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IAF targets included a Hamas tunnel and military facilities. he Israeli Air Force (IAF) struck six Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip on Saturday evening in response to the detonation of an explosive device on the Gaza border earlier in the day that wounded four IDF soldiers, two severely. Targets included a Hamas-built terror tunnel from the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza towards Israeli territory, a Hamas military facility in Netzarim and a further military facility in the Khan Younis neighborhood. Earlier Saturday, two IDF soldiers were severely wounded and two others moderately and lightly wounded after the device was detonated...

The FBI acknowledged on Friday it received a tip last month that the suspect in the Florida school shooting had a "desire to kill" and access to guns and could be plotting an attack, but agents failed to investigate. A person who was close to the shooter, Nikolas Cruz, called the FBI's tip line on January 5 and provided information about Cruz's weapons and his erratic behavior, including his disturbing social media posts, reported The Associated Press. The caller was concerned that Cruz could attack a school. In a statement, the FBI acknowledged that the tip should have been shared...

Iran’s president has strongly criticized the Trump administration’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and urged Muslims to support the Palestinian cause. Hassan Rouhani also lashed out at the United States for imposing a ban on travelers from six largely Muslim countries. He was addressing a congregation after Friday prayers at Mecca Masjid in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad during his three-day visit to India. Rouhani called for unity between the Sunni and Shia sects of Islam. …

Palestinian UNRWA employees march in a Gaza City protest against the recent US decision to cut aid to the organization, Jan. 29, 2018. Photo: Reuters / Mohammed Salem. JNS.org – Gaza is broke. As Monday’s front-page New York Times feature explained at length, the conflict between the Gaza Strip’s Hamas overlords and the Fatah party that runs the West Bank has resulted in a cash crunch that has left many of the area’s two million people without money. Along with Gaza’s inadequate infrastructure, the resulting poverty from this crisis contributes to a general picture of despair for many Palestinians. Of...

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Photo: Wikicommons. The US administration’s work on a new Middle East peace plan is “fairly well advanced” and President Donald Trump will decide when to announce it, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Wednesday during a visit to Jordan. Tillerson also signed a five-year aid package that extends US support to Jordan, a key regional ally, despite Trump’s threat to withhold support from states opposed to his decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Commenting on the peace plan, Tillerson said: “I have seen the plan. … It’s been under development...

Friday, January 12, 2018. Sarcelles. A city in the northern suburbs of Paris. A 15-year-old girl returns from high school. She wears a necklace with a star of David and a Jewish school uniform. A man attacks her with a knife, slashes her face, and runs away. She will be disfigured the rest of her life. ..... Graffiti on Jewish-owned homes warn the owners to "flee immediately" if they want to live. Anonymous letters with live bullets are dropped into mailboxes of Jews, and state that the next bullet will be fired into the recipient's head. The word "Jew" is...

The discussions were expected to cover several proposals for improving cooperation along the border area. It's been a flashpoint over the years for Turkish-Kurdish tensions, al-Qaida and Islamic State fighters traveling back and forth, and incidents involving major powers including Russia. Reflecting the sensitivity of the talks between Tillerson and Erdogan, only Turkish Foreign Minister Melvut Cavusoglu, serving as translator, also was included in the meeting, which lasted more than three hours. Erdogan's office said the discussions touched on regional developments, including in Syria and Iraq, the fight against terrorism and bilateral relations. "Turkey's expectations and priorities on these issues...

When five Myanmar journalists were sentenced to decadelong prison terms for reporting the alleged existence of a military-run chemical weapons factory in Myanmar a few years ago, Aung San Suu Kyi — then an opposition lawmaker — condemned the harsh punishments as “very excessive.” The journalists, from the now-defunct Unity publication, had been convicted for violating the nation’s Official Secrets Act — the same colonial-era law now being leveled against a pair of Reuters reporters who are facing a staggering 14 years behind bars each. […] Three and a half years on, the thinking of Suu Kyi, who now heads...

President Trump, please don't fall for FAKE NEWS! In your recent interview with the Yisrael HaYom newspaper, you answered a question about settlements by saying: "We will be talking about settlements. The settlements are something that very much complicates and always have complicated making peace, so I think Israel has to be very careful with the settlements." When I read this, I was puzzled. Was this President Trump being interviewed, or was it President Obama?! President Trump! The settlements are NOT "something that very much complicates and always have complicated making peace"! This is FAKE NEWS! The exact opposite is...

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says Hezbollah's growing arsenal and its role in regional conflicts threatens Lebanon's security. Tillerson, on tour of the Middle East, spoke in Beirut where he met with President Michel Aoun, Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri. Tillerson's visit to Lebanon came amid simmering regional tensions over the conflict in Syria, along with a territorial dispute with Israel over both its land and sea borders. Hezbollah's role in Lebanese politics, as well as its participation in the fighting in Syria, Iraq and Yemen were key topics of discussion. Tillerson says that the...

The sole electricity plant in the Gaza Strip stopped working Thursday because of a lack of fuel, officials said, as concerns grew over worsening humanitarian conditions in the Hamas-controlled area. The closure of the plant, which normally provides around a fifth of Gaza's electricity, will exacerbate an already critical power shortage. Gaza's two million residents receive only around four hours of mains electricity a day, a situation for which they blame Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. Hamas leaders enjoy electricity 24 hours a day. However, they refuse to invest international aid monies in infrastructure for Gaza's residents, preferring instead to...

Brotherhood-linked congressman publicly rejected Nation of Islam -- but it was all for show. After publicly repudiating his former colleagues at the Nation of Islam, DNC deputy chairman Keith Ellison dined with the group’s notorious leader Louis Farrakhan and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in 2013, according to reports. The jihadist-friendly Ellison, a Democrat congressman representing Minnesota, is a former co-chairman of the Communist-linked Congressional Progressive Caucus. Although Ellison was not a senior Democratic Party official in 2013, now that his DNC post makes him much more than a fringe figure in his party, the meeting takes on a greater, darker...

Of the 11 countries included in President Trump's refugee ban, one stands out -- Somalia. That ban expired two weeks ago and the U.S. has begun accepting refugees again from Somalia and 10 other high-risk nations. Although Trump promises "extreme vetting," many Muslim refugees come as children and become radicalized years later. Somali crime rivals Somali terrorism as a major problem, and the two clearly blur into one another. The problem is leaking from Minnesota into South Dakota -- as Lutheran Social Services has resettled more than 4,500 Somalis in Sioux Falls. Many of the Somalis have migrated from Sioux Falls to...

Europe’s top rights court on Tuesday ordered Spain to compensate two ETA members convicted of the 2006 bombing of Madrid Airport for the “inhuman and degrading treatment” they suffered in police custody. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) did not, however, uphold the men’s claim that they had been tortured. Igor Portu and Martin Sarasola are serving life sentences over the bombing of the Terminal 4 car park at Madrid airport, which killed two people and injured around 50 others as part of ETA’s violent four-decade campaign for Basque independence. The pair claimed they were kicked and punched by...

The leaders of the Jewish communities of four Nordic countries said that a bill proposing to ban nonmedical circumcision in Iceland “will guarantee” that no Jewish community is established there. The presidents of the umbrella groups of Jewish communities in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland issued the unusual warning Tuesday in an open letter to all Icelandic lawmakers in reaction to the submission last month of a bill proposing to ban all nonmedical circumcision of boys younger than 18 in Iceland, a Scandinavian island nation of some 300,000 people with a few hundred Jews and Muslims. Lawmakers from four parties...

The Israeli police investigation against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shows remarkable similarities with the Special Counsel probe against President Donald Trump in the United States. During the prime time news broadcasts Tuesday evening in Israel, the dramatic news was announced that Israel Police investigators are recommending that Israel’s Attorney General, Avichai Mandelblit, indict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on bribery and breach of trust charges in two investigations. The news raises a number of obvious questions about Netanyahu’s political future. But it also raises an equal, if not greater, number of questions about the purity of the police service’s intentions...

A Somali migrant and Dutch national living in the UK discussed killing Her Majesty The Queen with a fellow Islamic State jihadist supporter, a court has heard. Aweys Shikhey also allegedly fanaticised about shooting Jewish people near his home in London and attacking Tottenham Hotspur football club with Kenya-based Somalian Abdirahman Idrissa Hassan in conversations dating back to May 31st, 2016.

In recent weeks, rescue workers, aid groups and the United States have accused Syria of repeatedly using chlorine gas, which it possesses legally for uses such as water purification, as a chemical weapon against civilians in Ghouta and Idlib. France, a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, has struggled to wield influence on Syria. Critics who accuse Macron of inaction say he has not given a clear definition of whether use of chlorine would for him constitute a chemical attack. On Tuesday, the vice-president of the Syria Civil Defence, or “White Helmets”, volunteer force said France should stop talking...

F-16 jet was shot down on Saturday over northern Israel, prompting retaliation Israeli forces launched a series of bombardments against bases in Syria But Benjamin Netanyahu backed down after a call from Putin, it is reported Putin warned him against escalating the conflict in the region after Russia has spent years propping up the Assad regime Vladimir Putin warned Benjamin Netanyahu to back off from military strikes in Syria after an Israeli warplane was shot down in the region on Saturday. The Russian President told Netanyahu in a phone call on Saturday evening to avoid a course of action that...

“Hungary will not become an immigrant country, is has never admitted and will never admit illegal immigrants”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó declared in Bratislava at a press conference following his meeting with Slovakian State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs and Acting Foreign Minister Ivan Korčok on Tuesday. Hungary’s chief diplomat was reacting to a statement by Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel over the weekend according to which “they have given the solidarity-rejecting Visegrád countries an ultimatum” in view of which if a consensus is not achieved in the council of EU member...