Category: Israel

An Israeli army corporal who refused to participate in the Gaza disengagement was sentenced to 56 days in jail by a second Israeli military court Sunday. The corporal, Avi Bieber,…

An Israeli diplomatic delegation, currently visiting the U.S., is to ask for $2.2 billion in special aid for the intended Israeli pullout from the Gaza Strip settlements and four northern…

The Israeli Disengagement Authority said on Monday that settler families who apply for temporary houses, and submit compensation claims by Wednesday, will receive temporary housing units. The Disengagement Authority announced…

The Israeli army is expected hand over control of Bethlehem to the Palestinian Authority this week, Israeli military sources reported on Sunday, adding that the transfer could take place as early…

Friday evening, four Israeli soldiers were injured after an explosive charge detonated near the jeep in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. The shells exploded as a military patrol…

Meretz-Yahad leader Yossi Beilin said on Thursday that Israeli society is divided over the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. The divide, said Beilin, demonstrates the gravity of the problem of…

Wednesday at night, an Israeli military source reported that soldiers recovered 11 pipe bombs after detaining two Palestinian youngsters at a flying checkpoint near the West Bank city of Qalqilia.…

Wednesday evening, an Israeli military source reported that dozens of settlers of Homesh settlement, in the West Bank, clashed with Israeli soldiers and took over an army bulldozer preventing the…

The Council of Settlements in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip called on settlers and disengagement opponents to participate in a three-day march on Gush Katif starting on July…

Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said the Israeli army will remain in the Gaza Strip until the end of this year, even though all Israeli settlers are scheduled to be…

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon reiterated warning to the Palestinian Authority over gunfire during the planned Israeli pullout from Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements. During a special session…

Head of the Israeli Defense Ministry political-security devision, Amos Gilad, and Egyptian intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman, are about to conclude an agreement to deploy Egyptian border guards apposite the Philadelphi…

The Israeli southern district police arrested on Sunday a settler youth suspected to be the ringleader of attempting to murder a Palestinian youth at al-Mawassi beach in Gaza on Wednesday.…

The Israeli government overwhelmingly rejected Sunday a proposal, submitted by Agriculture Minister Yisrael Katz (Likud), calling for the delay of the disengagement plan until November 2005. Nineteen ministers voted against…

Israeli police clashed Thursday with residents of the unrecognized village of Bir Al-Mashash in the Negev desert, Palestinian media sources reported. A large police force, including around 20 vehicles, raided the…

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Thursday evening that disengagement from the Gaza Strip remains on track to be implemented on August 15, in accordance with the timetable previously approved…

An Israeli court sentenced an Israeli soldier who refused to take part in the army’s efforts to close the Gush Katif sttlement bloc to nonresidents to 21 days in jail,…

Israel late Thursday denied widely publicized reports that two of its soldiers had been kidnapped and killed in Nablus. ‘All of our troops have reported back to their command,’ said a…

Contrary to Ariel Sharon’s promise to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during their meeting last week, Israeli will not transfer control over Qalqilia to the Palestinian Authority this week. Israel claims…

An Israel soldier was killed and three others were lightly wounded Wednesday in an exchange of fire with Hezbollah in the Sheba Farms area along the Israel-Lebanon border. At least…

The Israeli police reported that right-wing activists apposed to the Disengagement plan blocked on Wednesday afternoon all main junctions across Israel, as part of their wide protests against Gaza withdrawal.…

A soldier who refused to participate in demolishing abandoned homes in a Gaza Strip settlement was sentenced Tuesday to 56 days’ imprisonment. Corporal Avi Bieber, 19, an American-born Israeli, was…

Two 15-year-old Palestinians were beaten Tuesday – one of them critically – by a crowd of almost 200 Israelis. The youths, residents of the West Bank city of Nablus, had…

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon warned the settlers who appose his disengagement plan that if they use violence they will be considered as threatening the security of Israel. Also, the…

Leaders of Israel’s social-democratic Yahad party have decided to retitle it Meretz-Yahad, reclaiming the name the group had before its current leader, Yossi Beilin, took over. The move reflected displeasure…

The Labor party’s convention approved on Sunday a proposal to delay the party’s leadership primaries until disputed party membership records are investigated in full. The decision to postpone the elections indefinitely means…

An Israeli military court on Monday found Israeli soldier Taysir Al-Heib guilty of the manslaughter of British peace Activist Tom Hurndall in Gaza Strip in April 2003. The court also…

An Israeli military source reported that settlers and far-right activists clashed with the soldiers as the army was preparing to raze abandoned beachfront cottages in Gush Katif settlement, in the…

In a bid to end the crisis with the United States over arms exports, Israel has decided to comply with all of Washington’s demands regarding the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV)…

An Israeli military source reported on Friday night that the same gunmen, who shot at settlers near Beit Haggai, continued to the Adorai’m junction, near Dura, where they opened fire on…

Israeli police is considering asking the public to stay home during the intended pullout from the Gaza Strip, a step to be taken if disengagement foes succeed in extensively disrupt…

The Labor Party leadership primaries will be delayed due to irregularities in the registration of party members, the party’s secretary general said Thursday Earlier, Labor chairman Shimon Peres said he…

An Israeli source reported that the Israeli Minister of Defense ordered the army to prepare for a possible handover of security responsibilities over Bethlehem to the Palestinian Authority, next week.…

An Israeli military source reported that soldiers started evacuating military posts soldiers used in Palestinian institutions after controlling them, in the West Bank city of Hebron. According to the source,…

Israel and Egypt are close to agreeing on the deployment of 800 Egyptian policemen along the western side of the Philadelphi route on the Gaza-Egypt border. Such deployment is meant…

The Quartet’s envoy on the disengagement James Wolfensohn noted Wednesday a significant progress in Israeli-Palestinian talks on economic and civil aspects of the disengagement, especially in relation to establishing an…

Israel threatened to severely bomb Palestinian areas in the Gaza Strip should the Palestinian Authority fail to act against the resistance attacks during the disengagement, Israeli sources reported on Wednesday.…

The Israeli army distributed leaflets at roadblocks stating that the Palestinian residents are paying the price as a result of the military attacks carried out by the Islamic Jihad against…

Israeli ‘Home Front’ soldiers and officers who take part in the evacuation of settlers from the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank will be granted extra pay. The bonuses…

Seven people were killed and 195 were injured Tuesday afternoon when a passenger train collided with a truck near Kibbutz Revadim in the northern Negev. 15 of the wounded are…

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Israel will transfer security control over Bethlehem and Qalqilia to the Palestinian Authority within two weeks, according to Israeli radio. Sharon made the comment…

Retired Israeli Supreme Court Justice Theodore Or accused the state of Israel of ignoring the findings of the probe into the killing of 13 Arab citizens of Israel by the…

The Israeli Security Services (Shabak) and the army announced the arrest of a resistance fighter in Jenin suspected of developing Qassam homemade shells and testing their range against Israeli settlements in…

In what could be the beginning of an expanded crackdown on the Islamic Jihad, Israeli soldiers on Tuesday arrested 50 members of the resistance organization in early-morning raids in several…

Israeli soldiers on Monday arrested a 21-year-old Palestinian woman at the Erez crossing in the northern Gaza Strip, claiming she was planning to set off a suicide bomb inside Israel. According to…

The former chief rabbi of Israel, Mordechai Eliyahu, has advised Israeli soldiers not to carry out orders to take part in the evacuation of settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories,…

One Israeli settler was killed and another injured Monday morning, after a Palestinian resistance group fired at their vehicle in the northern West Bank. A 30-year-old settler who apparently was driving…

Israel supports demolition of settlers’ homes following the evacuation of Gaza Strip settlements, urging the Palestinian Authority to convert the land into housing quarters for refugees. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel…

An Israeli source reported that 16 Israeli soldiers committed suicide since the beginning 2005, similar to 2004 suicide remains the number one killer in the Israeli army. One soldier commits…

Shinui leader Yousef Lapid expressed readiness to return to government if the Labor party withdraws from the government. Lapid said that in response to comments made by some politicians that…

Israeli troops might enter the Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis during the evacuation, said the Israeli newspaper Haaretz in its online edition on Friday. The army claims that an…

Concerned about the ongoing dialogue between American and European Union diplomats and Hamas, Israel is pressing to ban the participation of the Islamic movement in legislative Palestinian Authority elections. According…

An Israeli military source claimed that the Lebanon based Hezbollah party is financing cells of al-Aqsa brigades, the military wing of Fateh, in the Palestinian territories.  Israel charged t that…

Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, rejected a request by the US administration to hold a joint press conference between him and U.S. secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, when she visits…

Gabi Gal, human resources chief at the Israeli police said that 8000 Israelis requested to assists in settlement pullout during disengagement from the Gaza Strip, August 2005. Gal said that…

The Israeli radio reported that an Israeli police chief in the north has ordered an internal investigation department to probe into the death of a Palestinian detainee at Rosh Pina…

Israeli sources reported that the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s government survived three no-confidence votes in the Knesset proposed by Shinui, Shass and the National Union (Mafdal). The three motions…

Addressing a question, the Israeli defense establishment senior officials have until now preferred to avoid on how will police officers and troops behave if extreme anti-pullout Jews open fire at…

Israeli media sources reportedly said that Israeli intelligence recommended that the Secretary General of the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine, (PFLP), Ahmad Sa’adat who has been jailed in…

Ahead of a special address by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on governmental corruption to the Knesset plenum, MK Zahava Gal-On (Yahad) said Tuesday ‘the fish stinks from the head’…

Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak kicked off Tuesday a campaign for Labor Throne by launching a fierce attack against Party leader Shimon Peres and other candidates. Barak referred to Peres…

Naveh Dikalim Rabbi, Shaul Bar-Illan, the head of the Tal Orot yeshiva at Kfar Darom settlement in the Gaza Strip, said that of the State of Israel disengages ‘he will…

Israel ambassador to the United Nations, Dan Gillerman will be the next vice president of the United Nations General Assembly, Israeli sources reported on Tuesday. The source also said that…

Wisam Sahel Qabalan, from Beit Dajan, in the north of the country, was sentenced to 29 consecutive days after rejecting military service for conscious reasons.   “I prefer to be…

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said on Sunday, he is satisfied with the preparations for the intended pullout from the Gaza Strip.  Sharon said that during a visit he had…

Stressing unilateralism of the Disengagement plan, Israeli political source said coordination with the Palestinians is not a must for the pullout to take place, Israel Radio reported on Saturday.  …

Senior Israeli politicians recommended the cabinet to release the Palestinian lawmaker Marwan Barghouthi, jailed in Israel since April 2002, Israeli sources reported. Israeli newspaper, Yedioth Ahronot said, “A classified document…

The Israeli police reported that pullout opponents blocked train traffic, for several minutes, near Hadera, north of Tel Aviv, after placing rocks and anti pullout sign on the train tracks.…

There has been an increase in the reports of Israeli soldiers’ assaults against protestors in nonviolent anti-wall actions. Apparently there has been an increase in the anti-wall demonstration especially around…

The Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon blamed the Palestinians for the decline of support to his disengagement plan, after it dropped to 48% according to latest statistics. Sharon was responding…

Removing a major legal obstacle to the pullout, Israel Supreme Court rejected on Thursday 12 petitions submitted by settlers and some Knesset members calling halt of disengagement. The 11-judge panel…

As part of attempts to face the settlers’ anti-disengagement campaign, the Israeli government invited the media to its weekly meeting to, as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon puts it, “refute…

Some Israeli army and security officials are lobbying for a ‘crushing blow’ on Hamas prior to the pullout to the Gaza Strip borders.   Louder calls for a major blow…

Israeli military source said Tuesday that two workers, a Chinese and a Palestinian were killed and six other Palestinian workers were lightly wounded in a mortar attack at hothouses in…

The Chairman of the leftist Israeli Yahad Knesset faction Zahava Gal-On called Tuesday on the chief military prosecutor to investigate reports on an army revenge raid in which seven Palestinian…

Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said Monday that the army will collect the settlers’ weapons shortly before the scheduled date for the disengagement plan, “even by force.” Mofaz, who spoke…

Israel has been exercising strong diplomatic pressures on the Palestinian Authority in order to prevent it from executing 50 Palestinians, convicted of collaborating with the Israeli security. Also, the American…

Likud rebels said that they will launch their anti pull-out campaign on Monday in an attempt to reverse the public opinion in Israel and reduce support to the disengagement plan.…

Anti-Pullout right wing foes vandalized Monday military equipment worth, according to police estimations, tens of thousands of shekels. The act took place in the parking lot of an army base…

Arab member of Knesset, Issam Makhoul, from the Hadash-Ta’al party, said that there is no possible comparison between those who reject the occupation, and those who reject to end it.…

Israel has bought a 100-ton behemoth, made by U.S. company Trencor Inc, to use in uncovering weapons’ smuggling tunnels in the Gaza-Egypt border area, according to an Israeli army publication.…

Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom discussed with the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan in a Friday meeting the possibility of an Israeli seat on the UN Security Council. ‘The…

Arab constituency forms approximately 22 percent of Labor party members, the party’s largest constituency, according to the party membership poll. The data gained on Thursday night after the party’s membership…

Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz is interested in transferring three more West Bank cities to the Palestinian Authority prior to the start of the implementation of the disengagement plan, set…

Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday he would vote against further phases of disengagement following the implementation of its first phase. Addressing Likud party members in Jerusalem, Netanyahu…

The Israeli Police Investigation Unit arrested on Wednesday four Israeli policemen charged of selling weapons to Arab residents of east Jerusalem. A fifth policeman was also arrested on the same…

Senior Advisor to the Israeli Prime Minsiter Ariel Sharon said Israel will deal with the evacuation of the unauthorized settlement outposts after the implementation of the disengagement plan. In a…

Israeli and Palestinian economists said in a new position paper released this week that disengagement poses a ‘significant risk’ to the viability of a Palestinian state. The economists, who belong…

The new chief of staff of the Israeli army Dan Halutz, was sworn in Wednesday afternoon, succeeding outgoing Moshe Yaalon in a military ceremony in Jerusalem. His first statement as…

In a strange move, hundreds of former Likud supporters attend showed up at a rally at the Labor party headquarters in Tel Aviv n Tuesday.The rally was in support of…

Israeli soldiers started constructing a military camp on Palestinian owned lands in Jabal Johar, east of Hebron. A local source in Hebron said that military gear, armored jeeps and vehicles,…

For the third time, a Druze refusenik youth identified as Wisam Qabalan from Beit Dajan Druze village, was imprisoned after ejecting military service. Qabalan was sentenced to seven days after…

After the failure of repeated attempts by the Israeli embassy in El-Salvador to prevent the inauguration of a statue of the late Palestinian President, Yasser Arafat, Israeli decided to delay…

Israeli police stopped and detained on Wednesday morning five Palestinian officials in while being in Jerusalem claiming they "illegally" entered Jerusalem, Palestine News Network reported. Eyewitness reports stated that the…

Israeli Disengagement Office head, Yonatan Bassi, and Finance Ministry officials disagreed over the amount of compensation to be given to settler families slated for evacuation. Officials at the Israeli Housing…

Palestinian sources stated that Israel is expected to handover security control over two Palestinian cities to the Palestinian Authority.Abdul Fattah Hamayel head of the committee of the deportees and wanted…

Israeli Attorney General Menachem Mazuz on Tuesday slammed leaders of the anti-disengagement movement in Israel, accusing them of crossing red lines in their public fight to foil the pullout from…

In an interview with Israeli newspaper Haaretz, outgoing army chief of staff Moshe Ya’alon predicted that unless Israel commits to further withdrawals after implementing the disengagement plan, another violent crisis…

Labor Party committee gathered Monday in Tel Aviv, Okayed union with One Nation party and discussed the coming election of a new party leader. Supporters of candidates Shimon Peres, Binyamin…

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will meet soon with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Jerusalem to coordinate the intended Gaza Pullout, including security arrangements following the withdrawal of Israeli troops,…