Category: Uncategorized

The U.S. ambassador emphasized Israel’s “right to defend itself” against Palestinian terror rockets.

By JNS

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides said on Thursday that Washington was working to broker a ceasefire to end two-plus days of fighting between the Israel Defense Forces and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza.

“Concerned about the continuing rocket launches today. We stand by Israel’s right to defend itself,” Nides tweeted, adding: “Working towards a quick deescalation.”

Reports surfaced on Wednesday evening that the sides had agreed in principle to an Egyptian-mediated truce, but that did not materialize.

U.S. and Qatari officials reportedly also were involved in the effort to restore calm.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Wednesday night updated his U.S. counterpart Lloyd Austin on the latest developments with “Operation Shield and Arrow” against PIJ.

Gallant briefed Austin on the elimination of several senior PIJ leaders and detailed the imminent threats they had posed. He further noted “the IDF’s readiness for every operational scenario, including a prolonged, multi-front campaign.”

Gallant emphasized that PIJ had launched more than 500 rockets indiscriminately at Israeli civilian centers since the conflict erupted on Tuesday morning.

Also Wednesday, U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan spoke with his Israeli counterpart Tzachi Hanegbi about the conflict in Gaza, according to a White House statement.

“Sullivan reaffirmed the administration’s ironclad support for Israel’s security, as well as its right to defend its people from indiscriminate rocket attacks,” the statement said. “Sullivan also noted continued regional efforts to broker a ceasefire, and emphasized the need to de-escalate tensions and prevent further loss of life.”

For his part, Nides is slated to depart his role this summer after two years in the job. He told senior staff at the embassy on Tuesday morning about his planned departure.

Nides cited personal reasons, having been away from his family since December 2021.

The post Nides: US working toward ‘quick deescalation’ appeared first on World Israel News.

Post Content

Arab media reported that the long-range rocket was an M-302 that was smuggled to the Gaza Strip in 2009.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Arab media have reported that at least one of the rockets Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) launched at Tel Aviv Wednesday during the ongoing Operation Shield and Arrow was made in Syria and smuggled into the Gaza Strip, Maariv reported Thursday.

Called the M-302 (previously the Khaibar-1), the 302mm unguided rocket has a range of 90-150km and is considered more accurate than most of the airborne weapons in the Gazan terrorists’ arsenal.

It is manufactured by the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Center (SSRC), the Arab reports said.

Run by a director-general who answers directly to President Bashir Assad, the SSRC is responsible for the research and development of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons as well as missile technology. The center has been on a U.S. blacklist since 2005, and Israel has allegedly conducted several airstrikes against its facilities in recent years.

The M-302 was first used by Hezbollah against Israel in the 2006 Second Lebanon War, reportedly hitting Afula, Beit Shean, Hadera and even Haifa. According to the Arab networks, a batch of them was successfully smuggled into the Gaza Strip in 2009, and Hamas used them during 2012’s Operation Pillar of Cloud and Operation Protective Edge in the summer of 2014. One of them hit Hadera, 112 km away from Gaza, during the latter operation.

Tel Aviv is 71 km (44 miles) from the Gaza Strip.

When PIJ sent a barrage of rockets at the region of Israel’s financial capital central Wednesday, the IDF successfully used its David’s Sling interception system for the first time to knock one of them out of the sky.

In 2018, the army had tried to destroy incoming rockets from Syria with the system, but one interceptor missed its target and the other was destroyed by the IDF itself for technical reasons when it was still in flight in Israeli territory.

In contrast to Iron Dome, which is made to hit short-range rockets, David’s Sling is for medium- and long-range airborne threats. These include rockets, tactical ballistic missiles and cruise missiles fired from 40-300km away, as well as enemy planes and drones. Its more complex interceptor also costs a lot more than the Tamir interceptor used by the Iron Dome, with a price tag of a million dollars versus $50,000.

Funded mostly by the U.S., it was developed by Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Raytheon Technologies Corp., an American aerospace and defense conglomerate. David’s Sling is considered the “second-tier” of the country’s missile defense system, with the Arrow 2 and 3 systems protecting the Jewish state from intercontinental threats by using hypersonic interceptors that reach their targets above the atmosphere.

The post Report: Rocket launched towards Tel Aviv was made in Syria appeared first on World Israel News.

The seven men approached soldiers after a clash in the town of Kabatia where two terrorists were eliminated.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

A group of terrorists turned themselves in to IDF troops in Kabatia near Jenin Wednesday after the soldiers had eliminated two Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) operatives in the town in a morning raid, Channel 12 reported exclusively Thursday.

Of the seven armed men, the report said, at least a few are also identified with PIJ, the Iranian proxy that Israel has been striking in the Gaza Strip since early Tuesday morning in Operation Shield and Arrow.

The report noted that it was unusual for terrorists in Judea and Samaria to surrender to Israeli forces. The most common practice is for operatives to hand themselves in to the Palestinian Authority’s security force, especially if they are being sought by the IDF. They are then held in custody in the prison in Jericho.

The men were immediately handed over to the Shabak for interrogation, with the initial suspicion that they had been on the way to an attack that was then aborted. The investigation will also check if they have been involved in previous attacks.

The pair of PIJ terrorists who were killed, Rani Walid and Ahmed Kamil, had approached the IDF forces in their car and then opened fire at the soldiers in addition to throwing explosives at them. The troops responded with fire of their own, killing the two, who had reportedly been planning to commit an attack in Israel, in support of the latest flare-up of hostilities between their terror organization and the IDF.

The IDF carried out several counter-terror operations in Judea and Samaria on Tuesday and Wednesday, due to the assessment that PIJ will try to stir up trouble for Israel on a second front while under attack in their center of power in Gaza.

During one of their overnight forays, one female soldier was hit by shrapnel and sustained a severe head injury when Palestinians in the village of Tubas exchanged fire with the troops. She was rushed to the Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, where senior neurosurgeon Dr. Avital Perry said that “the next few days will be critical for her.”

A total of 29 wanted men were arrested and a number of weapons were confiscated during the raids.

The post Group of terrorists surrender themselves to IDF appeared first on World Israel News.

The Corona War. They’re Coming After Our Thoughts

By Dr. Emanuel Garcia, May 10, 2023

It came to me after a conversation I had with an Australian colleague who has been studying psychoanalytic psychotherapy at an institution in the …

The post Selected Articles: The Corona War. They’re Coming After Our Thoughts appeared first on Global Research.

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name.

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article …

The post Sudan Talks Held in Saudi Arabia Reveals Underlying Crisis of Governance appeared first on Global Research.

“My wife called me, crying, and said that a rocket had fallen on our house,” said Avi Elkayam. “I rushed home, she said there had been an explosion and she panicked.”

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

A man from the southern city of Sderot told Hebrew-language media that his family is seriously considering moving out of the region, after a rocket fired from the Islamic Jihad terror group caused enormous damage to their home.

“The entire garden, pergola, our cars, and living room were totally destroyed,” Avi Elkayam, the owner of the home, told Walla News. “There is serious damage here.”

Elkayam was at work when the rocket struck, he explained. He received a frantic phone call from his terrified wife, who was hunkered down with their children in the home’s bomb shelter.

“She called me, crying, and said that a rocket had fallen on our house. I rushed home, she said there had been an explosion and she panicked.”

Elkayam, who said his family has been living in the city situated less than a mile away from the Gaza Strip for more than 25 years, recalled the trauma of living under rocket fire during previous conflicts.

After so many years of hearing incoming siren alerts and running to their home’s bomb shelter, the family is constantly on edge, waiting for the next volley, he said.

“We get scared by any noise, anything. If the garbage man slams the lid too hard, we get startled,” he told Walla.

“But until now, we didn’t think about it too much. In the past, there were times that rockets fell 200 meters [650 feet] away from our house, but you get used to it.”

However, Elkayam said, the fact that a rocket struck their yard and damaged their home has made them reconsider their commitment to living in the town that they love.

“It’s a small city, like a family, everyone knows everyone,” he said, explaining that despite the benefits of living in the close-knit community, his family is seriously weighing moving out of the area.

He said that his family was “traumatized” from the incident and still planning their next steps.

The post ‘Serious damage, we’re traumatized’ – Sderot man whose home was hit by rocket speaks out appeared first on World Israel News.

Passenger who cursed, screamed, and threatened to crash the plane forces emergency landing at airport in Madrid; flight eventually continues on to Israel without him.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

An out-of-control passenger who created a major disturbance upon a flight from New York to Tel Aviv forced the plane to make an emergency landing in Madrid, Spain early Thursday morning.

The United Airlines flight departed from Newark Liberty International Airport at 4:35 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon, but a look at an online flight tracker reveals that the plane was diverted from its original course and landed in Madrid at 5:39 a.m. local time, the next day.

The plane then departed for Israel about two hours later, finally arriving at Ben Gurion Airport at 9:55 a.m.

An unnamed passenger reportedly began screaming and cursing, saying that he needed to be able to smoke while aboard the aircraft, and eventually threatened to crash the plane, eyewitnesses told Hebrew language media.

After it was clear that the passenger would not be able to be calmed down, the pilot made the decision to land the plane in Spain.

Media reports did not indicate whether the man was arrested by authorities upon landing in Madrid. The man did disembark from the aircraft and the plane continued on its way to Israel without him.

“There was a passenger who appeared to be haredi [ultra-Orthodox] who went crazy and was acting quite scary,” Yosef, who identified himself as a passenger on the flight, wrote on Twitter.

“The individual sitting next to me was really angry about the situation and started cursing all haredi [Jews], using unpleasant words….but I had seen what was happening, and so did a doctor who was also on the flight. We explained to him that the man’s behavior had nothing to do with religion, and that he had severe mental issues.”

A number of flights to Israel in recent months have been disrupted by unruly passengers.

In late April, an Israeli man on the same United flight from Newark to Tel Aviv engaged in a screaming match with the flight crew.

According to reports, he had sat down in a seat reserved for flight attendants while waiting to use the lavatory. When asked to move from the seat, he allegedly refused and had an intense verbal argument with employees.

Due to the argument, for which United blamed the “disruptive passenger,” the plane turned back towards the U.S. some three hours into the flight.

All passengers aboard the plane were stranded in Newark until the next flight out, a day later.

The post ‘Scary’ passenger triggers emergency landing on Israel-bound flight appeared first on World Israel News.

Israel Air Force aborts airstrike after two children were spotted near the target.

The post WATCH: IDF nixes airstrike at last minute to avoid hitting children appeared first on World Israel News.

By JNS

Around 4 a.m. Thursday morning in Israel, the Israel Defense Forces announced that it had eliminated Ali Ghali, commander of Islamic Jihad’s rocket launching force, as well as two other Islamic Jihad operatives in Gaza.

“Ghali was a central figure in Islamic Jihad, as well as responsible for the recent rocket barrages launched against Israel,” the IDF tweeted.

Ghali was killed in an IDF airstrike while he was hiding in an apartment in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. The two other Islamic Jihad terrorists killed in the strike had been hiding in the same apartment.

The killing of the senior Islamic Jihad terrorist marks the fourth prominent member of the group to be eliminated by the IDF in the latest round of fighting.

“While there have been no rocket alerts for several hours, I expect Islamic Jihad will retaliate for the targeted strike against Ali Ghali and other cadres belonging to the militant group,” Joe Truzman, a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, tweeted.

As of 8:00 a.m. Thursday, the IDF has bombed 147 Islamic Jihad positions in Gaza and shot down 154 rockets since fighting broke out on Tuesday.

A further 110 rocket launches failed to clear the Gaza Strip, with 368 rockets crossing into Israeli territory.

The post IDF kills commander of Islamic Jihad’s rocket launching force appeared first on World Israel News.