Israel News

Rockets continue to be launched from Gaza into southern Israel, hours after a cease-fire was declared between Israel and Gaza’s militant Islamic Jihad group early Thursday, according to Israel Defense Forces (IDF), which added that the Israeli military is responding by striking ‘terror’ targets.

The Israeli military on Wednesday conducted large-scale strikes against Palestinian Islamic Jihad sites in Gaza, including a major weapons manufacturing facility, as terror groups continued firing regular barrages at southern Israel in response to the assassination of one of its senior commanders the day before.

Terrorists in the Gaza Strip continued to fire rockets into Israel after midnight Wednesday even as an Israeli official indicated that Jerusalem was nearing a ceasefire agreement with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group.

Newly appointed Defense Minister Naftali Bennett announced Tuesday a ‘special situation’ in the home front for communities within 80 kilometers (50 miles) of the Strip, which means special security measures would be put in place from the Gaza border communities, to Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and as far north as Raanana.

Top Hamas officials are claiming to have thousands of missiles pointed at Israel and miles of underground tunnels running into the Jewish state, offering these new disclosures amid a wave of renewed violence by the Palestinian terror group.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and rival Benny Gantz may be closing in on a coalition deal that would allow the formation of a government and prevent Israel from heading to its third election in under a year, Channel 12 reported on Monday.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad claimed Israel has ‘conquered’ Syrian land.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Syria said Tuesday morning that a building bombed overnight in Damascus was the home of Akram al-Ajouri, a senior member of the terror group.

The Israel Defense Forces on Tuesday ordered schools closed in southern and central Israel, including the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, as terror groups in the Gaza Strip began firing dozens of rockets at cities and towns throughout the country in retaliation for the assassination of Palestinian Islamic Jihad senior commander Baha Abu al-Ata.

Israel will target anyone who tries to attack the State of Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened Tuesday, hours after the IDF assassinated a top Islamic Jihad commander Baha Abu al-Ata in the Gaza Strip and as dozens of rockets were being fired across the country.

The Israel Defense Forces killed a senior commander of the Islamic Jihad terror group responsible for the firing dozens of rockets out of the Gaza Strip, authorities said early Tuesday, in an attack that could send the sides sliding back toward war.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday offered New Right party leader Naftali Bennett the position of defense minister in a move widely seen as a bid to prevent Bennett joining a Blue and White-led government.

The IDF will hold a nation-wide drill with the recently introduced, more specific siren system for the first time on November 26-28 from 9:05 a.m. to 12:35 p.m. each day.

The centrist Blue and White and secular-nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu parties have reached preliminary agreements on several issues in ongoing coalition talks, amid Israel’s ongoing political stalemate.

The head of Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency said Thursday that his organization has foiled more than 450 terror attacks in the past year, according to The Times of Israel.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu charged Thursday that Iran ‘continues to lie’ about its nuclear program and called on Europe to ‘stop stalling’ and confront the Islamic Republic, as the UN atomic agency reportedly discussed a site in Tehran alleged by Israel to be a secret atomic warehouse.

The Israeli research group Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) reports that nearly $2 billion in international aid that has been donated to the Palestinian Authority is missing or misused.

The latest negotiations between the Blue and White and Likud parties have failed to lead to a breakthrough that would allow for the formation of a coalition government, the two sides announced in a joint statement on Wednesday evening after further talks.

Democrat and Republican lawmakers are joining together to call attention to the deadly threat of Hezbollah on Israel’s doorstep in the north.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Tuesday to ‘never let Iran develop nuclear weapons’ after Tehran announced it was expanding its uranium enrichment efforts in a further breach of the 2015 nuclear deal.