The Obama years: World arms sales up 14 percent in past 5 years.

The Obama years: World arms sales up 14 percent in past 5 years. (DailyStar).

A Swedish think tank says global arms exports increased 14 percent during the five years to 2015, with the U.S. retaining top position after its sales grew 27 percent from the previous five-year period.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute says sales from the next biggest exporters, Russia and China, also increased but fell for numbers 4 and 5, France and Germany.

The top five exporters accounted for 74 percent of all arms sales, with the U.S. and Russia supplying a total of 58 percent.

The think tank said in its report Monday that China saw the largest growth during the five-year period of 88 percent.

The five biggest weapons importers were India, Saudi Arabia, China, the United Arab Emirates and Australia.

Israeli-Palestinian peace talks shelved over 3 palestinians killed at Kalandia checkpoint outside Jerusalem.

Israeli-Palestinian peace talks shelved over 3 palestinians killed at Kalandia checkpoint outside Jerusalem.HT: Israelmatzav.

Peace talks between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators expected on Monday have been shelved after Israeli security forces shot dead three Palestinians during clashes at Kalandiya near Ramallah, a Palestinian official said.

"The meeting that was to take place in Jericho...today was cancelled because of the Israeli crime committed in Qalandiya today," the official told AFP, referring to the refugee camp where the clashes erupted before dawn.

Security forces who arrived in Kalandiya near Ramallah to arrest a security suspect came under a  large scale attack by hundreds of Palestinians on Monday morning, resulting in deadly clashes in which three rioters were reportedly killed.

An IDF force protecting the Border Police unit making the arrest felt that the lives of security forces were under threat, and opened fire at their attackers, the IDF said.

Video images from the scene showed two IDF jeeps being ambushed by Palestinians on rooftops and at street level, hurling large rocks and other heavy items from multiple directions.

The wanted suspect, said by the IDF to be a terrorist, was arrested and taken for questioning.

Offical Palestinian news agency WAFA quoted hospital sources in the West Bank as saying Rubin Zayed, Jihad Aslan and Younis Jamal Jahjouh had been killed in the clashes. An additional fifteen Palestinians were wounded in the incident, according to Palestinian medical sources.

The Police and IDF were investigating the circumstances of the clash.

The Palestinian Authority condemned the "assassination" of the  Kalandiya men and "series of Israeli crimes," Nabil Abu Rudaineh, the spokesman for PA President Mahmoud Abbas was quoted as saying by WAFA.

Last week, Israeli security forces killed a young Palestinian man in the West Bank city of Jenin during clashes that broke out there in a pre-dawn raid to arrest suspects involved in terrorist activity. Read the full story here.

Video - Hamas hangs Gazan for ‘collaborating’ with Israel.

A Hamas television commercial that announces that 'collaborators' with Israel have until July 10 to turn themselves in and avoid execution.HT: CriticalAnalyst


Video - Hamas hangs Gazan for ‘collaborating’ with Israel.(AlArabiya).Gaza’s Hamas rulers on Saturday executed a Palestinian convicted of collaborating with Israel and two others deemed complicit in murder, the interior ministry said. The ministry said in a statement that the three men were hanged in a “security center” in Gaza City. It was the first time this year that the Islamist movement had carried out an execution of someone accused of “collaborating” with the Israelis. The statement did not give the men’s names, ages or any other information. The last time the death sentence for aiding Israel was carried out was in July 2011, when two Palestinians were executed on the charge. In March this year, a Gaza military court condemned to death a 27-year-old Palestinian convicted of “treason” for allegedly cooperating with Israel, but did not publish his name. Since the start of this year, authorities in Gaza have announced two other death sentences, one against a man convicted of “collaborating” with Israel, the other found guilty of killing his brother. It was not clear if any or all of those were hanged on Saturday. Authorities of the Islamist movement Hamas, which took power in the Gaza Strip in 2007, carried out their first executions in April 2010 when they hanged two men convicted of collaborating with Israel. Under Palestinian law, those convicted of collaborating, murder or drug trafficking face the death penalty.Read the full story here.More here.

  The video has been authenticated by the IDF's Arabic desk. It's real. via Israelmatzav.