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Israel's President Shimon Peres accused Iran of encouraging the Palestinians to continue rocket attacks on Israel rather than negotiating a ceasefire, saying "they are out of their mind." At the same time, Peres praised Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi for the constructive role he has played in the intensifying crisis. "The unpleasant one is the Iranians. They are trying again to encourage the Hamas to continue the shooting, the bombing, they trying to send them arms," Peres said in interview on CNN. "They are out of their mind," he said. The President said Israel had no choice but to wage its...

The sophisticated underground rocket launcher system in Gaza has been exposed by the terrorist organization in a video it released Saturday video

The IDF's pounding of Hamas' infrastructure in Gaza entered its fourth day Saturday, and is deemed as highly successful until this point. The Hamas government headquarters, which housed Gaza "prime minister" Ismail Haniyeh's offices, were leveled to the ground. In addition, "security compounds, tunnels and electricity transformers" were hit, according to Al Jazeera. "Missiles also knocked out five electricity transformers, plunging more than 400,000 people into darkness, according to the Gaza electricity distribution company," the news network reported. The government has approved the call-up of 75,000 reservists and massed troops, tanks and armored vehicles along the border with Gaza, signaling...

Minister Moshe Yaalon (Likud) said Sunday that Israel does not intend to maintain restraint in the face of the intense rocket attacks from Gaza. "If the terror organizations do not cease their fire we will be prepared to toughen our response as much as necessary, until they say 'enough!'," he said. "There is a complicated war here, and in the end we will finish it," he said. "This is not a one-off move. But we will put an end to it. We do not intend to maintain restraint because the situation is unbearable for us." "We will bring quiet to...

Gaza terrorists hit an IDF jeep with an anti-tank missile early Saturday evening. The IDF Spokesman announced that four soldiers were hurt. IDF Radio said that on soldier was very seriously wounded and another soldier suffered moderate-to-serious wounds. Both were evacuated to Soroka Hospital in Be'er Sheva. Two other soldiers were in light to moderate condition, suffering from shrapnel wounds. They were evacuated to Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon. The jeep reportedly caught fire. It had been driving along the border between Gaza and Israel, opposite the Zeitoun neighborhood in central Gaza, east of Gaza City. Voice of Israel public radio...

The IDF foiled a terrorist attack early Sunday in the third counterterrorist strike in 24 hours, sending a clear massage to Hamas. The Air Force successfully targeted a cell preparing to fire at Israelis, an IDF spokesmen said. The latest counterterrorist measure killed at least one terrorist. In the pre-dawn hours of Sunday, the Air Force struck a second time in a significant counterterrorist action that eliminated two senior terrorists on motorbikes. They were identified as Jordanian national Sheikh Hisham al-Saedini, 43, also known as Abu Al-Waleed Al-Maqdissi, of the Mujahedeen Shura, and fellow Salafist Islamic terrorist Fayek Abu Jazar,...

The IDF, in a joint operation with the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), was able to foil a planned terror attack in Israel on Wednesday evening, as IAF aircraft struck and killed two terrorists in southern Gaza. Photo of explosion The two terrorists, Ashraf Saleh and Anis Abu Elenein, were members of a group calling itself “The Al-Aqsa Defenders”, which the IDF said is supported by Hamas. The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit confirmed the attack in a statement, adding that direct hits were identified. The IDF said that Anis Abu Elenein had been planning to carry out a terror attack within...

The IDF foiled on Wednesday evening an attempt by Gaza-based terrorists to fire a rocket at southern Israel. According to a statement by the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, IAF aircraft hit a terrorist squad in central Gaza, as it was making final preparations to fire a rocket. The statement added that the squad had been involved in previous rocket attacks on southern Israel. A direct hit at the targets was identified. .....

A former congressman who represented Rachel Corrie's district said on Thursday he was unsurprised by an Israeli court verdict to dismiss a civil suit filed by the family. Speaking to the Bethlehem-based Ma’an news agency, Democrat Brian Baird of Washington said the trial was undermined by Israel's failure to conduct a transparent investigation into Corrie’s death in 2003. “The verdict was not a great surprise” because the outcome resulted from “a process that seemed designed to obfuscate the facts rather than clarify,” the ex-lawmaker said. “Sadly, as I've come to understand, this is standard operating procedure” for many complaints alleging...

Levy's committee has restored Israel's legal narrative about its rights in the "West Bank". There is a huge difference in how a compromise will look if Israel comes to the table as "foreign occupiers," or as a party that has just territorial claims. In January 2012, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yaakov Neeman, the justice minister, turned to former Israeli supreme court justice Edmond Levy to head a panel of legal experts that would look into questions of land ownership in the "West Bank" (biblical Judea and Samaria, located west of the Jordan River, ed) . The initiative came...

Hamas leaders in Gaza announced Saturday that a young child had been killed in an Israeli airstrike. The child was identified as Ali Muataz al-Shawaf, 4. Pictures of the child’s bloody body were published in Palestinian Authority media outlets. However, IDF officials later revealed the story as a lie. There was no Israeli airstrike in the region in which the child was killed, they said. IDF officials confirmed that a Gaza terrorist was killed in an airstrike elsewhere in Gaza. The 25-year-old terrorist was targeted as he prepared to launch a rocket at southern Israel. .....

Hamas’ military wing said on Wednesday that it had agreed to an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire with Israel, AFP reported. “In response to the Egyptian efforts to try and stop the aggression on our people, we at Al-Qassam Brigades and all resistance factions declare our commitment to stop this round of confrontation, as long as (Israel) commits to stopping its crimes,” said a statement from Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades. The statement noted that terrorists had fired 96 rockets and nine mortars at Israel during the recent wave of violence. “Our confrontation with the enemy in this round was at the minimal level of...

The IDF's Home Front Command has issued security instructions for residents of communities located near Gaza, in view of Gaza's ongoing terror rocket attacks on Israel. For communities located within 7 kilometers of Gaza, residents are asked to enter a protected space upon hearing an alarm or explosion. Only fortified schools will be open, and open-air gatherings are forbidden. Shopping centers will be open as usual. .....

Two international aid organizations claim that Gaza's water is unfit to drink. But instead of blaming the Hamas terrorist rulers who have maintained a choke hold on the region since June 2007, the groups claim Israel is responsible for the contamination. The “Save the Children” foundation and “Medical Aid for Palestinians” charity insist that Israel's blockade of Gaza prevents “crucial sanitation equipment from getting in,” the BBC reported Thursday. “The blockade must be lifted 'in its entirety,'” wrote the BBC, quoting a report by the charities, “Gaza's Children: Falling Behind.” The British-based website also noted in a single line that...

The Palestinian Airlines, which had been suspended for seven years, has resumed operations with flights between Egypt’s El-Arish and Amman, its director general told AFP on Thursday. The renewal of operations was facilitated by an agreement reached between the Palestinian Transportation Ministry and the authorities in Egypt and Jordan. The airline was forced to shut down after an onslaught of Arab terrorism during second Intifada caused Israel to retaliate, damaging the roadways. “We started yesterday from Amman to El-Arish and from El-Arish to Amman,” Palestinian Airlines director general Zeyad Albad said. “We are going to have flights from El-Arish to...

Be’er Sheva District Court judge Justice Shlomo Friedlander has rejected a Gaza family’s claim for damages on the grounds that terrorists, not the IDF, are responsible for the unfortunate results of IDF activity in Gaza. The family had sued for 8 million shekels over the accidental destruction of a chicken farm as the IDF bombed smuggling tunnels between Gaza and Egypt. “There is sorrow for the animals that lost their lives, the property that was destroyed, and of course the civilians who suffered a harsh blow to their property, their income, and the work of their hands” judge Friedlander said....

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, at the beginning of a cabinet meeting Sunday morning, “A few minutes ago I spoke with Dr. Yehuda David, an Israeli hero,” referring to the Israeli orthopedist who emerged victorious from court on Wednesday after the French Supreme Court overturned a judgment against Dr. David, who was sued for slander by the father of Muhammed al-Dura. Video "The Muhammed al-Dura incident of September 30, 2000, has come to symbolize the ongoing propaganda against the State of Israel. While this war does not involve bullets and missiles, it is, nonetheless, as vicious and as destructive. This...

Hamas announced the sole power plant in Gaza went dark after it ran out of diesel on Tuesday. "The Gaza power plant has completely stopped working because of the shortage of fuel entering the Gaza Strip, and the depletion of diesel it needs to work," said Ahmad Abu al-Amrin, an official from Gaza's energy authority. He called on Egypt "to assume its historical responsibility in supporting the resistance of the Palestinian people by ensuring they had all the necessary fuel to operate the plant". .....

A smuggling tunnel from Gaza to Sinai collapsed under the border city of Rafiah at the southern end of the Hamas-run enclave, killing one. Medical sources in Gaza told the Palestinian Authority affiliated Maan News Agency that that Faraj Abu Mustapha, 28, was working in the tunnel at the time of the collapse. The sources say Abu Mustapha was involved in smuggling cement into Gaza, but their claim was not confirmed. The tunnels are a key supply line for Hamas and its terror confederates who have smuggled tens of thousands of rockets, as well as firearms, ammunition, and explosives into...

our Palestinian Authority Arabs were injured Sunday afternoon in an explosion in Jabaliya, according to local sources in Hamas terrorist-ruled Gaza. The cause of the explosion was not revealed. Among the injured were a couple and their son, who were moderately wounded, the source said. The identity of the fourth injured party was also not revealed, nor were the circumstances surrounding the blast. Often in such cases, explosions are the result of a terrorism “work accident” in which terrorists are preparing weapons, rockets or other dangerous explosive materials for use in attacks against Israeli citizens. The IDF said there had...