Hamas Cry "It Is A Crime Against Humanity" Despite Attacking Israel Day After Day With Their Murderous Methods! What Is New Then? Ah Yes, Israel Closes The Main Gaza Goods Crossing In Response To The Many Arson Attacks From Hamas!! And Some More Good News Is That Israel Are Sending An Un-Manned Spacecraft To Land On The Moon in 2019!!!

Israel Closes Main Gaza Goods Crossing In Response To Arson Attacks!

Israel has shut the main cargo crossing with the Gaza Strip in retaliation for arson attacks by Palestinians and attempts to infiltrate its territory.

Only "humanitarian equipment", including food and medicine, will now be allowed through Kerem Shalom. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to use a "heavy hand" against the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which dominates Gaza.

A Hamas spokesman called the Israeli move "a new crime against humanity". Palestinians have been launching kites and balloons carrying containers of burning fuel and explosive devices over the Gaza-Israel border since April. The devices have sparked 750 fires in southern Israel, burning more than 2,600 hectares (6,400 acres) of forest and farmland and causing hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage, Israeli officials say.

The arson attacks began during mass demonstrations along the border, at which thousands of Palestinians have expressed their support for the declared right of Palestinian refugees to return to their ancestral homes in what is now Israel and also demanded an end to the blockade of Gaza imposed by Israel and Egypt. Israel and Egypt say the blockade is a necessary security measure against militants. Gaza health officials say more than 130 Palestinians have been killed and 15,000 others injured by Israeli forces during the protests. Israel's military said the prime minister had ordered the closure of Kerem Shalom on Monday "in light of the ongoing arson terror and additional terror attempts, led by the Hamas terror organization". The military will also stop Gaza's fishermen sailing more than six nautical miles (11 km) offshore in the Mediterranean Sea, after having extended the limit to nine miles (17km) for the past three months.

Mr Netanyahu said he and Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman had agreed to be "heavy-handed with the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip - immediately". "There will be additional steps. I will not go into details," he added. Hamas, which has fought three wars with Israel since 2008, called on the international community to intervene immediately to prevent what it called a "new crime against humanity". The Israeli non-governmental organisation Gisha, which promotes freedom of movement for Palestinians, also condemned the Israeli decision.

"The damage being caused to agricultural lands in Israel is grave and deplorable, but collectively punishing nearly two million people in Gaza by closing its only official crossing for the movement of goods is both illegal and morally depraved," it wrote on Twitter. Almost all of the goods imported to Gaza pass through Kerem Shalom.

The United Nations says 43,087 lorryloads of goods arrived through the crossing in the first five months of 2018. In May, 44% of the lorryloads carried construction materials; 29% food products; and 1% medical supplies.

Israeli Un-Manned Spacecraft To Land On The Moon in 2019 

An Israeli non-profit organisation has announced plans to send the first privately-funded unmanned spacecraft to the Moon later this year.

SpaceIL said the probe would be launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in December on a Falcon 9 rocket built by Elon Musk's SpaceX company. It is expected to land on the Moon in February 2019. The spacecraft will plant an Israeli flag on the Moon's surface and carry out research into its magnetic field.

SpaceIL's project began as part of the Google Lunar XPrize, which offered $30m (£23m) in prizes to inspire people to develop low-cost methods of robotic space exploration. However, the competition expired this March, with the $20m grand prize for landing on the moon unclaimed.

Despite the setback SpaceIL continued developing its spacecraft, which is being built in co-operation with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), a state-owned firm. So far it has spent about $88.5m, much of which it has received from the South African-born Israeli billionaire businessmen Morris Kahn.

Ido Anteby, CEO of SpaceIL, told a news conference in the Israeli town of Yehud on Tuesday that its probe would be the smallest yet to land on the Moon. It is about 2m (6.6ft) in diameter and 1.5m high, and will weigh only 585kg (1,300lb) at launch. More than 400kg of that weight is fuel that will be burnt off by the time it lands on the Moon. The spacecraft is a "hopper", which will land and then take off again with the fuel left in its propulsion system, and then perform another landing 500m away, as required by the XPrize.

If successful, SpaceIL's mission will make Israel the fourth country in the world to "soft land" a probe on the surface of the Moon - after the former Soviet Union, the United States and China. Mr Kahn said he hoped the mission would create an "Apollo effect" for the next generation in Israel - a reference to the enthusiasm for science, technology, engineering and maths triggered by Neil Armstrong's Moon walk in 1969.

"This is a tremendous project," he added. "When the rocket is launched into space, we will all remember where we were when Israel landed on the moon." Ofer Doron, head of IAI's space division, said Israel was "going to show the way for the rest of the world" to send a spacecraft to the Moon at a reasonable cost. Four other teams are still competing against SpaceIL for the honour of winning the Google Lunar XPrize - Moon Express from the US, Team Indus from India, Hakuto from Japan, and Synergy Moon, an international group.