Officials from Gaza Strip-based Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) met on Tuesday with Russian officials in Moscow, drawing concern from Israel.

TEL AVIV – Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Tuesday introduced a bipartisan bill to counter the use of human shields by terror groups like Hamas, Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

TEL AVIV – A CNN reporter was given a rare tour of a Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror tunnel in the Gaza Strip, in addition to gaining access to training exercises and rocket launchers used to fire missiles from the Hamas-ruled enclave into Israel. 

TEL AVIV – Gazan preschoolers at a school backed by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group recently held a graduation ceremony in which the children brandished toy machine guns as they acted out the execution of an Israeli solider and the kidnapping of a Israeli civilian.

TEL AVIV – The IDF on Tuesday destroyed what it said was a “unique” Hamas attack tunnel that extended some 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) into both Israeli and Egyptian territory.

More than two dozen mortar shells were fired at southern Israel in at least three separate barrages Tuesday morning as sirens blared throughout the area, the army said, amid heightened tensions along the Gaza border.

TEL AVIV – Israel’s ambassador to the UN Danny Danon urged member countries of the UN Security Council to reject Kuwait’s “dangerous” resolution condemning Israel over its response to violent riots in the Gaza Strip ahead of a vote later this week.

Though it has sought to portray weeks of violent demonstrations along the Gaza Strip’s border with Israel as popular protests, Hamas has been heavily involved in planning the clashes and provided instructions to participants on desired behavior, Israel’s Hadashot TV news reported Friday.

TEL AVIV – Footage released by the IDF Wednesday shows a Hamas terrorist who was arrested when he breached the border into Israel explaining  how the terror group cynically exploits the riots to prevent an uprising in the Gaza Strip, and how children and women are instructed to advance to the front row of the bloody protests with the promise that the “army doesn’t kill women or children.”

A Hamas official on Wednesday acknowledged that 50 of the 62 Palestinians reported killed during Gaza border riots on Monday and Tuesday were members of the Islamist terrorist group, bringing the total number of known members of terror groups among the fatalities up to 53.

At least 24 of the 61 Palestinians killed Monday in the Gaza border riots were terrorists affiliated mostly with the Hamas terrorist organization, with some being members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said Tuesday, following a joint investigation conducted by the IDF and the Shin Bet.

TEL AVIV – Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman warned Thursday that if Iran strikes Tel Aviv, Israel would retaliate by striking Tehran and all Iranian bases in Syria, according to an interview with Saudi news outlet Elaph.

TEL AVIV – In what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu deemed a “serious” incident, four IDF soldiers were wounded when a bomb was detonated by their jeep during a patrol along the Gaza Strip border on Saturday.

Two Palestinian Islamic Jihad members riding on a motorcycle in the Gaza Strip were killed in an explosion on Tuesday, health officials said. Israel’s military denied accounts by local residents that they were killed in an air strike.

Five Code Red rocket alert sirens were sounded in the Eshkol Regional Council in southern Israel on Monday night. The first siren sounded at 1:48 am, followed by four other sirens at 2:54 am, 4:14 am, 4:51 am and 5:03 am. There were no reports of injuries or damage and no rocket remains were found on the ground.

The Israeli Air Force on Monday afternoon conducted fresh strikes on two Palestinian Islamic Jihad positions in the central Gaza Strip, in response to a mortar attack by the terror group against an IDF post earlier in the day, the army said.

Amid rising tensions between the Gaza-based terror group Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and Israel, PIJ has reportedly raised its level of readiness for conflict to the highest degree.

TEL AVIV – The Iron Dome air defense system has been deployed in central Israel, the IDF said on Monday night, amid increased tensions between the country and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza since the army destroyed an attack tunnel built by the terror group last month.

TEL AVIV – During Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ surprise summons to Saudi Arabia last week, the PA’s official daily published anti-Iran articles claiming the Islamic Republic was spreading its “tentacles” by appropriating the Palestinian cause as part of its ongoing attempts at regional hegemony.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad on Sunday said Israeli threats against the terror group’s leaders constituted “an act of war” and vowed to continue to try to carry out a revenge attack against Israel.

TEL AVIV – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Sunday that any terror groups plotting attacks against Israel will be dealt with harshly.

An Israeli general has warned Palestinian militants against carrying out attacks in revenge for the blowing up of a tunnel stretching from the Gaza Strip into the Jewish state last month.

TEL AVIV – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday announced that Israel would hold on to the bodies of terrorists killed during last week’s tunnel blast, a move that Israeli lawmakers said would help in a potential exchange for the bodies of slain IDF soldiers held in Gaza.

Hamas’s deputy political chief Saleh al-Arouri on Tuesday held a rare public meeting with Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut, the leader of the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, during which the two discussed Israel’s recent destruction of an attack tunnel dug from Gaza into Israel and the Palestinian reconciliation process, Hamas media reported.

TEL AVIV – The Palestinian Authority on Tuesday baselessly accused Israel of using “poisonous gas” during an IDF strike that saw an attack tunnel stretching from Gaza into Israeli territory blown up the previous day. According to the PA Ministry of Health’s

Senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Khaled al-Batsh said Tuesday that the attack tunnel stretching from Gaza into Israeli territory that was blown up by the IDF the previous day had been built by his group for the purpose of kidnapping Israeli soldiers.

Iran on Monday condemned Israel as “bloodthirsty” after the Israel Defense Forces blew up an attack tunnel stretching from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory, killing seven people, including two commanders of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group.

Israeli and Jewish American leaders are speaking out against New York University’s (NYU) decision to host performances of a play that has been criticized for whitewashing Palestinian terrorism and demonstrating anti-Israel bias.

Hamas co-founder Mahmoud al-Zahar clarified Wednesday that his terror group’s new political program, which some interpreted as accepting the idea of a Palestinian state on the 1967 lines, would not preclude Hamas from seeking to liberate all of historic Palestine, including Israel.

Eight Palestinian operatives were wounded in a tunnel collapse early Wednesday morning in the northern Gaza border town of Shuja’yya, according to Ma’an News Agency.