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Palestinian militants barraged Israel with more than 200 rockets on Thursday, killing three people as Israel pressed a punishing campaign of airstrikes on militant targets across the Gaza Strip. Late in the day, Israel signaled a ground operation may be imminent as forces moved toward the border area with Gaza. At least 12 trucks were seen transporting tanks and armored personnel carriers, and a number of buses carrying soldiers arrived. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said he had authorized the army to call-up additional reservists for possible action. The army said it was prepared to draft up to 30,000 additional...

The first three Palestinian missiles reached the Tel Aviv conurbation, Gush Dan, Thursday night, Nov. 15. shortly after a long-range missile was confirmed to have exploded in Rison Lezion southeast of Tel Aviv and sirens sounded in outlying towns of Holon, Ness Ziona, Gan Raveh and Beer Yacov. None have yet reported casualties or damage. The Tel Aviv telephone network has stopped working. The IDF spokesmen reported that units of the elite paratroop and Givati Brigades were mustering outside the Gaza Strip on the second day of Israel's counter-terror operation Pillar of Cloud.

A rocket from the Gaza Strip exploded in an open field outside of Rishon Lezion on Thursday evening, marking the first hit in the center of the country in renewed violence from the Gaza Strip. The rocket, one of over 240 fired from Gaza into the South since the IDF launched Operation Pillar of Defense Wednesday to root out the terror infrastructure in the coastal territory, landed less than 15 km south of Tel Aviv. The operation began with the Wednesday afternoon targeted killing of Ahmed Jabari, the chief of Hamas's military wing. [....] The IDF Spokesman's Office stated the...

Organizers of two “social justice” protests in Tel Aviv were disappointed Saturday night when just thousands turned out for the rallies. The evening was also marred by violent fights as some participants in one rally, held in Kikar HaBima, fought with security personnel at the other, held at the Tel Aviv Museum. One even attempted to burst onto the stage and disturb the event. Those causing the disturbance were apparently angered by signs bearing the words, “There is a Future” – the name of a new political party started by journalist Yair Lapid. They accused the Tel Aviv Museum protest...

About 2,000 people arrived on Sunday evening at the government complex in Tel Aviv to demonstrate against public housing conditions in Israel. During the protest, the demonstrators tried to block major traffic arteries. At the same time, there were also demonstrations in Jerusalem, Haifa and Be’er Sheva. Five protesters were arrested during the demonstration in Jerusalem after they tried to block a street. The latest protests came following Saturday night’s self-immolation of Moshe Silman, a social justice protester who set himself ablaze during a rally in Tel Aviv, blaming government officials for his troubles. Prior to lighting the match, the...

Bikini-clad, gun-toting Israeli woman becomes an Internet sensation A photo of a gun-wielding, bikini-clad woman standing on a crowded Tel Aviv beach has become an Internet sensation, with thousands of viewers curious about whether the brunette beauty is part of Israel's military and why she wasn't in uniform with her weapon in tow. The newspaper Haaretz notes that 'To an Israeli, the photo makes perfectly practical sense. When soldiers take their weapon off military premises, they must guard it closely and keep it on their person, at all times. Having one's weapon stolen is harshly punished with time in military...

Israeli metropolis beats New York and Toronto in poll naming best urban destinations for gay travellers Tel Aviv has been named the world's number one gay city. The Israeli metropolis beat out competition from New York to top a survey carried out by American Airlines and GayCities.com to find the most popular destination for gay travellers. It landed a staggering 43 per cent of the vote, way ahead of runner-up New York's 14 per cent and third-placed Toronto with 7 per cent. Sao Paolo came in at four with 6 per cent, while rounding out the top five with 5...

Tel Aviv rape: Palestinian arrested near crime scene Resident of Nablus area apprehended near Gan Ha-Ir parking lot; police say he has been residing in Israel illegally; four other Palestinians arrested on suspicion of helping him rape teenage girl while forcing her boyfriend to watch Eli Senyor Latest Update: 05.15.12, 00:38 / Israel News Police arrested Monday evening a 21-year-old Palestinian on suspicion of brutally raping a 18-year-old girl in a parking lot adjacent to the Tel Aviv municipality building over the weekend. Another four Palestinians were arrested on suspicion of being his accomplices.   Officers from the Yarkon police...

The summer “social protest season” opened Saturday night with a demonstration in Tel Aviv, attended by some 3,500 people. The demonstration in Rabin Square was the largest since last summer, when tens of thousands of protesters gathered in cities around the country demanding a more affordable cost of living. Protesters blocked streets in Tel Aviv, and demanded that the government act to end social injustice and ensure that the country's resources are more equitably divided. Police arrested five protesters. Smaller protests took place in several other cities in Israel, and protests were also held in cities throughout Europe, including Spain,...

Hizbullah leader Hasan Nasrallah threatened on Friday to strike multiple targets in Israel, including Tel Aviv. Speaking on the occasion of the completion of the Waad project, aimed at rebuilding parts of the southern suburbs of Beirut that were damaged in the July-August 2006 war between Lebanon and Israel, Nasrallah said Hizbullah could target Tel Aviv in any future war with the Jewish state. “We are capable of not only hitting specific targets in Tel Aviv but also any place in occupied Palestine,” he said, according to a report in the Lebanon-based Daily Star. “The era has come when we...

A vaccine that can train cancer patients' own bodies to seek out and destroy tumour cells has been developed by scientists. The therapy, which targets a molecule found in 90 per cent of all cancers, could provide a universal injection that allows patients' immune systems to fight off common cancers including breast and prostate cancer. Preliminary results from early clinical trials have shown the vaccine can trigger an immune response in patients and reduce levels of disease. The scientists behind the vaccine now hope to conduct larger trials in patients to prove it can be effective against a range of...

For more than a decade, Israel has systematically built up its military specifically for a possible strike on Iranian nuclear facilities. It has sent its air force on long-distance training missions, procured American-made "bunker-busting" bombs and bolstered its missile defenses. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's threats to strike Iran, voiced last week during a high-profile visit to the White House, were not empty bluster. Although a unilateral Israeli attack would probably not destroy Iran's nuclear program, it appears capable, at least for now, of inflicting a serious blow. "If Israel attacks, the intention is more to send a message of determination,...

Despite its confident saber-rattling, Israel’s concern is growing that the country is vulnerable to a devastating counterstrike if it attacks Iran’s nuclear program. An announcement this week that a mobile rocket-defense system soon will be built just outside Tel Aviv - where Israel’s sprawling military headquarters sits smack in the middle of office towers, museums, night spots and hotels - caused some jitters. Israeli officials cite intelligence reports that Tel Aviv would be a main target of any attack. Increasingly, the debate in Israel is turning to whether a strike can do enough damage to the Iranian program to be...

The IDF is planning to deploy an Iron Dome battery in the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area for the first time as part of a drill simulating a missile attack, Ynet learned Sunday. The Iron Dome system aims to provide protection from medium-range rockets used by Hamas and Hezbollah and is part of Israel's multi-layered defense layout which also includes the Arrow 2 and Magic Wand systems. Residents of Central Israel will be able to get a closer look at the Iron Dome battery which has been found to be effective in intercepting rockets fired at southern communities. The aim is...

The Jihad Will Be YouTubed by Raffaello Pantucci December 15, 2011 FOREIGN POLICY - The AFPAK Channel SNIPPET: "While clearly the technology to make such videos is something that is universal, it does seem as though it is aspirant jihadists in the West who find it easiest to use. There was no evidence that Gul was being directed by foreign terrorist organizations to produce his material, and his case shows the continued existence of young Westerners producing radical material on their own. It may indeed be the case that the virtual armies have yet to fully emerge as active warriors...

GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich promised Republican Jewish activists on Wednesday that, if elected President, he would move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The Washington Post reported that Gingrich also promised to use U.S. dollars to fund “every dissident group” in Iran and said he would appoint former UN Ambassador John Bolton, a conservative favorite, to head the State Department. Gingrich’s pro-Israel speech was made as part of a gathering of the Republican Jewish Coalition in Washington. All GOP presidential candidates except for Rep. Ron Paul spoke during the gathering and all expressed strong support for the...

Syria will strike Israel and "set fire" to the Middle East if foreign forces choose to launch a military strike on the protest-ridden country, Syrian President Bashar Assad said on Tuesday. During a meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, Assad was quoted by the Iranian semi-official news agency Fars as saying that Syria would not hesitate to strike major Israeli cities if it was attacked. "If a crazy measure is taken against Damascus, I will need not more than 6 hours to transfer hundreds of rockets and missiles to the Golan Heights to fire them at Tel Aviv," Assad

Over 153,000 people gather across country to take part in social protest movement marches, rallies being held; protesters in Tel Aviv's Kikar HaMedina prepare for huge rally. Over 100,000 people gathered in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening for social movement protests taking place as part of the “March of the Million.” People were gathering in Kikar Hamedina in the city where a huge rally was set to take place after a march through the streets of the city.

Security guards working at the south Tel Aviv night club targeted by a terrorist Sunday night recalled the moments of horror from their hospital beds, and said that the outcome could have been much worse had the attacker managed to enter the club. "I have no doubt that he was trying to get to the kids," one of Haoman 17's security guards, Aviv Krief, told Ynet. "I'm afraid to think what would have happened if he succeeded. There were thousands of kids there. It was a miracle they weren't hurt." Krief was hit by the by the terrorist's car in...

Last weekend's protests were among the biggest Israel has ever seen Last Saturday, hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets of a Middle Eastern city. Demanding change, they were fed up with the ruling elite and said their government was no longer listening to its people. But this was not Egypt, Tunisia or Libya. This was Israel. If the Israeli government had hoped the street protests, which began three weeks ago, would lose momentum and fade away, it has not happened. An estimated 300,000 people from different backgrounds joined the latest marches across the country. Just as their...