- 24 mrt 2011
Israeli force detain 9 in Hebron region
Four arrested after heated clashes in Beit Ummar
29 oct 2012, 12:54 , Respect -
Maria 25 mrt 2011
Israeli Air Force Strikes Gaza
Following the continuation of escalating tension in the Gaza Strip and the south of Israel, the Israeli Air Force has carried out bombings into Gaza City, on Thursday.
Reports state that the airstrike targeted a building that the Israeli military believe to be a weapons storage facility for the al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas.
One man was injured in the strike and was taken to hospital as a result of wounds inflicted by shrapnel.
The Israeli military stated that their ongoing attacks come in response to the rocket fire coming from Gaza, on Thursday, that landed in several regions including Beer Sheva and Ashdod.
http://bit.ly/gJJpGL
Five occupation airstrikes against targets in Gaza, a young man wounded
GAZA, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation aircraft carried out five airstrikes on Thursday afternoon against different targets around the Gaza Strip wounding three people.
Local sources told PIC correspondent that occupation aircraft bombed al-Safina neighbourhood in Gaza and a hall belonging to a sports club.
A third airstrike targeted training grounds used by the Qassam Brigades on lands where Nitsarim settlement used to stand.
A fourth airstrike targeted the Rayes mount east of Gaza city and the fifth was against Beit Hanoun.
Palestinian medical sources said that a Palestinian young man was wounded as a result of the airstrikes.
A young man in his twenties was hit by shrapnel in the face, Adham Abu Selmeya, spokesman for the emergency services in Gaza told PIC, describing the victim's injuries as light.
http://bit.ly/frwSWN
Arabi warns Israel over Gaza escalation
CAIRO, (PIC)-- Dr. Nabil Al-Arabi, The Egyptian foreign minister, has warned Thursday the Israeli occupation authorities not to attempt to repeat the adventure in Gaza Strip, stressing that any Israeli military escalation against Gaza people will be unacceptable, sources in Egypt reported.
Arabi made his remarks during a meeting with Ravi Barak, the director-general of the Israeli foreign ministry, during his visit to Cairo Thursday, the sources said, adding that Arabi made it clear to Barak that any Israeli aggression on the densely populated Strip would produce counterproductive repercussions on the entire region.
Arabi also criticized Israeli policies towards the Palestinians, especially the threats being made by high ranking Israeli military officers to carry out another military aggression on the Strip dubbing it Cast Lead 2.
He also lashed out at remarks uttered by Amos Gilad, the head of the political and security department in the Israeli war ministry, who said that the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt won't last, explaining that the Israeli aggression towards Palestinian civilians and the wrong Israeli policies against the Palestinian people would destroy the entire peace process although he stressed Egypt's respect of all treaties and agreements it signed with other countries.
He also said that Egypt rejects targeting civilians and stressed the importance of the humanitarian aspect and that Israel should shoulder its responsibilities as an occupying power.
http://bit.ly/eaAmiq
Israel is guilty, bears responsibility for latest violence
From Khalid Amayreh in occupied Palestine
Ever since its genocidal onslaught against the Gaza Strip more than two years ago, Israel has had a free season on the Palestinian people, especially in the Gaza Strip. And every time the Palestinians sought to defend themselves, Israeli leaders would get quite mad, threatening to unleash their huge military machine against the unprotected Palestinian population.
On Tuesday, 22 March, Israel fired artillery shells on civilian Palestinian neighborhoods east of Gaza, killing eight people, including two children who were playing football outside their homes.
Some of the other victims had just prayed at the local mosque in Shujaiya before an artillery shell cut their life short.
Needless to say, the two children are added to a long list of children who were killed knowingly and deliberately by the very army of a state that doesn't hesitate to babble about the sanctity of human life every time a Jewish settler terrorist is hurt in the West Bank.
Israel has not changed; Israel won't change, it will always be a murderous, terrorist state that is hell-bent on killing the Palestinians and trying to liquidate their national existence.
This Nazi-like process didn't start yesterday or last month or last year. It started ever since this evil regime came into existence more than sixty years, and it has continued unabated ever since.
The Palestinian people, whether in Gaza or elsewhere, have every right to live in peace and security from the criminal specter of the Israeli killing machine. However, practicing that right has always been a distant dream for most Palestinians.
The reason is simple. Israel, the racist state whose very existence is based on ethnic cleansing and land theft, wants to steal as much as possible of Palestinian land in order to expand Jewish settlements as much as possible.
According to Zionist logic, Palestinians must never resist the unmitigated theft of their ancestral homeland by East European land thieves, or else they would be killed and maimed by the American-supplied Zionist killing machine.
This logic must be discarded and rejected. The Palestinian people have the right to freedom from Zionist terror; and if Palestinians can't be safe and secure in Gaza and Nablus and Jerusalem, then it is inevitable that Israelis won't be safe and secure in Jewish cities.
The Palestinians are never the starters of violence and bloodshed. The real starters of violence and bloodshed are those racist Khazari thugs who came from Eastern Europe to sow terror and bloodshed and usurp a land that doesn't belong to them; a land they wanted to arrogate based on highly doubted religious whims and mythology.
The explosion in West Jerusalem on Wednesday is another reminder that no matter what security precautions the Zionist regime takes and irrespective of the level of security coordination between that regime and the pliant Palestinian Authority, there will always be a Palestinian man or woman who would risk his or her life to demonstrate to the Israeli establishment that the occupation has a price.
In short, Israel will never ever be secure as long as this Nazi-like occupation continues. This is a fact of life that all Zionists and their allies must be sure of.
The Palestinians do realize that their struggle for freedom and justice is a long and difficult one. They also realize that this struggle has a price which they have to pay in terms of their blood and their lives. And they have, as the people of Palestine know quite well that their very survival as a people is inextricably entwined with their ability to keep up the struggle, otherwise they might experience definitive national demise since Israel's ultimate goal has always been and continues to bring out our national demise.
The recent pornographic bloodshed, especially in the Gaza Strip, is another reminder that the strife with Israel is not about to be settled or resolved, neither by political means, e.g., by way of a moribund and totally bankrupt peace process that even small children in the streets of occupied Palestine know has no real promise for a just and lasting peace, nor by the imposition of capitulation on Palestinians and Muslims.
With the auspicious revolutions now taking place in many Arab countries, there are good portents that the Arab and Muslim world will be in a markedly better position to force Israel to give up its theft of Arab land in Palestine.
The demise of several Arab regimes that only paid lip service to the Palestinian cause while effectively serving the Zionist cause by tormenting their own peoples and thus seriously restricting their countries' ability to stand in the face of Zionism is certainly good news for the Palestinian cause and bad news for Zionist insolence.
At the very least, the Zionist regime would from now on think twice before launching the kind of genocidal aggressions, such as the 2008-9 aggression on Gaza, which was carried out in connivance and collusion with the Mubarak regime of Egypt which has been consigned to the dustbin of history.
The continuing loss of lives on the Palestinian side, especially in the Gaza Strip, is painful to every Palestinian, Arab and Muslim. However, Palestinians should always remember that their very survival as a people is at stake and that Zionism is a genocidal movement that always seeks to emulate the Third Reich in every conceivable aspect, from racism to the Lebensraum concept.
It is the Palestinian people's fate that we are at the forefront of the resistance against the colonialist Zionist enterprise, aiming at occupying our land and obliterating our very existence. Hence, we must escape our fate because doing so, God forbid, would jeopardize our very survival as a people.
http://bit.ly/fPVXyJ
PLO: Violence underscores urgency of ending occupation
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- The recent violence in the Gaza Strip and Jerusalem indicates the urgent need to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the Israeli military occupation of the Palestinian people, the PLO office in Washington said Friday.
"The Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian National Authority have condemned of all acts of violence against civilians by Palestinians and Israelis alike in the strongest terms," a PLO statement said.
The PLO mission "urges the U.S. administration and the international community to condemn the killings on both sides in equal and unequivocal terms. Ignoring violence perpetrated by the Israeli army and fanatical settlers against Palestinians civilians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank will only encourage further violence and counter-violence."
"Additionally, this week's attempts by the Israeli government to escalate conflict are deliberate efforts aimed at diverting attention from Israeli actions on the ground and will only undermine prospects for reconciliation between our two peoples," it said.
"Violence cannot and will not change the reality that the Israeli military occupation sits at the core of the conflict and remains the primary reason for the lack of peace and stability in the region.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=372296
Gazans count cost of escalating violence
In a smoke-filled and cardamom coffee-infused cafe in Gaza City all the talk is of this week's violence.
"Why is Palestinian blood cheaper than Israeli blood?" asks Wael Abu Awema, a 40-year-old father of five.
There have been Israeli attacks on Gaza every day this week. At least 10 Palestinians have been killed, including at least four civilians, two of them children. More than 30 Palestinians have been injured.
"Of course we are worried. My kids are wetting themselves at night when they hear the Israeli air strikes," says Mr Abu Awema.
His eyes are bloodshot and red, as if he also might be losing sleep.
Every day too, Palestinian militants have fired rockets and mortars into Israel, causing danger, fear and anxiety for communities living in range of the strikes.
There is concern on both sides that there could be a further escalation after Wednesday's bomb attack in Jerusalem in which a British tourist was killed and more than 30 people were injured.
No militant group - including Hamas's military wing the Al Qassam Brigades - has said it carried out the bomb attack.
Mr Abu Awema tells me he is not a supporter of Hamas, the Islamist movement that governs in Gaza.
In fact he actively opposes them. He says he has sympathy for the civilians who were targeted in the Jerusalem bombing.
But he says Gazans are all too familiar with the anxiety caused by violence.
Civilians killed
On Wednesday, hours before the Jerusalem bombing, thousands of Palestinians attended the funerals of eight people killed in Israeli attacks.
Militants fired guns in the air as the bodies were carried from the main mosque in Gaza City.
Four of those who died were militants from the Islamic Jihad group. Israel says they had been involved in firing rockets across the border.
The other four were civilians killed by stray Israeli shelling on Tuesday evening.
They included an 11-year-old and a 16-year-old boy who had been playing football outside their home east of Gaza City when they died.
At least 12 others were injured in the attack, including eight children.
As night fell on Tuesday, the sound of ambulances could be heard racing through Gaza City carrying the wounded to Shifa Hospital.
Relatives screamed and wailed as blood-spattered children were brought into the emergency room.
Similar scenes were repeated at Jerusalem's Hadassah hospital after Wednesday's bomb attack.
Israel has said it regrets the death of Palestinian civilians. A spokeswoman for the Israeli Defence Force, Avital Liebervich, told me by telephone that Israeli forces were taking care not to cause civilian casualties.
She said Israel has been targeting militants, Hamas training facilities, smuggling tunnels and weapons factories.
This week, Abu Mohammed Dahlul showed me around what used to be his metal workshop in the Shaijayiah neighbourhood of Gaza City.
It was hit by an Israeli airstrike on Monday night.
Mr Dahlul walked me around the 3m (10ft) deep crater that now dominates his workplace. There was twisted metal everywhere and the remains of what used to be the roof.
He told me it was the third time the street which houses a number of factories had been hit in less than a year.
He said he was finished now and that the 30 people who worked for him would lose their jobs.
Mr Dahlul's workshop housed metal cutting equipment. I suggested to him that this could have been used to make weapons for Palestinian militants.
He denied this and said he has no connection with militant groups.
"If I ever see them come here in their tinted-windowed cars, I send them away," he tells me.
I have no way of knowing if Mr Dahlul is telling the truth. But if he is not, then he is a convincing liar.
Both Hamas and Israel have accused each other of escalating the violence.
Street protests
Missiles fired from Gaza have caused fear in Israeli towns and cities, including here in Beersheba
On Saturday, Hamas - unusually - said it was responsible for firing a barrage of mortars into Israel.
It was the most significant Hamas attack since operation Cast Lead - Israel's major offensive in Gaza which ended in January 2009. Then, more than 1,300 Palestinians were killed as well as 13 Israelis.
Previously, Hamas officials have said they were trying to rein in rocket fire from Gaza.
Hamas said it was responding to an Israeli air strike that killed two of its members.
But many people here have been asking why Hamas chose this moment to break what many have seen as an unofficial ceasefire.
"This is the big question," says Dr Mokahmer Abu Sada, who teaches politics at Al Azhar University in Gaza.
"I believe it was to distract attention away from the protests that have taken place in Gaza in the past few weeks," he says.
This month thousands of Palestinian demonstrators - inspired by uprisings elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa - have taken to the streets of Gaza calling for political unity between Hamas and its secular rival Fatah.
For more than four years the two factions have been politically and geographically divided, with Hamas in power in Gaza and Fatah running parts of the West Bank.
The split happened when violence erupted a year after Hamas won Palestinian elections in 2006.
The protests in Gaza have been on a relatively small scale compared to elsewhere in the region, but Hamas has used force to break up some of the demonstrations.
"I think Hamas knows that an escalation with Israel will take attention away from these protests," says Dr Abu Sada.
He believes that Hamas is opposed to political reconciliation with Fatah and thinks an escalation in violence is the surest way to stop that happening.
Dr Abu Sada believes Israel too is against Palestinian reconciliation and wants an escalation for the same reason.
"I think it will be a limited escalation for a few weeks," he adds.
"But it is dangerous. It could get out of control. These things can quickly get out of hand."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12854225
On the humanity of the grieving
by Emily L. Hauser
On Wednesday a bomb went off in Jerusalem at a busy bus stop, killing a British tourist and injuring 30 others.
I haven't lived in Israel for a long time, since the summer of 1998. I go back a lot, and nearly every time I'm there, something awful happens, but all of my living-breathing knowledge of living with terrorism is well over a decade old.
And yet.
I can still feel the pounding in my veins, still see the odd narrowing of my vision, as the news comes through over the kitchen radio, from a taxi driver, from a sudden, crackling awareness among the people in the grocery store: Haya pigua There was an attack.
Suddenly, you don't know where you are, what you were meant to do. Where did it happen? Without meaning to, you calculate the last time you were in that same place, on that same bus. Where is everyone? Is there any reason to think someone you love may have been there when it happened? Phone calls are made, assurances gathered and given. In some cases, I remember, the attacks were so ferocious, involving so much death, that Israel's phone system crashed, and no one could get through to anyone.
I was a reporter for much of the worst of the 1990s waves of terror, so I would invariably have to shake myself loose of all that, call my bosses, grab a notebook, and either hit the streets or start translating the news.
There was the time that the bombing was two half-blocks from my apartment, which was handy, because I had access to a bathroom.
There was the time it was at a popular shopping mall, and, being a reporter, I sneaked past police to get closer to the site of the explosion, to better see what remained. I found myself near a pay phone, so I called my sister in Chicago: I'm at the site of a bombing, but I'm only reporting it. I'm fine. (She thought that odd, if memory serves).
I saw things that were the kinds of things you don't want to talk about, and later find yourself having to talk about. I remember very clearly, one night, after a day of reporting, suddenly standing stock-still in my hallway, and then sinking to the floor, weeping. I would shake myself loose to do my job, but the horror always came back.
And so when I heard the news, the horror came back. These are my people, that Jerusalem bus stop a place I've stood more times than I can possibly calculate what can I do? I feel my own losses more sharply, the air escapes the room more quickly, than when the losses belong to someone else. I know that fear the people felt today in Jerusalem, that stunned confusion, that aimless wandering or eating or paging through newspapers without seeing a thing, because a little piece of your mind just shattered along with your sense of safety. I know it.
What I don't know what I honestly find myself struggling to understand today is how Israelis cannot seem to translate their experience to that of the Palestinian people.
The attack in Jerusalem was the first such attack in three years. Do you know when Palestinians in Gaza were last bombed by Israeli planes? Tuesday.
And then again Wednesday.
On Tuesday, eight Palestinians were killed, four of them civilians, one 11 years old. The same age as my son. I've been watching as Palestinians on Twitter warn each other to be safe Israeli fighters were just seen in the sky, they write. There was just a loud explosion a second a third now a fourth! Even before this morning's bombing, Haaretz was telling us that, between Israeli raids and Palestinian rockets in response to those raids, a small war was flaring up along the Gaza border.
The fear I remember so clearly, the slowing of time, the constriction in the chest and terror in the heart the very horror wreaked in Jerusalem today is the stuff of near-daily life for Palestinians in Gaza. It happens all the time. Only occasionally do we hear of it (and by we, I mean not only Americans, but also Israelis, mere miles from where it's happening), yet it happens all the time. And as someone pointed out to me on Twitter, when Palestinians call to make sure their loved ones are in one piece the answer is far more often no. During the 2008-2009 Gaza war, Israeli forces killed about 1,400 Palestinians; Palestinians killed nine Israelis. Between 2009 and January, 2011, Israelis killed 151 Palestinians; Palestinians killed nine Israelis.
I understand that Israelis are frightened. That they are steeped in an existential fear that they are told, over and over again, is the only thing keeping them alive. I understand that to let go of that fear just enough to see the fear and devastation on the other side would require letting go of decades of lived experience, powerful beliefs taught as knowledge, a constructed narrative that is felt to be truth. I understand that such change is tremendously difficult. Fear is often the safest place we can find.
But for all that understanding, I still can't understand. How can Israelis not recognize Palestinian fear, so like our own only more so? How can they not recognize the blood and the grief so like our own, only in greater numbers? How can they not understand that when one side wages war, the other tends to fight back, even if our side doesn't think they should?
How can we not see that Palestinians are as human as we are?
The woman killed Wednesday by a Palestinian's hand is gone forever. Never to shop for birthday presents again, never to talk with friends over coffee. Never to hold a loved one, never to smile, or cry, again. The 11-year-old boy killed Tuesday by Israel's hands by my hands will never learn geometry, never fall in love, never hold his own child, never smile, or cry, again. The pain is bottomless and endless. And it is the same.
We have become we have made ourselves like the idols we read about in Psalms: Eyes they have, but they cannot see; ears they have, but they cannot hear.
We blind ourselves, and seal our ears, and forfeit another little piece of our own humanity, every day. And the bombs continue, and the blood flows, and it never ends, because we choose not to end it.
Emily L. Hauser is an American-Israeli freelance writer; she has written about the contemporary Middle East since the early 1990s. A version of this op-ed first appeared on Hauser's blog http://bit.ly/fWlW3v and is republished here with permission from the author. Follow her on Twitter. http://bit.ly/eqdfm8
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=372079
29 oct 2012, 12:55 , Respect -
Maria 25 mrt 2011
Netanyahu: Israel ready to react with 'great force'
CAESAREA, Israel (AFP) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday his country is ready to act with "great force" against militant attacks, a day after Israelis launched retaliatory air strikes in Gaza.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=372198
29 oct 2012, 12:55 , Respect -
Maria 25 mrt 2011
Palestinian detainee suffers stroke
Palestinian shot after injuring soldier
Israeli court extends detention of Abu Sisi; orders media blackout on the case
29 oct 2012, 12:55 , Respect -
Maria 26 mrt 2011
Israeli artillery shell blasts factory in Gaza
GAZA, (PIC)-- Artillery shelling by the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) at dawn Saturday started huge fire in a factory for soft drinks in Gaza Strip and inflicted big damage to the facility.
The PIC reporter said that an artillery shell slammed into Al-Sattar factory east of Zaitun suburb in Gaza city causing a big explosion in the petrol tanks inside the factory.
He said that fire fighters controlled the resultant massive fire after two hours, adding that civil defense squads participated in the effort.
http://bit.ly/eyZ9uc
Ashkenazi calls for shelling populated areas to kill resistance fighters
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Israel's former chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi has called for killing Palestinian resistance fighters in the Gaza Strip using all means even it entails shelling populated areas.
Speaking at a ceremony in Paris, Ashkenazi was quoted by the Hebrew radio on Friday as saying that the Israeli army should chase and liquidate Palestinian resistance fighters in Gaza at any price "even if they are present in civilian areas".
Shifting to Iran, the former chief of staff opined that Iran should be blocked from attaining nuclear weapons. He added that no option should be ruled out in this attempt.
http://bit.ly/fObF1H
Gaza factions offer truce, if Israel reciprocates
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Palestinian factions in Gaza agreed Saturday to commit to a truce with Israel if its military stopped attacking the coastal enclave.
The decision was made at a two-hour meeting in Gaza City, initiated by Hamas, to discuss Israel's escalation in attacks on the Gaza Strip.
Over the last week, Israeli forces have bombarded the coastal enclave, killing 10 Palestinians including civilians and children. Dozens more were injured.
Israel's army says it is responding to a barrage of projectiles fired by militants into Israel, which have injured one Israeli in the last week.
Hamas initiated the meeting Saturday, which was attended by representatives of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine and several other parties.
Fatah and five other PLO factions did not participate.
Khader Habib, an Islamic Jihad leader, told AFP after the meeting that "everybody confirmed that they respect the national consensus by calming things with the Zionist enemy."
But he said this "depends on the nature of Israeli behavior, and we insist on the need to respond immediately to each escalation by the occupiers."
And Osama al-Haj Ahmed, a Popular Front leader, said "the factions confirmed their commitment to national consensus in order not to give the aggressors any pretext" for attacking.
Hamas already pledged on Wednesday to "to restore calm" in the coastal enclave.
"We confirm that our stance in the government is set on protecting the stability," Hamas spokesman Taher al-Nunu said in a statement.
"We will work to restore the field conditions that were prevalent over the last few weeks."
And Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas premier in Gaza, said he had been making contacts with other factions "with a view to Gaza avoiding new confrontations with the Israeli occupation."
In particular, he said he had spoken with Ramadan Shallah, the Damascus based chief of Islamic Jihad, which has claimed responsibility for many of the projectiles fired on Israel in the past week.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday that Israel had been "subjected to bouts of terror and rocket attacks" and that "we stand ready to act with great force and great determination to put a stop to it."
Friday was calm, but the Israeli army said Palestinian militants fired two rockets from Gaza into Israel overnight and damaged a house. No one was injured, the military said.
As Netanyahu spoke on Friday, Defense Minister Ehud Barak toured the Gaza border with army chief Lieutenant General Benny Gantz saying calm seemed to be returning to the area.
And he indicated that if the rocket attacks stopped, Israel would also halt its strikes into Gaza.
"We don't intend to let the terror organizations again disturb the order but we will do all we need to to return the [military] activity to the border line itself," he said.
In a visit to Israel this week, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Washington firmly backed Israel's right to respond both to the rocket fire and the Jerusalem bombing, which he described as "repugnant acts."
But he suggested Israel should tread carefully or risk derailing the course of popular unrest sweeping Arab and Muslim countries in the Middle East.
Gates pressed Israeli and Palestinian leaders to take "bold action" for peace despite soaring tensions, saying political upheaval in the region offered an opportunity.
Some Israeli leaders have appeared reluctant to be dragged into another bloody war with Hamas, especially as they lack international support for any new offensive on Gaza.
AFP contributed to this report
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=372570
Palestinian factions discuss latest field developments
GAZA, (PIC)-- Palestinian resistance factions held a meeting in a hotel in Gaza on Saturday to discuss latest field developments in the Strip and the escalating Israeli aggression on it.
Israeli raids over the past few days killed 12 Palestinians and wounded dozens others.
The meeting called for by Hamas was attended by representatives of all resistance factions, but Fatah turned down the invitation.
http://bit.ly/hA0ecR
UNHRC adopts 4 anti-Israel resolutions
GENEVA (Ma'an) -- The United Nations Human Rights Council adopted four decisions against Israel on Friday, with Arab and Islamic countries and some Latin American countries voting in favor and the US voting against.
In one resolution, the council demanded that Israel end its occupation of the Palestinian land occupied since 1967, and that it respect its commitments within the peace process toward the establishment of a Palestinian state.
The resolution strongly condemns Israel's military operations, including its regular incursions, and calls for their immediate cessation and condemns also indiscriminate rocket and mortar fire from Gaza.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=372404
29 oct 2012, 12:55 , Respect -
Maria 26 mrt 2011
14 arrested, several injured during West Bank protests
29 oct 2012, 12:55 , Respect -
Maria 27 mrt 2011
2 Gazans killed in Israel air strike
At least two Palestinians have been killed during a fresh Israeli air strike on the Gaza Strip, Palestinian medics say.
"Two Palestinians were killed and another wounded Sunday morning in an Israeli air raid on targets east of Jabaliya," Adham Abu Senmya, a spokesman for the Gaza emergency services, told AFP.
The attack came a day after several Palestinian factions, including the Hamas resistance movement, expressed commitment to a national agreement to restore calm with Tel Aviv.
After a week of deadly bombardments of the Gaza Strip, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tel Aviv was ready to act with "great force" against Palestinians.
Hamas announced on Saturday that it was committed like other factions to calm and that it would not give Israel "any pretext to launch another war against Gaza."
"Palestinian factions have discussed the recent surge in Israeli attacks on Gaza. They are all committed to remaining calm in order to prevent the occupation [Israeli] forces from committing any more crimes against humanity," said Ismail Radwan, a senior Hamas official.
The Islamic Jihad movement, however, said it would not allow Israel to use the Gaza Strip for "target practice."
"We will not accept the situation that Gaza is used for target practice by Israeli forces to show the military skills. We have stated it clearly that any attack will be met with strong response from the Islamic Jihad," a prominent Islamic Jihad official Khalid al-Batsh said.
The meeting between Palestinian factions came amid fears that Israel might wage another war against the Gaza Strip. Israeli forces have carried out large numbers of ground and air attacks on Gaza since the end of Operation Cast Lead against the Gaza Strip at the turn of 2009.
More than 1,400 Palestinians were killed during the three-week Israeli land, sea and air offensive in the impoverished coastal sliver. The offensive also inflicted USD 1.6 billion damage to the Gazan economy.
Israel laid an economic siege on the Gaza Strip in June 2007, after Hamas took control of the enclave.
The blockade has had a disastrous impact on the humanitarian and economic situation in the Gaza Strip.
Some 1.5 million people are being denied their basic rights, including freedom of movement, and their rights to appropriate living conditions, work, health and education.
Poverty and unemployment rates stand at approximately 80 percent and 60 percent, respectively, in the Gaza Strip.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/171834.html
Israel air strike kills 2 in Gaza
(2:03) Israel airstrike kills 2, injures 3 in Gaza - Press TV News
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Israeli warplanes fired missiles at the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza on Sunday morning, killing two Palestinian fighters and injuring three others.
Medics at the Kamal Udwan Hospital identified one of those killed as Sabri Hashim Asaliyya, a recently-married nurse. Asaliyya, 22, and Radwan Namrouti, 26, were both later identified by Islamic Jihad's military wing as fighters.
The Al-Quds Brigades confirmed that two of its fighters were killed in an attack on the northern Gaza Strip, a statement said, noting both were from the An-Nusseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
Ma'an's reporter said Islamic Jihad's supporters announced the death of two fighters through loudspeakers on vehicles in Jabalia's streets.
According to medics, the group of men were hit by a missile fired from an Israeli reconnaissance plane on As-Sikka Street east of the camp.
In a statement, the Israeli military said it identified "a group of rocket launchers preparing to fire a rocket" in the northern Gaza Strip and fired at them.
A hit was confirmed, the statement added.
The attack came less than 24 hours after Palestinian factions offered a truce if Israel's military stopped bombarding the Gaza Strip.
The latest strike brought the death toll in the coastal enclave to at least 12, including civilians and children, over the last week. More than 50 have been injured.
Israel's army says it is responding to projectiles fired by militants in Gaza, which have injured one Israeli over the last week.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=372622
Abu Bilaal on Gaza Press TV Part 1 - 3
(9:11) Abu Bilaal on Gaza Press TV Part 1 of 3
(9:40) Abu Bilaal on Gaza Press TV Part 2 of 3
(9:42) Abu Bilaal on Gaza Press TV Part 3 of 3
Gazans to offer calm if Israel attacks
(2:24) Palestinian factions meet over Israeli attacks - Press TV News
Palestinian factions say they are committed to maintaining calm in the Gaza Strip amid the recent escalation in Israeli attacks against the besieged sliver.
The parties, including Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) came together in the Gaza City on Saturday night to state that they are committed to calming tensions if Israel reciprocates, a Press TV correspondent reported.
"Massacre and terror will not break the will of Palestinian people and resistance is our legitimate right to defend our people. We have reached a national consensus to not give Israel any excuses to commit more crimes against our people," an official in the PFLP, Osama al-Haj Ahmad, said.
Hamas announced that like other factions it is committed to calm and will not give Israel "any pretext to launch another war against Gaza."
"Palestinian factions have discussed the recent surge in Israeli attacks on Gaza. They are all committed to remaining calm in order to prevent the occupation [Israeli] forces from committing any
more crimes against humanity," a senior Hamas official, Ismail Radwan, told Press TV.
Meanwhile, the Islamic Jihad movement said it would not allow Israel to use the Gaza Strip for target practice.
"We will not accept the situation that Gaza is used for target practice by Israeli forces to show the military skills. We have stated it clearly that any attack will be met with strong response from the Islamic Jihad," a prominent Islamic Jihad official Khalid al-Batsh said.
The meeting came amid fears that Israel might wage another war against the Gaza Strip. Israeli forces have carried out large numbers of ground and air attacks on Gaza since the end of Operation Cast Lead against the Gaza Strip.
More than 1,400 Palestinians were killed during the three-week Israeli land, sea and air offensive in the impoverished coastal sliver during the winter of 2008-2009. The offensive also inflicted USD 1.6 billion damage to the Gazan economy.
A United Nations inquiry led by the former South African judge, Richard Goldstone, detailed what investigators called Israeli actions "amounting to war crimes, possibly crimes against humanity," during Israel's offensive against the Gaza Strip.
Israel laid an economic siege on the Gaza Strip in June 2007, after Hamas took control of the enclave.
The blockade has had a disastrous impact on the humanitarian and economic situation in the Gaza Strip.
Some 1.5 million people are being denied their basic rights, including freedom of movement, and their rights to appropriate living conditions, work, health and education. Poverty and unemployment rates stand at approximately 80 percent and 60 percent, respectively, in the Gaza Strip.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/171819.html
Jihad holds Israel responsible for consequences of its military escalation
GAZA, (PIC)-- Islamic Jihad movement on Sunday held the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) fully responsible for the consequences of its military escalation on the Gaza Strip.
The movement said in a press release that it was entitled to retaliate to the Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people.
The IOA claims of not being concerned with military escalation are "sheer lies" aimed at misleading the world's public opinion and rallying it against the Palestinians, who are defending themselves with all means available to them, the statement underlined.
Israeli warplanes targeted a car in northern Gaza on Saturday morning killing two Islamic Jihad field commanders and seriously wounding a third.
"The treacherous crime came only hours after the Palestinian factions announced their agreement on not escalating resistance as long as the Zionist enemy stopped its aggression and violations", Jihad said.
The movement charged that the attack proves that Israel was not committed to any calm and that it was planning a new war on the Strip.
http://bit.ly/hOzqYh
Nunu: Palestinian gov't contacts succeeded in evading new Israeli aggression
GAZA, (PIC)-- The Palestinian government of Ismail Haneyya has succeeded in contacts with local and foreign parties to evade a new Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, Taher Al-Nunu, the government's spokesman, said on Sunday.
He appreciated the role of those parties in reaching that goal and thanked the resistance factions for their responsible stance in accepting to maintain calm in the current circumstances.
Nunu, in a press release, said that those factions displayed a "deep national awareness" toward the current situation.
He urged all resistance elements in the field to be committed to that united stand of the factions and not to violate it.
http://bit.ly/gkcIk8
Interior Ministry: Israel not required to justify killing civilians
GAZA, (PIC)-- Israel is apparently not required to justify taking the lives of innocent civilians, Ehab al-Ghussein, spokesman for the Gaza Ministry of Interior and national security has said after an Israeli shelling that killed two and injured two others in the northern Gaza Strip.
Reconnaissance drones hit a car east of the Jabalya refugee camp after Palestinian factions had clarified they would maintain a calm and deter popular attacks as long as Israel abstained from further aggression.
Ghussein called on the international community to pressure Israel in order to stop the attacks claiming the lives of civilians.
Spokesman for the Gaza high commission of emergencies Adham Abu Salmiyya identified one of those killed as Sabri Asaliyya, 22, but said the second victim has not yet been identified. They were hit by a reconnaissance drone that bombed a car on Al-Sakka Street in Jabalya, he said.
The strike has brought the count of those who died in Israeli attacks in the past week to 13. A total of 50 have been injured, some critically.
http://bit.ly/iaVSZy
Factory shelling aimed at weakening Gaza's economy
GAZA, (PIC)-- One of the ways Israel wishes to destroy elements of the Palestinian people's steadfastness is by targeting their economic structures, the Palestinian Minister of Economy Alaa El Din Rafati told the PIC on Saturday.
The statement came after civil defense crews saved a soft drink factory in the Al-Zaytoun district from burning down after Israeli occupation forces fired a shell south of Gaza city.
According to the economy minister, factories play an important part in the survival of the Palestinians, as they offer employment opportunities and relieve some of the burden due to restrictions on imports placed by the Israeli siege on the region.
He said Israel's destruction of such institutions is aimed at making Gaza's economy subordinate to Israel's, and added that Israel ultimately wants the Palestinians to recognize Israel's legitimacy.
Israel had already effectively weakened Gaza's economy by targeting factories and other economic structures in the 2008-2009 Gaza war, said economic expert Omar Sha'ban.
He added that the effects include reduction in production and job opportunities and makes Gaza's economy less marketable to investors.
http://bit.ly/gHwU6h
Resistance factions: The calm is dependent on Israel's behavior
GAZA, (PIC)-- The Palestinian resistance factions in a meeting on Saturday stressed that their abidance by the calm with the Israeli side is contingent on the nature of the latter's field behavior.
"The factions confirm that the policy of massacres will not undermine the steadfastness of the Palestinian people and that the resistance is a legitimate right to defend our people," Osama Al-Haj, a senior official of the popular front for the liberation of Palestine, read a statement during the meeting.
According to the statement, the factions reached a national consensus on retaining the truce with the Israeli occupation state in order to avoid its aggressive tendencies and abiding by it as long as the other party respects it.
The factions also agreed on supporting the initiative made by de facto president Mahmoud Abbas and premier Ismail Haneyya for national reconciliation.
For its part, the Palestinian interior ministry affirmed there is a Palestinian consensus on restoring calm to the Gaza Strip.
Spokesman for the ministry Ihab Al-Ghussein stated on Saturday that the Palestinian factions agreed on sustaining a state of internal control, especially since Gaza still suffers the impacts of the last war and the ongoing blockade.
Spokesman Ghussein highlighted that the Palestinian people would not hesitate for a moment to defend themselves against Israel's attacks, and they know their interests well and how to use their means.
The spokesman appealed to the international community and human rights organizations to pressure Israel to stop its ongoing aggressive acts against the Palestinian people.
http://bit.ly/fr49cL
29 oct 2012, 12:56 , Respect -
Maria 27 mrt 2011
IPS refuses to remove Palestinian prisoner's tumor
29 oct 2012, 12:56 , Respect -
Maria 28 mrt 2011
Israeli forces enter Nablus overnight
NABLUS (Ma'an) -- Despite a total security hand-over to Palestinian Authority forces in early 2010, an Israeli military patrol entered Nablus Monday morning, making a tour of the center and Old City.
Palestinian sources in the city said no detentions were reported.
The tour began after midnight on Monday morning, and saw troops enter the Old City, Ash-Shuhada square, and around Joseph’s tomb.
http://bit.ly/gdziWT
Bardawil: Statements by Mofaz reflect Israel's bloody mentality
GAZA, (PIC)-- The call by former Israeli war minister Shaul Mofaz to resume assassinations in the Gaza Strip reflected the bloody mentality of Israel's rulers, Dr. Salah Al-Bardawil, a senior Hamas leader, said on Sunday.
He told the PIC that the statement was not the first of its kind and reflected a general trend in the Israeli occupation state that champions a policy of aggression against the Palestinian people.
Israel is bent on killing Palestinians and destroying their infrastructure, Bardawil said, adding that Israel should not be acquitted of crimes against the Palestinians.
This is an Israeli creed and it will not stop fighting and attacking the Palestinians, the Hamas MP opined.
He said that the internal agreement among the Palestinian resistance factions to maintain calm was meant to serve Palestinian interests in light of certain circumstances and was not meant as a reward for Israel.
Mofaz, the head of the Israeli parliament's foreign and security affairs committee, told a session for the committee held in Beer Sheba on Sunday that Israel must return to targeted killings (assassinations) in the Gaza Strip.
He said it was not acceptable that Israel would continue to build fortifications while life goes on normally in the Strip. He also called for preserving Israel's offensive capabilities and deterrence.
http://bit.ly/i4BM85
29 oct 2012, 12:56 , Respect -
Maria 28 mrt 2011
'Israel's response to rocket fire too soft'
IDF officers avoid criticizing government but claim Israel may pay the price for the way it chose to respond to the firing of rockets from Gaza. Hamas has emerged stronger from the recent conflict, some officers say.
IDF officers admitted Sunday that Israel had lost several important points opposite Hamas and terror groups for its way of responding to recent rocket fire. "One needs to carefully analyze what happened here and hope we won%u2019t pay for the chosen course of action in the future," one officer told Ynet.
While the IDF has yet to fully analyze recent events on the southern border, voices within the army can be heard addressing Israel's "soft" response to the firing of rockets at three major Israeli cities.
Some officers believe Hamas has emerged stronger from the conflict.
"After Operation Cast Lead a very clear equation was created whereby the IDF responds disproportionately to any violation of the state of calm. This was the way and the message was conveyed to the other side," one officer said.
"Ever so often there were attempts to test us but a harsh response together with deterrence achieved by the operation had sent the message until the next time."
The officers are careful not to point any fingers at higher ranks or the government but claim that the terror organizations had succeeded in setting a new standard for attacks without being subjected to retaliation.
"Israel and the IDF are constantly being tested for their reaction and this determines the next round. Granted there are other considerations and that is why one needs to review Israel's choice of action given more time," one officer said.
Meanwhile, Israel's aerial defense layout continues the "operational testing" phase of the Iron Dome system and is set to deploy two batteries in different areas in the south over the next few days. They will be placed in locations chosen in advance and set aside for the launchers.
Security sources said that the current deployment of the first battery near Beersheba has more of a symbolic significance than an operational one. Firstly, according to military sources, the battery will "hop" between various locations in the coming days and secondly as long as the operational testing phase remains incomplete its effectiveness is lessened.
Later on this week, if significant progress is achieved and rocket fire persists, dramatic decisions with regards to the positioning of the two batteries might be made.
"In any case the ability to transport them from place to place within hours will help in taking full advantage of the their benefits in real time," a security source said.
'Netanyahu promised more fortification'
Southern Council heads were optimistic Sunday after concluding a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying he had promised to provide funding for the fortification of educational establishments which are currently unfortified.
The council heads said Netanyahu had told them he will hold a discussion on the matter and added it was suggested Israel will not open a military attack on the Gaza Strip in the near future. "We shall act to stop the rocket fire, but the appropriate time needs to be found," Netanyahu told the council heads.
The Prime Minister's Bureau claimed Netanyahu had not promised extra funding for fortification but asked he be presented with all the available fortification options.
The meeting was also attended by Minister Matan Vilanai and Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar. "Now is not the ideal time for a military offensive but we shall definitely maintain our deterrence," Netanyahu told the council heads.
Ashdod Mayor Yehiel Lasri said after the meeting: "I think it was an excellent meeting, and we managed to raise issues that have not been raised for years. The main issue we discussed was the fortification of educational establishments."
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4048579,00.html
29 oct 2012, 12:56 , Respect -
Maria 28 mrt 2011
IPS denies medical team visit to isolated, sick detainees
Arrest raid targets Beit Ummar, 14 detained
29 oct 2012, 12:56 , Respect -
Maria 29 mrt 2011
Israeli tanks accompany bulldozers into Gaza
GAZA CITY ( Ma'an) Several Israeli military tanks crossed the border into the Gaza Strip on Tuesday morning near the Kissufim military post north of Khan Younis.
Witnesses northeast of the town of Qarara, close to where the military action was reported, said three tanks and four bulldozers were operating inside the coastal enclave.
Gunfire was reported, but no injuries, and onlookers said the bulldozers began leveling agricultural areas around the Kissufim military base.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=373354
Kingdom denounces Israeli raids on Gaza
RIYADH: The Council of Ministers on Monday denounced Israeli airstrikes on residential areas in Gaza, killing innocent people, and urged the international community to take immediate action to stop the continuous Israeli aggression against the Palestinians.
The Cabinet meeting, chaired by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, also called for greater coordination among Arab countries to confront the consequences of new developments in the region and ensure their unity and stability.
The Cabinet also urged the international community to stop Jewish settlements in occupied Palestinian territories. The UN Security Council should move quickly to stop Israel%u2019s dangerous violations and provide protection to unarmed Palestinian civilians, it said, adding that Israel should be forced to respect UN resolutions.
King Abdullah welcomed the newly appointed Housing Minister Shuwaish Al-Duwaihi to the Cabinet and wished him every success in his new career. He highlighted the importance of the new Housing Ministry in solving the citizens housing problems. Before the Cabinet session, he took his oath of office in front of the king.
Culture and Information Minister Abdul Aziz Khoja said the Cabinet approved proposals related to the codification of the moral content of information technology in the Kingdom. It also endorsed a memorandum of understanding signed with China on June 4, 2010 for strategic dialogue with GCC countries.
The Cabinet approved another agreement signed by the Higher Education Ministry with the Australian department of education and employment on May 27, 2010. It authorized Hashim Yamani, president of King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy, to sign an agreement with Argentina for cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear energy, Khoja said.
The Cabinet appointed Abdul Rahman Al-Makhdoub undersecretary for rights at the Interior Ministry; Abdul Aziz Taher economic adviser at the Ministry of Economy and Planning; Muhammad Al-Bidaiwi and Abdullah Al-Anazi ministers plenipotentiary at the Foreign Ministry; and Muhammad Al-Arwan cultural attaché at the Ministry of Higher Education.
In a related development, King Abdullah telephoned Syrian President Bashar Assad for reassurance about the situation in the country following anti-government protests there. The situation in Syria is satisfactory, Assad told the king. The two leaders also discussed prospects of strengthening bilateral ties.
http://arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article333581.ece
29 oct 2012, 12:56 , Respect -
Maria 29 mrt 2011
Seven Injured, 12 Huts Destroyed as Troops Attack Hebron Hills Village
Hebron PNN Seven villagers were injured on Tuesday when Israeli troops stormed the village of Susya in the southern hills of Hebron city in southern West Bank and destroyed 12 huts.
Local sources announced that Israeli soldiers leveled 12 huts used by local farmers to raise sheep. When villagers tried to stop the demolition soldiers fired tear gas at them and attacked the farmers using rifle butts and batons; seven were injured.
Medical sources report that among those injured were Mohamed al-Jobur, 65 years old, Issa al-Jobur, 68 and Hilmia al-Jobur, 64.
Villagers say the army wants to drive them out of Susya to expand the illegal settlements of Itna'el, Susiya and Ma'on surrounding the southern Hebron hills.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9796
29 oct 2012, 12:56 , Respect -
Maria 29 mrt 2011
IOF troops raid Awarta, round up dozens
Paralyzed detainee enters 22nd year in prison
29 oct 2012, 12:56 , Respect -
Maria 30 mrt 2011
A Palestinian man killed, another badly injured in brutal air raid on Rafah area
RAFAH, (PIC)-- One Palestinian man was killed, another was critically wounded and a tunnel was destroyed following two Israeli aerial attacks at dawn Wednesday on Rafah area, south of the Gaza Strip.
Spokesman for the ambulance and emergency committee Adham Abu Salmiya told the Palestinian information center (PIC) that an Israeli drone bombed at dawn a motorcycle in Annaser area, northeast of Rafah, killing one Palestinian man and seriously injuring another one.
Islamic Jihad Movement, for its part, said the man who was killed during the air raid was one of its resistance fighters and was on his way to perform his morning prayers.
Earlier, an Israeli air raid was carried out on a tunnel in Yebna refugee camp, west of Rafah city without any reported casualties.
The Israeli occupation forces had escalated their aggression against the Gaza Strip lately killing 14 Palestinians including five children and injuring 48 others, among them six children and six women.
http://bit.ly/gfhCju
Palestinian killed in Gaza blitz
At least a Palestinian man has been killed and another injured as Israeli warplanes launched an airstrike on the Hamas-controlled and blockaded Gaza Strip.
Israeli fighter jets fired several rockets at two Palestinians early on Wednesday as they were riding a motorcycle on the road from Khan Younis to Rafah. One person was killed and another sustained injuries in the aerial attack, Reuters cited a statement released by the Islamic Jihad resistance movement.
The development comes as Israeli warplanes have repeatedly targeted the coastal strip during the recent days.
On Sunday, an Israeli attack killed two Palestinians in East Jabaliyah. Eight Palestinians were also killed in Israeli airstrikes on the besieged Gaza Strip more than a week ago.
Israeli forces have carried out large numbers of ground and air attacks on Gaza since the end of Operation Cast Lead against the enclave.
More than 1,400 Palestinians were killed during the three-week Israeli land, sea and air offensive in the impoverished coastal sliver during the winter of 2008-2009. The offensive also inflicted USD 1.6 billion damage to the Gazan economy.
A United Nations inquiry led by the former South African judge, Richard Goldstone, detailed what investigators called Israeli actions "amounting to war crimes, possibly crimes against humanity," during Israel's offensive against the Gaza Strip.
Israel laid an economic siege on the Gaza Strip in June 2007, after Hamas took control of the enclave.
The blockade has had a disastrous impact on the humanitarian and economic situation in the Gaza Strip.
Some 1.5 million people are being denied their basic rights, including freedom of movement, and their rights to appropriate living conditions, work, health and education. Poverty and unemployment rates stand at approximately 80 percent and 60 percent, respectively, in the Gaza Strip.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/172243.html
Early morning air strike kills 1
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces launched an air strike on the southern Gaza Strip shortly after the dawn prayer on Wednesday, killing one militant and injuring a second.
In a statement from the Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, officials identified the slain man as Mohammad Abu Mu'ammer, killed by an Israeli air strike near a mosque in the An-Nasser neighborhood in northeastern Rafah, near the refugee camp.
Spokesman of the higher committee of ambulance and emergency services Adham Abu Salmiya said the 24-year-old man died shortly after being taken to hospital. He confirmed that a second was being treated for critical injuries as a result of the strike.
Officials said a drone had carried out the attack.
Mu'ammer is the sixth member of the Al-Quds Brigades to be killed in the last ten days, as border violence increased following a 16 March airstrike which killed two Hamas members in the central Strip. Up to that point, Israeli strikes had targeted areas on the border.
An Israeli military statement said "aircraft targeted and hit a terrorist squad in the Southern Gaza Strip, which had launched rockets towards Israeli communities yesterday."
The statement said strikes also targeted a smuggling tunnel near Rafah, where goods are brought into the coastal enclave from Egypt.
Israel's military said it would "continue to respond with determination to any attempt to use terror against the citizens of Israel," and added that it "holds the Hamas terrorist organization solely responsible for any terrorist activity emanating from the Gaza Strip."
Since a barrage of nearly 50 shells toward four Israeli military targets on 19 March, which Hamas claimed as a response to the death of its two fighters days earlier, the military groups of Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Popular Resistance Committees have claimed the majority of projectile fire.
http://bit.ly/ecNbyV