JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.GET SAVED NOW- CALL ON JESUS TODAY.THE ONLY SAVIOR OF THE WHOLE EARTH - NO OTHER.
1 COR 15:23-JESUS THE FIRST FRUITS-CHRISTIANS RAPTURED TO JESUS-FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT-23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.ROMANS 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.(THE PRE-TRIB RAPTURE)
LUKE 21:28-29
28 And when these things begin to come to pass,(ALL THE PROPHECY SIGNS FROM THE BIBLE) then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption (RAPTURE) draweth nigh.
29 And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree,(ISRAEL) and all the trees;(ALL INDEPENDENT COUNTRIES)
30 When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.(ISRAEL LITERALLY BECAME AND INDEPENDENT COUNTRY JUST BEFORE SUMMER IN MAY 14,1948.)
JOEL 2:3,30
3 A fire devoureth (ATOMIC BOMB) before them;(RUSSIAN-ARAB-MUSLIM ARMIES AGAINST ISRAEL) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(ATOMIC BOMB AFFECT)
ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their eyes shall consume away in their holes,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB)(BECAUSE NUKES HAVE BEEN USED ON ISRAELS ENEMIES)(GOD PROTECTS ISRAEL AND ALWAYS WILL)
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.(1/2-3 BILLION DIE IN WW3)(THIS IS AN ATOMIC BOMB EFFECT)
EZEKIEL 20:47
47 And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.
ZEPHANIAH 1:18
18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
MALACHI 4:1
1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven;(FROM ATOMIC BOMBS) and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
And here are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either through war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and only Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this land in the future.
Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the Western Half of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.12 TRIBES INHERIT LAND IN THE FUTURE
IDF: 15 soldiers committed suicide in the past year-Army releases details on 41 troops who died in 2016: 4 in operations, 9 in on-base accidents, 7 in car accidents, 6 from illness-By Judah Ari Gross January 9, 2017, 8:10 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Suicide was the main cause of death among IDF soldiers in 2016, more than terror attacks, training accidents, car crashes or illness, the army reported Sunday.Some 15 IDF soldiers — all of them male — committed suicide in 2016, the same number as the year before and the year before that, according to a senior official in the IDF’s Manpower Directorate.In total, 41 soldiers died over the course of the past year, according to year-end statistics released by the military. This is a slight increase from 2015, in which 36 soldiers were killed, but represents a significant improvement from a decade ago.From 2007 to 2011, the number of soldiers killed each year was approximately 64. Not including 2014, in which the Gaza war took place, from 2012 to 2016, the number of soldiers killed each year dropped to its current level of approximately 40.According to the IDF, in addition to the 15 soldiers who committed suicide, four soldiers were killed in the course of military operations, nine in on-base accidents, seven in off-duty car accidents and six died from illness or other medical reasons.Another 43 soldiers were seriously hurt during the course of 2016, the official said.Most of the soldiers injured or killed were conscripted troops. A smaller portion were career soldiers, and a handful were reservists who were in service at the time of their deaths, the army said.Of the soldiers who committed suicide, for instance, 12 were conscripts, two were career soldiers, and one was a reservist.As in 2016, when all of the soldiers who committed suicide were male, every year, the majority of suicides are by male soldiers — around 90 percent — but having zero female soldiers take their own lives is rare, according to the official.According to the army, no specific “weak” populations, like new immigrants or members of the Ethiopian community, were over-represented in the 15 soldiers who committed suicide, which is another change from previous years.The official credited a number of new army programs with bringing down those suicides in these different groups, specifically one known as Moledet, or Homeland, which helps soldiers prepare for the culture of the army.Maintaining the same suicide rate among soldiers for 2016 was not a given, as there was reason to suspect that suicides in the IDF would increase over the past year.Following a February terror attack, in which IDF soldier Tuvia Yanai Weissman, who was denied his request to take home his service weapon for an extended leave, was killed, the army loosened its rules regarding the practice.The prohibition on soldiers’ taking their service weapons home during extended leaves — vacations longer than a weekend — was put in place in 2006, in order to prevent troops from using those weapons to commit suicide, which at the time was occurring at a significantly higher rate than today.A 2010 military study found that this measure alone was responsible for a 40% decrease in the total number of suicides by IDF soldiers. Another study found that the regulation was responsible for a 57% decrease.For instance, in 2005, some 36 soldiers committed suicide, and 28 did so the following year. Since then, the numbers have steadily decreased, reaching just seven suicides in 2013.While the army felt confident that the other programs it had put it place would prevent soldiers from taking their own lives, the decision to cancel the ban on taking weapons home during extended leaves raised the possibility that the suicide rate would rise.According to the officer, a number of suicide-awareness programs and initiatives, in addition to Moledet, have been put into place since the ban was put into place.Commanders are also better trained to look for warning signs of depression and suicidal thoughts. They also visit the homes of at-risk soldiers, she said.Mental health officers, known in the army by their Hebrew acronym kaban, are in contact with commanders at every level of the army, the senior official said.She also stressed that while soldiers were permitted to take weapons home during their leaves, this was not done without supervision.“We were strict on who takes home a weapon. It wasn’t whoever wants one,” the officer said.While suicides remained at the same level as in 2015 and 2014, the number of on-base accidents went up in 2016, the army said.Most recently, in November, Sgt. Ido Ben-Ari was killed when the tank in which he was riding flipped over. Three other soldiers were also wounded.And in July, two soldiers — Sgt. Shlomo Rindenow and Staff Sgt. Hussam Tafesh — died when the grenade Tafesh had been playing with went off outside their post in the Golan Heights.The official had no specific explanation for the uptick in the number of accidents in 2016, but said it was a “minor increase in an overall decreasing trend.”Figures provided by the army back up that claim for training accidents, which happened at least once or twice a year from 2005 to 2010, but mostly dropped off in the years since then. (The statistics only went back to 2005.) The number of accidents involving aircraft similarly dropped off in recent years, with the notable exception of Maj. Ohad Cohen Nov, who was killed in October when his F-16 crashed.One of the army’s most dramatic improvements, however, has been in the number of soldiers killed in off-duty car accidents. Between 2005 and 2011, the number hovered around 15, with a peak of 24 and a low of 11. For the past three years, the number has stayed between seven and eight, according to army figures.This was accomplished by requiring soldiers to get adequate sleep before leaving for base and rolling out an anti-drinking-and-driving campaign, the IDF officer said.
Cameras, toy airplanes smuggled into Gaza in TV sets-Shin Bet security service says some of the equipment was delivered to Hamas, could be used for military purposes-By Times of Israel staff January 9, 2017, 7:51 pm
The Shin Bet security service said Monday it busted a smuggling ring last month that allegedly attempted to import hundreds of cameras, toy airplanes, and electrical cables, hidden inside washing machines, refrigerators and television sets to the Gaza Strip.West Bank Palestinian Nader Masalmeh and Nofal Abu Sraya from the Gaza Strip were arrested in December, the security agency said, though details of the case were kept under a gag order.An indictment was filed Monday against the two men in a Beersheba court.Two other Gazans belonging to the smuggling ring, Ahmad Abu Nafer and Zahar Bitar, have yet to be arrested.In a statement, the agency said the smuggling operation was “additional testimony to Gaza Strip-based merchants’ abuse of the permits given them for goods designated for the civilian population in order to smuggle dual-use equipment for the benefit — inter alia — of terrorist elements in the Gaza Strip.”The illicit goods, which Israel designates as having both civilian and military uses, were smuggled into Gaza inside permitted appliances and were later unpackaged and sold within the coastal enclave. The equipment was shipped from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip via the Kerem Shalom crossing, the agency stated.Last November alone, hundreds of the cameras were smuggled into Gaza, the Shin Bet said.The recipients of the illegal goods included Hamas — a fact which was known to at least some of the members of the smuggling ring, according to the statement.“The smuggling method that was discovered by the security forces underscores the efforts undertaken by Hamas, via its collaborators, in order to build up its strength and cynically exploit the commercial permits given by Israel for the benefit of the civilian population in the Gaza Strip,” the statement added.In September, the Shin Bet said it uncovered a smuggling ring led by Israeli citizens that brought automobiles into the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom crossing, the main goods conduit between Israel and Gaza. Hundreds of trucks delivering food, aid and other goods pass through the Kerem Shalom Crossing into the Strip every day.More than 100 vehicles were believed to have been brought into the Strip over the previous nine months “for use by Hamas,” specifically its military arm, security officials said.According to the Shin Bet, members of the smuggling ring would break the cars down into parts and hide the pieces inside cargo heading into the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom crossing.In one such attempt at the crossing, however, these dismantled and concealed vehicles were spotted and confiscated.Israel has maintained a naval blockade of the Hamas-ruled coastal strip since the terror group violently took over the territory from the Palestinian Authority in 2007. Israel says the measure is necessary to prevent Hamas from acquiring weapons from overseas.The Defense Ministry’s Crossing Authority also keeps a close watch on the trucks bearing humanitarian aid and consumer products that enter Gaza — sometimes hundreds a day — in order to monitor and track the goods entering the Strip and prevent them from winding up in the hands of terrorist groups.
UN appeals for funds for Palestinians caught up in Syria war-$411 million needed for half a million refugees in Syria in ‘critical need’ and 47,000 others in Jordan, Lebanon-By AFP January 9, 2017, 6:49 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
The UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees on Monday appealed for emergency funds to provide aid to nearly half a million Palestinians affected by the war in Syria.The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, said almost all the estimated 450,000 Palestinian refugees still inside Syria are in “critical need” of humanitarian aid in order to survive.It said it needed $411 million (NIS 1.58 billion) to support the Palestinians inside Syria as well as 47,000 others who have fled to neighboring Jordan and Lebanon.UNRWA said that 43,000 Palestinians in Syria are in hard-to-reach or besieged areas cut off by fighting, including the Yarmouk camp in Damascus.“It’s a clear violation of international humanitarian law to deny people who are vulnerable, as a result of displacement, conflict or war, humanitarian assistance,” the agency’s outgoing Syria head Matthias Schmale told AFP.UNRWA said tens of thousands of Palestinians who have fled to Lebanon and Jordan also needed aid to make ends meet.“Some Palestinian refugees who have not asked for UNRWA funds before are looking to us today to help them cover their most basic needs,” said Hakam Shahwan, the agency’s ad-interim Lebanon director.He said some 31,800 Palestinian refugees from Syria are among an influx of some one million Syrians who have taken refuge in Lebanon since Syria’s conflict began almost six years ago.“That adds to the assistance we have to provide to the Palestinian refugees,” Shahwan told AFP.Lebanon was already home to around 450,000 Palestinian refugees, mostly the descendants of those who fled their homes when the State of Israel was created in 1948, or during subsequent conflicts.Syria’s conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government protests and has evolved into a complex civil war that has killed over 310,000 people and displaced more than half the country’s population.
Obama, in Channel 2 interview, dismisses idea he betrayed Israel at UN-President had to do ‘what I think is right,’ he says; muses as to whether Netanyahu will ‘sleep better’ after he’s gone and Trump is in power-By Times of Israel staff January 9, 2017, 8:39 pm
President Barack Obama on Monday dismissed the notion that he betrayed Israel at the United Nations Security Council last month by opting not to veto a resolution that branded settlements illegal and called the West Bank and East Jerusalem occupied Palestinian territory. Speaking in an Israeli Channel 2 TV interview, Obama said he had an obligation as president “to do what I think is right.”In an excerpt of the interview broadcast Monday evening, the outgoing president was asked about Israeli claims that he had orchestrated Resolution 2334, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s specific description of the move as a “shameful, anti-Israeli ploy.” Did he understand the Israeli “sense of betrayal”? interviewer Ilana Dayan asked.“No,” Obama replied. “I’ll be honest with you: That kind of hyperbole, those kinds of statements, don’t have a basis in fact.“They may work well with respect to deflecting attention from the problem of settlements,” the president continued. “They may play well with Bibi’s political base, as well as the Republican base here in the United States, but they don’t match up with the facts.”Pressed on whether allowing the resolution to pass was the right thing to do so soon before the end of his presidency, Obama responded: “The fact of the matter is that I’m president until January 20, and I have an obligation to do what I think is right.”Obama was asked whether he had more surprises up his sleeve or whether Netanyahu could sleep soundly until January 20. “Well, I think there’s an interesting question as to whether he’ll sleep better after January 20,” Obama responded dryly, intimating that relations between Netanyahu and incoming president Trump might not be as trouble-free as some in the Israeli leadership may be anticipating.The full interview, conducted at the White House, is to be screened on Tuesday. Dayan said Obama, in the conversation, took pains to say that Netanyahu had a friend in the White House for eight years but didn’t recognize the fact, and also that the US was deeply committed to Israel, but critically to an Israel that respects human rights.The US abstention at the Security Council on December 23 allowed Resolution 2334 to pass, with a vote of 14-0. Netanyahu led a furious response that included summoning ambassadors of countries that backed the resolution for a dressing down on Christmas Day, and a one-to-one with US Ambassador Dan Shapiro.Ties between Netanyahu and Obama have been tense through their years in power, especially over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the settlement enterprise, and the nuclear deal that Obama and other P5+1 countries reached in 2015 with Iran.
Jerusalem terrorist reportedly angered by plan to move US Embassy-Relatives say Fadi al-Qunbar expressed agitation after hearing sermon at local mosque criticizing president-elect’s campaign promise, which the PA ordered imams to focus on-By Tamar Pileggi January 9, 2017, 1:40 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
The Palestinian truck driver who killed four IDF soldiers in a truck-ramming attack in Jerusalem on Sunday was reportedly motivated to act after hearing a sermon at his local mosque attacking US President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign promise to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.Relatives said Fadi al-Qunbar was driven to carry out the terror attack after hearing the sermon over the weekend at his local East Jerusalem mosque excoriating the embassy move.“He was very angry, and said transferring the embassy would lead to war,” Qunbar’s cousin said, according to the Israel Hayom daily.The deadliest single attack in more than a year of violence came at a time of heightened tensions in Jerusalem, where Palestinians have warned of dire consequences if incoming president Trump follows through on his promise to move the embassy to the Israeli capital.On Friday, the Palestinian Authority’s supreme Sharia judge Mahmoud al-Habbash said moving the embassy was tantamount to “a declaration of war on all Muslims,” vowing the measure “would not pass in silence.”“Occupied Jerusalem is our eternal capital, the capital of our existence and the capital of our state,” he said in a sermon attended by PA President Mahmoud Abbas. “In matters of religion, faith, values, ethics, and history, there can be no compromises. Therefore, it isn’t possible to compromise on or negotiate over Jerusalem.”“We will not agree to this under any circumstances. This will not pass in silence,” Habbash said.Trump and his team have spoken repeatedly of his intention to relocate the embassy to Israel’s capital, leading to wall-to-wall condemnations from Palestinian leaders and the Jordanian government and even a warning from outgoing US Secretary of State John Kerry.According to Israel Radio, the embassy relocation was the chief subject of religious sermons throughout the West Bank on Friday, with PA leadership instructing mosques it controls to focus on the matter.It wasn’t clear which mosque Qunbar, a resident of the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber, attended on Friday.Relatives and neighbors said the 28-year-old father of four espoused an ultra-conservative version of Islam, known as Salafism, but had no known ties to Palestinian terror organizations.No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, although Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday from the scene of the attack that “according to all the signs he is a supporter of the Islamic State” terror group, without elaborating further.Reports in Hebrew-language media said Qunbar expressed support for the jihadist group in recent Facebook posts.Sunday’s attack occurred when Qunbar rammed a large flatbed truck into a group of Israeli soldiers getting off a bus at the Haas Promenade in the Armon Hanatziv neighborhood, a popular tourist spot in southern Jerusalem.Four soldiers — three women and one man — were killed and 16 were injured, two of them very seriously.Qunbar accelerated as he struck the group, then, after hitting the group of soldiers with his truck, put the vehicle in reverse and ran over them a second time.The terrorist was shot by soldiers and a civilian guide. He died of his wounds.
Families, friends mourn 4 soldiers killed in Jerusalem terror attack-Yael Yekutiel, 20, Shir Hajaj, 22, Shira Tzur, 20, Erez Orbach, 20, being laid to rest on Monday in funerals across country-By Times of Israel staff January 9, 2017, 6:54 am
The families and friends of the four soldiers killed in a truck-ramming terror attack in Jerusalem expressed their shock and grief at their deaths ahead of funerals for the four taking place on Monday.The four were identified late Sunday as IDF Lieutenant Yael Yekutiel, 20, of Givatayim, Cadet Shir Hajaj, 22, of Maaleh Adumim, Cadet Shira Tzur, 20, from Haifa, and Cadet Erez Orbach, 20, from Alon Shvut.Seventeen people were injured in the attack, perpetrated by an East Jerusalem terrorist.Yekutiel was described by a childhood friend who spoke to Channel 2 as someone who was “full of light and joie de vivre; it’s hard to describe a person like that.”“She loved life, she loved everyone and everyone loved her,” said an aunt at the family’s home in Givatayim where friends and relatives were gathered to comfort the family whose members “have still not processed what has happened,” she said.Liam Gur, another friend of Yekutiel, said the two texted each other Sunday morning, before the terror attack claimed her life, describing her friend as “one of the most amazing people I have met in my life.”“She was there for everything and always knew the right thing to say. She was smart and intelligent and had incredible emotional intelligence,” said Gur.Yekutiel will be laid to rest at 3 p.m. Monday in Kiryat Shaul military cemetery. She leaves behind parents, a brother and a sister.Hajaj was the eldest of four girls in her family and was said to be an honors student, “top of her class.”Her mother, Meirav, said that when the family first heard of the attack, they had thought the targets were tourists. She said she started calling hospitals looking for her daughter soon after realizing her daughter might have been at the scene.She described her as a “flower, a crown jewel,” a girl who inspired “high hopes.”Her father, speaking to Ynet, addressed a message to IDF Chief Gadi Eizenkot, telling him, “these are our children, we send them to the army knowing they may not come back. Did I ever think this would happen to me? Never.”Hajaj will be laid to rest at 2 p.m. Monday in Har Herzl’s military cemetery.A member of Tzur’s family said the 20-year-old was “full of life, she liked to give to others and contribute. We’ll always remember her smiling, and looking ahead to the next challenge. Shira’s song will never be stopped.”Tzur started her military service in the air force but was then transferred.Mandi Rabinowitz, the principal of the Tzur’s high school, said Tzur’s father told him he’d had a feeling his daughter was hurt, or worse, in the attack.Tzur will be laid to rest at 2 p.m. Monday in Haifa’s military cemetery.The 20-year-old Orbach was the eldest of Uri and Keren Orbach’s six children.He studied in Neve Shmuel Yeshiva in Efrat, then continued his studies in Ma’alot Yeshiva.“He will be remembered for always having a smile on his face and for his willingness to help and volunteer for every good cause,” a statement from the community read.Although he was exempt from army service, he fought for the opportunity to volunteer, and was a cadet in officers’ training school.Orbach’s funeral will take place Monday morning at 11 a.m. in the military cemetery in Kfar Etzion.Sixteen others were injured, two of them very seriously, in the attack Sunday which occurred as a group of soldiers were getting off a bus at the promenade in Armon Hanatziv, a popular tourist spot in southern Jerusalem, when Fadi al-Qunbar drove a large flatbed truck into them.The driver accelerated as he struck the group. After he hit the soldiers, he put the vehicle into reverse and began to run over them a second time.The terrorist was shot by soldiers and a civilian tour guide, police said. He died of his wounds.
Israel ramps up security, says truck-ramming ‘new type of attack’-Netanyahu says driver decided to run over soldiers on spur of moment, orders barricades set up near bus stops; police deployed around East Jerusalem-By Times of Israel staff and Agencies January 9, 2017, 12:45 pm
Israel is under a new threat of terrorism by lone-wolf assailants, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Monday, as police continued to crack down on relatives and neighbors of an East Jerusalem man who rammed his truck into a group of soldiers in the capital Sunday, killing four.While Israel has dealt with spates of car-rammings and stabbings over the past years, Netanyahu said this attack was differentiated by the fact that the attacker seemed to take action with little to no forethought.“I think the most important thing to understand is that we are under a new kind of attack by a lone wolf that gets inspiration and decides in a moment to act, in this case with a car-ramming,” Netanyahu said.On Sunday, 28-year-old Fadi al-Qunbar drove a truck into a group of IDF cadets who were standing in a group after getting off a bus on a popular promenade in Jerusalem. He killed four people and wounded 16 more.No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, although Netanyahu said Sunday from the scene of the attack that “according to all the signs he is a supporter of the Islamic State,” without elaborating further.The attack was met with a series of preventative and punitive steps ordered by Netanyahu and his high-level security cabinet.Following the attack, police arrested nine residents of Jabel Mukaber in connection with the attack. Five of them were members of Qunbar’s family, police said.The neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber, from which multiple terror attacks have originated over the past year, has been encircled by security forces, who placed a cordon on the village and began carrying out security checks on anyone leaving the area toward other parts of Jerusalem.“The police force continues with increased operational activities in [Jerusalem] at all times, and it will continue to do so as needed,” the police said in a statement Monday.Police forces checked drivers and searched parked cars and trucks throughout East Jerusalem in an effort to prevent copycat attacks, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.An investigation is underway as to how Qunbar managed to make his way on Sunday to the Jerusalem promenade where the soldiers gathered, who owned the truck he drove and whether he planned his attack ahead of time, Rosenfeld said.Police used concrete slabs to block some entrances of Jabel Mukaber, and a police officer checked cars leaving it. Israeli special forces dismantled a mourning tent erected to receive visitors paying respects for Qunbar, who was fatally shot at the scene of the attack. Overnight, police say, Palestinians shot fireworks at Israeli forces at a police post near the neighborhood.Netanyahu said Monday he had ordered concrete blocks placed at popular bus stops and hitchhiking posts in the West Bank and Jerusalem, in an effort to prevent further lone-wolf terror attacks.Speaking from Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital in Ein Kerem, where he was visiting three officer school cadets wounded in the attack, Netanyahu said they had told him they were eager to return to action.“It’s simply unbelievable, they told me one thing: ‘Prime Minister, we want to go back to the course, we want to go back into service, we want to continue our mission as soldiers of the IDF,'” he said, calling it the secret to Israel’s success.That kind of attitude, said Netanyahu, explained why Israel had always prevailed in the war against terror, and would continue to prevail.Hospital officials said 16 people were wounded in the attack, including one soldier who was still in a coma Monday morning. Several of the injured were released late Sunday and early Monday.Palestinian media reported that Qunbar was affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a secular terror group, but Qunbar’s family insisted he was “religious,” and Israeli intelligence believes he supported the Islamic State terror group.On Sunday night, the high-level security cabinet decided on a number of steps following the attack, including ordering the Qunbar family home destroyed at the earliest possible time — limited only by possible court appeals available to the family.Standing family-unification requests by members of the Qunbar family to allow relatives from Gaza to come live with them in Jerusalem will be denied.The cabinet also ordered the security services to detain and investigate anyone found praising or celebrating the attack, after claims surfaced that some residents of East Jerusalem cheered and distributed sweets to passersby after the attack.It also gave permission for security agencies to place anyone who expresses support for Islamic State in administrative detention, a controversial counter-terror measure that allows the indefinite detention of terror suspects without trial.
5 Hamas members arrested in raids across West Bank-Move comes day after terror group praises deadly Jerusalem truck-ramming; six more suspects arrested for low-level attacks-By Times of Israel staff January 9, 2017, 7:55 am
Israeli troops rounded up five members of the Hamas terror group in raids across the West Bank late Sunday and early Monday, a day after officials vowed to crack down on terror in the wake of a deadly attack in Jerusalem.Three Hamas members in Jenin were arrested and another two in the al-Aroub refugee camp south of Jerusalem, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement.On Sunday, an East Jerusalem man drove his truck into a group of soldiers at the Armon Hanatziv promenade overlooking the capital. Three officers cadets and one officer was killed and another 16 soldiers were injured in the attack.The driver, named in media as Fadi al-Qunbar, 28, was shot dead at the scene as he attempted to run over more troops.No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Hamas was quick to praise the action, calling it “heroic” and calling for more like it.Palestinian media reported that Qunbar was affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a secular terror group, but Qunbar’s family insisted he was “religious,” and Israeli intelligence believes he supported the Islamic State jihadist group.After the attack, the high-level security cabinet ordered security services to detain and investigate anyone found praising or celebrating the attack, after claims surfaced that some residents of East Jerusalem cheered and distributed sweets to passersby after the attack.Ministers also gave permission for security agencies to place anyone who expresses support for Islamic State, as Qunbar reportedly did, in administrative detention, a controversial counter-terror measure that allows the indefinite detention of terror suspects without trial.The army did not say what the five Hamas members were suspected of or if they were linked to the attack or praise for the attack in some way. Their identities were not given.Troops operating overnight also arrested six suspects wanted for low-level terror attacks. In the village of Beit Fajar, south of Jerusalem, a makeshift gun was found and confiscated, the IDF said.Security forces have also taken a number of preventative or punitive measures in the wake of the attack, including placing a cordon around Qunbar’s neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber, from which multiple terror attacks have originated over the past year, and carrying out security checks for anyone leaving the area toward other parts of Jerusalem.Nine people were arrested in the immediate aftermath of the attack, including five family members of the terrorist. Police carried out multiple raids into Jabel Mukaber in the afternoon and evening hours.
28 And when these things begin to come to pass,(ALL THE PROPHECY SIGNS FROM THE BIBLE) then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption (RAPTURE) draweth nigh.
29 And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree,(ISRAEL) and all the trees;(ALL INDEPENDENT COUNTRIES)
30 When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.(ISRAEL LITERALLY BECAME AND INDEPENDENT COUNTRY JUST BEFORE SUMMER IN MAY 14,1948.)
JOEL 2:3,30
3 A fire devoureth (ATOMIC BOMB) before them;(RUSSIAN-ARAB-MUSLIM ARMIES AGAINST ISRAEL) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(ATOMIC BOMB AFFECT)
ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their eyes shall consume away in their holes,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB)(BECAUSE NUKES HAVE BEEN USED ON ISRAELS ENEMIES)(GOD PROTECTS ISRAEL AND ALWAYS WILL)
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.(1/2-3 BILLION DIE IN WW3)(THIS IS AN ATOMIC BOMB EFFECT)
EZEKIEL 20:47
47 And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.
ZEPHANIAH 1:18
18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
MALACHI 4:1
1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven;(FROM ATOMIC BOMBS) and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
And here are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either through war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and only Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this land in the future.
Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the Western Half of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.12 TRIBES INHERIT LAND IN THE FUTURE
IDF: 15 soldiers committed suicide in the past year-Army releases details on 41 troops who died in 2016: 4 in operations, 9 in on-base accidents, 7 in car accidents, 6 from illness-By Judah Ari Gross January 9, 2017, 8:10 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Suicide was the main cause of death among IDF soldiers in 2016, more than terror attacks, training accidents, car crashes or illness, the army reported Sunday.Some 15 IDF soldiers — all of them male — committed suicide in 2016, the same number as the year before and the year before that, according to a senior official in the IDF’s Manpower Directorate.In total, 41 soldiers died over the course of the past year, according to year-end statistics released by the military. This is a slight increase from 2015, in which 36 soldiers were killed, but represents a significant improvement from a decade ago.From 2007 to 2011, the number of soldiers killed each year was approximately 64. Not including 2014, in which the Gaza war took place, from 2012 to 2016, the number of soldiers killed each year dropped to its current level of approximately 40.According to the IDF, in addition to the 15 soldiers who committed suicide, four soldiers were killed in the course of military operations, nine in on-base accidents, seven in off-duty car accidents and six died from illness or other medical reasons.Another 43 soldiers were seriously hurt during the course of 2016, the official said.Most of the soldiers injured or killed were conscripted troops. A smaller portion were career soldiers, and a handful were reservists who were in service at the time of their deaths, the army said.Of the soldiers who committed suicide, for instance, 12 were conscripts, two were career soldiers, and one was a reservist.As in 2016, when all of the soldiers who committed suicide were male, every year, the majority of suicides are by male soldiers — around 90 percent — but having zero female soldiers take their own lives is rare, according to the official.According to the army, no specific “weak” populations, like new immigrants or members of the Ethiopian community, were over-represented in the 15 soldiers who committed suicide, which is another change from previous years.The official credited a number of new army programs with bringing down those suicides in these different groups, specifically one known as Moledet, or Homeland, which helps soldiers prepare for the culture of the army.Maintaining the same suicide rate among soldiers for 2016 was not a given, as there was reason to suspect that suicides in the IDF would increase over the past year.Following a February terror attack, in which IDF soldier Tuvia Yanai Weissman, who was denied his request to take home his service weapon for an extended leave, was killed, the army loosened its rules regarding the practice.The prohibition on soldiers’ taking their service weapons home during extended leaves — vacations longer than a weekend — was put in place in 2006, in order to prevent troops from using those weapons to commit suicide, which at the time was occurring at a significantly higher rate than today.A 2010 military study found that this measure alone was responsible for a 40% decrease in the total number of suicides by IDF soldiers. Another study found that the regulation was responsible for a 57% decrease.For instance, in 2005, some 36 soldiers committed suicide, and 28 did so the following year. Since then, the numbers have steadily decreased, reaching just seven suicides in 2013.While the army felt confident that the other programs it had put it place would prevent soldiers from taking their own lives, the decision to cancel the ban on taking weapons home during extended leaves raised the possibility that the suicide rate would rise.According to the officer, a number of suicide-awareness programs and initiatives, in addition to Moledet, have been put into place since the ban was put into place.Commanders are also better trained to look for warning signs of depression and suicidal thoughts. They also visit the homes of at-risk soldiers, she said.Mental health officers, known in the army by their Hebrew acronym kaban, are in contact with commanders at every level of the army, the senior official said.She also stressed that while soldiers were permitted to take weapons home during their leaves, this was not done without supervision.“We were strict on who takes home a weapon. It wasn’t whoever wants one,” the officer said.While suicides remained at the same level as in 2015 and 2014, the number of on-base accidents went up in 2016, the army said.Most recently, in November, Sgt. Ido Ben-Ari was killed when the tank in which he was riding flipped over. Three other soldiers were also wounded.And in July, two soldiers — Sgt. Shlomo Rindenow and Staff Sgt. Hussam Tafesh — died when the grenade Tafesh had been playing with went off outside their post in the Golan Heights.The official had no specific explanation for the uptick in the number of accidents in 2016, but said it was a “minor increase in an overall decreasing trend.”Figures provided by the army back up that claim for training accidents, which happened at least once or twice a year from 2005 to 2010, but mostly dropped off in the years since then. (The statistics only went back to 2005.) The number of accidents involving aircraft similarly dropped off in recent years, with the notable exception of Maj. Ohad Cohen Nov, who was killed in October when his F-16 crashed.One of the army’s most dramatic improvements, however, has been in the number of soldiers killed in off-duty car accidents. Between 2005 and 2011, the number hovered around 15, with a peak of 24 and a low of 11. For the past three years, the number has stayed between seven and eight, according to army figures.This was accomplished by requiring soldiers to get adequate sleep before leaving for base and rolling out an anti-drinking-and-driving campaign, the IDF officer said.
Cameras, toy airplanes smuggled into Gaza in TV sets-Shin Bet security service says some of the equipment was delivered to Hamas, could be used for military purposes-By Times of Israel staff January 9, 2017, 7:51 pm
The Shin Bet security service said Monday it busted a smuggling ring last month that allegedly attempted to import hundreds of cameras, toy airplanes, and electrical cables, hidden inside washing machines, refrigerators and television sets to the Gaza Strip.West Bank Palestinian Nader Masalmeh and Nofal Abu Sraya from the Gaza Strip were arrested in December, the security agency said, though details of the case were kept under a gag order.An indictment was filed Monday against the two men in a Beersheba court.Two other Gazans belonging to the smuggling ring, Ahmad Abu Nafer and Zahar Bitar, have yet to be arrested.In a statement, the agency said the smuggling operation was “additional testimony to Gaza Strip-based merchants’ abuse of the permits given them for goods designated for the civilian population in order to smuggle dual-use equipment for the benefit — inter alia — of terrorist elements in the Gaza Strip.”The illicit goods, which Israel designates as having both civilian and military uses, were smuggled into Gaza inside permitted appliances and were later unpackaged and sold within the coastal enclave. The equipment was shipped from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip via the Kerem Shalom crossing, the agency stated.Last November alone, hundreds of the cameras were smuggled into Gaza, the Shin Bet said.The recipients of the illegal goods included Hamas — a fact which was known to at least some of the members of the smuggling ring, according to the statement.“The smuggling method that was discovered by the security forces underscores the efforts undertaken by Hamas, via its collaborators, in order to build up its strength and cynically exploit the commercial permits given by Israel for the benefit of the civilian population in the Gaza Strip,” the statement added.In September, the Shin Bet said it uncovered a smuggling ring led by Israeli citizens that brought automobiles into the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom crossing, the main goods conduit between Israel and Gaza. Hundreds of trucks delivering food, aid and other goods pass through the Kerem Shalom Crossing into the Strip every day.More than 100 vehicles were believed to have been brought into the Strip over the previous nine months “for use by Hamas,” specifically its military arm, security officials said.According to the Shin Bet, members of the smuggling ring would break the cars down into parts and hide the pieces inside cargo heading into the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom crossing.In one such attempt at the crossing, however, these dismantled and concealed vehicles were spotted and confiscated.Israel has maintained a naval blockade of the Hamas-ruled coastal strip since the terror group violently took over the territory from the Palestinian Authority in 2007. Israel says the measure is necessary to prevent Hamas from acquiring weapons from overseas.The Defense Ministry’s Crossing Authority also keeps a close watch on the trucks bearing humanitarian aid and consumer products that enter Gaza — sometimes hundreds a day — in order to monitor and track the goods entering the Strip and prevent them from winding up in the hands of terrorist groups.
UN appeals for funds for Palestinians caught up in Syria war-$411 million needed for half a million refugees in Syria in ‘critical need’ and 47,000 others in Jordan, Lebanon-By AFP January 9, 2017, 6:49 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
The UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees on Monday appealed for emergency funds to provide aid to nearly half a million Palestinians affected by the war in Syria.The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, said almost all the estimated 450,000 Palestinian refugees still inside Syria are in “critical need” of humanitarian aid in order to survive.It said it needed $411 million (NIS 1.58 billion) to support the Palestinians inside Syria as well as 47,000 others who have fled to neighboring Jordan and Lebanon.UNRWA said that 43,000 Palestinians in Syria are in hard-to-reach or besieged areas cut off by fighting, including the Yarmouk camp in Damascus.“It’s a clear violation of international humanitarian law to deny people who are vulnerable, as a result of displacement, conflict or war, humanitarian assistance,” the agency’s outgoing Syria head Matthias Schmale told AFP.UNRWA said tens of thousands of Palestinians who have fled to Lebanon and Jordan also needed aid to make ends meet.“Some Palestinian refugees who have not asked for UNRWA funds before are looking to us today to help them cover their most basic needs,” said Hakam Shahwan, the agency’s ad-interim Lebanon director.He said some 31,800 Palestinian refugees from Syria are among an influx of some one million Syrians who have taken refuge in Lebanon since Syria’s conflict began almost six years ago.“That adds to the assistance we have to provide to the Palestinian refugees,” Shahwan told AFP.Lebanon was already home to around 450,000 Palestinian refugees, mostly the descendants of those who fled their homes when the State of Israel was created in 1948, or during subsequent conflicts.Syria’s conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government protests and has evolved into a complex civil war that has killed over 310,000 people and displaced more than half the country’s population.
Obama, in Channel 2 interview, dismisses idea he betrayed Israel at UN-President had to do ‘what I think is right,’ he says; muses as to whether Netanyahu will ‘sleep better’ after he’s gone and Trump is in power-By Times of Israel staff January 9, 2017, 8:39 pm
President Barack Obama on Monday dismissed the notion that he betrayed Israel at the United Nations Security Council last month by opting not to veto a resolution that branded settlements illegal and called the West Bank and East Jerusalem occupied Palestinian territory. Speaking in an Israeli Channel 2 TV interview, Obama said he had an obligation as president “to do what I think is right.”In an excerpt of the interview broadcast Monday evening, the outgoing president was asked about Israeli claims that he had orchestrated Resolution 2334, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s specific description of the move as a “shameful, anti-Israeli ploy.” Did he understand the Israeli “sense of betrayal”? interviewer Ilana Dayan asked.“No,” Obama replied. “I’ll be honest with you: That kind of hyperbole, those kinds of statements, don’t have a basis in fact.“They may work well with respect to deflecting attention from the problem of settlements,” the president continued. “They may play well with Bibi’s political base, as well as the Republican base here in the United States, but they don’t match up with the facts.”Pressed on whether allowing the resolution to pass was the right thing to do so soon before the end of his presidency, Obama responded: “The fact of the matter is that I’m president until January 20, and I have an obligation to do what I think is right.”Obama was asked whether he had more surprises up his sleeve or whether Netanyahu could sleep soundly until January 20. “Well, I think there’s an interesting question as to whether he’ll sleep better after January 20,” Obama responded dryly, intimating that relations between Netanyahu and incoming president Trump might not be as trouble-free as some in the Israeli leadership may be anticipating.The full interview, conducted at the White House, is to be screened on Tuesday. Dayan said Obama, in the conversation, took pains to say that Netanyahu had a friend in the White House for eight years but didn’t recognize the fact, and also that the US was deeply committed to Israel, but critically to an Israel that respects human rights.The US abstention at the Security Council on December 23 allowed Resolution 2334 to pass, with a vote of 14-0. Netanyahu led a furious response that included summoning ambassadors of countries that backed the resolution for a dressing down on Christmas Day, and a one-to-one with US Ambassador Dan Shapiro.Ties between Netanyahu and Obama have been tense through their years in power, especially over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the settlement enterprise, and the nuclear deal that Obama and other P5+1 countries reached in 2015 with Iran.
Jerusalem terrorist reportedly angered by plan to move US Embassy-Relatives say Fadi al-Qunbar expressed agitation after hearing sermon at local mosque criticizing president-elect’s campaign promise, which the PA ordered imams to focus on-By Tamar Pileggi January 9, 2017, 1:40 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
The Palestinian truck driver who killed four IDF soldiers in a truck-ramming attack in Jerusalem on Sunday was reportedly motivated to act after hearing a sermon at his local mosque attacking US President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign promise to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.Relatives said Fadi al-Qunbar was driven to carry out the terror attack after hearing the sermon over the weekend at his local East Jerusalem mosque excoriating the embassy move.“He was very angry, and said transferring the embassy would lead to war,” Qunbar’s cousin said, according to the Israel Hayom daily.The deadliest single attack in more than a year of violence came at a time of heightened tensions in Jerusalem, where Palestinians have warned of dire consequences if incoming president Trump follows through on his promise to move the embassy to the Israeli capital.On Friday, the Palestinian Authority’s supreme Sharia judge Mahmoud al-Habbash said moving the embassy was tantamount to “a declaration of war on all Muslims,” vowing the measure “would not pass in silence.”“Occupied Jerusalem is our eternal capital, the capital of our existence and the capital of our state,” he said in a sermon attended by PA President Mahmoud Abbas. “In matters of religion, faith, values, ethics, and history, there can be no compromises. Therefore, it isn’t possible to compromise on or negotiate over Jerusalem.”“We will not agree to this under any circumstances. This will not pass in silence,” Habbash said.Trump and his team have spoken repeatedly of his intention to relocate the embassy to Israel’s capital, leading to wall-to-wall condemnations from Palestinian leaders and the Jordanian government and even a warning from outgoing US Secretary of State John Kerry.According to Israel Radio, the embassy relocation was the chief subject of religious sermons throughout the West Bank on Friday, with PA leadership instructing mosques it controls to focus on the matter.It wasn’t clear which mosque Qunbar, a resident of the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber, attended on Friday.Relatives and neighbors said the 28-year-old father of four espoused an ultra-conservative version of Islam, known as Salafism, but had no known ties to Palestinian terror organizations.No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, although Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday from the scene of the attack that “according to all the signs he is a supporter of the Islamic State” terror group, without elaborating further.Reports in Hebrew-language media said Qunbar expressed support for the jihadist group in recent Facebook posts.Sunday’s attack occurred when Qunbar rammed a large flatbed truck into a group of Israeli soldiers getting off a bus at the Haas Promenade in the Armon Hanatziv neighborhood, a popular tourist spot in southern Jerusalem.Four soldiers — three women and one man — were killed and 16 were injured, two of them very seriously.Qunbar accelerated as he struck the group, then, after hitting the group of soldiers with his truck, put the vehicle in reverse and ran over them a second time.The terrorist was shot by soldiers and a civilian guide. He died of his wounds.
Families, friends mourn 4 soldiers killed in Jerusalem terror attack-Yael Yekutiel, 20, Shir Hajaj, 22, Shira Tzur, 20, Erez Orbach, 20, being laid to rest on Monday in funerals across country-By Times of Israel staff January 9, 2017, 6:54 am
The families and friends of the four soldiers killed in a truck-ramming terror attack in Jerusalem expressed their shock and grief at their deaths ahead of funerals for the four taking place on Monday.The four were identified late Sunday as IDF Lieutenant Yael Yekutiel, 20, of Givatayim, Cadet Shir Hajaj, 22, of Maaleh Adumim, Cadet Shira Tzur, 20, from Haifa, and Cadet Erez Orbach, 20, from Alon Shvut.Seventeen people were injured in the attack, perpetrated by an East Jerusalem terrorist.Yekutiel was described by a childhood friend who spoke to Channel 2 as someone who was “full of light and joie de vivre; it’s hard to describe a person like that.”“She loved life, she loved everyone and everyone loved her,” said an aunt at the family’s home in Givatayim where friends and relatives were gathered to comfort the family whose members “have still not processed what has happened,” she said.Liam Gur, another friend of Yekutiel, said the two texted each other Sunday morning, before the terror attack claimed her life, describing her friend as “one of the most amazing people I have met in my life.”“She was there for everything and always knew the right thing to say. She was smart and intelligent and had incredible emotional intelligence,” said Gur.Yekutiel will be laid to rest at 3 p.m. Monday in Kiryat Shaul military cemetery. She leaves behind parents, a brother and a sister.Hajaj was the eldest of four girls in her family and was said to be an honors student, “top of her class.”Her mother, Meirav, said that when the family first heard of the attack, they had thought the targets were tourists. She said she started calling hospitals looking for her daughter soon after realizing her daughter might have been at the scene.She described her as a “flower, a crown jewel,” a girl who inspired “high hopes.”Her father, speaking to Ynet, addressed a message to IDF Chief Gadi Eizenkot, telling him, “these are our children, we send them to the army knowing they may not come back. Did I ever think this would happen to me? Never.”Hajaj will be laid to rest at 2 p.m. Monday in Har Herzl’s military cemetery.A member of Tzur’s family said the 20-year-old was “full of life, she liked to give to others and contribute. We’ll always remember her smiling, and looking ahead to the next challenge. Shira’s song will never be stopped.”Tzur started her military service in the air force but was then transferred.Mandi Rabinowitz, the principal of the Tzur’s high school, said Tzur’s father told him he’d had a feeling his daughter was hurt, or worse, in the attack.Tzur will be laid to rest at 2 p.m. Monday in Haifa’s military cemetery.The 20-year-old Orbach was the eldest of Uri and Keren Orbach’s six children.He studied in Neve Shmuel Yeshiva in Efrat, then continued his studies in Ma’alot Yeshiva.“He will be remembered for always having a smile on his face and for his willingness to help and volunteer for every good cause,” a statement from the community read.Although he was exempt from army service, he fought for the opportunity to volunteer, and was a cadet in officers’ training school.Orbach’s funeral will take place Monday morning at 11 a.m. in the military cemetery in Kfar Etzion.Sixteen others were injured, two of them very seriously, in the attack Sunday which occurred as a group of soldiers were getting off a bus at the promenade in Armon Hanatziv, a popular tourist spot in southern Jerusalem, when Fadi al-Qunbar drove a large flatbed truck into them.The driver accelerated as he struck the group. After he hit the soldiers, he put the vehicle into reverse and began to run over them a second time.The terrorist was shot by soldiers and a civilian tour guide, police said. He died of his wounds.
Israel ramps up security, says truck-ramming ‘new type of attack’-Netanyahu says driver decided to run over soldiers on spur of moment, orders barricades set up near bus stops; police deployed around East Jerusalem-By Times of Israel staff and Agencies January 9, 2017, 12:45 pm
Israel is under a new threat of terrorism by lone-wolf assailants, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Monday, as police continued to crack down on relatives and neighbors of an East Jerusalem man who rammed his truck into a group of soldiers in the capital Sunday, killing four.While Israel has dealt with spates of car-rammings and stabbings over the past years, Netanyahu said this attack was differentiated by the fact that the attacker seemed to take action with little to no forethought.“I think the most important thing to understand is that we are under a new kind of attack by a lone wolf that gets inspiration and decides in a moment to act, in this case with a car-ramming,” Netanyahu said.On Sunday, 28-year-old Fadi al-Qunbar drove a truck into a group of IDF cadets who were standing in a group after getting off a bus on a popular promenade in Jerusalem. He killed four people and wounded 16 more.No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, although Netanyahu said Sunday from the scene of the attack that “according to all the signs he is a supporter of the Islamic State,” without elaborating further.The attack was met with a series of preventative and punitive steps ordered by Netanyahu and his high-level security cabinet.Following the attack, police arrested nine residents of Jabel Mukaber in connection with the attack. Five of them were members of Qunbar’s family, police said.The neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber, from which multiple terror attacks have originated over the past year, has been encircled by security forces, who placed a cordon on the village and began carrying out security checks on anyone leaving the area toward other parts of Jerusalem.“The police force continues with increased operational activities in [Jerusalem] at all times, and it will continue to do so as needed,” the police said in a statement Monday.Police forces checked drivers and searched parked cars and trucks throughout East Jerusalem in an effort to prevent copycat attacks, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.An investigation is underway as to how Qunbar managed to make his way on Sunday to the Jerusalem promenade where the soldiers gathered, who owned the truck he drove and whether he planned his attack ahead of time, Rosenfeld said.Police used concrete slabs to block some entrances of Jabel Mukaber, and a police officer checked cars leaving it. Israeli special forces dismantled a mourning tent erected to receive visitors paying respects for Qunbar, who was fatally shot at the scene of the attack. Overnight, police say, Palestinians shot fireworks at Israeli forces at a police post near the neighborhood.Netanyahu said Monday he had ordered concrete blocks placed at popular bus stops and hitchhiking posts in the West Bank and Jerusalem, in an effort to prevent further lone-wolf terror attacks.Speaking from Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital in Ein Kerem, where he was visiting three officer school cadets wounded in the attack, Netanyahu said they had told him they were eager to return to action.“It’s simply unbelievable, they told me one thing: ‘Prime Minister, we want to go back to the course, we want to go back into service, we want to continue our mission as soldiers of the IDF,'” he said, calling it the secret to Israel’s success.That kind of attitude, said Netanyahu, explained why Israel had always prevailed in the war against terror, and would continue to prevail.Hospital officials said 16 people were wounded in the attack, including one soldier who was still in a coma Monday morning. Several of the injured were released late Sunday and early Monday.Palestinian media reported that Qunbar was affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a secular terror group, but Qunbar’s family insisted he was “religious,” and Israeli intelligence believes he supported the Islamic State terror group.On Sunday night, the high-level security cabinet decided on a number of steps following the attack, including ordering the Qunbar family home destroyed at the earliest possible time — limited only by possible court appeals available to the family.Standing family-unification requests by members of the Qunbar family to allow relatives from Gaza to come live with them in Jerusalem will be denied.The cabinet also ordered the security services to detain and investigate anyone found praising or celebrating the attack, after claims surfaced that some residents of East Jerusalem cheered and distributed sweets to passersby after the attack.It also gave permission for security agencies to place anyone who expresses support for Islamic State in administrative detention, a controversial counter-terror measure that allows the indefinite detention of terror suspects without trial.
5 Hamas members arrested in raids across West Bank-Move comes day after terror group praises deadly Jerusalem truck-ramming; six more suspects arrested for low-level attacks-By Times of Israel staff January 9, 2017, 7:55 am
Israeli troops rounded up five members of the Hamas terror group in raids across the West Bank late Sunday and early Monday, a day after officials vowed to crack down on terror in the wake of a deadly attack in Jerusalem.Three Hamas members in Jenin were arrested and another two in the al-Aroub refugee camp south of Jerusalem, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement.On Sunday, an East Jerusalem man drove his truck into a group of soldiers at the Armon Hanatziv promenade overlooking the capital. Three officers cadets and one officer was killed and another 16 soldiers were injured in the attack.The driver, named in media as Fadi al-Qunbar, 28, was shot dead at the scene as he attempted to run over more troops.No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Hamas was quick to praise the action, calling it “heroic” and calling for more like it.Palestinian media reported that Qunbar was affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a secular terror group, but Qunbar’s family insisted he was “religious,” and Israeli intelligence believes he supported the Islamic State jihadist group.After the attack, the high-level security cabinet ordered security services to detain and investigate anyone found praising or celebrating the attack, after claims surfaced that some residents of East Jerusalem cheered and distributed sweets to passersby after the attack.Ministers also gave permission for security agencies to place anyone who expresses support for Islamic State, as Qunbar reportedly did, in administrative detention, a controversial counter-terror measure that allows the indefinite detention of terror suspects without trial.The army did not say what the five Hamas members were suspected of or if they were linked to the attack or praise for the attack in some way. Their identities were not given.Troops operating overnight also arrested six suspects wanted for low-level terror attacks. In the village of Beit Fajar, south of Jerusalem, a makeshift gun was found and confiscated, the IDF said.Security forces have also taken a number of preventative or punitive measures in the wake of the attack, including placing a cordon around Qunbar’s neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber, from which multiple terror attacks have originated over the past year, and carrying out security checks for anyone leaving the area toward other parts of Jerusalem.Nine people were arrested in the immediate aftermath of the attack, including five family members of the terrorist. Police carried out multiple raids into Jabel Mukaber in the afternoon and evening hours.