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Israel has accepted a request by UN envoy Robert Serry to enact a six-hour "humanitarian ceasefire" starting Thursday morning. Serry submitted the request to both the Israeli government and Hamas on Wednesday evening in order to allow humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip; while Israel accepted immediately, Hamas has yet to respond. It comes as efforts continue to broker a more long-term truce after Hamas rejected an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire agreement Tuesday morning, and responded by escalating its rocket fire against Israeli civilians. One Israeli man, 38-year-old father of three Dror Hanin, was killed in a mortar attack near the Erez...

Hamas rejected Egypt’s proposed ceasefire in Gaza on Monday night, as Arab foreign ministers in Cairo called on “all parties” to accept the proposal. Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said the group would not accept a truce without a fully-fledged deal to end hostilities, according to AFP. “A ceasefire without reaching an agreement is rejected. In times of war, you don’t cease fire and then negotiate,” he told the news agency. Barhoum added Hamas had not received any official proposal and that “the weapons of the resistance are a red line.” …

Egypt launched an initiative on Monday to halt fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants, proposing a ceasefire to be followed by talks in Cairo on settling the conflict in which Gaza authorities say more than 170 people have died. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will convene his decision-making security cabinet on Tuesday to discuss the proposal on the Gaza violence, an Israeli official said. [An] Israeli official seemed to put a positive face on the proposed truce, saying that Israel's week-old offensive in Gaza had weakened the Islamist Hamas group militarily. Two members of Netanyahu's security cabinet suggested a truce...

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...

Islamic Jihad leader says group would agree to truce with Israel if "aggression" on Gaza stops, border crossings reopened; official in Ramallah says Hamas has appeal to Qatar, Egypt and Turkey to help reach deal. The Palestinian Authority said Monday that the countdown for reaching a new ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has begun. “Hamas is desperate for a ceasefire,” a Palestinian official in Ramallah said. “They have appealed to Qatar, Egypt and Turkey to help in reaching a new truce with Israel.” The official claimed that Hamas has been under heavy pressure from Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, who...

Cease-fire proposals in wars between Israel and its neighbors are predictable: as soon as Israel is winning, the United Nations demands a cease-fire. As Dore Gold ably documents in his Tower of Babble: How the United Nations Has Fueled Global Chaos, cease-fires typically prevent a decisive end to the conflict. They have often guaranteed further war in the long run by providing a temporary calm that allows Israel's enemies to regroup. President Barack Obama offered Thursday to broker a cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinians--actually, the Hamas terror organization. That is one of the worst ideas, among many contenders, ever...

Ukraine's President has just under 20 minutes to extend the ceasefire agreement. Poroshenko is under heavy pressure from Moscow to do just that. But there is no sign that the ceasefire has worked, and as the deadline approaches, Ukraine's troops are on the move: The news website Obozrevatel reports that Poroshenko has declared martial law in Donetsk and Lugansk. It's not official yet, but it seems that the ceasefire is over and a new phase of the anti-terror operation (ATO) is just beginning.

DETAILS TO FOLLOW Borodai, the "Prime Minister" of the Donetsk Republic went on Television to announce this, which is apparently a result of the first talks between the rebels and Kiev, today in Donetsk.

Syria’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Faisal Mekdad, on Sunday asked the United Nations to take actions against Israel, claiming it violated the 1974 ceasefire agreement in the Golan Heights. According to Syria’s SANA news agency, Mekdad spoke with the Under-Secretary-General of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, Hervé Ladsous, who is visiting Syria to inspect the status of the peacekeeping force in Syria. Mekdad reportedly cited Israel’s “direct ties with terrorist groups” and its attack in Syria in March. Syria uses the term “terrorists” when referring to the rebels fighting to oust President Bashar Al-Assad. .....

South Sudan: Cease-Fire SignedBy South Sudan News StaffNAIROBI, Kenya — January 23 … The government of South Sudan was pleased to announce that rebels loyal to the country’s ousted former vice president signed a cease-fire agreement today. The cease-fire ends more than a month of fighting that displaced thousands of people. Under the agreement, signed in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, both sides in the conflict promised to lay down their weapons. But they have also said that a cessation of hostilities would be a temporary measure, short of a formal peace agreement, and that negotiations would have to continue....

South Sudan Optimistic Of Reaching CeasefireBy South Sudan News StaffJuba — January 15 … The head of the South Sudan governmental delegation on peace talks has expressed optimism over the ongoing peace talks with rebels loyal to former South Sudan Vice President Dr. Riek Machar in the Ethiopian Capital, Addis Ababa. Nhial Deng Nhial, the Head of the South Sudan government negotiation team arrived home from Addis Ababa on Monday for consultations with President Salva Kiir following the start of face to face talks with the rebels in its first day on Monday. “We are hopeful,” Nhial told journalists in...

Seattle Mayor Invites Businesses to Post 'Gun-Free Zone' Signs in Their Stores August 19, 2013 - 3:18 PM By Penny Starr (CNSNews.com) – Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, a Democrat, is inviting local merchants to voluntarily post “Gun Free Zone” signs in their businesses, letting customers who have guns know they should shop elsewhere. “We are here to support businesses that do not wish to have guns on their premises” McGinn said in a press release issued by Washington CeaseFire, which is partnering with the mayor for the campaign. “The police department regularly enforces trespass laws when a visitor to a...

<p>UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations secretary-general wants all sides in Syria’s violent conflict to stop fighting during the holy month of Ramadan.</p> <p>Ban Ki-moon says in a statement that “I am calling for … every person holding a gun, to stop fighting and offer this month of peace as a collective present to their people.”</p>

Last week’s “under-the-radar” rocket attack on Ashkelon, Israel was the inevitable outcome of cumulative, distressing circumstances, foremost of which was the recent joint call by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal for a “peaceful Intifada.” Their promotion of a “popular resistance” manifested, initially, in mass protests in the West Bank, ostensibly against the detention of hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners in Israel, but quickly devolved into a series of clashes between IDF soldiers and Molotov cocktail- and rock-throwing Palestinians. This “non-violence” intensified significantly after Arafat Jaradat, a Palestinian arrested during one of the demonstrations, died in Israeli custody....

The failed paradigm that has been followed for 44 years in the United States has been to attempt, unsuccessfully, to prevent crime by not allowing prohibited groups from buying firearms. Obviously, this approach has not worked. It is a failed paradigm because its focus is on the 99 percent of people who do not need to be controlled, instead of the 1 percent who do. The 1 percent can always find a way to obtain firearms illegally. The Supreme court has ruled that in the United States, you have a right to a loaded, unlocked handgun that is in common...

A violent face-off developed Thursday afternoon between IDF soldiers and Arabs in Hevron. In the wake of the face-off, a major Arab riot developed, with Arabs throwing stones and bricks at IDF soldiers. Israeli forces used anti-riot tactics to break up the fracas. IDF officials said they considered the incident “serious,” and that an investigation had been opened. Officials said that the level of Arab rioting in Judea and Samaria had climbed significantly since Operation Pillar of Defense ended, and that there were more reports of rock throwing and other terror incidents. Officials said that they had also been prepared...

The day after Hamas agreed to a ceasefire with Israel, the terrorist group's TV station aired this "Death to Israel!" music video on its station: "Destroy the throne of Zion, the house of absolute evil," the song goes. "Raise the banner of victory. Be like the fire of a volcano. Repeat in the name of your Jihad: Death to Israel! With blood and fire, resist until freedom. Defeat the soldiers of aggression the enemies of humanity." The tune is illustrated with video of rockets being launched from Gaza, presumably, into Israel, the Zionist state, as well as other war scenes....

Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of one of the founders of the Hamas terrorist organization and author of the book “Son of Hamas,” said on Friday that Israel made a mistake by agreeing to a ceasefire with Gaza’s terrorist rulers. Yousef has spent a number of years abroad following a decade in which he risked his life working undercover as an agent for the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet). His code name during that time was 'The Green Prince.' "What is important is that at the moment there is a ceasefire, and I think we need to look at things...

The ceasefire agreement that Israel accepted Wednesday night to end the current round of Palestinian rocket and missile attacks is not a good deal for Israel by any stretch of the imagination. At best, Israel and Hamas are placed on the same moral plane. The ceasefire erases the distinction between Israel, a peace-seeking liberal democracy that wants simply to defend its citizens from molestation, and Hamas, a genocidal jihadist terrorist outfit that seeks the eradication of the Jewish people and the destruction of Israel. Under international law, Israel is not just within its rights to defend itself from Hamas. It...

About 100 activists from MK Michael Ben-Ari’s newly-formed “Power to Israel” party demonstrated on Thursday evening near the Soroka Hospital in Be'er Sheva, against the failure of Operation Pillar of Defense. Ben-Ari was among the protesters. The demonstrators yelled “Bibi is a coward” and called to topple the Hamas regime in Gaza in order to restore the quiet to southern Israel. MK Ben-Ari said during the demonstration that “an enemy is fought with an iron fist and not an iron dome. ....