Israel’s first German-made Dolphin II nuclear-capable submarine is on its way to Israel, Israeli Navy Commander Vice Admiral Ram Rothberg said at a naval ceremony in Haifa Tuesday night.

The German weekly “Der Spiegel” reported that the submarines have a nuclear capability and will help Israel defend against an Iranian nuclear threat.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has denied that the submarines have a nuclear capability but sources have noted that all indications from Germany’s Defense Ministry are that the submarines can carry nuclear weapons.

Dubbed INS Tanin, the Hebrew word for “crocodile,” the sub “can dive deeper and further and for longer and work more powerfully than anything we have previously known,” the naval commander said.

In five years, the scheduled arrival of two more nuclear submarines from Germany will bring to six the number of subs in the fleet.

The boat on its way to Israel can remain under water for extensive maneuvers for weeks without surfacing, far longer than the submarines now in the fleet.

The Tanin officially was launched by Israel two years ago, as seen below, but it remained there for trial runs and the finishing touches before sailing to Israel this week.

Israel would have released Hamas prisoners in exchange for a demilitarized Gaza, sources say, but the terror group did not agree. Moreover, Hamas said it plans to resume fighting promptly at 8 am Friday, when the 72-hour cease fire runs out.

So Israel is now asking Germany and the EU to help with administration over Gaza to prevent future security problems.

Egyptian sources who spoke to the Hebrew-language Yediot Aharanot newspaper say that during cease fire talks in Cairo, Israeli negotiators agreed to release Hamas prisoners in exchange for demilitarizing Gaza.

The Israelis also considered the possibility of building a small airport and seaport in Gaza, but did not make a final decision on the issue. The sources said Israel refused to back down from the issue of demilitarizing Gaza, however, though the Jewish State was willing to also lift the blockade and expand the fishing zone.

In fact, Israel was willing to be flexible on nearly all the demands put forth by the Palestinian Arab factions – but not on the issue of disarming Gaza, the sources said.

Israel is now calling on the European Union to step in and take an active role in dealing with the thorny issue of how to monitor the security issues from Gaza.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman told the German newspaper Bild in an interview published Thursday that inspectors from the EU and Germany should be sent to “monitor the Palestinians’ trade with neighboring countries… The EU already did that once at a crossing in Rafah in southern Gaza,” Liberman reminded.

The foreign minister added that Israel does not want to have to deal with administering Gaza after withdrawing its troops and communities from the region in 2005, but said a reasonable solution for Gaza residents must be found. He called on Germany to take a leading role in finding a viable resolution to the problem.

Until Hamas seized control over Gaza in 2007, the “EUBAM” program was started by the EU following Israel’s 2005 Disengagement from Gaza. EUBAM assigned 70 European observers as monitors over movement of human, material and vehicular traffic at the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt.

Meanwhile, the entire discussion may be academic for the time being: Hamas rejected the extension of the current 72-hour cease fire beyond Friday at 8 am.

Israel will resume and ramp up attacks on Hamas infrastructure in Gaza if Hamas and allied terrorists do not cease firing rockets and missiles at Israeli civilians, Prime Minister Netanyahu warned Tuesday.

“If Hamas rejects the Egyptian proposal, and the rocket fire from Gaza does not cease — and that appears to be the case now — we are prepared to continue and intensify our operation to protect our people,” Netanyahu said.

Speaking to the press after a meeting with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the prime minister noted that Israel’s security cabinet voted this morning to accept the Egyptian cease fire proposal and added that the goal of Israel’s military and diplomatic operations is to put end to rocket fire from Gaza on Israeli cities, in order to provide the citizens of Israel with the peace and quiet to which they are entitled.

“I know that you know that no country would sit idly by while its civilian population is subjected to terrorist rocket fire. Israel is no exception,” he said.

Netanyahu’s meeting with Steinmeier was part of a diplomatic offensive to garner international support for Israel’s current stance. The Israeli prime minister praised Steinmeier and called him “a great friend of Israel and an important statesman of Europe and the world,” and thanked him for visiting Israel during this time of crisis. Netanyahu also thanked “the many world leaders, including yourself, who unequivocally condemn Hamas for the rocket fire on Israeli cities and for the clear-cut support for Israel’s right to self-defense.

“In that spirit of friendship, welcome to Israel, welcome to Tel Aviv,” Netanyahu added.

More than 25 rockets were fired by Hamas at civilian targets all across Israel since 9 am, when the cease fire officially began Tuesday morning. No one was physically injured in the attacks, but damage was caused to property at several locations and numerous Israeli were severely traumatized, included several treated for shock.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has added her voice to the chorus of world leaders who have weighed in with condemnations following the discovery of the bodies of Eyal Yifrach, 19, Naftali Frenkel, 16 and Gilad Sha’ar, 16, who were murdered by their terrorist captors.

Merkel said she was “shocked” by the murders, calling it a “detestable act for which there is no excuse,” according to her spokesperson Steffen Seibert. He added the chancellor’s thoughts were with the families and friends of the teens.

The boys were kidnapped on June 12 while hitchhiking home for the Sabbath from their studies at yeshiva in Gush Etzion.

Initial forensic examination of their bodies indicates they were murdered shortly after they were kidnapped.

Their bodies were found in a cave located in a field near the Palestinian Authority Arab village of Halhul, just north of Hevron, in Judea.

Local Arab residents spent the day in fierce clashes with IDF soldiers and other security forces searching for the teens – clearly aware of what they would eventually find in their midst.

The Arabs hurled rocks and white paint at the windshield and windows of the IDF humvee ambulance that came to carry the boys’ bodies out of the area.

The clashes were similar to lethal road terror attacks visited upon drivers who travel on Highway 60, the main artery running from southern Judea north through Jerusalem and into Samaria.

The attackers did not succeed in distracting the IDF soldier driving the ambulance from successfully transporting his precious passengers out of the area and straight to the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute.

Jordan’s safety is an Israeli national priority, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman told reporters at a briefing in Berlin on Monday.

The Israeli government will do everything possible to preserve Jordanian stability, Liberman said following his meeting with Germany’s foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

“Jordan’s stability is a vital interest for the State of Israel,” Liberman said. “Without going into details, we will do everything to maintain the stability of Jordan.”

It was the strongest public statement of commitment made to Jordanian security by a senior Israeli official to date.

The German foreign minister concurred, adding that the Islamic State of Iraq in the Levant (ISIL) – also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Shams or Syria (ISIS) “constitutes a serious threat to the territorial integrity of Iraq and the entire region… “Steinmeier underlined it was essential to ensure that “ISIS cannot tighten its grip [on the region] and the caliphate it declared does not turn into a center for terror and violence… We have seen from clashes in the Golan Heights how events in the region can affect the security of Israel. We must ensure that a solution is found for the internal problems in Iraq, and establish a government that will represent proportionally all communities and factions to detract support for ISIS from the Sunni population.”

German investigators have determined that an art collection that belonged to a Munich collector was stolen from French Jews during the Second World War.

According to an Associated Press report, the paintings were found in an apartment belonging to Cornelius Gurlitt, son of famed art dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt, who was known to have worked with the Nazis. The younger Gurlitt died in May, a short while after agreeing to cooperate with the German government for Nazi links to his collection. For years, he had sworn that he had come to the paintings honestly.

”Even if it could not be documented with certainty under what circumstances Hildebrand Gurlitt came into the possession of the work, the task force comes to the conclusion that it is Nazi-looted art from the rightful property of the collection of Paul Rosenberg,” said the task force’s head, Ingeborg Berggreen-Merkel, in a statement.

German authorities had confiscated the collection, which includes nearly 1,300 paintings, from Gurlitt’s home in 2012. They believe that at least one painting , “Woman Sitting in an Armchair” (Henri Matisse, 1921) was stolen from Jewish art dealer Paul Rosenberg when the Nazis invaded Paris in 1940. In that event, the BBC reported that German authorities believe the painting should be restored to Rosenberg’s heirs.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been named the world’s most powerful woman by Forbes Magazine.

Merkel topped the magazine’s ‘100 Most Powerful Women in the World’ for the fourth year in a row.

Second on the list was Janet Yellen, chairperson of the American Federal Bank, followed by Melinda Gates, wife of Microsoft founder Bill Gates.