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  • Freed hostage says NY Jewish community 'gives us strength'

    Luke Tress|Mar 29, 2024

    (New York Jewish Week) – An Israeli hostage who was released from Hamas captivity said the support of New York’s Jewish community “gives us strength” as thousands of demonstrators gathered in Central Park on Sunday morning to mark 150 days since the captives were taken in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. “This support is really moving,” said Keren Munder, who was taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz with other members of her family. She was released in November, during a temporary ceasefire, with her 9-year-old son, Ohad, and her mother, Ruti, 78. Her father,...

  • IDF transfers Gaza orphans to Judea at Berlin's request

    Mar 29, 2024

    (JNS) — At the request of Germany, Israeli authorities transferred some 70 Palestinian orphans between the ages of 3 and 15 from the Gaza Strip to Bethlehem in Judea on Monday. The National Security Council in the Prime Minister’s Office reportedly approved the move without informing the Security Cabinet. Israel Defense Forces soldiers escorted the convoy of buses with Gaza orphans and their companions, which passed through the outskirts of Jerusalem on its way to Judea, Channel 12 News reported. The move was said to have been authorized follow...

  • Israeli FM to UN Secretary-General: 'You've brought world body to all-time low'

    Mar 29, 2024

    (JNS) - Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz sent a sharply worded letter to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday, charging him with a blatant disregard for the atrocities committed by Hamas against the Jewish people on Oct. 7. "Your dismissal of the heinous acts as documented in the recent U.N. report-acts which are still being perpetrated-is not only inadequate but also offensive," wrote Katz. "The world has been waiting five months for your actions. The necessity to declare...

  • Low-key Purim celebrations in Tel Aviv against backdrop of war

    Amelie Botbol|Mar 29, 2024

    (JNS) - Tel Aviv's bustling Dizengoff Street was lined with people garbed in Purim costumes on Sunday, even as the celebrations were noticeably muted compared to years past due to the ongoing war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. "This year feels different with everything that has been happening. There are people who aren't celebrating with us because they can't and there are those who will never celebrate again," Zach Blank, 28, who immigrated to Tel Aviv from the United States 10 years ago,...

  • Israel upholding freedom of worship during Ramadan

    David Isaac|Mar 29, 2024

    (JNS) — Despite heightened tensions five months into Israel’s war with Hamas, Jerusalem remains committed to upholding freedom of worship, Israeli officials told foreign press at a special Ramadan briefing in Jerusalem on Tuesday. “We take pride in being a nation that welcomes all faiths and protects freedom of religion and worship,” said Tal Heinrich, spokeswoman for the Prime Minister’s Office. While Israel hasn’t placed any restrictions on Arab-Israeli Muslims who wish to visit the Temple Mount during the month-long holiday, age restriction...

  • Israel's star English-language spokesman is suspended

    Philissa Cramer|Mar 29, 2024

    (JTA) — Eylon Levy, the English-language spokesman for Israel widely praised for defending the beleaguered country in English-language media, has been suspended and is unlikely to return to his role, Israeli media is reporting. According to the Israeli media reports, Levy was suspended over his response on X, formerly Twitter, to Britain’s top diplomat, who had called for more aid to be allowed into Gaza, where Israel is waging war against Hamas. Levy’s response, which has since been deleted, rejected the idea that Israel was preventing aid f...

  • IDF team to investigate possible Palestinian terror tunnels in Judea and Samaria

    Mar 29, 2024

    (JNS) — The Israel Defense Forces’ Central Command, which is responsible for Judea and Samaria, has established a team to investigate alleged terror tunnels in the area. The unit, which was established several months ago, consists of engineering and intelligence specialists, as well as civilian experts, Ynet reported on Tuesday. “The special team acts upon intelligence needs or reports from the field and knows how to bring all the capabilities required to inspect them [the tunnels],” a security source told the site. He added, “In the past, we h...

  • Rare First Temple clay seal found

    Mar 8, 2024

    (Israel Hayom via JNS) - A rare and exciting archaeological find has been unearthed in Jerusalem, providing an extraordinary glimpse into the ancient past. During excavations carried out by the Israel Antiquities Authority in the Western Wall Plaza, a small-stamped clay seal was discovered dating back to the First Temple period around 2,700 years ago. The clay seal contains ancient Hebrew writing indicating it belonged to the "Governor of the City" of Jerusalem, the highest municipal position...

  • Netanyahu counters Biden: Most Americans support Israel

    Mar 8, 2024

    (JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday night hit back at U.S. President Joe Biden for claiming that the Jewish state’s “incredibly conservative government” risked losing it international support. “Since the start of the war, I have been leading a diplomatic campaign to block pressure designed to end the war prematurely and to secure strong support for Israel,” said Netanyahu in a video message. “We have had considerable success. Today, a Harvard-Harris poll was published which shows that 82 percent of the American publ...

  • Gallant: Hamas and Iran plotting 'second phase of Oct. 7' during Ramadan

    Akiva Van Koningsveld|Mar 8, 2024

    By (JNS) — Iran-backed terror groups are plotting to turn the Islamic holy month of Ramadan into the “second phase of Oct. 7” and set the Middle East on fire, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant charged on Tuesday. “The main goal of Hamas is to take Ramadan, with an emphasis on the Temple Mount and Jerusalem, and turn it into the second phase of their plan that began on Oct. 7. This is the main goal of Hamas, and it is being amplified by Iran and Hezbollah,” Gallant said following a situational assessment at the Israel Defense Forces’ C...

  • 'When will he be coming home?'

    Amelie Botbol|Mar 8, 2024

    (JNS) - "I can't allow myself to get caught in the emotional rollercoaster around hostage negotiations," said Jonathan Dekel-Chen, whose son Sagui, 35, was kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7. "It is hard if not impossible to survive that when your loved one is being held captive by a terror organization," he told JNS. On Oct. 7, some 200 terrorists stormed Kibbutz Nir-Oz, murdering 40 residents and abducting 80 more. "I have been worried for Sagui's life since then. Every day is another day that the...

  • Hamas fires missiles at Kiryat Shmona area from Lebanon

    Joshua Marks|Mar 8, 2024

    (JNS) — Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, the “military wing” of Hamas, fired 40 Grad rockets in two barrages at army bases near Kiryat Shmona on Wednesday morning. Only 10 crossed the border and several were intercepted, according to the Israel Defense Forces. A building in Kiryat Shmona was hit, causing damage but no injuries according to police. The Hamas terror group says its Lebanon branch fired a barrage rockets at the Kiryat Shmona area this morning. Police said they were dealing with rocket debris at several sites in the Kiryat Shmona area. “Prop...

  • IDF kills Jihad commander in Judea and Samaria

    Mar 8, 2024

    (JNS) — Israeli security forces killed three Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists, including a commander, during overnight operations in Judea and Samaria early Tuesday, according to Israeli media reports. The three terrorists were eliminated in Tubas in northern Samaria and the nearby al-Fari’ah camp, located east of Nablus (Shechem), according to the reports, which cited the P.A.’s official Wafa news agency. One of the terrorists, Ahmed Daraghmeh, 26, was reportedly a commander of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad-affiliated Tubas Batta...

  • Hezbollah fires dozens of rockets at Upper Galilee

    Mar 8, 2024

    (JNS) — The Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah fired a “significant” rocket barrage at northern Israel on Tuesday morning. The Iranian proxy said the attack was a response to an Israeli strike the previous day in the Beqaa Valley which killed a senior Hezbollah commander. According to Hezbollah, the barrage targeted the Israeli Air Force’s air control base on Mount Meron, which has been attacked multiple times since Hezbollah joined the war in support of Hamas a day after the Oct. 7 mass invasion of southern Israel. The IDF later in the morning...

  • No ceasefire 'at any price'

    Charles Bybelezer|Mar 1, 2024

    (JNS) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to not cave to international pressure demanding a ceasefire in the war against Hamas. "There is considerable pressure on Israel at home and abroad to stop the war before we achieve all of its goals, including a deal at any price to free the hostages," said Netanyahu during a visit to the IDF Sky Rider Unit at the Zikim Base along the border with the Gaza Strip. "We very much want to achieve another release and we are prepared to go far but...

  • Knesset votes 99-11 against recognition of Palestinian state

    Mar 1, 2024

    (JNS) — The Knesset plenum on Wednesday voted 99-11 to back the government’s decision to reject any unilateral recognition of Palestinian statehood, amid reports the Biden administration is considering such a move. All coalition lawmakers and most members of the opposition Yesh Atid, National Unity and Yisrael Beiteinu parties voted in favor of supporting Sunday’s Cabinet statement against “international diktats regarding a permanent settlement with the Palestinians.” The Labor Party boycotted the vote and its members were not in attendanc...

  • IDF to begin probe into response to Oct. 7 attack

    Mar 1, 2024

    (JNS) — The Israel Defense Forces in the coming days will start an internal investigation into the military’s response to the Oct. 7 Hamas-led massacre and the period preceding the cross-border invasion. Army commanders will be leading the probe, including from the Gaza Division; Unit 8200, the Military Intelligence Directorate’s main information-gathering unit; the Southern Command; and the Operations Directorate, responsible for preparing the IDF for war. The investigation is expected to conclude towards May, after which external inves...

  • 63 percent of Israeli Jews oppose Palestinian statehood

    Mar 1, 2024

    (JNS) — Sixty-three percent of Israeli Jews oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state, and most believe terrorism will either stay the same (27.5 percent) or increase (44 percent) should one be created, according to the Israel Democracy Institute’s eleventh War in Gaza survey, published on Wednesday. The survey puts the majority of Israeli Jews at odds with the Biden administration, the European Union and other international players pushing Palestinian statehood in the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre. It also underscores the diffe...

  • 1 killed, 11 wounded in attack on security checkpoint line

    Eliyahu Freedman|Mar 1, 2024

    (JTA) — At least one Israeli was killed in an early morning shooting attack on the highway leading from the Israeli West Bank settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim to Jerusalem. Eleven others were wounded in the terror attack Thursday morning, one seriously. The three gunmen were killed at the scene by security forces. The attack occurred amid Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, and amid an accompanying rise in violence in the West Bank. Hours earlier, a house in northern Israel was hit by a missile fired from Lebanon. Another missile shot by the Houth...

  • Jared Armstrong is using basketball to help Israeli children escape the realities of war

    Jacob Gurvis|Mar 1, 2024

    (JTA) - Last summer, Jared Armstrong traveled from his adopted home of Israel back to the United States to confront a problem - running basketball clinics across the country in a bid to improve Black-Jewish relations. Now, following Hamas' Oct. 7 invasion of Israel, the professional basketball player is bringing his clinics to the southern coastal city of Ashkelon, where he lives, aiming to provide kids with a diversion and a chance to have fun as the war continues to rage just miles away in...

  • Rare limestone box from Second Temple era uncovered in Jerusalem

    Mar 1, 2024

    (JNS) - A rare multi-compartment stone container dating back around 2,000 years has been revealed to the public for the first time at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. The box, carved from soft limestone, measures 30 x 30 cm (about 12 x 12 inches) and and is divided into nine equal-sized interior compartments. The box was discovered in a destruction layer inside an ancient store dated to the end of the Second Temple period that once stood alongside the Pilgrimage Road in the City of David. The...

  • Amid Gaza offensive, IDF seizes docs proving Iran-Hamas links

    Mar 1, 2024

    (JNS) — Israeli forces seized cash and financial documents from an underground compound in Khan Yunis showing direct Iranian financial support for Hamas, the Israel Defense Forces disclosed on Tuesday night. “We found official documents from 2020 detailing the funds transferred by Iran to Hamas between the years 2014 and 2020 and to [Hamas leader in Gaza Yahyah] Sinwar. More than $150 million were transferred from Iran to Hamas,” said IDF Spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari. The intelligence indicated a “direct connection from Iran to Hamas—a...

  • National Library of Israel preserving 'collective memory' of Oct. 7

    Gil Tanenbaum|Feb 23, 2024

    (JNS) — The National Library of Israel has embarked on a massive project to collect and archive all published materials about the Oct. 7 massacre, both the good and the bad. While scholars and the curious public explore the new library building in Jerusalem and its Israel, Judaica, Humanities, Islam and Gershom Scholem collections, Chaim Neria is quietly gathering more recent—and sometimes painful—printed and digital items associated with the murder by Hamas of some 1,200 people. “The significance of this project to Israel and the Jewish...

  • Netanyahu protests 'settler violence' sanctions in Biden call

    Charles Bybelezer|Feb 23, 2024

    (JNS) — During his call on Sunday with U.S. President Joe Biden, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized the U.S. administration’s move to sanction four residents of Judea and Samaria over purported “settler violence,” Axios reported. Netanyahu’s protest signaled his belief that the sanctions, allowing the imposition of penalties on Israeli officials directly or indirectly involved in vaguely defined “settler violence,” could have implications for the entire country, including the political and defense establishment...

  • Secret document details Hamas psychological warfare

    Joshua Marks|Feb 23, 2024

    (JNS) — Israeli forces in Gaza recently found a secret document written by a senior Hamas official detailing the terrorist group’s psychological warfare strategy against the Israeli public, Channel 12 reported on Monday. Furthermore, the document was discovered at a site visited by Hamas’s senior leader in the Strip, Yahya Sinwar, according to the report. However, it was unclear whether the mastermind of the Oct. 7 massacre had penned the paper. The document orders that photos and videos of the Israeli hostages continue to be published “due...

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