IDF Orders Eilat Airport Closed To Landings UPDATE

Eilat

Yet King President Obama demands that the Israelis release 104 murders to ensure that Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen sits at the Peace Talks Dissolution of Israel.  But now Eilat is no longer a safe place to fly into to.

The IDF ordered the immediate shutdown of the airport at Eilat to all arriving flights, following an unspecified security assesssment.

The assessment is most likely linked to terrorist activity in the Sinai desert, which borders on the southern port city.

Takeoffs of flights headed north are still allowed to take place.

The IDF may open the airfield at Uvda as an alternate landing spot for incoming flights diverted from Eilat.

The Egyptian military has been conducting a large scale offensive against terror cells that operate in Sinai, in the last few weeks. The IDF has assessed that terrorists will try to launch rockets at Eilat.

In April, it was reported that Israeli planes taking off from Eilat will be armed with anti-missile systems due to the threat of shoulder-carried anti-aircraft missiles that could be fired from the Sinai desert.

The security establishment is aware that terrorists in Sinai have armed themselves with man-portable air-defense systems, or MANPADS. The initial thought was to intermittently close down the Eilat airport, but the decision eventually reached was to arm planes taking off from the airport with anti-missile systems.

SOURCE

Will someone explain to me how returning to the Auschwitz borders will make Israel safer?

UPDATE:

The airport is now reopened.  But doubts in the mind remains.  How safe will Israel be after Obama guts her?

Some two hours after it was ordered closed, the Eilat Airport was reopened. Planes will begin arriving and leaving the airport before midnight Thursday. The reopening was ordered by IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz.

Earlier, the airport was ordered closed, although the IDF did not give any specific reason for the closing. Officials in Eilat said that it was most likely connected to an assessment of increased terrorist activity in the Sinai desert, which borders on the southern port city. The officials said that it was unlikely connected to the general warning for the Middle East issued by the United States, which saw 20 embassies in the region closed over concerns that a terror attack was imminent.

The Egyptian military has been conducting a large scale offensive against terror cells that operate in Sinai, in the last few weeks. The IDF has assessed that terrorists will try to launch rockets at Eilat.

In April, it was reported that Israeli planes taking off from Eilat will be armed with anti-missile systems due to the threat of shoulder-carried anti-aircraft missiles that could be fired from the Sinai desert.

The security establishment is aware that terrorists in Sinai have armed themselves with man-portable air-defense systems, or MANPADS. The initial thought was to intermittently close down the Eilat airport, but the decision eventually reached was to arm planes taking off from the airport with anti-missile systems.

SOURCE

IDF Spokesperson

Avital Leibovitch from the IDF Spokesperson's office on Thursday's terror attacks.

May G-d avenge their deaths!

7 Dead, Over 25 Wounded After Terror Attack

So much for working towards a 2-State Solution.  There can be no "solution" to the conflict in the region as longs as the Arabs refuse to renounce terrorism against Jewish civilians.

Today the world saw another "fine" example of Arab Military Tactics.

Seven people were reported dead and at least 25 injured in a three-stage terrorist attack along Israel’s border with Egypt on Thursday.

IDF forces were still searching the area around Eilat and the Egyptian border out of concern that there may be terrorists still in the area. Sources said that it is possible that there were as many 20 terrorist in the area, both in Israel and on the Egyptian side of the border.

They added that there may be another terrorist cell hiding in the area. IDF and special police counter-terrorist forces killed seven terrorists during the three coordinated attacks.

The terror attack began at noon Thursday when terrorists opened fire at an Egged bus traveling on Road 12 near Eilat.

Several minutes later, a number of bombs went off next to an IDF patrol traveling along the border with Egypt. There were also reports of mortar fire from Egypt into Israel. The terrorists apparently then moved on to another spot and fired an anti-tank missile at another vehicle, injuring a number of passengers.

Magen David Adom said that terrorists attacked a bus and a private vehicle 20 kilometers north of the site of the first incident. Paramedics said five people there were mortally wounded in that attack.

The casualties were evacuated to Yoseftal Hospital in Eilat. A number of soldiers were among the casualties

IDF soldiers targeted and hit seven terrorists involved in the attacks, according to IDF spokeswoman Avital Leibovich.

“This seems like a coordinated attack,” a senior IDF officer said. There was also speculation that there may have been more than one terror cell coordinating the attacks.

Commander of the IDF’s Edom Division Brig.-Gen. Tamir Yidayi arrived at the scene of the bus attack and set up a command post to coordinate efforts to capture the perpetrators. The IDF suspects that the terrorists infiltrated into Israel after crossing into Egypt possible from the Gaza Strip.

On Sunday, the Egyptian Military launched a massive operation to capture terrorist cells operating in the Sinai.

Due to concern that terrorists had infiltrated into Israel from Egypt, security officers in Israeli communities along the border were ordered to raise the level of alert and to tell residents to remain inside their home.

Israel has so far managed to construct a barrier along 45 kilometers of it's southern border with Egypt, which stretches for over 200 km.

The original plan was to complete construction of the fence in 2013 but the Defense Ministry decided several months ago to hire six different contracts in order to speed up the construction and complete the project by the end of 2012.

The Defense Ministry said it would complete construction of an additional 100 km by the end of 2011. Officials said that 700 meters of fence was constructed on a daily basis.

Following the attacks near Eilat on Thursday, Defense Ministry Dir.-Gen. Udi Shani convened a meeting to discuss ways to increase the number of workers who work on the fence in an effort to move up the completion date.

Authorities set up an emergency telephone number for those affected by the attacks near Eilat: 1255175.

Source

Prime Minister Netanyahu and the IDF promises to retaliate for this horror.  That is not an idle threat.  Both Hamas and the UN in Gaza are running for cover.  2 small children were wounded in this attack.

Every protest scheduled for this weekend by the leftists in the "Tent Cities" have been cancelled.  In Israel people unite against terror, not support it.

My prayers go out to the families of the victims.  May the killers be tracked down fast and justice be swift.

Corals Devouring Jellyfish?

That is what the picture (above) is showing.  While not Earth-shattering, it does give us a better understanding of the world we live in.

Photographs taken by Israeli researchers have shaken up long-held beliefs regarding the diet of corals. Scientists have long thought that corals subsist solely from single cell algae (Zooxanthella) and tiny plankton sized 0.2 to 0.4 mm. However, photographs taken in Eilat in March 2009 show that corals are capable of devouring much larger food.

Omri Bronstein of the George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences in Tel Aviv University explained that the discovery was made in the course of a thorough survey of Fungia corals in the Gulf of Eilat, as part of a long term study of the corals' sexual plasticity, several corals of the type Fungia scruposa were seen and documented as they feasted on medusae of the type Aurelia aurita.

While it is known that many species eat medusae, including fish, sea turtles and birds, corals have never been documented consuming prey if this size.

Fungia, or plate corals, are usually found at depths from one meter to 100 meters. Some can measure dozens of centimeters in diameter as adults. The corals have been found to exhibit sexual plasticity: a coral that began its life as a female can change into a male in another season and back into a female in following seasons.

"These corals' amazing plasticity, both in the ability to change their gender and in their ability to feed off of food which they chance upon like the medusae, give them an advantage in dealing with the changing environment they live in,” Bronstein said.

The photographs have aroused great scientific interest and have been featured, among other places, in National Geographic and Scientific American magazines, as well as the BBC, Discovery channel and hundreds of news websites. The pictures were taken opposite the Inter-University Institute and the Underwater Observatory in Eilat.

Read the full story here.

Just look at them.  They look so peaceful, so lovely, so angelic.  Who would have known they are just cold-blooded jellyfish killers.  Who would have guessed?  Not me?

Just look at the poor Jellyfish.  Defenseless, homeless (Their homes were stolen from them by the agressive Zionist Corals.), without hope.  They have been made refugees for generations by the apartheid policies of the Corals.

Who will save the Jellyfish?