A historic agreement signed in Amman Sunday, March 31, between Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Jordan’s King Abdullah II takes a new stand on Jerusalem by accepting the king as Custodian of the Holy Sites, with authority over the Waqf. He will also represent the interests of the Holy Sites “in relevant international forums…” By laying the foundation for internationalizing the oversight of Jerusalem’s holy sites, the document faces trouble in Israel and also among Palestinians.  The two parties’ communiqués differ in defining “Palestinian sovereignty.”

Missile alert sirens sounded across Greater Tel Aviv Saturday, Nov. 17, before an explosion caused by Iron Dome’s interception of one of the two rockets incoming from the Gaza Strip against Israel’s largest conurbation for the third day in a row. The second rocket landed harmlessly on open ground.
Hamas claimed to have launched Iran-made Fajr-5 long-range missile against Tel Aviv. The Iron Dome anti-missile battery was deployed for the first time in Greater Tel Aviv that morning,

Hundreds of Palestinians lobbing rocks clashed with Jerusalem police Friday as they marched from Temple Mount, Jerusalem, to Damascus Gate - their first protest against the anti-Muslim film made in the US. Mounted police using stun grenades stopped them reaching the US consulate. Protests erupted too in the Gaza Strip and the Israel Bedouin town of Rahat. Islamists continued to batter the US embassies in Cairo and Sanaa, riot in Bangladesh and Lebanon and also attack the British and German embassies in Khartoum.

The Islamic regime in Tehran was not satisfied with the public support the Iranian Jewish community was forced to confer on the Global March for a Palestinian Jerusalem for which Iran is recruiting Islamists worldwide. Now, the event’s organizers, Majlis Speaker Hossein Sheikh-ol-Eslam and Salim Ghafouri, have ordered the community to send a delegation of young Jewish men to march with the Islamist groups in Lebanon, debkafile’s Iranian sources disclose, where they face the risk of murder or abduction by Palestinian Salafis.

Monday night, Jan. 2, Al Qaeda claimed to have established its first Jerusalem operational cell calling it the "Sunni Youth Movement Cell in Greater Jerusalem." Bulletin No. 1 with details of the organization and its targets was promised in the next few days. debkafile's counter-terror sources report Israeli security services are taking the development very seriously. They tie it in with Palestinian plans for a West Bank uprising and the jihadist trend spreading through Palestinian centers in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.

Israel border units went on night alert Sunday, June 5 after a day spent beating back hundreds of Syrian-Palestinians attempting to storm the Golan border. Syrian TV reported a sit-in protest, claiming Israeli fire killed 20 people and injured 150 injured in round after round of assaults. Twice they breached the fortified border fence at Majd al Shams and Kuneitra but refrained from stepping across. Israeli troops arrested three would-be intruders. Sunday night, Israeli troops were attacked from behind by Majd al-Shams residents hurling rocks. 

The bomb which exploded Wednesday afternoon, March 23, near the No. 74 bus stop opposite Binyanei Haooma at Jerusalem's main northern entrance was detonated by remote control. It killed a female tourist and injured 30-40 passers-by and passengers. debkafile's counter-terror sources report that the attack was professionally executed by a team of three to five with local aid from Jerusalem Palestinians. Intelligence and terror experts are certain a terrorist organization activated trained bombers and may do so again.

Israel has arrested two Palestinian staffers at the British consulate in East Jerusalem suspected of procuring guns for a Hamas network accused of plotting a rocket attack on the Jerusalem Teddy stadium. This is the first time foreign consular employees in Jerusalem have been apprehended on terror-related charges. London denies any connection with their consular work, but debkafile's sources report they used CD cars to deliver the guns.

Sixteen hours after she was reported missing, the body of the American woman Christine Logan was discovered early Sunday, Dec. 19, between Mattan and Beit Shemesh southwest of Jerusalem, bound and bearing marks of extreme violence. Police have cordoned off the area and imposed a blackout on the investigation. Saturday afternoon an Israeli tourist guide, Kaye Susan Wilson, reported they had both been attacked by two Arabs, presumed Palestinians, deep inside the Green line near Mattan. The search now switches to the perpetrators.

Arson attacks spread Saturday, Dec. 4 from the North to Jerusalem, where fires started near Tsur Hadassah and the Jerusalem Forest. Day Three of the Carmel fire began with a fleet of foreign planes, including two giant Russian Il-76s taking off at first light to dump water and fresh supplies of retardants on the flames and smoke again engulfing Beit Oren, Ein Hod, Nir Etzion and Isfiya, fanned by scorching winds.

Arson alert declared in the North against proliferating attacks.

Israeli police want to question at least two prominent Israelis, some traveling overseas, on bribery and corruption charges in the Jerusalem Holyland real estate case, after arresting the lawyer Uri Messer, a longtime partner of Ehud Olmert, ex-prime minister and former Jerusalem mayor, Wednesday, April 7.  Notwithstanding the court gag order, the revelations spilling out about the lead characters involved bespeak financial corruption on an unprecedented scale whose ramifications intrude on national politics.

 

The Palestinian and Israeli Arab masses failed to show up in Jerusalem for the Day of Rage, called for Tuesday, March 15 in a bid to stir up a third uprising (intifada) against Israel. No more than 500 teenagers were out on the streets. Around 14 policemen and three dozen Palestinians were injured in clashes - none seriously, and 60 arrested. In case of more trouble, a high police alert will be maintained until the weekend.