Israel’s center, south remain under heavy rocket fire
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) As Israel entered the third day of Operation Protective Edge, Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip fired dozens of rockets into Israeli cities and towns across the map.
Since Tuesday, Hamas and other Gaza terrorist groups have launched rockets as far as 73 miles from Gaza, targeting Israel’s commercial hub of Tel Aviv, the Haifa region in northern Israel, Jerusalem, and a nuclear reactor near the southern town of Dimona.
On Thursday morning, the Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted a salvo over Tel Aviv, but a piece of shrapnel struck a gas station in the southern part of the city. In a later salvo, two rockets exploded in open areas in Tel Aviv. Throughout the day, the rocket fire toward the country’s center continued sporadically.
Meanwhile, Israel Defense Forces spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said Israel struck more than 320 Hamas targets overnight, focusing on underground tunnel networks and rocket-launching sites. That brought the total number of targets hit to 750 in three days of the massive offensive. Lerner said Israel has already mobilized 20,000 reservists for a possible ground operation into Gaza, but for the time being Israel remains focused on maximizing its air campaign.
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Abbas likens murder of Palestinian teen to the Holocaust
(JNS.org) Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas described Israel’s Operation Protective Edge in Gaza as “genocide” during an address on Wednesday, and refrained from condemning the ongoing rocket attacks on the Jewish state that prompted the operation.
Speaking at an emergency meeting of the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah, Abbas also compared the recent murder of Palestinian teen Mohammad Abu Khudair to the Holocaust. The suspects Israel arrested in connection with that murder are Jewish.
“What shall we say about Abu Khudair? Shall we mention Auschwitz again?” Abbas said.
He added, “What is happening now is a war against the Palestinian people as a whole, not just against the resistance groups. We know that Israel is not defending itself, it is defending its pet project—the settlements.”
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Study: Israeli ALS patients survive longer than anywhere in the world
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) A new study found that the survival rate among Israelis suffering from Lou Gehrig’s disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS) is two to four times greater than that of patients in other countries.
In global terms, between 5 and 10 percent of ALS sufferers survive more than 10 years after being diagnosed. But in Israel, 20 percent of ALS patients survive longer than a decade. ALS is a degenerative disease with no known cure.
The epidemiology department of the Maccabi health maintenance organization ordered a study encompassing 456 patients diagnosed with ALS between 1997 and 2013. The study revealed that approximately half of the patients survived at least five years after being diagnosed, 40 percent survived at least eight years after being diagnosed, and more than 20 percent survived more than 10 years.
The Israeli survival rate is significantly higher than that of the rest of the world, which could explain why the prevalence of ALS cases in Israel—11 cases per 100,000 people—is considered high by Western standards. In Europe, the incidence of ALS is four to eight cases per 100,000 people, and in the U.S. it is three to four per 100,000.
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Murder of three Israeli teens likely premeditated, FBI says
(JNS.org) The murder of the three Israeli teens last month was likely premeditated and the killers probably did not want to hold them hostage, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) believes.
A U.S. official, who was part of the FBI probe into the murders, received an audio recording of the call by Gilad Shaar because one of the slain teens, Naftali Frenkel, was a U.S. citizen.
According to the official, the use of a silencer on the gun—which was fired 10 times at the teens—led the FBI to conclude that the murders were premeditated, Reuters reported.
Israeli and Palestinian officials had initially believed that the killers, later identified as Hamas operatives Amer Abu Aysha and Marwan Kawasme, had planned to take the teens hostage but instead killed them due to panic after the phone call to police was made by Shaar. Israeli security officials declined to comment on the FBI claim.
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IDF: Gaza bombing campaign surpasses 2012 operation
(JNS.org) An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) official said that the military’s current air force campaign against Gaza in just more than a day and a half has surpassed the IDF’s eight-day long Operation Pillar of Defense in November 2012.
“Hamas has been surprised by Israel’s response,” an IDF source told the Jerusalem Post on Wednesday.
“We systematically struck operational infrastructure, where Hamas commanders operate. In the past 36 hours we destroyed more than what was destroyed during all of Operation Pillar of Defense, and many targets were areas where senior Hamas commanders operate,” the source said, adding that “not a single Hamas brigade commander has a home to go back to.”
Overall, the massive bombing campaign on Gaza has included the firing of 400 tons of explosives. The IDF has been distributing leaflets in Gaza as well as making phone calls to Gaza residents to evacuate buildings before they are targeted, in addition to firing warning shots at buildings to encourage civilians to flee.
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Christian Zionist organization sends mobile bomb shelters to southern Israel
(JNS.org) The International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) has sent mobile bomb shelters to protect residents of southern Israel amid the escalating rocket fire by terrorists in Gaza.
“The International Christian Embassy Jerusalem is committed to helping those Israeli communities under greatest threat to find shelter and weather the storm,” David Parsons, ICEJ media director, told JNS.org. “We have already sprung into action by placing two new mobile bomb shelters in [the kibbutz of] Kfar Aza along the Gaza border.”
The Christian Zionist organization said it was contacted by a former Knesset member from Kfar Aza who appealed to the ICEJ for help after the kibbutz was hit by repeated rocket attacks, which included the sounding of five rocket sirens within just one morning when residents were eating breakfast in a dining hall and did not have time to reach a bomb shelter.
At the same time, the ICEJ has also launched an appeal to Christians through its “Israel in Crisis” fund, to assist the Israeli communities impacted by rocket attacks.
“Christians worldwide are answering our urgent appeal for funds to meet the growing crisis wherever we can,” Parsons said.
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ZOA urges Nike to remove World Cup ad over anti-Semitism
(JNS.org) The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has called out Nike for an animated promotional video posted online before the World Cup in Brazil, urging leaders of the shoe company to have the ad removed because its content is anti-Semitic.
In the video, titled “The Last Game,” animated international soccer stars compete against evil clones who wear uniforms bearing a logo that looks like the Jewish Star of David.
Additionally, the background of the video includes images of a white rectangle with the same Star-of-David-like image in the center—resembling the Israeli flag, but without the blue stripes.
“Some of the animated soccer stars in the video—i.e., the ‘good guys’—are wearing shirts with a ‘Fly Emirates’ logo and a ‘Qatar Airways’ logo, which must mean that these Arab airlines co-sponsored the video. It is no secret that the United Arab Emirates and Qatar have a deeply troubling history of anti-Semitism and hostility to Israel,” ZOA leaders wrote in a letter to Nike Chairman Philip H. Knight and President & CEO Mark Parker.
Nike has dismissed accusations that the video is anti-Semitic, despite complaints from ZOA, the Israeli Knesset, the World Zionist Organization, and general viewers. The company claims that the controversial logos in the ad were intended to represent a soccer ball.
“No one should wrongly interpret the Nike video as a sign that Nike is anti-Semitic,” ZOA stated in its letter. “That would not be good for the Jewish people. That would not be good for Nike.”
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Stories from JNS.org are sponsored on San Diego Jewish World by Dr. Bob and Mao Shillman.