Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today that Hamas is conducting a double war crime in firing rockets at Israeli citizens while at the same time using innocent Palestinian citizens as human shields.
The prime minister spoke to reporters this morning taking questions about the ongoing Israeli response to Hamas’ continual terrorist attacks.
“Israel will continue to do what it needs to do to defend itself until peace and quiet are restored,” Netanyahu said. “[The] most important step for the international community to insist on is the demilitarization of Gaza.”
Hamas said today they rejected the peace proposal that Israel had accepted from Egypt because “Egypt has too many interests within Israel” to be impartial.
Hamas fired over 60 rockets Wednesday, 37 of which made it through the Iron Dome defense system. Two Israeli citizens were slightly injured when a rocket destroyed by Iron Dome fell to the ground.
Hamas terrorists could be attempting to create a second front in their battle to kill Israel’s citizens.
A spokesman for Lebanon’s military says they found a group of terrorists working at a rocket launching location in their territory and there were at least two working rockets ready for launch into Israel at the time of the discovery. A man was arrested after soldiers followed a blood trail from the site.
Friday morning, rockets from that area were fired into Israel and the Israeli Defense Forces responded by firing heavy artillery into the area. At least 25 shells struck the site near the Lebanese city of Kfar Shuba.
A spokesman for the IDF said at this point they are not going to say if the attack was symbolic or an attempt to open up battle on a second front. They have referred the situation to the United Nations force in Lebanon for investigation into the incident.
A Hamas rocket that made it through the Iron Dome defense system struck a home in Beersheba today, injuring two people including an 80-year-old grandmother who had to be rushed to a local hospital.
The rocket came an hour after Iron Dome has intercepted two rockets over Tel Aviv and at least two over Herzliya. The Israeli Defense Force says that the percentage of rockets shot down by Iron Dome is around 70 percent.
The IDF says that more Iron Dome batteries will be deployed throughout the country to try and increase the interception percentage of the system.
Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon spoke with the people who manufacture the system to encourage them as they increase their output to meet the current battle situation.
“Your efforts, and those of your people in this operation is very impressive, and inspirational,” Ya’alon added. “In recent days, you and your people are working with dedication, day and night, to instantly set up more Iron Dome batteries, which will go into operation during [the current] Operation Protective Edge, and will defend the Israeli people.”
At least 90 rockets from Hamas have been fired into Israel in the last 24 hours.
Islamic extremists attacked a church in the Central African Republic Monday, killing at least 17 and leaving dozens wounded.
Reverend Thibault Ndemaguia told the Associated Press the attackers came at St. Joseph Cathedral of Bambari because a Muslim youth had been killed in the area and they were claiming a Christian did the killing.
A statement from the Seleka Muslim militia appears to back the pastor’s view: the group said “all we did was retaliate.”
The church has been a refuge for thousands of Christians attempting to escape the ongoing civil war in the country. Rev. Ndemaguia says the church averages between 4,000 and 6,000 people seeking refuge from the battles.
The civil war in the nation began last year when a Muslim extremist group attacked and overthrew the country’s government that was mainly run by Christians. They tried to set up strict Sharia Law but eventually bowed out of power because of international pressures.
The Israeli Defense Forces struck over 320 Hamas terror sites in the Gaza Strip overnight bringing the total to 750 in the last three days. The sites struck were mainly rocket launcher sites and areas connected to the terrorist organization’s tunnel system.
The strikes come as Israeli intelligence stopped an attempt by Hamas terrorists to sneak a bomb into Israel. Authorities stopped a car with Palestinian plates at a checkpoint and discovered the bomb inside. The suspects were arrested and admitted they were planning to carry out an attack on civilians.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters the situation is at a crisis level.
“This is one of the most critical tests the region has faced in recent years,” he said. “Gaza is on a knife-edge. The deteriorating situation is leading to a downward spiral which could quickly get beyond anyone’s control.”
Palestinians have been trying to claim that Israel is targeting civilians but the Israeli ambassador to the U.N. told reporters that Hamas has taken to hiding in civilian homes and businesses to try and avoid retribution for their activities. One Hamas headquarters is located within a working hospital.
The Islamic terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria has destroyed the tomb of the Prophet Jonah.
The terrorists gleefully went into the tomb with sledgehammers and took turns destroying the resting place of the Old Testament prophet. The terrorists filmed their efforts and posted them online saying it was the will of Allah for the tombs to be destroyed.
The members of the terrorist group say it is against the teachings of Islam to give special attention to tombs and it doesn’t matter if the tomb is for another faith. If the tomb is within their land, the group says they have the right to destroy it.
The tomb of the prophet Seth was also destroyed by the terrorists but no video of that destruction was posted online.
Iraqi authorities also announced the discovery of 53 bodies south of Baghdad who appear to have been executed by Islamic terrorists. An investigation is underway to determine who ordered the killings.
Officials say that half of the Israeli population is in bomb shelters because of ongoing rocket attacks in central Israel by the Islamic terrorist group Hamas. The terrorist group has declared in a public statement “all Israelis have now become legitimate targets.”
The leaders of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem opened their city’s public bomb shelters because of the level of the attacks. Officials also told residents to open and prepare their private bomb shelters for the possibility of a prolonged assault.
An Iron Dome battery was able to successfully shoot down an incoming rocket over Tel Aviv. Hamas announced they had fired four rockets at the capital but there was no evidence of three more rockets impacting in the city.
According to the Israeli Defense Force, over 120 rockets struck within the Israeli borders during the night. Iron Dome destroyed 23 rockets in Ashdod, Ashkelon and communities along the Gaza border.
Israeli spokesman Mark Regev told reporters that Israel had reached out to the terrorist group in an attempt to de-escalate the situation and found that the terrorist group was not interested in ending the current conflict. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called world leaders to tell them their position that they could not sit by and allow their country to be attacked by a terrorist organization and not respond to their provocation.
The Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram bombed a market in northern Nigeria Tuesday morning leaving dozens dead and at least 50 injured.
Witnesses say that the bomb was located under a load of charcoal that was in a pickup parked near the market in Maiduguri. The bomb was powerful enough to reduce sales stalls to rubble and even completely destroy nearby vehicles.
A trader said the bomb went off just before 8 a.m. local time, before most of the traders and customers arrived for daily business.
Officials cordoned off the area, refusing to allow access because of previous patterns of Boko Haram bombings where secondary devices were timed to hit rescue and emergency personnel.
The attack is the second major assault on a shopping area by Boko Haram in the last two weeks. Last week a bombing at a major shopping area in the nation’s capital of Abuja killed 24 and wounded dozens.
Nigerian military sources reported the arrest Monday night of a prominent businessman who they say had been working with Boko Haram by funding many of their terror attacks. They stated the businessman, Babuji Ya’ari, had been working with a vigilante group as a cover to provide information to the terrorists.
Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram launched a major offensive against churches in northern Nigeria Sunday, leaving dozens dead and injured.
Witnesses say the terrorists descended during worship services and set fire to church buildings with Christians inside. When the Christians attempted to flee the flames, the terrorists would gun them down with automatic weapons.
A vigilante group in the village of Kwada said that at least 30 victims have been confirmed dead and the death toll was likely to rise significantly because a number of people fled into the bush and were chased by armed terrorists.
At least four churches were burned to the ground during the assault, including one church that was started by American missionaries in the 1920s. In addition to the churches, the terrorists set fire to the homes of Christians in at least two communities.
Officials say the terrorists also attacked the village of Kautikari to continue their assault but they have not been able to get a count of the dead and wounded.
The Islamic extremist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria has declared that the land they have taken from the Syrian and Iraqi government is now their own country ruled by Islamist law.
In an audio released for the first day of Ramadan, the group says the new nation runs from Aleppo in northwest Syria through Diyala province in northeast Iraq. The group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was named the “imam and khalifah for Muslims everywhere.”
The group said that all Muslim groups around the world should pledge allegiance to them.
Experts in the region say the declaration by ISIS could have a backfiring impact on their goal for an Islamic state.
“Now the insurgents in Iraq have no excuse for working with ISIS if they were hoping to share power with ISIS,” analyst Aymenn al-Tamimi, told The Associated Press. “The prospect of infighting in Iraq is increased for sure.”
Other middle east observers believe this is a tipping point in the power struggles among Islamic extremists groups worldwide, as the ISIS is now positioning itself to replace al-Qaeda. The two groups have a contentious relationship after al-Qaeda denounced al-Baghdadi in February.
