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The United States said Thursday there was little doubt Israeli artillery was the source of a "totally indefensible" strike that killed 16 people at a UN school in Gaza. White House spokesman Josh Earnest noted that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had said all available evidence pointed to Israeli artillery and that the Israeli government had acknowledged its forces were firing in the area in response to Hamas fire near the school. “So while we underscore the importance of a full and prompt investigation of this tragic incident, as well as a shelling of other UN facilities and schools that have...

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has "made some progress" in complicated talks to try to reach a ceasefire in Gaza, his department said Thursday. "We know we're not there yet. But I think we have made some progress," said deputy State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf, according to AFP. "The secretary is very engaged in it. And hopefully soon we'll be able to get something temporary in place," she added. Harf refused to be drawn further, including whether Washington was still trying to put in place a 24-hour truce or something longer, nor would she be drawn on how much...

Hostile Arabs in Judea and Samaria who identify with Gaza terrorists have planned a "Day of Rage" for Friday. .....

Feiglin does not believe in going after rocket launchers or tunnels. Gaza should be retaken in whole, he said, by directly attacking the Hamas leadership and striving for victory, and doing so according to Jewish law, without sacrificing soldiers in order to save members of the local population, which voted Hamas into power. Once this is accomplished, the terrorists who fight Israel must be destroyed, he said, and the remaining population should be encouraged to leave through monetary compensation. Surveys show that 80% of Gazans would like to leave the Mediterranean coastal strip and move elsewhere in the world. The...

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/static/Resizer.ashx/news/468/282/499773.jpg Israeli attacks against US Secretary of State John Kerry accusing him being of a supporter of Hamas are "offensive and absurd," a senior US diplomat said Wednesday. In a sharp exchange with reporters, deputy State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf hit out against a torrent of abuse from "respected voices in Israel talking about the secretary of state, claiming that he supports Hamas, which is offensive and absurd." The United States had been given Israel "a level of support which has been quite frankly unprecedented in our history, even when we stood alone," she added. Kerry has been the subject...

Yariv Oppenheimer, director of the far-left Peace Now organization, criticized Economy Minister Naftali Bennett on Tuesday, after Bennett said that the goal of the current campaign in Gaza must include a clear military decision that leaves Hamas defeated and disarmed. "How convenient it is to be Bennett and push Netanyahu into Gaza," said Oppenheimer. "If it does not happen that you can blame Netanyahu and say ‘we told you so’, and if it does happen, Netanyahu will be responsible for the failure and the complication of the day after,” he added. "I propose that Israel agree to lift the siege...

In a rare audio message, the head of Hamas’s “military wing” declared on Tuesday that the only way to reach a ceasefire in Gaza is for Israel to end its “siege” on the coastal territory. The message by Mohammed Deif, head of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, was broadcast on Hamas’s television network, and is the first official statement by Deif since Operation Pillar of Defense in 2012. In the message, the arch-terrorist repeated Hamas’s conditions for a ceasefire, saying, "The firing will stop only if the [Israeli] aggression ends only if and the blockade is lifted. The Zionist entity...

Six soldiers were wounded on Tuesday evening by a barrage of mortar shells in the Gaza Region. The condition of the six wounded soldiers has not yet been made public. Yesterday, four soldiers were killed by mortar shells near Israel’s border with Gaza: Staff Sergeant Eliav Eliahu Chaim Kachlon, aged 22 from Tzfat; Corporal Meidan Maimon Bitton, aged 20 from Netivot; Corporal Niran Cohen, aged 20 from Tiberias; and Sergeant Major Adi Brigga, aged 23 from Beit Shikmah. Earlier on Tuesday night, at around 8:20 p.m. sirens were heard in Beit Shemesh, the communities comprising the Mateh Yehudah region, and...

Damning evidence has emerged of US President Barack Obama's dismissal of Israel's position in favor of supporting the position of Hamas and its allies... A "senior US official" leaked an audio recording of a telephone conversation between Obama and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to Channel One. In it the 35-minute conversation, which took place on Sunday, the US President appears downright hostile at points, and even cuts off Netanyahu in the middle of his protestations over a one-sided truce proposal which would have seen Hamas receive all its key demands, but that Israel ultimately rejected. The following is an excerpt...

Danny Dayan, head of the Council of Judea and Samaria, said Monday that asking Israel to stop its attacks on Hamas at this time was “a perversion of morality and diplomacy.” Israelis understand quite well, he said, that “they are fighting for their homes. No matter what we do the enemy will never be satisfied” without Israel's destruction. “We must continue fighting until our goals are reached.” Dayan was speaking in light of the heavy pressure being placed on Israel by US President Barack H Obama for an immediate and unconditional cease-fire. In his proposal, Obama said that the issue...

U.S. President Barack Obama spoke with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday evening, and stressed the need for an immediate and sustainable ceasefire in Gaza. “The President underscored the United States’ strong condemnation of Hamas’ rocket and tunnel attacks against Israel and reaffirmed Israel’s right to defend itself,” said a statement from the White House. “The President also reiterated the United States’ serious and growing concern about the rising number of Palestinian civilian deaths and the loss of Israeli lives, as well as the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza,” it added. According to the statement, Obama “made clear the strategic...

Armed with loudspeakers, they blasted the “Shema” incantation (from the 'Hear O Israel' prayer) in the direction of the Muslim Arab neighborhood of Tzur Baher. They reportedly did so at about 2:30 a.m. Video of the Jewish counterattack garnered enthusiastic reactions on Facebook. Jews all over Israel find themselves routinely harassed by noise pollution from Muslim neighborhoods in recent years. This less-known “intifada” by Arabs involves fitting loudspeakers on minarets in mosques – which for centuries made do with unamplified muezzin calls for prayer. The Jerusalem Municipality reportedly embarked on a process to investigate and limit the noise pollution by...

An Arab driver swerved into a group of people, mostly women and girls standing at a Gush Etzion Junction (Tzomet HaGush) bus stop. One woman (20) was injured in the attack, and was taken to Hadassah Ein Karen hospital. The driver drove off and was captured south of Gush Etzion. The driver claims it was an accident, but after reviewing the footage (below), the police believe... The footage was captured by the security camera overlooking the bus stop. Video

The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade of Judea and Samaria, the military wing of Fatah (PLO), headed by Mahmoud Abbas, who also serves as the "President of Palestine" and head of the PLO, has declared "open war" against the "Zionist enemy." In a ecorded message from July 23, three armed terrorists from the al-Aqsa brigade announced that they would not sit idly by during the Israeli operation in the Gaza Strip, and that they intend to bring the struggle deep into Israeli territory. "The language of blood is the only way to answer Zionist aggression", they said, stating that international law permits...

US Secretary of State John Kerry informed Hamas via Qatar last week that under his proposal for a ceasefire with Israel, based on the original Egyptian initiative, the US would guarantee the fulfillment of many of Hamas’s demands for an end to the war, Palestinian sources told The Times of Israel on Saturday. Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign up! Kerry’s handling of the ceasefire effort was castigated by Israeli sources on Friday and Saturday, and the Israeli security cabinet unanimously rejected his ceasefire proposal on Friday night. The...

The New Jersey teenager who sued her parents has received a domestic violence restraining order against the boyfriend her mom and dad always hated. Rachel Canning, 18, made headlines last year when she moved out of her family's Lincoln Park home, then demanded her parents pay her child support. The family had been fighting for months over Rachel's wild behavior.... .....

The IDF has struck a terrorist position in Gaza's Al Wafa hospital, illustrating the highly sensitive and illegal use of civilian targets as human shields by Hamas and other Gazan terrorist groups. IDF sources say that the controversial decision to attack the position was taken after several days in which ground forces came under heavy fire from gunmen positioned inside the hospital grounds. The fire reportedly included both light weaponry and heavy anti-tank missiles directed towards IDF armored vehicles. "The hospital premises were being used as war rooms and command centers by the terrorist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad," said...

Wounded soldiers have given shocking testimony regarding Hamas’ use of young children as human shields. Parents of wounded soldiers spoke to Kol Yisrael on Tuesday and shared some of the disturbing stories they had heard from their sons. They said soldiers have repeatedly seen young children in Sheijaya, Gaza, be sent out into the streets with guns to try to attack IDF troops. One parent reported that terrorists had run at IDF soldiers with a gun in one hand and a baby in the other, apparently in hopes that the soldiers would see the child and hold their fire. If...

Police have been showing less patience for extremist Arab MKs' antics lately, MK Mohammed Barakeh (Hadash) learned Monday in Nazareth when he attempted to storm the local police station. The video shows Barakeh, who has been inolved in numerous scuffles with authorities over the years, trying to storm the Nazareth police station together with an Arab mob. The police form a wall and push the crowd back, and Barakeh eventually finds himself on the ground. Police arrested two of Barakeh's sons, and 21 other citizens, following the large scale demonstration in Nazareth on Monday, which was attended by thousands. The...

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu addressed the nation and answered reporters' questions Sunday evening during the prime time newscasts after 8:00 p.m., and spelled out relatively modest aims for Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, which completes its 13th day Sunday night. In response to a question, Netanyahu said that Israel has embarked on a gradual process of undoing the harm done by the 2005 unilateral Gaza withdrawal known as the Disengagement, which ended up allowing Hamas to take over Gaza. At the time, he noted, he had warned that the vacuum left behind by Israel would be filled by Hamas, which...

A video released by the IDF Sunday shows soldiers in action, destroying a tunnel dug by Hamas terrorists into Israel. The video shows the soldiers stringing explosives and blowing the tunnel up. “This is one of the first tunnels we found during this operation,” a soldier tells the camera. “It was dug in order to infiltrate Israeli communities. The IDF said Sunday that in three days of the ground campaign in Operation Protective Edge, soldiers had found and destroyed dozens of tunnels dug by Hamas terrorists into Israeli territory. Video

Thirteen IDF soldiers have been killed since Saturday night, the IDF said. The process of identifying the bodies is still ongoing. Golani Brigade, armor and engineering corps forces were met with effective close range guerrilla actions in Shejaiya, Gaza. The dead are apparently all from the Golani Brigade. The Brigade's commander, Col. Rasan Alian, was also lightly injured. According to Channel 2, there were several incidents that involved IDF deaths that occurred one after the other after midnight. In the most serious incident, around 1:00 a.m., an armored personnel carrier hit a large explosive charge, or may have been hit...

In an unusual moment during Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace presented Secretary of State John Kerry with video recorded before he came on air. Wallace presented the segment as being in reference to civilians killed in fighting in the Gaza Strip, writes the Washington Post. "While you were on camera and while on microphone," Wallace said, "you spoke to one of your top aides between the interviews about the situation in Israel." He then played what the network had recorded. In the clip, Kerry is holding a cellphone conversation with an unidentified person, but Kerry's comments are clear. "It's...

Israeli Arab MK Hanin Zoabi (Balad) continued to openly encourage Hamas in the battle against Israel's self-defense operation, giving another inflammatory interview to Al-Jazeera Saturday " " . "The Israeli Home Front Command is afraid of casualties rising following a ground operation," Zoabi said. "The Israeli public cannot stand [the idea that] confrontation will injure more and more IDF soldiers." "Israeli society is interested in a brief ground offensive, to reduce IDF casualties," she added. Zoabi stated that the Hamas escalation took Israel "by surprise." "The Israeli public was certainly surprised that rockets reached Tel Aviv," she boasted. "Israel tried...

In a special interview on CNN Wednesday night, Economics Minister Naftali Bennett said that incidents such as the killing of four children on a Gaza beach earlier Wednesday were entirely the fault of Hamas – and were no accident. “I think it is terrible that Hamas is butchering its own children like this,” Bennett told senior CNN correspondent Wolf Blitzer. “I would never take my children and place them next to rocket missile launchers,” knowing that it was likely to be targeted by the IDF, he said. “Hamas is conducting massive self-genocide, taking women and children and placing them next...

Hamas threatened Israel on Thursday evening and warned that it will pay a "high price" for launching a ground assault on Gaza. "The start of the Israeli ground attack on Gaza is a dangerous step, the consequences of which have not been calculated," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said in a statement quoted by AFP. "Israel will pay a high price and Hamas is ready for the confrontation," he declared. "With this action the Israeli government seeks to restore the morale of its soldiers and the morale of its army leadership - a leadership that is collapsing because of the qualitative...

The Prime Minister's Office has issued a statement that says the IDF has embarked on a ground assault into Gaza against Hamas's tunnels. The operation is deemed as "limited" and will probably not go further than two or three kilometers into Gaza's territory. This is deemed to be deep enough in enemy land to find the openings into Hamas's attack tunnels, like the one that was used in Thursday morning's infiltration into Israel by 13 terrorists. Egypt, meanwhile, has issued a statement saying that Hamas is to blame for the possible deaths of hundreds of Gazan civilians. The statement appears...

Hamas agreed on Wednesday night to a temporary humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, but not before firing another salvo of rockets towards Israel. "The group agrees to a ceasefire for five hours," starting from 10:00 a.m. local time Thursday, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement quoted by the AFP news agency. "The Palestinian factions agreed to accept the offer from the United Nations for a cooling-down on the ground for five hours starting from 10 in the morning," he told the news agency. Shortly before 2:00 a.m. Thursday morning, however, sirens were heard in the Eshkol region, Hof...

The United States is doing "everything in our power" to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza, Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday, according to AFP. "Our concern is to have a legitimate ceasefire and see if we can find a way to stop the conflict and killing so we can get to the real issues that are underlying it," Kerry told reporters as he met his counterpart from Luxembourg. "And we're doing everything in our power," said Kerry, adding that he has been speaking to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Arab officials. .....

Three people were seriously injured from rocket fire in Be'er Sheva on Monday, including two teenage sisters. The sisters, ages 10 and 13 respectively, were hit by shrapnel after a rocket landed in a Bedouin village close to Be'er Sheva. They were admitted to Soroka Medical Center shortly after the attack, according to Walla! News. One, 13 year-old Atil Alwakili, is in moderate condition; the other, 10 year-old Mar'am, is fighting for her life after suffering from shrapnel wounds to her stomach. An 81 year-old disabled man was also seriously injured in the attack. Magen David Adom (MDA) and Ichud...

Nationalist Knesset Members expressed outrage on Monday night over Egypt’s proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza, which the Cabinet is to vote on early Tuesday morning. Diplomatic officials said that the Egyptian proposal would return the situation on the ground to the state it was before Operation Protective Edge, but with a Hamas that is much weaker than before. Officials close to Jewish Home Chairman Naftali Bennett said he would vote against the ceasefire. Housing Minister Uri Ariel (Jewish Home) told Channel 2 News that the ceasefire proposal is “very bad. I hope the reports are not correct and if...

Video Police had shown the committee video footage of recent Arab rioting in Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, and Committee Chair MK Miri Regev (Likud) asked him why police did not close off the Temple Mount to both Jews and Muslims, instead of just Jews. MK Zahalka began shouting that police have no business entering the Mount - the holiest place in Judaism - claiming that it is "occupied territory". He then told Lt. Gen. Danino that he has blood on his hands, prompting a furious reaction by Regev. The exchange was extreme even by the extreme standards set by...

Attorney General Eric Holder slammed former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin Sunday, saying she is neither a very good legal scholar nor an effective vice presidential candidate. He also said he believed that some critics of the president attack him because he is the nation's first black president. Fielding a question about Palin's call last week to impeach President Obama, Holder told ABC's “This Week” that the former vice president candidate "wasn't a particularly good vice presidential candidate (in 2008). She's an even worse judge of who ought to be impeached and why." Palin is only part of a growing Republican...

The UN's special refugee agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, reported Sunday that about 4,000 residents of northern Gaza have fled their homes after the IDF told them to do so, starting last night. In addition, about 850 Palestinians with foreign nationalities are leaving Gaza through the Erez checkpoint. Three hundred of these had already done so by the early afternoon. Israeli aircraft dropped leaflets on border areas in northern Gaza, calling on the citizens to evacuate their homes before noon Sunday as it prepared to bomb the area. The IDF warned that those who do not obey their instructions will be...

Seventy thousand Gazans from Khan Younis and Deir el-Balah were in the dark Sunday night after a Hamas rocket hit the power line that supplies electricity to those places. It's not clear when Israel Electric Company workers will be able to repair the system, but they are apparently in no rush to do so. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has asked the IEC not to risk the lives of its employees in trying to restore power to the affected sector in Gaza, an operation that could take hours. As Operation Protective Edge enters its seventh day, many Israelis are demanding that...

Sirens sounded in the Tel Aviv area on Friday morning at approximately 10:45 a.m., in what Hamas claims to be its first attack targeting the Ben Gurion International Airport. The Iron Dome anti-missile defense system shot down three rockets over the Tel Aviv area, according to the IDF Spokesperson's Office. However, shrapnel from the intercepted rockets has fallen in multiple places throughout the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, including one near a gas station; no injuries or damage have been reported. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack, boasting that this is the first time they have specifically targeted Ben Gurion Airport,...

Sirens sounded Saturday evening in northern Israel as rockets were apparently fired from Lebanon into the Jewish state. The sirens sounded in Nahariya, Rosh Hanikra, Shlomi, Kabri and Hanita, along the border with Lebanon. Initial analysis said that the rockets were apparently fired from Lebanon by a Palestinian Lebanese terror group. "Two rockets fired from Lebanon hit uninhabited areas in the Nahariya region," a coastal town around 12 kilometers (seven miles) from the border with Lebanon, an army spokeswoman told AFP. Israel responded with artillery fire targeting the firing points. A Lebanese security source told AFP at least one rocket...

Iraq warned the United Nations (UN) on Thursday that in capturing large portions of the country last month, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) also seized nuclear materials used in research at a university in Mosul, Iraq's second largest city. Iraqi Ambassador to the UN Mohammed Ali Alhakim wrote in a letter to the UN, which was seen by Reuters, that roughly 40 kilograms (88 pounds) of uranium compounds were captured by the radical Jihadist group. "These nuclear materials, despite the limited amounts mentioned, can enable terrorist groups, with the availability of the required expertise, to use...

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared on Thursday that his country’s ties with Israel would not return to normal unless Israel ceases its offensive on Gaza, AFP reports. "You will first stop this oppression. If not, it is not possible to realize normalization between Turkey and Israel," Erdogan said in the central Anatolian city of Yozgat after a dinner breaking the daily Ramadan fast. .....

South Africa’s ruling party on Thursday issued a statement in which it compared Israel’s airstrikes on Gaza to the actions of the Nazis during World War II. The statement by the African National Congress (ANC) did not mention the rocket attacks from Gaza which led Israel to launch Operation Protective Edge. “The African National Congress (ANC), condemns in the strongest terms, the barbaric attacks on the defenseless Palestinian people of Gaza,” said the statement by the party’s Deputy Secretary General, Jessie Duarte. “As we move towards the month of August and are reminded of [the] atrocities of Nazi Germany, surely...

Hamas has instructed Gaza residents to ignore text messages and phone calls urging them to evacuate buildings, in an apparent effort to grow its supply of "human shields." The calls and messages are sent by Israeli military officials in order to give civilians time to evacuate the area, and are communicated before the IDF targets a house terrorists were using as cover for firing missiles at Israel or for other military purposes. The Hamas-run Palestinian Authority Interior Ministry said in a message to Gaza residents that the messages "are designed to weaken our resolve and to sow panic and fear...

When the alert siren or an explosion are heard, it is necessary to complete the process of protection, depending on the time available to you and to act according to the following instructions: · In a building: enter the protected space, shelter, or reinforced security room, depending on the time available, and close doors and windows. · Outside – enter the closest building, depending on the time available. If there is no building or cover/shelter nearby, or if you are in an open space, lie down on the ground and protect your head with your hands. · In a vehicle...

IDF Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, has approved all of the plans for an IDF ground offensive into Gaza, IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Moti Almoz said Wednesday evening. He added that the pressure on Gaza will grow in the coming hours and the IAF attacks will become even more intense. According to statistics released by the IDF Wednesday, about 300 rockets have been fired at Israel since Operation Protective Edge began two days ago. Seventy-two rockets hit Israel in the course of Wednesday, by about 8:00 p.m. ..... One rocket scored a direct hit on a home in...

The Minister of Economics, Jewish Home Chairman Naftali Bennett, was verbally and physically assaulted Tuesday in the course of the Peace Conference sponsored by ultra-leftist newspaper Haaretz. Bennett was one of the few speakers invited to the conference from outside of the political left. When he walked up on the stage, boos and catcalls of “fascist” and “murderer” were heard from the audience. Additionally, cries of "Mohammed Abu Khder's blood is on your hands" were heard, a reference to the 16-year-old Arab youth found murdered last Wednesday. ..... The Jewish Home leader used a phrase familiar to smartphone GPS users...

WATCH: Footage records gunmen arriving by sea en route to Zikim, being faced down by troops Video In startlingly vivid footage from a border surveillance camera, reportedly watched by a female conscripted soldier, viewers can see what she saw in real time: the advance of a team of Hamas operatives from the sea toward either the navy base or the community of Zikim. The video, released by the IDF soon after the incident on Tuesday evening, shows a pair of Hamas gunmen firing their weapons, probably at the Israeli army infantry forces that first engaged them — the soldier on...

Pic of victim Police Monday morning have said that three of the six suspects arrested over the murder of Arab teen Mohammed Abu-Khder have admitted to the crime, and have even reenacted it for police. The development came after one of the suspects admitted to the murder soon after being arrested on Sunday. After confessing he also apparently implicated several others, which seems to have led to the latest confessions. It comes as more information emerges about the circumstances of Mohammed Abu-Khder's death. An initial pathologist's report indicates that the teen was burned alive, with his body suffering 90% burns....

The United States on Monday night condemned the rocket fire by Hamas against Israel. Secretary of State John Kerry spoke to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Monday night in the wake of the heavy rocket fire on Israel. Kerry asked Netanyahu to “act with restraint” in his response to Hamas' pounding of southern Israel. With that, State Department spokesperson Jean Psaki said that the US supported Israel's right to defend itself. “We condemn the firing of missiles at Israel and support Israel's right to defend itself.” Kerry, she said, had spoken to Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and asked...

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday night call for an immediate end of Israeli military strikes in the Gaza Strip. Abbas also urged the international community to intervene instantly to put an end to the Israeli attacks which, he cautioned, would plunge the region into more destruction and instability. Abbas affirmed the need to maintain the truce in the Gaza Strip to "save the lives of our people and their property and spare the innocent." He said that the PA leadership was holding contacts with several Arab and international parties...

In a dramatic development Sunday, police have announced that the murder of 20-year-old Afula resident Shelly Dadon has been solved. Police and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) arrested a taxi driver from the Arab village of Iblin in the Galilee, on suspicion that he carried out the murder for "nationalistic" reasons. The suspect, named as 38-year-old Hassin Yousef Hassin Khalifah, subsequently confessed under police interrogation to committing the murder, and even reconstructed the crime for police. Shelly Danon left her home to Migdal Ha'emek on May 1 for a job interview. A few hours later, her body was found...

Six suspects were in custody Sunday night on suspicion of being involved in the murder of Mohammed Abu Khder. The six were arrested earlier Sunday. According to Channel Ten news, police were granted a request Sunday afternoon to extend the remand of five of the six for eight days. The sixth one will remain in custody for five days. Earlier reports said that three of the six had been released. Reports also said that the six are mostly members of an extended family, and live in Jerusalem, Beit Shemesh, and the town of Adam in the Binyamin region. Police sources...