent years, it appears Israel has managed to maintain — at least for the time being — its military supremacy, according to the news website Business Insider. On Monday the website published its ranking of the 15 strongest armies in the region, and put the Israel Defense Forces at the top.

Category: Israel News | Tags: Business Insider, IDF, report, survey

israelandstuffcom | October 29, 2014

Gazan shot in leg after ignoring repeated IDF calls to retreat from border fence

The IDF Spokesperson’s Office confirms direct hit on 1 of 2 Gaza men attempting to infiltrate.

By JPOST.COM STAFF

Palestinian media reported on Wednesday that a Gazan man in his twenties was injured by IDF fire in the Strip’s Beit Lahiya area.

A view of the northern Gaza Strip as seen from the Israeli farming community of Netiv Haasara. – Photo: REUTERS

The IDF Spokesperson’s Office said it identified two Palestinians approaching the security fence in the northern part of the border. When they did not adhere to warning calls to stop in their tracks, Israeli soldiers opened fire at the legs of the Gaza residents, the army said, confirming a direct hit.

Category: Israel News | Tags: border fence, Gaza border, IDF response

israelandstuffcom | October 29, 2014