A solar energy company headquartered at a Conservative Jewish kibbutz spread its solar energy investments with the launch of six new solar fields in the Negev and Arava, north of Eilat, on Monday.

The $150-million projects cover 128 acres on moshavim and kibbutzim.

Arava, based on the Ketura Kibbutz in the Arava, approximately 43 miles north of Eilat, also has begun construction of a 150-acre solar energy farm near Ketura and which will be able to supply more than a third of Eilat’s electricity’s needs

“Now that the current quotas have been utilized, the time has come to launch the economic tariff era, and to build scores of additional projects, all of them in the Negev and Arava, ventures which long ago demonstrated eligibility for tariff approval, ventures which can be hooked up to the national grid within a year of publication of the second campaign series,” said Arava Power CEO Jon Cohen said.

Arab has been an innovator in clean energy. It recently installed the world’s first automated cleaning system with 84 robots for its solar 28,000 panels.

The kibbutz is environmentally oriented in other areas besides solar energy.

Its operates Algatechnologies, a leading manufacturer and supplier of natural algae astaxanthin. The company announced on Monday the launch of a new products, called AstaPure® 20% astaxanthin oleoresin, which “offers much smaller, friendlier sized capsules without changing or reducing the astaxanthin dosage,” according to Efrat Kat, Director of Marketing and Sales at Algatech.

Algatech’s cultivation process employs a closed system that remains completely exposed to natural sunlight.

AstaPure products are used in multiple forms of dietary supplements, “cosmeceuticals,” foods and beverages.

Eilat residents were awakened by at least two loud explosions this morning (Tuesday), with early media reports that missile fire was being directed at the southern Negev resort city.

Within minutes, however, the IDF clarified that a nearby Iron Dome installation had misfired two of its own interceptor rockets, and that no actual missiles had been fired at Eilat.

It is not yet clear why the system identified a target and triggered the indicator to launch. The launch itself is activated manually by the IDF soldiers.

There is a possibility that a low flying plane in the area caused the system to activate.

A passenger aircraft circling Eilat in a holding pattern at the time over the city’s airport further raised concerns on the ground, according to Walla! News. The plane completed its arrival pattern and discharged its crew and passengers safely.

Past attacks on Eilat have been launched by terrorists based in the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula. In late January, two rockets were fired at the city; one was shot down by the Iron Dome anti-missile battery. The Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, an Al Qaeda-linked terrorist group active in Gaza and Sinai, claimed responsibility for that attack.

A small group of activists are protesting government plans to build a railway line to Eilat.

A group of nearly two dozen youth and young adults marched from Dimona to the Red Sea resort city at the tip of the Negev this weekend to protest the plans.

The protesters and other naturalists are fighting the plan because they fear the railway will destroy the delicate ecosystem that exists in the area. Current plans call for the route to pass through 37 kilometers of nature reserves.

Critics also say that construction on the line may endanger coral reefs in the Red Sea off the southern coast in the Gulf of Aqaba near Eilat.

The plan, approved about nine months ago, is intended to creating a “land bridge” between Europe and Asia. It is aimed at bypassing the Suez Canal in order to ensure that Israeli and international shippers will have an alternative shipping route should the Egyptians ever again decide to close that artery.

Here’s the Israeli Navy boat INS Hanit arriving in Eilat on Saturday, March 8, 2014, after capturing the Klos C, which was carrying dozens of advanced Iranian-supplied weapons made in Syria and intended for Palestinian guerrillas in the Gaza Strip.

Here’s Israeli Navy Commander Vice Admiral Ram Rotberg speaking with the INS Hanit soldiers in Eilat.

He looks proud.

Photo by IDF Spokesperson/Flash90

These kids deserve a special mi shebeirach – use the regular IDF text and add some sea language, maybe with the rustle of waves and seaguls.

And that goes for you, too, Haredi shuls. I know your siddurim don’t even have the prayer for IDF soldiers – get them Xeroxed. Yes, you know who I’m talking about…

A tourist bus standing about 50 meters south of the Taba border crossing between Israel and Egypt, on the Egyptian side, exploded Sunday afternoon. Israeli EMT ambulances from the nearby city of Eilat have rushed to the scene of the explosion, which was initially declared by MDA to be a mass casualty event.

Al Ahram quotes Security sources who say that 4 Korean tourists are dead and at least 14 others injured (down from an originally estimated 27 injured), of different nationalities, who were on the bus when it exploded. There were 30 tourists on the bus.

This number killed has now been updated to 5 confirmed dead, which includes the Egyptian driver,

The bus was on its way to Israel at the time, after visiting St. Catherine’s monastery in the Sinai.

There are conflicting reports if the tourist bus was hit by a missile or if a bomb was planted in the front of the bus. The governor of Southern Sinai Khaled Fouda said he suspects there was a bomb at the front of the bus, but he stresses he can’t be sure.

The Israeli police released a statement that there were no Israelis on the bus. The IDF said that the Egyptians are handling the rescue operation.

Egypt has been fighting Islamic Jihad and al Qaeda related terrorists in the Sinai.

Al Ahram describes a pattern of bombings and assassination attempts that has been growing since the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi last July. Morsin is currently on trial in Egypt for espionage and assisting Islamic terrorists commit terror attacks against Egypt.

In 2004, a bomb blast at a Hilton Hotel in Taba killed 31 people.

Terrorists  attacked Eilat with two Grad missiles early Monday evening, without causing damage or property damage.

The IDF has confirmed earlier reports of the rocket explosions, and security forces are combing the area to find the location of impact, a process that could take up to several days. Last month, the location of a missile attack on the area was discovered after five days.

It was not clear if the missiles were launched from the Sinai or central Gaza, but in either case, Hamas, Islamic Jihad or their brethren probably were involved.

Monday evenings missiles attacks – the media usually causes them “rockets” so it sounds a lot better for the peace process – shook windows and buildings in the tourist city. One witness saw a flash in the sky before one of the explosions.

The IDF has not yet retaliated for Monday’s attacks. An Israeli military official was quoted last week as saying, “We won’t go back to a situation where three or four times a week the red alarm sounds in southern Israeli towns.”

To the extent that the early warning sirens did not sound in Eilat, the IDF is technically off the hook, but the sentiment in the government, and in Israel, is that it is time to stop playing “rocket roulette:” because one eday, one of those little missiles is not going to fall in an open area but rather God forbid, on a home or kindergarten.

Israel’s problem, and it is a problem only because the government makes it one, is that a strong counter terrorist campaign would blow up the so-called peace talks.

Disney Documentary has bought the Israeli animated story of “Dolphin Boy,” about an Israeli Arab who became mute after being a brutal beating in his Arab village and who underwent rehabilitation through communication with dolphins in Eilat.

Disney intends to promote the production into a full  animated feature, the Times of Israel reported. The father of the boy, whose name is Morad, refused experts’ advice to send him to a mental institution and instead moved from his northern village to Eilat, where doctors worked for four years with dolphins and Morad to bring him back to the level of communicating with people.

Another earthquake, at least the seventh in the past week, hit Israel again on Wednesday, this time in Eilat and causing a bit of nervousness but no injuries or damage.

All of the previous recent earthquakes were in the area of Tiberias and the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), in northern Israel.

The temblor in Eilat was measured at 3.3. on the Richter scale and was felt around 3:30 p.m. (8:30 a.m. EDT). Seismologists said the unusual number of earthquakes in a short period of time do not necessarily mean that a major quake is on the horizon, but the coincidence of the temblors has re-awakened awareness about a possible disaster in the event of a major quake.

Home Front Minister MK Gilad Erdan of the Likud party told the Knesset Wednesday that a major earthquake could cause the deaths of 7,000 people and injuries to tens of thousands others.