Events to commemorate the memories of 23,741 fallen soldiers and civilians began in Israel on Tuesday evening as part of Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism.

According to the Defense Ministry’s Families and Commemoration Department, 56 casualties were added to the count this year, including 40 disabled people who died as a result of their condition.

The Defense Ministry said it expected more than 1.5 million Israelis to visit military cemeteries across the country on Wednesday.

Memorial Day marks the memories of fallen from the Israel Defense Forces, the Shin Bet and Mossad intelligence services, the Israel Police and the Israel Prisons Service. It also honors the memories of civilians murdered in terrorist attacks.

A one-minute siren sounds at 8 p.m. on the eve of Memorial Day, and a two-minute siren sounds at 11 a.m. on Memorial Day on Wednesday. Flags on public builds are at half-mast, and ceremonies take place across the country, including in 52 military cemeteries and some 50 memorial monuments.

The Defense Ministry has sent teams to cemeteries and ceremonies around the country to hand out hundreds of thousands of water bottles, plant new plants and place more than 20,000 chairs—one at each gravesite. Tens of thousands of memorial candles and flags have also been set in place.

The Defense Ministry describes Memorial Day as arguably the most prominent day on the calendar that promotes national consensus and identification, and reduces divisions. The day is “designed for the whole of Israeli society and not exclusively for bereaved families,” it said.

In 2017, the state constructed an official Memorial Hall of Israel’s Fallen at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, officially unveiling it during Memorial Day 2017.

The Hall is where the central memorial ceremony will begin on Wednesday following the 11 a.m. siren, and where the memorial candles will be lit. The ceremony will be attended by Prime Minister and Defense Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Reuven Rivlin, the IDF Chief of General Staff Lt. Col. Aviv Kochavi and the Acting Israel Police Commissioner Moti Cohen. The ceremony will also be attended by the head of the Mossad, Yossi Cohen, and the head of the Shin Bet, Nadav Argaman, as well as head of the Prisons Service Asher Vaknin.

The Defense Ministry described the Memorial Hall as a place that commemorates all of the fallen since 1860, including all of those who fell in Israel’s wars. It is a place that “allows personal and collective commemoration,” and an expression of the “moral duty to remember them all,” the Ministry stated.

The Ministry added that the central goal of its Families and Commemoration Department is to express respect and recognition held by the state for its fallen, and to provide an ongoing service to support bereaved families.

Bereaved families receive year-round support from Defense Ministry teams, including home visits and continuous communications. Care-givers tend to the needs of the elderly and provide workshops on how to manage household expenses for bereaved parents, widows and widowers.

This year, the Defense Ministry said that 40 care-giving groups were active, helping aging parents, widows, adult orphans, newly bereaved parents and bereaved Druze mothers.

The Ministry said that Memorial Day is represented by three symbols: “Lighting the candles for commemorating memories, placing flower arrangements for emotional expression and placing small national flags with black memorial ribbons tied around them on each grave, as an expression of national honor for the fallen and the participation of state in the sense of loss of bereaved families.”

            (JNS.org)

Qatar’s foreign ministry announced it will transfer half a billion dollars to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and Judea and Samaria.

Qatar will send $480 million in support of Palestinians in Judea and Samaria and Gaza, the country’s foreign ministry announced in a statement on Monday.

According to Qatar, $300 million will go to the Palestinians in the forms of grants and loans for health and education. The remaining $180 million will be put toward urgent humanitarian needs, supporting U.N. efforts and providing electricity to areas that need it.

The money comes after a ceasefire was reached between Israel and Hamas. The terror group, together with the smaller Iran-sponsored Islamic Jihad, fired an estimated 600-700 rockets into Israel, killing four and wounding 145. It is reportedly the worst round of fighting between the two since 2014’s Operation Protective Edge.

According to reports, the transfer of Qatari money was part of the agreement reached between Israel and Hamas, which included other conditions, such as expanding Gaza’s fishing area and the opening of the border crossings.

However, Israel denies that any conditions were agreed upon.

One Israeli official told Ynet news, “No conditions were set between the sides and there’s no promise that hostilities won’t be renewed in a short time. We hope that the great damage to the organization [Hamas] in the last two days will bring them to understand that it’s not worthwhile to open a campaign against us. But there’s no understanding, just a slide into a ceasefire. Money from Qatar will continue to pass.”

Qatar has transferred over $1.1 billion between 2012 and 2018 to the terror group Hamas. It supplied $200 million in aid just in 2018.

Qatar also gave $50 million to UNRWA, the United Nations relief agency for the Palestinian refugees, propping up the organization after the U.S. pulled its funding on August 31, 2018.

“The United States will no longer commit further funding to this irredeemably flawed operation,” a State Department spokesman said at the time.

In other timely affairs in Israel, it has been reported that Prime Minister and Defense Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the Israeli Supreme Court’s ruling allowing some 100 Palestinians to attend an alternative Memorial Day event in Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park on Tuesday night, in spite of a closure on Arab entry from Judea and Samaria.

            (World Israel News)

“While children were boarding the bus, they shot fireworks at us from a distance of only several dozen yards,” said a mother.

Arab teens shot firecrackers at Jewish children on Tuesday in a neighborhood located on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, according to residents.

“We were looking out the window. We saw masked individuals throwing at a preschool,” says Mordechai Taub, who lives in Maale Ha’Zeitim. He says that they appeared to be hurling firecrackers.

The children targeted by the Arab teens fled the scene and managed to avoid injury, Arutz Sheva reported.

When local security guards approached the teens, the attackers shot several firecrackers at the guards before escaping, says the website.

In addition to throwing the firecrackers near the preschool, they also targeted an elementary school bus.

“We went out with the kids to the bus, like every morning,” Hodaya Shomron, a mother of two, told Arutz Sheva.

“While children were boarding the bus, they shot fireworks at us from a distance of only several dozen yards,” she added.

“They didn’t shoot in the air or in some other direction, they fired straight at us, it was just like shooting… The guards closed the gates [of the neighborhood], and together with my husband they approached the Arabs, who shot another firework at them, then fled,” said Shomron.

She said that some ten minutes later, the gates were reopened and the children were able to get on the bus and go to school.

“A few years ago, this was almost a daily occurrence,” Taub told World Israel News.

On one side of the neighborhood, he says, a roadblock was set up and Border Police personnel were positioned there. They remained there roughly six months, Taub adds, during which time the situation “quieted down.”

On the other side of the neighborhood, he says, violence persisted with Molotov cocktail attacks carried out by assailants who would hurl the explosives and escape into the nearby Silwan neighborhood.

Though he concedes that he is not privy to the details of Israeli security activity, Taub says of the attackers that “there are no lone wolves.”

They’re affiliated with groups who push them to carry out attacks at particular times, he asserts, though he could not be sure what the motive was Tuesday, perhaps the situation in the Gaza Strip or Israel’s marking of Memorial Day and Independence Day, Tuesday night through Thursday.

            (World Israel News)

Read More at: worldisraelnews.com

“Telling one side alone is willfully naive at best, and a worrying betrayal of the truth at worst,” says Simon Plosker of HonestReporting.

While Israel absorbed as many as 700 rockets fired by the terrorist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad from the Gaza Strip over the weekend, the media turned the tables on the aggression and launched its usual assault on the Jewish state.

“It’s Israel against Palestinian terrorists, so we always know which side the American media will take—the ‘terrorists,’ ” Dan Gainor, vice president of business and culture at the Media Research Center, a media watchdog group, told JNS. “Except they won’t ever call them that. Fire 700 rockets indiscriminately trying to kill men, women, and children, and the press labels you a ‘militant,’ as long as they support your cause.”

Gainor cited a “usual list of errors and fallacies – like how Gaza is ‘occupied’ or ‘surrounded’ – neither of which is true. Israel pulled out of Gaza more than a decade ago and it was rewarded by the creation of a terror state.”

Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005.

One straightforward headline in The New York Times in the past few days, “Gaza Militants Fire 250 Rockets, and Israel Responds With Airstrikes,” was attacked by Yousef Munayyer, executive director of the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, as “a stunningly irresponsible and misleading headline.” His complaint? That it wasn’t slanted in favor of the Palestinians.

That’s how uneven the playing field has become.

“Beyond just inaccurate, it is also dangerous. Israel’s violent oppression of Palestinians is enabled by media willing to tell a story in a way that always justifies Israeli violence at the expense of truth, accuracy and context,” said Munayyer in a subsequent tweet.

“It also highlights the orientalist lens thru which Western media covers Israel/Palestine, where Israeli life is considered far more valuable than Palestinian life. News always starts when Israeli life is threatened, while harm to Palestinian life is not news but ‘normal,’” added Munayyer.

“When will the world stop dehumanizing our Palestinian people who just want to be free? Headlines like this & framing it in this way just feeds into the continued lack of responsibility on Israel who unjustly oppress & target Palestinian children and families. #FreePalestine,” tweeted U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, sharing Munayyer’s Twitter thread.

However, Sean Durns, senior research analyst at the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, told JNS, “Several major Western media outlets have offered poor and biased coverage of the latest terrorist attacks targeting Israel. Several outlets failed to make clear to readers that Israel’s actions were a response to terrorists launching an unprecedented number of rockets into Israeli territory.”

He cited The Wall Street Journal, which published a story with the headline “Israel and Gaza Trade Deadly Attacks,” providing “readers false equivalency between the actions of a U.S.-designated terror group that targets Israeli civilians and uses human shields as cover – a double war-crime – and the Jewish state, which utilizes the Iron Dome defense system, targeted strikes and roof knocking, to minimize casualties.”

Durns added, “For its part, The Washington Post, CNN and others have continued to treat the Hamas-controlled Gazan Health Ministry as a credible source.”

(JNS.org)

Just days before Israel is set to celebrate its Independence Day, 220 Jews from Ukraine landed in Israel, arriving on Monday on three flights organized by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (ICFJ), known in Israel as Keren L’Yedidut.

The Olim (new immigrants) remained undeterred from making Aliyah despite terrorists firing over 700 rockets at Israel over the weekend. 42 of the Olim have chosen to move to the cities of Ashdod, Ashkelon, Sderot, Gan Yavne and Beersheba, which were targeted by the terrorists ‘ fire.

Among the Olim are 50 children. The oldest is 84 years old.

“More than anything else, I am inspired by the immigrants who choose to continue to settle in Israel’s southern region and Gaza Envelope,” said President of The Fellowship, Yael Eckstein.

The Fedorchuk family from Kharkov will be moving to Ashdod. Stanislav said that he and his wife Alina had been preparing to move to Israel for quite some time, and that they chose Ashdod so they can live close to their relatives.

The Sidorenko-Makovetsky family from Nikopol is moving Gan Yavne, despite having some reservations about doing so following the recent rocket attacks.

“The situation in the south of the country is very stressful. We have two small children, and although we are very afraid that they could be harmed both emotionally and physically, we believe in the Israel Defense Forces and the Iron Dome system to protect us,” they said.

The Olim received a pre-arrival training seminar, which included tools in dealing with the threat of rocket attacks on Israel.

“This has been a challenging time of late for Jews everywhere, as increasing anti-Semitism is evident in many countries and reminds us of dark times when defenseless Jews fell prey to persecution and destruction,” said Eckstein. “However, to our great joy, today we have a state and a Jewish people responsible for its own fate. ”

This group is not the only one arriving this week to celebrate Israel’s Independence Day as new citizens. Another 37 Olim from Uruguay, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Brazil, Venezuela and France, will arrive in Israel, thanks to Christian friends of Israel.

For more than 20 years, IFCJ has been helping Jews to make Aliyah and has invested more than $200 million in bringing approximately 750,000 Olim to Israel.

            (TPS)

A tense quiet settled over southern Israel Monday morning after another ceasefire between the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror groups and Israel came into effect.

The IDF announced that all limitations and precautions following the hostilities have been removed, and life can go back to normal. Schools opened at most locations in the south.

Israel and Hamas have reportedly resumed talks on a long-term ceasefire, and Hamas will receive millions in funds from Qatar and an ease on other terror-related restrictions Israel has placed on Gaza.

The supposed end of the hostilities comes after an extremely violent 60 hours of warfare, in which the Gaza-based terror groups fired close to 700 rockets at Israeli cities and towns, killing four Israelis and wounding dozens of others, some still in serious condition.

The victims are Moshe Agadi, 58 and a father of four, Ziad al-Hamamda, 47 and a father of seven, Moshe Feder, 68, and Pinchas Menachem Prezuazman, 21 and a father of a baby.

The Iron Dome defense systems intercepted some 240 rockets on their way to Israeli to civilian targets. While the system had a 90 percent success rate, buildings took direct hits from rockets.

In response to the attacks, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) carried some 350 strikes against terror groups, killing some 20 terrorists and hitting strategic terror targets.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far remained silent on the latest developments. Just hours before the ceasefire came into effect he met with a delegation of US ambassadors in Europe led by US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman. He updated the delegation on the security situation, and said that Israel had the right to defend itself, adding that it would “take all necessary measures to ensure this.”

This was the 11th such round of attacks-retaliations between Israel and the Gazan terror groups in the last year.

Alya and Tommy Shapiro were planning to celebrate Liam’s fourth birthday in Ashdod on Saturday when their plans were violently disturbed by barrages of rockets launched by terrorists from Gaza.

They understood that celebrating in Ashdod was no longer an option, so they decided to move further north with the hope of finding peace there.

Liam was subsequently sent to Jerusalem, while Tommy, Alya and the twin toddlers Eliana and Arian returned home to Ashdod. As they were entering the city they came under a massive barrage of rocket fire and saw the explosions in the sky caused by the Iron Dome’s interceptions of the incoming rockets. The babies were shocked.

Tommy, 39 and a lawyer, initially thought the violence would end shortly, like in previous such incidents, but he soon learned that this time was different. The intensity, volume and insistent fire were nothing he had previously experienced.

Seeking shelter, he entered the secured-room in his apartment and did not leave until the fire ceased over 24 hours later. Alya, a nurse, was required at the hospital, so he spent the next day playing with the two babies and calming them as much as possible.

            (TPS)

Tensions between the Hamas and Islamic Jihad factions in Gaza are running high, as Iran, which backs the Islamic Jihad and factions within Hamas, is seeking to push the area into a bloodbath while weakening Egypt’s sway on the ongoing developments in the Strip.

The friction between the factions exists under the surface. A source within Gaza told TPS that the drama between the factions is ongoing and is part of the reasons that pushed the two terror group to attack Israel.

The Islamic Jihad has learned, through leaks from Iran, that Hamas has made no progress in its negotiations with Israel, despite Hamas’ claims otherwise.

The Islamic Jihad has also learned the Hamas is focusing on the release of terrorists held in Israeli prisons, an achievement that would earn Hamas political clout at its expense.

Therefore, the Islamic Jihad attacked Israel in an attempt to thwart the deal.

Iran is not pleased with its rival Egypt’s sway on the region and has told Hamas that it is likewise unhappy the Hamas and Egypt are growing close. Iran has further told Hamas that it is interested in a bloody front with Israel on the Gaza border that will keep Israel busy and its focus away from Iran’s activities in Syria.

The source further said that while both terror groups fired at Israel, Islamic Jihad led the initiative to serve its Iranian masters and to thwart Hamas’ plans for a ceasefire with Israel.

The Islamic Jihad has gained power and independence in recent months, despite Hamas’ attempts to coordinate its actions with it.

In a related development, The Islamic Jihad terror group has admitted that a rocket it fired on Saturday evening killed a baby in the Gaza Strip, despite initial claims she was killed in an Israeli strike.

Gazan sources identified the victims as 14-month-old Saba Mahmoud Abu ‘Arar and her pregnant mother Falastin, although the initial reports of the identity of the woman appear to have been inaccurate, and it was not the baby’s mother – rather another female victim in the household.

TPS has learned that the baby and woman were killed when Islamic Jihad terrorists launched a rocket towards Israel from within a populated area in the east of Gaza City, but the rocket misfired and landed short, exploding in a nearby house and killing the two.

Mahmoud H., a local resident, told TPS about a massive pit he saw inside the house after the rocket’s explosion.

The rocket was locally produced and may have malfunctioned or exploded prematurely because of the low-grade explosives.

The Hamas-controlled Gazan Ministry of Health initially announced that Saba’s mother was killed, but then claimed that another woman named Falastin Abu ‘Arar was killed in the explosion. She may be Saba’s aunt.

A source in Gaza told TPS that Islamic Jihad representatives met with the Abu ‘Arar family on Sunday morning and offered them full compensation and a registry of the baby as a “Shahid” entitled to long-term support in exchange for their silence.

Arab journalists in Gaza are aware of the facts, but have refrained from reporting on them due to the sensitivity of the situation.

TPS was successful in capturing Hamas’ report on the Islamic Jihad’s culpability.

            (TPS)

Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) released its traditional statistics report on the citizens of Israel in honor of Yom Ha’Atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day, which is celebrated this year on Wednesday night and Thursday.

Israel has 9,021,000 citizens, more than 10 times its population of 806,000 at the time of the establishment of the Jewish state in 1948.

On Israel’s 100th birthday, in 2048, the CBS estimate that Israel’s population will grow to about 15 million citizens. According to CBS projections, Israel’s population will surpass 10 million sometime between 2025 and 2030.

The Jewish population stands at 6,697,000 million, 75 percent of the entire population. Israel’s Arab citizens constitute 20.9 percent of the total population, numbering approximately 1,890,000. Non-Arab Christians and other religious groups constitute 4.8 percent of the population.

Since last year’s Independence Day, Israel’s population grew by 177,000, constituting a 2 percent growth, including 188,000 newborn babies; 47,000 people have died.

Israel welcomed 31,000 new immigrants. Some 3.2 million people have made Aliyah (immigration to Israel) since 1948, making up 43 percent of the total population.

About 75 percent of Israel’s population is Israeli-born, known as “sabras.” In 1948, only 35 percent were sabras.

48,000 Israelis are older than 90.

At the time of the establishment of the State of Israel, only one city had more than 100,000 residents – Tel Aviv-Yaffo. Today, 14 cities have over 100,000 residents; eight of them have more than 200,000. They are Jerusalem, Tel Aviv-Yaffo, Haifa, Rishon Letzion, Petah Tikvah, Ashdod, Netanya and Beer Sheva.

Israel’s capital, Jerusalem, is the most populated city, with some 883,000 residents – almost 10 percent of the population.

In 1949, Israel had merely 500 cities and towns. Today, it has over 1,200.

Israel has 68 institutions of higher education.

In 2019, over 70 years after the Holocaust, the largest Jewish population lives in Israel. This figure represents 43 percent of world Jewry.

    (Tazpit Press Service)