Times of News

Sunday, 1 April 2018

Hamas says 5 of Gazan dead belonged to its armed wing

Hamas’s armed wing, the Izzadin Kassam Brigades, announced that five of the Palestinians who died during a protest near the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip on Friday were its members.

According to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza, the IDF killed 15 Palestinians and wounded more than 1,400 others during the protest, which took place in multiple locations on the Gazan side of the border.

“Lucky Kassam fighters were among the martyrs,” the Kassam Brigades said in a statement on Saturday.

Palestinians mark ‘Land Day’ with protests on Israel-Gaza border (Reuters)

Friday’s protesters gathered at the border to demand the return of Palestinian refugees to their former homes in Israel, according to a Facebook page created for the event.

However, the IDF described the protest as “a violent riot,” and reported that protesters threw stones and Molotov cocktails at Israeli security forces as well as opened fire on them, attempted to infiltrate Israel’s borders and set rubber tires on fire.

Photographs and videos appear to show that some protesters took part in violent actions while others did not.

In the past week, several IDF officials called on Palestinians not to approach the border fence, warning that to do so would put them in danger.

According to organizers, Friday’s protest was the first in a series of protests that are slated to take place over the next six weeks along the border.

The Kassam Brigades vowed that armed groups in the Gaza Strip would avenge the death of the Palestinians killed during the protest.

“The blood of the pure martyrs will not go to waste. The enemy will pay a price at a time and place and in a way that the resistance decides,” they said.

Funerals were held on Saturday for the Kassam members as well as the others who were killed.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas declared on Friday evening that Saturday would be “a day of national mourning” and said that Israel bears full responsibility for the Palestinians’ deaths.

In the West Bank on Saturday, a number of Palestinian businesses were closed to protest the deaths. A video of Nablus on Saturday that was shared on Facebook showed relatively empty streets.

In a statement on its Twitter account on Saturday, Hamas called on Abbas to restore funding to Gaza that he cut last year.

“Respecting and appreciating the martyrs and wounded requires actions, the least of which is Abbas lifting the sanctions he imposed on Gaza and its people,” the statement said.

Though in recent months Abbas has restored some of the funding, he has not fully reinstated the budgets he slashed.

Article source: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/business/specialty-food-markets-how-and-why-they-failed-in-israel-1.5870973

IDF official says Israel will not return bodies of Gaza terrorists

Israel will not return the bodies of terrorists killed by the IDF while carrying out terror attacks on the Israel-Gaza border, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, Maj.-Gen. Yoav Mordechai posted on the IDF’s Arabic Facebook page on Sunday.

Mordechai wrote that the bodies of two terrorists taken into Israeli custody on Friday were added to the 24 bodies being held by Israel.

He also issued a statement blaming Hamas for the pain experienced by the residents of Gaza.

“The Hamas terror organization that controls Gaza does not care about either the living or the dead. It is preventing the Muslim burial of the bodies,” he wrote. “Israel will not rest and Gaza will know no peace until Israelis return from the strip and our soldiers are brought to burial in Israel.”

Israel has said that 10 of the Palestinians killed over the weekend were people with terrorist records who were shot while carrying out terrorist activities.

At least 10 known terrorists with track records of terrorist activity were killed whilst carrying out acts of terror during the violent riots along the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip on Friday March 30, 2018 pic.twitter.com/FgwgmLzvdn

— PM of Israel (@IsraeliPM) April 1, 2018

Earlier on Sunday, the family of IDF officer Lieutenant Hadar Goldin petitioned the government and the security establishment, demanding that they not return the bodies.

“Israel must use the bodies as a bargaining chip against Hamas and hold them until a solution is found and the soldiers are returned,” said Prof. Simcha Goldin, the father of Hadar, who died in Operation Protective Edge and whose remains are being held by Hamas.”Since the cabinet decisions have not been fully implemented, we feel it necessary to make clear our position on this issue.”

Six weeks ago the Goldin family filed an urgent petition to the High Court of Justice to issue a temporary injunction over the government’s decision to release the bodies of terrorists who carried out attacks against Israeli citizens, policemen and IDF soldiers.
The family based their petition on a January 2017 Security Cabinet decision stating that Israel would hold on to the bodies of terrorists who “carried out exceptional terrorist attacks,” as well as “the bodies of terrorists belonging to Hamas.”
According to the Goldin family, the government has deviated from its decisions several times since then and it fears it will do it again now.

Article source: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/business/specialty-food-markets-how-and-why-they-failed-in-israel-1.5870973

Pope, after Gaza violence, says 'defenseless' being killed in Holy Land

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis, in his Easter address on Sunday, called for peace in the Holy Land two days after at least 15 Palestinians were killed on the Israeli-Gaza border, saying the conflict there “does not spare the defenseless.”

The pope made his appeal in his “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) message from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica to tens of thousands of people in the flower-bedecked square below where he earlier celebrated a Mass.

He also appealed for an end to the “carnage” in Syria, calling for humanitarian aid to be allowed to enter, and for peace in South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Francis appeared to refer directly to the Gaza violence last Friday, calling for “reconciliation for the Holy Land, also experiencing in these days the wounds of ongoing conflict that do not spare the defenseless.”

Israel’s defense minister has rejected calls for an inquiry into the killings by the military during a Palestinian demonstration that turned violent at the Gaza-Israel border.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Federica Mogherini, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, and other leaders have called for an independent investigation into the bloodshed.

The Pope also begged for peace for “the entire world, beginning with the beloved and long-suffering land of Syria, whose people are worn down by an apparently endless war.”

UN condems Israel after over 15 Palestinian casualties in Land Day protests, March 31, 2018 (Reuters)

“This Easter, may the light of the risen Christ illumine the consciences of all political and military leaders, so that a swift end may be brought to the carnage in course… ” he said.

He spoke a day after the Syrian army command said it had regained most of the towns and villages in eastern Ghouta. Tens of thousands of people have now evacuated once-bustling towns in the suburbs east of the capital, which had nearly 2 million people before the start of the conflict and were major commercial and industrial hubs.

Francis called for international assistance for Venezuela, so that more people would not have to abandon their homeland because of the economic and political crisis.

He hoped the “fruits of dialog” would advance peace and harmony on the Korean peninsula, where the two sides are set to hold their first summit in more than a decade on April 27, after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pledged his commitment to denuclearisation.

Francis, celebrating his sixth Easter as Roman Catholic leader since his election in 2013, urged his listeners to work for an end to the “so many acts of injustice” in the world.

He prayed the power of Jesus’ message “bears fruits of hope and dignity where there are deprivation and exclusion, hunger and unemployment, where there are migrants and refugees – so often rejected by today’s culture of waste – and victims of the drug trade, human trafficking and contemporary forms of slavery.”

Article source: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/business/specialty-food-markets-how-and-why-they-failed-in-israel-1.5870973

This Israeli found a gaffe in 'Anna Karenina' and gained international fame

Article source: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/business/specialty-food-markets-how-and-why-they-failed-in-israel-1.5870973

No Gaza inquiry, defense minister Avigdor Liberman says

JERUSALEM, April 1 – Israel’s defense minister Avigdor Liberman rejected on Sunday calls for an inquiry into the killing of 15 Palestinians by the military during a Palestinian demonstration that turned violent on Friday at the Israel-Gaza border.

Hamas, the dominant Palestinian group in Gaza, said five of the dead were members of its armed wing. Israel said eight of the 15 belonged to Hamas, designated a terrorist group by Israel and the West, and two others came from other militant factions.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for an independent investigation into Friday’s bloodshed.

His appeal was echoed by Federica Mogherini, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Amnesty International, and by Tamar Zandberg, leader of the Meretz party in Israel.

“Israeli soldiers did what was necessary. I think all our soldiers deserve a medal,” the defense minister, Avigdor Liberman, told Army Radio. “As for a commission of inquiry – there won’t be one.”

Article source: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/business/specialty-food-markets-how-and-why-they-failed-in-israel-1.5870973

Netanyahu calls April Fools on Erdogan statement condemning Israel

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s condemnation of Israel for its handling of the situation on the Gaza border in a tweet on Sunday morning: “The most moral army in the world will not receive moral exhortations from those who for years have indiscriminately bombed civilian populations. Apparently this is how Ankara marks April first.”

Erdogan condemned Israel for what he called an “inhumane attack” on Palestinians in Gaza on Friday during a speech on Saturday.

Demonstrations on the Gaza border led to clashes in which 15 Palestinians were killed and over 1,000 more injured.

Article source: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/business/specialty-food-markets-how-and-why-they-failed-in-israel-1.5870973

Magnitude 5.3 quake hits western Iran, no casualties reported

DUBAI – A magnitude 5.3 earthquake hit western Iran on Sunday, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage, state television reported.

“Up to this moment, … we have not received any reports of casualties or damage,” Reza Mahmoudian, the head of the crisis management body in the affected province of Kermanshah, told state television.

A magnitude 7.3 earthquake in the same area in November killed at least 530 people and injured more than 8,000.

Article source: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/business/specialty-food-markets-how-and-why-they-failed-in-israel-1.5870973

Israeli woman finds military drone lost 18 months ago

An Israeli woman found a military drone that went missing some 18 months ago. The woman, from the Bedouin village of Ibtin in the western Galilee, found the drone in a field near her home two weeks ago, said the police and army.

The police were skeptical at first, and suspected that it was a civilian drone. But when they arrived on the scene and inspected it, they realized it belonged to the Artillery Corps’ Sky Riders unit. They removed the aircraft and informed the army.

An internal inquiry determined that the drone was apparently lost about a year and a half ago during an exercise. The army it abandoned its search for the craft after failing to find it.

The army spokesman’s office said in response that “a civilian found a drone in the north of the Sky Riders type. This is a Sky Rider that was lost during an exercise. The incident was reported to the police and the aircraft was returned to its unit.”

In September two Sky Rider drones crashed in open areas near Hebron and Bethlehem, but both were found. The army said it was not concerned that classified material would be leaked because when contact with a drone is lost, all information it contains is automatically deleted.

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The IDF spokesman’s office confirmed on Saturday that an Israeli drone had crashed in southern Lebanon following a technical failure. According to the report, the drone went down between the villages of Beit Yahoun and Bar’ashit. According to the website Al Mayadeen, the drone carried four missiles. The IDF says no relevant data can be obtained from the systems of the craft, a Hermes 450 model drone.

Article source: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/business/specialty-food-markets-how-and-why-they-failed-in-israel-1.5870973

Netanyahu blasts Erdogan over Gaza: Israel won't be lectured by those who indiscriminately bomb civilians

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blasted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday over his criticism of Israel’s resonse to the protests on the Gaza border over the weekend.

“The most moral army in the world will not be lectured by someone who for years is bombing civilian population indiscriminately,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “Apparently that’s how they mark April 1 in Ankara.”

Erdogan said in Istanbul on Saturday that he “strongly condemns the Israeli government for its inhumane attack,” referring to the killing of 15 Palestinian protesters on the Gaza border on Friday. “Israel will imprison Palestine under its oppression. We will continue to support our brothers and sisters in Palestine.”

Prime Minister Netanyahu giving a speech at a conference in Tel Aviv on March 27, 2018.עופר וקנין

Erdogan attacked his critics as well. “I have not heard worthy opposition to the Israeli massacre in Gaza from those who criticized the operation in Afrin,” he said, referring to Turkish actions in the Kurdish enclave in Syria.

The European Union criticized the Turkish offensive on Afrin two weeks ago, while the Kurdish militia called the assault an “occupation.” A top member of the Kurdish civil authority told Reuters that civilians still in Afrin town were facing threats from the Turkey-backed groups.

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“This is the clearest proof of the lack of sincerity by those who focus on us but say nothing about the fact that Israel attacks protesters on their own land,” he said. Erdogan added that he spoke with U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday and asked him: “Aren’t you going to intervene there?”

On Friday, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an independent and transparent investigation into the deaths and injuries along Gaza’s border with Israel, his spokesman said in a statement.

European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini called on Saturday for a probe into the Israeli military’s use of live fire during the mass rallies at the Gaza-Israel border.

Article source: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/business/specialty-food-markets-how-and-why-they-failed-in-israel-1.5870973

Ehud Barak lifts the lid on Israeli army’s most elite unit’s special ops

Article source: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/business/specialty-food-markets-how-and-why-they-failed-in-israel-1.5870973

Israeli defense chief accuses left-wing Meretz of ‘representing Palestinian interests’

Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman has charged Meretz Chairwoman Tamar Zandberg with representing Palestinian rather than Israeli interests over her call for an investigation into the killing of Palestinian protesters on the border with the Gaza Strip.

Speaking to Israel Radio on Sunday morning, Lieberman said, “We will not cooperate with any investigation committee; this is a show of hypocrisy. I regret that even in the State of Israel, Israeli citizens join these calls,” he said.

He added, “Meretz has long stopped representing Israeli interests and does not belong to the State of Israel. They represent the Palestinian interest in the Knesset.”

Lieberman also said that the Palestinian march on Friday was a failure for Hamas: “They reached a little more than 40,000 people, 90 percent of whom were Hamas people and Hamas officials and their families that were obliged to come. Ordinary people did not come.” The defense minister said that any other country would have responded to an attack on its sovereignty with even more extreme measures, and added that “at least 11 of those killed we know for certain were significant terror activists.”

Zionist Union lawmakers also lambasted Zandberg. Yoel Hasson, chairman of the party’s Knesset faction, tweeted Saturday that “there was nothing to investigate, the IDF is doing what’s necessary to defend the Gaza border,” referring to the Israel Defense Forces. Lawmaker Hilik Bar tweeted to Zandberg: “Really, Tamar? I don’t see such incidents happening in Ramallah, where the leadership doesn’t use its civilians as a human shield for a murderous agenda of those who want to live here instead of us and not alongside us,” and exhorted her to “leave the IDF alone.”

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Their colleague Ayelet Nahmias-Verbin hinted that Zandberg was undermining the army. “A baby in the hands of a terrorist is a terrible picture that the terrorists from Hamas put before the world.” She added that the international community should be investigating the use of civilians as “unwilling soldiers by a terror group,” and that “we will push for a solution to the distress in Gaza but not by delegitimizing IDF soldiers.”

Lawmaker Rachel Azaria of Kulanu defended the army’s reaction to the protests on Twitter, saying that they were taken in order to “prevent deterioration to another round of violence,” and to make it possible for Israelis to celebrate the Passover holiday in peace. “Tamar, you’re confused,” she added.

In an interview with Army Radio on Sunday morning, Zandberg responded to her critics, saying that an independent internal investigation was in Israel’s interest and would help in planning responses to future demonstrations. “There is nothing more patriotic than truly seeking an end to this almost endless conflict. Hamas is a despicable terror organization that can have a major interest in terror and casualties. The question is whether we have to be dragged into a scenario written for us, or if it’s our role to see what our interest is. Does being dragged into this violence protect the interests of the people living near the Gaza border and the inhabitants of Israel in general?”

The United Nations and the European Union both called for an investigation into the killing of 15 Palestinians and the wounding of hundreds more on the Gaza border Friday. “The use of live ammunition should, in particular, be part of an independent and transparent investigation,” said EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.

The UN Security Council met Friday night at Kuwait’s request for an emergency session following the events. Senior UN official Tayé-Brook Zerihoun said that “Israel must meet its obligations to protect human rights according to international law and that Israel should shoot to kill deadly force only as a last resort.”

Article source: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/business/specialty-food-markets-how-and-why-they-failed-in-israel-1.5870973

Bernie Sanders on Israel's conduct in Gaza: 'It is the right of all people to protest for a better future'

On Saturday, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders criticized Israel’s use of force at the Israel-Gaza Friday after clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli soldiers left 15 dead and over 700 wounded by live fire.

“The killing of Palestinian demonstrators by Israeli forces in Gaza is tragic,” said Sanders. “It is the right of all people to protest for a better future without a violent response.”

“Meanwhile,” he added in a post to Twitter, “the situation in Gaza remains a humanitarian disaster. The U.S. must play a more positive role in ending the Gaza blockade and helping Palestinians and Israelis build a future that works for all.”

The killing of Palestinian demonstrators by Israeli forces in Gaza is tragic. It is the right of all people to protest for a better future without a violent response.

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) March 31, 2018

Friday’s demonstrations in Gaza and the West Bank kicked off the “March of Return,” a series of mass protests marking Palestinian Land Day slated to continue for weeks.

Israel has since said that 10 of those killed were active members of Hamas’ armed wing and two other militant groups, while Hamas has acknowledged that five of the dead were members of its armed wing.

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Article source: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/business/specialty-food-markets-how-and-why-they-failed-in-israel-1.5870973

IDF: Don’t believe Hamas propaganda

A video of an incident near the border with the northern Gaza Strip on Friday appears to show an Israeli soldier shooting a young Palestinian close to Jabalya while he is running away from the security fence.

The footage shows the Palestinian carrying a tire and running away from the border fence before falling to the ground after seemingly being shot.

A senior official in the Health Ministry in Gaza told The Jerusalem Post that the Palestinian seen in the video was 18-year-old Abdel Fattah Abed al-Nabi, who died shortly after being hit by gunfire.

Young man appears to be shot in the back as he runs away from Israeli positions carrying a tyre (21 seconds in) pic.twitter.com/80JagMhYHz

— Raf Sanchez (@rafsanchez) March 31, 2018

The incident occurred during a major protest on the Gazan side of the border in support of the return of Palestinian refugees (and their descendants) to their former homes in Israel.

The IDF described the protest as “a violent riot,” asserting that participants threw stones and Molotov cocktails at Israeli security personnel as well as opened fire on them, attempted to infiltrate Israel and set rubber tires alight. Pictures and videos appear to show that some protesters took part in violent actions.

In the past week, several IDF officials called on Palestinians not to approach the border fence, warning them that they would be putting themselves in danger.

However, the video of the young Palestinian shows that he was dozens of meters away from the security fence. It also does not show him undertaking any of the violent actions the IDF said protesters had been carrying out.

It is unclear what he was doing in the time proceeding the video footage.
Riot in Gaza on 3.30.2018 (IDF Spokesperson’s Office)

When asked about the video and if the young Palestinian was a threat, the IDF responded with the following statement:

“The Hamas terrorist organization has published several videos, some of which only depict parts of incidents while others are edited or completely fabricated.

During yesterday’s violent riots and terrorist attacks, IDF troops faced gunshots, infiltration attempts, damage to security infrastructure, firebombs, rocks, and rolling burning tires. The IDF operated in strict accordance with the rules of engagement, firing only when necessary and avoiding civilians strategically placed by Hamas in harm’s way. IDF operational activity prevented the Hamas terrorist organization’s objective to harm security infrastructure and attempts to violate Israeli sovereignty.

“Don’t take Hamas’s propaganda as fact. The IDF will continue operating in order to ensure Israeli sovereignty is not breached and to protect Israeli civilians. The participants of the violent riots are situating themselves in a dangerous area, thus putting themselves in harm’s way,” the army said.

An IDF spokesman declined to comment on any follow- up questions to the military’s statement, including on whether the video of the young Palestinian was edited or fabricated.

According to Ashraf al-Qidra, a spokesman for the Hamasrun Health Ministry, 16 Palestinians were killed while participating in the protest on Friday.

On Saturday, the Izzadin Kassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, announced that five of the deceased Palestinians were Kassam members. Abed al-Nabi, the young Palestinian, was not listed as one of the dead Kassam members.

Later on Saturday, however, the IDF said that 10 of the 16 Palestinians who died, including Abed al-Nabi, were a part of armed groups in Gaza.

Specifically, the IDF said that Abed al-Nabi was an activist in the Kassam Brigades. In an interview with The Washington Post, his family denied that he belonged to any armed faction.

Article source: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/knesset-speaker-criticizes-netanyahu-s-rhetoric-1.5768626

Hamas: 5 of Gaza dead belonged to its armed wing

Hamas’s armed wing, the Izzadin Kassam Brigades, announced that five of the Palestinians who died during a protest near the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip on Friday were its members.

According to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza, the IDF killed 16 Palestinians and wounded more than 1,400 others during the protest, which took place in multiple locations on the Gazan side of the border.