IDF forces on the northern border were on alert and civilian aid agencies were on standby as fighting between rebel factions and forces loyal to the Assad regime intensified on the other side of the border. Large numbers of refugees fleeing the fighting in southwest Syria were also observed moving towards the Israeli zone of the Golan Heights after Jordanian officials declared their own border closed. On Friday morning, the IDF said it would send humanitarian supplies to the refugees inside Syria but would not open the border.

As protesters hit the streets of Iranian cities this week, demanding economic reforms and changes in their governments policies, widespread power outages hit the capital of Teheran. Officials with Iran’s main electrical power supplier said the blackouts were the result of the national grid “overheating” as supplies from hydroelectric dams dropped because of the severe drought in the country and the use of air conditioners soared amidst a crippling heat wave.

“The Jerusalem Police have been playing a cat-and-mouse game with the Palestinian Authority and other Palestinian political factions trying to operate in the city in violation of the law,” a Palestinian lawyer from eastern Jerusalem told The Jerusalem Post this week. “This has been going on for the past two decades. But in recent months, especially after [US President Donald] Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to the city, we have witnessed an escalation in this conflict.”

The Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange (GILEE) brought 21 police officers from the US States of Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee to Israel this week for a series of visits, lectures and lessons from their colleagues in the Israeli police. Participants in the trip expressed their gratitude for the opportunity to learn best practices from Israeli specialists in a wide variety of areas and said they’d be taking the lessons they learned back home to teach their co-workers.

The IDF announced on Thursday that four female soldiers have completed the tank commanders course and will soon be deployed to the Egyptian border. “There has never been such an experience in the IDF,” said chief armored officer Brig.-Gen Guy Hasson. “We didn’t give in to them by an inch and we didn’t compromise. It can be said for them that they did it like real fighters.”

The pro-Khomeinist chorus builds its case on an abstract notion in which, in dealing with the Islamic Republic, the choice is only between surrendering to its every whim or total military invasion. The same lobbyists discourage any attempt by the major powers to adopt a policy aimed at helping, persuading and cajoling Iran into restoring its identity as a nation-state and behave like one by closing the chapter of a revolution that has plunged Iran and a good chunk of the Middle east into conflict and uncertainty.

The battle in southern Syria has begun: After a few weeks of preparation, the Syrian army launched an attack against the rebel organizations in southern Syria. Speaking at a session of the UN Security Council on the Middle East and North Africa, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin said that the Al-Nusra Front  and ISIS control over 40% of the deescalation zone in southwestern Syria. He added that negotiations were underway with the “moderate rebel groups” in the de-escalation zone. (PDF)

The ICEJ is currently working to provide: Fire fighting trailers to help combat Hamas’ kite Jihad, bomb shelters to communities in need, funding for treatment of Psycho-trauma for those immediately affected by acts of terror, support for educational and curative programs that help rebuild communities that have been affected by terror and life-saving vests for first responders and city personnel. Your support can make a real difference in the lives of Israelis under attack.