Author: admin

Mayor of Efrat Oded Revivi spoke to Arutz Sheva on Wednesday about the media firestorm over Israel’s declaring 4000 dunams as “state land” Sunday, explaining that the term “annexation” is a misnomer. “Despite the fact that Israel didn’t do any annexation, despite the fact no legal change has happened, despite the fact that Israel has only decided to…

The Chief of the Northern Command, Major General Yair Golan, met last month with the mayors of communities near Lebanon and addressed concerns from residents that Hezbollah is actively digging tunnels toward Israel. Golan said that the IDF is prepared to deal with any attempt to act against the inhabitants of the region, including against…

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi blamed Israel for fueling terrorism in the Middle East by not making peace with the Palestinian Authority (PA) on Wednesday, in light of the tensions between the West and the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS). The lack of a “peace process” in Israel contributes to a “fertile environment for the growth…

Israel is to supply Jordan with natural gas from its vast Leviathan offshore gas field over a period of 15 years, US giant Noble Energy announced Wednesday. A source close to the deal said it was worth $15 billion (11.4 billion euros) – a significant chunk of some $60 billion which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said will come from…

Jewish Home MK Moti Yogev on Wednesday wrote to his party’s committee that is to approve a controversial new constitution next week, warning that if passed, the constitution threatens to split Jewish Home apart. “I appreciate you all and your dedication to renewing the Jewish Home party constitution,” opened Yogev cordially in the letter, which…

Two thousand, five hundred (2,500) new housing units were slated for building in Jerusalem on Wednesday, the cancellation of thousands of building tenders just two days ago.  The international community remained silent at this announcement, however, as Wednesday’s building tenders were for Arab – not Jewish – neighborhoods in Jerusalem.  The houses will be built…

US President Barack Obama vowed Wednesday that the United States would not be intimidated by the beheading of a secondAmerican reporter, but acknowledged the fight against the extremist Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) would take time. Obama pledged that justice would be done to the IS murderers who brutally beheaded 31-year-old reporter Steven Sotloff, who was also an Israeli citizen,…

Not just people, but relics, have incredible survival stories from the Holocaust, the Sham Olam (Heb: “The World is There”) Institute for Holocaust Studies discovered Wednesday.  A silver brooch, or keepsake pin, was uncovered featuring artwork of the Lodz Ghetto and originating from within the ghetto walls. The pin features the ghetto’s fence and guard…

Deputy Minister Ofir Akunis (Likud) sharply criticized the European Union (EU) and the U.S. State Department on Tuesday, after both issued condemnations of Israel’s plans  to declare 4,000 dunams of land in Judea, mostly in Gush Etzion, as state land. “Israel will continue to work to promote settlement on its land – just as every other…

Famous American pop star Lady Gaga, who will perform in Israel later this month, has already angered Arab fans, Al Arabiya reports. The cause of the anger, according to the report, is a video released by the singer in which she greets her Israeli fans with “Shalom”. “Shalom, Israel,” the pop superstar said in the…

U.S. and Somali officials confirmed on Tuesday that an American military airstrike in Somalia targeted the leader of the Al-Shabaab group, Ahmed Abdi Godane, Reuters reports. However, the officials said, it may take time to determine whether Godane was killed. The United States launched Hellfire missiles and laser-guided munitions to destroy an Al-Shabaab encampment in…

U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday called for Secretary of State John Kerry to present administration policy for “rolling back” the Islamic State’s (IS) gains, after the rampaging group claimed it beheaded a second American, AFP reports. With members of the House and Senate warning that President Barack Obama has not done enough to combat the extremist…

British Prime Minister David Cameron on Tuesday condemned as “despicable and barbaric” a new video that was released by the Islamic State and which shows the brutal beheading of Jewish-American journalist Steve Sotloff. According to the Mirror, Cameron said he would be chairing a meeting of the Government’s Cobra emergency committee on Wednesday morning. “If…

Egypt’s ambassador to the Palestinian Authority said on Monday that Cairo is in contact with Palestinian Arab and Israeli officials to determine a date for further ceasefire talks following a cessation to hostilities last week. The ambassador, Wael Atiyeh, told the PA-based Ma’an news agency that a date has not yet been set for a…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Tuesday once again slammed the United Nations over its decision to probe Israel’s actions in Gaza. Speaking before naval cadets who graduated from an officers’ course, Netanyahu praised the IDF as being the most moral military in the world. “Operation Protective Edge once again proved that there is no power…

Israel was again condemned on Tuesday over its decision to declare 4,000 dunams of land in Judea, mostly in Gush Etzion, as state land, with the European Union (EU) and the U.S. State Department being the latest ones to issue condemnations. “We condemn the new appropriation of land in the West Bank, relating to plans for…

The Shurat Hadin civil rights group has announced it has submitted a criminal indictment against Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal at the International Criminal Court in the Hague (ICC). Shurat Hadin, which prosecutes international terrorist groups and their supporters, said the indictment was in response to the summary execution of 38 Palestinians in Gaza during the…

Hassidic music sensation Lipa Schmeltzer paid a visit to IDF soldiers of the Netzah Yehuda (formerly Nahal Haredi) battalion, to perform for soldiers as a show of solidarity. American musician Schmeltzer is considered something of a maverick; he hails from the deeply conservative Skver hassidic sect, and has faced criticism form some within his community…

Sudan has expelled the Iranian embassy’s cultural attache, in a slap in the face to its one-time ally over creeping “Shia influence” in the Sunni-majority country. The Sudanese government closed down the Iranian Cultural Center in the capital Khartoum, and ordered the attache and all the center’s staff to leave the country within 72 hours.…

Israel will soon receive its fourth “Dolphin” submarine, in a significant boost to the IDF’s naval capabilities, according to Channel Two. “At this very moment, after leaving Germany, it is making its way to Israel,” Navy chief Vice Admiral Ram Rothberg said at conclusion of a navy captain’s course Wednesday, noting that it will become the…

Less than two weeks after construction began, and before it could be used, Israeli police began dismantling the new bridge to replace the unstable wooden walkway to the Temple Mount on Wednesday.  The new bridge was announced two weeks ago, and would have replaced the shaky wooden construct of the bridge leading up to the…

One day after it was revealed that IDF forces had quietly abandoned the Gaza border community of Netiv Ha’asarah, Nahal Brigade soldiers have returned once again to guard the town. But Penina Rogolski, a member of the local council, says that she is still concerned the error could repeat itself. “We have still not yet…

American journalist Steven Sotloff, who was brutally beheaded by the Islamic State terrorist group, took great risks to keep his Jewish faith in captivity, a former fellow-captive of the murdered journalist told Yediot Aharonoth. Sotloff reportedly made sure to fast in secret during Yom Kippur and even prayed in the direction of Jerusalem, as is…

Islamic State terrorists fresh from the conquest of the last Syrian military base in the north of the country sent a “special message” to Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, as well as his key ally, Russian President Vladimir Putin. Tabqa airbase was taken after prolonged and intensive fighting which left hundreds of Islamic State and pro-regime forces…

It no longer is located in Neve Dekalim, a community in Gush Katif that suffered expulsion in the 2005 Disengagement plan which forcibly removed all Jews from Gaza. But today, nine years later, the Neve Dekalim Girls’ High School retains its name and heritage as it settles into a new permanent campus. Arutz Sheva was on…

A senior security source in the Sinai peninsula has revealed that the explosion that killed 11 Egyptian soldiers on Tuesday, which occurred near the Rafah crossing to Gaza, was in fact caused by an explosive planted in a tunnel. The source was cited by Yedioth Aharonoth as saying the tunnel was dug under the main traffic circle…

An Israeli delegation is to travel to Washington DC next week to petition US officials to take a tough line in renewed talks between major world powers and Iran, in which the sides will discuss the Islamic regime’s nuclear program. “I will travel to Washington next week at the head of an important delegation, in light of what…

A far-right weekly has sparked a firestorm of controversy by describing France’s new education minister as a “Moroccan Muslim” and calling the appointment of the 36-year-old rising star a “provocation.” Moroccan-born Najat Vallaud-Belkacem is the first woman in French history to hold the office of education minister, the latest step in a brilliant career for…

American journalist Steven Sotloff, who was brutally beheaded by the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group, took great risks to keep his Jewish faith in captivity, a former fellow-captive of the murdered journalist told Yediot Aharonoth. However, it turns out that Sotloff was in fact Israeli. A media gag order on the issue was released on…

A senior army intelligence official said on Tuesday that the IDF underestimated the determination of Hamas terrorists in Operation Protective Edge, terming it a “tactical assessment mistake.” “If you’d asked me two months ago, I wouldn’t assess that it’s going to take us 50 days,” the official said to AFP in a Tel Aviv briefing late Tuesday on…

About two months after Givat Oz veGaon was established, in memory of the three youths Gilad Sha’ar, Eyal Yifrah, and Naftali Frenkel hy”d, a moving event was held on the hill – the first brit milah (ritual circumcision) ceremony in the forest, which is situated facing the Gush Etzion junction. David and Ilana Brenner, residents of Elazar in Gush Etzion, invited…

Chief Palestinian Authority (PA) negotiator Saeb Erekat will present plans to US Secretary of State John Kerry with a timetable for Israel’s pullout from Judea and Samaria, PA-affiliated sources told Lebanese news site Ya Libnan Tuesday.  Erekat and PA “Intelligence Minister” Majid Faraj will hold a series of meetings with senior officials in Washington, the sources said,…

The Palestinian Authority (PA) “unity government” intends to seek a UN Security Council resolution setting a three-year deadline for forcing Israel to withdraw from Judea and Samaria, a Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) official said Tuesday. Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the leadership of the PLO [the terror group behind the PA – ed.], acknowledged at a news conference…

Eleven Egyptian policemen were killed when a roadside bomb blast struck their armored vehicle in the restive Sinai Peninsula on Tuesday, security officials said. Islamist terrorists have claimed a string of attacks that have killed scores of policemen and soldiers, mostly in north Sinai, since the army overthrew president Mohamed Morsi in July last year. An officer and 10 conscripts…

Two Frenchmen allegedly involved in the hit-and-run death of an Israeli woman in Tel Aviv will stand trial in Paris on November 27, judicial sources told AFP Tuesday. Pilates instructor Lee Zeitouni, 25, was hit by a speeding BMW on a city street in September 2011 and left to die when the drivers failed to stop. Eric Robic, who…

Police on Tuesday recommended putting former IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi on trial in the infamous Harpaz Affair, in which it was charged that Lieutenant-Colonel Boaz Harpaz forged a document meant to prevent General Yoav Galant from becoming Ashkenazi’s successor. Ashkenazi was recommended for trial on charges of passing secret information and breach of trust in the…

Arutz Sheva got a chance on Monday at the start of the school year to speak with Ido Aharonovich, Principal of the AMIT Yud High School in Ashdod and an IDF commander who served in Operation Protective Edge. “It’s not easy but it’s very important for all the students to talk about what happened to them, and…

Further testimony has been brought regarding the powerful recruitment pull of the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) on the West, as two young Muslim converts from Canada have been identified in the ranks of the extremist terrorist group. The brothers Gregory and Collin Gordon of Calgary recently converted to Islam, taking the names Abdul Malik…

Finance Minister Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) on Monday sharply criticized the Sunday declaration of 4,000 dunams (988 acres) near Beitar Illit in Judea as state land, labeling the move harmful “opportunism.” “This is opportunism and was not brought to the Cabinet, and at the current time it simply causes damage to Israel,” complained the minister. “We’re…

An Israeli Arab who was apparently trying to smuggle Palestinian Arab workers illegally into Israel tried to run over an IDF soldier at the Eyal interchange near Qalqiliya, Samaria Tuesday afternoon. An IDF officer from the Kfir Brigade opened fire at the vehicle, injuring the driver; he was shot in the head and is in…

Turkey’s new prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, was pessimistic on Monday regarding the possibility of his country normalizing ties with Israel. According to Reuters Davutoglu, who spoke to parliamentarians, said he saw no hope of “normalizing” ties with the Jewish state. He said progress in the normalization of relations with Israel would only be possible if…

Just outside the 11th-century walls that surround Avila in central Spain, rows of granite slabs surrounded by neatly trimmed grass mark the spot where ancient Jewish graves lay. Local authorities spent 250,000 euros ($335,000) to build the memorial garden, which opened last year, on the grounds of a medieval Jewish cemetery in what used to be an empty field…

Leaders of Judea and Samaria expressed their outrage over Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s de facto construction freeze, after reports Monday revealed he cancelled 2,500 housing units in the region and Jerusalem due to international pressure. “The prime minister vowed to advance programs and start construction, but in reality after this type of (building) advancement is published everything…

To the mournful strains of a single cello and tearful remembrances by family members, Germany Tuesday inaugurated a national memorial to the 300,000 ill and disabled people systematically murdered by the Nazis. The site next to the Tiergarten park is the fourth and likely final major memorial in Berlin’s city center to groups targeted in the Holocaust, following monuments dedicated over the…

Some 4,500 people from many Jewish and non-Jewish denominations rallied in front of London’s Royal Courts of Justice on Sunday, as part of a campaign launched by the newly-formed Campaign Against Anti-Semitism (CAAS) for “zero tolerance” for anti-Semitism in Britain.  Photos of the event quickly began circulating on social media, under the hashtag #NotoAntiSemitism. Supporters bore…

Daniel Fish, a soldier in the elite Magellan unit, has made a miraculous recovery, doctors say. Fish was evacuated from Gaza to Be’er Sheva’s Soroka Medical Center in late July, after he was wounded in a bombing attack which killed three friends.  He faced critical injuries and was transferred to Soroka’s Trauma unit in a…

Large police, Border Patrol and Israel Security Agency (ISA) forces were deployed late Tuesday morning to track an Arab terrorist from Samaria, who apparently breached into Israeli territory to conduct an attack. A few hours after the manhunt began police reported that the search has been called off, saying “the danger of an infiltration incident…

Support for the terrorist organization Hamas has skyrocketed in Judea, Samaria and Gaza according to a new poll, after Hamas “skyrocketed” Israel with a massive missile barrage and terror war in Operation Protective Edge. A full 61% of Arab residents of Judea, Samaria and Gaza would pick Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh for unity government president…

Yesha Council Chairman Avi Roeh accused Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Tuesday of conducting a “covert freeze” on building in Judea and Samaria, and called out “right-wing” Likud and Jewish Home MKs for their notable silence on the issue. “It can certainly be said there’s a freeze, a covert one, planned so that no one…

The Canadian Ministry of Public Safety last Friday released its 2014 Public Report on the Terrorist Threat to Canada, in which it detailed the troubling phenomenon of Canadians traveling to the Middle East to join in jihad – and later return to potentially conduct attacks. “As of early 2014, the Government was aware of more than…

The grassroots Zionist student movement Im Tirtzu on Tuesday called on Justice Minister Tzipi Livni (Hatnua) to rescind the nomination of Prof. Barak Medina to the Supreme Court, after he pressed for the “right” of Arab residents to protest Israel’s very existence. Im Tirtzu cited a campaign initiated by Medina for academics to sign an…

U.S. military forces conducted an operation on Monday against the Al-Shabaab terrorist network in Somalia, Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said, according to CNN. “We are assessing the results of the operation and will provide additional information as and when appropriate,” he said. No other information was immediately available. The United States designated…

The Al-Nusra Front, the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Syrian rebel group, has presented its demands for the release of 43 Fijian peacekeepers they kidnapped last week, The Associated Press (AP) reported Monday night. Fiji’s military commander, Brig. Gen. Mosese Tikoitoga, said the rebels have issued three demands for the release of the peacekeepers: to be taken off the…

Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro claimed on Monday that the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad was behind the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group, AFP reports. Castro’s claims were made in a column published in Cuban media in which he lashed out at the United States and Europe and accused them of war-mongering. He also compared the…

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Monday voiced optimism that a dispute over Tehran’s nuclear program can be resolved by a November 24 deadline, Reuters reports. Zarif’s comments came after talks with European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton. “I am quite optimistic after discussions with Lady Ashton that we can in fact resolve…

Egypt on Monday denounced Israel’s plans to  to declare 4,000 dunams (988 acres) of land in Judea, mostly in Gush Etzion, as state land, AFP reported. Cairo said the move violates international law and is an obstacle to efforts for a lasting Palestinian-Israeli peace agreement. “This is not a positive step – it contradicts international law…

Ireland may not replace its 130-person rapid response force in the Golan Heights, where 44 peacekeepers from Fiji are being held by rebels, Ireland’s Defense Minister said on Monday, according to Reuters. According to the minister, Simon Coveney, Ireland would like the United Nations to review its mandate for its forces there. Ireland’s contingent, which…

Terrorists who are imprisoned in the Megiddo prison will no longer be able to watch the National Geographic channel on prison televisions, Channel 10 News reported on Monday. According to the report, the channel was pulled for fear that the imprisoned terrorists would take advantage of its programming to plan escapes from prison. The National…

United Nations (UN) Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday condemned Israel’s decision to declare 4,000 dunams (988 acres) of land in Judea as state land, AFP reports. Ban’s spokesman said that the UN chief is “alarmed” by the Israeli plans and feared they could lead to more “settlement activity”. “The Secretary General is alarmed by…

Israel is to get a fourth television station, if a law proposed by Communications Minister Gilad Erdan passes. Beginning April 1, 2015, the current Channel Two will be divided into two other stations, each of which will broadcast full time. The stations will be run respectively by the two networks that today jointly operate Channel Two,…

The British government on Monday said it “deplores” an announcement made by Israel on Sunday, in which the Jewish state declared 4,000 dunams (988 acres) of land in Judea as state land. “The UK deplores the Israeli government’s expropriation of 988 acres of land around the settlement of Etzion,” British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said…

A poll released Monday by the Knesset Channel found that 39% of respondents called Economics Minister Naftali Bennett leader of the “right-wing” in Israel, giving him the edge over Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Coming in second, Netanyahu got 28% support, while 20% picked Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman as their right-wing leader of choice. The poll…

Newly inducted President Reuven Rivlin spent the first day of the school year in the Negev, visiting classrooms and planting trees. Rivlin visited the Yitzchak Sadeh school in Dimona, sitting in on classes and talking to students. The president met with first-graders who entered the school’s gates as students for the first time, while accompanied…

As fighting intensified between Syrian army troops and Islamist rebels, the IDF increased its presence on the Golan Heights Monday afternoon. Security officials fear that the fighting could “spill over” the Israeli border. A senior Israeli security official said that the IDF had recently changed its conception of defense on the Golan. A group of highly…

The crisis in Economics Minister Naftali Bennett’s Jewish Home party appears to be reaching a boiling point, as several party MKs on Monday berated Bennett’s new party constitution that critics claim will give him “absolute power” – and which the two say threatens the religious Zionist movement. MK Yoni Chetboun (Jewish Home) criticized the final draft of…

Residents of the village of Netiv Ha’asarah along the border with Gaza were met with a nasty surprise last night, when they noticed that IDF soldiers stationed to protect the community during the 50-day Operation Protective Edge had disappeared. Troops from the Nahal infantry brigade had been withdrawn without a word to the community, which…

Senior Israeli officials report that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu submitted to international pressure, primarily from the US, and cancelled a planned construction announcement for 2,500 housing units in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. The sources told Walla! that after the June 12 abduction and murder of Gilad Sha’ar (16), Naftali Frenkel (16) and Eyal Yifrah (19), Netanyahu ordered…

Economics Minister Naftali Bennett and MK Shuli Mualem (Jewish Home) visited the Mekor Chaim yeshiva high school in Kfar Etzion on Monday, as the school starts a new academic year in the shadow of the brutal kidnapping and murder of two of its students in June. Naftali Frenkel and Gilad Sha’ar, both 16, were abducted…

In honor of the new school year and in a show of solidarity to embattled residents of southern Israel, senior government officials toured schools and educational institutions throughout the Negev. Among them, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu visited the city of Sderot, together with Education Minister Shai Piron, to open a new religious high school. During…

Rabbi Dov Zinger, dean of the Mekor Chaim Yeshiva high school in Kfar Etzion, opened a new school year on Monday. However, the rabbi revealed it doesn’t feel like a new year, but rather a continued period since two of his students, Naftali Frenkel (16) and Gilad Sha’ar (16) hy”d, were murdered along with Eyal Yifrah…

The Palestinian Authority (PA) on Monday denied reports that it was planning to pay the salaries of Hamas employees this Wednesday. Earlier, Hamas spokesperson Mousa Abu Marzouk said that the PA had agreed to pay the salaries, claiming the salary payment is a tenet of the ceasefire Hamas and Israel agreed to last Tuesday. According…

Hundreds of people on Monday attended the funeral of 20-year-old IDF soldier Shahar Shalev hy”d from Alonei Habashan. Shalev was badly wounded during Operation Protective Edge and hospitalized at Rambam Hospital in Haifa, where he died of his wounds on Sunday, roughly five weeks after receiving the critical wound. He became the 72nd Israeli to die…

As school resumed in Ramat Beit Shemesh on Monday, the friction between secular and hareidi residents of the town did as well, with the Education Ministry issuing a closure order against a hareidi girl’s school that was opened on the grounds of an existing school. The municipality over the summer decided to dedicate one of…

A three-year-old toddler was lightly wounded on Monday night by Arab terrorists that hurled rocks through the window of the bus she was riding in, as it passed through Uzi Narkis Street in the northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Shuafat. Magen David Adom (MDA) paramedics rushed to the scene to provide the baby girl with medical…

Deputy Minister of Religious Affairs Eli Ben-Dahan (Jewish Home) on the first day of classes Monday visited the “Reishit” school in Tel Aviv, a rapidly growing religious school in the traditionally secular city. At the school, located in southern Tel Aviv, Ben-Dahan spoke before hundreds of students. Reishit boasts some 400 students, the highest number in…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with US congressmen Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) and Gregory Meeks (D-NY) on Monday, and remarked on the threats to Israel while receiving their pledges of continued American support. Netanyahu began by mentioning the intense fighting between the Syrian army and rebel forces on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights, which…

With Gaza terrorists showering Israel with rockets, August didn’t bring much good news for Israelis. But every cloud has a silver lining: in August a noted increase was recorded of illegal African immigrants leaving the country. While there was no specific connection to the war, observers said that many in the infiltrator community were taken…

A new report has exposed the details of a heated meeting held between Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Qatar-based Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal on August 21 in Doha, in which Mashaal apparently submitted to a ceasefire with Israel. The report was published Monday by the Lebanese Al Akbar news site, as cited by Walla!, and…

At least 42 children have been killed in government air strikes and shelling across Syria in the last 36 hours, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said Sunday, according to AFP. The Britain-based Observatory said 25 children had been killed between midnight on Saturday and Sunday afternoon, with 17 more killed between Friday…

Several senior British Muslim clerics have added their support to a fatwa (Muslim religious decree) against the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) terrorist group, ITV News reported on Sunday. The fatwa calls IS “an oppressive and tyrannical group” and forbids British Muslims from joining. Part of the fatwa, published in the Sunday Times, reads, “IS…

Iran warned on Sunday of “unpleasant” responses to new U.S. sanctions against it, Reuters reports. The declaration by Iran’s Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, came after an announcement on Friday that Washington was going to penalize a number of Iranian and other foreign companies, banks and airlines for violating sanctions against Tehran, most of which…

A 16-year-old girl suspected of trying to reach Syria to join Islamist rebels has been arrested in the southeastern French city of Nice, Reuters reported on Sunday. France’s Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said in a statement that border police at Nice airport arrested the girl on Saturday, before her departure “for jihad” purposes. A man…

B’nai Brith Canada has announced that it will nominate Canada’s Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, for the Nobel Peace prize. In a statement released on Friday, B’nai Brith CEO Frank Dimant said that “with recent developments across the globe posing new and difficult challenges, only one leader, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, has maintained the moral clarity…

As part of his visit to Israel, New York Republican candidate for Congress, Bruce Blakeman, visited the Jewish communities of eastern Jerusalem and the old city of Jerusalem. Hosted by the Ateret Cohanim staff, Blakeman visited the Jewish homes that are part of a big project of strengthening Jewish presence in all areas of the…

Finance Minister Yair Lapid on Sunday a press conference at the Government Press Office in Jerusalem, in which he suggested that the Arab world should work with Israel and the West to help rehabilitate Gaza. In the press conference, the Finance Minister called to convene a regional summit with Middle Eastern leaders with the goal…

The United States on Sunday condemned Israel over its decision to assign about 4,000 dunams (988 acres) of land in Judea and Samaria, mostly in Gush Etzion, as state land. Officials in Washington quoted by the Reuters news agency said that the U.S. sees Israel’s announcement as “counterproductive” to peace efforts. “We have long made…

There were conflicting reports Sunday evening on who, If anyone, was in control of the abandoned US embassy in Tripoli, Libya. According to reports, an Islamist militia group had taken over the building and a residential compound attached to it, and were “guarding” it to prevent other groups from invading it. The leader of the…

A mortar shell fired from Syria struck an open area on the Israeli side of the Golan Heights Monday morning, as fighting across the border continued to rage between pro-regime forces and Syrian rebels. No damage or injuries were reported. The incident follows the shooting down of a Syrian drone yesterday by IDF forces, after…

A group of prominent Turkish-Jews have released a letter in protest of the “racist” way in which they and the wider Jewish community has been targeted in response to Israel’s military operation against terrorists in Gaza. The letter, dated 30th August, was signed by leading intellectuals, including scholar and columnist Soli Özel, leftist writer Roni Margulies,…

The Palestinian Authority “unity government” with Hamas is totally bankrupt, according to a leading PA minister, who blamed broken promises by America and Arab states for the dire situation. “The government’s budget is below zero, and it’s starting to borrow from banks to move forward, because only less than third of donor funds that were…

Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday once again threatened to pursue Israel through the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague, Kol Yisrael radio reported. Speaking at a meeting of his Fatah faction in Ramallah, Abbas reportedly said that unless Israel agrees to discuss a Palestinian state along the indefensible pre-1967 borders, he…

2,105,394 children will begin the new academic year today (Monday), at kindergartens and schools throughout the country. 149,705 of those are students entering their first year of school, according to the Ministry of Education, compared with 112,750 entering their 12th and final year of studies. Alongside them, 164,999 teaching staff begin their new year. According to…

It remains to be seen if apartment prices fall when (and if) the 0% VAT plan proposed by Finance Ministry Yair Lapid is enacted into law, but according to a study by the Ministry, the fact that potential home buyers believe it will be put into effect has been driving down sales – and driving…

MK Danny Danon (Likud) on Sunday filed a petition with the High Court demanding that the Attorney General begin the process of filing an indictment against MK Hanin Zoabi. The petition and demand for investigation and indictment on charges of incitement revolve around Zoabi’s comments justifying the abduction and subsequent murder of Israeli teens Eyal…

The government on Sunday ratified an across-the-board 2% cut in the budgets of all state ministries to pay for Operation Protective Edge. Two ministers – Housing Minister Uri Ariel and Environment Minister Amir Peretz – voted against the cuts. Abstaining were Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, Elderly Affairs Minister Uri Ariel, and Negev and Galilee Development…

There has been a recent series of incidents in which children swallow magnetic beads; on Sunday, the latest small victim of the dangerous toys was brought to the Schneider Children’s Medical Center in Petah Tikva. The two-and-a-half year old infant girl had swallowed a string of four small round magnets which attached to each other…

School is set to start Monday on schedule, Education Minister Shai Piron said Sunday. For the first time in several years, there are no threats of labor actions by teachers dissatisfied with their contracts – and the current ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, assuming it continues to hold, means that children can safely gather at…

The government is seeking to cut NIS 1.9 billion from the state budget in order to pay for Operation Protective Edge, but further cuts should be expected, because the Defense Ministry’s budget is likely to be increased. At Sunday’s cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said that while Israel had many needs, “security comes first.…

Schools in Israel have improved over the past several years – altogether, 98% of Israeli children now finish 12 years of study – but there are still better and worse schools. On the eve of the opening of the new academic year, the Central Bureau of Statistics released data on which cities and towns had better…

The Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) is demanding an apology from Andrea Tantaros of Fox News for comments she made on the show “Outnumbered. The AAJA statement said that “AAJA calls for Tantaros and Fox News to apologize for the irresponsible, inflammatory statements. We also call on Fox News to discourage its journalists from making…

The son of the president of Suriname has admitted to aiding Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah on Friday. Dino Bouterse, 41, who had initially denied the charges, was filmed last year telling undercover agents posing as Hezbollah operatives that he was willing to help the Iranian-backed terror group set up a base in the central American…

The Palestinian Authority (PA) on Saturday promised to pay Hamas employees in Gaza their backlogged salary “as soon as possible,” but one PA official revealed fears over the group’s international purse-strings are behind the continuous postponement in pay. Tensions in the wage war began with the PA-Hamas unity deal in April, after which Hamas’s 40,000 employees…

The Israeli Air Force downed an unmanned drone (UAV) over the Golan Heights as it attempted to enter Israeli airspace from Syria. Forces fired a surface-to-air Patriot missile at the drone, which came from the area of Quneitra – which has seen fierce clashes between Syrian rebels and regime forces. The Israel Defense Forces told…

Palestinian Authority (PA) head Mahmoud Abbas said in a PA TV interview Thursday translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), that the casualties of the Gaza war could have been avoided if Hamas had only agreed to a ceasefire early on. In the end, he said, “we went back to talking about an…

Shimon Shalev, father of paratrooper Sgt. Shahar Shalev hy”d, spoke Sunday about his son, who succumbed to his wounds today after being critically wounded during Operation Protective Edge. “We received our boy for one and a half months as a gift,” he said, “because his friends were killed in that battle and we had the…

The Cabinet, at its weekly meeting Sunday in the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council area, approved a 1.3 billion shekel five-year plan for the economic, social and communal development of Sderot and the communities in the area adjacent to the Gaza Strip. The plan was submitted by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon and…

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman has been very critical of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s handling of Operation Protective Edge, and there are some in the political establishment who think he is planning on bolting the government in protest over Netanyahu’s failure to decimate Hamas. But Liberman put those rumors to rest Sunday. In an interview on…

Former IAF Chief Maj. Gen. (res.) David Ivry says, in a new article, that Israel needs to rethink the concepts of ‘deterrence’ and ‘decisive victory’, which are less relevant in today’s assymetrical battlefields. “Limited-scale, asymmetrical conflicts have become the norm. All-out wars between states where both parties invest all of their national resources in an…

Jerusalem Magistrates Court Judge Tamar Bar-Asher Tzaban has ruled against the community of Itamar, in Samaria, in a libel suit it filed against Haaretz journalist Neri Livneh, reports The Seventh Eye. Speaking on TV Channel 1 news interview show Politika in 2012, Livneh said that her impression of Itamar is that of “a settlement populated…

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni (Hatnua) expressed her opposition Sunday to the government’s decision to declare 4,000 dunams (about 1,000 acres) in the Etzion Bloc as state land, in response to the murders of three Jewish teens on June 12. Livni told IDF Radio that she was powerless, however, to prevent the decision, which was announced…

Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas is livid over the decision by the government earlier Sunday to assign about 4,000 dunams (988 acres) of land in Judea and Samaria as state land. Most of the land involved is in the Gush Etzion region. The decision opens the possibility of further construction in the region. The decision…

On a tour of the Old City of Jerusalem and eastern neighborhoods of the city, Knesset Interior Committee chairperson MK Miri Regev (Likud) examined the ongoing attacks by Arabs against Jews in the area, especially at the Beit Yehonatan building in the City of David. Attacks have risen significantly since the beginning of Operation Protective…

The Philippine military chief confirmed on Saturday night that more than 70 Filipino peacekeepers have escaped from two areas in the Golan Heights that came under attack by Syrian rebels, according to The Associated Press (AP). Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang said in the Philippine capital, Manila, that the Filipino peacekeepers separately moved to positions that…

After Arab citizens of Israel led by radical Arab MKs held a “Hamas victory rally” in the Galilee last Friday, Arab residents followed suit on Saturday in Ramallah, the Palestinian Authority (PA) stronghold in Samaria. Thousands of local Arabs took part in the rally, which was organized by the Hamas movement in Ramallah in celebration…

MK Alex Miller (Yisrael Beytenu) suggested on Saturday night that MK Hanin Zoabi (Balad) undergo a psychiatric evaluation. Miller’s comments came a day after Zoabi, along with other Arab MKs, participated at a Hamas “victory rally” in which she said that Arab Israelis were Palestinians and even sung the Palestinian anthem. “The long time support…

An explosion occurred Sunday morning near the Rehelim Junction in Samaria, near Ariel, but thankfully caused no damage or wounds. IDF and police forces arrived at the station, which is on the side of the highway leading to Tapuach Junction, and likewise bomb sapper squads are on their way to the scene. The security forces…

Operation Protective Edge may have ended in a ceasefire last Tuesday, but the economic fallout to fund the counter-terror operation is just beginning to be felt as Knesset Ministers are to confirm a 1.9 billion shekel (roughly $531 million) budget cut Sunday morning. The ministerial meeting, which will be held in the Hof Ashkelon Regional…

A government spokesperson announced Sunday morning that following instructions issued by the political echelon after Operation Brother’s Keeper, 4,000 dunams (988 acres) of Judea and Samaria land will be declared state land, opening the possibility of further construction in the region. The spokesperson for the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) stated that “the…

Hamas on Saturday declared that any attempts to disarm the terrorist groups in Gaza are “worthless,” the Ma’an news agency reported. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement quoted by the outlet that the demilitarization of the factions was “inconsistent with international law and our people will not allow it.” “It is not…

Arab terrorists on Saturday night threw a molotov cocktail at “Beit Meyuhas,” an historical Jewish home from the 19th century CE in the City of David area just south of Jerusalem’s Old City. In the firebomb attack one 45-year-old Jewish man was wounded lightly, suffering first and second-degree burns to his head. Magen David Adom…

For the first time in six years, Turkey’s new president and former prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has shaken the hand of an Israeli official. Channel 10 News reported on Saturday that Erdogan shook hands with Yossi Levi Sfari, who is the director of the Israeli Embassy in Ankara, during an event marking the annual…

Egypt’s Grand Mufti has commuted the death sentence handed to the Muslim Brotherhood’s leader, Mohamed Badie, to a life sentence, reported Al Jazeera Saturday evening. A previously issued death sentence against Badie still stands. The death sentences for five others were also reduced to life on Saturday by Shawki Allam, the country’s highest religious authority.…

Local government leaders in the Gaza Belt region may boycott a special government session Sunday that is to be held in southern Israel. According to Israeli TV Channel 2, the special session was originally planned to take place in the Sderot municipality. However, this idea was shot down because Sderot’s mayor, Alon Davidi, attacked Defense Minister…

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni (Hatnua) said Saturday night that Israel must initiate negotiations with the Palestinian Authority (PA) under Mahmoud Abbas. Livni explained to an interviewer on Channel 2‘s Meet the Press that the IDF’s Gaza operation proved that “military force cannot create long term change.” “It has been proven that there is also a…

Notorious anti-Israel British MP George Galloway was hospitalized on Saturday after being assaulted in London. Galloway, who leads the far-left Respect Party, was posing for pictures in the UK capital when he was punched repeatedly by an attacker, who apparently “made reference to the Holocaust”, a spokesperson told the media. The precise motive is not yet…

In his first interview after the latest ceasefire in Operation Protective Edge, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu explained why he decided to opt for a ceasefire with Hamas, as opposed to continuing the campaign and unseating Hamas. Netanyahu told Channel 2 that while it is still possible that the IDF will eventually topple Hamas altogether, “today, when…

On Monday September 8th, 2014, at 1:15 p.m., the UN Permanent Mission of Palau, and the Engr Aja Eze Foundation are sponsoring a conference on “Global Anti-Semitism: A Threat to International Peace and Security” at the United Nations Headquarters facility in New York City. The counter-anti-Semitism conference will feature speakers who will explain how the…

According to reports in Syria, dozens of UN peacekeepers from the Philippines who had been holed up in two military positions in the Syrian Golan escaped io Israel Saturday. The border gates were opened up to let them in. They had been surrounded by Syrian rebels from the Nusra Front. Filipino UN peacekeepers in the…

Israeli security forces detained 597 terror suspects in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem in August, raising the number of terrorists and suspected terrorists in Israeli prisons to more than 7,000, the Palestinian Prisoners Club said. The majority of the arrests took place in eastern neighborhoods of Jerusalem and in the Judean city of Hevron – both…

Britain’s ambassador to the United Nations said on Friday he hopes the Security Council will be able to unanimously adopt a resolution on the situation in Gaza “in the next few days,” according to The Associated Press (AP). Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant, whose country holds the council presidency this month, gave reporters no further details.…

Two teenage girls have been arrested on suspicion of conspiring to blow up a synagogue in Lyon, Newsweek reported on Friday, citing French news websites. According to JSS News and Europe 1, a source from the French security agency the Central Directorate of Homeland Intelligence revealed that two Muslim girls, aged 15 and 17, were…

Islamic State (IS, formerly known as ISIS) is working on biological weapons, according to data reportedly recovered from a IS-linked laptop, upping the ante in the global terror group’s pledge to spread Islamism around the world by force. Moderate rebels in Syria seized the generic-looking Dell laptop in a raid last year on an IS…

Two days after a senior Iranian official revealed that the Islamic Republic is arming terrorists in Judea and Samaria, the Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards vowed that Iran will continue to support “the resistance” against Israel. According to the Fars news agency, Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari underlined that the IRGC forces along with…

Washington rushed to defend President Barack Obama’s comments Thursday night that the US has “no plan” to combat Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) in Syria, clarifying at a press conference that its options are “still under review.”  The key word missing is “yet.”  “The president hasn’t yet laid out a specific plan for military action…

Britain raised its terrorism alert on Friday to the second-highest level, with Prime Minister David Cameron saying the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) group operating in Syria and Iraq posed the country’s greatest ever security risk. According to a report by the Reuters news agency, the government in London said there was no evidence an…

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon made clear on Friday that “there is no chance” that Hamas will receive a seaport in Gaza, one of its demands as a precondition for a ceasefire. Speaking to Channel 2 News in his first interview since the end of Operation Protective Edge, Ya’alon said that Israel had a clear victory…

Arab MKs Hanin Zoabi, Basel Ghattas, and Jamal Zahalka (Balad) participated at a Hamas “Victory Rally” on Friday, according to Channel 10, in the latest show of identification with Hamas terror in the wake of its war on Israeli civilians.  Hundreds of people participated in Friday’s march, which commenced in the Galilee’s Kafr Kabul.  The march,…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu says that if Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas “gives Hamas a divorce”, he would be willing to resume peace negotiations with him. Speaking to Channel 10 News in an interview to air Saturday night and of which excerpts were published on Friday, Netanyahu said that Operation Protective Edge in Gaza…

Ismail Haniyeh is apparently alive and well in Gaza, Yediot Aharonot reports Friday, after he posted photos of himself grinning and giving the “peace” sign outside the ruins of his former home in the Shati region.  The photos quickly went viral, as frustrated Israelis took note that Haniyeh’s expression was a little too joyous – especially in…

Hamas and the Palestinian Authority (PA) are at odds again, Palestinian sources told Walla! News Friday – this time, over rebuilding Gaza. Hamas stated repeatedly during Operation Protective Edge that it would allow PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to supervise Gaza’s reconstruction, following the IDF’s revelation that much of the construction materials shipped to the local government, which…

Twenty-five days after a near-fatal attack on Mount Scopus, during Israel’s self-defense operation in Gaza, Operation Protective Edge, Sgt. Chen Schwartz was released from Hadassah Mount Scopus Hospital in Jerusalem. Schwartz’s release was an emotional event Friday, after spending nearly a month being treated for wounds sustained by a terrorist on a motorcycle. The soldier…

One night, as Ethan Gipsman, a light machine-gunner in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) from San Diego, California, stood guard over a group of suspected terrorists in Judea and Samaria, one of them asked him a surprising question: What was Ethan, an American, doing there? “He said, ‘I thought America had everything,’ ” Gipsman recalled.…

Reports Friday indicate that Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces have partially recaptured the Quneitra region just east of the Israeli-Syrian Golan Heights border, which rebel forces captured in intense fighting on Wednesday. According to the reports from the Iranian Fars news agency as cited by Walla!, the Syrian army has regained control over several Quneitra villages, including Jaba, Tel…

Operation Protective Edge ended with a ceasefire deal on Tuesday, but on Friday the number of Israelis killed during the defensive operation rose to 71 as one wounded man died of his wounds. Natanel Maman hy”d, a 22-year-old IDF soldier who was critically wounded last Friday by shrapnel from a rocket that exploded next to…

The jihadist Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) movement that has captured large portions of Iraq and Syria continues to gain strength, as yet another extremist Islamist group has pledged loyalty to the IS caliphate. Last week Ansar al-Islam, a Salafist group identified with Al Qaeda that is active in Iraq, announced that it is joining forces with…

A group of 230 Jews, reportedly from the cult group Lev Tahor, have started leaving the Guatemalan Indian village where at least some of them have lived for six years amid claims that they were threatened. Reports about the expulsion of Jews from San Juan La Laguna, located on the banks of Lake Atitlan 125 miles from the…

Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas was quoted in Palestinian Arab news sources as claiming that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu agreed to a Palestinian state on the 1949 Armistice lines – apparently Abbas actually said that the US, not Netanyahu, had made that agreement. Abbas’s actual statements from the recent interview were that the US…

Negotiations are reportedly underway on Friday to try and gain the release of 43 UN peacekeepers from Fiji, who were captured on Wednesday by Syrian rebel forces on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights. Fiji Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama released a statement saying “the latest information we have is that they are safe and I can…

Aharon Soffer z”l, a 23-year-old yeshiva student from New Jersey who went missing last Friday in the Jerusalem Forest and was found dead on Thursday, was brought for burial at 9:30 Friday morning. The funeral procession was to leave from Even Haezel street in the northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Ezrat Hatorah, and will conclude in…

Hate crime in Britain has reached the second-highest recorded levels in recent memory, a recent survey revealed by the Community Security Trust (CST), which monitors and combats anti-Semitism in the UK, after Operation Protective Edge in Gaza began on July 8.  Thousands of people have participated in anti-Israel protests, and the demonstrations have been accompanied by…

Two terrorists were arrested near Bethlehem overnight Thursday/Friday, due to a joint effort by the IDF’s elite Duvdevan unit and the Judea-Samaria District Police, it has been cleared for publication Friday.  The suspects threw rocks at a vehicle near Beit Ummar last week, causing the driver to lose control and for the vehicle to flip…

Thousands of Islamic Jihad fighters paraded in Gaza City Friday, in a defiant show of force three days after a ceasefire ended Israel’s self-defense operation, Operation Protective Edge, in Gaza.  Terrorists at the march wore military fatigues and carried assault rifles and other light weaponry, with some holding aloft different types of rockets fired at Israel during the 50-day conflict…

Iranian military leaders have openly boasted that they have begun to send weapons to Palestinian Arab terrorists in Judea and Samaria and elsewhere in the region, the Washington Free Beacon reported Thursday. The report quoted a top Iranian military commander who confirmed that weapon shipments to Judea and Samaria have already begun and that more…

Islamic State fighters executed scores of Syrian soldiers it captured when the group seized an airbase in the province of Raqqa over the weekend, Reuters reported Thursday. A video posted on YouTube and confirmed as genuine by an Islamic State fighter showed the bodies of dozens of men lying face down wearing nothing but their…

Thousands gathered at the grave of Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak Hakohen Kook zt”l on Friday, for the 79th anniversary of the passing of Israel’s first Chief Ashkenazic Rabbi and visionary founder of the religious Zionist movement. Among the visitors to the grave at Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives were various leading rabbis and public figures, including Chief…

The fears of homegrown Islamic extremism striking the streets of England were heightened recently by the gruesome video of the beheading of James Foley, a US journalist murdered by a British Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) terrorist in Syria. That British IS jihadist is far from alone in the ranks of the extremist group that…

Iranian state news proudly presented the first images of a long-range “air defense” system Friday, the Bavar 373 missile, in a message to the international community about the military and defense capabilities of the Iranian Army.  The Bavar 373, named after the Farsi word for “Belief,” was developed as an alternative to the S-300, which…

The work has been finalized on a stone memorial, constructed in honor of the three teens abducted and murdered by Hamas terrorists on June 12: Naftali Frenkel (16), Gilad Sha’ar (16) and Eyal Yifrah (19) hy”d. The new monument was built next to the bus-stop and hitchhiking station where the three were abducted, in the…

United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday “strongly condemned” the kidnapping of 43 peacekeepers from the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) in the Golan Heights, and called for their immediate release. In a statement, Ban also condemned the restriction of movement of UNDOF peacekeepers by armed elements of the opposition in two positions in…

MK Orit Struk (Jewish Home) had some criticism for Finance Minister Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) on Thursday, after he said that peace talks with the Palestinian Authority must be restarted. Lapid had said that Israel would strive to convene a regional conference that will bring about the demilitarization of Gaza in exchange for its rehabilitation…

U.S. President Barack Obama said on Thursday that he would be sending Secretary of State John Kerry to the Middle East to build a coalition to combat the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group, though he admitted he did not yet have a strategy to combat the group in Syria. According to AFP, Obama stressed that…

The United States on Thursday accused the Syrian Al-Qaeda-affiliate Al-Nusra Front of detaining 43 members of a United Nations peacekeeping force in the Golan Heights, near Syria’s border with Israel. “The United States strongly condemns the detention of UN peacekeepers and ongoing violence targeting the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) in the Golan Heights by…

The string of rock-throwing attacks continued on Thursday, and once again a baby was the victim. A two-year-old girl was lightly hurt when Arabs threw rocks at the car she was in as it was travelling on Highway 60 near Huwara in Samaria. The windows of the car shattered onto the baby seat in the…

Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas claimed on Thursday that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had agreed to establish a Palestinian state along the pre-1967 borders, a claim that the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) denied. Abbas, who spoke in a televised interview and quoted by the Ma’an news agency, said that Netanyahu had agreed to the…

Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the radical Muslim cleric who serves as president of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, has come out sharply against the jihadist Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS), which has captured large parts of Iraq and Syria. Qaradawi, who is also the spiritual guide of the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, said the caliphate founded by…

It was confirmed on Thursday evening that, six days after he disappeared, the body of Aharon Soffer, a 23-year-old yeshiva student from New Jersey who went missing in the Jerusalem Forest last Friday, has been found. The body was found in a forest thicket near Ein Kerem around 4:00 p.m. Thursday afternoon. Police have confirmed that medical…

23-year-old Aharon Soffer’s body found near Ein Kerem after six days of intensive searches. It was confirmed on Thursday evening that, six days after he disappeared, the body of Aharon Soffer, a 23-year-old yeshiva student from New Jersey who went missing in the Jerusalem Forest last Friday, has been found. The body was found in…

Most Americans say they sympathize “a lot” (34%) or “some” (32%) with Israel, while roughly a quarter sympathize with Israel “not much” (15%) or “not at all” (12%), according to a new USA TODAY/Pew Research Center Poll There is less public sympathy for the Palestinians: 11% sympathize with Palestinians a lot, though 35% have some…

Hamas’s Qatar-based political bureau chief Khaled Mashaal on Thursday vowed that his terrorist organization would not agree to Israel’s demands for a disarmament of Gaza. “The weapons of the resistance are sacred and we will not accept that they be on the agenda” of continuing negotiations with Israel to be held in under a month, Mashaal…

Senior IDF sources appraised on Thursday that Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces would attack the Syrian side of the Golan Heights over the course of the night, after the Quneitra border crossing to Israel on that side was captured by rebel forces the day before. According to the IDF sources, the Syrian army is currently…

The Royal Dutch Airlines (KLM) reportedly announced that starting Thursday night, all flights from Amsterdam to Ben Gurion International Airport will include a stopover in Cyprus. According to reports, the move comes due to “security concerns.” According to Yediot Aharonot, the change will have flights from the Netherlands stop-over in Cyprus for 40 minutes and then…

Minister of Construction and Housing, Uri Ariel of the Jewish Home, estimated Thursday that his party will not leave the government anytime soon. Regarding the differences of opinion within the Security Cabinet in the course of the war, Ariel told IDF Radio: “I do not think our criticism was illegitimate. Every minister has his opinions…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with regional council heads from the south in Be’er Sheva on Thursday afternoon, two days after he sealed a ceasefire with Hamas that Gaza Belt regional heads slammed as being a form of surrender. Attempting to respond to the criticism of abandoning the security in the south, Netanyahu stated “my…

Republican Congressional hopeful Bruce Blakeman continued his high-profile visit to Israel Thursday, meeting with yet more senior Israeli government officials and activists in Jerusalem. Hosted by prominent Zionist activist Dr. Joseph Frager, the exclusive event kicked off with addresses by senior Likud MKs Yariv Levin and Deputy Minister Tzipi Hotoveli (Likud). Both parliamentarians emphasized the…

The Jerusalem Municipality approved Wednesday the construction of the Ohr Sameach yeshiva building in the Shimon Hatzaddik / Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in eastern Jerusalem. The neighborhood is largely Arab but has a growing Jewish population. The building is to be constructed behind a gas station in the neighborhood, in a vacant lot that belongs mostly…

A poll of French opinion on Islamist group ISIS (also known as ISIL) show one out of ever six residents of the country as having a positive view of the terror group. Sixteen percent of French residents said that they would support the establishment of an Islamic “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria, and perhaps beyond.…

Social media and other news outlets in Lebanon and Syria reported on Tuesday that Ahmed Jibril, the 76-year-old head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command, had died. According to some reports, Jibril, whose group is loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime, passed away in the Umia Hospital in…

The Taglit-Birthright Israel program has brought hundreds of thousands of young American Jews to Israel in the past 14 years; now, a new Hebrew track in partnership with the Israeli-American Council (IAC) seeks to widen that Israel experience. Under the new program, which is entitled IAC Shelanu, Israeli-Americans aged 18-26 will be able to experience Israel…

Professor Avi Levy, head of the Hemdat Darom educational institution in Sdot Negev, told Arutz Sheva on Thursday that he was hopeful the region of southern Israel would be safe enough to begin the school year. For 14 years, he said, his college has been dealing with security issues. The institution is not protected against…

According to reports, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met last week with Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas. The meeting was said to have taken place in Amman. The report, in the Jordanian daily Al’ad, quoted diplomatic sources as saying that the meeting occurred several days before the latest cease-fire in the fighting between Israel and Hamas…

The Palestinian Authority said Thursday that it was preparing to submit a demand that the UN Security Council set a timetable for a total Israeli withdrawal from Judea, Samaria, and most of Jerusalem. According to PA spokesperson Nabil Sha’ath, the Arab League will meet on September 5 to endorse the new PA plan. The plan…

The IDF and Israel Security Agency (ISA or Shin Bet) prevented a major cyber attack on Israel during Operation Protective Edge, military officials say.  According to the IDF’s official blog, the unprecedented attack was carried out by anti-Israel hackers “from all over the world”, aided by the Iranian government. The coordinated attack was timed to…

Ministers in his government may be highly critical of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s handling of the Gaza war, but none of them will be breaking up his government any time soon, said Culture and Sport Minister Limor Livnat. Speaking on Israel Radio, Livnat said that those criticizing Netanyahu for not going far enough in fighting…

Israel Police and the Shabak (Israel Security Service) announced Thursday that it had arrested several Arab-Israelis who are accused of aiding and abetting Hezbollah terrorists. The investigation into the detainees went on for several months, and they were arrested on July 27, the announcement said. The investigation was originally designed to uncover the massive drug…

Israel’s ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor has submitted a list of Hamas war crimes that took place during Operation Protective Edge to the UN Security Council. In a message accompanying the list, Prosor wrote that “despite the fact that the Council recognizes that Hamas has committed war crimes, nothing has been done yet about…

Yet another Israeli drone has been reported downed – this time in Iraq. According to a report on the Lebanese Al Mayadeen TV channel, considered a mouthpiece for the Hezbollah terror group, an Israeli drone exploded in mid-air over Baghdad. The report claims that the drone was another Hermes-class craft, the same type of drone that…

One day after the end of Operation Protective Edge the Jewish Home party continues to ride high in the polls, as Prime Minister Netanyahu’s approval ratings continue to nosedive. The Haaretz/Dialogue poll also shows the traditional “right-wing” bloc of Likud, Yisrael Beytenu, Jewish Home, and hareidi parties Shas and United Torah Judaism, rising from 61…

Korean Air will resume flying to Israel on September 13, after shutting down flights to and from Israel at the beginning of Operation Protective Edge in mid-July. Korean Air was the first international carrier to halt flights to Israel, citing safety concerns over flying into Ben Gurion Airport while Hamas rockets were fired at Israel.…

Hamas is split over the cease-fire with Israel, a report in Israel Hayom said Thursday. According to the report, Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal, who lives in Qatar and is close to the heads of the government there, is sorely disappointed with the deal, and considers it a “Hamas failure,” the report said. Mashaal and those…

Amos Gilad, the former IDF general who was a member of the Israeli negotiating team that worked on the Gaza ceasefire, said Thursday that the indirect negotiation process between Israel and Hamas was one of the most “tiring” experiences he had ever been through. “You sit for hours in a room, waiting for the minor…

Syrian rebels have taken UN personnel prisoner after they took over the area near the Quneitra border crossing on the Golan Heights. The UN personnel were stationed on the Syrian side of the border. The UN later confirmed the initial reports of the incident, clarifying the 43 UN peacekeepers had been taken and that it…

Syrian jets shelled rebel positions near a border crossing close to the Israeli side of the Golan Heights, rebels and residents told Reuters overnight Wednesday. Al-Qaeda’s Syria wing, the Al-Nusra Front, alongside moderate rebel groups who had launched the attack early on Wednesday on the border post were “holding ground” despite the heavy bombardment, according…

As the search continues for Aharon Soffer, a 23-year-old yeshiva student from New Jersey who went missing in the Jerusalem Forest last Friday, police are widening the area being searched and adding additional forces to the efforts. A body was found in Ein Kerem Thursday afternoon. Police are attempting to determine if it is Soffer’s.…

An Egyptian jihadist group on Thursday released a video in which it claimed responsibility for beheading four men accused of being “Israeli informants” before showing the victims’ decapitated bodies. In the video, terrorists belonging to Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, considered the deadliest jihadist group in Egypt, say they killed the men in the restive Sinai Peninsula…

Egypt has opened an investigation into deposed president Mohammed Morsi for allegedly handing over to Qatar “documents relevant to national security,” AFP reported on Wednesday, citing Egypt’s state news agency MENA. Morsi is already facing the death penalty in several trials and his supporters have been the target of a bloody crackdown by the authorities…

Ismail Haniyeh, a senior leader of Hamas and formerly its Prime Minister in Gaza, was taken to hospital on Wednesday evening, Channel 2 News reported. There were no details as to what the reason for the hospitalization was, or what his condition is. Senior members of Hamas, however, denied there was anything wrong with Haniyeh.…

The United Nations on Wednesday referred to the shells fired from Syria which hit the Israeli side of the Golan Heights and called on all sides to “exercise restraint”. The United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) in Golan Heights observed a heavy fighting between the Syrian armed forces and armed members of the opposition in…

The Obama administration is investigating reports from Syria that a second American was killed over the weekend while fighting alongside Islamist State (IS, formerly ISIS) extremists, USA Today reported Wednesday. The news comes a day after U.S. officials confirmed that 33-year-old Douglas McCain, who had lived in Southern California and Minnesota, died in a battle…

MK Danny Danon (Likud) on Wednesday evening dismissed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s comments that Operation Protective Edge in Gaza was a success. Danon said that the purpose of the operation was to make the residents of the south feel safe from rockets, and had failed to achieve that goal. “The goal of the operation was…

Opposition leader and head of the Labor party, MK Yitzhak Herzog, said on Wednesday that there is no military solution to the situation in Gaza. Herzog, who spoke of the newly reached ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, said that the ceasefire must ultimately lead to a diplomatic move. “There is no military solution to this…

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon and IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz, who spoke on Wednesday at a press conference along with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, promised that if Hamas resumes the rocket fire towards Israel, it will be dealt an even harsher blow than during Operation Protective Edge. Ya’alon said that Israel had acted “in…

Rabbi Eldad Shmueli, an activist for the Jewish rights to King David’s Tomb in Jerusalem’s Mount Tzion, on Wednesday called on the public to visit the David’s Tomb Compound to fight the change in status quo that threatens Jewish access to the holy site. Speaking to Arutz Sheva about the impact of Operation Protective Edge, which reached…

At roughly 10 p.m. on Wednesday night two mortar shells struck the Golan Heights, hitting open territory to the north of the Quneitra valley. No injuries or damage was reported in the strike, which follows a day of continued shelling of the Golan from Syria. Just several hours earlier a 52-year-old Israeli was lightly wounded by…

The European Union (EU) on Wednesday welcomed a long-term ceasefire between Israel and the terrorist organization Hamas in Gaza, calling for more talks to bring a “comprehensive and sustainable agreement.” “Simply returning to the situation before the latest conflict is not an option,” said a statement from the bloc’s diplomatic arm, the European External Action Service (EEAS). “A sustainable agreement should address…

GOP Congressional candidate Bruce Blakeman is to meet with leading Israeli officials and land of Israel activists in Jerusalem Wednesday, as part of efforts to promote ties between the State of Israel and the US. Blakeman, who is running for New York’s 4th Congressional District is in Israel with prominent pro-Israel activist Dr. Joe Frager. During his…

Even as Prime Minister Binyamin touted a “great military and diplomatic achievement” against Hamas on Wednesday night, a new poll showed the Israeli public overwhelming disagrees with his assessment – and overwhelmingly disagrees with his leadership. The poll, which was conducted by Shiluv Millward Brown and iPanel for the Hebrew-language Channel 2 news site, found that a full…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Wednesday night attempted to respond to the outpouring of criticism for his unilateral decision the night before, in which he sealed a ceasefire deal with the terrorist group Hamas. “With the establishment of the ceasefire I can say that this is a great military and diplomatic achievement,” claimed Netanyahu, accompanied…

An Israeli was lightly wounded by tank fire in the Golan Heights late in the afternoon on Wednesday, after a possibly errant shell struck an Israeli community in the region.  The shell was fired from the Quneitra region of Syria, where intense fighting between the Syrian army and rebel forces has been raging all day.…

Former MK Dr. Michael Ben-Ari slammed the ceasefire deal between Israel and the terrorist organization Hamas on Tuesday night, in a video message on his Facebook page shortly after the deal went into effect at 7 p.m.  “It’s clear to all of us that when a mouse fights with a lion, and the lion pleads for…

A senior Palestinian Authority (PA) official last Friday opposed his organization’s aspirations to sue Israel for “war crimes” at the International Criminal Court (ICC). His reason – such a move might prevent Arabs under PA jurisdiction from “shooting Israelis.” The official, Abbas Zaki, is a leader in PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction. His comments…

In a recent Friday sermon by a Muslim cleric in Azuqueca De Henares, Spain, the rampant anti-Semitism palpable in that country was put on display in rare fashion. The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) on Monday translated the speech by Sheikh Saleheoldine El Moussaoui, who concluded his words with the rousing prayer: “Oh Allah, destroy the…

Israel is claiming victory in the 50-day war with Hamas, which temporarily ended in a ceasefire that went into force Tuesday. “We were victorious in the negotiation phase,” said Liran Dan, Head of the National Information Directorate in the Prime Minister’s Office, in an interview with IDF Radio Wednesday. “The military blow that the IDF…

Two of Hamas’s major sponsors and backers, Iran and Qatar, have hailed the ceasefire agreement it reached with Israel Tuesday as a victory for the Gaza terror organization. Iran said Wednesday that Palestinians had emerged the victors and brought their Israeli foe “to its knees” during the 50-day conflict. “The heroic Palestinian people have forged…

The search for the Yeshiva student who disappeared in the Jerusalem Forest some time this past Friday afternoon, Aharon Soffer, continues. A 100,000 shekel reward has been offered by Soffer’s parents to anyone offering information that can lead to the missing yeshiva student. Search and Rescue units from the Etzion Samaria-Judea unit are working together with the Jerusalem…

The heads of local government in the Gaza Belt region are sorely disappointed with the prime minister for accepting a ceasefire with Hamas. Tamir Idan, who heads the Sdot Negev Regional Council, said that “if the reports in the mdeia are right, and the agreement for a ceasefire is for one month only, in which…

Turkey’s new premier and outgoing foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu leaves his successor a troubled legacy after a bold policy to expand Turkish influence across the ex-Ottoman empire left the country painfully exposed to the Syria and Iraq crises. Critics accuse Davutoglu of pursuing ideas that backfired disastrously by backing Islamic rebels in Syria who then went on to create…

Pitched battles between Syrian president Bashar Assad’s forces and rebels, in the area of Quneitra, spilled over into Israel Wednesday morning. Two mortar shells exploded in the Israeli Golan Heights. They caused no casualties but damaged some vehicles. Shortly afterwards, an IDF officer was light-to-moderately wounded by what is believed to be stray gunfire from the…

Naveh (7) and Yehiya (9) Tubul returned from their first day of school on Wednesday at a yeshiva in Nazareth Illit; on their way home, they were accosted by Arab children who asked if they were Jewish and proceeded to hurl rocks at them. Yehiya spoke to Arutz Sheva about the harrowing experience, saying “after we finished…

A United Nations humanitarian aid convoy crossed into Gaza from Egypt on Wednesday, for the first time since Israel imposed a security blockade on the Hamas-ruled terror haven in 2007. Egypt since last year has imposed a siege of its own on Gaza. The World Food Program (WFP) said the convoy, which entered Gaza through the Rafah Crossing, carried enough…

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman (Yisrael Beytenu) on Wednesday launched a verbal barrage on the ceasefire deal reached with the Hamas terrorist organization the night before. “It is forbidden to make peace with Hamas, and as long as Hamas exists it’s impossible to make peace,” wrote Liberman on his Facebook page. “As long as Hamas rules…

Former British prime minister Tony Blair welcomed on Tuesday the announcement of an open-ended ceasefire in Gaza but expressed regret at the “tragic” loss of so many innocent lives, reports the Press Association. Blair, who serves as the Quartet’s Middle East peace envoy also congratulated the Egyptian government on its successful negotiations between Israel and…

The name of the second man killed by a mortar shell that struck Kibbutz Nirim Tuesday has been cleared for publication. The victim is Shahar Melamed, 43. He is survived by three children and his wife, Anat. Melamed was born in the kibbutz and worked as manager of its garage. He is described as an…

After a year and a half of intensive operations and treatment, four-and-a-half-year-old Adelle Biton will be returning to her home in the town of Yakir, in Samaria, tomorrow (Thursday). But along with her family’s the joy at her return, there are also fears for the long road to recovery which lies ahead for the infant…

An 11-month-old baby girl was lightly hurt Wednesday when Arabs threw rocks at the car she was in, at Yitzhar junction in Samaria. A Magen David Adom ambulance that was alerted reached the junction and gave the baby first aid. It then took her to Schneider Children’s Hospital in Petah Tikva. The ambulance driver said…

Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz (Likud) spoke in an interview on Wednesday about Operation Protective Edge, which reached a somewhat anti-climatic conclusion the night before at 7 p.m., when a ceasefire was signed between Israel and the terror organization Hamas. Talking to BBC‘s HARDtalk TV program, Steinitz summarized the 50 day operation as being “for nothing. This…

A U.S. Coast Guard vessel had a tense encounter with an Iranian fishing boat in the Gulf on Tuesday and fired a warning shot, the Pentagon said, according to AFP. The Coast Guard cutter Monomoy sent a small, inflatable boat to approach the Iranian dhow and when it got close, the Americans spotted two 50-caliber…

An American fighting for the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) was killed over the weekend in Syria, U.S. officials said on Tuesday, according to AFP. The United States had been aware that Douglas McCain, 33, a one-time aspiring rapper and basketball fan from California, was in war-torn Syria, the White House said, confirming his death.…

In welcoming the long-term ceasefire in Gaza, United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon voiced hope on Tuesday that it will set the stage for talks on a final Israeli-Palestinian Authority (PA) peace deal. “The secretary-general remains hopeful that the extended ceasefire will act as a prelude to a political process as the only way of…

Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, chairman of the Jewish Home party, said on Tuesday that Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon should not be criticized for cancelling a visit to Kibbutz Nahal Oz for what was said to be “security considerations”. The cancellation of the visit caused anger among members of the kibbutz and was also criticized by…

MK Ofer Shelah (Yesh Atid) said on Tuesday that he hesitantly supports the long-term ceasefire in Gaza. “Israel’s real test starts now,” said Shelah, who called for Israel to turn the ceasefire into a long-term arrangement. “The fighting of the soldiers and the resolve of the people of the south allowed us to strike Hamas,…

The United States gave full backing Tuesday to the announcement of a long-term ceasefire between Israel and the terror group Hamas, a truce that roughly half of the Israeli Security Cabinet opposed, but was not given a chance to vote on. US Secretary of State John Kerry called the deal “an opportunity, not a certainty,” even while…

Senior Hamas official Mahmoud Al-Zahar declared on Tuesday that the group would build a seaport and airport in Gaza, even without permission. Al-Zahar hinted that any construction materials brought into Gaza for the purpose of its reconstruction will also be used for the construction of the seaport and airport. “We will build our airport and…

The name of one of the victims of Tuesday’s mortar attack on Kibbutz Nirim in the Eshkol Regional Council was cleared for publication on Tuesday night: Ze’evik Etzion, 55. Etzion, the security coordinator of Kibbutz Nirim, was the first casualty in the attack. He was critically wounded and shortly thereafter died of his wounds. A…

One of the victims of Tuesday’s rocket attack on the Eshkol region was pronounced dead at the Soroka Hospital in Be’er Sheva on Tuesday evening. This brings the death toll in that attack to two, as one person was critically wounded in the attack and shortly thereafter died of his wounds. Five other people were…

While Gaza residents celebrated Hamas’s “victory” as a ceasefire with Israel went into effect at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, a senior Israeli diplomatic source argued that the hard-hit terror organization hadn’t won. The source told Arutz Sheva that “in recent days there was heavy pressure within Hamas to reach a ceasefire, as a result of the price…

Israel’s Magen David Adom (MDA) ambulance service attended to 842 civilian casualties during 50 days of Operation Protective Edge, as terrorists in Gaza showered rockets and mortars on Israeli population centers. That number included five fatalities, and 37 people suffering various degrees of injury from rocket shrapnel. Of those, one was classified as “critically” wounded,…

Azzam al-Ahmed, head of the Palestinian Authority (PA) delegation in the Cairo truce talks, revealed to AFP on Tuesday night what exactly was in the long-term ceasefire deal that Israel agreed to, and which went into effect at 7 p.m. that night. The first point raised was Gaza border crossings. Under the agreement, there will be an immediate…

Several senior Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders appeared in public on Tuesday shortly after a Gaza truce took hold, the first time they had done so since the conflict began on July 8. Among them was Mahmoud al-Zahar, a senior member of the Hamas political wing, and senior Islamic Jihad leader Mohammed al-Hindi who gave…

Roughly half the cabinet was opposed to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s decision to agree to an open-ended ceasefire with Hamas – but the decision was passed unilaterally by the PM anyway. Government sources told Walla! news that a legal technicality meant the Prime Minister did not need to gain the approval of his cabinet to accept the…

Heads of the southern Regional Councils are protesting the new long-term ceasefire with Hamas, and urging their residents not to return to the homes they fled under intensive rocket fire. The head of the Eshkol Regional Council, Haim Yellin, noted that a man was killed and two others seriously wounded in his constituency just one…

Maccabi Tel Aviv’s Spanish coach Oscar Garcia has stepped down from his post with the club over security fears due to the war in Gaza, the club said on Tuesday. “Oscar Garcia has announced he will be leaving Maccabi Tel Aviv FC due to the current security situation,” a statement on the soccer club’s official…

Hamas has achieved a major achievement in its long-term ceasefire deal with Israel that started on Tuesday at 7 p.m., according to Channel 2 News’ military analyst Roni Daniel. Commenting on the rumored ceasefire shortly before it was confirmed by the government minutes before taking effect, Daniel noted that Knesset members previously threatened that Hamas will leave…

An Egyptian-brokered ceasefire began at 7 p.m. (16:00 GMT) today (Tuesday), after being officially accepted by the Israeli government just minutes before. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu informed cabinet ministers of the decision via a telephone call, just minutes before it was to go into effect.  Communications Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud) and Economics Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish…

Israeli security assessments of the threat posed by Islamic State (formerly known as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIS) to the region indicate that its lawlessness, not the group itself, threaten the Middle East, according to a recent article. Dr. Yoram Schweitzer, of the Institute for National Security Studies, served as a strategic consultant…

An Israeli air strike has destroyed much of one of Gaza’s tallest apartment and office buildings, setting off explosions and wounding 20 people, Gaza health officials said. Israel had no immediate comment on Tuesday’s attack. Seventy families lived in the building, which also housed offices and a shopping complex. It was known as the Italian…

The Israel Security Agency (ISA, or Shin Bet) has published a report on Hamas’s use of public buildings as cover for operational activity. The ISA said that interrogation of captives taken in Operation Protective Edge gave a “somewhat disturbing” picture of Hamas’s use of civilians and public buildings to carry out military activity, “out of…

The United States said on Monday it was against Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas’s plan to go the United Nations and ask it to set a deadline for Israel to withdraw from Judea and Samaria. “We support President Abbas’s objective to achieve a two-state solution, but we believe that if the Palestinians resort to the ICC,…

The United States is preparing military options, including surveillance flights, to pressure the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) in Syria, U.S. officials said on Monday, according to Reuters. They stressed, however, that no decision had been made to expand U.S. action beyond the limited airstrikes under way in Iraq. General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the…

A member of the Islamic State (IS, formerly known as ISIS) has threatened that the organization would soon use unmanned drones to attack Israel. The IS member, a Canadian who left his country to fight alongside the IS in the areas of Iraq and Syria it declared to be an Islamic Caliphate, claimed on Twitter…

A Hamas rocket scored a direct hit on a home in Ashkelon at about 6:30 Tuesday morning, causing light injuries to six members of the family that lives in it and to dozens of residents of nearby buildings. One of them, an eight year old boy, was reportedly injured in the face by broken glass. The…

The southern kibbutz community of Nahal Oz will name a new residential neighborhood after Daniel Tragerman hy”d, the four-year-old murdered by a Hamas mortar shell Friday. The neighborhood will include 40 housing units. Doron and Gila, Daniel’s parents, recounted their version of events during a noon press conference Monday. “This deadly mortar shell struck after several explosions…

The Jerusalem District Attorney on Tuesday submitted an indictment against Wael Karameh, an Arab resident of Jerusalem’s Anata neighborhood in the east of the capital, for aiding the murderers of Eyal Yifrah (19), Naftali Frenkel (16) and Gilad Sha’ar (16) hy”d. The indictment that was submitted to the Jerusalem Magistrates Court charged Karameh with disturbing court…

After Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Monday night called together senior security sources to discuss a long-term ceasefire with Hamas and other Gazan terrorists as proposed by Egypt, Palestinian Authority (PA) sources on Tuesday afternoon claim Israel has agreed to the truce. A senior PA official told AFP that a “permanent” ceasefire for Gaza has been reached…

A Jewish couple in New York were physically assaulted Monday by an anti-Semitic gang, who then fled the scene in cars flying the Palestinian Authority flag, according to the New York Post. Police sources say two cars and several motorbikes suddenly pulled up next to the couple as they were walking on East 63rd Street near Third…

A Beitar Illit resident just barely escaped a lynching attempt Tuesday, after Palestinian Arab thugs from Husan attacked his vehicle. The Arabs attacked the resident near the entrance to Beitar Illit, reports say, and began dragging him into nearby Husan. According to 0404 news, during the attack the Arabs pelted his vehicle with rocks, as well…

A rocket struck an empty kindergarten playground in Ashdod Tuesday afternoon, causing damage but leaving no injuries.  This is the fourth strike on a school in six weeks, and the third on a playground in seven days.  The previous rocket strike barely missed a packed kindergarten in Ashkelon; less than 24 hours earlier, a rocket wounded…

Four days have passed since the disappearance of Aharon Soffer, a 23-year-old hareidi yeshiva student from America who was last seen last Friday around noon in the Jerusalem Forest. Soffer’s family members expressed their great anxiety for his welfare, an anxiety has been heightened by rumors that he may possibly have been abducted. Three Israeli teens…

The owner of a house which suffered a direct hit in a rocket attack in Ashkelon this morning, has told of his “miraculous” escape. Yuval Cohen said his family was sleeping when the air raid sirens sounded, and says it was a miracle they had not been killed.   “We were in our bedroom when…

The Zionist Organization of America expresses “appall” at the Gaza resolution under UN Security Council consideration – and especially at the US for apparently agreeing to it. The proposed ceasefire resolution does not specifically condemn Hamas by name, but rather equates Hamas terrorism and the Israeli response to it. The resolution wording condemns “all violence…

Hamas’s true objective in Operation Protective Edge – and negotiations that may follow – is in “liberating” Jerusalem from the Jews, a Hamas spokesman stated earlier this week.  “The time has come for us to say that the true war is not aimed at opening border crossings,” Sami Abu Zuhri said. “Our true war is…

A new poll released by the Hebrew-language Channel 2 news site on Monday reveals that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s approval rating has fallen as a “casualty” in the faltering Operation Protective Edge. The poll, conducted by Shiluv Millward Brown and iPanel for the news source, found in the last four days Netanyahu’s support has taken a sharp…

Sirens sounded throughout the Upper Galilee close to 10:15 pm Monday night, just before a series of explosions were heard near Kiryat Shmona. The IDF confirmed that two rockets were fired from Lebanon at northern Israel. No injuries or damage were reported. The IDF “retaliated with artillery fire towards the source of the attack,” the…

The IDF continues to show that Hamas’s terrorist leaders are not immune in the war they started on Israel, as the son-in-law of Hamas spokesperson Fawzi Barhoum was killed on Monday. Abdullah Mortaja, the son-in-law of the Hamas leader, was killed in a strike by the IDF. Yedioth Aharonoth reported on his connection to Barhoum. The 27-year-old…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon and IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz as well as other senior security officials on Monday night, to discuss a proposed month-long ceasefire with Hamas. A diplomatic source told Walla! that Egypt gave Israel a detailed document outlining the ceasefire, adding that the Nile state is interested…

The White House said over the weekend it was ready to “take action” against any threat to America, as it indicated a serious consideration of US military strikes against the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) in Syria. However, the move has simply drawn scorn from Syrian rebels fighting on the ground against IS terrorists up close.  “Airstrikes…

At approximately 6 p.m. on Monday evening Gaza terrorists launched a particularly ferocious mortar barrage on the Sedot Negev and Sha’ar Hanegev Regional Council areas. A full 20 mortar shells peppered the Israeli communities in the course of a mere ten minutes – miraculously no injuries were inflicted by the onslaught. Around half-an-hour before the…

An informative new video posted to YouTube on Monday by the IDF shows how the damage in Gaza reported by the UN is only giving half of the picture, and skewing the facts on the ground. In the video maps published by the UN showing Gaza buildings damaged in Operation Protective Edge are represented by…

Hundreds of people have evacuated southern and Gaza Belt region communities, Israeli news outlets began reporting this week, as rocket fire from Gaza has escalated dramatically.  To help ease the lives of the displaced, a special program has begun through the city of Ariel and Ariel University in Samaria to host the evacuees and their…

The Chabad center in Mumbai will reopen its doors on Tuesday, nearly six years after terrorists stormed the building and killed six people inside during the 2008 attacks on the city, AFP reports. One of several high-profile targets assaulted by the gunmen, Chabad House in south Mumbai was left bullet-ridden and bereft of its directors…

Deputy Minister Ofir Akunis (Likud) dismissed on Monday the threat against Israel issued by Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, as reported by his aides on Sunday. Those aides said that Abbas will soon appeal to the international community to set a deadline for Israel to withdraw back to the pre-1967 borders and make way…

The State of Israel will not sanction the organized evacuation of the Gaza Belt region, Finance Minister Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) insisted Monday night, despite the rocket fire pelting the communities near Gaza on a minute-by-minute basis.  “Just because someone says to himself, ‘I do not want my children in the line of fire, I…

Egypt is reportedly offering Hamas and Israel a new, month-long ceasefire, but Israel has yet to agree, media outlets reported on Monday. According to Army Radio, as part of the emerging truce, Israel will open the border crossings to Gaza and slightly increase the fishing area off the coast of Gaza. Senior sources in Cairo…

The United States has prepared its own draft outline for a UN resolution demanding a ceasefire between in Gaza, Reuters reported on Monday. Diplomats told the news agency that Washington is now working with European powers and Jordan on a joint text for the resolution. U.S. officials and diplomats from other UN member states said…

Three children were wounded on Monday evening in a rock attack in the Wadi Joz neighborhood of eastern Jerusalem. The attack occurred when a 22-year-old Arab terrorist threw rocks towards a vehicle that was travelling in the neighborhood. Undercover police officers arrested the masked rock thrower, who tried to resist arrest by throwing rocks at…

Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ Air Force, gave more details about an Israeli drone allegedly shot down over above the Natanz uranium enrichment site Sunday. Speaking on Monday night, Hajizadeh said that the drone was an Israeli-made “Hermes” drone with a maximum flight range of 1,600 km (994 miles) and a…

Justice Minister and Security Cabinet member Tzipi Livni said Monday that the criticism being leveled at Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz – by unnamed Cabinet ministers, news reporters and residents of the Gaza Belt – is unfair. “The Chief of Staff has been wronged,” she told Walla! news. “I do not tend to hide behind…

Jihadi forces from the Islamic State organization have seized a military airport which was the last remaining Syrian army outpost in the country’s northern Raqqa province, capturing heavy weapons including missiles, tanks, artillery batteries, helicopters and warplanes. Tabqa airbase fell Sunday night after days of fighting claimed the lives of approximately 500 Syrian soldiers and…

Israeli social media users are challenging Argentinian-Spanish soccer superstar Lionel Messi to acknowledge the death of Daniel Tregerman, a four-year-old Israeli boy who admired the international soccer star. Daniel was killed by a Hamas mortar shell fired at his home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz Friday. Last photos of Daniel show him sporting Messi’s number 10…

Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Ron Prosor, has labeled Qatar “a Club Med for terrorists” and urged world leaders to pressure the gulf state to end its funding for Hamas. In a New York Times oped, Prosor insists that the only way to end ongoing violence between Israel and Gazan terrorist groups for good is…

Barak Seener, an Associate fellow at Britain’s Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies, thinks Israel is “choosing not to win” the war in Gaza. Seener – who has provided analysis and expert commentary for a range of international broadcasters and news outlets including the Associated Press, Al-Jazeera, BBC, CNN, Chinese CCTV, Fox…

Israel is set to accept an indefinite ceasefire with Gazan terrorist groups, which will last for a minimum of one month, unnamed security sources told Walla! news. Barring any last-minuted developments, the Egyptian-brokered deal will go into effect today, according to the source, ushering in an “open-ended” ceasefire between Israel and Gazan terrorists, primarily Hamas and Islamic…

Gaza terrorists have fired tens of rockets at southern Israel Monday morning, as well as at least one long-range rocket at central Israel. At 6:00 a.m., the first salvo was fired at the Eshkol region. Two rockets exploded near the border between Israel and Gaza without causing any damage or injury. Fifteen minutes later, two…

Hamas has been severely shaken by string of Israeli airstrikes targeting its most senior leadership in Gaza, and is continuing a witch-hunt against suspected “collaborators” in an effort to ascertain how Israel knew of their whereabouts despite their best efforts to remain undetected. Following a spate of at least 25 executions carried out by Hamas…

Jordanian military prosecutors on Monday charged eight suspects, including a Syrian fugitive, with plotting to attack US soldiers and Israel’s embassy in the Hashemite kingdom, as well as trying to recruit people to join the Lebanese- based terror group Hezbollah. “State security court prosecutors accused the eight men with plotting to carry out terrorist acts, including attacks against US soldiers…

Heavy mourning and difficult feelings pervade the family home of Daniel Tragerman, hy”d, the four year-old boy who was killed last Friday from fatal injuries after a mortar shell attack on his Nahal Oz home.  Doron and Gila, Daniel’s parents, recounted their version of events during a noon press conference Monday. “This deadly mortar shell…

In coordinated action between the IDF and the Israel Security Agency (ISA) on Sunday, terrorists from the Gaza terror group “Army of Islam” were eliminated right before they were about to attack Israel. The terrorists were driving together in a car in Gaza City, and according to the IDF were about to launch rockets from…

Terrorist factions in Gaza are apparently split once again over the possibility of accepting an Egyptian ceasefire proposal, with Hamas stubbornly refusing to accept it and at least two Islamic Jihad leaders claiming a truce will come into effect imminently. Islamic Jihad official Khaled al-Battash told interviewers a ceasefire would be coming into effect “within…

Chief Ashkenazic Rabbi David Lau on Monday took part in EduAction, the largest educational conference in Israel, where he was asked about what religious Jewish education can learn from the secular Israeli educational system. The word “secular” is lost in translation when it comes to Judaism according to Rabbi Lau, who spoke at the annual…

Finance Minister Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) visited the house of four year-old mortar shell victim Daniel Tragerman hy”d Monday afternoon during the shiva (mourning) period, and gave a special warning to Hamas. “Hamas leaders should know that they will pay for the death of Daniel and what they are doing to the residents of the South,” Lapid said…

A British journalist working for Al Jazeera was held against his will while trying to get an interview at London’s Finsbury Park Mosque, which formerly was run by the notorious Al Qaeda cleric Abu Hamza, recently convicted on multiple terror charges. In an article Sunday, journalist Ben Flanagan documented his visit along with video footage filmed on…

Bruce Blakeman, a candidate for the Fourth Congressional District of New York, will be visiting Israel this week. Ahead of the visit, Blakeman and Congressman Peter King, who will be part of the trip as well, told Arutz Sheva that they support Israel’s right to defend itself from Hamas’s rocket attacks. “Hamas is a deadly…

The political chief of Hamas has called on President Barack Obama to intervene with the Israeli government to “lift the siege” of Gaza and push for a cease-fire in the conflict to stop a “holocaust” against the Palestinians. “You as the leader of the most powerful state in the world, I ask you to call…

Tourism Minister Uzi Landau (Yisrael Beytenu) has asked Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to make the area near Gaza a VAT-free zone, like Eilat, for one year. In a letter addressed to Netanyahu, as well as to Economy Minister Naftali Bennett and Finance Minister Yair Lapid, he noted that “while the Security Cabinet runs the military…

Tehran will “accelerate” arming Palestinians in Judea and Samaria in retaliation for Israel allegedly deploying a spy drone over Iran, which was shot down, a military commander said on Monday. “We will accelerate the arming of the West Bank and we reserve the right to give any response,” said General Amir-Ali Hajizadeh, commander of aerial…

Hours after Iran claimed it had brought down an Israeli stealth drone above the Natanz uranium enrichment site, a senior Iranian official said on Sunday that parts of the drone remained intact. General Ramazan Sharif, a spokesman for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, was quoted by The Associated Press (AP) as having told Iranian state television…