Israel Edges Closer to Early Election

Israel's fractious coalition government seems headed for a breakup that could spark new elections against a backdrop of security turmoil inside the country, disputes over nationalist legislation and a deep freeze in peace efforts with the Palestinians.

With little to gain from a vote that would come two years early, the country's top politicians could still pull back from a brink that none seem to relish. But the vitriolic attacks of recent days suggest another angry campaign could soon be at hand.

If that happens, it seems likely for now that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be returned for a fourth term. Despite sagging popularity amid economic doldrums and increasing global isolation, his divided opposition lacks a credible unifying figure.

Under Israel's political system, the leader is the elected parliament member who can show majority support in the 120-seat house.

Netanyahu's current coalition consists of a diverse array of partner parties that includes the centrist "Yesh Atid," which rose to power with promises of economic relief for Israel's struggling middle class; "Jewish Home," a hard-line party closely identified with the West Bank settlement movement; "Hatnuah," which was elected on a platform pushing peace with the Palestinians; and "Yisrael Beitenu," a nationalist party that seeks to redraw Israel's borders to rid the country of many Arab citizens. His own Likud party is itself riven with disputes.

With little common ground, the competing factions have begun to squabble over a host of issues, including the budget, the collapse of U.S.-brokered peace talks, Jewish settlement construction and how to confront a wave of Palestinian attacks in Jerusalem.

The differences boiled over last week when Netanyahu pushed a piece of legislation defining Israel as "the Jewish state." Although its 1948 Declaration of Independence already does this, critics say enshrining it in law would undermine Israel's democratic character, enrage the country's Arab minority, and possibly enable future illiberal legislation. The dispute forced Netanyahu to delay a vote on the bill by a week, and officials say the vote is likely to be pushed back yet again.

Addressing his Cabinet on Sunday, Netanyahu complained of the incessant infighting.

"I hope we can return to normal conduct," he said. "This is what the public expects from us. This is the only way to lead the country, and if not we will have to draw conclusions."

The comments came a day after Finance Minister Yair Lapid, head of Yesh Atid, accused Netanyahu of playing "petty politics," and said he hadn't spoken to him in a month.

Israel's media is almost unanimously predicting a government collapse with elections in a few months. Many observers believe Netanyahu's championing of the "Jewish state" law is an effort to establish terms of debate that would bring out his nationalist base.

"The things that Lapid said about Netanyahu on Saturday proved without a doubt: The current government has come to its end. It's only a matter of time," wrote Shimon Schiffer, a senior political commentator at Yediot Ahronot.

A new opinion poll published Sunday in the Haaretz daily provided little incentive for anyone to head to elections, though.

Soccer Stadium Attack Foiled, Israel Says

Israel Says It Busted Hamas Cell Planning Attacks

Israel's Shin Bet security service said Thursday it had uncovered a vast Hamas network in the West Bank that was planning large-scale attacks against Israelis in Jerusalem.

The Shin Bet said it arrested more than 30 Hamas militants who planned to kidnap Israelis and carry out attacks against Jerusalem's light rail and its largest soccer stadium, among other targets. It said the men were trained and recruited in Jordan and Turkey and that various arms and explosives were recovered.

While the Islamic militant group Hamas rules the Gaza Strip, the West Bank is run by Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

The arrests come amid Israel's worst sustained bout of violence in nearly a decade. Eleven Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks over the past month, including five people who were killed with guns and meat cleavers in a bloody assault on a Jerusalem synagogue last week. Most of the violence has occurred in Jerusalem, along with deadly attacks in Tel Aviv and the West Bank.

Hamas did not immediately comment on the arrests.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated the Shin Bet for thwarting the attacks, saying that if carried out they could have exacted a heavy toll of casualties.

"This is one operation that has been published but there are many more that remain secret," he said of Israel's intelligence work. "These foiling activities are against terrorists and against Hamas, which challenges the existence of a Jewish nation-state and the existence of Jews in general."

From Cairo to Moscow: how the world reacted to Ferguson

Russia, China and other authoritarian regimes around the world reacted to violent protests in Ferguson with thinly disguised glee and schadenfreude on Tuesday, noting that the scenes of unrest in Missouri undermined the US’s credibility to criticise other countries on human rights.

The liberal use of teargas by police, the firing of non-lethal rounds and the enveloping sense of chaos featured extensively in coverage by international state media, including the Kremlin-backed news channel Russia Today, which often concentrates on highlighting deficiencies in western society.

RT broadcast live from the scene and ran a picture-gallery from Ferguson under the headline: “Ferguson burning: Torched cars, tear gas, clashes in massive night riots (DRAMATIC IMAGES).” RT also quoted UN human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein decrying America’s “troubled” record on race relations and pointing out that African Americans ended up in jail – or worse – in disproportionate numbers.

Russian commentators and state media implied that the disorder in Ferguson was a kind of cosmic payback for the US’s meddling in Ukraine, currently the scene of a war in the east of the country. The Kremlin blames the conflict on the west and “neo-Nazis” in Kiev, rather than on Moscow’s covert invasion of Ukrainian territory. Russia’s “human rights ombudsman” Konstantin Dolgov, meanwhile, fired off a series of tweets accusing the US administration of hypocrisy and serial failure.

A demonstrator sits in front of a street fire during a demonstration following the grand jury decision in the Ferguson. Photograph: Stephen Lam/Reuters

He observed: “Racial and ethnic tensions continue to rise in US society. It’s about time the US authorities paid attention to this rather than focusing on lecturing the rest of the world on human rights.”

China’s foreign ministry also took the opportunity to poke Washington in the eye. Its spokeswoman Hua Chunying initially described the trouble, which began after a grand jury refused to prosecute a white police officer for the shooting of a black teenager, as an internal US affair. She then went on to hint, however, that the US might be better served by a little humility: “I would like to say that there’s no such thing as perfection when it comes to human rights regardless of whatever country you’re in,” Hua said. She added: “We have to improve the record of human rights and promote the cause of human rights. We can learn from each other in this area.”

In Egypt, social media users drew comparisons between Ferguson and events in Cairo, where rampant police brutality since the 2011 revolution has only once resulted in a conviction, and which has consequently often sparked bloody clashes between police and protesters. “Ferguson now looks like police assaults in Egypt,” tweeted the Cairo-based former Human Rights Watch researcher, Scott Long. “Our world is melding into a single military regime.”

Egypt’s government did not comment on the most recent violence in Ferguson, though during a previous round of protests, the Egyptian foreign ministry issued a barbed statement urging US officials to exercise restraint in their treatment of demonstrators. It was payback for the many times the US has criticised the excesses of the Egyptian police, who have killed around 2,000 protesters since 2011.

Egypt’s police force has itself previously issued five top tips to American police about how to deal with the unrest in Ferguson. “I ask the American police not to use excessive force in dealing with peaceful demonstrators,” said General Hany Abdel Latif, the police spokesman, in an interview this summer. Abdel Latif also suggested opening a dialogue with protesters, and bringing errant policemen to swift justice.

Ordinary citizens across the Middle East expressed solidarity with Ferguson’s unhappy residents. In particular, Palestinians expressed their support – and even offered handy tips as to how protesters might best deal with attacks by cops using tear gas. @MariamBarghouti advised:

Always make sure to run against the wind /to keep calm when you're teargassed, the pain will pass, don't rub your eyes! #Ferguson Solidarity

— مريم البرغوثي (@MariamBarghouti) August 14, 2014

Twitter users shared photos of Palestinians who had made homemade signs expressing solidarity with protestors in Ferguson. One held by a girl in a headscarf read: “Ferguson with love from Palestine”; another sign written by a young man read: “The Palestinian people know what it mean [sic] to be shot while unarmed because of your ethnicity #Ferguson #justice”.

Israel President Cancels Pop Star Appearance

Israel's president has cancelled the appearance of a local pop star at a high-profile public event following the star's release of a new song focusing on a fictional Arab who gets his kicks by stabbing Jews.

The office of President Reuven Rivlin said Tuesday that it was cancelling its invitation for Amir Benayoun to perform at next week's event marking the expulsion and exile of Jews from Arab countries and Iran.

The office said the sentiments expressed by Benayoun in the song "Ahmed Loves Israel" are "inconsistent with the responsibility required of the president's residence."

The song tells of a fictional Arab named Ahmed who wants to "send to hell a Jew or two" despite his moderate appearance.

Its release coincides with heightened tensions between Jews and Muslims in Jerusalem.

Netanyahu's Cabinet Moves to Define Israel as Jewish

Archbishop of Westminster shocked by effects of Gaza war

The archbishop of Westminster said he was deeply shocked by his first visit to Gaza on Sunday, and that he had seen “a deeply depressing situation in a devastated region where people are trapped”.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the leader of the Roman Catholic church in England and Wales, toured neighbourhoods of Gaza that were virtually flattened during the 50-day war between Israel and Hamas in the summer. He visited a hospital and an industrial zone that were badly damaged by air strikes and shelling, and an orphanage caring for dozens of traumatised children, some of whom had been given up by parents unable to care for them.

“I was deeply shocked at the effects of war and endemic poverty,” he told the Guardian. “Pope Francis has said there must be an end to war, and when you see the effect in a place like Gaza it reinforces that.”

There was little sign of rubble being cleared, let alone reconstruction, he said. “It’s astonishing the number of people with the appearance of nothing to do – people just sitting on the streets. There is only the barest sense of order. This is not an economy that is going to be able to support its population.”

Nichols said he was concerned about “the innocent citizens of Gaza caught in a vice of conflicting ideologies – an almost impossible situation for them”.

The greatest fear was that the “rule of the extremists” was coming to the fore in the Middle East. “Political leaders must not be satisfied with a security or military response, but need to find a political solution,” he said.

Real political leadership was essential, he added, but “optimism is not the word that comes to mind, yet without it things will get worse.”

He had given an undertaking to the people he met in Gaza that he would try to widen public understanding of their situation, he said. Nichols has previously spoken in support of Palestinian Christians whose homes and livelihoods are threatened by a section of the vast concrete security barrier Israel is building near the West Bank town of Bethlehem.

During last summer’s war more than 2,000 Palestinians were killed in Gaza, and 71 Israelis and a Thai worker died in Israel. About 17,000 homes in Gaza were destroyed and reconstruction costs have been estimated at £5bn.

Israeli forces shoot dead Palestinian man in Gaza Strip

The Palestinian health ministry said Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian in the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday, the first such fatality since the 50-day Gaza war ended in August.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment.

The ministry identified the man as Fadel Mohammed Halawa, 32, and said he was shot by soldiers east of Jabaliya refugee camp.

One of Halawa’s relatives said he had been searching for songbirds, which nest in trees near the Israeli border and command high prices in Gaza markets.

Israel has long designated areas near its frontier with the Gaza Strip as “no-go” zones for Palestinians, citing concerns that militants could plant bombs or carry out surveillance of Israeli patrols.

More than 2,100 Palestinians, most of them civilians, were killed during the Gaza war, according to the Palestinian health ministry. Israeli puts its death toll at 67 soldiers and six civilians, killed by rockets and attacks by Hamas and other militant groups.

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Israel Military: Gaza Militants Test Rockets

Israel's military says that militants in the Gaza Strip have test-fired rockets into the Mediterranean Sea.

The military said Thursday that four rockets had been fired over a 24-hour period, suggesting Gaza militants are "experimenting."

Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers fought a 50-day war over the summer that claimed more than 2,100 Palestinian and 70 Israeli lives. It broke out after Hamas fired dozens of rockets at Israel following an Israeli roundup of Hamas activists in the West Bank, which was in response to the killing of three Israeli teens there.

Rocket fire continued throughout the war, but was largely neutralized by Israel's "Iron Dome" aerial defense system.

Rockets from Gaza now have the ability to reach Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and other Israeli cities.

Defiant: Israelis Return to Pray in Attacked Temple

Fifth Person Dies In Israeli Synagogue Attack

An Israeli police officer has died of his wounds from an attack at a Jerusalem synagogue by two knife-wielding Palestinian men earlier today, bringing the death toll in the assault to five.

The attackers also killed four rabbis, three of them American.

The officer was critically wounded when two Palestinian men armed with knives, axes and a pistol burst into the synagogue during morning prayers. He later died of his wounds.

The two alleged attackers were identified as cousins, Ghassan and Oday Abu Jamal, from East Jerusalem, according to a police spokeswoman. Police said they shot and killed them at the scene.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would “reply harshly” after police said Palestinian assailants wielding knives and axes killed five people after attacking a Jerusalem synagogue.

After the attack, Netanyahu ordered the demolition of the alleged attackers’ homes and arrested multiple members of each man’s family. He told reporters he would also demolish the homes of other Palestinians accused of recent attacks against Israeli citizens.

“We will respond with a heavy hand to the brutal murder of Jews who came to pray and were met by reprehensible murderers,” said Netanyahu.

This the first attack of this kind on an Israeli synagogue.

Netanyahu earlier had denounced the attack as a "cruel murder of Jews who came to pray and were killed by despicable murderers."

During a news conference Netanyahu blamed Hamas, the Islamic Movement and the Palestinian Authority for helping to incite violence against Jews and warned Israelis to be alert for other potential attacks.

"As a state, we will settle accounts with all of the terrorists and those who dispatched them," Netanyahu said. "Let nobody take the law into his hands, even if tempers flare and blood boils. We are in a lengthy war against abhorrent terrorism which did not start today."

While emphasizing that the United States also condemned the synagogue attack, State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke added that "punitive home demolitions are counterproductive to the cause of peace, especially in an already tense situation."

Three American citizens were among the victims in the attack -- Rabbi Moshe Twersky, 59, formerly of Boston, Rabbi Kalman Levine, 55, and Rabbi Aryeh Kupinsky, 43, Israeli officials said. The fourth dead victim, Rabbi Avraham Shmuel Goldberg, was a British national.

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation said it will lead the U.S. side of the investigation and was "working in close collaboration and cooperation with the appropriate Israeli allies and partners."

“This is a tragedy for both nations -- Israel, as well as the United States -- and our hearts go out to the families, who obviously are undergoing enormous grief right now," President Obama said, denouncing the attack as "horrific" before a meeting with his national security team.

Ammar Awad/Reuters

PHOTO: Israeli emergency personnel stand at the scene of an attack at a Jerusalem synagogue Nov. 18, 2014.

The attack happened in Har Nof, an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood with a population of 20,000 residents, at around 7 a.m. on Tuesday, local time during morning prayers.

Thirty worshipers were taking part in the morning services when the two alleged assailants broke in wielding knives before using a gun to shoot at worshipers, according to the Israeli government. Many of those taken to the hospital had suffered blows to the head with an ax. Pictures of the scene showed the floor of the synagogue covered in blood, according to an Israeli Foreign Ministry official.

At least seven people were injured in the attack, Israel Police foreign press spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. The area near the synagogue was closed off, and the injured were transported to Jerusalem hospitals.

Hours after the attack, funerals for the four victims drew thousands of mourners, Rosenfeld tweeted.

The accused cousins were reportedly part of the militant group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, but the organization did not say if it ordered them to carry out the attacks.

Hamas, the militant Palestinian group that runs the Gaza Strip, praised the attack saying it was “quality development in confrontation with Israeli occupation."

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' office said in a statement that he "condemns the killing of the worshippers" in the Jerusalem synagogue, but that Israel should stop "the invasion" of a key Jerusalem holy site and halt "incitement" by Israeli ministers.

Ariel Schalit/AP Photo

PHOTO: A bullet hole and forensic evidence are seen in side the Synagogue at the site of an attack in Jerusalem, Nov. 18, 2014.

Israel and the Palestinians have blamed each other for a recent escalation of violence, and Obama called on leaders from both sides to diffuse tensions.

“At this sensitive moment in Jerusalem, it is all the more important for Israeli and Palestinian leaders and ordinary citizens to work cooperatively together to lower tensions, reject violence, and seek a path forward towards peace,” he said in a statement.

Secretary of State John Kerry voiced anger over the attack.

"The people who had come to worship God in the sanctuary of a synagogue were hatcheted and hacked, were murdered, in that holy place in an act of pure terror and senseless brutality murder," Kerry said. "I call on the Palestinian leadership at every single level to condemn this in the most powerful terms."

Gali Tibbon/AFP/Getty Images

Israeli security forces secure the scene after a synagogue attack in Jerusalem, November 18, 2014.

The attack put U.S. law enforcement on guard, with New York Police Commissioner William Bratton announcing extra protection would be sent to synagogues throughout New York.

"The NYPD is following developments in Jerusalem closely and working with the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force to monitor any further developments," said Bratton in a statement. "As of now, there is no specific credible threat to New York City. The NYPD has increased its attention to Synagogues and other symbolic locations around the city."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Get real-time updates as this story unfolds. To start, just "star" this story in ABC News' phone app. Download ABC News for iPhone here or ABC News for Android here.

Jerusalem synagogue attack – live updates

AFP has more graphic accounts of the attacks from witnesses.

“There were people running from the synagogue, and a man sitting on the pavement covered in blood, it looked like he has been stabbed,” said local resident Sarah Abrahams, who was walking past when it happened.

“Two people came out with their faces half missing, looking like they’d been attacked with knives,” she said as hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jews pressed up against the police tape, a few chanting “Death to terrorists.”

Fighting back tears, Moshe Eliezer said he had narrowly avoided being at the scene after oversleeping.

“This is a yeshiva community. Ninety percent don’t serve in the army. We’re not violent,” he said.

Details are emerging about the suspects.

Police said the attackers were two cousins from the east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Jabal Mukaber.

Speaking to journalists at the scene, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat expressed shock at the scale of the bloodshed.

“To slaughter innocent people while they pray... it’s insane,” he said.

AFP also confirms that Hamas praised assault as a response to the death earlier this week of a Palestinian bus driver from east Jerusalem who was found hanged inside his vehicle.

“The operation in Jerusalem is a response to the murder of the martyr Yusuf Ramuni and to the series of crimes by the occupier at Al-Aqsa,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement.

“Hamas calls for more operations like it.”

4 Israelis Dead After Knife, Ax-Wielding Attackers Storm Jerusalem Synagogue

Assailants wielding knives and axes forged an attack on a synagogue in Jerusalem today, with at least four people dead and two of the attackers killed by police, a spokesman with Israel Police said.

The attack happened in Har Nof, an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood with a population of 20,000 residents.

The area near the synagogue is closed off, and people injured in the attack have been transported to Jerusalem hospitals, Micky Rosenfeld, a spokesman for Israel Police, said.

Trauma surgeon Mads Gilbert will defy Israeli ban on Gaza entry

A Norwegian trauma surgeon and activist who helped provide life-saving medical care during this summer’s 100-day war in Gaza has said he will defy an Israeli ban on his return.

Chief surgeon Mads Gilbert, 67, has spent 15 years treating patients in Gaza and spent 51 days in Shifa hospital earlier this year treating many of the 11,000 Palestinians who were wounded in the war between Hamas and Israel.

When he returned last month to try and enter Gaza via the Erez crossing in Israel he was denied entry indefinitely.

The Israeli government now says Gilbert is banned from entering Gaza for security reasons. The Norwegian embassy in Tel Aviv has taken up Gilbert’s case on his behalf after he was refused entry in October.

“When we came back to the Erez border station the Israeli soldiers told me I was not allowed to go into Gaza,” he told media.

“I had a valid permit for multiple entries, an invitation from the Palestinian Ministry of Health and a recommendation from the director at my hospital.”

In a written statement, Norway’s Secretary of State, Bard Glad Pedersen, said: “From the Norwegian perspective, we have raised Gilbert’s exclusion from Gaza and asked Israel to change their decision. The humanitarian situation is still difficult and there is a need for all health workers.”

Norwegian authorities confirmed Gilbert had been banned “indefinitely” by Israel.

Gilbert is a vocal critic of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and the blockade on the Gaza Strip. Photos and television footage of Gilbert in his light green surgical wear in Gaza’s Shifa hospital treating Gazans wounded and dying were broadcast internationally and often daily during the course of the war between Hamas and Israel.

He vowed he would fight any restrictions placed on his movements by Israel.

“I have never violated Israeli law, never been arrested and never lied.”

In July Gilbert wrote a statement from Shifa hospital at the height of the fighting that was published widely. He described in graphic detail people that had been “maimed and torn apart”.

He described the patients he treated as being innocent civilians. “We still have lakes of blood on the floor in the emergency room, piles of dripping blood soaked bandages to clear out. Cleaners are everywhere swiftly shoveling the blood and discarded tissues, hair, clothes, cannulas, and the leftovers from death – all taken away to be prepared again to be repeated all over.”

He called on readers to force Israeli to stop its attacks on Gaza. Dr Gilbert gave a similar account during live television interviews.

Gilbert is defiant in responding to the ban and resolved to make a return to Gaza in the near future.

“It is completely unacceptable to restrict the movement of humanitarian personnel – much needed in Gaza now after the last bombardment,” he said.

“I will not be stopped from returning to Gaza to do medical work. There are different attempts going on to conceal the reality on the ground for the good people of Gaza – this is one of them – and we must persist in resisting attempts to shutdown Gaza from the world.

“The first precondition for the recent ceasefire was to ease the siege,” he said. “It has not been eased. This attempt to stop medical personnel entering Gaza is a tightening of the siege – this, again, is totally unacceptable.”

During the war, Gilbert charged that Israel was committing “state terrorism at the highest levels”.

An Israeli foreign ministry spokesman, Paul Hirschson, replied Dr Gilbert was “not on the side of decency and peace and he’s got a horrible track record. I wouldn’t be surprised if his acquaintances are among the worst people in the world.”

During Israel’s 51-day military operation in Gaza over 2,000 Palestinians were killed – mostly civilians, and 70 Israelis were killed, mostly soldiers. A ceasefire deal was struck at the end of August to bring an end to fighting. Dr Gilbert said the agreement had not been upheld and called his ban on entering Gaza as further evidence a blockade on the coastal enclave was no closer.

Israel Rejects U.N. Gaza War Inquiry As 'Kangaroo Court'

Antisemitic abuse in Australia increased by a third over the past year

Antisemitic abuse has increased by more than a third in the past year, according to a register of incidents kept by Australian Jewish groups.

A Bondi gang attack on five Jewish people, two of them aged over 60, and a Jewish family being pelted with dirt from a car after leaving a synagogue were among the incidents logged in an annual report on antisemitism by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ).

Also recorded was the August attack on a bus of Jewish schoolchildren by drunken teenagers, one of more than 75 incidents of verbal harassment and physical intimidation detailed in the report. The number of physical assaults tripled to 15.

Overall there were 312 incidents of antisemitism recorded, an increase of 35% on the previous year. The ECAJ attributed the rise to the 50-day conflict between Hamas and Israel in July and August, and the “hostile media coverage” it sparked.

Hate speech increasingly originated online, the report found, noting a sharp drop in threats by mail and a spike in abusive emails and Facebook messages. This “may well reflect a shift to a younger demographic as the source of antisemitic hate messages”, the council said.

It warned of an “escalating use of antisemitic motifs” in the mainstream media, singling out claims by the former foreign minister, Bob Carr, that Australian politics was subject to a “very unhealthy influence” by a pro-Israel lobby, and a Sydney Morning Herald cartoon in July that “unambiguously portrayed an ugly stereotype of a Jew”.

The cartoon by Glen Le Lievre, depicting a man on a couch emblazoned with the Star of David using a remote control to blow up Gazan homes – echoing television scenes of Israeli villagers cheering the bombing of Gaza City – was retracted by Fairfax Media in August.

ECAJ has produced the annual report for more than two decades. The record year was 2009, which saw 962 antisemitic incidents logged.

Jet Carrying Pastors in Bahamas Struck Crane Before Crash

A private jet carrying a prominent Bahamian pastor and eight others en route to a religious conference struck a shipyard crane and crashed into a recycling center about 4 miles from the airport, a top Bahamian official said.

Dr. Myles Munroe and his wife Ruth, who were the co-leaders of the Bahamas Faith Ministries, were two of the nine people on board the plane that crashed Sunday evening. It appears that they were making their descent around the time of the crash.

The private Lear Jet plane struck a shipping container crane as it tried to land in heavy rain, Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell told the Associated Pres today. Mitchell said that a commercial airline taking the same route as the private plane had turned back shortly before the accident because severe weather and heavy rain made it too dangerous for them to continue.

The investigation into the fatal crash started this morning, but the Grand Bahamas Shipyard confirmed the site of the crash in a statement released this afternoon. It said the plane crashed at a recycling facility just east of the shipyard that is used to collect "recycled waste material, scrap metal and construction debris," the shipyard said in a statement.

Bahamas Faith Ministries International released the identities of six of the other fatalities, three of whom were leaders in the church. The group's senior vice president Dr. Richard Pinder and two newly installed youth ministers -- Pastors Lavard and Radel Parks and their son, Johannan-- died in the crash. There was one other passenger who has still not been named. Other victims included pilot Frakhan Cooper and Munroe's longtime personal pilot Stanley Thurston and Farkhan Cooper.

"Words cannot express our profound sense of loss for all of the team members on this tragic flight," the group said in a statement. "Dr. Munroe was our visionary, our founder, our mentor, adviser, father figure and friend. He was a global leader and icon and was respected worldwide."

Bahamas Press

People inspect the wreckage following a plane crash near Grand Bahama International Airport in Freeport, Bahamas, Nov. 9, 2014.

Munroe was scheduled to give the opening address at the conference and Pinder was also slated to speak to the hundreds of followers gathered in Freeport for the four-day event.

"As a Church body and organization we will move forward as Dr. Munroe would have wanted us to. We recognize that there will be challenges but we have full confidence that God will see us through and we intend to make our founding leaders proud," Bahamas Faith Ministries International said in their new statement.

Condolences poured in from Bahamian politicians and religious leaders, including Pat Robertson, the host of The 700 Club who had Munroe and his wife as guests on the show over the years.

"Myles Munroe was a great spiritual leader in the Bahamas, a gifted teacher, and we are saddened by his passing," Robertson said in a statement to ABC News.

MylesMunroeInternational/Facebook

PHOTO: Myles Munroe and his wife Ruth are seen in this undated photo.

Jet Carrying Pastors in Bahamas Crashed 4 Miles From Airport

A private jet carrying a prominent Bahamian pastor and eight others en route to a religious conference crashed at a shipyard recycling facility about 4 miles away from the airport where they were scheduled to land.

Dr. Myles Munroe and his wife Ruth, who were the co-leaders of the Bahamas Faith Ministries, were two of the nine people on board the plane that crashed Sunday evening. It appears that they were making their descent around the time of the crash.

The investigation into the fatal crash started this morning, but the Grand Bahamas Shipyard confirmed the site of the crash in a statement released this afternoon. It said the plane crashed at a recycling facility just east of the shipyard that is used to collect "recycled waste material, scrap metal and construction debris," the shipyard said in a statement.

Bahamas Faith Ministries International released the identities of six of the other fatalities, three of whom were leaders in the church. The group's senior vice president Dr. Richard Pinder and two newly installed youth ministers -- Pastors Lavard and Radel Parks and their son, Johannan-- died in the crash. There was one other passenger who has still not been named. Other victims included pilot Frakhan Cooper and Munroe's longtime personal pilot Stanley Thurston and Farkhan Cooper.

"Words cannot express our profound sense of loss for all of the team members on this tragic flight," the group said in a statement. "Dr. Munroe was our visionary, our founder, our mentor, adviser, father figure and friend. He was a global leader and icon and was respected worldwide."

Munroe was scheduled to give the opening address at the conference and Pinder was also slated to speak to the hundreds of followers gathered in Freeport for the four-day event.

"As a Church body and organization we will move forward as Dr. Munroe would have wanted us to. We recognize that there will be challenges but we have full confidence that God will see us through and we intend to make our founding leaders proud," Bahamas Faith Ministries International said in their new statement.

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Prominent Evangelical Pastor, Wife Among 9 Dead in Bahamas Jet Crash

A private Lear jet with nine passengers on board crashed on approach near Grand Bahama International Airport, killing everyone on the plane, including a prominent evangelical pastor and his wife.

"The Department of Civil Aviation has been advised unofficially that the aircraft was destroyed and that there were no survivors," the Ministry of Transport and Aviation said in a statement to The Associated Press.

The Lear 36 Executive Jet had taken off from the Bahamian capital of Nassau and crashed about 5 p.m. local time today, as it was coming in for a landing at Grand Bahama International Airport in Freeport.

Dr. Myles Munroe and his wife Ruth were killed in the crash, Kelley Jackson, a spokeswoman from the Andrew J. Young Foundation told ABC News.

"Ambassador Young expresses his deep sadness over the tragic death of his friends Dr. Myles and Mrs. Ruth Munroe," the organization posted on its Facebook page tonight. "He offers condolences to the Munroe family and the families of the other souls who lost their lives as a result of this shocking plane crash."

Munroe and his wife were on the way to the Global Leadership Forum, which was organized by Munroe and was scheduled for this week in Freeport.

A posting on Munroe's Facebook page said the event would go on for two and a half days.

"This is what Dr. Munroe would have wanted. Please keep his family and the ministry in prayers," the post said.

Dr. William M. Wilson, president of Oral Roberts University where Munroe was a student, expressed his sadness at the loss of an "outstanding ORUalumni and friend."

A spokesperson at the Bahamas Air accident investigation and prevention unit told ABC they understand that it may be the plane of a prominent minister in the Bahamas, but officials have declined to identify the victims.

Based upon the flight plan information that was registered at the point of the departure, officials are of the opinion that the plane was the only aircraft in the area at the time, so they are going on the assumption that it was a prominent minister on the aircraft, the spokesperson said.

It was not yet known what caused the crash, and police and rescue teams were on the scene, but a full investigation would only begin at daylight, officials said.

"The Department of Civil Aviation has been advised that there were some fatalities and we are awaiting confirmation from the Royal Bahamas Police Force as to whether there were any survivors," The Department of Civil Aviation said in a statement. "The Grand Bahama Airport Company Crash Fire Rescue Department responded to the incident, and the Police and Bahamas Air Sea Rescue (BASRA) are presently on the scene."

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Small Plane Crashes in Bahamas; Preacher, Wife Killed

'Some Fatalities': Small Plane Crashes in Bahamas

Private Jet With 9 Passengers Crashes in Bahamas

A private Lear jet with nine passengers on board has crashed on approach near Grand Bahama International Airport, killing at least some of those on the plane, Bahamian officials said.

A spokesperson at the Bahamas Air accident investigation and prevention unit told ABC they understand that it may be a prominent minister's plane in the Bahamas.

Based upon the flight plan information that was registered at the point of the departure, officials are of the opinion that that was the only aircraft at the time in that area, so are going on the assumption that it was a prominent minister on the aircraft, the spokesperson said.

The jet crashed about 5 p.m. local time today, as it was coming in for a landing Grand Bahama International Airport.

It was not yet known what caused the crash, and police and rescue teams were on the scene, but a full investigation would only begin at daylight, officials said.

"The Department of Civil Aviation has been advised that there were some fatalities and we are awaiting confirmation from the Royal Bahamas Police Force as to whether there were any survivors," The Department of Civil Aviation said in a statement. "The Grand Bahama Airport Company Crash Fire Rescue Department responded to the incident, and the Police and Bahamas Air Sea Rescue (BASRA) are presently on the scene."

More to come ...

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Gaza Jihadis Post Hit List of Israeli Lawmakers

ICC rules out investigation into Israeli raid on Gaza-bound flotilla

The international criminal court (ICC) will not prosecute over Israel’s raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla in 2010, in which 10 Turkish activists died, despite a “reasonable basis to believe that war crimes were committed”.

Chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said there would be no investigation leading to a potential prosecution because the alleged crimes, including the killing of 10 activists by Israeli commandos, were not of “sufficient gravity”.

“The information available provides a reasonable basis to believe that war crimes were committed on board the Comorian-registered vessel, the Mavi Marmara, during the interception of the flotilla,” Bensouda said on Thursday. “However, after carefully assessing all relevant considerations, I have concluded that the potential cases likely arising from an investigation into this incident would not be of ‘sufficient gravity’ to justify further action by the ICC.”

Nine Turkish nationals died when Israeli commandos staged a botched a raid on a six-ship flotilla seeking to break Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip on 31 May 31 2010.

A 10th activist later died of his wounds.

Israel imposed its blockade on Gaza in 2006 after militants seized an Israeli soldier, who was eventually freed in 2011 in a trade for 1,000 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

The blockade was strengthened in 2007, when the Islamist Hamas movement took control of Gaza, then eased somewhat after an international outcry over the killing of the Turkish activists.

The maritime assault severely damaged relations between the former regional allies Israel and Turkey, with Ankara demanding a formal apology and compensation for the families of the raid victims, as well as the lifting of the blockade. Israel has refused to comply.

Israeli Leader Urges Calm in Jerusalem

Israel's prime minister vowed not to change worship arrangements at Jerusalem's most sacred and sensitive site Sunday and called for calm and restraint amid rising tensions in the holy city.

There have been almost daily clashes in east Jerusalem between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police in recent months, with much of the unrest focused on the city's sacred compound revered by both Jews and Muslims.

It is the holiest site for Jews, who call it the Temple Mount because of the revered Jewish temples that stood there in biblical times; Muslims refer to it as the Noble Sanctuary and it is their third holiest site, after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.

Benjamin Netanyahu appealed for calm at his weekly cabinet meeting Sunday. "Since the days of Abraham, the Temple Mount has been the holiest site for our people and with this, the Temple Mount is also the most sensitive kilometer on earth," Netanyahu said. "Alongside our determined stance for our rights, we are determined to maintain the status quo for all the religions in order to prevent an eruption."

Israel captured east Jerusalem — with its sites sacred to Jews, Muslims and Christians - from Jordan in the 1967 war. Palestinians are demanding the territory for their future capital. The fate of area is an emotional issue for Jews and Muslims and its future lies at the heart of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

Last week in Jerusalem, a Palestinian gunman on a motorcycle shot and seriously wounded a U.S.-born activist who was a leading voice in expanding Jewish prayer rights on the hilltop complex. Muslim worshippers view Jewish prayer at the site as a provocation, and Israeli authorities place tough restrictions on it.

Israel has accused Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who has called for banning Jews from the holy site, of inciting the violence.

"It is very easy to ignite a religious fire but much harder to extinguish it," Netanyahu said Sunday.

Moshe Feiglin, a lawmaker from Netanyahu's Likud party, visited the site without incident earlier in the day.

East Jerusalem has experienced unrest since the summer, with Palestinian youths throwing stones and firebombs at motorists and clashing frequently with Israeli police. The violence gained steam last month, when a Palestinian motorist rammed his car into a crowded train station, killing a 3-month-old Israeli-American baby girl and a woman from Ecuador.

Israel approved an amendment to the penal code Sunday that would enforce tougher punishment — up to 20 years in prison — for Palestinians that throw rocks at cars.

Earlier, Israel shut its crossings with the Gaza Strip except for humanitarian aid after militants fired rockets into its territory over the weekend.

It said it was the second-such rocket fired at Israel since the end of the 50-day Gaza war this summer with Hamas. The military says the two rockets exploded in open fields and caused no injuries.

The Egyptian army recently forcibly evacuated hundreds of Egyptian families living along the border with the Gaza Strip in order to create a buffer zone, designed to stop the smuggling of militants and weapons through underground tunnels.

Hamas Praises Jerusalem Terror Attack

BEIRUT -- One Israeli police officer was killed and at least 13 others were wounded Wednesday morning when a Palestinian man plowed a white van into a crowd of pedestrians waiting for a light rail train in East Jerusalem, authorities said.

The attacker was a member of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which later praised the attack, calling it revenge for recent Israeli actions at the sacred Al-Aqsa Mosque.

In a two-stage assault, Ibrahim al-Akri, 38, drove a van first into a station in the predominantly Arab East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, striking, among others, Jadan Assad, a 38-year-old Border Patrol captain, authorities said. Akri then drove farther down the street before getting out of the van with a bar, attacking surrounding cars. He was then shot and killed by police.

Assad later died of his injuries, according to authorities, and at least three others are reportedly in critical condition.

A Hamas statement issued Wednesday afternoon praised Akri, an East Jerusalem resident, as a “son of the movement.” The statement said the attack was a natural reaction to recent Israeli settler and security actions at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound -- known as the Temple Mount to Jews -- the third-holiest site in Islam and the holiest in Judaism.

Muslim worshipers in the compound on Wednesday clashed with Israeli police, accused by those praying there of storming the complex.

The compound -- known as Haram al-Sharif, or the Noble Sanctuary to Muslims -- has been at the center of recent growing tension in Jerusalem.

Last week, American-born activist Rabbi Yehuda Glick was targeted in an assassination attempt. Glick is part of the right-wing movement to replace the Al-Aqsa Mosque with the Third Temple. He also campaigned for the rights of Jews to pray on the Temple Mount, which is forbidden. Glick was shot as he left an event called “Israel Returns to the Temple Mount.” Israeli police quickly shot and killed a Palestinian they suspected of being behind the shooting.

Clashes and attacks have been growing for months, fueling fears of a third Palestinian "Intifada," or uprising.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of inciting this morning’s attack.

"We are in the midst of a struggle for Jerusalem and I have no doubt that we will triumph," the prime minister said, according to the Haaretz newspaper. "We are deploying all the forces that we can. It could be a prolonged struggle and we need to unite the entire nation behind it."

Palestinian Kills Israeli in Jerusalem Car Attack

A Palestinian man rammed his car into a crowded train platform in east Jerusalem on Wednesday and then attacked people with an iron bar, killing one person and injuring 13 in what authorities called a terror attack before he was shot dead by the police.

It was the second such attack in the past two weeks, and deepened already heightened tensions between Arabs and Jews in the city. Earlier Wednesday, Israeli police had dispersed dozens of masked Palestinians who threw rocks and firecrackers near a contested holy site in Jerusalem's Old City.

Police said the motorist slammed his car into the train platform in east Jerusalem first, backed out and proceeded to drive away, hitting several cars along the way. He then got out of the car and attacked a group of civilians and police officers on the side of the road with a metal bar before he was shot and killed.

Israeli police said "one person was killed and about a dozen people were injured in the terror attack."

Police said the 38-year-old Palestinian identified as Ibrahim al-Akri had recently been released from prison after serving time for security offenses.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility by any Palestinian organization but the Islamic militant group Hamas welcomed the attack.

"We praise this heroic operation," said Hamas official Fawzi Barhoum. "We call for more such ... operations."

Israel's Minister of Public Security Yitzhak Ahronovich said civilians and police officers were among the wounded. He praised the police officer who neutralized the Palestinian attacker, saying that "a terrorist who attacks civilians deserves to be killed."

The attack was almost identical to one two weeks ago, also committed by a Palestinian from east Jerusalem, that killed two people, a baby girl and a young woman from Ecuador, at a train platform near the scene of Wednesday's attack.

Palestinian protesters and Israeli police have been clashing almost daily in east Jerusalem in recent months.

Israel captured east Jerusalem — with its sites sacred to Jews, Muslims and Christians — from Jordan in the 1967 war. Palestinians demand the territory for their future capital. The fate of the area is an emotional issue for Jews and Muslims and its future lies at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Wednesday's car attack came shortly after clashes in the Old City, where Palestinians threw rocks and firecrackers at police to protest a planned visit to a key holy site by Israeli supporters of a right-wing activist who was shot by a Palestinian gunman last week.

The Israelis had planned on commemorating a week since a Palestinian shot and wounded American-Israeli activist Yehuda Glick, who has campaigned for more Jewish access to the location, which is revered by Jews as the Temple Mount and by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. Palestinians view such visits as a provocation and often respond violently.

Several police officers were hurt in the clashes, said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld, adding that the police used stun grenades to disperse the Palestinians. Quiet was soon restored, he said.

Israel accused of war crimes during Gaza conflict

Amnesty International has accused Israel of committing war crimes during its campaign in Gaza.

A report released by the group on Wednesday says Israel displayed “callous indifference” launching attacks on family homes in the densely populated coastal strip and in some cases its conduct amounted to war crimes. It adds that war crimes were also committed by Palestinian militants.

The 50-day war killed more than 2,100 Palestinians, most of them civilians, and 72 people on the Israeli side, all but six of whom were soldiers.

Israel’s Gaza operation came after increased rocket attacks by Gaza’s Islamic militant Hamas rulers. Israel also arrested scores of Hamas activists in the West Bank, following the abduction and murder of three Israeli teenagers.

Israel’s foreign ministry rejected the report’s findings, saying Amnesty “ignores documented war crimes perpetrated by Hamas” and had produced no evidence to back up its claims.

Amnesty says it documented eight instances in which Israeli forces attacked homes in Gaza without warning, killing “at least 104 civilians including 62 children”.

“The report reveals a pattern of frequent Israeli attacks using large aerial bombs to level civilian homes, sometimes killing entire families,” Amnesty said.

While possible military targets were identified in some cases, “the devastation to civilian lives … was clearly disproportionate”, it added.

The report charges that when it appeared to have failed to identify any military target in a Gaza residential building, Israel may have “directly and deliberately targeted civilians or civilian objects, which would constitute war crimes”.

“The report exposes a pattern of attacks on civilian homes by Israeli forces which have shown a shocking disregard for the lives of Palestinian civilians, who were given no warning and had no chance to flee,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty’s director for the Middle East and north Africa.

“Palestinian armed groups also committed war crimes, firing thousands of indiscriminate rockets into Israel killing six civilians including one child.”

The group said it had to conduct research for the report remotely as Israel denied it and other watchdogs access to Gaza.

Amnesty called on Israel and the Palestinians to “accede to the Rome statute and grant the ICC [international criminal court] the authority to investigate crimes committed in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories”.

It called for cooperation with the UN human rights committee, which in October urged Israel to ensure an independent and impartial investigation to the Gaza war.

Israel said Amnesty had ignored “documented war crimes” by Hamas, such as the use of human shields, ammunition storage and firing at Israeli civilian population centres from within schools, hospitals, mosques and civilian neighbourhoods.

Israel was carrying out investigations into 90 incidents during the Gaza campaign, the foreign ministry said.

Israel to reopen Gaza border crossings

Israel will reopen two border crossings with Gaza that it had ordered shut over the weekend, an army spokeswoman said Monday.

“The crossing points of Erez and Kerem Shalom will be open as normal on Tuesday morning,” the spokeswoman said.

The two crossings had been ordered shut after a rocket fired from Gaza struck Israeli territory on Friday, without causing any casualties or damage.

The rocket was the first to hit Israeli soil since 16 September, and the second since the end of the Jewish state’s devastating 50-day war on Gaza militants.

A ceasefire agreed between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers took effect on 26 August, ending a conflict that claimed 2,140 Palestinian lives and 73 on the Israeli side, most of them from the army.

Both sides are expected to resume talks soon in Cairo as part of an effort to keep the ceasefire in place.

Why Gazans are dreaming of tourism | Michael Luongo

Tourism initiatives in the Gaza Strip might sound crazy to some people, but Gazans have been planning them all along.

When I visited in 2012, Dr Ahmed Muhaisen, head of the Islamic University of Gaza’s department of architecture, showed me his students’ models of luxurious Mediterranean seafront hotels, some with stilted bungalows more at home in Tahiti than the Holy Land. At the time, Muhaisen told me: “We have the beach, but we don’t have a way for the tourists to come. We dream at least. We can’t implement these projects but at least we support the creativity of the students.”

Maybe Muhaisen’s students don’t have to dream anymore, despite this summer’s war between Israel and Hamas. During this month’s Cairo summit, the Palestinian Authority received pledges of $5.4bn for Gaza reconstruction, $1.4bn more than requested, according to Newsweek. That money could move the students’ projects from drafting table to reality.

Most talk of Gaza’s economic development and its Mediterranean shoreline focuses on how far fishermen can head out to take in Neptune’s bounty. But the real long-term sustainable growth might be in revitalising the seafront’s formerly luxurious high-rise hotels, popular with Israelis and foreigners until the 2005 pullout.

While degraded, current hotel infrastructure remains for the most part intact. Ahmed Amer, director of public relations for the ministry of tourism and antiquities in Gaza, told me that though a few hotels were destroyed in the recent war, around 20 major ones remain operational. Many of these hosted journalists during the conflict, which might have been their saving grace.

Even when there is no fighting, with Gaza closed off these hotels are inaccessible to anyone without special access or who didn’t smuggle themselves in via tunnels from Egypt. Construction material for new hotels takes that same route, making development slow and expensive. That was the case with the al-Mathaf hotel, which opened in 2011, and where I stayed on my visit.

I checked in with its owner, Jawdat Khoudary, finding that the hotel – with a glass patio and private archeological museum – suffered virtually no damage. Khoudary hopes the new unity government uses its pledged funds wisely, saying: “That is the key to the reconstruction plan.” Like the architecture students, he too has a dream, telling me: “It is my right to dream that one day we will have an open city to the world and reconnect Gaza to the world.”

Gaza was once a major crossroads. Some hope it might be the same again, including the World Monuments Fund, which placed the monastery of Saint Hilarion ruins, a few miles from Gaza City, on its 2012 watch list. The WMF has worked with Muhaisen and others to stabilise and monitor the ruins, especially its stunning mosaic floors, which would be a highlight of any tourist’s trip. If only they could get there.

Beyond archeology there are other Gaza surprises, like surfers hanging ten, documented in the film God Went Surfing With the Devil, and an English language tourism website, designed by internet whiz Mohammed Alafranji. He told me he created it to solve Gaza’s “Google problem”, SEOing images of cafes and markets to make them clickably competitive with those of bombs.

Alafranji also launched a Gaza City tourism map, but after years of development followed by destruction, even his optimism is waning. “Everybody says something good for Gaza is coming,” he says, “but for myself, we still see a positive atmosphere all around us, but nothing on the ground.”

But with that extra $1.4bn, maybe something will be.

Yes, the rockets have to stop, and yes, some permanent peaceful political solution needs to be hashed out. But sustainable development must also occur to lift the Gaza Strip out of a cycle of poverty, unemployment and, quite simply, abject hopelessness. Ensuring that redeveloping the tourism sector is part of the plan can be the answer, reconnecting Gaza to Israel and other parts of the world once again.

Malala Yousafzai gives $50,000 to reconstruction of Gaza schools

Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani education campaigner shot by the Taliban, has donated $50,000 (nearly £31,000) towards the reconstruction of schools in Gaza.

The Nobel peace prize winner, speaking after receiving the World Children’s Prize for the rights of the child in Marienfred, Sweden, on Wednesday, said the money would be channelled through the United Nations relief agency UNRWA to help rebuild 65 schools in the Palestinian territory.

Malala, who now lives in the UK and has her own fund to help small-scale organisations in a number of countries, including Pakistan, told journalists that children in Gaza had suffered from conflicts and war. The money would help children get “quality education” and continue their life, knowing they were not alone and that people were supporting them, she said.

She is the first person to receive the children’s prize and the Nobel in the same year. The Sweden-based organisers of the children’s prize said millions of children around the world had voted for Malala.

The children’s prize also announced two honorary laureates. John Wood, who quit his job as a Microsoft manager, has spent 15 years working for books, school libraries, and schools for millions of children, through his Room to Read organisation, while Indira Ranamagar from Nepal has fought for 20 years for the rights of the children of convicts to education and to live outside of prisons.

Harry Potter star Miriam Margolyes: Israel lets people vent antisemitism

Actor Miriam Margolyes has criticised Israel for “allowing people” to vent prejudice against Jews, who she claimed: “I don’t think people like”.

The Harry Potter star, 73, who is Jewish, said there had been a “troubling backlash” against Jews following the recent, 50-day Gaza conflict.

She told the new issue of Radio Times: “I loathe Hamas, but they were democratically elected and Israel’s behaviour is not acceptable. There’s been a troubling backlash.”

The actress said: “I don’t think people like Jews. They never have. English literature, my great love, is full of greasy and treacherous Jews.

“I’m lucky they like me, and one always needs a Jewish accountant. Antisemitism is horrible and can’t be defended, but Israel is stupid for allowing people to vent it.”

The summer war claimed the lives of more than 2,100 Palestinians – mostly civilians – and more than 70 people on the Israeli side, mostly soldiers.

Israel accused Hamas of using Gaza civilians as human shields and claims the number of militants killed was higher than the UN figures.

A long-term ceasefire was agreed between Israel and Palestinian militants in August.

Last month, Conservative MP Charles Walker told MPs that events in the Middle East were being “perverted to give licence to hate”.

“I am deeply disturbed by the personal letters I have received from a number of my Jewish constituents … expressing their distress at what the future holds in the UK for them and their families,” he said.

“These are British citizens who have as much to do with the Middle East as I do,” he said.

Margolyes also talked about her sexuality, telling the magazine: “Things have changed enormously for the better over the years. People won’t judge me on being a lesbian, it’s whether I can do the work.

“But there’s still prejudice, so young actors should protect themselves by refusing to discuss who they go to bed with. Everyone should be able to do what they damned well like – find God, and love, wherever they want to, so long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else.”

Margolyes, who appeared in Martin Scorsese’s 1993 The Age of Innocence, starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Michelle Pfeiffer, added: “I’m grateful to be working at my age, genuinely humble I’m still someone people want to watch, although I’m surprised I haven’t been more successful.

“I’d have thought my particular brand of quirkiness, combined with sharp intelligence and a fine voice, would have yielded more. But it hasn’t. Yet! Maybe it’s because I’m fat. It’s jolly hard to lose weight. I’m peeved, but it would be stupid to feel bitter. I don’t know why they don’t ask me to do things, but since they don’t, I’m not waiting, darling. Haven’t got time for that. Tick, tick, tick.”

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Blast Targets Troops Near Egypt-Gaza Border

Two military officials say an explosive device went off near Egyptian troops demolishing houses in a town on the border with the Gaza Strip where Egypt is clearing a buffer zone to halt weapons smuggling.

The strong blast on Monday in the border town of Rafah caused no casualties, the officials say, but prompted authorities to raise the security alert level.

Rafah and surrounding areas in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula have been under a state of emergency for more than a week since 31 troops were killed in a militant assault.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but the region has emerged as a stronghold of Islamic militants, who have carried out scores of attacks in recent months mainly targeting soldiers and police.

Blast Targets Troops Near Egypt-Gaza Border

Two military officials say an explosive device went off near Egyptian troops demolishing houses in a town on the border with the Gaza Strip where Egypt is clearing a buffer zone to halt weapons smuggling.

The strong blast on Monday in the border town of Rafah caused no casualties, the officials say, but prompted authorities to raise the security alert level.

Rafah and surrounding areas in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula have been under a state of emergency for more than a week since 31 troops were killed in a militant assault.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but the region has emerged as a stronghold of Islamic militants, who have carried out scores of attacks in recent months mainly targeting soldiers and police.

Israeli Premier Urges Calm in Jerusalem

Israel's prime minister vowed not to change worship arrangements at Jerusalem's most sacred and sensitive site Sunday and called for calm and restraint amid rising tensions in the holy city.

There have been almost daily clashes in east Jerusalem between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police in recent months, with much of the unrest focused on the city's sacred compound revered by both Jews and Muslims.

It is the holiest site for Jews, who call it the Temple Mount because of the revered Jewish temples that stood there in biblical times; Muslims refer to it as the Noble Sanctuary and it is their third holiest site, after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.

Benjamin Netanyahu appealed for calm at his weekly cabinet meeting Sunday. "Since the days of Abraham, the Temple Mount has been the holiest site for our people and with this, the Temple Mount is also the most sensitive kilometer on earth," Netanyahu said. "Alongside our determined stance for our rights, we are determined to maintain the status quo for all the religions in order to prevent an eruption."

Israel captured east Jerusalem — with its sites sacred to Jews, Muslims and Christians - from Jordan in the 1967 war. Palestinians are demanding the territory for their future capital. The fate of area is an emotional issue for Jews and Muslims and its future lies at the heart of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

Last week in Jerusalem, a Palestinian gunman on a motorcycle shot and seriously wounded a U.S.-born activist who was a leading voice in expanding Jewish prayer rights on the hilltop complex. Muslim worshippers view Jewish prayer at the site as a provocation, and Israeli authorities place tough restrictions on it.

Israel has accused Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who has called for banning Jews from the holy site, of inciting the violence.

"It is very easy to ignite a religious fire but much harder to extinguish it," Netanyahu said Sunday.

Moshe Feiglin, a lawmaker from Netanyahu's Likud party, visited the site without incident earlier in the day.

East Jerusalem has experienced unrest since the summer, with Palestinian youths throwing stones and firebombs at motorists and clashing frequently with Israeli police. The violence gained steam last month, when a Palestinian motorist rammed his car into a crowded train station, killing a 3-month-old Israeli-American baby girl and a woman from Ecuador.

Israel approved an amendment to the penal code Sunday that would enforce tougher punishment — up to 20 years in prison — for Palestinians that throw rocks at cars.

Earlier, Israel shut its crossings with the Gaza Strip except for humanitarian aid after militants fired rockets into its territory over the weekend.

It said it was the second-such rocket fired at Israel since the end of the 50-day Gaza war this summer with Hamas. The military says the two rockets exploded in open fields and caused no injuries.

The Egyptian army recently forcibly evacuated hundreds of Egyptian families living along the border with the Gaza Strip in order to create a buffer zone, designed to stop the smuggling of militants and weapons through underground tunnels.