Israel Air Force Ready for 2nd Assault: 70 Rocket Sites in Gaza

Israel Air Force launches 2nd assault wave at Hamas as IDF masses ground forces near Gaza.

Gaza is in for unprecedented attack.

By Gil Ronen

 

The IAF launched a second assault wave at Hamas-contolled Gaza Thursday evening, targeting 70 underground missile sites.

IDF armor near Gaza

IDF armor near Gaza
IDF Spokesman’s Unit

The IDF is amassing ground forces near Gaza and preparing for a possible ground assault. Interior Minister Eli Yishai (Shas) told Voice of Israel that Gaza is in for an “unprecedented attack.”

Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Thursday approved the call-up of 30,000 reserve soldiers, who can be called into action by the military at any point, the army’s official spokesman said. Continue Reading »

Gaza terrorists release 2 long range rockets on Tel Aviv

So far:

1st rocket falls near Rishon Lezion,
2nd rocket toward TA but “doesn’t hit ground”
275 rockets fired at Israel
rockets kill 3 Israeli civilians in South
3 IDF soldiers wounded
IAF strikes 250 Gaza targets
15 Palestinians killed.

By JPOST.COM STAFF, YAAKOV LAPPIN

 

Booms were heard following an air raid siren in Tel Aviv Thursday evening, just an hour after a rocket from the Gaza Strip exploded in an open field outside of Rishon Lezion. There were no reports of injuries in either strike.

Inside view of Kiryat Malachi home hit by rocket - Photo: Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post

Inside view of Kiryat Malachi home hit by rocket – Photo: Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Pos

The attacks mark the first time the center of the country was hit renewed violence from the Gaza Strip.

Continue Reading »

Rocket Victim Was Chabad India Emissary during Mumbai Massacre

Mirah Scharf, the 25-year-old victim of a rocket attack in Kiryat Malachi this morning, was a Chabad emissary from India, killed on anniversary of Mumbai massacre.

By Annie Lubin

 

The names of the three people who were killed Thursday by a rocket attack in Kiryat Malachi have been published, and one of whom, it was just discovered, was an emissary from an offshoot of Chabad, who was involved in outreach in India, and was in Israel on a short visit in order to give birth and pay respects to the Chabad victims of the Mumbai terror attack in 2008.

Mirah Scharf (right)

Mirah Scharf (right)
Courtesy of the family

Israeli political consultant Jonny Daniels, citing an Israeli source and a Chabad leader in Israel, told the news site The Algemeiner that Mirah (nee Cohen) Scharf, the 25-year-old victim of today’s attack, was a “shlucha (female emissary)” to New Dehli, India, who was visiting Israel for the memorial service of Gabi and Rivka Holtzberg, the Chabad emissaries who were victims of a Mumbai terror attack. Continue Reading »

Finance Ministry: Israel’s economy currently growing at 3.4% annual rate.

Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer tells Bloomberg Businessweek that because recent economic indicators are “more positive” than they were in October, Israel’s economy could grow by more than 3% in 2013

By Zeev Klein and Israel Hayom Staff

 

Israel’s economy may grow by more than the 3 percent previously forecast for 2013, Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer said in an interview published by Bloomberg Businessweek on Wednesday.

Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer says he is more optimistic about the Israeli economy than he was two months ago. – Photo: Dudi Vaaknin

Fischer said the most recent economic indicators were “more positive” than they were when the Bank of Israel Monetary Committee cut Israel’s interest rate in October.

Continue Reading »

Egyptian PM delegation headed to Gaza

Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Kandil expected to arrive in Gaza tomorrow for talks with Hamas.

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH

 

A high-level Egyptian delegation is expected to arrive in the Gaza Strip Friday for talks with Hamas leaders on ways of ending the current round of fighting with Israel, a Hamas spokesman said.

PM Hisham Kandil speaks to Egyptian cabinet

PM Hisham Kandil speaks to Egyptian cabinet
Photo: REUTERS/Handout .

The delegation will be headed by Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Kandil and will consist of a number of Egyptian cabinet ministers, Taher a-Nunu, spokesman for the Hamas government, announced Thursday.

This would be the first visit to the Gaza Strip by an Egyptian prime minister.

Continue Reading »

Putin urges Jerusalem to avoid escalation

 

Russian President  Putin calls on Israel and Palestinians to ‘do everything to return situation to its normal course’

By: AFP

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday urged both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Palestinians to avoid escalating Gaza violence that has killed 15 Palestinians and three Israelis.

Calls for restraint. Putin Photo: AP

Vladimir Putin – Photo: AP

“The president of Russia called on the parties to exercise restraint and avoid the path of escalating violence, whose victims include civilians, and to do everything to return the situation to its normal course,” the Kremlin said following a telephone conversation between Putin and Netanyahu

Earlier, Russia strongly condemned Israel’s “disproportionate” use of force in air strikes on the Gaza Strip while calling on Palestinian terrorists to halt firing rockets at the Jewish state. Continue Reading »

BBC suckered…AGAIN – Miraculous Recovery by Injured Gaza Man?

 

Pallywood is in high gear as Gazans dupe BBC viewers in time-honored style. Is BBC part & party to Gaza’s disinformation policy?

By Gil Ronen

 

Barely one day into the fighting in Hamas-run Gaza, the locals are hard at work playing the victim for the world’s press.

Footage from the BBC captured by watchdog group Honest Reporting shows a heavy man lying on the ground and being carried away by residents, apparently after being injured by an Israeli attack.

Moments later, that same man again fills the frame, except he is walking about and obviously unhurt.

The widespread staging of such victim situations is a favored tactic of Arabs fighting Israel and has come to be known as “Pallywood.” Continue Reading »

IDF spokesman: “We must be strong in both defense & offense.”

Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai addresses Operation Pillar of Defense: ‘Difficult days are ahead, top priority is to restore peace to south’

By Attila Somfalvi

 

With the southern border under attack, IDF spokesman Brigadier-General Yoav Mordechai addressed Operation Pillar of DefenseThursday at Ynet’s studio, trying to map out what lies ahead.

The Iron Dome air defense system – Photo: AFP

“There was a plan,” Mordechai explained, referring to the operation. “In fact the plan was to give out an impression of a lull – defense officials kept a low profile, the IDF chief of staff was at a drill in the Jordan valley the day before, and there was a sense that life was getting back on track – and then the operation was launched with the assassination of Jabari, who had blood on his hands. Continue Reading »

“Moderate” Palestinians Succumb to Their Own Indoctrination

Today there is almost no room for moderates among the Palestinians.

Munib al-Masri outside his home in Nablus

Any Palestinian who dares to talk about compromise and peace with Israel, or even meet with Israelis, is immediately denounced as a “traitor” and “defeatist.”

Take, for example, the most recent case of Munib al-Masri, a wealthy Palestinian businessman from Nablus, the largest city in the West Bank. Continue Reading »

Report: Israel’s Ambassador to Egypt Summoned to Jerusalem

Egyptian media reports that Israeli ambassador Yaakov Amitai has left Cairo after being recalled by the foreign ministry.

By Elad Benari

 

Israeli ambassador to Egypt, Yaakov Amitai, reportedly left Cairo on Wednesday night, the website of the Egyptian Al-Ahram newspaper reported.

Sources at the Cairo International Airport told the newspaper that Amitai left on a Jordanian Airlines flight.

Amitai, who has been Israeli ambassador to Egypt since December 2011, was summoned earlier by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, which sought to convey the Egyptian authorities’ condemnation of the Israeli air raids on Gaza.

At the same time, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi recalled the Egyptian ambassador to Israel, Atef Mohamed Salem, in a move of protest against Israel. Continue Reading »

Three killed in Kiryat Malachi as Gaza Rocket Hits Building

As Gaza Terrorists fire 132 rockets into Southern Israel in 24 hours since IDF launches operation to root out terror, the IAF hits over 100 terror targets in Strip

Palestinians report 13 killed

By JPOST.COM STAFF, YAAKOV LAPPIN

 

Gaza terrorists continued to fire rockets into southern Israel on Thursday morning killing three people and injuring two others in Kiryat Malachi. In total, some 132 rockets have been fired from Gaza into the South in the 24 hours after the IDF launched a campaign Wednesday to root out the terror infrastructure in the coastal territory, beginning with the targeted killing of Ahmed Jabari, the chief of Hamas’s military wing. Continue Reading »

Bibi thanks Obama for supporting Israel’s right to defend itself

The White House condemned Hamas, a terror organization, for its continued barrage of rockets at Israel, and supports Israel in this latest operation against terrorists in Gaza.

By TOVAH LAZAROFF

 

Netanyahu on Wednesday night spoke on the telephone with US President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and EU Foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton. He was also scheduled to speak with UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon.

President Barack Obama talks on the phone with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

President Barack Obama talks on the phone with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in the Oval Office – Photo by Official White House – Photo by Pete Souza

In his conversation with Obama and Biden, Netanyahu thanked them for taking the position that Israel had a right to defend itself. Continue Reading »

Watch IDF Aerial Clip of Hit – Egypt Recalls Ambassador

Morsi recalls Egyptian ambassador from Israel, urges UN Security Council to hold emergency meeting

 Iran: Assassination another sign of ‘Zionist regime’s barbarity’

By Roi Kais

 

Egypt has recalled its ambassador in Israel, Yasser Ridha, following the assassination of top Hamas military commander Ahmed Jabari, Egyptian TV reported Wednesday. It is still unclear whether the envoy is being called back for consultations or for a longer period. Earlier on Wednesday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr condemned Israel’s airstrikes in Gaza remarking that “the Israeli escalation comes at a critical point in the Middle East which threatens to harshly exacerbate matters.” Continue Reading »

A Timeline Review To Why Israel Struck Gaza Today

Timeline of the Gaza escalation

By JPOST.COM STAFF

 

 

October 23

An IDF officer is critically wounded by an explosive device while on patrol near the Gaza border fence. PFLP takes responsibility.

November 6

An explosion along the Gaza border fence injures three IDF soldiers. Palestinians later fire a Kassam rocket into southern Israel. The same day, Palestinians detonate a massive tunnel along the border, causing no injuries but knocking an IDF jeep sideways.

November 8

In a firefight with Palestinians, apparent IDF fire kills a 13-year-old Palestinian boy. Palestinian mortar shells lightly injure an IDF soldier along the border later in the day. Continue Reading »

Hamas: Israel “has opened the gates of hell”

Shin Bet confirmed it had carried out the attack, saying it had killed Jabari because of his ‘decade-long terrorist activity’

By , and agencies

 

Jabari, who is the most senior Hamas official to be killed since an Israeli invasion of Gaza four years ago, was killed in an air strike on a vehicle, in a dramatic resumption of Israel’s policy of assassinating Palestinian militant leaders.

Ahmed Jabari (l)& Gilad Shalit (c)

Jabari has long topped Israel’s most-wanted list, the Associated Press reported, and was blamed for in a string of attacks, including the kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit in 2006.

Continue Reading »