Israeli forces enter Al Aqsa mosque compound with gunfire to allow rightwing Jewish tour

Violence / Raids / Detentions

Israeli forces, right-wingers storm Aqsa mosque compound
[with photos] JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 26 July — Israeli forces broke into Al-Aqsa mosque compound Sunday morning firing stun grenades and rubber-coated steel bullets at Muslim worshipers as they cleared the way for right-wing Jews who were visiting the compound to mark a Jewish fast day, witnesses said.  Dozens of Palestinian worshipers were reportedly hit with rubber-coated bullets and suffered excessive tear gas inhalation, while Israeli police officers were reported to have attacked worshipers with pepper spray, rods and rifle butts.  At least three Palestinians were reportedly detained.  The officers entered the compound through the Moroccan Gate, Chain Gate and Hutta Gate and clashed with worshipers, witnesses said, before Israeli soldiers then shut down the compound’s gates with chains.  Israeli soldiers also reportedly stormed Al-Aqsa mosque itself and fired rubber-coated bullets inside the holy site. The compound’s Palestinian security guards were assaulted and prevented from moving, witnesses said … Israel’s minister of agriculture, Uri Ariel, was reportedly among the right-wingers to tour the compound under heavy police escort. Ariel is a member of Naftali Bennett’s ultra-right Jewish Home party … The Al-Aqsa mosque compound has seen rising tensions in recent days, with Jewish organizations calling for the compound to be open to Jews for the week after Tisha B’Av and others seeking to celebrate unconfirmed reports that Israel is negotiating the reopening of the compound to non-Muslim worship.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=766651

Israeli forces injure 19 guards in clashes at Al-Aqsa
JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 26 July — Israeli forces injured 19 Al-Aqsa mosque guards on Sunday during renewed clashes at Al-Aqsa mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem. Al-Aqsa Compound Director Omar Kiswani said 19 Islamic Endowment Department guards suffered various bruises, fractures and cuts after being assaulted by Israeli forces with batons. Seven of them were hit on the legs and feet, while some of the others were hit on the head. Kiswani said 70 Israeli settlers “raided” al-Aqsa in the afternoon through the Moroccan Gate and were accompanied by 100-150 Israeli special forces to secure their entry. Additionally, Israeli media reported that four Israeli police officers were injured, with two moved to hospital for treatment.During the raid some carpet was burnt, and some walls and doors were broken. Israeli forces detained 5 people in total from Al-Aqsa m mosque compound. Limited clashes also broke out in nearby al-‘Issawiyah village, but died down.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=766662

VIDEO shows Palestinians, Israeli forces clash at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa
NTDTV 26 July — A video obtained by Reuters shows clashes between Israeli police and rock-throwing Palestinians at the al-Aqsa mosque plaza on Sunday (July 26).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shDfKnr2g4U

BBC VIDEO: Palestinians and Israeli police clash at Al-Aqsa Mosque
26 July — Palestinian youths have clashed with Israeli police who have entered the al-Aqsa mosque complex in East Jerusalem. The Palestinians are understood to have barricaded themselves into the mosque on Saturday. Israeli media said the Palestinians had intended to disrupt visits to the area known to Jews as the Temple Mount.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__lx2b_91uE

WATCH: Police release footage of clashes with Palestinian rioters on Temple Mount
Jerusalem Post 26 July by Daniel K. Eisenbud — Police on Sunday afternoon released footage of security forces earlier in the day attempting to disperse dozens of violent Palestinian rioters on the Temple Mount complex. In the video, security forces are seen approaching the stone-hurling rioters and later barricading them in al-Aksa Mosque in order to secure the area. On Sunday morning, the masked Palestinian youths took up arms and set up barricades on the Temple Mount to attack police and Jewish visitors during Tisha Be’Av, Judaism’s annual day of mourning. The rioting took place as tens of thousands of Jews fasted and made a pilgrimage to the Western Wall amid oppressive heat to mourn the destruction of the First and Second Temples that once sat atop the contested holy site. According to Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld, officers entered the compound shortly after 7:30 a.m., after receiving intelligence that a large group of masked Palestinian youths barricaded themselves overnight in al-Aksa Mosque to attack Jewish visitors on Sunday morning. “The police were attacked immediately upon entering the Temple Mount compound by Palestinians armed with rocks, firebombs, fireworks and metal pipes,” said Rosenfeld, adding that four officers were lightly wounded during the confrontation.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/WATCH-Police-release-footage-from-Palestinian-riots-on-Temple-Mount-410214

Hamas: Israeli storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque is a dangerous escalation
HAMAS 26 July — Hamas’s spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri stated on Sunday that the storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque by occupation forces and settlers constitutes a dangerous escalation, and reflects the accelerated Judaization of Jerusalem. Abu Zuhri said that the Palestinian people and factions will not stand idly by while the Israeli assaults on sanctities continue. Abu Zuhri called for the resumption and intensification of Muslim worshiper presence in Al-Aqsa Mosque, and for activating the resistance, stressing the need for the PA to lift its grip on the Palestinian resistance so it can defend the Palestinian people and protect the sanctities.
http://hamas.ps/en/post/116/hamas-israeli-storming-of-al-aqsa-mosque-is-a-dangerous-escalation

Jordanian government denounces Israeli assault on al-Aqsa mosque, worshipers
AMMAN (WAFA) 26 July – The Jordanian government Sunday strongly denounced Israel’s early Sunday assault against al-Aqsa mosque and worshipers, which left dozens injured, according to the Jordan News Agency (PETRA). The government’s official spokesperson, in a press statement,  stressed that violating the sanctity of al-Aqsa mosque and assaulting its guards and worshipers is a clear attempt by Israel to provoke Muslims’ feelings worldwide, which he stressed, would only ignite feelings of hatred. The Jordanian government, which is responsible for Jerusalem’s holy sites in line with a 1994 peace treaty with Israel, called on the Israeli government to uphold its responsibilities as the occupying power and prevent the recurrence of such attacks on the holy site… In February 2014, Jordan warned Israel that the 20-year-old peace treaty with them would be threatened by continued Jewish settlement building and any effort to change the religious status of the area of the al-Aksa Mosque in Jerusalem.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=28926

Jewish settlers attempt to attack sheikh of Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron
HEBRON (WAFA) 26 July – Dozens of Jewish settlers late Friday attempted to attack the Sheikh of the Ibrahimi mosque in Hebron during the night call for prayers, according to an official. Head of Hebron Waqf, Ismail Abu Halawa, said that dozens of settlers attempted to attack Sheikh Motasim Sdr, while he was calling for the night prayers, when he heard the thud of settlers who were planning to attack him. A large Israeli police and army present at the scene succeeded in securing his exit outside the mosque before being attacked by settlers. To be noted, Settlers have intensified their presence in the mosque to mark the Jewish holiday of Tisha B’Av … Abu Halawa expressed grave concern over the attempted attack, stressing that efforts with relevant sides are underway to insure the provision of the necessary protection to all Muslim and Christian holy sites against settlers’ attacks. Al-Ibrahimi Mosque is located in the old city of Hebron, a few hundred meters away from the part of the city illegally occupied by around 400 extremist settlers, who are protected by about 1,500 Israeli soldiers.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=28921

Settlers severely assault Palestinian child near Al-Aqsa Mosque
IMEMC/Agencies 25 July — Jewish settlers, on Saturday, severely assaulted a Palestinian child near one of the gates leading to Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, in the Old City of Jerusalem. Witnesses at the scene reported that extremist Israeli settlers assaulted the child, who was not identified, near al-Ghawanma Gate, prompting a group of Palestinians to intervene and save him. Settlers eventually managed to flee the scene. This came as Jewish settlers performed Talmudic rituals in front of King Faisal Gate and al-Qattanin Gate, urging [causing?] large numbers of Palestinian Muslims from the Old City to gather in the area before being dispersed by Israeli police.
http://www.imemc.org/article/72366

Israeli forces summon six Palestinians from Bethlehem for interrogation
BETHLEHEM (WAFA) 25 July – Israeli forces Saturday handed six Palestinians from Bethlehem district summons to appear before the Israeli intelligence for interrogation, said security sources. Israeli forces raided the Beit Fajjar town to the south of the city, where they summoned three young Palestinians. Iyad Taqatqa, 30, and two brothers ‘Amer, 25, and ‘Izzat Deiriya, 21, were handed notices ordering them to turn themselves to Israeli intelligence in ‘Gush Etzion’ detention center … Iyad Ad-Dibis, 31, from ‘Aida refugee camp, Ahmad Jado, 28, from Ad-Doha, and Khalil Salah from al-Khader were also handed similar notices. According to a report issued by B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, “Since November 2009, B’Tselem has received testimonies from dozens of Palestinian residents of the Bethlehem and Hebron districts, most of them minors, alleging that they were subjected to threats and violence, sometimes amounting to torture, during their interrogation at the police station at Gush Etzion.” It said that, “The testimonies describe interrogations in which the minors were forced to confess to alleged offenses, mostly stone-throwing. In almost all cases, the interrogators stopped using violence against the interrogatees once they confessed.” “The right of every person not to be subjected to ill-treatment or torture (whether physical or mental) is one of the few human rights that are considered absolute,” stressed the center. The center further affirmed that “a confession obtained through violation of this right can certainly not serve as the basis for a conviction.” According to the center, “The violence included slaps, punches and kicks to all parts of the body, and blows with objects, such as a gun or a stick.” … “The high number of reports B’Tselem has received regarding violent interrogations at the Etzion station, and the fact that they span several years, gives rise to heavy suspicion that this is not a case of a single interrogator who chose to use illegal interrogation methods, but rather an entire apparatus that backs him up and allows such conduct to take place,” said the center.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=28911

Men interrupt training drill involving 10 IDF units by entering into closed zone
JPost 26 July by Yonah Jeremy Bob — The Southern District Attorney’s Office on Sunday filed an indictment against Suleiman Abu Karon for illegally entering a closed military zone at the IDF’s sprawling Tze’elim Base in the South, bringing 10 units to halt in the midst of a major exercise. According to the indictment, filed with the Beersheba Magistrate’s Court, Abu Karon, 40, from Beir Hadaag, entered the closed zone at 10 a.m. on July 21 on a red tractor lacking proper license plates. He and an unidentified accomplice had their faces covered by ski masks. The indictment alleges that by entering the firing zone, the IDF units were forced to order an immediate cessation of the drill, which involved heavy weaponry, including tanks. Following their discovery by a special reconnaissance unit and their attempt to flee, Abu Karon was apprehended by a police helicopter following an extended chase … In a separate motion regarding the case, the state noted the circumstances surrounding the incident and, referring to similar incidents, suggested that the two had infiltrated the area looking for metal objects, many of them spent shell casings and cartridges, to steal and sell as scrap.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Men-interrupt-training-drill-involving-10-IDF-units-by-entering-into-closed-zone-410220

Prisoners / Court actions

Violence against Palestinian child detainees on rise
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 25 July — The first six months of 2015 saw a 10 percent increase in physical violence against Palestinian children detained by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank, an international children’s rights groups said Saturday.  Defense for Children International Palestine (DCIP) said in a statement that “86 percent of Palestinian children experienced some form of physical violence during their arrest or interrogation, a 10 percent increase from 2014.”  “Ill treatment of Palestinian children remains widespread and systematic in the Israeli military detention system as children arrested by Israeli forces arrive at Israeli interrogation centers blindfolded, bound and sleep deprived,” the statement said.  Nearly all children interviewed by DCIP had been blindfolded and their hands bound, while almost 55 percent underwent strip-searches in custody.  “Unlike their Israeli counterparts, Palestinian children have no right to be accompanied by a parent and, in the majority of cases, no access to legal counsel during interrogation,” DCIP reported.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=766641

Former prisoner undergoes lung, heart transplant in India
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 25 July — A former Palestinian prisoner will be undergoing a heart and lung transplant surgery in India Saturday evening, a prisoners’ rights group said.  Director of the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society, Qaddura Faris, said former prisoner Muhammad al-Taj, from Tubas in the norther West Bank, suffers from fibrosis in the lungs and heart problems that he obtained while in Israeli prisons.  Al-Taj was released in April 2013 after a critical deterioration of his health.  According to the Council for European Palestinian Relations (CEPR), poor conditions in Israeli prisons have lead to the deterioration of health for a large number of Palestinian prisoners.  “Prison clinics have become renowned for offering only aspirin for all health treatments and physicians within the clinics are all soldiers,” CEPR said in a report.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=766648

Israeli forces release elderly Palestinian woman
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 26 July — Israeli forces released elderly Palestinian woman Amina al-Amodi after three days of house arrest.Al-Amodi was charged with attempting to smuggle a cellphone into an Israeli prison for her son, Muhammed al-Amodi, from the Barqin town in Jenin.  Muhammed has been detained since 2006 and is sentenced to 11 life sentences. The woman was also fined 5,000 shekels ($784), as well as issued a third-party bail of 10,000 shekels ($2600). The prisoners committee said that the lawyer of the committee did his best to release Amina without any conditions. The committee added that Amina, who is in her 70’s, has many chronic diseases and the Israeli prisoner service did not take her age or her condition into consideration while she was under detention.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=766660

Land, property, resources theft & destruction / Ethnic cleansing / Restriction of movement

1881 document suggests Palestinian ownership of Susya
Times of Israel 26 July — In light of new internal review, Israeli military administration to reevaluate demolishing West Bank village, report says — Contradicting the official stance of the Israeli army and government, an Ottoman land ownership document dating back to 1881 suggests that the territory on which the Palestinian village of Susya is located does in fact belong to the residents of the area, Haaretz reported Sunday. The Civil Administration’s refusal to grant building permits to the residents of Susya was based, among other issues, on the perceived lack of land ownership documents. However, the 1881 Ottoman-era document was recently deemed to be both authentic and legally valid by a top staff officer in the Civil Administration, Moshe Meiri, who is responsible for the management of land in the West Bank. Meiri stated that the land specified in the document includes the area of the Palestinian village. The document was also mentioned in a 1982 report by Pliah Albeck, who was the director of the Civil Department at the State Attorney’s Office, which determined the legal boundaries of West Bank settlements, the report said. Following the release of the internal review, officials in the Civil Administration were reevaluating whether to go ahead with the demolition, the report said. Throughout the nineties, the IDF carried out small-scale demolitions in Susya, claiming all residential structures on the land were built illegally. In July 2001, the entire village was destroyed a day after the murder of Yair Har Sinai, a shepherd from the nearby Jewish settlement of the same name. The village was later restored, but now faces the prospect of another demolition.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/1881-document-suggests-palestinian-ownership-of-susya/

Has the IDF found a way to climb down the Susya tree?
+972 26 July by Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man — Up against extraordinarily harsh diplomatic pressure from its closest allies, Israel seems to have found a way to save face without creating too much of a fuss — at least temporarily — With more or less the entire Western world warning Israel not to demolish the Palestinian village of Susya and forcefully displace its residents, it is no surprise that the Israeli army might be seeking a way to climb down the tree it is stuck on. So how does one announce that it might not demolish that village which it has been claiming for years has no right to exist? As a first step, you might look for an internal document you discarded years ago, one that argues the residents of Susya do actually own the land from which you want to expel them, and then leak it to the press. That is exactly what it appears the army is doing. Somebody in the Israeli Defense Ministry leaked such a document to Haaretz over the weekend. The document reportedly says that Susya’s residents own the land they live on, a fact that would make forcefully transferring them elsewhere more difficult. The U.S. State Department, most European Union foreign ministers, the United Nations and hundreds of activists have all joined a very public campaign to save the impoverished village in recent weeks. It is hard to remember such harsh language from Israel’s closest allies about such a specific policy in recent years.
http://972mag.com/has-the-idf-found-a-way-to-climb-down-the-susya-tree/109302/

A traffic jam in the middle of the desert
Gush Shalom 25 July by Adam Keller — The rendezvous was scheduled for 11:30 am, outside the Arlozorov Street Railway Station in Tel Aviv. I arrived at 11:35. “Three buses have already been filled, but don’t worry – the fourth bus will soon arrive” said the organizers’ representative. “There will be a place for anyone who wants to go to the protest in Susiya.  “It is long since there was such a wide response to a call for a demonstration in the wild West Bank. Among the passengers could be seen quite a few long-time activists who had however not been seen in recent years. Why did the case of Susiya evoke so much attention, in Israel and throughout the world? … One can never know in advance which particular case will become the focus and symbol of a struggle …
The Jews who lived here 1,500 years ago had lived in caves. In the Twentieth Century, Palestinians had been living in these same caves, until in 1986 the army came to expel them and turn the caves into an archeological site managed by the settlers. The Palestinians had to move to miserable shacks erected on what was left of their land. Is it possible that they actually were the descendants of those who resided in those caves in the Fifth Century? At the beginning of the Zionist Movement, David Ben Gurion promoted the idea that at least some of the Arabs in this country are descendants of Jews who lived here in the past, and who at some time were converted to Islam and started speaking Arabic. In 1918 Ben Gurion even published an entire book on this subject, in cooperation with the future President of Israel Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, including detailed historical documentation to support this theory. But before long it became clear that, even if some of the Palestinians’ ancestors had been Jewish, at present they have no interest whatsoever in being Jewish or promoting the Zionist Project. So, Ben-Gurion and his colleagues lost interest in further discussing this issue …
Yigal Bronner, who teaches history of India at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is a prominent activist of the Ta’ayush Movement, which is active already for many years in support of the residents of the South Hebron Hills: “We are here in Susiya. What is Susiya? Not much. Some cisterns which the army had not filled with dirt, a few sheep which the settlers have not yet stolen, some olive trees that have not yet been cut down. What is Susiya? Susiya is 350 people who hold on to the land, clinging and clinging and holding on and not giving up, because it’s their home. Quite simply, this is their home. Opposite us is the other Susiya. The Susiya which is armed and surrounded by a fence, which is connected to to water and electricity and sewage and has representatives in all the corridors of power, and it wants to grab what little is left of this Susiya where we stand. Susiya against Susiya, this is the whole story.
http://adam-keller2.blogspot.co.il/2015/07/a-traffic-jam-in-middle-of-desert.html

Settlers fill ancient well with earth and rocks near Salfit
NABLUS (Ma‘an) 26 July — Israeli settlers filled up an ancient agricultural well in the West Bank village of Deir Istiya west of Salfit on Saturday, local farmers told Ma‘an.  Witnesses said that the settlers filled the well with earth and rocks using “primitive” tools.  Khalid Maali, a researcher on settlement affairs, said that filling up the well is part of a larger plan to forcibly move people from Wadi Qana to clear the way for the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements.  Several illegal Israeli settlements surround Deir Istiya, the closest of which are Revava and YaqirI.  About 17 percent of Deir Istiya’s village territory is classified as Area B, according to the Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem, with the remaining 83 percent Area C, giving Israel full civil and military authority.  ARIJ said in a 2013 report that Deir Istiya “has been subjected to numerous Israeli confiscations for the benefit of various Israeli objectives,” including the construction of settlements, outposts, checkpoints, bypass roads and the Israeli separation wall.  The report said that Israeli settlers living on the village’s land “have had a significant impact on Palestinian residents and their properties.”  Settler attacks have contributed to the loss of Palestinian lands and landowners have been barred from their plots, which have been fenced in with barbed wire and planted with trees, the report said.  It added: “Israeli settlers have also carried out a series of attacks against Palestinian landowners in an attempt to intimidate them and deter them from returning to their lands.”
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=766656

How Israel uses water to control Palestinian life
SHU‘AFAT RIDGE, East Jerusalem (The Nation) 24 July by Charlotte Silver — The relentless scarcity is purposeful and integral to Israel’s strategy of ‘demographic balance’ — It’s not yet summer when I arrive in East Jerusalem during a broiling heat wave. In the area known as Shu‘afat Ridge, bitter fights break out between neighbors this time of year, when water becomes more scarce and the neighborhood is rife with accusations of water theft. The tens of thousands of Palestinians who live here use around half the amount of water recommended by the World Health Organization — and they struggle to obtain even that. Shuafat Ridge, on the eastern edge of Jerusalem, is cut off from the rest of the city by the twisting, eight-meter Separation Wall, which Israel began building here in 2005. Soaring apartment buildings, packed tightly into the cramped space allotted to these residents, loom over the barrier. Just to the east of Shu‘afat is the huge Jewish settlement of Pisgat Ze’ev, established in the early 1980s. The people living there can gaze down onto the backyards and dilapidated homes of what has become Jerusalem’s slum. Shu‘afat Ridge, like the land on which Pisgat Ze’ev is built and the rest of East Jerusalem, was annexed by Israel in 1967, though the international community does not recognize Israeli sovereignty here. While precise population data on Shuafat Ridge don’t exist, it is estimated that it has quadrupled in the past ten years, with some 80,000 people living in its four neighborhoods, which include a refugee camp. The antiquated water infrastructure is sufficient for just 15,000. Last year most people here went over a month without any running water (they survived by trucking water in from the West Bank and buying bottled water).
Meanwhile, the European Union rated Jerusalem among the top five cities in the world for water efficiency, management, and innovation. Indeed, Israel’s annual water technology exports have climbed to a peak of over $2 billion. Israel’s water technology has been praised since the state first claimed to make the desert bloom. At first, the industry helped to unify the young Jewish state. The government poured money into constructing the National Water Carrier, which diverted water from Lake Tiberias in the north to the Negev desert in the south, supplying the agricultural kibbutzim. Israel wrested control over the lake’s northern source by seizing Syria’s Golan Heights in the 1967 war, when it also conquered the West Bank with its valuable aquifers. Today, Israel offers the products associated with its so-called water triumphs to the world, promising to liberate other regions from the threats of drought and scarcity. At home, it uses water to control Palestinians….
http://www.thenation.com/article/how-israel-uses-water-to-control-palestinian-life/

115 Palestinians barred last week from leaving for Jordan
ARIHA (PIC) 26 July — The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) prevented 115 Palestinians from traveling through the Karama border crossing with Jordan during last week, claiming there were security reasons banning their travel. Most of those Palestinian passengers were on their way to spend the holiday of Eid al-Fitr with their relatives in Jordan. However, more than 37,000 passengers left for Jordan and over 29,000 others were allowed to enter occupied Palestine through the crossing during that week.
http://english.palinfo.com/site/pages/details.aspx?itemid=72718

Gaza

Gazan arrested during attempt to cross border
GAZA (PIC) 25 July– A Palestinian young man from the Gaza Strip was arrested by Israeli border soldiers on Thursday as he was trying to cross into an Israeli occupied area. Local sources said that the young man was rounded up near the border fence east of Khan Younis and would be taken in for questioning. They added that the detainee was probably trying to infiltrate into an Israeli settlement in the Negev to look for a job. More than 200 Gazans, mostly young men, had been taken prisoners during attempts to cross into Israeli occupied territories since the last Israeli war on the impoverished enclave subsided. Most of those detainees are believed to have been trying to escape the poverty in Gaza.
http://english.palinfo.com/site/pages/details.aspx?itemid=72699

Hamas puts on new face with English website launch
Al-Monitor 24 July by Adnan Abu Amer — On June 25, Hamas launched its official website in English. The day before, Hamas announced in a press statement that the English-language website is part of the movement’s efforts to promote communication with the West. Hamas’ English-language website allows Western Internet users to learn about its positions and news. The website also includes a forum that answers the questions posed by Westerners, and an archive. There are several websites that are affiliated with Hamas, such as the Palestinian Information Center, which is available in Arabic, English, Persian, French, Turkish, Urdu and Russian. However, Hamas’ new website talks in the movement’s name, publishes its positions and clarifies its opinions. Western Internet users and decision-makers can browse the website to learn about Hamas’ official view on the Palestinian, regional and international events. Since its inception in 1987, Hamas has been complaining that Western decision-makers and research and media outlets only hear about the movement, not from it, which is why the new English-language website was launched.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/07/palestine-hamas-english-website-communications.html

Hamas, Salafists try to move beyond bumpy history
Al-Monitor 23 July by Adnan Abu Amer — A reconciliation initiative between Hamas and the Salafists was announced July 7 by Sheikh Issam Saleh, a prominent Salafist figure in the Gaza Strip, during a press conference he held in Al-Joundi al-Majhoul Square in Gaza City. Al-Monitor attended the press conference and took note of the initiative’s provisions: halt and condemn local bombings in Gaza, some of which have not yet been claimed responsibility for; forbid torture in the prisons run by the Gaza security apparatus, except when the detained is accused of collaborating with Israel; refrain from attacking the homes of Salafists; release of Salafist detainees; and return money and weapons to the Salafists … Ismail al-Ashqar, head of the Palestinian Legislative Council’s Interior and Security Committee and a Hamas leader, refused to express his opinion regarding the reconciliation initiative. He told Al-Monitor, “Hamas is dealing with Salafist groups in Gaza on two levels. On the security and legal level, Salafists are not allowed to destabilize internal security. At the intellectual and dialogue level, work is being done to distance the Salafists from extremism. Although the Islamic State [IS] is not present in Gaza, there are individuals [Salafists in particular] who sympathize with it on a personal level.” The reconciliation initiative between Hamas and the Salafists was proposed just days after IS threatened Hamas on June 30 to turn the Gaza Strip into a bloodbath because Hamas is not implementing Sharia in order to please the United States and Iran. The initiative refused to heed the call by IS members to fight Hamas in Gaza, as Saleh refused an inter-Palestinian confrontation. Hamas did not state its take on the reconciliation initiative with the Salafists, but it seems it favors a deal over confrontations and prefers settlement over clashes….
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/07/palestine-gaza-hamas-salafists-reconciliation-truce.html

Gaza universities now more accessible, for all the wrong reasons
GAZA CITY (Al-Monitor) 26 July by Rasha Abou Jalal — The Hamas-affiliated Islamic University of Gaza, one of the largest and oldest Palestinian universities in the Gaza Strip, has decided to lower its admissions standards to unprecedented levels for acceptance to various programs and colleges starting in July. The decision triggered a debate among academics and economic experts who wondered about the motives behind this action. Currently, the academic labor market in Gaza is severely overcrowded and there are few employment opportunities for the thousands of university graduates each year … Economist Mohsen Abu Ramadan, former chairman for the Palestinian Nongovernmental Organizations Network, told Al-Monitor, “The lowering of admissions standards at the Islamic University prompted other universities to do the same, in the context of competition to attract the largest possible number of students, something that threatens to worsen the labor market in Gaza.” Abu Ramadan added, “These actions come in the context of steps taken by the Islamic University to address its financial crisis and to increase revenue, including increasing university fees in the various disciplines, without taking into account the needs of the labor market.” The Islamic University is going through a financial crisis for which it took several austerity measures, including terminating the annual contracts of dozens of academic lecturers in May 2014, followed by firing dozens of workers from the university-owned Al-Kitab TV station in December 2014. The remaining workers at the station were forced to sign off on a 40% reduction of their monthly salaries until further notice. Employees do not have the right to reclaim the money that was deducted from their monthly salaries upon being let go or resigning.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/07/palestine-university-admission-rates-economy-education.html

One year since Gaza, a photo a day: July 25, 2014
Activestills — This is part of a series of daily posts showing photos taken on the same date a year ago, during “Operation Protective Edge,” last summer’s assault on Gaza. Members of the ActiveStills collective documented what was happening at that time inside Gaza, Israel and the West Bank. Most of the photos that we will publish here over the next month and a half were published on +972 in real time. The average Israeli news consumer, however, did not get the full picture of the death and destruction that was taking place in Gaza, or the popular resistance against the war taking place in the West Bank and Israel. For most Israelis, the Palestinian victims had neither names nor stories.
http://972mag.com/nstt_feeditem/one-year-since-gaza-a-photo-a-day-july-25-2014/

Hundreds protest reduction of UNRWA services in Gaza
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 26 July — Hundreds of Palestinian refugees rallied on Sunday in front of the UNRWA headquarters in Gaza City in protest of a cut of services provided to them by UNRWA.  On June 15 UN Commissioner-General Pierre Krhenbhl announced that UNRWA’s fiscal deficit for 2015 has reached $101 million.  Palestinian refugees in Gaza heavily depend on UNRWA aid, worrying refugees that cuts will deeply affect their livelihood.  Refugees in Gaza have already noticed a cut to health and educational service, leading to Sunday’s rally … Palestinian People’s Party (PPP) official Walid al-Awad said he spoke on behalf of all Palestinian parties in refusing to accept UNRWA’s decision to postpone the beginning of the school year, enforce mandatory yearly retirement for workers, and reduce other services provided to refugees in Gaza.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=766661

A startup for geeks in Gaza
NY Times 24 July by Lauran Bohn — Tucked away in a building near the Gaza Strip’s scarred but glistening Mediterranean coastline is a wall of dreams. On it, dozens of young entrepreneurs have posted their answers to an especially difficult question: “What would you do if you weren’t afraid?” “Usually when you have big dreams or think outside the box in Gaza, people think you’re crazy,” says Said Hassan, the manager of Gaza Sky Geeks, the territory’s first startup accelerator backed by Google and administered by Mercy Corps, an Oregon-based aid agency.  “We’re trying to tell people not to listen . . . to keep reaching, to build something.”  But building is hard in a place where most youth, who’ve lived through three wars in the past six years, have never ventured outside a Philadelphia-sized territory and only know a world beyond their borders through television shows that take hours to download on slow Internet connections.  According to the World Bank, unemployment in Gaza is at 43 percent, the highest in the world. Youth unemployment is more than 60 percent … Despite – and perhaps because of – the challenges, Gaza Sky Geeks has sparked an unlikely startup movement of sorts. They have hosted over 100 competitions and trainings that have reached more than 1,500 youth, the people who stand to lose the most from a protracted siege … Twenty-two teams, chosen from hundreds who applied, were trained on marketing basics and how to sell their big ideas to investors. Most will be making their big pitch through a Skype call. Those who receive investment will go through Gaza Sky Geeks’ four- to five-month acceleration program later this year. In last year’s first cycle, four startups – ranging from a carpooling and taxi request service to a social network for Arab soccer fans – received outside investment from Arab-focused startup investment funds. The group hopes to secure funding for another four startups this year.
http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/07/24/a-startup-for-geeks-in-gaza/

Hamas armed wing gives 25,000 Gazans combat training
GAZA CITY (AFP) 25 July — The military wing of Hamas opened its Gaza summer camp on Saturday, aimed at providing basic combat training for 25,000 Palestinians in the embattled strip.  Hamas, the de facto power in Gaza, is currently engaged in indirect contacts with Israel to try to reach a long-term truce, but a year after last summer’s devastating 50-day war the militant movement has kept up the fighting talk.  “The goal of these military training camps is to train the vanguard for liberation — spiritually, intellectually and physically — to be ready and able to play its role in liberation,” said a statement by the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military wing.  It said that participants, aged 15-60, would spend two weeks being “trained in military techniques and in firing live ammunition” as well as “first aid and rescue techniques.” As with all the brigades’ activities the camps will be conducted out of public and media sight. Rescue squads dealt with thousands of local victims during the war of July-Agust 2014, the third in Gaza in six years. Hamas has long run summer camps devoted to sport and study of the Koran in Gaza but over the winter the al-Qassam brigades launched a new kind of camp, giving military training to 15 to 20-year-olds.  Human rights activists condemned it as a forced militarisation of Gazan society and a violation of children’s rights. Brushing off the criticism, the brigades are repeating the exercise with the summer camp, while raising the upper age limit to 60.
http://news.yahoo.com/hamas-armed-wing-gives-25-000-gazans-combat-095834126.html

A year on, Gazans have no more tears to cry
Haaretz 25 July by Amira Hass — Death has simply become part of ‘normal’ daily calculations in the Gaza Strip, where the traumatic effect of last summer’s war is impossible to escape — Nawaf is one of the lucky Gazans who works for an international organization. Last week, he received a permit to travel to East Jerusalem for a few days. We met by chance, and I immediately noticed his eyes. They resembled the eyes of every other Gazan I’ve met over the last year. The phrase “extinguished eyes” might have been invented just for them. Hassan Ziadah, a psychologist who works at the Gaza Community Mental Health Program, is very familiar with this look. The pain and fear are so great that people can no longer cry, he said; all the tears have dried up. Few people can leave Gaza, and few can enter. Thus, for the most part, only foreigners – NGO workers, diplomats and journalists – can see with their own eyes how Gaza residents are coping with the burden of loss and destruction from last summer’s war. Everyone else, including journalists from Israel and the West Bank, needs intermediaries. Thanks to Al Jazeera in English, we learned about a local initiative in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood to bring a little cheer to people’s hearts by painting the houses’ gray concrete walls in bright colors and filling corners with plants … Ziadah welcomed the project: It fosters cooperation and helps people overcome the passivity caused by shock and loss, he says. But this is only a small part of the picture. A Palestinian journalist from a Western country who was permitted to enter Gaza was shocked to discover how death has become part of “normal” daily calculations. Someone told him a certain school had rearranged its classes, because in one class “12 students were killed” in last summer’s war. Death is the constant; the variable is the rearrangement of the classes. Ziadah said there has been an upsurge in the number of people considering death as a way out. Another Western journalist described children filled with admiration for the members of Hamas’ military wing, who marched in honor of the war’s one-year anniversary. He was stunned by the similarity between Hamas’ army and the Israel Defense Forces …Parents say children wet their beds and have nightmares in which they stand paralyzed while a wild animal attacks them. At least some of those who flocked to the parade presumably suffer from similar fears. “The children feel angry; they want revenge. So they’re attracted to the power embodied in the military parade,” Ziadah said.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.667783

Palestinian refugees – Gaza, Lebanon, Turkey

UNRWA funding crisis strikes fear into Gaza’s refugees
GAZA CITY, Palestine 26 July by Ali Abo-Rezeg — The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) is suffering a severe financial crisis that has apparently forced it to cut costs, worrying Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip who depend to a large extent on the agency’s assistance. On June 15, UN Commissioner-General Pierre Krähenbühl announced that the agency’s fiscal deficit for the current year had reached $101 million, while adding that the UN remained committed to providing badly needed services for Palestinian refugees. Samaan Khalifa, 47, a father of nine who lives in a two-room home in Gaza, however, is nevertheless concerned. “This talk of UNRWA’s financial crisis has made us nervous,” Khalifa told Anadolu Agency, saying he especially feared the prospect of reduced health and educational services traditionally provided by the refugee agency. Marwa Obeid, 45, likewise expressed fear that the crisis could affect the health sector and the distribution of aid to needy families in Gaza. She added that she and her friends had noticed a recent reduction in the health and educational services provided by UNRWA. “UNRWA had been distributing $20 in cash assistance for students at UNRWA schools in the Gaza Strip, which my children had benefited from,” she said. “Recently, however, this has completely stopped, along with the daily meals provided to students, which ended after Israel’s last war against Gaza [in mid-2014],” Obeid added. Aid provided by UNRWA, she said, was the “only reason” why her and her family were still alive, due to her husband’s numerous health problems.
http://www.newsfultoncounty.com/life-style/news/265955-unrwa-funding-crisis-strikes-fear-into-gazas-refugees

Fund shortage may force UNRWA to delay start of school year in 700 schools
JERUSALEM (WAFA) 26 July – UNRWA Sunday is slated to discuss the growing risk of possible delay to the start of the academic year in some 700 schools for half a million students across the Middle East unless the deficit of $101 million can be fully funded before the school year is due to start. n extraordinary meeting of UNRWA’s donors on Sunday is due to examine delaying the start of the academic year due to severe financial crisis the organization has ever witnessed, said the UNRWA in a statement Sunday.  The session is taking place in Jordan and brings together UNRWA’s leading donors and host governments. Pierre Krähenbühl, UNRWA’s Commissioner General, said, “I am alarmed that our current funding crisis may force us to consider a delay in the start of the school year. Such a decision would generate much anxiety and despair for hundreds of thousands of boys and girls, deeply dedicated to their studies.” “Education lies at the very heart of the identity and dignity of Palestine refugees and of what UNRWA stands for,” he said, adding that, “Possible delays in opening the school year would also have grave implications for host governments.”
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=28924

Fatah colonel killed in Lebanon’s largest refugee camp
SIDON, Lebanon (AFP) – A senior member of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah movement was shot dead in the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp near Sidon in south Lebanon Saturday, a security official said.  “Colonel Talal al-Ourdouni was shot dead by two unidentified men while he was walking in the southern part of Ain al-Hilweh camp” the Palestinian official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.  “He was accompanied by two bodyguards, one of whom was also killed and the other was wounded.” Ourdouni headed a division within the Palestinian national security service in Ain al-Hilweh, the largest of the refugee camps in Lebanon, where armed forces went on the alert after the murders. He had been the target of several previous attempts to kill him. Most Palestinians live in squalid conditions in the country’s 12 official camps. The Lebanese army does not enter the camps, under a tacit deal agreed after the 1975-1990 civil war. Palestinian factions are responsible for security. Ain al-Hilweh has been the location for the settling of scores between several factions, and a breeding ground for extremist groups because of the poverty there.
http://news.yahoo.com/fatah-colonel-killed-lebanons-largest-refugee-camp-165357051.html

Fragile calm in Ain al-Hilweh after killings
Daily Star (subscription) 27 July by Mohammed Zaatari — A fragile calm took hold of south Lebanon’s notorious Palestinian refugee camp of Ain al-Hilweh as investigators named suspects behind the fatal shooting of a Fatah Movement official and his nephew.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb//News/Lebanon-News/2015/Jul-27/308415-fragile-calm-in-ain-al-hilweh-after-killings.ashx

Activists ask Turkey to facilitate entry of Palestinians
LONDON (PIC) 24 July — A group of pro-Palestinian human rights activists have called on the Turkish authorities to work on ending the humanitarian suffering of the Palestinian refugees who fled from Syria to Turkey. This came in a press release issued by a team of activists working on documenting violations against the Palestinians around the world and published on Friday by the Action Group for the Palestinians of Syria. The activists appealed to the Turkish president and his government to facilitate the entry of the Palestinians fleeing the ravages of the Syrian war to the country by granting them official entry visas. Their statement also urged all human rights groups inside and outside Palestine to intervene to stop all the violations which the Palestinian asylum seekers and refugees are exposed to by Turkish border officials and soldiers. The statement also demanded the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority embassy in Ankara to assume their responsibilities towards the Palestinian refugees, provide them with passports, and intervene with the Turkish authorities to facilitate their stay in the country.
http://english.palinfo.com/site/pages/details.aspx?itemid=72696

Palestinians among 370 refugees rescued at sea
ROME (PIC)  24 July — An Irish naval vessel on Thursday evening rescued some 370 migrants, including Palestinians and Syrians, as they tried to reach European shores on board the so-called “death boats.” The Action Group for Palestinians in Syria said, in a Friday statement, the Irish vessel brought some 370 migrants to safety, including 75 women and 15 children. Among those rescued was a woman who gave birth to a baby after being on board the Irish ship. The migrants were later evacuated to an Italian seaport.
http://english.palinfo.com/site/pages/details.aspx?itemid=72691

Other news

PA official dismisses report Abbas planning to resign within two months
JPost 26 July — Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has allegedly notified sources that he will step down from his position within two months, Channel 1 reported on Sunday. According to PA officials cited in the report, Abbas’s announcement of retirement is due to fatigue. But Nimer Hammad, political adviser to Abbas, dismissed the report as “Israeli rumors.” The PA has become accustomed to such rumors coming from Israel, Hammad said. The rumor was part of an Israeli attempt to “disrupt” the work of the PA leadership, he claimed. Speculation that the 80-yearold plans to resign also center around his failure to make progress in peace negotiations with Israel. The latest round of talks broke down in April 2014. Channel 1 also reported that an unnamed senior Israeli minister (Interior Minister Silvan Shalom) recently met in Amman with PLO official Saeb Erekat, who is viewed as Abbas’s likely successor. Earlier in July, Abbas appointed Erekat to the post of secretary-general of the PLO.
http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Report-Abbas-to-resign-as-PA-president-within-2-months-410230

Dismissed PLO leader denies Dahlan coup plot
RAMALLAH (Al-Monitor) by Aaron Magid — Yasser Abed Rabbo, former secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), launched a scathing critique of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in a lengthy interview with Al-Monitor, accusing  Abbas of “one-man” rule. “The executive branch, led by Abbas, is in control of all the institutions — whether they are security, political, economic — and the legislature, which is replaced by decrees issued by President Abbas that affect [everyone’s] life,” Rabbo exclaimed. Abbas dismissed Rabbo from the PLO’s No. 2 post June 30. According to multiple Arab sources, the leader of the Palestinian Authority (PA) accused Rabbo of conspiring with Mohammed Dahlan, an Abbas rival, in an alleged coup attempt. Rabbo dismissed the rumors of such a plot as a “hallucination.” “The lines between the PLO, PA and Fatah are increasingly blurred by Abbas,” said Grant Rumley, an expert in Palestinian politics at the Washington, DC-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, via email. “To fire the PLO’s secretary-general [an independent] and replace him with [Saeb] Erekat [a member of Fatah] while on the cusp of appointing a new PA Cabinet says a great deal about the amount of control Abbas has consolidated in the West Bank.” Rabbo referred repeatedly and favorably to former Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, at one point stating, “We tried to build institutions for the Palestinian state during Fayyad’s time. This had progressed, but sorry to say, my feeling and the feeling of so many Palestinians, is that it was interrupted or frozen to a great extent.”
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/07/palestine-plo-yasser-abed-rabbo-mahmoud-abbas.html

Palestinians celebrate Traditional Dress Day in West Bank, Gaza
[with photos] BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 25 July — Hundreds of Palestinians wearing traditional Palestinian dress attended marches across the West Bank and Gaza on Saturday to celebrate Traditional Palestinian Dress and Heritage Day. In Ramallah, men, women and children marched from the municipality building in the northern town of al-Bireh to the al-Bireh cultural center, waving Palestinian flags and signs while calling for the protection of the Palestinian cultural heritage. Palestinians have in the past spoken out against “cultural appropriation” by the Jewish Israeli population, citing in particular the Israeli claim to traditional Palestinian foods such as humus and falafel, as well as traditional clothing, including an Israeli redesign of the Palestinian Kuffeyeh that incorporated a light blue Star of David … “Wearing the Palestinian traditional dress is resisting the occupation,” Hijaz said. “We resist and keep our cultural heritage as part of the beauty of our Palestine.”  Celebrations also took place in Gaza, where people marched to the UNESCO headquarters there, demanding UNESCO and the Palestinian Authority officially recognize July 25 as Palestinian Traditional Dress and Heritage Day.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=766646

Bodies of Palestinian students who died in Russia arrive in Jericho
JERICHO (Ma‘an) 25 July — The bodies of two Palestinians who were killed in a drowning accident in Russia while studying in a military college arrived Saturday morning in the West Bank town of Jericho via the Allenby Bridge.  The students are Lieutenant Ashraf Ahmad Hamdan from the Abwein village in northern Ramallah and Lieutenant Muhammad Rashid Yassin from the Anin village in Jenin.  Military ceremonies were held for Hamdan and Yassin in the General Administration of Borders and Crossings headquarters in Jericho.  The ceremony was attended by the governor of the Jericho district Majed al-Fityani, Fatah officials Azzam al-Ahmad, major general Tawfiq al-Tirawi, major general Sultan Abu al-Einein, head of the military training committee Youssef al-Hilw and security services leaders, member of the national council Ismail Abu Dahuk, families of Hamdan and Yassin and a crowd of mourners.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=766644

Israeli Arabs to meet with PM, present NIS 5.5 billion development plan
JPost 26 July by Ariel Ben Solomon — The government should allocate NIS 5.5 billion to develop Arab communities for 2015-16, a delegation of the National Committee of Arab Heads of Municipal Authorities is going to tell the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday. Jafar Farah, the director of Haifa’s Mossawa Center – The Advocacy Center for Arab Citizens in Israel – told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday that a multi-year economic plan drawn up with the assistance of his organization will be presented at the meeting with the prime minister. The meeting of Arab municipality heads with the prime minister, which is to include the mayors of Sakhnin, Nazareth and Kafr Kasim, will be their first since March’s national election, Farah said. The NGO head reiterated what he told the Post last month, that if their demands are not met, protests will be held to apply pressure on the government. Farah added that if an adequate amount is not offered, protests will begin on September 1. Farah also said that money that was due to go to Arab communities from the 2014 state budget has been “stuck” in the Finance Ministry. He pointed out that these funds were meant to improve transportation, including roads and public transit.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Israeli-Arab-NGO-to-meet-with-PM-present-55-billion-development-plan-410224

A new innovation for Startup Nation: employing Israeli Arabs
Haaretz 27 July by Inbal Orpaz & Rotem Starkman — Smadar Nehab is the founder and executive director of Tsofen High Technology Centers. Founded in 2008 and located in Nazareth, Tsofen is an Arab-Jewish organization promoting the full integration of Arab citizens into Israel’s high-tech and startup industry … In an interview with TheMarker, Nehab says that although Tsofen didn’t hear back from Netanyahu himself, the Finance Ministry called and asked to meet. How many workers are needed in high-tech? Smadar Nehab: “We estimate that thousands are missing, and this number will grow. The National Economic Council is talking about 40% of the young people in 2029 being either ultra-Orthodox or Arab, so it’s clear we need to start working on it now.” What does Tsofen do? “Tsofen’s goal is to put Arabs to work in high-tech. Since its inception, Tsofen has contributed to the growth of Arab engineers in Israel, from 300 to about 2,200 at the end of 2014 – and at least another 100 have joined since then. It helps place candidates and runs training courses in Arab towns throughout Israel. It is also working with the government to develop industrial areas in Arab towns.
http://www.haaretz.com/business/.premium-1.667960

Defense Minister chides legislator for ‘inciting hatred’ against Israeli Arabs
Haaretz 26 July by Gili Cohen & Jonathan Lis — Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon has harshly criticized MK Robert Ilatov (Yisrael Beiteinu) for saying last week that anyone who refuses to sing the national anthem is not fit to be a judge in Israel. Ya’alon, speaking Friday, said Ilatov’s comments qualified as “inciting hatred.” Ilatov responded by calling Ya’alon “post-Zionist.” “Barring an Arab or any other minority from a seat on the Supreme Court because he refused to sing ‘Hatikva’ would be a morally bankrupt act,” said Ya’alon, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party. “Anyone who demands that a non-Jew sing ‘the Jewish soul yearns’ as a condition for integrating into society is inciting hatred against an entire community and damaging the fabric of Israeli society. We do not demand that Israeli soldiers and officers who put their lives on the line sing ‘Hatikva,’ but only honor the anthem by standing or saluting.”
http://www.haaretz.com/news/israel/.premium-1.667787

Training Israel’s cyber warriors
Ynet 24 July by Yoav Zitun — Inside IDF computer labs, troops use a model city to practice creating mayhem: Causing a nuclear reactor to overheat, taking over traffic lights and rail, cutting power, hacking missiles, creating chaos in the stock market, and more – all in preparation for the next major conflict — … One of the goals of the model city is for troops to practice creating sophisticated codes designed to remotely control computer systems. “We just recently finished training the seventh graduating class of cyber warriors and have adapted our teaching methods better,” said Major G., the course commander. “The soldiers have more experiences with the fundamentals of attack, in order to understand the other side’s mindset. During Operation Protective Edge, there were attempts to attack Israeli infrastructure, which demanded cooperation between many elements and bodies to stop the attacks. Today we are much more active and no longer for attacks.” One of the course instructors is K., 19, who reminds his students of mysterious cyber attacks like the Stuxnet worm that infested Iran’s nuclear facilities several years ago. “In many industries there is a certain component that connects all the systems, even in elevators or in trains, and so Stuxnet attacked the centrifuge generators in Iran.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4683636,00.html

Israelis ‘detained and then set free’ at Heathrow Airport
Middle East Monitor 25 July — The British authorities detained a number of Israeli officials on their arrival at London’s Heathrow Airport earlier this week, it has been claimed by Israel’s Channel 2 TV. Those held included the former head of Israeli military intelligence, Major General Amos Yadlin, former Army Chiefs of Staff Danny Halotz and Gabi Ashkenazi, as well as ex-National Security Advisor Yaakov Amidror. Channel 2 TV said that all were questioned briefly before being sent back to Israel. The station said that further details were not provided by Yadlin, so the situation remains unclear. According to the channel, this was not the first time that Israeli officials have been arrested or threatened with arrest in Britain. It claimed that former Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz cancelled a trip to London, fearing that he would have been arrested on arrival in the UK. Measures such as this, explained Channel 2, may well be related to war crimes charges filed against Israelis in international tribunals and the ICC.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/europe/20021-israelis-detained-and-then-set-free-at-heathrow-airport

Israel says possible spy release unlinked to Iran deal
JERUSALEM (AFP) 25 July — Israel’s justice minister sought Saturday to quell speculation that the potential release of jailed spy Jonathan Pollard was a US gesture to ease Israeli anger over the Iran nuclear deal.  “There is no political or diplomatic involvement here,” Ayelet Sheked told Israel’s privately run television station Channel 2.  “It is an American legal procedure: the parole commission needs to approve his release from prison after 30 years,” she said.  A US-born Israeli, Pollard was arrested in 1985 and two years later was sentenced to life in prison for passing American intelligence on Arab and Pakistani weapons to the Jewish state.  Pollard becomes eligible for parole in November, and the US Justice Department indicated on Thursday that it would not oppose his release.
http://news.yahoo.com/israel-says-possible-spy-release-unlinked-iran-deal-203337728.html

The real reason Jewish-American spy Jonathan Pollard is back in the news
+972 25 July by Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man — Pollard is scheduled to be released in November. The issue for Israel is whether the U.S. will allow the Jewish American to move to Israel, where Washington fears he would be given a hero’s welcome — … Nearly all of the news coverage has missed the real issue at play. First things first. In all likelihood the former U.S. Naval Intelligence worker will be released by the end of November, and that has been public knowledge for decades. The Federal Bureau of Prisons’ public website lists his release date as November 21, 2015 …  The problem here is that parole in the United States generally involves restrictions on the parolee, including their freedom of movement – and particularly restrictions on traveling outside of the United States. In other words, the chances of Pollard being allowed to visit – or move to – Israel in the years following his parole are slim to none. If the United States releases Pollard but doesn’t allow him to emigrate, it would deflate the political significance of his release as far as most Israelis are concerned … What is in play for Pollard and his backers in Israel is that the restrictions on parolees don’t necessarily apply to somebody who has been granted clemency.
http://972mag.com/the-real-reason-jewish-american-spy-jonathan-pollard-is-back-in-the-news/109266/

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