Free Republic

The Hamas regime in Gaza continues to execute its own civilians, even while engaged in a terror war against Israel. In a central venue in Gaza City on Friday morning, 11 local Arab residents who were charged with "collaborating with Israel" were publicly executed by Hamas, according to the Arabic-language Al-Rai news agency as cited by Walla!. However, Hamas TV reported that the number of those executed actually consisted of 18 men. Six of those executed were shot dead in front of a mosque by men in Hamas military uniforms, witnesses told AFP. The public killing comes in the midst...

The IDF has declassified a new special report detailing Hamas's "illegal use of civilian infrastructure" throughout the course of Operation Protective Edge, which began July 8. The report was released on Tuesday, the same day that Hamas breached a ceasefire, and presents an irrefutable case against the terror organization utilizing intelligence maps, photographic and video evidence. According to the report, during the course of its recent terror war on Israel, Hamas has fired over 1,600 rockets from civilian sites, cynically using UN facilities, schools, graveyards, mosques and power plants, among others. The declassified report can be seen here in slideshow...

In an exclusive Arutz Sheva interview on Thursday, Hof Ashkelon Regional Council chairman Yair Farjoun said that his region, which has been battered by rockets from the terror enclave of Gaza, cannot continue under the current status quo. "Out of 160 rockets, 60 fell in our territory - that's a serious blitz," Farjoun commented about the renewed rocket barrage, which began with a breach of the ceasefire on Tuesday around 4 p.m. The chairman continued "it's incredible to see how people live here by sheer miracles; beside a direct hit on a synagogue, rockets have landed just 200 meters (650...

The armed wing of Hamas has executed three Palestinian Arabs and arrested seven others for allegedly collaborating with Israel during the Gaza war, a website close to the movement reported Thursday. The Majd website quoted a senior security official in the enclave as saying seven people had been arrested on suspicion of scoping out targets for Israel and that three others had been shot dead. The official said that the three were killed after "revolutionary procedures" were completed against them. No date was given for the executions or the arrests. The site added that zero tolerance would be shown to...

A man who was seriously wounded by a Hamas rocket Thursday had been shielding children with his own body. The attack took place at about 10:20 a.m., at one of the communities in the Eshkol region. Magen David Adom (MDA) crews gave initial treatment to the man, who is 33. He was seriously wounded by shrapnel that struck his chest. MDA paramedic Oren Vacht, who treated the man before his evacuation to hospital, described him as having been hit in the chest by a shell fragment, “fully conscious and in great pain.” "Civilians who had been at the scene told...

The armed wing of Hamas announced Thursday that three of its senior commanders were killed in a pre-dawn Israeli air strike in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades in a statement identified the leaders as Mohammed Abu Shamalah, Raed al-Attar and Mohammed Barhum. Emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said eight people were killed in the strike. Witnesses said a four-storey family home was completely destroyed in a series of air strikes. The airstrike was carried out based on intelligence provided by the Shabak (Israel Security Agency), which led to the identification of two central Hamas figures. Most...

The United Nations Security Council on Wednesday urged Israel and the Palestinian Arabs to return to the negotiating table to quickly agree on a lasting truce in Gaza. In a unanimously adopted statement quoted by AFP, the 15-member council "offered full support to the Egyptian initiative and called upon the parties to resume negotiations to urgently reach a sustainable and lasting ceasefire." The statement drafted by France was agreed after negotiations in Cairo teetered on the verge of collapse amid a fresh flare-up of violence. The measure fell short of a full resolution, but diplomats signaled they would be ready...

..... "Jim was taken from us in an act of violence that shocks the conscience of the entire world," he continued. "He was 40 years old - one of five siblings, the son of a mom and dad who worked tirelessly for his release. Earlier today, I spoke to the Foleys and told them that we are all heartbroken..." Obama then turned to the subject of IS itself. Over the past day, the terror group threatened to not only 'drown Americans in blood,' but also to kill another journalist, Steven Sotloff. The Sunni Muslim group follows Al-Qaeda's hard-line ideology, but...

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri has said that the elusive head of the terror group's "military wing", Mohammed Deif, is still "alive and well" despite an IDF assassination attempt which killed his wife and son. "The occupation will pay for its crimes against the Palestinian people," declared Abu-Zuhri, who added a chilling warning to the people of southern Israel. "The residents of the Gaza periphery will return to their homes only by the decision of the commander Mohammed Deif and one Israeli commitment to stop the aggression and lift the siege," he threatened. Adding to the threats, Hamas spokesperson Fawzi...

Muslim anti-Israel demonstrators attempted to force their way into a synagogue in Switzerland, the latest in a string of attacks on synagogues in Europe. The protest took place on Saturday, during the Jewish Sabbath, in front of the Beth Yaakov, or Grande, Synagogue in Geneva, according to JTA. The Intercommunity Coordination Against Anti-Semitism and Defamation watchdog organization (CICAD) reported that a Muslim woman wearing a niqab (veil) first attempted to enter the place of worship while waving a PLO flag and holding a placard saying "Every synagogue is an Israeli embassy" on Saturday morning but was prevented from doing so....

MK Erel Margalit (Labor) sharply condemned Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Wednesday morning, in the wake of the massive renewed rocket fire by Hamas terrorists since Tuesday afternoon in breach of the ceasefire. "Where is the prime minister?" asked Margalit on his Facebook page. "This is a disgrace, simply a disgrace. There's no other definition of what is happening here. A terrorist organization is holding target practice on Israel and deciding for it. It sends Israeli residents time and again to shelters and disrupts their lives," continued the MK. Hamas has itself supported Margalit's appraisal that it is determining what...

Hamas declared on Tuesday night that Israel had “opened the gates of hell”. In a statement, the group’s so-called “military wing” said that it had resumed the rocket fire on Israel because the Israeli Air Force had launched an airstrike on a home in Gaza. The group warned that “the price will be a heavy one”. Senior Hamas official Ezzat al-Rishq warned, according to AFP, "Israel will not enjoy security so long as the Palestinian people do not, and it started it." While the latest truce between Israel and Hamas was set to end at midnight on Tuesday, Hamas violated...

As Gaza terrorists breached the ceasefire and renewed their rocket fire on Israeli civilian centers Tuesday, Arab terrorists in the Israeli capital of Jerusalem apparently didn't want to be left out of the action. Two molotov cocktail attacks were launched in the eastern part of Jerusalem late Tuesday night. In the first incident two firebombs were hurled at an Egged bus driving on Yericho Road towards Moti Gur St., which passes adjacent to the Old City to the east. One of the two molotov cocktails exploded on impact, setting the bus on fire. No injuries were caused, but the bus...

Into our town the Hangman came. Smelling of gold and blood and flame and he paced our bricks with a diffident air and built his frame on the courthouse square The scaffold stood by the courthouse side, Only as wide as the door was wide; A frame as tall, or little more, Than the capping sill of the courthouse door And we wondered, whenever we had the time. Who the criminal, what the crime That the Hangman judged with the yellow twist of knotted hemp in his busy fist. And innocent though we were, with dread, We passed those eyes...

Israel will end its export of poultry and dairy produce to the European Union from Jewish communities beyond the Green Line, Israeli and European officials said on Sunday, according to AFP. The restrictions stem from directives issued by the European Commission in February and affect chicken and milk products from communities in eastern Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and Judea and Samaria. "In keeping with previous decisions, the EU no longer recognized the authority of the veterinary inspections services of Israel to approve the export of poultry and (dairy products), the origin of which are in settlements," a European official told...

Hamas has sounded a belligerent tone as negotiations for a long-term truce continue in Cairo. In a message posted on his Facebook page, Hamas's "foreign affairs" chief Osama Hamdan said the Islamist terror group rejects the current Egyptian proposal, and pledged a "long war" of attrition against Israel. "Israel must accept the demands of the Palestinian people or face a long war," he said. Other Hamas officials issued similar statements over the course of Saturday. .....

Leftist Israeli author A.B. Yehoshua is saying that Israel should not refer to Hamas as a “terrorist organization” but as an “enemy”. In an opinion piece published in the New Republic magazine, Yehoshua wrote that Israel should give Hamas the status of a “legitimate enemy”. “What accounts for the fact that, after the retreat of Israel from the Gaza Strip, the departure from Israeli settlements and the transfer of authority to Hamas, we continue to characterize Gaza as a terrorist state rather than as an ‘enemy’?” he wrote. “Is it that the expression ‘a regime of terror’ is a stronger...

The Israel Air Force attacked targets in Gaza on Wednesday night, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit confirmed in a statement. The attacks came after Gaza terrorists fired rockets at southern Israel, the statement said. “The IDF is prepared for this possibility and is determined to continue to maintain the security of the State of Israel,” the statement noted. .....

Egypt's top religious authority on Tuesday condemned the armed group Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), which has taken over parts of Iraq and Syria and is now calling itself the Islamic State (IS). According to Reuters, Grand Mufti Shawqi Allam described the group as a corrupt, extremist organization that is damaging Islam. “An extremist and bloody group such as this poses a danger to Islam and Muslims, tarnishing its image as well as shedding blood and spreading corruption,” said Allam, Egypt's most influential Muslim cleric, was quoted by the state news agency MENA as having reported. The...

Even as Israeli representatives are in Cairo to discuss a truce with Hamas on Tuesday, the terrorist group is taking pains to clarify it has no intentions of desisting from trying to wipe Israel off the map. Hamas's "military wing," the Al-Qassam Brigades, released a statement presenting its position on the ongoing talks in Egypt. "The warriors in Gaza are waiting with Allah's help to renew the fighting, or to return to planning the next campaign. There's no escape. Either jihad or planning (for the next jihad)," declared the statement. The remarks leave no doubts that even in the case...