(JTA) — President Donald Trump unveiled his long-awaited Middle East peace plan on Tuesday, and the release event was a doozy. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu joined Trump at a news conference and compared it to President Harry Truman’s recognition of the State of Israel in 1948. Netanyahu also… Read more »
Tagged Hamas
Rockets fired at Israel from Gaza and Israel retaliates
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s military carried out airstrikes on terror group installations in Gaza on Wednesday after terrorists launched rocket attacks on southern Israel. Four rockets launched in the afternoon sent Israelis in Gaza border communities running to bomb shelters. Two of the rockets were intercepted by the Iron… Read more »
U.S. kills Qassem Soleimani, Iranian Quds force cief
WASHINGTON (JTA) — A U.S. airstrike killed Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s Quds Force, which operates a number of regional militias and is allied with terrorist groups targeting Israel, including Hezbollah and Hamas. The strike early Friday morning hit a vehicle near Baghdad International Airport. The Quds Force… Read more »
Rocket fired from Gaza hits home in Sderot; Israel responds with air strikes on Hamas targets
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Hamas is responsible for every attack originating from Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, following rocket attacks from the coastal strip that scored a direct hit on a home in southern Israel. “Immediately after the firing at the area adjacent to the Gaza Strip, I convened… Read more »
Netanyahu says Israel will have ‘no choice’ but to go to war with Gaza
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel likely will have to go to war with Gaza, Benjamin Netanyahu said. “There probably won’t be a choice but to launch an operation, a war with the terror forces in Gaza,” Netanyahu said during an interview with the Kan public broadcaster on Thursday morning. “We have… Read more »
Jewish socialist philosopher who met with Hamas is running for president
(JTA) — A Jewish socialist philosopher who met with the leader of Hamas is running for president. On Wednesday, Jerome Segal announced that he would run as the nominee of the Bread and Roses Party he founded last year. The party supports wealth redistribution, as well as guaranteed employment… Read more »
Israel bombs Hamas military post in Gaza in response to mortar fire
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Israeli army bombed a Hamas military post in Gaza on Tuesday in response to mortar fire from the coastal strip on southern Israel earlier in the day. Four mortars were fired at Israel: Three landed inside Gaza and a fourth in an open area inside… Read more »
Rocket fired from Gaza slams into home in central Israel, injuring 7
JERUSALEM (JTA) — A long-range rocket fired from Gaza scored a direct hit on a home in central Israel, injuring seven, including two infants. Following the early Monday morning attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who also serves as defense minister, announced that he would cut short his visit… Read more »
Palestinian Authority prime minister resigns
This is a developing story. JERUSALEM (JTA) — Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah submitted his resignation to President Mahmoud Abbas. The rest of the government also resigned on Tuesday, according to reports. Abbas will have to decide whether to accept any or all of the resignations. The resignations… Read more »
Palestinian terror groups say they will observe cease-fire
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Palestinian terror groups in Gaza reportedly have agreed to commit to a cease-fire of hostilities that have seen more than 400 rockets bombard southern Israel and Israeli retaliation in a 25-hour period. Four mediators — Egypt, the United Nations, Norway and Switzerland — helped achieve the… Read more »
More than 400 rockets hit southern Israel in less than 24 hours, 1 person killed
JERUSALEM (JTA) — One person was killed and two seriously injured after a rocket fired from Gaza landed on an apartment building in southern Israel as the country remained under siege from rocket fire for a second day. The rocket hit the upper floors of a four-story apartment in… Read more »
More than 200 rockets from Gaza rain down on southern Israel, hitting a bus and homes
JERUSALEM (JTA) — More than 200 rockets and mortars fired from Gaza rained down Monday evening on southern Israel, including one that hit a bus, seriously injuring a young man. The Israel Defense Forces responded by launching attacks on Hamas sites in Gaza. The man, 19, was on the… Read more »
Israel is suspected again of assassinating an enemy’s rocket scientist. Do these killings pay off?
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Aziz Asbar was a leading Syrian rocket scientist, working with Hezbollah and Iran to develop systems that could reach deep inside Israel. Now he’s dead, blown up in a car. The natural inclination in the Middle East and even farther afield is to blame the Mossad,… Read more »
Palestinian reconciliation creates an opportunity for families of slain soldiers held by Hamas
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Israel’s government may be ambivalent about the nascent reconciliation between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, but it outright opposes Palestinian bids for statehood recognition through international bodies, including the United Nations. However, for one influential Israeli constituency — the families of Israelis held captive in Hamas-controlled… Read more »
What Palestinian reconciliation means for Israel
JERUSALEM (JTA) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has taken a wait-and-see approach to last week’s Palestinian reconciliation deal. Netanyahu spoke out publicly and loudly against the move toward unity between the feuding Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas, calling it a threat to Israel and a setback to peace.… Read more »
With America’s blessing, Abbas signals a reconciliation with Hamas
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Trump administration is encouraging the Palestinian Authority to assume control of the Gaza Strip and leaving the door open for a role by Hamas in the subsequent Palestinian government. But if such a move was once seen as a traditional predicate to a two-state… Read more »
How Gaza’s electricity crisis could spell trouble for Israel
JERUSALEM (JTA) – An internal Palestinian dispute has left Gaza’s nearly 2 million Palestinian residents dangerously vulnerable to a heat wave, but Israel could get burned, too. The West Bank Palestinian Authority has recently spearheaded a sharp reduction of electricity to the coastal enclave with Israel’s cooperation, resulting… Read more »
Abbas’ meeting with Trump may be his chance to shine. Does he have what it takes?
WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Donald Trump wants a deal with Israel and the Palestinians. The Israeli and Palestinian leaders say they want Trump to make the deal. What could go wrong? For all the good cheer guaranteed when Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas meets Wednesday with Trump at the… Read more »
Gaza strife leaves Israel ripe for rude awakening
Those of us who remember the years before the Yom Kippur War will forever be more cautious than others. Then, Israeli were drunk with euphoria, believing, as the arrogant General Moshe Dayan used to say, that, “Our situation has never been better.” The Egyptian and the Syrian armies were… Read more »
Op-Ed: Terror is terror
JTA) — The international outrage over the barbaric terrorist attacks in Paris is absolutely on target. But the absence of an outcry over the weeks of attacks against Jews in Israel — stabbings, shootings and car rammings are among the most common tactics — is equally outrageous. More than… Read more »