By Uriel Heilman, JTA World News Service (JTA) — Until this latest war, if you asked most Israelis about the threat from Gaza, they would probably start talking about Hamas rockets. But that has changed over the last few days of fighting, for two reasons. One, the much-heralded success ofContinue Reading
JERUSALEM (JTA) — A United Nations agency condemned the discovery of rockets discovered in one of its schools in the Gaza Strip.The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which assists Palestinian refugees, said in a statement issued Thursday that about 20 rockets were discovered hidden on the premises of aContinue Reading
(JTA) — Israel launched a ground incursion into the Gaza Strip to destroy tunnels it says are used for terrorist activities. “A large IDF force has just launched a ground operation in the Gaza Strip,” the Israel Defense Forces’ spokesman’s office said late Thursday on its Twitter feed. “A new phase ofContinue Reading
WASHINGTON (JTA) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry ripped Hamas for ignoring a cease-fire call and affirmed Israel’s right to defend itself.“I cannot condemn strongly enough the actions of Hamas in so brazenly firing rockets in multiple numbers in the face of a goodwill effort to offer a cease-fireContinue Reading
By Linda Gradstein The Media Line Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is in Egypt today in an attempt to push forward a cease-fire between Israel and the Islamist Hamas movement, although a truce still appears to be days, if not weeks, away. Hamas today officially rejected an Egyptian proposal forContinue Reading
(JTA) — Israel and Hamas are fighting their third major conflict in six years, and while some things have stayed the same, the battle lines have also shifted in a few notable ways. Here are eight things you need to know about the current conflagration: • Iron Dome has been a gameContinue Reading
NEW YORK (JTA) – A Jewish woman was ejected from a JetBlue flight after arguing about the Israel-Hamas conflict with a Palestinian passenger. The Jewish woman, physician Lisa Rosenberg of New York, was asked to leave the July 7 John F. Kennedy Airport-bound flight from Palm Beach International Airport notContinue Reading
By Joel Magalnick, Editor, The Jewish Sound During a lunchtime conference call today with members of Seattle’s Jewish community, Andy David, Israel’s consul general to the Pacific Northwest, laid out the issues of the war that erupted this week between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. This is whatContinue Reading
By Sean Savage, JNS.org With the launch of the Israeli army’s Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, much of the public’s attention has appropriately focused on Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group accused of being behind the June 12 abduction and murder of three Jewish teens and more recently the escalation ofContinue Reading
By Ben Sales, JTA World News Service TEL AVIV (JTA) — A national ordeal here ended in tragedy as three Israeli teenagers kidnapped earlier this month were found dead near Hebron. The discovery of their bodies Monday night by the Israeli army and volunteer searchers brings to an unhappy conclusionContinue Reading
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Two West Bank Palestinian men affiliated with Hamas have been identified as the alleged abductors of three Israeli teens. Israel’s Shin Bet security service and the Israel Defense Forces on Thursday identified Amer Abu Aysha and Marwan Kawasme as the alleged kidnappers. The suspects, who live inContinue Reading
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s Cabinet agreed to reduce the presence of the country’s military in the West Bank and limit its incursions into Palestinian areas 12 days after the kidnapping of three Israeli teens. The operation to locate and return the teens, called Operation Brother’s Keeper, now will focus moreContinue Reading
By Felice Friedson, The Media Line “Most Palestinians want the [kidnapped Israeli] kids to be alive and to be found,” says Dr. Nabil Kukali, the founder and president of the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion, in an exclusive interview. “This will help the Palestinian cause.” Dr. Kukali spoke with TheContinue Reading
By Ben Sales, JTA World NewsTEL AVIV (JTA) — Since the three teenagers were abducted last week, Israel’s goals have been simple: Find them and punish their kidnappers.Realizing those goals, though, is far from a simple task.The international community has condemned the kidnappings, and Israel has spread its forces acrossContinue Reading
By JNS.org As the days pass following the abduction of three Jewish teenagers near Hebron, the boys’ families are refusing to succumb to despair despite the uncertainty surrounding the situation. Hamas terrorists kidnapped Gilad Shaar, 16, Eyal Yifrach, 19, and Naftali Frenkel, 16, Thursday night while they were hitchhiking homeContinue Reading
By Ron Kampeas, JTA World News WASHINGTON (JTA) — The new Palestinian unity government brought together rivals Hamas and Fatah, but it has opened a divide between allies Israel and the United States. “I’m deeply troubled by the announcement that the United States will work with the Palestinian government backedContinue Reading
(JNS.org) Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas swore in a new unity government on Monday following an agreement between Abbas’s Fatah party and the terrorist group Hamas. The agreement came as the two sides resolved a dispute over a key ministry position. “Today, after announcing the government of national unity weContinue Reading
By Abdullah H. Erakat, The Media Line [RAMALLAH] — Dr. Hanan Ashrawi was the first woman elected to the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Ashrawi served in Palestinian governments and is a former spokesperson for the Palestinian delegation to the Mideast peace talks, beginning with the MadridContinue Reading
