Free Republic

JERUSALEM Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the immediate closure of the main cargo crossing with the Gaza Strip on Monday in response to Palestinians launching incendiary kites and balloons into Israel. Netanyahu vowed to use a "heavy hand" against Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules Gaza, and said more steps would be taken, without elaborating. Israel's military said the Kerem Shalom crossing is shut until further notice except for humanitarian aid, medical supplies and food. Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum called the move "a new crime against humanity" and called on the international community to intervene.

A series of maps of Judea and Samaria, focusing on the placement of Jewish communities and Israeli military facilities in the area, provoked a dramatic change in the Obama administration’s policies vis-à-vis Israel, a report by The New Yorker claims. According to the report Monday, a presentation by then-Secretary of State John Kerry to President Barack Obama in the waning days of the administration ‘shocked’ the president into taking a more aggressive stance towards Israel, withholding America’s veto on a United Nations Security Council resolution critical of Israeli policies in Judea and Samaria. The Obama administration, like its predecessors, had...

The dog had been out on patrol in northern Syria with a team of six crack troops As the soldiers left their armoured convoy they were hit with a frenzied ambushA source said the unnamed Belgian Malinois took out three jihadis on its own The SAS commander in charge credited the dog with saving all his men's lives An SAS team was saved after a brave military dog fought off a jihadi who attacked a patrol in northern Syria.The unnamed Belgian Malinois, a fierce breed of sheepdog known for its bravery, had been out on a routine patrol with a team...

The Gulf Arab state of Qatar has called on Israel to issue thousands of entry permits to Gazans living in the Hamas-ruled Strip, allowing them to work in Israel, arguing that such a move would reduce tensions and end the ongoing wave of “kite terrorism” and balloon bomb attacks. Since March 30th, tens of thousands of Gaza rioters have gathered on the Israel border, clashing with IDF forces and attempting to breach the security fence. In recent weeks, however, the rioters have shifted from direct attacks on the border to the use of improvised explosive or incendiary devices, attached to...

Complete Headline: Hero SAS dog saves the lives of six elite soldiers in Syria by ripping out jihadi's throat while taking down three terrorists who ambushed British patrol An SAS team was saved after a brave military dog fought off a jihadi who attacked a patrol in northern Syria. The unnamed Belgian Malinois, a fierce breed of sheepdog known for its bravery, had been out on a routine patrol with a team of six crack soldiers from the SAS. They had just entered a small village in a convoy of armoured vehicles when they got out to continue the recce...

Reports say Syrian air defense systems fired at planes, coming in from Jordan, and heading towards T4 airbase used by Iran Reports in Syria say an airstrike hit the site of a known Iranian airbase in Syria's Homs region. Reports on Syrian television attributed the attack to Israel. According to the official Syrian news agency SANA, Syrian air defense systems were fired as warplanes, purportedly coming into the country from Jordan, approached the T4 base near Tiyas. The planes, which reports said were flying low to avoid detection, passed through the al-Tanf area where U.S. forces have a base...

Dubai: Syria’s opposition took to social media yesterday to celebrate Russia’s World Cup loss to Croatia yesterday. Russia, one of President Bashar Al Assad’s most important allies, is despised by many Syrians for its role in propping up the regime amid a seven-year revolt against his rule. One image of Croatian football star Luke Modric was superimposed on the Free Syrian Army flag was widely shared on social media.

NASEEB, Syria — Syrian soldiers fanned out across towns and villages in southern Syria Saturday, celebrating the recapture of the main border crossing with Jordan by raising portraits of President Bashar Assad and tearing down rebel flags. Troops captured the Naseeb border crossing a day earlier following a crushing two-week military offensive, after rebels announced they had reached an agreement with Russian mediators to end the violence in the southern province of Daraa and surrender the crossing.Some flashed victory signs and pumped fists in the air as they chanted pro-Assad slogans. A soldier could be seen hoisting the Syrian flag...

See something, say nothing? This appears the message in Sweden, where politically-correct authorities may punish those who dare complain about the government’s culture-rending and crime-spiking importation of vast numbers of Muslim migrants. The latest example is a dental hygienist fined approximately $50,000 for revealing that some refugees claiming to be “children” are actually adults. ... Masquerading as a minor is a common tactic among migrants as it makes it relatively easy to be granted refugee status. So, unsurprisingly, Herlitz found “that several asylum seekers who were registered as unaccompanied children showed a dental development that is more typical for people...

A suspect in the Paris and Brussels terror attacks has been identified by Belgian police as having been among a group of ISIS extremists who burned a Jordanian pilot alive in a cage. Osama Krayem, a Swede of Syrian origin, has been held in Belgium since 2016 and could face war crimes charges over the murder of Maaz al-Kassasbeh, whose grisly death was filmed and put online in an incident that came to symbolise some of the worst excesses of ISIS. Krayem is suspected of playing a key role in the jihadist cell behind the attacks in Paris, which killed...

- Russian military veterans urged the government on Thursday to acknowledge it sends private military contractors to fight in Syria, in a bid to secure financial and medical benefits for the fighters and their families. The statement breaks years of public silence about a secret operation involving thousands of Russian civilians fighting in Syria on the side of President Bashar al-Assad whom Moscow has been helping militarily since September 2015. “For three years already, we have been receiving complaints and appeals from Russian citizens who were injured in Syria and cannot undergo medical treatment in Russia,” said the statement, signed...

Hamina Class FAC in Finnish Navy service. Finland has selected Israel’s Advanced Naval Attack Missile to replace its current MTO85M system, a derivative of Swedish RBS15 that will reach the end of its life cycle in the 2020s. IAI’s Gabriel has beaten four other competitors evaluated by Finland’s MOD, including Kongsberg’s NSM, MBDA’s Exocet, Boeing’s Harpoon and Saab’s RBS15. IAI Gabriel 5 Advanced Naval Attack Missile is heading to Finland next year, replacing RBS15 on the Hamina-class missile boats and future Squadron 2020 corvettes. Image: IAI The selection of Israel’s Advanced Naval Attack Missile marks an important achievement for IAI,...

As Syrian government forces press on with a furious offensive against rebel-held areas in the country's south, Israel is quietly acknowledging that President Bashar Assad's forces will soon be on its doorstep, laying down red lines for postwar relations with the Syrian leader. Israel's main concern is to keep archrival Iran, an Assad ally, as far away from its border as possible — along with its proxy, the Lebanese militia Hezbollah. "Our demand is that the Iranian forces will go out or withdraw from Syria as a whole, and in it specifically southwest Syria," said a senior Israeli military official.It...

The Syrian government and its closest military ally - Russia - have intensified their bombing campaign Thursday in the southern province of Deraa, after ceasefire deal between rebels and Russians broke down. Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from Beirut, said that had airstrikes intensified on Thursday as government troops advanced steadily to recapture lost territory. “The relative lull in the fighting has now been shattered following the collapse of peace talks. Syrian government and Russian planes have been targeting a number of rebel-held towns in the province,” Khodr said. “Dozens of airstrikes were reported by activists, mainly targeting the towns...

When Russian President Vladimir Putin gave the green light to Russian aerial bombing of rebel-held positions in southwestern Syria two weeks ago, he knew he was asking for trouble. And he appears to be getting plenty of it. Putin knows that in approving the operation, he wasn’t simply enabling Syrian President Bashar Assad and his Syrian military forces to extend the regime’s control to an area that has been controlled by various rebel militia for seven years.The Syrian military is an empty shell. Russia effectively serves as the Syrian Air Force. Iran and Iranian-controlled groups control Syria’s ground forces.Israeli intelligence assesses...

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says that the demand that Iran withdraw completely from Syria "is unrealistic." In a meeting with Jordanian counterpart Ayman Safadi, Lavrov argued that Iran is one of the strongest countries in the region...

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The lawyer of Kurdish death row prisoner said a group of lawyers, including himself, had signed a letter to the President of Iran to stop the execution of the “innocent” man.Amid fears of Ramin Hossein Panahi being on the verge of execution, “60 lawyers of Persian and Kurdish ethnicities quickly wrote a letter to the President of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, also the head of Supreme National Security Council,” Mohsen Ahmadi, Panahi’s lawyer, told Kurdistan 24 on Tuesday.Describing Panahi’s arrest as “illegal,” Ahmadi, asserted that there were hidden hands that pushed for his client’s death sentence.Panahi was...

AN ISIS executioner who burned soldiers to death in a sick propaganda video has been killed in a firefight. Abu Talha al Turki was living with a $320,000 (£240,000) bounty on his head after his role in a horrific execution of two Turkish soldiers. The terror kingpin had been placed on the Turkish police’s “Blue List” of most wanted fugitives. Al Turki appeared in a sick video in 2016 burning alive two soldiers as they stood chained to a stake. The terrorist appeared wearing all black and carrying a machine gun and was the one who ignited the fire using...

Senator Lindsey O. Graham (R-SC) visited Manbij, Syria on July 2, where he promised to urge President Trump....

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel has denied entry to a Jewish-American activist for advocating boycotts of the Jewish state. Israel’s immigration authority says the activist, Ariel Gold, arrived to Israel Sunday and was refused entry at the airport. Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan said “whoever works consistently for a boycott against Israel will not enter here.” Gold is the national co-director of CODEPINK....