IDF arrests 17 additional Palestinian terrorists, including senior Hamas operative
(JNS.org) The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) arrested 17 additional Palestinian suspects overnight on Wednesday, including a senior Hamas operative near Bethlehem.
Overall the IDF has arrested more than 350 Palestinians in the search for three missing teens, Gilad Shaer, Eyal Yifrah and Naftali Frankel, the Jersusalem Post reported.
Despite the arrests, the IDF has said it will begin scaling down the operation in search of the missing teens as the operation switches to more intelligence gathering.
“A large part of the operation against Hamas has been exhausted,” Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said.
“We are making progress all the time,” Yaalon said. “We are not working in the dark. It is only a matter of time till we get to the hostages and the kidnappers, but we need patience.”
Meanwhile, the Israeli High Court rejected the petitions of six Palestinian terrorists who were originally set free in the 2011 Gilad Shalit deal and rearrested during the recent crackdown. Overall 54 Palestinians, who were set free in the Shalit swap, have been rearrested by Israeli security forces.
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Taglit-Birthright Israel celebrates 400,000th participant
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) With over 4,000 young Jews hailing from the U.S., Canada, Argentina, Brazil, France and Britain in the audience, Taglit-Birthright Israel celebrated the arrival of the program’s 400,000th participant in a festive ceremony at the Caesarea Amphitheater on Tuesday.
The Zionist project, founded 14 years ago, takes young Jews from around the world on a 10-day trip to Israel, free of charge. Since its inception, over 70,000 Israelis have also participated in the programs as counselors and guides.
The project continued to grow and now has government support, and funding from Jewish donors and Jewish communities around the world, led by Sheldon Adelson and his wife Dr. Miriam Adelson, who were present at Tuesday’s event.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and wife Sara also attended the event, as did former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee and Habayit Hayehudi MK Yoni Chetboun.
Speaking to the Taglit-Birthright Israel participants in the crowd, Netanyahu said, “Israel is your homeland, you are our ambassadors.”
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Israeli Air Force strikes Gaza terror sites after rockets fired
(JNS.org) The Israeli Air Force struck seven terror sites in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday night in response to several rockets fired at southern Israel from the area. The air force targeted several rocket-launching, terrorism, and weapons-manufacturing sites in Gaza, the IDF Spokesperson’s Office said.
Earlier in the evening, the Iron Dome system had intercepted two rockets. A third rocket landed in open territory and another landed before reaching the Israeli border and injured four Palestinians, including a child, according to reports. Southern Israeli residents had to go into bomb shelters in response to the sounding of a Code Red rocket siren.
“The Hamas terror organization and its offshoots are responsible for what happens in its jurisdiction,” the IDF said.
On Sunday, the IAF had struck four other Gaza sites in response to rockets fired at Israel from the area on Saturday. Security sources say small jihadist organizations are likely to be behind the rocket attacks.
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Syrian minister warns of response to Israeli airstrikes
(JNS.org) A Syrian government minister said that the Syrian military will respond to the Israeli airstrikes against Syrian military targets earlier this week.
Reconciliation Minister Ali Haider told the Nazareth-based Arab-Israeli news service As-Sonora that the “ceasefire [with Israel] is broken,” and that the government has decided to respond to “the Israeli aggression against Syria.” Haider said the matter has been left up to the Syrian military.
The attack against Israel “will have a bigger influence than the Israeli operation and it will come at the appropriate time and place,” Haider said.
Israeli warplanes bombed targets inside Syria on Monday in response to the mortar shell fired from Syria that killed a 13-year-old Arab-Israeli boy on Sunday in the Golan Heights.
“Our enemies don’t differentiate between Jews and non-Jews, adults and children,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday.
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Spanish town called ‘kill Jews’ looks to open Jewish cultural center
(JNS.org) The Spanish village of Castrillo Matajudios, which translates to “Kill Jews Fort,” is looking to open a Jewish culture center as part of a process to change the town’s name and reflect its Jewish history.
The town’s mayor, Lorenzo Rodriguez, is scheduled to present the plan to open a Sephardic Jewish cultural center at a town meeting on Wednesday, the local Spanish radio station Radio Arlanzonreported.
In May, town residents voted in favor of changing the name to “Castrillo Mota de Judios” or “Hill of Jews,” which many believe is the original name of the town.
That original name dates back to 1035, when Jews who escaped being killed at another nearby town settled on the town’s hill. Records from 1627 show that the name was then changed to “Kill Jews,” more than a century after the Spanish Inquisition, which forced Jews to convert to Catholicism or face either execution or expulsion.
Some researchers believe that the town’s new name was invented by Jewish converts to Catholicism who wanted to make it seem that they opposed people who tried to maintain their Jewish faith. Others think the new name was simply a misspelling. The town’s official shield includes the Star of David.
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Jewish graves desecrated with Nazi graffiti in the UK
(JNS.org) Anti-Semitic graffiti, including swastikas, were painted on gravestones at a Jewish cemetery in Manchester, UK this week. Some of the gravestones were also toppled over. This is the latest in a string of similar offenses that began earlier this month.
“This is a sickening and cruel act of racism. A cemetery is supposed to be a resting place for people who have passed away,” said Mike Reid, of the Integrated Neighborhood Policing Team at Greater Manchester Police (GMP), reported the Belfast Telegraph.
“The vandalism of a gravestone is, in itself, a sickening act but to violate the memory of those resting in the cemetery still further by daubing racial slurs on the graves is truly repulsive,” he said.
Police are investigating and have recorded the incident as a hate crime.
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