Palestinians demand ‘clear’ timetable for Israeli withdrawal from West Bank
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) The Palestinian Authority’s (PA) commissioner for international relations, Nabil Shaath, told Palestinian media on Thursday that the PA would turn to the U.N. Security Council and General Assembly on Sept. 15 to request that Israel be forced to provide “a clear and defined timetable for withdrawing from the Palestinian territories.”
Shaath emphasized that PA President Mahmoud Abbas issued a directive to prepare an organized plan of action for the Palestinians to turn to the International Criminal Court and demand that it try Israel for war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated against the Palestinians, if the international community fails to act toward a resolution of the Palestinian territories issue.
In an interview on Palestinian television, Abbas stressed his determination to “bring the Israeli occupation to an end” and establish a Palestinian state that would exist alongside Israel in peace.
“The only thing remaining for the negotiating teams is to outline the borders between the countries,” Abbas said. “We will not agree again to designating areas A, B, C. We want for every country to know what [its] borders are. Israel is the only country in the world without clear borders.”
Rocket attack victim dies, raising Israeli death toll to 71
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Israel Defense Forces soldier Netanel Maman, who was hit by shrapnel in a rocket attack near Ashdod last week, died Friday, raising the Israeli death toll in the Gaza conflict to 71. Maman died three days after Israel and Hamas agreed on a cease-fire.
Maman, 22, had been fighting in Gaza during the recent campaign, and last Thursday came home for the weekend. Maman and his younger brother, Tamir, who serves in the Israeli Air Force, decided to make a quick run to a gas station near their home in Gan Yavne to buy cigarettes. Their father, a member of the Gan Yavne municipal council, tried to dissuade them from going, but they insisted.
The siren warning of an incoming rocket sounded as the two were stopped at a traffic light, their brother-in-law recounted. Tamir managed to flee the car and take cover, but Netanel did not make it out of the car. The Grad-type rocket exploded nearby, sending shrapnel flying in their direction. Netanel sustained shrapnel wounds mainly to the neck and head and was critically injured. His brother sustained light injuries and was released from the hospital the same day.
Eastern Jerusalem church forced to close after years of Islamist harassment
(JNS.org) An Evangelical Christian church in eastern Jerusalem was forced to close following years of harassment and intimidation by Islamists, a Palestinian pastor said.
The Calvary Baptist Church—which is affiliated with the Evangelical Christian Holy Land Missions organization—was forced to move out of its building in July after Islamists threatened its landlord. The congregation is currently looking for a new building.
The church, which was located in the predominantly Muslim eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Shuafat, is trying to raise $3.5 million to purchase a new building.
“We can’t get a loan because we don’t own anything in Israel,” Holy Land Missions’ Pastor Steven Khoury told Morning Star News. “By faith we are asking the Lord to help us raise $3.5 million. We’ve been able to raise about $700,000 so far.”
According to Khoury, the persecution of Calvary Baptist congregants started shortly after the church opened in 2007. Among the attacks were a congregant being threatened with a knife, a Molotov cocktail being tossed at the building, and vehicles and even children being harassed at church functions.
“These were all spread out over a two- or three-year period, to let us know that we were not welcome there,” Khoury said.
Holy Land Missions has been forced to close churches elsewhere, including in Beit Hanina in 2006.
Iran is arming West Bank Palestinians, militia chief says
(JNS.org) Iranian Basij militia chief Mohammad Reza Naqdi, who is in charge of his country’s paramilitary network, said that Iran has started arming Palestinians in the West Bank in their fight against Israel.
“Arming the West Bank has started and weapons will be supplied to the people of this region,” Naqdi said, adding that most of Hamas’s arsenal and military knowledge in the recent Gaza conflict had already been supplied by Iran, the Fars News Agency reported.
“The Zionists should know that the next war won’t be confined to the present borders and the Mujahedeen (jihadists) will push them back,” he said.
Earlier this week, Iranian state TV broadcast footage of what it said was an Israeli drone shot down near an Iranian nuclear site. The drone did not display any visible Israeli identification.
“We will accelerate the arming of the West Bank and we reserve the right to give any response” to the drone, said a statement by General Amir-Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the aerial forces of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, according to sepahnews.com.
Hamas repeats ‘victory’ narrative after cease-fire
(JNS.org) Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal said Thursday that the recent war between the terrorist group and Israel “is not the end” but rather “just a milestone to reaching our objective,” and continued to claim a “victory” over the Jewish state.
“We know that Israel is strong and is aided by the international community. We will not restrict our dreams or make compromises to our demands,” Mashaal said at a news conference in the Qatari capital of Doha, Reuters reported.
“The resistance triumphed in Gaza,” he said. “Every Palestinian in Gaza and every Palestinian in the world are partners in this victory.”
Mashaal’s remarks came shortly after Mahmoud al-Habbash, a senior advisor to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, suggested that Hamas should admit defeat in the latest Gaza conflict. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, said Wednesday that Hamas suffered the “greatest blow since the organization’s founding.”
Ismail Haniyeh—Mashaal’s top deputy and the former head of Hamas in Gaza—was hospitalized Wednesday, Israel’s Channel 2 reported. But Arab media outlets reported that Haniyeh’s son Abed a-Salam Haniyeh denied his father’s hospitalization, saying that his father was simply visiting injured Palestinians in Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital.
Young Israeli Christians complete first-ever summer seminar
(JNS.org) Thirty Israeli Christians have completed the first-ever summer seminar for Arabic-speaking Israeli Christian youths in Haifa.
The program is designed to help young Israeli Christian learn more about their own Christian identity as well as Israeli history.
“When I first came up with the idea for the program, I was modeling it on the Mechina pre-military programs that Jewish youth often attend during their gap year between high school and military service,” said Sondra Oster Baras, director of the Jewish-Christian group Christian Friends of Israeli Communities (CFOIC), BreakingIsraelNews.com reported.
Baras explained that she quickly realized that many Israeli Christian youths do not have a firm understanding of Israeli history or their own history.
“Not only are they lacking in a solid understanding of Israeli history, they have never been given a framework in which to explore their Christian identity and how that relates to Israel,” she said.
Baras added that she is working with Father Gabriel Nadaf, a Greek Orthodox priest and leader of the Israeli Christian Recruitment Forum, which seeks better integration of Christians into Israeli society by encouraging their enlistment in the Israel Defense Forces.
“Father Nadaf’s dream is to start a school but I figured, let’s start small. Let’s start with a summer program that we can implement right away,” said Baras.
Several Christian and Jewish leaders were in attendance for the summer seminar’s graduation ceremony, including officials from the Ministry of Defense and MK Ofir Akunis (Likud), who helped secure funding for the program from the Prime Minister’s office.
“Today marks a milestone in the relationship of Christians and Jews in Israel,” Akunis told the students.
U.N. says 43 peacekeepers ‘detained’ by rebels at Israel-Syria border
(JNS.org) The United Nations said 43 peacekeepers were “detained” by rebels at the Israel-Syria border in the Golan Heights amid fighting in the area.
“During a period of increased fighting beginning yesterday between armed elements and Syrian Arab Armed Forces within the area of separation in the Golan Heights, 43 peacekeepers from the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) were detained early this morning by an armed group in the vicinity of Quneitra,” the U.N. press office said in a statement.
A coalition of Syrian rebel groups, including the jihadist al-Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra, seized control of the Quneitra border crossing between Israel and Syria from the Syrian government in heavy fighting.
UNDOF peacekeepers have served in the region since the 1974 disengagement accord between Syria and Israel following the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Until the Syrian civil war began in 2011, the Israel-Syria border has been mostly quiet. Currently, there are 1,223 peacekeepers from six countries serving in the region.
Abbas advisor: Hamas should admit defeat
(JNS.org) Mahmoud al-Habbash, a senior advisor to Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, suggested that Hamas should admit defeat in its latest conflict with Israel.
In a post on his Facebook page, al-Habbash, who recently served as the PA’s minister for religious affairs, compared the Gaza war with one fought between the Prophet Mohammed and “polytheists” in 625 CE in Medina, a conflict widely considered by Muslims to be a defeat for the prophet.
“The Muslims admitted their defeat [in Medina],” al-Habbash, who defected from Hamas several years ago, said in a message meant to encourage Hamas to do the same, the Jerusalem Post reported.
Despite heavy causalities and widespread destruction of their command centers and rocket arsenals, Hamas leaders declared “victory” shortly after a cease-fire was announced with Israel on Tuesday.
In his first remarks to the press following the cease-fire, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Hamas suffered the “greatest blow since the organization’s founding.”
Israeli police find body believed to be missing American yeshiva student Aaron Sofer
(JNS.org) Israeli police have located a body believed to be that of missing American yeshiva student Aaron Sofer. The body was found in the Ein Kerem neighborhood near the Jerusalem Forest, according to reports.
“We can confirm that a body was found today near the Jerusalem Forrest and that a forensics team is at the site now to determine if it is the missing yeshiva student,” Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said in a statement.
Sofer, 23, had been missing since Friday, when he and a friend went on a hike in a difficult rocky and wooded portion of the Jerusalem Forest. At some point during the hike, Sofer and his friend apparently became separated, with Sofer never emerging.
Nighttime prayer vigils have been held in Sofer’s hometown of Lakewood, N.J. The announcement by Israeli police came just hours before a planned prayer vigil and press conference at the Western Wall by Sofer’s parents, Moshe and Chulda, who flew to Israel to join the search. On Tuesday, a NIS 100,000 ($28,000) award was posted by his parents for information leading to his whereabouts.
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