Is Hamas Preparing For A New War?

IDF Source: Hamas Rocket Arsenal Nearing Pre-War Levels

By Ahuva Balofsky July 13, 2015 , 

“O my God, in Thee have I trusted, let me not be ashamed; let not mine enemies triumph over me.” (Psalms 25:2)

Masked members from the Ezzedine al-Qassam carry a model of a rocket during a rally. (Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash90)

One year after Operation Protective Edge began, Hamas has nearly restored its pre-operation rocket capabilities, Ynet reported.

According to an official with Israel’s Southern Command, the terrorist group which governs the Gaza Strip has almost as many short range rockets and mortar shells as it did before the confrontation began.

During last summer’s 50-day conflict with Hamas, Israel set out to destroy Hamas’s arsenal of rockets, aimed at the Jewish State, as well as its network of terror tunnels under the Gaza-Israel border. According to IDF estimates, the army succeeded in obliterating over two-thirds of Hamas’s rockets and most of the tunnels.

Hamas has spent the year, however, rebuilding its stockpile. “Hamas is getting closer to finishing restoring its stock of mortar shells and short-range rockets,” the official said. “They don’t yet have the amount of medium- and long-range rockets (that can reach Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and further north) [they once] had. Hamas will not give up the ability to fire rockets deep into Israel in the next war, because to them, a routine of sirens and emergency situation in Tel Aviv is an achievement.”

Meanwhile, the group is also digging tunnels, but not necessarily the same ones Israel already destroyed. “Digging such cross-border tunnels could take years,” the official explained. “Hamas is nowhere near the border fence.”

The IDF is busy developing a defense system against such tunnels. In a few weeks, the official said, the second of two new tunnel defense systems will become operational along a section of the Gaza border.

“We’re on the verge of a breakthrough against the tunnels,” he asserted.

Regarding the road Hamas has been paving some 300 meters (about 984 feet) from the Israeli border, the official noted it gave Israel a certain advantage: it allows the IDF to monitor Hamas actions.  “Using this road, we can avoid confrontations, clashes and infiltration attempts into Israel,” he explained.

The source suggested Israel’s humanitarian actions regarding Gaza could influence whether there is another confrontation in the near future.

“We can have a more substantial rehabilitative process, which could undermine any claims of a siege and a blockade that in my opinion doesn’t exist, and raise the price of loss for the Gaza people. We recommended allowing more goods and allowing Palestinians to work in Israel after they pass security checks. The longer the economic problems in Gaza continue, the bigger the potential of friction, regardless of deterrence.”

The IDF, said the source, “is in a race against Hamas who will learn the lessons of Protective Edge faster.”

Read more at http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/45045/idf-source-hamas-rocket-arsenal-nearing-pre-war-levels/#xceqe2yM5wuPUdHx.99

Hamas Gets Off Terrorist List And The Next Day They Send Rockets Into Israel! It Is Time To Destroy Hamas!

Gaza Rocket Lands Outside of Eshkol Town

In breach of truce, rocket hits outside town a day after Hamas holds its largest military exercise since operation protective edge.

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By Ari Yashar

First Publish: 12/19/2014, 12:05 PM / Last Update: 12/19/2014, 12:08 PM

Rocket fire from Gaza (file)

Flash 90

A rocket was fired from Gaza early Friday afternoon, breaking the truce reached at the end of the last Hamas terror war.
"Color red" rocket warning sirens were sounded in communities in the Eshkol Regional Council area just outside of Gaza, and shortly thereafter it was reported that a rocket struck just outside a community in Eshkol; no wounds or damage were reported.
On Thursday there was a false alarm in Be'er Sheva, with rocket sirens sounding reportedly due to a technical malfunction.
The attack comes a day after Hamas held its largest military exercise since Operation Protective Edge on the ruins of two former Israeli villages - Dugit and Nissanit - in Gaza which were evacuated in the 2005 Disengagement plan, allowing Hamas to take over.
In the past few months, since the end of Operation Protective Edge, various incidents have occurred indicating Hamas' attempt to rebuild and regain military strength.
Among other things, the IDF has reported multiple test rocket launchings conducted by Hamas, in which rockets were shot out into the Mediterranean Sea.
In addition to restoring its rocket cache, Hamas has been activelyrebuilding the terror tunnels into Israel meant to attack civilians.
At least 30 of the tunnels were destroyed during the operation, and Hamas is currently using reconstruction materials sent to it by world nations and Israel to rebuild the tunnels.

Is It Time For The UN To Cease Being A Global Organization? Maybe It Would Be Best For Them To Move To Some Third World Dictatorship. They Would Feel More Welcome There!

UN Promoting Global Terror

By continuing its tragic bias against Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, the United Nations has allowed global terror to increase dramatically.

Prime Minister Netanyahu shows UN members a photo proving Hamas’ use of human shields. (Photo: Avi Ohayon/GPO)

When faced with clear proof that the Palestinians are committing acts of terror, the UN instead turns the focus and blame on Israel. In fact, while Christians are being abused and slaughtered in the Middle East, the UN condemns Israel for building homes in Jerusalem, the capital city of Israel!

Here is the official description of the UN, according to Wikipedia.

“The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization established 24 October 1945, to promote international co-operation. A replacement for the ineffective League of Nations, the organization was created following the Second World War to prevent another such conflict. At its founding, the UN had 51 member states; there are now 193. The headquarters of the United Nations is situated in Manhattan, New York City, and enjoys extraterritoriality. Further main offices are situated in Geneva, Nairobiand Vienna. The organization is financed by assessed and voluntary contributions from its member states. Its objectives include maintaining international peace and security, promoting human rights, fostering social and economic development, protecting the environment, and providing humanitarian aid in cases of famine, natural disaster, and armed conflict.”

For an organization that is meant to enhance peace and “intergovernmental organization,” going against Israel to such an extent is a major contradiction. The UN is directly responsible for allowing the continuation of violence against Israeli citizens. It is directly responsible for NOT maintaining international peace.

Take a look at the video below and see for yourselves.

Personal Letter Tells Horror Of Terror Tunnels In Gaza.

Purported letter from inside Gaza tells of tunnel toil, Hamas cruelty

By Paul Alster

Published August 16, 2014

FoxNews.com

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July 25, 2014: In this file photo, an Israeli army officer gives journalists a tour of a tunnel allegedly used by Palestinian militants for cross-border attacks, at the Israel-Gaza Border.AP

An emotional letter purportedly smuggled out of Gaza details one man’s harrowing participation in digging the tunnels that Israel blames for triggering the latest round of fighting and paints a bleak picture of life under Hamas control.

The 30-year-old Palestinian to whom the letter is attributed describes accepting a cryptic job offer, then being taken in a windowless truck with five others to a building where they were forced to dig tunnels for long, gruelling shifts in stretches that lasted 10 days.

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“We drove for an hour and finally they stopped and took us into a closed building. We didn’t know where we were,” reads the letter, the text of which has been released on the Internet. “They showed us a hole in the ground and told us to go down.

“We didn’t know where we’d been, or what tunnel we dug.”

- Purported letter smuggled out of Gaza City

“We walked for a few hundred meters, and when we got to the end, two Hamas members were waiting for us,” the letter continues. “They gave us working tools and explained to us what to do in order to make the tunnel longer.”

It goes on to describe back-breaking labor performed in unventilated shafts, with Hamas overseers screaming and even assaulting workers not deemed to be working hard enough. In the end, after the workers were taken back home and paid meager wages for their work, “We didn’t know where we’d been, or what tunnel we dug,” the letter said.

Earlier this week, The Times of Israel reported that Hamas killed dozens of tunnel diggers after their work was done to prevent leaks to Israel about the locations of the underground shafts. In addition to tunnelers purposely killed, The Journal of Palestine Studies in 2012 reported that Hamas leaders had admitted that, "at least 160 children have been killed in the tunnels," reflecting the fact that many children are also used as forced labor to dig the terror tunnels.

The writer, who sources told FoxNews.com lives in Gaza City, had the handwritten, Arabic letter smuggled out by courier to Itzik Azar, a resident of central Israel and friend of the writer’s late father.

In the letter, the writer also claims his father’s metalwork shop was commandeered by the U.S.-designated terrorist group soon after it came to power in Gaza in 2006, and used from that point on to turn out rockets.

“They [Hamas] set the prices and [placed the orders] from the workshop,” he wrote. “From that day, every morning an armed Hamas member used to come to the shop and give us orders to make winged metal pipes. Straight away I understood that they were used to launch rockets. One day a pickup truck came and the Hamas members took my father from the shop. We never saw him again. Later I learned they killed him and threw his body into a pit.”

The death of his father and the seizure of the family shop drove the man to jump at the chance to earn money, he said. When the latest hostilities between Israel Defense Forces and Hamas broke out more than two months ago, he realized his own work had played a role.

“We heard about the tunnels that Hamas dug and I understood that I helped them,” read the letter. “We pray that the world will help to free us from the fearful and cruel Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip. I pray for death to all Hamas members and that we will get freedom and a chance to live a normal life for our children in Gaza. Inshalla.”

Paul Alster is an Israel-based journalist. Follow him on Twitter @paul_alster and visit his website: www.paulalster.com

Iran Will Rearm Hamas While The Ceasefire Is In Effect. What Happens After? How Long Will Rockets Not Fly?

Iran Rearms Hamas

IRAN: THE FOURTH REICH PALESTINIAN LIES AND MYTHS: JIHAD AND JEW HATRED 

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Iran is arming Hamas. Once again, Iran is waging war by proxy. It’s what they do. When they created Hezb’allah, its first act was the Marine barracks bombing in Lebanon, killing 243 Marines.

Iran has been helping Hamas build up its massive arsenal of rockets, including some with a particularly long range, which it is now firing into Israeli cities and towns. Obama’s response to the terror state’s war against Israel? In between polishing the Mullah’s knobs, the Obama administration has asked Iran to “cease and desist” rocket shipments to Gaza. They have done what they always do: wage war while Obama talks to himself in the vanity mirror.

Iran arming Hamas proves yet again that Islamic Jew-hatred trumps Shia (Iran) hatred for  Sunnis (Hamas).

“Hamas has a considerable arsenal, some of it has been smuggled in, [and] some of those long range rockets they’ve fired in the last couple days were smuggled in” via illicit shipments sent by Iran, Dermer said on Capitol Hill during the July 9 Symposium, which brought together leading pro-Israel advocates in Washington, D.C.

The deployment of these advanced missiles endangers the majority of Israel and highlights the unseen role that Iran is playing in the latest confrontation between Israel and the Palestinians. (WFB)

Hamas is believed to possess several dozen Syrian-produced M-302 rockets, which are based on Iranian technology and have the ability to penetrate deep into Israel. One such missile was fired Tuesday on the northern Israeli city of Hadera, which is located near Haifa.

“Who is the enabler for Hamas? Where do they get those rockets?” asked House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce Friday morning. “It’s Iran.”

 ”Iran attempting to rearm Hamas with missiles,” Aaron Klein, WND, July 14, 2014
Amid international calls for cease-fire

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/07/iran-attempting-to-rearm-hamas-with-missiles/#rRyb0gFxFpuR2Z5V.99

TEL AVIV – Amid international calls for a cease-fire, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah organization is already implementing plans to rearm Hamas in the Gaza Strip with more missiles following any truce, according to informed Middle Eastern defense officials.

Israel, meanwhile, continues its aerial offensive aimed at minimizing Hamas’ rocketing capabilities as the Arab League and the European Union join other international calls for a truce. Among them are Secretary of State John Kerry, who has offered to broker a cease-fire.

Diplomatic sources in Jerusalem say Israel is willing to discuss a 48-hour respite in the military campaign targeting Hamas’ terrorist infrastructure while a longer-term truce is negotiated.

The sources said it is Hamas that has rejected the truce, believing it can still achieve a mass-casualty event inside Israel so that it can emerge from the week-long confrontation declaring a “victory.”

To that effect, Hamas attempted Monday to escalate its attacks with bombardments of southern Israeli communities and foiled attempts to send drones into Israel.

One drone was shot down with a U.S.-supplied Patriot missile as it flew over the southern city of Ashdod. Video footage of the explosion indicates the unmanned aircraft was carrying a large payload of explosives that could have been used to carry out a devastating attack.

Hamas claims it successfully flew two more drones over Israeli territory Monday, one armed with missiles. It claims one unarmed drone flew over the Tel Aviv headquarters of the Israel Defense Forces.

IDF said it was not aware of any drone activity over Tel Aviv.

Hamas says all drones deployed Monday were models of the Ababil-1, an Iranian-made drone.

Egyptian military sources told WND the Hamas claim of flying a drone over Tel Aviv is being taken seriously.

Hamas, the Egyptian sources said, laid out its conditions for a long-term truce, including the reopening of Egypt-Gaza crossings and the release of more than 60 Hamas officials arrested by Israel in the West Bank in response to the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teens.

The report of Iran’s Hezbollah proxy attempting to rearm Hamas comes after WND reported Saturday Hezbollah reopened an operational room with Hamas to coordinate regional militant developments, according to informed Mideast defense officials.

The operational room, commissioned at the direction of Iran, is in Lebanon. It is coordinating with Hamas command and control in the Gaza Strip, the defense officials said.

In another alarming development, the defense officials said the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad terrorist organization is not answering to Hamas and is shooting rockets into Israel at times without the approval of Hamas leaders. The move could complicate any cease-fire achieved between Israel and Hamas, and it gives Iran more discretion over the Gazan Palestinian arena.

The reopening of an operational room between Hezbollah and Hamas signifies the rapprochement of cooperation between Iran and Hamas in the current crisis in Gaza. In the last two years, Iran has tempered its relationship with Hamas because it failed to aid in any significant way the regime of Iran’s ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which has been facing a Sunni-led militant insurgency.

On the ground, the strengthening of Hamas-Iran ties could have two major implications for Israel.

First, Israel could face coordinated rocket attacks from both Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. On Friday, one Katyusha rocket was fired into northern Israel, prompting fears of the opening of a second front against Israel. On Monday, two more rockets were reportedly launched from Lebanon.

Second, Hamas may be more hardened in its truce talks with Israel.

WND reported Thursday that Iran opposes a truce at this time and has even been attempting to use jihadist surrogates in the Gaza Strip to cause a mass casualty event in Israel that would provoke an Israeli ground operation, according to informed Middle Eastern security officials.

- See more at: http://pamelageller.com/2014/07/iran-rearms-hamas.html/#sthash.8y4yFvI6.dpuf

Will The Latest Gaza/Israeli Ceasefire Hold Or....

Gaza ceasefire sets stage for Cairo talks

Humanitarian truce brokered by Egypt holds in Palestinian enclave as both sides agree to take part in indirect talks. Last updated: 05 Aug 2014 18:37 LISTEN

A 72-hour truce took hold in Gaza on Tuesday as Israel withdrew troops following four weeks of bitter fighting and Palestinians ventured out to find scenes of destruction. The guns fell silent after 29 days of fighting, bringing an end to the bloodshed that killed at least 1,867 Palestinians and 67 people in Israel. Officials on both sides confirmed they had sent small delegations to Cairo for talks aimed at securing a permanent ceasefire after the 72-hour window closes. Just minutes before the truce took hold, sirens wailed in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv as Hamas fired 16 rockets over the border, while Israeli warplanes carried out at least five strikes on Gaza. Al Jazeera's Imtiaz Tyab, reporting from Beit Hanoun in the territory's north, said he could hear the Israeli air strikes just before the clock struck 8am local time. "We haven't heard anything outgoing or incoming since 8am," he said. Tyab said large numbers of Israeli ground forces had left the Beit Hanoun area, and residents were returning. Israeli troops had also left the southern Rafah area, according to Al Jazeera's Charles Stratford. As well as brokering the truce, the Egyptian government invited Israel and the Palestinians to attend indirect talks in Cairo aimed at securing a permanent end to violence. Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner, Israeli military spokesman, earlier said Israeli troops would "be redeployed in defensive positions outside the Gaza Strip and we will maintain those defensive positions". He said the army overnight destroyed the last of 32 tunnels located inside Gaza. "Today we completed the removal of this threat," he said. Three similar ceasefire agreements have collapsed since the violence began, and Israel  had resumed  air strikes on Gaza after a patchy and limited seven-hour humanitarian truce ended on Monday, with one attack killing two people and wounding 16. Both Hamas and Israel earlier confirmed the deal to Al Jazeera, with officials from each side pledging to commit to the truce and warning the other against violating it. "The deal is that we will have a 72-hour humanitarian ceasefire," Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas leader, told Al Jazeera, adding that he hoped Israel could "control itself". "During those 72-hours there will be a delegation from Israel coming to Cairo. There will be indirect negotiations between Palestinian and Israeli sides for a ceasefire and the lift of a siege on Gaza and other Palestinian demands." Mark Regev, a spokesman for the Israeli prime minister, told Al Jazeera that Israel was ready to discuss all of the issues on the table, but that it still had concerns. "Our goals in this operation have always been ultimately defensive," Regev said. "If that goal of protecting our people from the rockets and the death squads can be done diplomatically, through this Egyptian agreement, then wonderful. We'll be looking very closely to ensure that Hamas does in fact ... live up to its obligations." Al Jazeera's James Bays, reporting from West Jerusalem, said while the negotiations would be difficult, this time "neither side is prepared to have a stopgap deal". "Last time the Israeli military were continuing their operations. This time around it is different and it has a bigger chance," Bays said. Ban Ki-moon, UN secretary-general, urged "utmost restraint" after the truce was announced. He urged both sides to "commence, as soon as possible, talks in Cairo on a durable ceasefire and the underlying issues," his office said hours after the announcement was made. "In this regard, he welcomes the proactive engagement of the Palestinian delegation under the leadership of President Abbas."

Even Tech Sites Becoming Anti-Israel Mouthpieces! The Isolation Of Israel Is Moving Ahead Full Steam!

Is Tech Site Mashable.com Siding with Hamas Terrorists?

by
BRYAN PRESTON

Bio

July 24, 2014 - 3:31 pm

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Mashable.com, one of the largest tech and culture websites on the planet, appears to be taking a side in the ongoing war in Gaza.

The site best known for posts about things buried in software user agreements and happy photo ops with the president who claims that he isn’t interested in photo ops is taking a decidedly pro-Hamas editorial point of view as it and Israel fight in Gaza.

That war started when terrorists linked to Hamas, which is itself categorized as a terrorist group by the U.S. State Department and the European Union, kidnapped three Israeli teenagers and later executed them. One of those teenagers, 16-year-old Naftali Frankel, also had American citizenship.

On June 14, when Mashable reported on the boys’ kidnapping, in describing Hamas it put “terrorist group” in scare quotes.

Even after the boys’ bodies were discovered, Mashable made sure to distance Hamas from the murders.

Hamas soon began to launch some of its estimated 10,000 to 20,000 rockets at Israeli population centers. Israel has responded with an air, land and sea campaign to destroy Hamas’ tunnels and its rocket arsenal.

Israel is going out of its way to avoid civilian casualties, while Hamas places civilian casualties at the center of its strategy. Hamas targets Israel’s civilians, and it places its weapons close to Palestinian schools and hospitals to force Israel to choose between risking killing Palestinian civilians to destroy those weapons, or leave its own civilians at risk if it does not destroy those weapons. If Palestinian civilians die in Israeli attacks, they become part of the group’s propaganda. If Israel decides not to strike Hamas weapons caches near civilian targets, then some Israelis will be attacked with those very weapons.

Mashable’s coverage of the conflict has tilted away from Israel, the Middle East’s sole democracy and one in which Arabs can become full citizens, and toward Hamas terrorists. Where Hamas rules, as in much of the Islamic world, Christians and Jews are at best second-class, are systematically persecuted and are often subjected to pogroms.

In an Associated Press story on the “disappearance” of rockets that Hamas hid in UN schools to which Mashable contributed reporting, the AP and Mashable hide the lead down in the sixth paragraph, and even then avoid calling Hamas what it is.

UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. secretary-general on Wednesday said he was “alarmed” to hear that rockets were placed in a U.N.-run school in Gaza, and now “have gone missing.” He also demanded a full review of such incidents.

A spokesperson for Ban Ki-moon expressed the U.N. chief’s “outrage and regret” at the placement of weapons at a site run by the global organization. This has happened at least twice so far in the current conflict, according to the U.N.

“Those responsible are turning schools into potential military targets, and endangering the lives of innocent children,” U.N. staff and anyone seeking shelter, the statement said.

The rockets had been placed at one of the schools run by the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Gaza (UNRWA).

Once they were found, “in accordance with standard practice, UNRWA handed them over to the local authorities. Since then, they have gone missing,” Ban’s deputy spokesperson, Farhan Haq, said in an email Wednesday evening.

The Islamic militant group Hamas controls Gaza. The U.S., Israel and the European Union all consider Hamas a terrorist organization, but the U.N. does not.

The entire story is written to hide what Hamas was doing — hiding its rockets in UN-run schools, rockets it uses against Israel’s civilian population. Both of those acts are war crimes.

In the most biased story Mashable has run on the conflict to date, the site takes cues from Pallywood and puts a dying Palestinian child front and center. This is the kind of propaganda story Hamas hopes comes from Israel exercising its duty to defend its people.

In “‘Am I Going to Die, Daddy?’ The Child in Gaza Asked,” reporter Jon Snow states that “If the Israelis have proved anything, it is that there is no such thing as a forensic strike.” Snow never allows for the fact while Israel tries to avoid civilian casualties, while Hamas feeds on them.

After chronicling several heart-breaking cases of kids caught up in the crossfire, Snow rhetorically asks “Can they really be the acceptable collateral damage of targeting militants?”

The tone of the entire piece puts the moral responsibility for all casualties in Gaza not on Hamas, the terrorist group that is still dedicated to destroying Israel and which started the current conflict, but on Israel.

Snow ends his piece with this:

I was amazed to find a small sachet of shampoo as I went to a cold shower tonight — salty again. Obviously, you cannot make bombs out of shampoo and so there is no embargo on it. But clearly you can make bombs from paint because there isn’t any. This is the most wretchedly unpainted urban place I have ever been.

And beyond it all, why won’t they talk? This cannot go on. It is the children, tomorrow’s Palestinians, who are paying the price.

Today’s and tomorrow’s Israelis are paying a price too, are they not? You wouldn’t know it from reading Jon Snow, or indeed anything published at Mashable.

Snow’s piece fits well within Hamas’ anti-Israel propaganda. Why is a tech site like Mashable publishing it?

The closest that the site gets to fair reporting is probably this piece on Jews and Arabs who are making friends and more despite the conflict. Even this piece, though, plays up Arabs’ peaceful intent and ignores the anti-Semitism that pervades Arab culture and communications around the world.

The fact is, whether Mashable is aware of it or not, Palestinian voters elected Hamas to power knowing full well that that would mean war with Israel. And polls find that Palestinians continue to want to destroy Israel.

In the current war, Hamas and the Palestinians who still support Hamas are getting what they want.