An initial investigation by the IDF has concluded that Staff Sgt. Aviv Levi, killed Friday by Palestinian sniper fire on the Gaza border, was hit by an armor-piercing bullet fired from an Iranian-manufactured rifle, Hadashot TV news reported Sunday.
Senior Advisor to US President Donald Trump Jared Kushner, Top Negotiator Jason Greenblatt and US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman called on Hamas to stop terror, return Israeli prisoners to their families and, in exchange, receive aid to improve the situation in the Gaza Strip in a column published by the Washington Post Thursday night.
Hamas has accepted an Egyptian proposal to reconcile with Fatah and is awaiting a response from its rival Palestinian faction, senior Hamas officials said on Wednesday.
Israel’s political leadership has reportedly instructed the army to prepare for a military offensive in the Gaza Strip, to be initiated if the launching of incendiary devices from the Hamas-run coastal enclave into Israeli territory continues.
Hamas has been diverting resources intended for civilian development in Gaza to enhance its military capabilities, including a growing drone program.
Israeli aircraft on Saturday attacked more than 40 targets in the Gaza Strip in the most extensive daytime assault since 2014’s Operation Protective Edge as Palestinian terror groups fired repeated salvos of rockets and mortars into Israel.
Egypt has invited senior Hamas officials to Cairo for talks on the continued tensions along the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel and ways of ending the dispute between the Islamist movement and the ruling Fatah faction in the West Bank.
The Palestinians will not allow US President Donald Trump’s yet-to-be-announced plan for peace in the Middle East to pass, and will continue paying salaries to families of Palestinian prisoners and ‘martyrs,’ Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday.
Hamas has increased its training in preparation for a possible conflict with Israel, defense officials warned on Sunday.
The Qatari Ambassador to Gaza Mohammed Al-Emadi confirmed on Sunday evening for the first time that Israel is holding indirect discussions with the Hamas terror group in an effort to formulate a solution to the humanitarian crisis in the strip that will include infrastructure projects.
The Palestinian Authority on Tuesday expressed fear that the talk about easing restrictions on the Gaza Strip was part of an Israeli-Palestinian ‘conspiracy’ to transform the Palestinian cause into a ‘humanitarian issue.’
Rocket sirens blared throughout the predawn hours of Wednesday morning in the Israeli communities surrounding the Gaza Strip as Palestinians launched over a dozen rockets at southern Israel after the military struck a Hamas vehicle in the center of the coastal enclave.
Israel has reportedly agreed to set up a floating dock in Cyprus to receive goods bound for the Gaza Strip as a way to ease the rehabilitation of the ailing Palestinian enclave, conditioning the plan on the return of two Israeli civilians and the bodies of two IDF soldiers held by the Hamas terror group.
Israel’s Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said Thursday that there is a ‘very high chance’ a military operation will occur in Gaza in the near future.
On their current Mideast tour, senior Trump administration officials are getting a close-up view of some of the towering obstacles to their yet-to-be-released blueprint for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.
Rocket sirens blared in the south throughout the early morning hours Wednesday, as barrages totaling some 45 rockets and mortar shells were fired toward Israeli towns, prompting three rounds of Israeli airstrikes on Hamas military sites in the Gaza Strip.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says the escalation of violence in Gaza is ‘a warning to all how close to the brink of war the situation is,’ and he is urging Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers to recommit to the cease-fire that ended their 2014 war.
The IDF struck a target in the southern Gaza Strip on Thursday, two hours after it fired warning shots in the same area toward Palestinians who were preparing airborne incendiary devices near the Bureij refugee camp.
In a public relations blow to Israel’s right to self-defense the United Nations General Assembly voted not to condemn Hamas violence and in favor of international protection for the Palestinian people along the Gaza border, in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
With a huge majority, the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday passed a resolution condemning Israel for using ‘excessive, disproportionate and indiscriminate’ force during the recent clashes at the Gaza border and calling for an “international protection mechanism” for Palestinian civilians.