What's New

Resources updated between Monday, March 8, 2021 and Sunday, March 14, 2021

March 12, 2021

The Fogel family

The two Palestinian terrorists who killed Ruti and Udi Fogel and three of their children a decade ago will receive a 50% pay raise from the Palestinian Authority ten years after the 2011 attack, Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) reported on Thursday.

The two have received a monthly salary as part of the PA's "pay for slay" policy since the day of their arrest, with each earning NIS 338,400 ($101,847) so far.

They will now each begin earning NIS 6,000 ($1,806) every month.

The PA pays arrested terrorists a salary based on their time spent in prison as well as a stipend to the families of terrorists who die. Both terrorists in the 2011 attack received a life sentence, but will remain eligible for the salary even if they are released.

If they both live to the age of 80, they'll each receive over NIS 6.5 million (nearly $2 million).

"Every year[,] donor countries give hundreds of millions of dollars of support to the PA. Every month, as part of its commitments under the Oslo Accords, the Israeli government transfers to the PA hundreds of millions of shekels," said Maurice Hirsch Adv, director of legal strategies at PMW.

"Instead of using that money to promote peace, the PA uses the money, in complete breach of the accords, to fund its pugnacious 'Pay-for-Slay' policy."

In 2020, the PA spent at least NIS 512 million ($159 million) for pay for slay payments, as well as hundreds of millions of shekels for wounded terrorists and families of dead terrorists, according to PMW.

Udi and Ruth Fogel, as well as their children Yoav, 11, Elad, 4 and Hadas, 3 months, were murdered by Palestinian terrorists in the West Bank settlement of Itamar in 2011.

Palestinian terrorists who murdered Fogel family to receive salary raise in the Palestinian Authority's pay-for-slay scheme Document

March 11, 2021

Maghain Aboth Synagogue (Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons)

Singapore arrests would-be terrorist planning to kill Jews for Hamas Document

March 9, 2021

Kylie Moore-Gilbert with her husband

A British-Australian academic imprisoned by Iran on false charges of spying for Israel said in a television interview broadcast Tuesday that she endured "psychological torture" during her more than two years behind bars.

Kylie Moore-Gilbert, 33, who is married to a dual Russian-Israeli national, returned to Australia in December after serving 804 days of a 10-year sentence. She was freed in exchange for the release of three Iranians who were held in Thailand.

"It's an extreme solitary confinement room designed to break you. It's psychological torture. You go completely insane. It is so damaging. I would say I felt physical pain from the psychological trauma I had in that room. It's a 2-meter by 2-meter box," Moore-Gilbert told Sky News.

"There were a few times in that early period that I felt broken. I felt if I had to endure another day of this, you know, if I could I'd just kill myself. But of course, I never tried and I never took that step," she added.

The discovery that Kylie Moore-Gilbert, a Melbourne University lecturer on Middle Eastern studies, had an Israeli husband led to Iranian authorities stopping her at Tehran's airport as she prepared to leave the country in 2018 after attending an academic conference. Authorities sentenced her to 10 years in prison for espionage for Israel and sent her to Tehran's notorious Evin prison. She vehemently denied the charges and maintained her innocence.

Iran attempted to lure her husband to Tehran, the Australian Herald Sun reported in February.

In a letter from Moore-Gilbert to the Australian prime minister, smuggled out of Evin prison in Iran in late 2019, the imprisoned academic revealed how Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard Corps then attempted to set a trap for her Russian-Israeli husband Ruslan Hodorov.

"The Revolutionary Guard have imprisoned me in these terrible conditions for over nine months in order to extort me both personally and my government," Moore-Gilbert wrote to Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

"They have also attempted to use me as a hostage in a diabolical plot to lure my husband, an Australian permanent resident into joining me in an Iranian prison," she wrote.

At the time of her arrest, Iranian media variously reported that Moore-Gilbert's father was Jewish, that she had converted to Judaism in the UK in 2007, and that she had visited Israel many times since, Channel 12 news has reported.

The Iranian reports claimed, without evidence, that she learned Hebrew and connected with an employee of the Shin Bet internal security service while in Israel. The Iranian reports were not corroborated.

Moore-Gilbert married Hodorov in a Jewish ceremony in 2017, though, since her return to Australia, she is seeking divorce over his alleged affair with a close colleague of hers, the Herald Sun reported.

UK-Australian jailed by Iran as spy for Israel describes 'psychological torture' Document

March 8, 2021

Indian Paramilitary troops stand guard at the site of an low-intensity IED blast near the Israeli embassy in New Delhi, India on January 29, 2021 [Anadolu Agency]

Iran behind January Israeli Embassy Blast in India Document

The knife used in an earlier terror attack (File photo courtesy of the IDF Spokesperson Unit)

An attempted stabbing attack was reported at the Sde Ephraim farm on Monday after a Palestinian woman entered the farm and attempted to stab the wife of the owner, according to the IDF Spokesperson's Unit. The woman was stopped by local residents and no one was injured in the incident.

IDF soldiers arrived at the scene and are handling the incident.

The attempted attack comes a little over a month after a Palestinian attempted to infiltrate into the Sde Ephraim farm during the night, but was stopped by a guard without causing any injuries.

On Sunday night, the IDF thwarted an attempted stabbing attack in the Palestinian town of Tubas in the West Bank, north of Nablus, according to the IDF Spokesperson's Unit.

A terrorist attempted to stab a soldier operating in the town. The soldier pushed off the terrorist and commander at the scene spotted the terrorist and shot him. The soldier was lightly wounded and treated at the scene.

Attempted terror attack thwarted in West Bank Document