Two suspects were caught planting a bomb near the security fence separating southern Gaza from southern Israel, according to the IDF Spokesperson’s Office.

Soldiers noticed the two men working on the ground near the fence in a suspicious manner and “chased them away” from the area, the IDF said.

A short time later, there was an explosion at the site. No one was injured and no damage was reported.

No further details were available on the identities or fate of the two suspects.

Two new advanced submarines are about to be put into action this year, according to the IDF Spokesperson.

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Given the threats facing the Jewish State from Gaza and the north, it is none too soon. Iran is busily supplying its proxy terror groups with weaponry at every opportunity, often by sea.

The Dolphin-class INS Crocodile and the INS Rahav were both acquired from Germany in 2012. Both demand updated skills from the soldiers who will submerge below the surface of the sea within their walls.

“These new submarines have new systems and therefore new capabilities,” said Maj. Y, commander of the training school where recruits learn new roles for the control panel and sonar, among other skills. “Among these are greater stealth and the ability to stay longer under water.”

The new submarines use AIP (air independent propulsion) technology that enables them to stay underwater longer. They also produce less noise, are equipped with advanced naval weapons systems, improved detection capabilities, and maneuver more easily.

“They are larger than the previous ones,” he added. “In the event of a clash with strong water currents, the new steering station is designed to allow them to move more easily,” he explained.

One long retraining course took place for veterans, in addition to the regular submariner course, Major Y added. “Each submarine team consists of veterans who qualified in Germany, submariners and other veterans who were retrained, and new soldiers who enlisted when their course was adapted to the new submarines.

“Obviously the goal of the training is to be relevant to the reality in the field,” he said. Treks of six to 20 kilometers, the use of digital simulators and tours in a submarine are included in the training, he added.

The video is in Hebrew, but you’ll get the idea even if you don’t understand. Very inspiring. A “Kiddush Hashem”.

Israeli Air Force aircraft targeted and struck four terror sites in the central Gaza Strip as well as one in the northern section of Gaza in the very early morning hours on Friday, April 4.

The Israeli Defense Forces issued a statement that the strikes were in retaliation for an upsurge in violence directed towards civilian areas of Israel over the past month. Most recently, Palestinian Arab snipers targeted security personnel near the security fence in the northern Gaza strip which caused damage to an armored vehicle.

On Thursday evening, four rockets launched from Gaza struck southern Israel.

In the wake of Thursday’s attacks, the IDF responded.

“Civilians in southern Israel were forced to begin this month with an unacceptable  barrage of rockets,” said IDF Spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner.

“Hamas has a responsibility to cease and prevent acts of aggression emanating from the Gaza Strip. The IDF will retaliate, reciprocate and when required initiate the use of force in order to defend the civilians of the State of Israel from these unlawful terrorist actions,” Lerner stated.

Nearly 125 rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip towards Israel during the month of March. Of that number, 77 struck Israel. Between March 12 – 14 alone, 70 rockets fired from Gaza hit southern Israel.

On March 31, I attended a disturbing lecture at Washington University in St. Louis. It was co-sponsored by St. Louis Hillel at Washington University and J Street U. The speaker, a former Israeli soldier with the group “Breaking the Silence” (BtS), misrepresented and demonized the Israel Defense Forces, Israel, and Israeli policy. BtS is known for bringing in speakers like this, so I could not understand why Hillel and J Street U had sponsored a talk whose only purpose appeared to be to misinform audiences and instill hostility towards Israel.

As an Israeli reservist who had been stationed in the West Bank, I sat in disbelief as the speaker described attitudes and policies that were entirely divorced from reality.

The former soldier, Oded Na’aman, claimed that Israeli soldiers are trained to oppress the Palestinians individually and as a people, that they maliciously mistreat Palestinians in the West Bank, and that they are taught to make Palestinians fear Israeli soldiers. He argued that there are no civil rights for Palestinians and that the Jewish people who now have a state use their power to oppress Palestinians.

I had no idea what he was talking about or what motivated him to lie.

He did not describe the Israel or IDF that I know so intimately.

As a reservist and a soldier, I had been stationed in the West Bank. My job was to protect the Palestinians’ human rights, coordinate humanitarian aid, and tend to the needs of civilians living in the West Bank. I always felt that Israel’s concern for the welfare of the Palestinians was impressive, and I was proud to be part of it.

My experience taught me that even during wartime, Israel made it a priority to meet the needs of Palestinians even though they had made themselves enemies of the State of Israel by launching the second intifada.

I recall that during my service in Hebron, I had to adhere to international humanitarian law and ensure that the soldiers in the Judea Brigade were educated about the Geneva Convention and the rules of engagement—or face punishment. We sometimes went beyond these strict rules to help Palestinians. Once, when I served in my unit’s headquarters, we arranged a complex operation so that my unit, with the help of another unit, could save the life of a Palestinian boy living in Gaza whose mother had died. We did some investigating, and discovered that his uncle lived in Ramallah. In a special operation in the middle of the night, we moved the child to his uncle so that he would not be left alone in the streets of the Gaza Strip.

It was torture for me to sit there quietly and listen to the distortions of this former soldier who had served during the most violent period of the second intifada (2000-2003), when suicide bombers and snipers were wantonly murdering Israeli men, women, and children. But he never described the terrorism that forced the IDF to take measures to protect our families.

If he has complaints about the IDF, he should be an activist in Israel. Soldiers don’t always do the right thing or live up to the IDF code. They should be disciplined. Israel’s policies can be debated. But Israel is constantly examining itself critically, and debates in Israel are energetic and promote the full variety of views. Why, then, would he come to the U.S. to complain about his own army?

I think I know why. It’s because there are groups who are parading him around to tell half-truths and lies to defame Israel. When he was asked that very question during the question-and-answer period, he said, “I came here to tell Americans what their tax money is funding.” He said that attacking Israel with F16s is not the right answer, but that Israel needs to be pressured. I wondered what kind of twisted thinking would make a person who lives in a vibrant democracy, where he can campaign for his political positions, instead ask outside forces to pressure his country? What motivated him? Is he a post-nationalist who doesn’t want Israel to exist at all?

Mahmoud Abbas lost his marbles, and the Palestinian Authority went berserk Thursday without the Peace Talks Straight Jacket as they came up with a bunch of new conditions for extending peace talks that essentially eliminates them.

That has been the aim of Mahmoud Abbas from Day One, but now that he is feeling its oats by thumbing its nose at the Oslo Accords, the Roadmap, John Kerry, President Barack Obama, Tzipi Livni and the Good Humor Man, he has removed all pretenses and acted like he has the world in his pocket.

He has the United Nations in his pocket, but has yet to learn that the world still includes non-Muslim countries and even a few nations that tolerate and sometimes actually support the existence of the State of Israel.

In response, Israel’s long-time cream puff negotiator Tzipi Livni finally showed her Israeli stuff and essentially told the Palestinian Authority not only to get lost, but she also offered to help it do so by suggesting a few sanctions on Ramallah.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry maintained his cool and reminded Israel and the Palestinian Authority that he has led the horses to the trough and now it is time for them to decide whether they want to drink his poison.

If Abbas drinks, he is a dead man because it means compromising, a cardinal Arab sin. If Israel drinks, it means suicide as a Jewish state.

Abbas got off his horse and jumped on a bronco, but he doesn’t know how to ride it.

Following are some of his new demands for extending talks, which really have been an illusion anyway except that make Kerry feel like he has accomplished something:

–Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu must sign on the dotted line that a new Arab country, once known as the Palestinian Authority, will include all of the land that was restored to Israel in the Six-Day War in 1967;

–Netanyahu must sign on the dotted line that the capital of this new insane asylum will be eastern Jerusalem, meaning its flag will fly over the Western Wall;

–Israel not only will release the terrorist that the Palestinian Authority  demanded it free last week, but it also will include a few others, 1,174 to be exact, including Marwan Barghouti, serving five life terms in prison for arranging the murders of Israelis;

– Israel will end the maritime blockade of Hamas-controlled Gaza;

–The IDF will not enter Arab-controlled cities, not even to arrest terrorists;

Israel will give the Palestinian Authority control over ‘Area C,” which includes most of the Jews who live in Judea and Samaria.

The only demand missing is for Israel to admit that the Holy Temples never existed, God forbid, and that the Elders of Zion should be the official textbook in Zionist schools.

There are a few other demands, none of them surprising since they have been Abbas’ game plan all along. His strategy has been to get what he wants with the help of Kerry. If that doesn’t work, Plan B is to rely on the hopes that the United Nations will force Israel to go belly-up.

Plan C goes back to the favorite Arab solution – war.

Israel promptly announced that the Palestinian Authority can forget about the fourth batch of terrorists leaving their jail cells, a superfluous announcement since the PA already has refused to approve the list of names of terrorists who were to be released.

Even Tzipi Livni has enough of this nonsense.

and she must be complimented for being so graceful as to giving the Palestinian Authority a chance to repent by formally asking it to withdraw its request to join 15 U.N.-related agencies, more formally known as treaties and conventions.

Israel’s new Iron Beam anti-mortar shell system achieved a high interception rate in tests that showed it “shoots down flying objects like flies,” according to the CEO of Rafael Advanced Systems, which developed the technology.

Yedidia Yaari told Israel Defense, “This is a system for a shorter range than Iron Dome,” which has been deployed around urban centers and has a high success rate of interception short and medium-range missiles.

The Iron Beam uses a laser that “is designed to intercept simpler munitions, such as mortars,” Yaari explained.

He added, “The system has undergone feasibility tests, and we’re now in the development stage. We’re after the demo, but there is another development phase ahead of us. There are technology models that prove that it has a very high interception rate.”

The system will give a bit of peace of mind to residents of the Gaza Belt communities, pounded by thousands of mortar shells for well over a decade.

Leaders of the communities have been hollering for years for the government to give the IDF the green light to invade Gaza and regain control that was lost by a soft policy against terrorism in the Oslo War, also known as the Second Intifada, which began in 2000.

The Defense Ministry for years consistently carried out a policy of restraint, preferring not to retaliate harshly for fear of sparking an escalation by Hamas terrorists, who always want the last word, or in this case, the last missile.

The only changes in the policy were when Tel Aviv was threatened, in November 2008, prior to the Operation Cast Lead counter-terrorist campaign, and a year and a half ago, when the IDF countered with the Pillar of Cloud campaign.

With these exceptions, southern Israel’s residents have been subject to enemy missile fire and mortar shelling attacks at any time day and night and have paid a heavy price. Dozens have been killed, hundreds have been wounded and thousands still suffer from post-trauma stress.

In the past year, the Defense Ministry has become more defensive and has retaliated almost after every mortar shell or Kassam rocket attack.

The response usually is symbolic, with Air Force planes and drones bombing weapons factories and smuggling tunnels that already are known to exist.

The Iron Beam system will offer more protection and will make it more difficult for Hamas and other terrorist organizations in Gaza to ruin the lives of people in the Western Negev.

The IDF knows that Hamas eventually will try to use their longer-range missiles to attack Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Terrorists do not stockpile missiles. They use them to prove to themselves that normal civilization has no value in the eyes of their Allah.

Sometime in the future, when Israel has enough confidence to decisively wipe out the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza if it does rot away first, historians might write that Israel was strong by not touching off another war with the usual outcome of international condemnation of the country’s carrying out the right to defend itself.

They also should write that the bravery of Israel in the Negev who did not flee, and many of whom were killed, allowed the IDF to wait so many years before developing the Iron Beam.

Terrorists in northern Gaza shot at an IDF patrol near the Gaza security fence early Thursday afternoon as attacks on soldiers become almost daily.

No one was injured.

The army maintains a small base on the outskirts of kibbutz, located in the Western Negev.