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Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon ordered the Israeli Air Force to resume strikes over Gaza Tuesday afternoon, six hours after a ceasefire proposed by Egypt, accepted by Israel and rejected by Hamas, was due to go into effect. During those hours, dozens of Hamas rockets raked town after town and village after village. DEBKAfile: The White House called off US Secretary of State John Kerry’s Cairo visit upon finding Tehran’s hand behind the rockets. Netanyahu goes on the air at 8 p.m. to explain what went wrong. Straight after the ceasefire was due to go into...

Sirens are sounding again at 10:36 am throughout the Eshkol region, after a volley of rockets fired less than one hour after Israel’s Security Cabinet agreed to a cease-fire mediated by Egypt landed in open areas. Two rockets have hit in open areas. No injuries or damage were reported. Sirens sounded at roughly 10:00 am in Ashkelon, throughout the Eshkol region, and in communities near Gaza. Two rockets fell in open areas in the Eshkol region; no injuries or damage have been reported. Israel accepted the truce in a surprise move Tuesday morning, after Hamas categorically rejected the notion of...

The UN's special refugee agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, reported Sunday that about 4,000 residents of northern Gaza have fled their homes after the IDF told them to do so, starting last night. In addition, about 850 Palestinians with foreign nationalities are leaving Gaza through the Erez checkpoint. Three hundred of these had already done so by the early afternoon. Israeli aircraft dropped leaflets on border areas in northern Gaza, calling on the citizens to evacuate their homes before noon Sunday as it prepared to bomb the area. The IDF warned that those who do not obey their instructions will be...

I was watching a segment on Fox about the current Hamas rocket attack on Israel. Evidently, hundreds of rockets have been launched in the past few days. Three questions occured to me. One, where did all these rockets come from (who manufactured them)? Two, who paid for these rockets? Three, how did these rockets get into Gaza? Were they smuggled in from Egypt?

Sirens sounded Saturday evening in northern Israel as rockets were apparently fired from Lebanon into the Jewish state. The sirens sounded in Nahariya, Rosh Hanikra, Shlomi, Kabri and Hanita, along the border with Lebanon. Initial analysis said that the rockets were apparently fired from Lebanon by a Palestinian Lebanese terror group. "Two rockets fired from Lebanon hit uninhabited areas in the Nahariya region," a coastal town around 12 kilometers (seven miles) from the border with Lebanon, an army spokeswoman told AFP. Israel responded with artillery fire targeting the firing points. A Lebanese security source told AFP at least one rocket...

In a reminder of the Middle East’s intertwined nature, the latest violence between Israel and Hamas has U.S. and Israeli officials lamenting the role of a key actor hundreds of miles east of Gaza: Iran. “Who is the enabler for Hamas? Where do they get those rockets?” asked House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce Friday morning. “It’s Iran.” […] “Iran continues to do everything it can to push rockets into Gaza,” says Israel’s ambassador to Washington, Ron Dermer. “Iran obviously is a supporter of Hamas. And Islamic Jihad is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Iran.” (Islamic Jihad is militant group...

Edited by Joel Leyden Israel News Agency Jerusalem --- July 11, 2014 ... The following was communicated by the Israel Prime Minister's Media Adviser to the Israel News Agency. Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, today at the Israel Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, issued the following statement: "This is the fourth day of Operation Protective Edge. The Israel Defense Forces, the Israel Security Agency and the security forces are fighting Hamas with increasing intensity. As of now, we have hit over 1,000 Hamas', Islamic Jihad and other terrorist organizations' targets, and we are still busy. The pace of attacks in...

Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Ron Prosor played an air raid siren from a cell phone during a Security Council session on Thursday in order to highlight Israel’s plight as a nation under fire from Gaza rockets. “As I speak, there is a storm of rockets being fired by the Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza,” Prosor said. “Hamas is intentionally and indiscriminately threatening the lives of three and a half million innocent men, women, and children in Israel from north to south – from Beersheba to Tel Aviv to Haifa.” The Ambassador added, “In the last three days, 442...

For the first time since the Second Lebanon War of 2006, sirens were heard in the city of Haifa overnight Thursday. Sirens were also heard in Hadera, along the Carmel coast and in the Menashe region. Local residents reported hearing explosions, and it is believed a missile from Gaza was fired towards the area, and likely intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile system. Channel 2 News cited a statement from Hamas which claimed responsibility for the attack. According to the statement, the group claimed to have fired a missile by the name R-160, with R standing for Rantissi, a Hamas...

As Operation Protective Edge entered its second day on Wednesday, the Israel Air Force attacked terror sites in the Gaza Strip, while residents of greater Tel Aviv heard sirens and explosions. Sirens wailed in 20 different municipalities, including Tel Aviv, Rishon Letzion, Modi'in, Ashdod, Ashkelon, and the Eshkol regional council. Residents of Ra'anana also reported hearing sirens. The Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepted at least two of the missiles, though residents of Tel Aviv heard more explosions. The remnants of a rocket intercepted by Iron Dome fell on a road in Ness Ziona. The Hamas military wing has claimed responsibility...

According to statistics released by the IDF Wednesday, about 300 rockets have been fired at Israel since Operation Protective Edge began two days ago. Seventy-two rockets hit Israel in the course of Wednesday, by about 8:00 p.m. Two of the rockets were fired at Holon and Bat Yam, just south of Tel Aviv. One of them was intercepted by Iron Dome and the other struck an empty area. Islamic Jihad took responsibility for the rocket fire on the Tel Aviv area. Three other rockets were fired at Dimona, where Israel operates a nuclear plant. One was intercepted and the other...

It’s a confirmation of reports in June that ISIS had taken control of a site where some of Saddam’s WMD arsenal remained. Iraq has informed the United Nations that the Islamic State extremist group has taken control of a vast former chemical weapons facility northwest of Baghdad where 2,500 chemical rockets filled with the deadly nerve agent sarin or their remnants were stored along with other chemical warfare agents. Iraq’s U.N. Ambassador Mohamed Ali Alhakim said in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon circulated Tuesday that “terrorist” groups entered the Muthanna site June 11 and seized weapons and equipment...

President Barack Obama offered strong praise for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in an opinion piece published Tuesday in an Israeli newspaper, but had little to say about the other key player in the crisis, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "In President Abbas, Israel has a counterpart committed to a two-state solution and security cooperation with Israel," Obama wrote in the daily Haaretz. The president offered no parallel praise for Netanyahu, who is only mentioned by name once in the piece.

Hamas fired over 30 rockets in a ten-minute period into Israel on Monday, with hits reported in Sha'ar HaNegev, the Eshkol Region, Netivot, Sderot, and Be'er Sheva between 8:00 - 8:10 pm IST. The rocket count has escalated to over 80 on Monday evening alone, Walla! News reports close to 10:30 pm Monday; the Iron Dome missile defense system has shot down 12-13 of them over Ashdod and Netivot. No buildings were reportedly damaged. An Askelon woman and her child are being treated for shrapnel injuries; several Ashdod residents were treated for shock. "Code red" sirens have reportedly been sounded...

Former military intelligence chief Amos Yadlin rejected criticism over a lack of deterrence against Hamas on Saturday, insisting that the only reason rockets have not reached Be'er Sheva and Tel Aviv is due to the threat of IAF retaliation. "It is not true that there is no deterrence," Yadlin stated. "Hamas can fire hundreds of rockets at Tel Aviv and Beersheba, and does not actually do so." Despite this, Yadlin admitted that another operation in Gaza is likely on the horizon. "I have no doubt we are looking at another round with Hamas," admitted Yadlin. "It will be very difficult."...

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who oversees the country’s space sector, said he would ban exports of Russian-made rocket engines used to launch U.S. military satellites. Rogozin also said via Twitter that Russia does not intend to continue cooperating with the United States on the International Space Station program beyond 2020. The White House has proposed extending station operations to 2024 and has been working to bring the program's international partners onboard. The rocket engine in question is the RD-180, which is used to power the first stage of United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket, one of the U.S....

Moscow is banning Washington from using Russian-made rocket engines, which the US has used to deliver its military satellites into orbit, said Russia’s Deputy PM, Dmitry Rogozin, who is in charge of space and defense industries. According to Rogozin, Russia is also halting the operation of all American GPS stations on its territory from June 1. DETAILS TO FOLLOW

SpaceX says it made two key strides toward the eventual reusability of the Falcon 9 rocket this week with the controlled splashdown of the rocket's first stage in the Atlantic Ocean on Friday

How Russia could strangle the US space program Jean MacKenzie If you use a cellphone, have a GPS system in your car, or get cash from ATMs, you should be worried. BUZZARDS BAY, Mass. — Think Russia has no way to put pressure on the United States? Think again. The US relies heavily on Russia to furnish the engines that power rockets that deliver both military and civil payloads into space. This includes GPS systems in cars and cellphones, and even systems that allow ATMs to function. Weather satellites are launched into space via Russian-powered rockets, and military systems such...

Terrorists in the Gaza Strip have battered towns and villages in southern Israel with at least 60 rockets, hitting several Jewish communities in the largest-scale attack since the 2012 Pillar of Defense counterrorism operation. The IDF has sent tanks into Gaza over the past several minutes, and have already eliminated two terror targets, in response to the barrage of rocket fire on Israel. Several were stopped by the Iron Dome; no injuries have been reported. Thousands of Negev residents remain in shelters Wednesday evening, however, until the attacks have subsided. IDF Radio is reporting that over 60 rockets have landed...