JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli police barred spectators from attending two Premier League matches in the south of the country on Saturday because of a fear of possible rocket strikes by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.

Hapoel Beersheba lost 2-1 at home to Maccabi Netanya and Ashdod SC ended their fixture with visitors Hapoel Haifa in a goalless draw in empty stadiums.

“The decision to prevent spectators from attending the matches was taken as a precautionary measure, rockets have fallen today in the south of the country including in Ashdod,” police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

The desert city of Beersheba, about 30 km southeast of the Gaza Strip, and the Mediterranean port city of Ashdod, 15 km north of the coastal enclave, have been hit in the past few days by the militants’ longer-range rockets.

All youth soccer matches in the region were called off and a premier league basketball fixture in Ashdod on Saturday night was also being played without spectators.

Since the spike in violence residents of southern Israel close to the Gaza Strip have been instructed to be ready to seek cover in air-raid shelters within seconds of sirens sounding.

On Saturday, Israel killed five Palestinian militants in a third straight day of air raids across the Gaza Strip and Palestinian militants fired dozens of rockets and mortar shells defying efforts of mediators to contain the violence.

JERUSALEM, April 9 (Reuters) – Israeli police barred spectators from attending two Premier League matches in the south of the country on Saturday because of a fear of possible rocket strikes by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.

Hapoel Beersheba lost 2-1 at home to Maccabi Netanya and Ashdod SC ended their fixture with visitors Hapoel Haifa in a goalless draw in empty stadiums.

“The decision to prevent spectators from attending the matches was taken as a precautionary measure, rockets have fallen today in the south of the country including in Ashdod,” police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

The desert city of Beersheba, about 30 km southeast of the Gaza Strip, and the Mediterranean port city of Ashdod, 15 km north of the coastal enclave, have been hit in the past few days by the militants’ longer-range rockets.

All youth soccer matches in the region were called off and a premier league basketball fixture in Ashdod on Saturday night was also being played without spectators.

Since the spike in violence residents of southern Israel close to the Gaza Strip have been instructed to be ready to seek cover in air-raid shelters within seconds of sirens sounding.

On Saturday, Israel killed five Palestinian militants in a third straight day of air raids across the Gaza Strip and Palestinian militants fired dozens of rockets and mortar shells defying efforts of mediators to contain the violence.

TEL AVIV, March 29 (Reuters) – Israel welcomed back captain Yossi Benayoun from a six-month injury layoff and beat Georgia 1-0 in a Euro 2012 Group F qualifier on Tuesday with a goal by substitute striker Tal Ben Chaim.

Chelsea’s Benayoun came on to rapturous applause from the capacity home crowd of 14,000 at Tel Aviv’s compact Bloomfield Stadium in the 71st minute. It was his first action for club or country since injuring an Achilles in September.

Ben Chaim scored in the 59th minute, seven minutes after coming on to replace midfielder Bebars Natcho.

Left unmarked on the right side of the area he blasted home a pass from Elyaniv Barda after Maor Buzaglo had run down the left wing.

Israel dominated possession but rarely troubled Georgian goalkeeper Nukri Revishvili.

The result kept Israel very much in the hunt in a tight Group F, which Greece lead on 11 points. Croatia and Israel, who also beat Latvia 2-1 on Saturday, both have 10 with Georgia on nine.

Despite Israel’s slender lead, the team’s French coach Luis Fernandez said he felt confident to let Benayoun have a few minutes’ action despite not having played for Chelsea since returning from injury.

TEL AVIV, March 26 (Reuters) – Beram Kayal’s late goal gave Israel a 2-1 win over Latvia in a Euro 2012 Group F qualifier on Saturday to maintain their hopes of reaching the finals of a major competition for the first time since 1970.

The hosts, playing at the compact Bloomfield Stadium, delivered a performance to send the fans home with a smile and lift the pressure on embattled coach Luis Fernandez.

Israel have struggled since the Frenchman took over a year ago but he fielded a number of new, young faces against Latvia and the move paid off.

The margin of victory could have been bigger but for some wayward finishing from Israel who last qualified for a major competition when they played at the 1970 World Cup finals in Mexico.

Elyaniv Barda scrambled the ball over the line to put Israel in front after 16 minutes but Latvia equalised when Kaspars Gorkss took advantage of a defensive mix-up to score in the 62nd.

Israel though increased the tempo as Fernandez introduced two attacking substitutes, Ben Sahar and Maor Buzaglo, and it was Buzaglo who set up the 81st-minute headed winner for Kayal.

The victory gave Israel seven points from five games and kept alive their chances of qualifying. Croatia lead the group with 10 points although they will be overtaken if Greece beat bottom team Malta later on Saturday.

JERUSALEM, March 21 (Reuters) – Israel’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) on Monday ordered charter airline Sun D’Or to cease operations from April 1 because it failed to comply with regulations.

The CAA said the airline, a wholly owned subsidiary of flag carrier El Al (ELAL.TA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), relied on its parent company to administer its operations which was unsatisfactory.

“Sun D’Or is currently operating without a full administrative and operational framework as required of every other airline and is relying fully on the infrastructure of parent company El Al,” the CAA statement said.

Israel’s transportation ministry said Sun D’Or was operating with an air operator certificate but that it did not meet the requirements to hold one, as it could not demonstrate it had control over its operations as required by law.

In answer to a query by Reuters, the ministry said Sun D’Or was an “empty shell used by El Al for commercial reasons” but it did not have its own pilots, cabin crew or training programme and all its operations are run by El Al.

Sun D’Or, based at Ben Gurion International Airport, flies mainly Israeli holidaymakers to destinations in Europe with its three Boeing (BA.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) 757-200 aircraft, the airline’s web site says.

The CAA said it told Sun D’Or over a year ago it failed to meet aviation standards.

AL-RAM, West Bank (Reuters) – Palestine celebrated their first official match on home soil on Wednesday during a bittersweet evening when their Under-21 side lost an Olympic Games qualifier to Thailand 6-5 on penalties.

The fixture was viewed by Palestinians as another symbolic step towards confirming their credentials for the state they intend to establish in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

“This is another occasion on which we can show we are a state, every time I come here it makes me proud,” Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad told Reuters at the Faisal Husseini stadium.

Jibril Rajoub, chairman of the Palestine Football Association, said it had been a historic day.

“From now on Palestine will always have to play in their homeland, no more matches in foreign countries,” he told Reuters.

Until October 2008, when they hosted Jordan in a friendly international at Al-Ram, Palestineplayed all their matches abroad because soccer’s world governing body FIFA deemed the Palestinian territories unsafe to host visiting teams.

The Palestinian league was also re-launched in 2008 following an improvement in the security situation.

AL-RAM, West Bank, March 9 (Reuters) – Palestine celebrated their first official match on home soil on Wednesday during a bittersweet evening when their Under-21 side lost an Olympic Games qualifier to Thailand 6-5 on penalties.

The fixture was viewed by Palestinians as another symbolic step towards confirming their credentials for the state they intend to establish in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

“This is another occasion on which we can show we are a state, every time I come here it makes me proud,” Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad told Reuters at the Faisal Husseini stadium.

Jibril Rajoub, chairman of the Palestine Football Association, said it had been a historic day.

“From now on Palestine will always have to play in their homeland, no more matches in foreign countries,” he told Reuters.

Until October 2008, when they hosted Jordan in a friendly international at Al-Ram, Palestineplayed all their matches abroad because soccer’s world governing body FIFA deemed the Palestinian territories unsafe to host visiting teams.

The Palestinian league was also re-launched in 2008 following an improvement in the security situation.

By Ori Lewis

JERUSALEM (Reuters Life!) – A YouTube musical clip mocking embattled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has become a hot hit in the Arab world, its Israeli creator said on Tuesday.

“Zenga Zenga,” created by Tel Aviv music journalist and blogger Noy Alooshe, shows Gaddafi in repetitious sequences banging his fist on a podium and raising it defiantly during a speech he made last week.

The modified music of “Hey Baby,” a song by U.S. rappers Pitbull and T-Pain, blasts from the video, but words from Gaddafi’s address have replaced the lyrics.

The Arabic word “zenga,” which Libyans use for small neighborhood, stood out for Alooshe, who does not speak the language, and he made it the recurring theme of the clip (here).

“When I saw Gaddafi speaking it struck me that his cadence and his movements were perfect for a clip. It was so musical,” Alooshe told Reuters in a telephone interview.

His original two-minute video shows a gyrating female dancer in skimpy olive-green underwear — a homage, he said, to Gaddafi’s famed female bodyguards — either side of the Libyan leader as he delivers his speech.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli police on Monday arrested at least 20 right-wing demonstrators after they tried to block roads in Jerusalem to protest against demolitions of homes at a West Bank settler outpost earlier in the day.

A police spokesman said officers were deployed at points in the West Jerusalem and elsewhere in Israel as the protesters, many of them Jewish settlers, attempted to hold up traffic.

Police were also investigating an incident in which settlers were suspected of throwing a petrol bomb at a house in the Palestinian village of Hawara in the northern West Bank, causing some damage but no injuries.

The flare-up came after police bulldozed two homes at the Jewish West Bank outpost of Havat Gilad, a small hilltop settlement where police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said officers had acted after a court ordered the homes be demolished.

Police used plastic-coated paint pellets to quell resistance from settlers at the site. It was a non-lethal crowd control weapon introduced for the first time and television footage showed it caused bruising. Eight settlers were arrested.

Demolitions at some of the dozens of outposts erected by Jews in the West Bank without formal permission from the Israeli authorities are usually carried out by police.

There are over 100 settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, where half a million Jews live next to 2.5 million Palestinians.