SHAFAQNA

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) –The Israeli military says a number of rockets have been fired from the besieged Gaza Strip with one exploding inside Israel.

The rockets fired from the besieged enclave on Thursday were in response to Tel Aviv’s recent attacks. 
According to an Israeli military spokesman, one of the rockets exploded in southern Israel. No reports of casualties have been released. 
Palestinian rockets were also fired into Israel on April 2. 
On Wednesday, Israeli Minister for Military Affairs Moshe Yaalon issued a warning to Gaza that the strikes would be met with a similar response. 
The incident comes two days after Israeli warplanes carried out airstrikes against the Gaza Strip. 
The Israeli airstrikes are seen as a violation of a truce that ended an eight-day Israeli war on the Palestinian territory in November 2012. 
Over 160 Palestinians, including women and children, were killed and about 1,200 others injured in the Israeli war on Gaza from November 14 to 21. The Israeli regime and the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas agreed to an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire.-www.shafaqna.com/English

Source:Press TV

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) –Israeli President Shimon Peres says Israel has a thousand reasons to be friends with Turkey, expressing his satisfaction with the resumption of relations with Ankara.

"I can think of a thousand reasons why Turkey and Israel should be friends; I cannot find one reason why they shouldn't be friends," Peres said in an interview with CNN Turk on Sunday. 
Peres stated that somehow both Israel and Turkey “wanted to put an end to this misunderstanding and return to the good relations that have existed between Turkey and ourselves for many good years.” 
He added that Israel and Turkey are both concerned over the possible use of chemical weapons in Syria. 
On Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the true motive to resume ties with Turkey was Tel Aviv’s concerns over Syria’s chemical weapons. 
On Friday, Israel announced a full resumption of diplomatic relations with Turkey after Netanyahu phoned Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and apologized to him over the deaths of nine Turkish activists in an Israeli attack on a Gaza-bound international flotilla. 
The Israeli military attacked the Freedom Flotilla in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea on May 31, 2010, killing nine Turkish nationals aboard the Turkish-flagged MV Mavi Marmara and injuring about 50 other activists that were part of the team on the six-ship convoy. 
The Israeli apology was brokered by US President Barack Obama during his recent visit to Israel. Netanyahu had previously only expressed regret for the killings and refused to publicly apologize. 
On December 17, 2012, Syrian Ambassador to the UN Bashar Ja’afari said in letters to the UN Security Council and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that the foreign-backed militants could use chemical weapons against Syrians and try to shift the blame to the government. 
Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011. Many people, including large numbers of Syrian army and security personnel, have been killed in the violence. 
The Syrian government says that the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and there are reports that a very large number of the militants are foreign nationals. 
Damascus says the West and its regional allies including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey are supporting the militants.-www.shafaqna.com/English

Source:Press TV

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- A car has exploded near a bus in Tel Aviv, injuring several people in what police suspect was an attempt to kill the head of an alleged organised crime family.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said "the main direction of suspicion is that it was criminal".

The Magen David Adom ambulance service said seven to 10 people were injured in the blast on Menachem Begin street, a main thoroughfare.

The attack appeared to have targeted Nissim Halperon, the head of one of Israel's top organised crime families, according to Israel Radio. Halperon has already escaped seven other assassination attempts, including one last year in Tel Aviv's Ramat Gan suburb.

He did not appear to have been in the car when the bomb exploded, public radio said.

Israeli organised crime gangs have engaged in an often violent struggle over the past few years, prompting the police to create a special task force dedicated to the issue.

www.shafaqna.com/English

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- Israelis in Tel Aviv demonstrated on Monday against African migrants after a young Eritrean man wasarrested for the alleged rape of an 83-year-old woman. The rape reportedly took place over several hours in the backyard of the woman's building. According to police, the man was identified by DNA at the scene that matched DNA from a prior arrest. www.shafaqna.com/English

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) — An international lawyer says while the US Intelligence Community (IC) considers “Israel” the greatest threat to America’s national interests, there are about 7,500 US officials “who do “Israel’s” bidding,” serving Tel Aviv’s interests with no reservation.

In an article published on Press TV website, Franklin Lamb noted that a study commissioned by the US Intelligence Community earlier this year, has reached the conclusion that the American national interest in fundamentally at odds with that of Zionist “Israel”.

“It’s … an 82-page analysis [entitled: Preparing For A Post “Israel” Middle East] that concludes that … “Israel” is currently the greatest threat to US national interests because its nature and actions prevent normal US relations with Arab and Muslim countries and, to a growing degree, the wider international community,” Lamb added.

The IC-commissioned study clearly stated that “Israel” is grossly interfering in the internal affairs of the United States through spying and illegal US arms transfers.

“This includes supporting more than 60 ‘front organizations’ and approximately 7,500 US officials who do “Israel’s” bidding and seek to dominate and intimidate the media and agencies of the US government which should no longer be condoned.”

According to the report, the analyst added, IC believes that “Israel” leadership, with its increasing support of the 700,000 illegal settlers on the occupied West Bank “is increasing out of touch with the political, military and economic realities of the Middle East.”

The IC report also argued that as a result of Tel Aviv’s current brutal occupationist and belligerent policy, it “cannot be salvaged any more than apartheid South Africa could be.”

“…as American power and influence recedes, the US commitment to belligerent oppressive “Israel” is becoming impossible to defend or execute given paramount US national interests which include normalizing relations with the 57 Islamic countries.”

Advising the US government to avoid “entangling alliances that alienate much of the world,” the IC noted that instead of getting militarily involved in the Middle East on behalf of “Israel”, the US should undertake “the repairing relations with Arab and Muslim countries including the drastically curtained use of drone aircraft.”

“US public opinion no longer supports funding and executing widely perceived illegal US wars on “Israel’s” behalf. This view is increasingly being shared by Europe, Asia and the International public.”— www.shafaqna.com/English