Israel Watch: Hamas Fired Rocket From Gaza Hits Abandoned Israeli Pre-School & IDF Retaliates Hitting Terror Targets in Gaza

A Rocket fired from the Gaza Strip on Friday night exploded outside a preschool in the border town of Sderot, causing damage to the property.

There were no direct casualties in the attack.

An earlier rocket exploded in an open area in the Sha’ar HaNegev region, causing no damage.

The launches set off warning sirens throughout Sderot as well as other communities in the area.

Residents then reported hearing two loud explosions.

Channel 2 News said several people in the vicinity of the Sderot impact site suffered from shock.

It was the first rocket attack reported in June. Earlier in the month Hamas test-fired dozens of short-range rockets in Gaza, with Israeli sources estimating that at least 30 projectiles were launched.

Those rockets were aimed at areas not under Israeli control,

Israel has seen sporadic fire from the Gaza Strip, usually claimed by small Salafi groups engaged in a power struggle with the Hamas terror group, which is the de facto ruler of the strip.

Israel has said repeatedly that it views Hamas as solely responsible for such attacks. It regularly responds to rocket-fire with airstrikes on Hamas targets.

Read the Original Article at Times of Israel

Israel raids 4 sites that are ‘components of Hamas’s operational infrastructure’ in Strip

The Israeli Air Force attacked targets belonging to terror groups in the Gaza Strip early Saturday morning, the IDF said, hours after a rocket fired from the coastal enclave landed outside a preschool in the border town of Sderot, causing damage but no injuries.

The four Gaza sites included a workshop, two locations of Hamas’s armed wing and a military training site for Islamic Jihad, a Gaza security official said on condition of anonymity. There were no reports of casualties.

Two of the sites were in Gaza City, while two were in the northern town of Beit Lahiya. All of the sites have been previously targeted by Israel, the official said.

The IDF said in a statement it had “targeted four locations that were components of Hamas’s operational infrastructure in the northern and central Gaza Strip.”

Read the Remainder at Times of Israel

International Military News: Thanks to Russia, Hezbollah Now Has a Proper Army

For now its focus is on the Syrian civil war, where it is sustaining heavy losses, but the Lebanese Shiite terror group has become a far more formidable player in the 10 years since the Second Lebanon War

Pictures being published from time to time by Hezbollah tell a great deal about its role in the fighting in Syria. In some of the pictures Hezbollah fighters can be seen leaning against Russian tanks, and the truth is that since Russia began its open military activities in Syria, Hezbollah fighters are also learning Russian methods of war, becoming familiar with advanced Russian weaponry, coming to understand the latest Russian technologies, and in some cases, actually fighting alongside Russian special forces.

Hezbollah is not alone. Members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps and some members of Shiite militias who have come from overseas have also been fighting alongside Russian soldiers on occasion. But when it comes to Hezbollah, such developments should be raising concerns on the Israeli side. The Shiite terror group is sustaining new losses every day in the fighting in Syria, but at the same time it is gaining expertise from one of the most advanced military forces in our region.

In the 10 years since the Second Lebanon War, Hezbollah has been transformed from a terror group deployed against Israel to a full-scale army in almost every respect. It knows how to operate logistically over vast areas. This includes tending to the needs of its troops all over Syria, in much the same way the IDF’s network of welfare officers and staffers does. It is also capable of tending to the welfare needs of Shiite civilians in the Syrian villages under its control. It operates artillery and rockets, it has entire networks of unmanned drones, it is skilled in the use of anti-tank weaponry, and of course it carries out ground operations to conquer and hold territory.

Its focus has emphatically shifted in the last few years and now overwhelmingly revolves around the civil war in Syria. Its emphasis is on building up power, military capability and military planning, with Syria at the top of its agenda and the conflict with Israel relegated to lesser importance. For now.

Read the Remainder at Times of Israel

Israel Watch: 13-Year Old Girl Who Was Murdered By Palestinian Terrorist Was American Citizen

This puts the obamaoids in an odd, but very typical predicament. As they unabashedly  SUPPORT The Palestinian Authority, and by Proxy Hamas, they have in fact also helped support and finance the Murder Of an American Citizen by terrorist. Wonderful. -SF

Hallel-Yaffa Ariel, a 13-year-old girl in Israel who wanted to be a dancer, was stabbed to death in her bedroom by a Muslim terrorist.

The father of 13-year-old Hallel-Yaffa Ariel, who was murdered in her sleep by a Palestinian terrorist Thursday morning, has spoken of his gifted girl’s dreams of becoming a dancer.

“Last night she came back from a dance performance,” Amichai Ariel recounted. “She was an amazing girl.”

“She worked very hard for years to become a dancer. She put so much effort into everything she did. God gave her a great mind, lots of wisdom. She was so bright.”

Yael Kabiliv, the aunt of the young girl murdered in Thursday morning’s vicious terror attack in Kiryat Arba, spoke with journalists in the Shaarei Tzedek hospital, following news that Hallel-Yaffa Ariel had succumbed to her injuries.

“A truly wonderful girl was murdered today – Hallel-Yaffa bat Rina Devorah. Hallel, my niece, was the most amazing girl in the world.”

“She had slept in late after having danced in a performance the night before. [Then], a disgusting terrorist came in and killed her while she slept in her bed.”

As his wife wept beside him, Amichai said he and his daughter had planned to work together at his local winery.

“This morning at 9:30 we were supposed to work together filling bottles with wine.”

“Hallel loved living here, loved the place,” he continued. “She wasn’t afraid of anyone. She never imagined – nor did anyone else – that an evil person, one of 1.5 billion Muslims who just want to drown the world in rivers of blood. That’s what they live for. Its terrible, just think about it: A little girl who did nothing.”

Unfortunately the religion of Islam commands its followers to murder non-Muslims until they submit to Islam. This latest Muslim murderer named Mohammed was following in the footsteps of the original Mohammed who began the process of ethnically cleansing Jews from the Middle East.

But the Islamic terrorism practiced by Muslims living in Israel is funded by US taxpayers. As I wrote after the murder of Taylor Force, Muslim terrorism in Israel is maintained through a system of payments by the Palestinian Authority to terrorists. The PA is funded largely by the United States.

The Palestinian Authority pays terrorists based on the amount of harm they caused and the resulting jail sentence. Had  Masalha survived his attack on Taylor Force and the other victims, he would have likely been paid $2,000 a month for his act of terror. That’s pretty good money in a place where $2,000 is more like an annual income. It’s so good that that there’s no shortage of terrorists eager to kill for cash.

And the Palestinian Authority has no shortage of money to pay Muslim terrorists to kill Americans and Israelis because the terror organization which claims to be a state is subsidized by the United States with billions of dollars. In 2014, the PA spent $144 million on payments to convicted terrorists. Its terror budget benefited from Obama boosting 2014 foreign aid to the PA to $440 million. For “peace”.

Masalha is dead and will not receive the blood money he was hoping for from the Palestinian Authority, but he died knowing that his family will still be paid for his crime. In just one year, the PA paid out $78 million to the families of terrorists. Masalha’s family will receive money each month for the murder of Taylor Force. That money will come from American taxpayers. It will come from you.

Americans are paying money to Islamic terrorists who kill them. They are paying money to their families so that the terrorists know that even if they die, their families will be taken care of by their victims.

As long as we continue funding the Palestinian Authority and reciting cliches about a two-state solution, we are complicit in this form of Muslim terrorism. All taxpayer funding of the “Palestinian” cause must end.

Read the Original Article at Front Page Mag

 

Espionage Files: Elite Hamas Commander Reportedly Defects to Israel

A senior member of the military wing of Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that governs the Gaza Strip, is believed to have defected to Israel. News of the rumored defection first appeared on the website of Al-Hayat al-Jadida, the official newspaper of the Palestinian Authority, which is based in the West Bank. On Tuesday, Al-Hayat said that the man, a member of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military wing, had not been seen for several days.

The alleged defector was later named as Bassam Mahmoud Baraka, and reportedly comes from a well-known family in Kahn Younis, on the southern sector of the Gaza Strip. Baraka’s father is believed to be a religious judge that serves in Gaza under Hamas’ jurisdiction. According to Al-Hayat, the missing man is an elite member of the al-Qassam Brigades and specializes in operating inside the numerous underground tunnels that are said to span the entirety of the Palestinian enclave. The tunnels are of strategic importance to Hamas, as they secretly connect it with the outside world, despite Israeli efforts to prevent the trafficking of goods and people to and from the Gaza Strip. Some Israeli military officials believe that Hamas operatives are able to travel from one end of the Strip to the other without having to emerge from the ground. Since the 2014 Israeli invasion of Gaza, Tel Aviv has said that it views the elimination of Hamas’ vast underground tunnel network as a national security priority.

According to Palestinian websites, Baraka told members of his family that he was stepping out for a brief hike but never returned. He is believed to have voluntarily approached the border fence that separates Gaza from Israel and surrendered himself to a group of Israeli soldiers. Al-Hayat reports that Baraka’s family has already been informed from representatives of the Red Cross that he is in Israeli hands. Palestinian sources suggest that the Israeli soldiers that took in Baraka were aware of his pending defection and were waiting for him at the border. He was also reportedly carrying a laptop computer with him.

Israel is known to aggressively recruit informants in the Gaza Strip, many of them affiliated with Hamas. In 2010 it was revealed that Mosab Hassan Yousef, whose father is a senior Hamas official, was a secret informant for Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic security agency. Yousef defected to Israel and is now believed to be living in the United States.

Read the Original Article at Intel News 

Examining Terrorist Tactics: Hezbollah Develops New Skills in Syria

When Hezbollah first intervened on the side of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria, Israeli defense analysts saw the foray as a blessing – better to have their Lebanese arch-enemy entangled in a war in Syria. But there is increasing concern that Hezbollah is getting valuable battlefield experience in Syria, especially when it comes to large-scale, coordinated offensive operations, something the Shi’ite militia had little knowledge of before.

That practical experience could be of use in any subsequent conflict with Israel. Hezbollah commanders acknowledge the benefits.

“In some ways, Syria is a dress rehearsal for our next war with Israel,” a special forces Hezbollah commander admitted to VOA recently.

Peacetime training is no substitute for wartime experience, says John Capello, a former U.S. air attaché in Tel Aviv and now an analyst with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a Washington foreign policy think tank.

“NATO makes a big effort to make training as realistic as possible but it is still scripted and doesn’t teach how to deal with the unexpected. It just isn’t the same as the real thing.”

Hezbollah has been in the vanguard of large assaults on Syrian rebels and not just along the border in Qalamoun and Quneitra but also further afield around Aleppo in northern Syria.

Anti-Assad rebel commanders estimate that 80 percent of the ground forces the Assad regime has deployed since the Russian bombing campaign was launched in September 2015 have not consisted of Syrians but are made up of Hezbollah and Iranian fighters along with Shi’ite volunteers from Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Read the Remainder at Global Security