Israel News

The Israeli military is preparing for massive riots along the Gaza security fence on Friday afternoon, potentially on par with violent clashes that took place on May 14, in which tens of thousands of people participated and some 60 Palestinians were killed, a senior army officer said Thursday.

Mimicking tactics that have been increasingly used as part of violent Gaza border protests in recent weeks, Palestinians in the West Bank launched what are believed to be the first incendiary kites used there Thursday.

The most effective method to date of countering helium balloons and kites fitted with flammable materials that are being sent over the border from Gaza to set fire to Israeli fields and nature reserves has proved to be — drones.

The Israel Defense Forces on Wednesday appointed a new head of its Southern Command, at a time of heightened tensions in the area which includes the volatile Gaza Strip front.

Incendiary kites launched from Gaza continued to ravage land in southern Israel on Tuesday, sparking fires in as many as 10 different locations.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is slated to travel to Europe this week in a bid to rally support from key allies for amending the international nuclear deal with Iran and for pushing Iranian forces out of Syria.

Palestinians are gearing up for Tuesday’s ‘Naksa Day’ . The day is commemorated as the ‘setback’ when Israel took over the West Bank and Gaza as well as East Jerusalem during the Six Day War. Along with Nakba Day and Land Day it makes up one of the key Palestinian protests of the spring and summer every year. This year the events come after months of protests along the Gaza border in which more than one hundred Palestinians have been killed and thousands wounded in clashes.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that Israel was ‘examining various possibilities to prevent a humanitarian collapse in Gaza.’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu heads to Europe this week in a bid to rally support from key allies for amending the international nuclear deal with Iran and for pushing Iranian forces out of neighboring Syria.

An American plan to bring the U.S. closer to recognizing the Golan Heights was laid out for Israeli and American officials in Washington last week.

Despite relative calm returning to southern Israel after more than 100 mortars and rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip, Israel is at its closest point to war since Operation Protective Edge four years ago, a senior IDF officer in the Southern Command said on Thursday.

Ambassador Nikki Haley ‘will unquestionably veto’ a ‘morally bankrupt’ draft resolution on the violence between Israelis and Palestinians in Gaza, she announced late Thursday.

Israel is pointing a finger at Iran for being behind the most serious escalation on it’s southern front in four years.

Nikki Haley, US President Donald Trump’s envoy to the UN, tore into the organization on Wednesday for what she characterized as a lackadaisical response to the firing of over 70 rockets on Israel from Gaza the day before.

The Israeli military on Thursday released satellite images and details of the more than 65 targets it struck in Gaza in response to massive mortar and rocket attacks by terror groups from the coastal enclave on Tuesday and Wednesday.

One of the rockets fired by terrorist groups from Gaza at southern Israel Tuesday struck equipment that provides electricity to the southern Gaza Strip, knocking out power to thousands, a spokesperson for Israel’s Electric Company said.

Thousands of Israelis spent the night in bomb shelters as terrorists in the Gaza Strip fired some 40 rockets and mortar shells at communities near the coastal enclave early Wednesday, with several of the projectiles being intercepted by Iron Dome. There were no reports of injuries.

The Iron Dome missile defense system succeeded on Tuesday where it had been entirely ineffective during the 2014 Gaza war: in shooting down incoming mortar shells that are in the air for just 15 seconds.

Israeli warplanes hit some 25 Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip late Tuesday and early Wednesday in a second wave of retaliatory strikes, the army said, as Palestinian terror groups continued to fire mortars and rockets into Israel.

In a rare incident, Israeli warplanes were reportedly intercepted by Russian fighter jets over Lebanon early Monday morning, despite an understanding in place between Moscow and Jerusalem to avoid conflict between the two countries.