55,000 Students Miss School as Rockets Rain Down
on Southern Israel
By JNS, 25th Feb 2020on Southern Israel
I will send down fire upon the wall of Azza, And it shall devour its fortresses; Amos 1:7 (The Israel Bible™)
A ball of fire and smoke rises above buildings during Israeli airstrikes in the southern Gaza Strip after a slew of
14 rockets were launched towards southern Israel, on Feb. 24, 2020. Photo by Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90.
14 rockets were launched towards southern Israel, on Feb. 24, 2020. Photo by Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90.
At least 14 Palestinian rockets rained down on southwestern Israel on Monday, with one striking and damaging a playground in the town of Sderot and another shattering a car windshield in Nir Am.
Twelve of the rockets intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome air-defense system, according to the Israel Defense Forces. The rocket fire was a continuation of Sunday’s attacks, which saw some 30 projectiles launched at Israel. The attacks were claimed by Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).
Iron Dome is only activated when an incoming missile is predicted to be heading towards a populated area.
The rocket launches sent thousands of residents of Sderot, Sha’ar HaNegev and Netiv Ha’asara scrambling for bomb shelters.
Due to the Sunday night attacks, the IDF on Monday morning had already ordered closures of areas and roads adjacent to the Gaza border fence, as well as Zikim Beach between Ashkelon and Gaza.
Following a directive from Israel’s Home Front Command, the school was canceled on Monday for 55,000 students in Ashkelon, Netivot, Sderot, Hof Ashkelon, Eshkol Regional Council, and Sha’ar HaNegev.
Israelis were allowed to go work as usual, provided that shelters were immediately available.
Israel responded to the attacks by launching airstrikes on PIJ sites in both the Gaza Strip and Syria, reportedly killing two members outside Damascus and another four pro-Iranian militants.
“IDF fighter jets struck terror sites belonging to the PIJ terror group south of Damascus in Syria, as well as dozens of PIJ sites throughout the Gaza Strip,” the IDF said in a statement.
According to initial reports, the IDF apparently did not target Hamas sites.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Radio Jerusalem on Monday morning that Israel might have no choice but to launch a major military operation, bigger even than 2014’s “Operation Protective Edge.”
“If Israel is in the position of entering a large-scale military operation, we will have to deal a bigger blow than ‘Cast Lead,’ ‘Pillar of Smoke’ and ‘Protective Edge,’ ” he said. “It could very well be that we may have to carry out—I don’t really want to say it, but ‘the mother of all operations.’ ”
The rocket fire comes after Israeli troops killed two Gazans on Sunday who was attempting to plant a bomb along the Israel-Gaza border. Video uploaded to social media showed IDF troops using a military bulldozer to retrieve the terrorists’ bodies, under a hail of stones from Palestinian rioters. The Israeli military argues that the bodies of terrorists can be used as bargaining chips in negotiations with Gaza terror organizations, which currently hold two Israeli civilian hostages, along with the bodies of two IDF soldiers.
“I am sick of the hypocritical left-wing criticism of the ‘inhumanity’ of using a bulldozer to bring us the body of a terrorist who tried to murder (!) Israelis,” Israeli Defense Minister Bennett wrote on Twitter.
“Hamas is holding the bodies of [fallen soldiers] Hadar Goldin and Oron [Shaul],” he said. “I back the IDF [forces] that killed the terrorists and collected the body. This is how we should and will act.”
Man goes on trial for terrorism in
Dutch tram shooting that killed 4
By Sommer Brokaw
March 2 (UPI) -- A terrorism trial began Monday for a man who confessed to a shooting aboard a tram in the Netherlands last year that killed four people.
Gokmen Tanis, 38, of Turkey, faces four counts of murder with terrorist objective, along with 17 counts of making terrorist threats.
The deadly shooting occurred March 18, 2019, aboard a tram in the city of Utrecht, Netherlands, about 20 miles southeast of Amsterdam. A few days later Tanis confessed to the shooting, saying he acted alone, but the defense is likely to dispute the alleged terrorist motive.
Tanis underwent a psychiatric evaluation, which concluded he had low mental capacity. The court assigned a lawyer, Andre Seebregts, after he was not present at a hearing in September and refused legal representation. Tanis was obliged to attend the trial in Utrecht, RTL Nieuws reported.
The trial will begin with victim testimony and digital reconstruction of events surrounding the shooting before the prosecution makes its sentencing request Thursday. Then, the defense team will give its response to charges.
The verdict is expected to be delivered March 20.
Tanis told authorities he committed the attack, which occurred a few days after a shooting at two New Zealand mosques killed 51 people, out of anger about violence against Muslims and Islam being mocked.
PETER HITCHENS: Today, I’m publishing the document
that could save us from war
that could save us from war
By PETER HITCHENS FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY
Long ago, a wise teacher told me to remember these words: ‘Truth is the Daughter of Time, not of Authority.’ I had no idea how important they were. Now, after many years of experiencing official dishonesty, they are my motto.
One day, a lot of other people, in the media and politics, will accept that in the past few months they have failed in their duty to the truth, by staying silent or – worse – joining in a braying attempt to suppress crucial facts.
But by then it is quite possible that the peoples of the Western world will have been whipped into a warlike frenzy by false information, just as happened in the Iraq disaster 17 years ago. Because if nothing is done about the scandal I have been writing about, such an outcome is highly possible, even likely.
A few months ago I was told of an attempt by authority to suppress an important truth about an alleged atrocity in Syria. Claims that poison gas had been used by the Syrian state at Douma in April 2018 were not, in fact, confirmed by the scientific evidence.
This was deeply embarrassing to three governments – our own, France’s and the USA, all of which had bombed Syria soon afterwards in the unchecked belief that the claims were true.
A few months ago I was told of an attempt by authority to suppress an important truth about an alleged atrocity in Syria.
Claims that poison gas had been used by the Syrian state at Douma in April 2018 were not, in fact, confirmed by the
scientific evidence. (This image released early on April 8, 2018 by the Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets
shows a child receiving oxygen through respirators following the alleged poison gas attack)
Claims that poison gas had been used by the Syrian state at Douma in April 2018 were not, in fact, confirmed by the
scientific evidence. (This image released early on April 8, 2018 by the Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets
shows a child receiving oxygen through respirators following the alleged poison gas attack)
This was deeply embarrassing to three governments – our own, France’s and the USA,
all of which had bombed Syria soon afterwards in the unchecked belief that the claims were true.
(Pictured, an RAF Tornado over Damascus during the coalition attack)
all of which had bombed Syria soon afterwards in the unchecked belief that the claims were true.
(Pictured, an RAF Tornado over Damascus during the coalition attack)
All three are members of the UN Security Council, and are supposed to uphold international law with special care. But the facts suggested they had all violated that law.
I did not much welcome the knowledge. It was frightening to possess it. I knew that if I published it, I would face trouble. But I had to.
And I duly did. I was immediately smeared on social media as a ‘war crimes denier’, an absurd accusation. I was falsely accused of being a patsy for the horrible Assad regime in Syria, despite my record of hostility to the Assads going back more than 20 years.
I actually have a more consistent anti-Assad record than the British Government, which in 2002 compelled the poor Queen to invite President Bashar Assad to Buckingham Palace.
The vicious slanderers who attacked me paid no attention to my rebuttals, and repeated the smears, from behind false names. Their purpose was to scare others away from the story.
I was falsely accused of being a patsy for the horrible Assad (pictured last November) regime in Syria, despite my record of hostility to the Assads going back more than 20 years. I actually have a more consistent anti-Assad record than the British Government, which in 2002 compelled the poor Queen to invite President Bashar Assad to Buckingham Palace
I suspect there have been, and will be, other consequences. I have annoyed some powerful people. But I was a minor victim of this spiteful rage.
The brave dissenters who had protested against the hiding of the truth are very serious men, totally unpolitical scientists who simply could not abide the suppression of the evidence they had gathered and examined. They have been hosed down with slime by their former employers.
They have also been attacked by a slippery operation known as Bellingcat, which far too many journalists and politicians treat with wide-eyed indulgence, as if it was a brave independent enterprise.
Why do they never mention that it is partly funded by the US government, through its front organisation the National Endowment for Democracy? Could it be that it would not be quite such a convincing source if it was known to be subsidised by Donald Trump? I imagine so.
The two scientists remain absolutely confident that their doubts are justified.
But their reward was to be severely, publicly attacked by their former employers, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
Again, a lot of people lazily or weakly accepted this official attack on powerless individuals as true. They did not notice, or did not care, that the two men had been given no opportunity to defend themselves, that the resulting indictment was completely one-sided.
Well, it is now my privilege to publish their defence in detail.
It is on the Peter Hitchens Blog at hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2020/02/a-and-b-respond-to-the-opcws-attacks-on-them-the-full-rebuttal.html
I hope it will stand as a vital resource for anyone seriously interested in the truth about what I regard as the biggest scandal of its kind since the dodgy dossiers and non-existent WMD that were used to hurry us into invading Iraq.
I, and others who have read it, have found it impressive and powerful. I do not think that anyone could read it without seeing that something has gone seriously wrong. Let us hope that we have enough time, before the next war, for the truth to prevail.
We can always hope, Peter, but truth is getting more rare and more difficult to discern.
You can search this blog for 'Douma' for several stories on this subject including other journalists who agree with Peter.
Jerusalem – Watch: 3 masked Muslim terrorists arrested by Border Police undercover forces in Silwan
BY BTNEWS · MARCH 5, 2020BREAKING: Border Police “Mista’aravim” undercover forces arrested three masked Muslim terrorists who attempted to murder Jews by throwing rocks at security forces and civilians in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan.
IDF, Border Police and Civil Administration forces demolished overnight the homes of two Muslim terrorists who planted a bomb near the Jewish community of Dolev and murdered 17-year-old Rina Shnerb while she was hiking with her family in August 2019.
video 0:35
Violent riots broke out during the demolition of the terrorists’ homes in Ramallah and Bir Zeit, with Muslim terrorists throwing rocks and firebombs at forces operating in the area.
Policeman killed, several injured as militant bombers blow themselves up in front of US embassy in Tunis
6 Mar, 2020
The scene outside the US Embassy in Tunis after Friday's explosion © AFP / Fethi Belaid
One policeman died and several others were injured when two suicide bomber blew themselves up in front of the US embassy in Tunis, in the most serious attack in Tunisia in months.
Tunisian authorities said the attackers arrived at the site on a motorbike and detonated explosives. The embassy was placed on lockdown pending an investigation into the incident.
Images taken at the scene show a street littered with fragments as well as vehicles and a road barrier charred by the blast.
The embassy confirmed there was an explosion near the compound and advised people to avoid the area, but wouldn’t immediately offer any details.
"Emergency personnel are responding to an explosion that occurred near the US Embassy in Tunis. Please avoid the area and monitor local media for updates," it said in a statement.
While there was no immediate confirmation that the bombing was terrorism-related, Tunisia has seen a spike in terrorist incidents in recent years.
In June 2019 two suicide bombers targeted officers of the law in two parts of Tunis, killing one person and injuring nine others. The terrorist group Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack.
Dozens killed as Afghan ceremony attacked while peace council chairman delivered speech
© Credit: Tolo News
Tensions have risen in the country in recent weeks, as Abdullah Abdullah, Chief Executive of the Unity Government, has challenged the results of the September 2019 presidential election which elected the incumbent Ashraf Ghani. Abdullah also declared victory. His spokesman said that Abdullah was present at Friday’s ceremony, but escaped unharmed.
Eyewitness footage from the scene shows former Vice President Khalili interrupted during a commemoration ceremony for the killing of Abdul Ali Mazani, a leader of the predominantly Shia Hazara ethnic group in 1995.
"The attack started with a boom, apparently a rocket landed in the area, Abdullah and some other politicians ... escaped the attack unhurt," eyewitness Fraidoon Kwazoon said.
Meanwhile, Afghan President President Ashraf Ghani called it a “a crime against humanity and against the national unity of Afghanistan.”
No group has claimed responsibility for the assault yet. The Taliban recently resumed attacks against government forces despite signing a peace agreement with the US, but the group has denied involvement in the incident.
An update says that 32 people were killed and an ISIS affiliate has taken responsibility.
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