Category: News

Eight people suffered light injuries Saturday evening when they drove into an Arab rock ambush near Al Fawar in the Mount Hevron areas. They were taken to Soroka Hospital in Be’er Sheva. Voice of Israel public radio said that the rocks struck a bus and a car. Last Tuesday, five people were lightly injured in…

In a surprising revelation, the terrorist group behind a failed assassination attempt on Egypt’s Interior Minister has claimed that the suicide bomber who carried out the attack was actually a Major in the Egyptian army. The Al Qaeda-linked Ansar Beit al-Makdis, which has carried out numerous attacks in the lawless Sinai Region, has been circulating…

Attacks in Iraq killed 10 people on Saturday, seven of them from the same family, security and medical officials told the AFP news agency. In the Dura area of southern Baghdad, gunmen armed with silenced weapons shot dead a father, mother, four sons and the wife of one of them at their home, the officials…

Sixteen rebels have been hanged in Iran in retaliation for the deaths of at least 14 border guards in an ambush, the BBC reported on Saturday, citing Iranian news agencies. The rebels were “linked to groups hostile to the regime”, the attorney general of Sistan-Baluchistan province was quoted as saying. They were hanged in prison…

Police charged three people Saturday over an anti-Semitic attack in Sydney’s eastern suburbs that left one man seriously injured. Four men and a woman were walking on Blair Street, Bondi, at about 12:30 AM Saturday,  on their way home from a Sabbath eve meal, when a group of about eight young men began yelling anti-Semitic…

Senior Iranian lawmaker Alaeddin Boroujerdi said on Saturday Iran is continuing the enrichment of uranium to the 20-percent purity level, reported Iran’s official PressTV. Iran’s nuclear energy activities continue as in the past, said Boroujerdi, who is the chairman of the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee of Iran’s Majlis, or parliament. Iran decided to…

Philanthropist Rabbi Moshe Paul Reichmann, who was considered the greatest supporter of the Torah world, passed away on Friday. He was 83. Together with his brothers, Edward, Ralph and Albert, he founded the Olympia and York building and property development firm, which expanded to New York and Tokyo. By the mid-1980s it was the largest…

A man aged about 60 fell to his death Saturday during a family hike at Nahal Prat (Wadi Kelt), near Kfar Adumim, between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea. An initial police investigation determined that the man, a resident of central Israel, was walking down a narrow path when slid and fell into the ravine from…

Israelis are to move their clocks and watches back by one hour Saturday night, as daylight saving time ends. At 2:00 AM, clocks will be moved back to show 1:00 AM. People with smartphones who set them manually to Athens time will now have to reset them to Israel time. In Android phones, select the Jerusalem time…

A car bomb explosion killed at least 20 people and wounded dozens more near a mosque in the Damascus province town of Suq Wadi Barada on Friday, a monitor said, according to the AFP news agency. The town is under rebel control, but troops loyal to the regime of President Bashar Al-Assad were positioned right…

France believed the United States attempted to hack into its president’s communications network but the U.S. hinted that Israel was behind the attack, AFP reported on Friday, based on a leaked U.S. intelligence document. According to the report, U.S. agents denied having anything to do with the May 2012 cyber attack on the Elysee Palace,…

A 30-centimeter (12-inch) tsunami hit Japan on Friday after a 7.1-magnitude earthquake was felt in the country, AFP reported, citing local broadcaster NHK. There were no immediate signs of serious damage or injury from the tsunami and people were being warned to stay away from the coast. The tsunami hit around an hour after the…

Turkey’s foreign minister on Thursday deplored what he called an international failure to tackle the humanitarian crisis in war-ridden Syria, Reuters reported. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said food and medicine for Syrians are running out and noted that snipers were shooting pregnant women. Davutoglu said that Turkey, which has received more than 600,000 Syrian refugees,…

The National Security Agency (NSA) monitored the phone conversations of 35 world leaders after being given the numbers by an official in another U.S. government department, the Guardian reported on Thursday. The report is based on a classified document provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden. The leaders were not named. The confidential memo reveals that the…

It is very likely that American spy agencies are listening in on Israeli leaders’ phone calls, as they are accused of having done in Germany and dozens of other countries, former Mossad head Danny Yatom told Maariv/nrg. “It could very well be that it happened here, too, because when the Americans think they need to…

Palestinian Authority security services in have arrested three students in Judea accused of plotting to build a “drone” with which to attack Israel, a source said Friday. The three Hebron University engineering students had intended to build a small pilotless aircraft equipped with explosives, according to a PA security source.     But before they could carry out…

Iran could produce enough weapons-grade uranium to build a nuclear bomb in as little as a month, according to a new estimate by the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), considered one of the United States’ top nuclear experts. ISIS made the estimate in a new report published on Thursday by USA Today. “Shortening…

Israel’s national airline, El Al, is presenting to the public its new Boeing 737-900 jets. Boeing announced Thursday that El Al has ordered two more Boeing 737-900 jets, the higher-capacity, longer-range version of its popular single-aisle jetliner. The order for the 737-900 is valued at $192.2 million at list prices, but airlines can negotiate a…

The South-Eastern African state of Tanzania now has its first pediatric heart surgeon, after Dr Godwin Godfrey returned home following five years of training in Israel. The Israel based humanitarian project Save a Child’s Heart (SACH), organized Dr Godwin’s training in a landmark achievement that also saw it train a complete surgical team from a foreign state for the first time. Since…

Germany has summoned the US ambassador to Berlin to demand a “complete explanation”, over claims that US intelligence agencies spied on telephone calls made by the country’s Chancellor Angela Merkel. American Ambassador John Emerson will meet German Foreign minister Guido Westerwelle later today (Thursday), as EU leaders meet for a two-day summit in Brussels. Those talks are likely to be…

Five people have been killed and 50 wounded in four days of gun battles in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli. A man named as Misbah Al-Nazer was reportedly shot dead by snipers, becoming the latest victim of ongoing fighting between warring factions supporting opposite sides in the civil war in neighboring Syria. Lebanon’s Daily Star identified…

Five Arab teens from Jerusalem, all aged 14-15, have been indicted for an anti-Semitic attack targeting a Jewish family’s home in the Old City. The youths are accused of property damage motivated by racism, attempted assault motivated by racism, and rioting. According to the indictment, the youths met on September 27, 2013 and agreed to throw…

Saudi Arabia’s interior ministry has warned against “disturbing social peace” and has threatened to use force against a planned campaign by women to challenge a de facto ban on them driving, Al Arabiya reports. “Regulations in Saudi Arabia prohibit any action that disturbs social peace and opens the door for sedition and responds to the…

An explosion near the airport in Syria’s capital, Damascus, has been followed by a blackout in parts of the country, it was reported on Wednesday night. According to the BBC, power was cut after rebel artillery hit a gas pipeline. Residents say the entire capital has been plunged into darkness, while officials have described the…

The dead suspect in last April’s Boston marathon bombings has been named in court papers as a participant in a triple murder, the BBC reports. Tamerlan Tsarnaev is alleged to have taken part in the killings in Waltham, Massachusetts, in September 2011, according to the report. Three men, one of whom had been a friend…

At least 28 people have been killed in a string of attacks by suspected Al Qaeda terrorists in Iraq’s western Anbar province Tuesday night. 25 of those killed are believed to be police, and the remaining three unarmed civilians. Four of the attacks – all of which took place between 10pm and 12am according to Al Arabiya – were in…

Turkish Jews are leaving the country due to growing anti-Semitism, exacerbated by the Islamist AKP government’s antagonism towards Israel and Jews. So says Nesim Güveniş, deputy chairman the Association of Turkish Jews in Israel. Speaking to Turkey’s Hurriyet Daily Güveniş claimed that young Jews are particularly keen to leave, hundreds of whom have already moved to the US and Europe in…

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has reportedly phoned US President Barack Obama Wednesday, over allegations US spy agencies monitored her telephone conversations. The Chancellor’s spokesman released a statement saying that Merkel “views such practices… as completely unacceptable.” “Among close friends and partners, as the Federal Republic of Germany and the US have been for decades, there should…

IAF warplanes attacked a shipment of advanced missiles that Syria was transferring to Hezbollah, according to Kuwaiti newspaper Al Jareeda. The attack took place on Monday. An official source in Jerusalem reportedly confirmed the attack took place but did not say where. The missiles were reportedly “long range and accurate” ones. In late July, IAF…

For the first time ever, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has sent a special letter of support to Hevron’s Jewish community, in honor of “Shabbat Hevron,” during which thousands of people are expected to visit Hevron. The gesture may be politically meaningful, and could be construed as a message of steadfastness connected to ongoing “peace talks”…

Muslims in Brunei who commit adultery can expect to face the death penalty by stoning if found out, according to new sharia law being introduced in the South East Asian state. The UK’s Daily Telegraph has reported the Sultan of Brunei is set to usher in a range of capital and corporal punishments according to…

MK Ibrahim Sarsour (Ra’am Ta’al) has come out with yet another virulently anti-Israeli statement. This time, the MK has praised a speech by Hamas head in Gaza Ismail Haniyeh which included a call for “popular resistance” against Israel – a phrase which Hamas uses to refer to terrorism. In his October 19 speech, Haniyeh slammed…

A study of fossil pollen particles in sediments extracted from the bottom of the Sea of Galilee has revealed evidence of a climate crisis that traumatized the Near East from the middle of the 13th to the late 12th century BCE, scientists say. The crisis brought about the collapse of the great empires of the…

Hamas on Tuesday claimed responsibility for a 2012 Tel Aviv bus bombing attack, hours after IDF and Shin Bet forces killed one of the attack’s planners. In a statement, Hamas’s “military wing”, the Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades, said that the attack was carried out by a terror cell consisting of three members, one of which…

Despite a relatively low voter turnout in Israel’s municipal elections, preliminary results have found that the mayors of Israel’s three largest cities – Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa – have been re-elected for another five years. Low voter turnout in both Jerusalem and Tel Aviv had incumbents Nir Barkat and Ron Huldai concerned. However, after…

The anti-Zionist Neturei Karta hareidi sect was named on Monday one of the top 10 most influential and active anti-Israel groups in the United States, in a list released by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Each of the groups on the list, according to ADL’s research, is “fixated with delegitimizing Israel” and has demonstrated the ability…

“Israel’s air force is the best in the world,” President Shimon Peres told soldiers on a tour of the Palmahim air force base on Tuesday. Chief of Staff Benny Gantz and Air Force Commander General Amir Eshel led the tour, which viewed some of the air force’s most advanced technology. Reminding the world of Israel’s capability to defend…

Iran has presented Russia with a gift of an exact copy of an advanced US spy drone. The UK’s Guardian newspaper has reported the copy of the US ScanEagle drone was given to Russia at a meeting between the two countries’ air force commanders earlier this week in Tehran. Last month, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard unveiled the “Yasseer” –…

Polling stations across Israel have closed, with counting now beginning in the country’s municipal elections held every five years. The most recent turnout was given as 42.63%.  By 8.30 p.m. Ministry Interior statistics said 32% of voters had turned out in the capital Jerusalem, while In Tel Aviv, under a quarter of residents,  22% had cast ballots according to the ministry. …

The terrorist killed Tuesday in a cave by IDF and Shin Bet special forces in Samaria is Mohammed Assi, 28, a planner of a Tel Aviv bus bombing last year. The attack, which injured 29, was carried out in the course of the IDF counter-terror operation in Gaza, Pillar of Defense. Assi had been in…

One terrorist is dead after terrorists exchanged fire with special IDF and Shin Bet forces who were carrying out an arrest operation at Bil’in, in the Binyamin region. One of the terrorists was holed up inside a cave and fired on the soldiers, who fired back and killed him. There have been no Israeli casualties. One terrorist…

An earthquake measuring 3.3 on the Richter scale took place Tuesday in northern Israel, according to the Israel Geophysical Institute. It is the fifth quake in the Galilee in less than a week. The quake was centered at a depth of two kilometers, beneath the Sea of Galilee (Kinneret). Two quakes were felt in the…

A leading Syrian rebel commander and former officer in the Syrian army has been killed in clashes with regime forces Monday. Yasser al-Aboud was reportedly killed leading an assault on Syrian army checkpoints in the town of Tafas, near the Jordanian border, according to reports. Al-Aboud was one of the first Syrian army commanders to defect…

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg will receive the first “Jewish Nobel Prize,” to be awarded by the Genesis Philanthropy Group. The group will award its one million dollar Genesis Prize to Bloomberg at a ceremony in May, it said. The prize is awarded annually in recognition of “exceptional human beings who, through their outstanding achievement,…

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry declared on Monday that talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority were intensifying and that all issues were on the table. According to a report in the AFP news agency, Kerry also announced that Qatar had agreed to provide $150 million in debt relief to the Palestinian Authority. Speaking…

Four rockets fired from Syria have struck the town of Hermel, a Hezbollah stronghold in north-eastern Lebanon. Security officials told the Lebanese Daily Star that one of the rockets struck a Lebanese army barracks in the town, but that no casualties were reported in any of the strikes. A fifth rocket landed in the town’s outskirts.…

A week after the IDF exposed a terror tunnel that led from Gaza to a Jewish community, IDF forces on Monday found and defused a powerful explosive charge that had been planted by terrorists near the security fence that separates Israel from the central part of Gaza. During routine morning activity on the security path…

Reports of the death of the peace process with Israel have been greatly exaggerated, Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday. In an interview with German television network Deutsche Welle, Abbas said that peace negotiations with Israel have not reached a deadlock, as reported by the Maariv newspaper recently. Abbas would not give…

A bomb attack on a bus in the Russian city of Volgograd has killed at least five people, according to officials. Police say they suspect the bombing, which also injured more than a dozen others, was carried out by a female suicide bomber.  Russia has long been a target of Islamist terrorism, particularly from the Caucasus, who…

The IDF is about to receive its first Bedouin tank commander. While about 1,000 Bedouin Arabs serve in the IDF, most of them serve as trackers, or in the Bedouin reconaissance battalion. Cpl. Mustafa Tabash will become the first Bedouin tank commander in two weeks’ time, once he completes the Tank Commanders’ Course, reports the…

A group of journalists rallied in Ramallah on Sunday to launch a petition to reopen the Gaza bureaus of the Ma’an News Agency and the Al Arabiya network. Ma’an reported that the petition states that the closure of the media offices violates Article 19 of the Palestinian Basic Law, which entitles the freedom of opinion,…

The US National Security Agency recorded millions of phone calls in France, including calls involving individuals with no links to terrorism, French daily “Le Monde” reported Monday, citing documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who has received asylum in Russia. The NSA taped 70.3 million French phone calls in just a little under…

The so-called “military wing” of Gaza’s ruling Hamas terror group, the Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades, has admitted that it masterminded the “terror tunnel” that was discovered leading from Gaza into an Israeli town. The group has admitted that the tunnel was meant to kidnap Israeli soldiers, reports AFP. “This tunnel was made by the hand…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will not be meeting with Pope Francis during his visit to Rome on Wednesday, a diplomatic source told AFP on Sunday. A statement last week from Netanyahu’s office had said he would be “meeting Pope Francis next Wednesday at the Vatican” and with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry for updates…

Three people, including a girl aged eight, died when gunmen on motorcycles opened fire on a wedding party outside a Coptic Christian church in Cairo on Sunday. At least nine others were wounded in the attack in the Giza neighborhood of the city, officials said, according to the BBC. There was no immediate claim of…

Israel experienced not one, but two earthquakes on Sunday, raising fears that a significant geological event was in the offing. Sunday’s quakes followed one that occurred early Saturday morning, which was preceded by one last Thursday night. The first quake was reported at 11:50 AM, measuring 3.6 on the Richter scale. The epicenter of that…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s 64th birthday was celebrated in a modest event at the Prime Minister’s Office Sunday. The event was attended by Netanyahu’s wife, Sarah, their son, Yair, ministers, MKs and PMO employees. A video of the event shows that the Beatles’ “When I’m 64” was played in the background at a certain point.…

The family of the first Egyptian national to be awarded the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial center’s “Righteous Among the Nations Award” for saving Jews during the Holocaust has turned down the honor. According to reports, the family of the late Dr. Mohamed Helmy refused the award due to Yad Vashem’s status as an Israeli institution. “If…

Dozens of people were injured when a bus flipped on its side Sunday in the Gush Etzion region, south of Jerusalem. The bus was traveling the 160 line. One person was moderately injured in the incident, and another 27 suffered light injuries. Paramedics evacuated 15 injured people to hospitals in Jerusalem. The rest of those…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Yair Lapid announced Sunday that Dr. Karnit Flug will be the next head of the Bank of Israel. As the former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Israel, Flug had recently stepped in to serve as acting governor after former governor Stanley Fischer stepped down in July. “We…

An Iranian man who was sentenced to execution by hanging and survived may or may not face execution again, reports the British Guardian. The man, 37-year-old Alireza M, was jailed for smuggling drugs and sentenced to death. Earlier this month, he was hanged and pronounced dead but was found to be alive in the morgue…

A British doctor who recently returned from five weeks volunteering in Syrian hospitals has told British media that he witnessed “horrific” war crimes, including snipers who targeted babies in the womb. Dr. David Nott said the pattern of injuries that he and other doctors saw led to the conclusion that fighters were using civilians for…

Former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney has revealed he had the wireless function on an electronic heart implant disabled, due to fears terrorists could use it to trigger a massive electric in an attempt to assassinate him. Cheney made the revelations in an interview with CBS ‘s”60 Minutes.” “I found it credible,” Cheney told “60 Minutes”…

An Israeli Arab reported killed last month fighting for a jihadist group in Syria phoned home on Saturday to say he was alive and well, his father said.     “My son called me around 11.00 am,” Zaki Ighbariya told AFP. “He said that he and two friends… who went with him are alive and well.”…

Rabbi Avraham Zuckerman, the eldest of Israel’s religious Zionist rabbis and the venerable dean of the Bnei Akiva Yeshiva network, passed away on Saturday night. He was 98 years old. Rabbi Zuckerman was hospitalized on Tuesday at the Hillel Yaffe Hospital in Hadera and was released on Friday afternoon, before the Sabbath, to his home in…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu “apparently” offered the position of Governor of Israel Bank to Larry Summers, who was US Secretary of Treasury under President Bill Clinton, reported Channel 2 Friday. Summers turned down the report, said the channel. Summers had been the favored candidate to replace Ben Bernanke as Chairman of the US Federal Reserve,…

Chairman of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, MK Avigdor Lieberman (Likud / Yisrael Beytenu), wrote Saturday evening in a Facebook post that he is not surprised by Turkey’s accusations that Israel leaked a Washington Post story according to which Turkey handed over to Tehran a list of Israeli agents in Iran. He reminded…

Ismail Haniyeh, who heads the Hamas government in Gaza, celebrated the abduction of IDF soldier Gilad Schalit, on the two-year anniversary of his exchange for 1,027 jailed terrorists. In a speech on the occasion of Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, Haniyeh called on Arabs to make pilgrimage to the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, and to…

Hamas issued a threat to Israel on Friday, warning that it will kidnap more Israeli soldiers in order to bring about the release of all Palestinian Authority Arab prisoners. The terror group which controls Gaza made the threats in a statement posted on its website on the second anniversary of the release of Gilad Shalit.…

Syrian jihadists on Friday executed 10 soldiers in the eastern city of Deir Ezzor during fierce clashes, AFP reports. The jihadist rebels who carried out the executions are members of Al-Nusra Front, which has pledged allegiance to Al-Qaeda. “Clashes took place overnight between rebels and regime forces in several neighborhoods in the city of Deir…

Iran’s new proposal to resolve the nuclear crisis includes a freeze on production of 20% enriched uranium, a pledge to convert its stockpile to fuel rods and an agreement to relinquish spent fuel for a still-to-be completed heavy water reactor, Al-Monitor reports. Thursday’s report by Barbara Slavin is based on an Iranian source who has…

Egypt’s Foreign Minister said on Thursday that his country will “find other sources” of funding after the U.S. announced it would suspend its military support to Egypt. At the same, Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy warned in an interview with CNN that the U.S. would hurting itself if cut off aid to Egypt. “If your friends…

German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Israel Friday to show “restraint” in the building of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. “We call on Israel to show restraint in the matter of settlement building,” Merkel told a joint press conference with Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in Berlin, according to the AFP news agency. Terming…

Saudi Arabia has won a seat on the United Nations Security Council but rejected it on Friday, saying the Council is incapable of ending wars and resolving conflicts. “The kingdom sees that the method and work mechanism and the double standards in the Security Council prevent it from properly shouldering its responsibilities towards world peace,”…

Dr Sherry Weiss, a 43 year old dentist from Vancouver who was injured in a 1997 suicide bombing by Hamas in Israel, has submitted a damage suit against Iran, Shalom Toronto reports. Weiss claims that the Iranian government was directly responsible for the attack, in September that year at the Mahane Yehuda open-air market in Jerusalem,…

A senior Syrian intelligence officer has been killed by a rebel sniper in the eastern city of Deir a-Zour, Syrian media reports. General Jamaa Jamaa died while “pursuing terrorists” in the city, Syrian state television said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that Jamaa was shot by a sniper during clashes in the Rashdiya…

Most Israelis support Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s stance on the Iran nuclear issue after the Islamic republic met world powers in Geneva this week, an opinion poll showed on Friday. Some 58 percent of respondents to the question “how would you rate Netanyahu’s recent performance in the global arena vis-a-vis Iran?” said it was good (41…

School children in New York are likely to get two extra days off to mark the biggest annual Muslim holidays, if the city’s next mayor gets his way, AFP reports. New York schools currently have mandatory holidays for the Christian festivals Easter and Christmas, and the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Passover. But the…

A senior officer in the IDF’s Judea and Samaria Brigade expressed concern on Thursday over the series of recent terror attacks. The officer said that the latest attacks are an alarming sequence of events which show that Palestinian Authority Arabs are very much motivated to carry out attacks. “We view the attempted attack tonight very…

Syrian rebels have killed a top intelligence officer in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, Syrian state media said on Thursday, according to AFP. “Major General Jamaa Jamaa was martyred while carrying out his national duties to defend Syria and its people and pursuing terrorists in Deir Ezzor,” state television said in a breaking news…

Tragedy in Hevron. Five children aged 3 to 6 died Thursday after being left for a long time inside a closed car, according to Maj. Ibrahim Al-Abasi, spokesman for the Palestinian Authority’s Hevron police. Al Abasi said that the children were from the Al-Fatafta family. Relatives of the children had brought them with them to…

One of Syria’s most powerful rebel groups has issued a statement slamming Hamas leader Khaled Meshal and deriding his group for its relationship with Iran. In a communique released via the Army of Islam’s Twitter account, the group – a recent conglomeration of major Islamist rebel battalions – cited comments made by Meshal at an unspecified “symposium…

Officials in Israel’s intelligence community expressed shock and anger over the report Thursday that Turkey had given Tehran the identities of ten Israelis who were gathering information in Iran. According to the report in the Washington Post Thursday, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan deliberately exposed a network of Iranians who had been working with…

Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics has published a report entitled “the Face of Israel”, with a long list of statistical data from about the various different sectors in Israeli Society.   The report includes data on the varying trends in the number of births within different groups in Israel. The Jewish birth rate which was measured at…

The cabinet has voted to allow nearly 900 “lost Jews” from India to make aliyah (immigrate) to Israel over the upcoming months. The new immigrants-to-be are members of the Bnei Menashe, a group of Indian citizens who trace their roots to the Jewish tribe of Menashe (Manasseh) – one of the ten “lost tribes” exiled…

Turkey’s army said on Wednesday it had fired on Al-Qaeda-linked rebels in northern Syria after a stray mortar bomb hit Turkish territory, reports Reuters. Fighters from the Al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have seized territory in parts of Syria near the Turkish border in recent weeks, leaving the already fragile…

Rebels fighting President Bashar Al-Assad’s regime in southern Syria said Wednesday the main opposition National Coalition had “failed” and announced they no longer recognize the Western-backed group, reports AFP. The video statement signed by nearly 70 groups comes after a group of key rebel groups in the north of the country announced their rejection of…

The latest “Israeli bird spy” is an eagle, according to Hezbollah. On Wednesday, the Lebanon-based terror group reported on its television station Al-Manar that an eagle that was caught by recreational hunters in the town of Ashqout was planted with a spy transmitter, and a copper piece that was attached to its leg had captions…

More than 140 people are now confirmed dead after a powerful earthquake struck the Philippines Tuesday morning. The quake, which registered 7.2 on the Richter Scale, struck in the island of Bohol, a popular tourist resort, and in neighboring Cebu, considered the country’s second city. Initial casualty figures were placed at 32, but officials had warned that that…

Forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have reportedly retaken a key town to the south of the capital Damascus. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the Syrian army seized control of the town of Bweida with the help of foreign fighters from Iraq and Lebanon. The push appears to be part of…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu described the assassination of former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin as one of Israel’s “darkest moments”, during a Knesset memorial event this afternoon. “In 66 years of our independence we have experienced happy times and difficult ones; times of great elation and in contrast times of anxiety, pain and grief,” he began. “But…

As international attention in Syria focuses on efforts to dismantle the Assad regime’s chemical weapons stockpile, British experts are warning of another, potentially more lethal threat. Experts from the Henry Jackson Society (HJS) have issued a stark warning over what they say is the “clear and present danger” of Al Qaeda gaining possession of the Assad regime’s stockpile…

Russian security officials say two radical Islamist terrorists arrested near a chemical weapons storage and disposal facility on Tuesday, were planning a lethal attack on the site aimed at causing maximum damage to the surrounding area. The site in the Kirov region, some 1000 km northeast of Moscow, is being used to store and dispose some…

At least 41 people have been killed in renewed clashes between Kurdish militias and Al Qaeda-linked terrorists. The clashes took place in the oil-rich Hasake province in northern Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The Observatory claimed that at least 29 Al Qaeda fighters and 12 Kurdish fighters had been killed in the clashes…

After presenting its proposal to break the deadlock with world powers over its nuclear program, Iran on Tuesday held landmark talks with U.S. officials, reports AFP. Senior Iranian negotiator Abbas Araqchi and his U.S. counterpart Wendy Sherman met Tuesday evening, after a day of P5+1 negotiations in Geneva. That meeting marked the first direct nuclear…

A hareidi-religious political faction calling itself “Mothers for Elad” may make history if its female representatives are elected to the city council. The primary hareidi political factions – Shas and Gimmel – have historically been all-male. A hareidi woman decided to run for the Jerusalem city council with the Bayit Yehudi (Jewish Home) list, but…

U.S. Congressman Chaka Fattah was in attendance on Tuesday at the BrainTech 2013 conference in Tel Aviv. BrainTech 2013 provides a forum for researchers from around the world to meet with investors, entrepreneurs, startups, and international corporations, who will learn about the latest in brain technologies from Israel and around the world. During the event,…

Brigadier-General Motti Almoz has replaced Brigadier-General Yoav Mordechai as the chief spokesman of the IDF and head of the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit. The Spokesperson’s Unit is more involved than ever in IDF operations, Mordechai said. The unit’s soldiers are part of many other units, including some of the most remote IDF posts. Under Mordechai’s command, combat-trained…

Tuesday night, Palestinians Authority (PA) Arabs infiltrated the community of Einav in Northern Samaria (Shomron). Initial findings suggest the infiltrators had climbed over a fence. The PA Arabs were caught by soldiers of the Netzah Yehuda, (Nahal Hareidi) Brigade, stationed in the region. When initial reports of the infiltration were reported residents of the community were immediately called to…

Two police officers were attacked Tuesday during the annual pilgrimage to the grave of the Biblical Matriarch Rachel.(Kever Rachel) Rachel, who features in the book of Genesis (Bereishit), was married to Jacob and mother to two of his sons, Joseph and Benjamin. Each year, on the anniversary of her death, the 11th day in the…

Chechnya’s President Ramzan Kadyrov announced last week the assassination of Rastom Saleef one of the most extremist Islamic fighters, by elite Chechen forces. Saleef, known by his fighting name, Abu Muslim al Shishani, belonged to an extremist Islamic movement that had called for the establishment of  a “Caucasus Emirate” as the basis for the future Islamic caliphate. Chechnya…

Only days after the discovery of a “terror tunnel” in southern Israel dug by Gaza-based terrorists, Israeli security forces are working to demolish yet another similar tunnel early Tuesday morning. The latest tunnel – believed to have been dug during last November’s “Pillar of Defense” counterterrorism operation – contained “barrels of explosives,” according to Channel Two.  IDF engineers are…

Two Turkish university students were arrested at the site of the Majdanik Death camp, after giving Nazi salutes to a group of Israeli students and shouting “Heil Hitler”. The two, identified by Turkish media as Mehmet A. and Mesut T., were arrested after members of the Israeli group filed charges, and are being detained for promoting…

A Libyan Al-Qaeda suspect snatched from Tripoli by U.S. commandos and interrogated on an American warship has been brought to New York to face trial, a prosecutor said Monday, according to AFP. Anas al-Liby is expected to appear in court on Tuesday in New York, where he has been indicted over the 1998 U.S. embassy…

Ahead of a new round of talks in Geneva on Iran’s nuclear program, a U.S. official said Monday that a breakthrough will not happen quickly. “No one should expect a breakthrough overnight,” the senior U.S. administration official told reporters, according to Reuters. Washington is ready to offer Iran rapid relief from economic sanctions if Tehran…

Tens of thousands of Jews are flocking to Rachel’s Tomb on Monday night and are expected to continue to come to the site in large numbers throughout the day on Tuesday. The Egged bus company is running extra non-stop buses from Teddy’s Stadium in southern Jerusalem and from the capital’s religious neighborhoods to the tomb, working…

Swiss experts confirmed over the weekend that they had found traces of polonium on clothes belonging to former Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat. The experts said that the findings suggested that Arafat may have been poisoned with the substance; Arafat’s wife Suha has long insisted that this was the case. The findings were published in the…

An American citizen who was arrested by Egyptian security forces in August in El Arish, in the Sinai Peninsula, has died in jail after apparently committing suicide. James Henry Lunn, a former US Army officer, was detained in the north of the restive Sinai Peninsula on 27th August. He was one of nine foreign citizens detained that month,…

Facebook will acquire Israeli startup Onavo, which developed an application to help users save money on internet data connection charges. The deal is said to be worth up to $200 million. Onavo confirmed that the purchase would take place. “Facebook has agreed to acquire our company,” Onavo co-founders Guy Rosen and Roi Tiger wrote on…

After a long break, the Knesset went back to work Monday for its winter session. Opening the session was Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who spoke from the podium about a variety of issues, including Iran and the possibility of a peace agreement with the Palestinian Authority. Netanyahu discussed the Iranian nuclear program, saying that it…

Jerusalem’s incumbent mayoral candidate, Nir Barkat, is a born-and-bred Jerusalemite. A successful businessman, Barkat first ran in the Jerusalem mayoral race in 2003, losing narrowly to hareidi candidate Uri Lupoliansky. He became head of the opposition on the city council until the 2008 elections, which he won with 52% of votes, defeating his main rival Meir Porush who…

What looks to be a dry ice explosion in a bathroom cubicle in Los Angeles Airport has caused delays to flights as a police investigation gets underway. NBC reports that the explosion was heard at around 7p.m. in Los Angeles Sunday night in a bathroom cubicle at Terminal 2. The report said that no one had been…

Russia was set to mark Monday the 70th anniversary of a revolt at the Sobibor death camp led by a Red Army officer, the biggest and most successful prisoner escape under the Nazi regime.   Ahead of the anniversary, President Vladimir Putin ordered the defense ministry to come up with a plan to “immortalise the…

The International Committee of the Red Cross has said that six of its aid workers and a member of the Syrian Red Crescent had been kidnapped by gunmen in Syria, reported Al Jazeera Sunday. “Six ICRC staff members and one member of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent have been abducted in Idlib in northwestern Syria,”…

In his Friday sermon, an imam at the Palestinian Al-Yarmouk camp south of Damascus gave local residents permission to eat dead cats and dogs. The camp has been under siege for three months, the humanitarian situation there has severely deteriorated and the supply of food has not been steady, reports Shalom Toronto. Palestinians in Syria…

Two car bombs exploded on Sunday near Syria’s state television headquarters in central Damascus, the state news agency SANA reported. The agency said the building located at the Syrian capital’s Umayyad Square was damaged in the blast. Television broadcasts were interrupted for several minutes after the blasts. “Two terrorist car bombs driven by suicide bombers…

Four men have been arrested in London in a counter-terrorism operation, the Metropolitan Police have said, according to the BBC. Scotland Yard said they were held under the Terrorism Act 2000 on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism. Armed officers were involved in the arrests, which took place Sunday evening…

Iran plans to send yet another monkey into space…that is, assuming the last monkey sent into space wasn’t a fake. According to Press TV, the Deputy Head of the Iran Space Agency (ISA), Hamid Fazeli, said on the weekend the Islamic Republic plans to send another indigenous bio-capsule with a live monkey onboard into space.…

Transport Minister Yisrael Katz has decided to name a planned new major entrance road to Jerusalem after Rabbi Ovadia Yosef ztz”l, who passed away last week. The new road, currently referred to as Road 16, will begin near Mevasseret Tzion and Motza Illit, just after the Harel Junction, on the road that leads into Jerusalem…

The Ministerial Law Committee on Sunday approved for a Knesset vote legislation that would increase the penalties imposed for those who attempt to deny women their rights in public spaces. The legislation would widen existing laws against discrimination, to include “exclusion of women” from public spaces, which has been a hot-button topic in Israel in…

Tens of thousands of people, including a large number of well-known hareidi rabbis and yeshiva deans, both Ashkenazic and Sephardic, were gathered in northern Jerusalem Sunday night to commemorate the ending of the shiva mourning period for former Chief Rabbi and Shas leader Rav Ovadia Yosef z”tl. Rabbi Yosef, 93, passed away last Monday. The end of the…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu informed cabinet members at his weekly meeting on Sunday that Israel is “seeing an increase in terrorist activities in recent weeks.” Referring to the recently exposed terrorist tunnel from Gaza leading into Ein Hashlosha, Netanyahu commented, “I want to commend the IDF for uncovering this tunnel. This is our policy – an aggressive policy…

An Orange County, California resident pleaded guilty on Friday to federal charges accusing him of knowingly providing material support and resources to Al Qaeda. The indictment charges 24-year-old Sinh Vinh Ngo Nguyen, who also goes by the alias name Hasan Abu Omar Ghannoum, with another count of presenting false information in order to obtain a passport to facilitate an act of international…

Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri said Islamists in Egypt and Tunisia were in part responsible for their recent political setbacks, accusing them of having been too conciliatory in opting to participate in democratic elections. Agence France-Presse reported Friday that a 16-minute audiotape of Zawahiri released on Jihadist forums focused on his native Egypt, where he said…

Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon announced Sunday that Israeli engineering company Elbit Systems had been chosen to co-manufacture hi-tech helmets for pilots of the US F-35 stealth fighter. He said in a statement that Elbit Systems and its US partner Rockwell Collins have been chosen by the Pentagon and F35 manufacturer Lockheed Martin to supply helmets for…

Two Palestinian Authority resident Arab men have confessed to the murder of Israeli man Sariya Ofer late last week, the Shin Bet has revealed. The two were arrested on Friday along with a third suspect. Suspects Ouda Fareed Taleb Haroub, 18, and Bashir Ahmed Ouda Haroub, 21, both from the PA Arab town of Dir…

Imagine the frustration. Sitting, talking to your date, trying to connect, but every time the topic of  living in Israel comes up they get a blank look on their face. You hope to make Aliyah one day, and they like the idea of visiting Israel, once in a while. What a waste of time.  Determined to…

Almost 50 rebel fighters have been killed in three days of skirmishes between jihadists and mainstream rebels in the Syrian city of Aleppo, reports Al Arabiya. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Saturday that the violence began on Thursday between members of the al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)…

Economics Minister and Bayit Yehudi party chairman Naftali Bennett issued a statement Saturday evening as a memorial for slain former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin was held in Tel Aviv. “On the memorial day for the murder of Yitzhak Rabin z”l,” write Bennett, “I will state the obvious (perhaps it is not obvious to everyone) – the…

An earthquake was felt in Israel on the Sabbath at about 4:15 PM local time. The quake was measured at 6.4 on the Richter scale, and had its epicenter beneath the Mediterranean about 40 kilometers under the sea bed, 70 kilometers west of Crete. In Israel, reports of the tremor were received from citizens in…

The memorial service for Nazi war criminal Erich Priebke will be held in Italy, his lawyer told AFP Saturday after Argentina, where the former SS officer wished to be buried, refused to accept his body. “The ceremony will be held Tuesday” in a church in Rome, said lawyer Paolo Giachini. Priebke died Friday in Rome…

Ten days after publishing a front-page editorial blasting Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s speech at the UN General Assembly as “combative” and sarcastic, the New York Times has published an interview-profile that portrays Netanyahu as a “shrill” voice on a one-man “messianic crusade” against Iran’s nuclear weapons program. In the piece, the Times says Netanyahu’s long…

One protester was killed on Friday after security forces shot at a march by supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi near Rabaa Al-Adawiya, reported Al-Ahram. Rabaa Al-Adawiya is the site of one of two protest camps that were set up by Morsi supporters and were forcibly dispersed on August 14, leaving hundreds dead. On Friday,…

Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan called Thursday’s incident when gunmen kidnapped and released him in the same day as an attempted coup against his government in a national television address on Friday. “This is a coup against national legitimacy,” Zeidan was quoted by Al Arabiya as having said, after recounting how armed gunmen with a…

Iran is going to offer a new set of proposals during the upcoming talks with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany on its nuclear energy program, Press TV reported on Friday. According to the report, Iran will test the other side’s willingness to reach a deal during the negotiations due…

The Syrian government’s shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles and launchers could imperil civil aviation if they fall into the hands of terror groups, an independent report examining the global proliferation of portable missiles says. The report released Friday by the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) and reported on by the Associated Press, warns that some opposition factions…

French President Francois Hollande reassured Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Friday that France will remain “tough” with Iran on its controversial nuclear program, reports AFP. Hollande told Netanyahu in a telephone call that France would wait to see if the more moderate politics of Iran’s new leader Hassan Rouhani, who replaced hardline Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in…

In a tragic turn of events, it has been revealed that Colonel (Res.) Shraya (Yaya) Opher, murdered last night in his Jordan Valley home of Brosh, was killed on the same day as his brother, who died 40 years ago during the Yom Kippur War.   Major Yitzchak Opher, a pilot, was killed on October 11 1973, when…

Former SS captain Erich Priebke, a Nazi war criminal who never showed remorse for a World War II massacre in Italy, died Friday in Rome aged 100, Italian media reported. Priebke was sentenced to life in prison in 1998 for his role in a bloodbath at Rome’s Ardeatine caves in March 1944 that left 335…

U.S. forces have captured a senior Pakistan Taliban commander, Latif Mehsud, in a military operation, the state department confirmed on Friday. Marie Harf, a spokeswoman for the State Department, described Mehsud as a “terrorist leader” and a “senior commander” in the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, reported the BBC. She gave no details of the operation, but said…

It was reported by the organisation Human Rights Watch on Friday, that groups of Syrian rebel forces executed at least 190 civilians and seized over 200 as hostages – during a military offensive on August 4. According to the report, a majority of the massacres took place in the city of Latakia, predominantly inhabited by members of Bashar al-Assad’s…

Security forces have arrested five Palestinian Authority Arab men on suspicion of carrying out a brutal attack Friday morning killing Shraya Opher, a retired IDF colonel.  The five were all taken for interrogation by Israel’s internal security forces (Shin Bet). Thursday night, terrorists broke into Opher’s home in the Jordan Valley community of Brosh, brutally murdering him. Yaya…

A car bomb exploded outside the Swedish consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, Friday, causing serious damage to the embassy and damaging adjacent buildings. No casualties were reported from the explosion.  Officials say the car bomb was detonated by remote control in the upscale neighborhood of Benghazi. The official spoke on condition of anonymity…

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was named, Friday, as the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for 2013. The Nobel Committee said it was in honor of the OPCW’s “extensive work to eliminate chemical weapons.” An OPCW team is currently working to dismantle the Syrian government’s chemical weapons arsenal, believed to be the…

Khaled Mashaal, the head of Hamas’s political bureau, will visit Iran soon, the movement confirmed on Thursday, according to Kol Yisrael radio. Hamas used to be heavily backed by Iran but the relations between the Islamic Republic and the terror group have been strained for the past two years because of the civil war in…

In one of the most disturbing scenes to emerge from the fighting in Syria, Hezbollah fighters operating under the command of the Syrian army, have been filmed celebrating and rejoicing, as they dragged injured Syrian civilians from a van and executed them. Hezbollah are fighting alongside Bashar Al Assad’s men, in their bitter battle against rebels in the country, where over 110,000 people have been…

Palestinian Authority Arab terrorists broke into a home in the Jordan Valley on Thursday night, attacking a couple who was in the home. The husband was critically injured and died a short time later. The woman was lightly injured, was treated by paramedics at the scene and then taken to the HaEmek Hospital in Afula.…

A Gaza-based news agency, Quds.net, quoted in Maariv/NRG, said Thursday that there are efforts underway to arrange a meeting between Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. The Quds.net report cited an unnamed source who said that Abbas has formally told the American leadership that he will be willing to…

A suicide bomber in a car full of explosives rammed into a checkpoint in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, killing three soldiers and a policeman, officials said. Al Jazeera cited the security officials as saying Thursday’s attack happened outside the city of el-Arish. They said the bomber slowly approached the checkpoint, waited for soldiers and policemen to start…

A more than 50% squeeze on the budget for religious Zionist girls seminaries has threatened tens of institutions with closure, according to a spokesperson for a union representing them. Tzahi Dickstein, CEO of the Union for seminaries Teaching Judaism and Land of Israel Studies, said that this year’s annual budget is facing a significant deficit. Whereas a full budget requires…

Police volunteers are being credited for saving three lives on Wednesday night, on the highway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Volunteers Moshe Appelbaum and Shalom Levy were patrolling the highway shortly after dark when they spotted three young people standing at the side of the road behind their car, Channel 10 reports. They pulled over…

A commander from the armed rebels unit, operating in the mountainous region of Al Kabon west of Damascus, has recently announced his enlistment into the “Army of Islam,” a new military coalition comprised of 50 or more rebel combat units seeking to topple Syrian President Bashar Al Assad. A ceremony was held to express their loyalty…

The Obama administration will cut hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to Egypt to register displeasure over the military’s pace of restoring democracy following the ouster of President Mohammed Morsi, reports USA Today. The U.S. provides $1.5 billion in annual aid to Egypt, but the State Department did not provide a dollar amount of…

Some 1,000 students at Rutgers New Brunswick campus woke up to an alarming eviction notice, informing the students to vacate within 3 days time or have their belongings destroyed. The Rutgers New Brunswick chapter of “Students for Justice in Palestine” (SJP) posted the eviction notices on Sunday evening on the residence hall doors on all five campuses…

According to the autobiography of Martin Karplus, one of three scientists who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry on Wednesday, Karplus escaped the Nazis and the Holocaust at the young age of eight, AFP reported.  Karplus was born into a Jewish family in Vienna in 1930 and narrowly escaped Austria when Germany took control of the country in 1938, he wrote…

Israel’s enemies are taking a new approach to warfare, and Israel must be ready, Minister of Home Front Defense Gilad Erdan said Tuesday, speaking at a conference at Bar Ilan University. “Our enemies have abandoned the idea of conquering territory in the land of Israel. What remains is their desire to defeat Israel by threatening…

Two Israeli soldiers were slightly wounded by cross-border fire in the Golan Heights facing Syria.  A mortar shell exploded in the northern Golan Heights. It is not known whether the attack was spillover from the ongoing Syrian civil war or intentional. According to preliminary reports, one of the soldiers was injured from shrapnel fragments and the other had…

Making his first speech as the Head of Britain’s intelligence Agency, MI5, Andrew Parker says there are  thousands of Islamic extremists living in the UK who see the British public as a valid target for attack. According to a BBC report, the new head of MI5, also said Islamic terror had become more complicated to track than ever…

Israel condemned on Tuesday the selection of Iran for a high-level position on a United Nations committee dealing with disarmament and international security issues. Israel’s UN Ambassador Ron Prosor said in a letter to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Security Council that “it is inconceivable” that a country under UN sanctions over its nuclear program…

Report: U.S. to Cut Off Aid to Egypt The United States will cut off aid to Egypt in the wake of the July coup and the turmoil that has followed, says U.S. official. The United States will cut off aid to Egypt in the wake of the July coup against President Mohammed Morsi and the…

U.S. House Speaker John Boehner on Tuesday rejected President Barack Obama’s stance that he’ll talk to Republicans only after the partial government shutdown ends and the risk of default is pushed back. Boehner insisted on immediate negotiations with Obama, after the President warned that the U.S. economy risks a “very deep recession” if Congress doesn’t…

Britain and Iran are taking steps toward restoring ties, two years after Britain cooled ties with Tehran, removing diplomats following an attack on its embassy. Foreign ministers from the two countries met to discuss a rapprochement at a meeting in New York, Monday. Following the meeting, British Foreign Secretary William Hague reported that Britain and Iran would each appoint…

Russian President Vladamir Putin showed a rare display of goodwill after briefly meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. Putin reportedly declared that Washington and Moscow had reached a “common understanding on how to eliminate Syria’s chemical stockpile.” Speaking to reporters after chatting with Kerry at the end of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Bali, Putin said,…

Syria may split into multiple states, according to recent reports in the Arab-language media. Opposition leaders are weighing the option of establishing their own government, which would rule the territories that rebel troops have conquered in their war against Syria President Bashar Assad. Al-Hayat reports that the heads of the Free Syrian Army, led by…

President Shimon Peres has decided to take up the circumcision battle with the Council of Europe, which adopted a resolution last week against one of Judaism’s most fundamental laws. On Monday, Peres sent a letter to Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland of the Council of Europe urging the council to reconsider its recent decision against circumcision. Echoing a recent…

“Health centers conduct the routine medical check to assess the health of the expatriates when they come into the GCC countries,” Mindkar was quoted as saying by Al Rai. “However, we will take stricter measures that will help us detect gays who will be then barred from entering Kuwait or any of the GCC member states.”…

Israeli developers have introduced the newest parking solution on the market.  Anagog, an Israeli location-based technology company, unveiled on Monday an automatic algorithm that can analyze and identify where and when a parking space will be available. Unlike other services, Anagog company says the technology’s automatic nature will update the user instead of the user having to update…

Iran has given permission to Bashar Assad’s regime to keep his war planes in their territory to protect them from possible attack, according to a report by the German newspaper, Der Spiegel. According to the report, marked “classified,” Iran and Syria had signed an agreement a while back permitting Assad to transfer a large part of his…

At a meeting with leftist MKs Monday, Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas expressed his desire to achieve “peace with Israel. We do not want bloodshed, we want peace,” Abbas told the MKs, members of a Knesset lobby seeking to set up a PA state in Judea and Samaria. Weeks after they were killed, Abbas discussed…

Some 800,000 people – 10% of Israel’s population – were attending the funeral of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef Monday night in Jerusalem. Rabbi Yosef, 93, passed away earlier in the day. The crowd, observers said, consisted of a cross-section of Israelis, from hareidi to Religious Zionist to secular. Police raised their estimate of the numbers of…

Cries of mourning could be heard from the halls outside the hospital room in Jerualem where Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, 93, returned his soul to his Maker on Monday, 3 Heshvan, October 7, 2013 at 1:30 p.m. Maran (our rabbi and mentor), as he was called reverently by his followers, was  the Sephardic Chief Rabbi (Rishon…

Hamas on Sunday called on the Palestinian Authority, headed by Mahmoud Abbas, to stop peace talks with Israel. Instead, said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri, the PA should work for national unity. Abu Zuhri said that the remarks made by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu during his speech at the Bar-Ilan University, according to which negotiations…

Hebrew University biochemists Professor Aharon Razin and Professor Haim (Howard) Cedar, who were favorites for the Nobel Prize for Medicine, were disappointed Monday when the list of winners did not include their names. The winners are Americans James Rothman and Randy Schekman and German-born researcher Thomas Suedhof, who won the 2013 Nobel Prize in medicine…

5,549 trucks carrying 155,312 tons of goods entered Gaza through the Kerem Shalom Crossing in September, according to figures released by the IDF on Sunday. These included 1,519 truckloads of food products, 1,244 truckloads of construction materials, 64 truckloads of medical equipment, 258 truckloads of livestock and 2,464 truckloads of miscellaneous items. 46,130 trucks carrying…

Police swept into the Israeli Arab city of Kfar Kassem in central Israel early on Sunday morning and arrested 18 people in connection with a weapons smuggling ring. Border police were involved in the operation, which followed an investigation into illegal weapons trade in the area. Sixteen of those arrested are men in their 20s,…

Ministers and Members of Knesset reacted Sunday to the terrorist attack in Pesagot on Saturday night in which a terrorist shot a 9-year-old girl at close range. Thankfully, the girl was in good condition Sunday following emergency surgery. Speaking at the weekly cabinet meeting, Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz warned that the attack does not bode…

Following the terror attack Saturday in which a terrorist shot a nine-year-old girl in the neck at short range, an official Facebook page run by Fatah praised the attacker, and predicted he would strike again. The incitement has been reported by watchdog group Palestinian Media Watch. Fatah is the organization whose chairman, Mahmoud Abbas, is…

U.S. forces have captured a top Al-Qaeda figure wanted for the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, a U.S. official told the Reuters news agency on Saturday. Senior Al Qaeda figure Anas al Liby was seized in a raid in Libya, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Liby, believed to be…

Both US and Russian officials have approached Norway with oral requests for help in dismantling Syria’s chemical weapons, Norwegian public broadcaster NRK reported on its website. Both countries consider Norway a suitable location for the dangerous work, as it is politically stable and has large amounts of water, which is needed for the task, according to…

Magen David Adom paramedics were giving the girl first aid as IDF forces began combing the area. She was then evacuated to Shaarei Tzedek hospital with what was initially described as “a serious injury to her upper body.” She was reportedly conscious. Yoni Hacohen, a paramedic, told Arutz Sheva that she had been hit by a bullet that went…

The United States gave Israel notification on Friday, August 30, that it is about to launch a military strike against Syria within 24 to 48 hours, Israel’s Channel 2 reported Friday. According to the channel’s veteran security affairs correspondent, Ronny Daniel, “in Israel, phone calls were received both by the prime minister and the defense…

Supporters and opponents of deposed Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi have called for rival demonstrations on Sunday, after the deadliest violence in weeks left four people dead Friday. Al Jazeera reported that the Anti-Coup Alliance called on Saturday for its supporters to try to reach Cairo’s Tahrir Square on Sunday, October 6, to mark the 40th…

U.S. President Barack Obama says U.S. intelligence estimates show Iran is “a year or more away” from building a nuclear weapon. In an interview with the Associated Press, Obama acknowledged that U.S. estimates were more conservative than those of Israel, which said Iran was much closer that that to building an atomic weapon. President Obama…

Israel is negotiating an unlikely diplomatic alliance with several Gulf and Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, to deal with Iran’s nuclear program, Channel 2 has reported. High-profile Israeli and Gulf diplomats held a series of meetings overseen by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in the weeks leading to his speech to the UN General Assembly,…

The White House envisions a “confidence-building” process with Iran that would involve Iran’s revelation of the pace and scope of its nuclear program, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at week’s end. In return, she mentioned the possibility of easing some sanctions imposed on Iran for…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu reiterated on Friday he would take a phone call from Iran’s president, if he called, but warned that he would have tough words for him. “We’re not averse to calling,” Netanyahu said in an interview with CNN’s Piers Morgan in New York, repeating similar remarks he made in a separate interview…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said, during his visit to the United States this past week, that the peace talks with the Palestinian Authority are going nowhere. According to a report on Friday in the Maariv daily newspaper, Netanyahu made the comments in closed meetings with the heads of American Jewish organizations. Netanyahu reportedly repeated his…

The Obama administration’s efforts to pressure Iran, Syria and others are inhibited by the government shutdown, White House press secretary Jay Carney suggested Friday. The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has had to furlough all but 11 of its 175 full-time employees, “meaning that the office is unable to sustain its core functions,”…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Friday warned the world not to be tempted by the moderate rhetoric coming out of Iran in recent months. Speaking upon his return to Israel from the United States, Netanyahu said, “We are engaged in a comprehensive international struggle against the Iranian nuclear program. Next week I will meet with…

Israel’s Foreign Ministry has issued a statement calling on the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to immediately rescind its recently adopted resolution against circumcision. On Tuesday the European Council rendered circumcision of children a violation of human rights, and called for legal ban until the child is of age 15. In response, Israel defended the ancient religious tradition…

A majority of Israelis would support unilateral military action against Iran, according to a poll published Friday, after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said his government was ready to act alone. Some 65.6 percent of 500 Jewish Israelis surveyed by the Israel Hayom newspaper said they would support military strikes to halt Iran’s nuclear program, and 84 percent believed the Islamic…

Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad said Friday morning that he has not yet decided whether he will run for re-election next year, the Associated Press reported.  Interviewed by Turkey’s Halk TV, Assad stressed that if the Syrian people are not interested in his serving another term, he won’t run.  Assad says “the picture will be clearer” in the next…

Israel plans to run for a rotating seat on the UN Security Council for the time ever for 2019-2020, its envoy said on Thursday. “We’re going all out to win,” Ambassador Ron Prosor told the Reuters news agency, adding, “It’s about time.” Prosor said Israel will be vying against Germany and Belgium for two seats…

Dozens of “Women of the Wall ‘ arrived at the Kotel, (Western Wall) Friday morning to celebrate the new Hebrew month of Cheshvan. The women did not pray at the ‘Israel Plaza’ recently opened by Minister for Religious Affairs MK Naftali Bennett, (Jewish Home), but instead convened in the women’s section of the Western Wall plaza, surrounded by familiar…

There was a sharp rise in the number of terror attacks in Israel in September, compared to the previous month, according to the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency). The Shin Bet summary for September counted 133 attacks, compared to 99 in August. Most of the attacks were in the Biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria,…

Russian embassy staff in Libya have been evacuated following an attack Wednesday on its Tripoli compound. The Russian Foreign Ministry said its embassy in Tripoli had been attacked last night by a “group of militants” after Russian national Ekaterina Ustyuzhaninova killed a Libyan officer and stabbed the officer’s mother. One of the Libyan attackers was killed late Wednesday night and another four injured as guards at…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu mixed in a couple of expressions in Farsi, in an interview on BBC Persian Thursday aimed at the Iranian people. Speaking with conviction, Netanyahu said: “I would welcome a genuine rapprochement, a genuine effort to stop the nuclear program, not a fake one, not harf-e pootch [‘nonsense’ in Farsi]. ”We are…

As the bloody stalemate between government and rebel forces rages on in Syria, a rebel battalion east of the capital Damascus has claimed it managed to down an unmanned drone. In a video released online, a rebel motorcade in el-Routa el-Sharqiya paraded the downed drown, hailing it as a significant strategic victory. Indeed, since the start of…

Thousands of people gathered on Wednesday evening at the Binyanei HaUma in Jerusalem for the “One State for One Nation” convention. Arutz Sheva was there. The participants, which included the heads of the settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria as well as prominent MKs, called on the Israeli government to ignore the pressure and threats…

Unknown gunmen attacked the Russian embassy in the Libyan capital Tripoli on Wednesday, an Al Arabiya correspondent reported. The sound of gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades could be heard around the embassy, the correspondent added. Russia’s Foreign Ministry confirmed the attack but noted that none of its staff was injured. Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on…

A suicide bomber drove a vehicle filled with explosives into the headquarters of a rival terrorist commander in Peshawar, Pakistan on Thursday, government officials say.  Gunmen first fired shots at the commander’s compound in Balandkhel village, after which the suicide bomber rammed his explosives-rigged vehicle into the compound and detonated it. The powerful blast killed 15 people and wounded six others.…

The large-scale draft of young hareidi men the government is planning has numerous ramifications that legislators are only now starting to grapple with. Among those: The fate of women in the IDF. According to Culture and Sport Minister Limor Livnat, there is a real danger that the role of women in the IDF will be…

A joint US-Australian citizen has been jailed for 18 years for his part in an Al Qaeda fundraising ring. Between the years 2007 and 2009, 37 year-old Sabirhan Hasanoff helped funneled around $67,000 to Al Qaeda affiliates in various countries, including Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the Yemeni franchise of the Islamist terror group considered its most…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is returning to Israel from his US trip with a feeling of satisfaction, that he has succeeded in delivering to the world – and especially to the US – the message he wanted to deliver. Netanyahu faced a difficult challenge after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s appearances there a few days earlier.…

Following the speech made by Binyamin Netanyahu to the United Nations General Assembly, White House Spokesman Jay Carney has said in a press briefing, that the US administration understands Israeli fears as it attempts a rapprochement with the Islamic regime. “We’ve said all along, as the president has said, we understand, and it is entirely justifiable,…

The United Nations says around 1,000 people were killed in Iraq in the month of September alone. So far this year, 5,740 people have been killed in the violence. Aside from the deaths last month, 2,000 people were also wounded in a wave of almost daily bombings across the country, the UN has said. The figures make for grim reading, with 887 civilians…

At least 115,206 people have been killed in Syria’s devastating 30-month conflict, most of them fighters from both sides, a monitoring group said on Tuesday. “The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has documented the deaths of 115,206 people from the start of Syria’s revolution on March 18, 2011 to September 30, 2013,” the Britain-based group…

One of the largest terrorist groups operating in the Sinai Peninsula has joined Al-Qaeda. The group, Ansar Beit al-Maqdis (“The Army of Islam in the Beit Al-Makdas Region”), has announced its loyalty to Al-Qaeda, and particularly, to the Al-Qaeda leadership in Iraq. The group in question has carried out many attacks targeting Egyptian soldiers in…

The fight against Brit mila: Following proposals of a law to the Swedish parliament that would outlaw brit mila, (Jewish ritual circumcision) Rabbi Shniur Kasselman of the Malmo community, says the Jews of the city will continue to hold fast to Torah commandments even if such a  law is passed. “We all hope the law won’t…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu urged the world to maintain pressure on Iran over its nuclear program in a speech Tuesday to the United Nations. Diplomacy can work, he said, but only if the international community takes a firm stance. “We all want to give diplomacy with Iran a chance to succeed,” he said. “But when it…

A father of eight from central Israel has won Israel’s latest lottery. As the sole winner, he will receive the entire jackpot of NIS 26 million. The winner only buys lottery tickets on occasion. After the holidays he had a good feeling, he said. “I got a wonderful gift from Heaven.” He related that he came…

Holocaust historian Professor Yisrael Gutman passed away Tuesday at the age of 90. Gutman’s considerable contribution to humanity’s knowledge regarding the Holocaust included an encyclopedia of the Holocaust. He also taught at Hebrew University and contributed considerably to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial project. Gutman was not only a scholar, but was a Holocaust survivor…

The Venezuelan government has expelled three senior US diplomats, accusing them of conspiring with the right-wing opposition to “sabotage” the country’s economy. In a typically incendiary and hyperbolic statement, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro claimed to have evidence that Kelly Keiderling, David Moo and Elizabeth Hoffman helped sabotage a power-grid sabotage in September and had bribed Venezuelan companies to cut…

An Al-Qaeda-linked group based in the Sinai Peninsula has denounced the Egyptian army as “an enemy of Allah” because of its crackdown on Sinai terrorists. The Sinai has become increasingly lawless since the fall of former president Hosni Mubarak in February 2011, and the terror attacks have only increased since the removal of his successor,…

Jews in the United States are overwhelmingly proud to be Jewish, yet nearly one in five of them describe themselves as having no religion, according to a Pew Research Center survey published Tuesday. The gap is generational, with 32 percent of Jews born after 1980 identifying as Jewish on the basis of ancestry, ethnicity or…

Iran’s recent conciliatory remarks have to be matched by “transparent, verifiable, meaningful actions,” Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday. “Iran is committed to Israel’s destruction, so for Israel, the ultimate test of a future agreement with Iran is whether or not Iran dismantles its military nuclear program,” Netanyahu said after…

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met on Monday at the State Department with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. In remarks to reporters before the meeting, Kerry said, “Israel, as everybody knows, is a very special friend to the United States of America. And we have just had a very constructive luncheon with the President and…

At the conclusion of his meeting Monday with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, U.S. President Barack H. Obama said that Washington would not ease up on its sanctions against Iran unless and until Tehran halted its nuclear arms program. Netanyahu met with Obama on the background of the President’s phone conversation last week with Iranian chief…

Alert IDF soldiers on Monday night prevented a terror attack at the Gaza border fence. The incident occurred near Kibbutz Nachal Oz, Channel Two reported. Several Gaza Arabs approached the border fence, the report said. IDF soldiers patrolling in the area identified suspicious figures near the fence, and ordered them to halt. When they refuse,…

At least 42 people have been killed and scores wounded in a series of car bomb blasts in Baghdad, as the country faces one of its bloodiest years since 2003. In a familiar pattern, neighborhoods with a Shia Muslim majority were targeted by more than a dozen car bombs. The attacks took place during rush hour,…

Islamist terrorists in the Sinai Peninsula have claimed the killing of three Egyptian policemen. One of Monday’s attacks targeted a police station in El Arish in North Sinai, killing two policemen as they sat eating breakfast outside. A third police officer was also gunned down, as he walked along a street in the city. A video of one of the shootings was published…

For the first time, Holocaust memorial center Yad Vashem has recognized an Egyptian national, the late Dr. Mohamed Helmy, as a “Righteous Gentile,” for the assistance he gave Jews during the Holocaust, at great personal risk. Helmy, born in Khartoum in 1901 to Egyptian parents, went to Germany in 1922 to study medicine and settled…

A study released by the Steinhardt Social Reseach Institute (SSRI) and Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University has yielded some interesting and somewhat unexpected information about the size of the Jewish community in the United States. According to the study, in 2012 there were an estimated 6.8 million Jews in the US – significantly more…

Israel was among those who warned Kenya’s government of the high risk of an attack before the deadly assault on a Nairobi mall by Islamist terrorists, security sources have told the AFP news agency. Cabinet ministers and Kenya’s army chief had received information warning of a plan to carry out a major attack, the officials…

Hebrew University biochemists Professor Aharon Razin and Professor Haim (Howard) Cedar are considered favorites to win 2013 Nobel Prize in the fields of medicine or chemistry for their research on the DNA sequence, according to numerous media reports. The two have been named the leading candidates for their research on the DNA sequence. Official announcement…

At their meeting on Monday, U.S. President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will discuss the negotiations with the Palestinian Authority and the recent developments in Iran and Syria, the White House announced Sunday night. “The visit of Prime Minister Netanyahu is proof of the deep and ongoing connections between the United States and…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has arrived in New York. He is scheduled to meet U.S. President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday, and to address the UN General Assembly on Tuesday. In addition, Netanyahu is reportedly planning to give a series of interviews to various press outlets,…

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has rejected calls by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad for a so-called “third intifada” in Judea and Samaria, saying it would “not allow the West Bank to become an arena for chaos to serve a private agenda.” Asharq al-Awsat, an Arabic international newspaper headquartered in London, reports that the calls came…

Channel 2‘s website says that Indian security forces have arrested a Global Jihad terrorist who they believe planned to carry out terror attacks against Jewish targets in India. The investigation revealed that he is part of a cell that planned terror attacks in Mumbai and other locations. Chabad houses were reportedly on the list of planned…

Islamist gunmen have stormed a school in northern Nigeria, massacring at least 50 students, in the latest attack by Islamist terrorists in the region. Coming just days after a deadly attack on a Kenyan shopping mall by Somalian Islamists, the attack – blamed on terrorists from the Al Qaeda-linked “Boko Haram” group – underlines the…

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, the head of Israel’s negotiating team in talks with the Palestinian Authority (PA), spoke Saturday night at the opening of a conference organized by the left-wing American group J Street. Livni won applause for her defense of the “two-state solution” and the creation of a PA state in Judea, Samaria (Shomron),…

As fighting continues in Syria, 43 Islamist groups have united to form a joint “Army of Islam.” The groups have agreed to act under the joint leadership of Sheikh Mohammed Zahran. The Army of Islam’s creation was officially announced in a ceremony Sunday. The Al-Qaeda affiliated group Al-Nusra, along with ideologically similar groups such as…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu plans to tell the United Nations General Assembly that Iran has enough uranium to produce nuclear weapons, according to the Sunday Times. An unnamed senior Israeli official was quoted as having told the newspaper that Netanyahu will say in his speech on Tuesday that Iran currently has 219 kilograms (482 pounds)…

IAF fighter jets were scrambled into Israel’s skies twice Saturday, for reasons that are unknown. Such events usually occur when it is believed that a foreign aircraft is invading Israeli airspace. The IDF has refused to say why the jets were scrambled. Two jets were scrambled in the morning – one of which, according to…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has told his government ministers not to grant any interviews to the press regarding diplomatic matters – including the efforts currently being made by the United States to resolve the problem of Iran’s nuclear weapons program. Several ministers had to cancel scheduled interviews because of Netanyahu’s instruction. In political circles, the…

A telephone call Friday between US President Barack Obama and Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani is being hailed as a historic development. The call is the first of its kind between an American and Iranian president in more than three decades. After the Iranian leader rebuffed an American request to meet Obama when the two were…

A French diplomat who physically attacked an Israeli soldier during a demonstration in support of illegal Bedouin squatters will be deported from Israel, an official has told the Israel Hayom paper. He added, however, that it was “an isolated incident that does not characterise relations” between Israel and France. Marion Fesneau-Castaing, France’s cultural attache to its consulate in Jerusalem, punched…

Western diplomats have hailed a “significant shift” in Iran’s attitude towards its nuclear weapons program, following the highest-level of talks between the United States and Iran in six years. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met along with diplomats from the UN Security Council members from U.S, Russia, Britain, France and China and Germany (known as the…

Three Arab rioters were arrested for throwing rocks Friday, following disorders at the Damascus Gate (Shaar Shechem in Hebrew) to Jerusalem’s Old City.  Another youth was arrested following a disorder next to the Church of All Nations on the Mount of Olives. At the same time, additional disorders broke out in the area of the Rockefeller antiquities museum, across…

UN weapons inspectors are launching investigations into three additional alleged chemical weapons attacks, in addition to their investigations surrounding a series of attacks in Damascus suburbs on August 21 which killed more than 1,000 people. The additional alleged attacks took place between March 19 and August 25. This latest development comes as a team of UN experts…

Four members of the Fatah affiliated Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades group have been arrested by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.  The arrests were reported by the PA-based Maan news agency, who said the four, yielding weapons, delivered a vitriolic press conference from the Al Ghafri Tower in Gaza City. The report said after journalists left, Hamas…

Officials say at least 23 people have been killed in blasts targeting outdoor markets in Iraq’s capital Baghdad. Al Qaeda are thought to be behind the attacks.  Three bombs exploded simultaneously in the Shiite village of Sabaa al-Bour, located almost 20 miles north of Baghdad. Police have reported that bombs went off at the entrance to the…

Official Iranian news agency FARS said Thursday that CNN misrepresented Iranian President Hasan Rouhani’s statements in an interview with the network’s Christiane Amanpour, saying the network added the words “Holocaust” and “reprehensible” to its translation. “The CNN aired its interview with Rouhani on Tuesday but the news channel added to or changed parts of his…

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani has urged Israel to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, is his second speech at the UN General Assembly this week. Rouhani called for a world disarmament conference that would establish a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East. “As long as nuclear weapons exist, the threat of their use exists,” Rouhani said,…

Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs launched a scathing broadside Thursday against the UN’s High Commissioner of Human Rights, Navi Pillay, following a statement by her office regarding the demolition of illegal Bedouin structures. “Once again, Ms. Pillay, via a statement issued by the High Commissioner’s spokesperson on 24 September 2013 has published a misconceived, inaccurate…

Synagogues and town centers across Israel are set to be filled with a second night of dancing with Torah scrolls in the customary conclusion to the Sukkot and Simhat Torah festivals, known as hakafot shniyot.  In Jerusalem, the hakafot shniyot will take place in the Liberty Bell Park sponsored by US based Holocaust survivor Eugen Gluck,…

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Wednesday that Israel and the Palestinian Authority have agreed to intensify their peace talks with greater participation by the United States. “We have agreed now, in the last week, when I have met with both [PA Chairman Mahmoud] Abbas and Prime Minister [Binyamin] Netanyahu, we have agreed…

A hareidi-religious family from New York was the victim of a serious attack by rioting Arabs Wednesday afternoon, asthey were making their way to pray on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem’s Old City. One of the passengers in their rented car was taken to Hadassah Mount Scopus Hospital with wounds to the head and one of his…

The eight day festival that consists of Sukkot and Shmini Atzeret/Simchat Torah will come to an end Thursday night, bringing an end to the month long holiday season and starting the regular year. In Israel, a popular expression is “Acharei Hachagim” – lets’ wait till after the holidays – as the entire country seems to…

Kenya said on Wednesday that Israel was helping it with a forensic investigation into the weekend attack on a Nairobi shopping mall. The country’s interior minister, Joseph ole Lenku, told reporters that the United States and Britain were also taking part in the investigation. “We have moved to the next phase,” Lenku was quoted by…

The Jewish community in Mumbai, India is on alert in the wake of a threat by a terrorist organization, the Hindustan Times reported on Wednesday. According to the report, a prominent body that represents the Jewish community in the city has sent out advisories to all synagogues and members to be on alert, especially during…

Hours after he called on Israel to “end the occupation of the West Bank”, U.S. President Barack Obama met Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday. During the meeting, reported the Associated Press, Obama said that no one is under the illusion that peace between Israelis and Arabs will be easy, but claimed PA…

French President Francois Hollande met Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Tuesday, becoming became the first Western leader to do so, reports Reuters. France has been a strong advocate of sanctions to pressure Iran over its nuclear program but has been cautious in its statements since Rouhani, a relative moderate, was elected in June. Hollande, who…

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly was “cynical and full of hypocrisy,” Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Tuesday night. In a statement he released shortly after Rouhani’s speech, Netanyahu said that the speech reflects the Iranian plan, namely to “talk and buy time in order to promote the ability of…

United States President Barack Obama sent a message of reconciliation to Iran in his speech to the United Nations on Tuesday. While Obama reiterated American opposition to the idea of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon, he expressed support for an Iranian civilian nuclear program. The mistrust between America and Iran has “deep roots,” he began,…

As Kenyan troops battle to end the bloody siege at Nairobi’s Westgate mall, which has already killed at least 62 people and left nearly 200 wounded, report have been circulating that a team of Israeli military advisers were flown in as early as Sunday morning to help Kenyan security forces root out Islamist terrorists and…

IDF commanders have ordered the closure of part of the old Highway 60, which runs near the Israeli community of Beit El in the Binyamin region north of Jerusalem. The road connects the Arab cities of Ramallah and Shechem, and is used by PA resident drivers. The decision was made after Arab rioters made life…

Following the slaying of two IDF soldiers in three days, dozens of Knesset members, including deputy government ministers, have signed a letter calling on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to cancel all planned releases of terrorist prisoners as part of a series of “goodwill gestures” to the PA. 26 out of a list of 104 convicted…

A young Jewish couple from the town of Beit El, along with their four year-old son, narrowly escaped death after an Arab lynch mob attacked their car near Jerusalem’s A-Tur neighborhood. Asaf and Naama Bruchi were travelling through the largely Arab neighborhood when their car stopped in traffic. Suddenly, they were pelted by rocks and other…

Eight people were killed in three terrorist attacks in Iraq on Tuesday, continuing a wave of violence that has sparked fears of a return to all-out sectarian conflict. Two attacks targeted police stations, one in the town of Rawa and the other in the town of Aana, both located on the highway to Syria. Seven…

Kenya’s foreign minister said Monday that the Al-Qaeda terror group is responsible for the attack in a mall in Nairobi that has killed at least 62 people. In an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera, Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed said that Al-Shabaab, Al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Somalia, was not acting alone and that it was part of…

More than 2,500 visitors from across the spectrum – national-religious, secular, hareidi, soldiers, kabbalists and others – prayed at the Tomb of Joseph (Kever Yosef) in Shechem last night, amid scenes of unity and joy. The visit was held in honor of the festival of Sukkot, and was coordinated with security forces, and in conjunction with…

Kenyan troops are “in control” of Nairobi’s Westgate shopping mall, the Kenyan interior ministry announced overnight Monday, according to AFP. “We’re in control of Westgate,” the ministry said in a post on Twitter, some 60 hours after Islamist terrorists stormed the complex and killed at least 62 people. “Our forces are combing the mall floor…

Hundreds of children and teenagers are expected to arrive at the Temple Mount Tuesday in what has become an annual event – the ascending of groups of children to the Mount, coordinated and organized by the Women for the Holy Temple Organization. Speaking with Arutz Sheva, Ya’el Kabilio, one of the event’s organizers, said that…

In what will be the highest-level talks between the United States and Iran since the 1979 revolution, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will meet with Iran’s foreign minister on Thursday, Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes has confirmed. Kerry and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will join their counterparts from the six major powers…

Infighting among Syrian rebel groups continued to rage Monday amid reports that a senior Al Qaeda commander had been killed in clashes with a rival rebel brigade. The commander – said to be of Libyan nationality – was killed along with a dozen other fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), according…

Fistfights and clashes broke out at Bir Zeit University on Ramallah Monday, as staff were prevented from entering the university building by students who are striking in protest of poor management by the university’s administration. Students locked the gates of the school’s buildings and formed a human chain to prevent anyone from entering. Several staff…

Thousands attended Monday the funeral of IDF soldier Gabriel (Gal) Kobi of Tirat Hacarmel, who was killed Sunday after an Arab sharpshooter targeted him while he was on patrol in Hevron. The funeral took place at the military cemetery in Haifa, and was attended by dozens of members of Kobi’s Givati unit. Speaking at the…

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said that his regime will allow international inspectors full access to its chemical weapons sites, but added that rebels could prevent them from reaching certain locations. “I’m referring to places where gunmen exist. Those gunmen might want to stop the experts’ arrival,” Assad told Chinese state TV in an interview recorded…

IDF soldiers carried out intensive search operations in the city of Hevron overnight and Monday morning, following the murder on Sunday of a soldier, First Sergeant Gal Kobi Hy”d, by a sniper. The forces combing the city found two hunting rifles in the course of their operations. Two Arabs were arrested and handed over to…

Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon promised Monday morning, that the IDF would catch the Palestinian Authority (PA) sniper who murdered Israeli soldier Gal Kobi Sunday in Hevron. “I join the grief of the Kobi family after the death of their son. The IDF and security forces will lay their hands on the terrorist and those who sent him and hold…

At least 60 people were killed at a funeral in the mainly Shiite Muslim Sadr City district of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, on the weekend. The BBC reported that a tent where mourners were gathered was hit by two explosions, one of them a suicide car bomb. A third explosion followed as police, ambulances and…

Kenyan troops, including commando teams and military helicopters, are carrying out a major assault against al Shabaab terrorists in Kenya in an attempt to end the horrific two-day stand-off inside a Nairobi shopping center. According to Sky News, at least three loud explosions and heavy and rapid bursts of fire have been heard Monday morning coming…

Israel should stop talking peace with the Palestinian Authority so long as its chairman continues to incite to terrorism, said Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon (Likud) on Sunday. Speaking to Arutz Sheva, Danon said that Israel should demand that PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas condemn the murders of two soldiers over the past two days before…

The United States on Sunday condemned the killings of two Israeli soldiers in separate incidents in Judea and Samaria. “Such violence and terror are unacceptable,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. These types of violent incidents “undermine efforts to establish the positive atmosphere the parties need to progress in peace negotiations,” Psaki added in a…

Kenyan security forces said Sunday night that most of the hostages being held by Al-Shabaab terrorists in a shopping mall in the capital Nairobi have been rescued, Al Jazeera reports. The terrorists belonging to the Somali group stormed the Westgate shopping center on Saturday using grenades and assault rifles. The attack has left at least…

An international anti-Israel group that has sponsored several flotillas to Gaza is now taking aim at Egypt, accusing the new government there of imposing a blockade on the area. Since the deposing of President Mohammed Morsi by the Egyptian army, Egyptian soldiers have cracked down hard on the Muslim Brotherhood – arresting scores, including most…

Terrorists from Hamas-controlled Gaza fired a mortar shell that hit the Eshkol Regional Council in southern Israel on Sunday night, causing no casualties or damage. “A mortar shell fired from Gaza exploded in an open area near the southern part of the Strip,” an IDF spokeswoman told AFP. Last Wednesday, a projectile fired from Gaza…

Fatah’s military wing, the Al Aqsa Brigades, on Sunday took responsibility for the murder of IDF soldier Tomer Hazan Friday. According to Israeli officials, Nadal Amar, the terrorist who killed Hazan, was not affiliated with any terror group. Hazan was abducted Friday and murdered in Samaria by Amar, with the motive said by IDF officials…

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has suggested his country could send a small contingent of military personnel to monitor the handover of Syrian chemical weapons to international observers. Under the terms of a Russian-brokered deal, the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad would avoid western military strikes in response to a chemical weapons attack in the…

Hundreds of people attended the funeral of murdered IDF soldier Tomer Hazan H”yd Sunday aftenoon. He was laid to rest in the military cemetery in Holon. Hazan was abducted Friday and murdered in Samaria by an Arab terrorist, with the motive said by IDF officials to be a plan by the terrorist, Nadal Amar, to…

A double bombing at a historic Christian church in northwestern Pakistan has killed at least 75 people. The bomber struck as hundreds of worshipers walked out of church toward a food distribution area on the lawn outside. The attack is one of the deadliest to target Pakistan’s Christian minority in years. No group has claimed…

The United States Air Force nearly detonated a nuclear bomb over North Carolina in 1961, the Guardian has revealed. The bomb which nearly went off carried a payload of 4 megatons, making it 260 times more powerful than the bomb used in Hiroshima. The report is based on a previously classified report on the incident…

Israel security forces have joined their Kenyan counterparts in the fight to rescue hostages captured by Islamist terrorists at a Nairobi mall. “The Israelis have just entered and they are rescuing the hostages and the injured,” a security source said on condition he not be named. An Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson would neither confirm nor deny…

Lebanon’s government has announced that it will send the national army to secure Hezbollah-dominated suburbs in the south of the country, including the terrorist movement’s stronghold in the Dahiyeh neighborhood of Beirut. The decision to send soldiers into Lebanese cities comes in the wake of multiple recent bombing attacks. The attacks have left more than…

In a show of force which contrasts with the relatively consilliatory statements by Iran’s new president, the Iranian military has paraded its arsenal of ballistic missiles capable of hitting Israeli and other western targets, at a state parade on Sunday. Iran paraded 30 missiles with a nominal range of 2,000 kilometres (1,250 miles) – the first…

An IDF soldier was badly injured in a shooting attack in Hevron Sunday night. The attack took place in the Avraham Avinu neighborhood near the Machpelah Cave in the city. A Magen David Adom crew treated the victim, who was struck by bullets in his upper body. He was later taken by helicopter to Hadassah…

Syria has handed over complete data on its chemical arsenal to the world’s watchdog, meeting a Saturday deadline to avert military strikes, AFP reports. There were indications on Friday that the Syrian government would not make the weekend’s deadline. The Hague-based Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said it was examining the Syrian…

In Nairobi, Kenya, at least 30 people are reported dead in an apparent terrorist attack in a shopping center. A BBC reporter said that a photojournalist who fled the mall reported that he saw about 40 bodies inside the mall. One Israeli, who operates a stand selling Dead Sea products, was reportedly slightly wounded. Three…

An Israel Defense Forces soldier, Sergeant Tomer Hazan of Bat Yam, 20, was abducted Friday and murdered in Samaria by an Arab terrorist. The victim’s family has been notified. The motive for the murder was the terrorist’s plan to trade the body of his victim for the freedom of his brother, a Fatah terrorist who…

An IDF officer from Central Command told Channel 10 Saturday evening that the IDF had no way of preventing the abduction and murder of Sergeant Tomer Hazan. “We couldn’t have done anything to save his life,” the officer said. “This is a serious incident. The forces took action in time and located the body within…

IAF combat jets were scrambled into the skies over greater Tel Aviv Saturday morning, after suspicious movement was detected on the radar screens of an IAF monitoring unit. The suspicious movement turned out to have been a flock of birds, and the jets returned to their base. Some alarmed residents reported running to safe rooms…

Military sources in Yemen have said that at least 40 policemen and soldiers have been killed in the south of the country in simultaneous attacks by Al Qaeda.  One Al Qaeda assault targeted a special forces camp at Maifaa in the Shabwa province, killing eight policemen, at the same time as gunmen attacked two army posts 15 kilometres (9…

Arab States will continue in their push to single Israel out for criticism at this week’s UN nuclear agency meeting, defying western calls to refrain from doing so, according to a senior Arab League representative. Frustrated over the indefinite postponement last year of an international conference on banning atomic arms in the region, Arab states…

US media have reported that at least one person has been killed and ten more wounded after a shooting at a Chicago basketball court. In a twitter feed, the Chicago Fire Department relayed the news that ten adults and one child had been shot. A 3-year-old is among those receiving hospital treatment according to various news agencies.…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu reacted Thursday to Iranian President Hasan Rouhani’s latest interview, in which he sounded a moderate tone, and said – “Let us not be fooled by the Iranian president’s words of deception.” “The Iranians are creating media spin in order to keep the centrifuges spinning,” a statement from Netanyahu’s bureau said. “The…

German police quoted in local media say they have located the body of Yam Levy, 23, an Israeli woman who went missing last week. Levi was last seen Tuesday near Immenstadt, a Bavarian town near the German Alps and Swiss border, last Tuesday. Police have been searching for her and her parents joined the search,…

France’s interior minister revealed Thursday that hundreds of homegrown Islamist militants were signing up to fight in Syria and warned they could pose a security threat when they come back. More than 300 French nationals or residents are either currently fighting in Syria’s civil war, planning to go and fight or have recently returned from…

Rabbi Naim Yosef, 92, passed away Thursday morning. Rabbi Yosef was the brother of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. He left behind nine children, as well as grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The rabbi was initially hospitalized after he tripped and fell in his home. His family said that he also suffered from a serious infection in his whole body,…

Alert Border Police prevented two Arab terrorists from carrying out an attack Thursday evening at the Tapuach Junction in Samaria (Shomron). The two Arabs, who are in their twenties, carried a backpack and advanced toward the checkpoint at the junction in a way that aroused the policemen’s suspicions. They searched the men at a secure…