- 14 jan 2011
Israeli official warns Hamas to stop projectiles
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli government spokesman Ofer Gendalman on Thursday warned Hamas to stop firing projectiles into southern Israel.
In an interview with Ma'an Radio, Gendalman said the Israeli government was not interested in an escalation in hostilities with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Regarding the recent increase in Israeli airstrikes on the besieged coastal enclave, Gendalman said they were in response to projectiles fired from the Strip.
"These are responses and not Israeli initiatives. We have the legitimate right to defend our towns and citizens."
Israel says dozens of projectiles have been launched from Gaza since the start of 2011. The launches have been claimed by factions supporting the National Resistance Brigades, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Islamic Jihad.
Hamas on Monday called a meeting of resistance factions operating in the Strip. Gaza government spokesman Tahir An-Nunu said Tuesday that a "national consensus" had been reached. He urged factions to comply with "what has been agreed on" regarding field activities, in an implied reference to the unofficial ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
Gendalman said Hamas allowed factions to fire projectiles into Israel and later denied responsibility for the launches. He added that the Israeli government urged Hamas not to test its patience in defending Israeli citizens.
Regarding the collapse of the Lebanese government on Wednesday, Gendalman said Israel was monitoring the situation. He said it was an internal Lebanese issue, but that if Hezbollah carried out any attack on Israel "then naturally there will be an Israeli response."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=350984
15 jan 2011
PFLP official: Israel should not dictate calm
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine official Kayed Al-Ghoul said Saturday that calm in the Palestinian territories was an internal issue that should not be dictated by Israel.
Al-Ghoul said the implementation and timing of periods of calm should serve Palestinian resistance to the occupation, and ease Palestinians' suffering.
Hamas recently held a series of talks with factions in the Gaza Strip, urging them to stop firing projectiles into Israel and comply with an unofficial ceasefire. The meetings followed weeks of rising tension along the border with Israel.
Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on Thursday met with security commanders in Gaza and called on armed Palestinian factions to refrain from actions that could endanger Gaza, instructions interpreted as a call to join Hamas' two-year ceasefire with Israel.
The Gaza-based premier said his decision was an effort to prevent Israel from "taking advantage" of the pretext cited by its army for firing on Gaza following rocket attacks.
Al-Ghoul, a PFLP central committee member, told Ma'an Radio that it was wrong to deal with the occupation by acquiescing to Israeli demands.
"Several years ago calm was presented as an Israeli demand. Some claim that they are distancing Palestinians from a new Israeli attack. We say this is the wrong way to deal with occupation."
The PFLP official said a ceasefire with Israel should facilitate the withdrawal of occupying forces from the Palestinian territories.
Otherwise, Israel was using the calm to enforce its position as occupier, he said.
Al-Ghoul said that for several years, PFLP had affirmed that calling for calm should not be a response to Israeli threats.
He called for a united leadership of resistance to be formed to discuss the ceasefire and decide on actions according the interests of Palestinians.
"Submitting to Israeli threats means that we will always be under this pressure."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=351338
3 Qassam rockets hit Shaar Hanegev; no injuries
Three Qassam rockets landed near a kibbutz in the Shaar Hanegev Regional Council. Three blasts were heard. There were no reports of injuries or damage.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4014538,00.html
'Israel set for another war on Gaza'
Recent media reports have raised fears that Israel is planning another war on Gaza under the pretext that rockets have been fired into southern Israel.
The reports suggest that Tel Aviv is planning to launch another war on Gaza, which has yet to recover from the December 2008-January 2009 war Israel launched on the impoverished strip.
Israel has increased and intensified its attacks on Gaza over the past few months, with many Palestinians killed or injured in the assaults.
In December, at least five people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the town of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. This was one of the deadliest attacks since the December 2008-January 2009 war, a Press TV correspondent reported.
The 22-day Israeli onslaught took the lives of more than 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians, in the populated coastal strip and left thousands more injured. It also inflicted over USD 1.6 billion in damages on the territory's economy.
Tel Aviv laid an economic siege on the Gaza Strip in June 2007 after Hamas took control of the coastal sliver.
In June 2010, Israel declared that it will ease the blockade described by the United Nations as "collective punishment" and "medieval."
A UN report, however, indicates that little has changed on the ground in Gaza after the announcement.
The report by 21 international organizations including Amnesty International and Oxfam in December said the reality is that there has been an increase in food and consumer goods coming into Gaza, but little increase in construction materials.
The accumulation of many years of underdevelopment here every year becomes worse. We have exhausted all of the arrangements to try to cope.... It's the ordinary people who are suffering as a consequence, said John Ging, the head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/160472.html
'Gaza ready to confront Israeli attack'
Palestinian factions say they are ready to face a possible Israeli aggression, following a recent flare up of violence along the so-called Israeli-Gaza buffer zone.
In separate statements, Palestinian resistance movements each reiterated their firm resolves to wage resistance against potential Israeli attacks.
The fresh stance comes days after Israeli military officials threatened to launch a new war on the besieged Gaza Strip.
On Saturday, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri slammed the war-mongering remarks as "empty words", stressing that Palestinians were not afraid of such intimidations.
Meanwhile, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine has warned that armed Palestinian groups will confront Israel if its attacks on Gaza continue.
The remark was made by Abu Ahmed, an Al-Quds Brigades spokesman on Saturday.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine has also lent voice to the resistance, underlining that the group was prepared to defend the Gaza Strip against any possible Israeli aggression.
The warnings come only three days after members of Hamas, the Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, held a meeting to discuss the security situation in the Gaza Strip.
During the Wednesday meeting, the Palestinian factions vowed to do "their best" to foil any attempt by Israel "to carry out an aggression on their people."
According to the Palestinians, Israel is attempting to provoke violence in the region by stepping up attacks along the so-called Israeli-Gaza buffer zone.
Over the past months, Israel has intensified its attacks on the Gaza Strip, killing a number of Palestinians and leaving many more injured.
Israel launched a deadly military offensive against the Gaza Strip at the turn of 2009, killing more than 1,400 Palestinians in three weeks of unrelenting land, sea and airstrikes on the densely populated coastal sliver.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/160375.html
Wikileaks cable: 4 years ago Israel said it will have to deal with Hamas sooner or later
I keep meaning to write about this revelation from Wikileaks: a truly disgusting July 2007 cable that shows the Israeli hypodermic entering the American vein and spewing neocon junk. We see Israeli intelligence officials putting across several neoconservative narratives with a Bush White House anti-terrorism official (Fran Townsend): Iran has links to Al Qaeda, terrorism is growing across the region because of Islam's failure to modernize, and Israel and the U.S. are the only forces opposing terror.
This is pure craziness. The cable validates what Scott McConnell wrote last year, that the special relationship between the U.S. and Israel is now "a transmission belt, conveying Israeli ideas on how the United States should conduct itself in a contested and volatile part of the world."
These are not the only revelations of the cable. The Israelis acknowledge what any fool knows, that the blockade of Gaza is unsustainable and "sooner or later" Israel will have to deal with Hamas! Just not now. No, they want to choke Hamas still, and therefore they want the U.S. to participate in a new regime of starving the Gazans of capital. And what does Fran Townsend-- a real lightweight-- answer? Talk to Stuart Levey at Treasury and Elliott Abrams in the White House. I.e., talk to your neoconservative friends in Washington.
When you get to that part of the cable, 2 below, remember that Levey is a longtime Israel supporter who has held his high political appointment without interruption from George Bush's presidency to Obama's. Thus the Democratic Party offers safe haven to neoconservative ideology.
But let's get to the cable. Three excerpts:
1. Sooner or later we have to deal with Hamas. Remember, this was four years ago:
Brigadier General Danny Arditi, a counterterrorism advisor to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, presented Townsend with a plan for increased cooperation with the Fayyad government, facilitated by improved monitoring of the Palestinian financial system. Arditi said that the objective was to damage the Hamas government in Gaza financially without creating a humanitarian crisis, and to buy time for Fatah to rebuild support.
In Arditis view, the current closure of Gaza border crossings is not sustainable, with several thousand Palestinians currently waiting to enter Gaza through the Rafah crossing. Arditi said that sooner or later the GOI would have to deal with Hamas. At the same time, said Arditi, Israel and the Fayyad government are in agreement that they cannot allow free movement into and out of Gaza without a mechanism for controlling the flow of money and goods to terrorists and the Hamas government...
2. We need a new means of crushing the Gazan economy; OK, call Levey and Abrams:
Arditis [Gaza] proposal called for the creation of an external oversight system, with assistance from the United States and/or the European Union. The proposed system would include the creation of a strong Palestinian FIU [Financial Intelligence Unit] based in the West Bank, and "the adoption of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) rules by the Palestinian banking system." Without such oversight, Arditi expressed concern that Israeli banks would cut off their correspondent relationship with the Palestinians (reftel). ...
Arditi asked Townsend who would be the right partner in the USG for the FIU plan, and inquired as to whether it would be well-received in Washington. Townsend recommended Under Secretary for the Treasury Stuart Levey as a natural counterpart, and suggested that the Israelis approach Deputy National Security Advisor Elliott Abrams on the question of support....
3. More neocon hypodermic
Iran is linked to Al-Qaeda. Note that a year after this Tel Aviv meeting, Treasury issued a statement linking Al Qaeda to Iran; and the Israel lobby promoted the claims. Also note that there is not a word about Israeli treatment of Palestinians here; and today even the Weekly Standard acknowledges that the Israeli occupation is a recruiting tool for al Qaeda.
[Former Israeli National Security Council] Chairman Ilan Mizrahi stressed that process, not events, affects the spread of terror in the Middle East. He pointed to three major factors in the region that create the conditions for terrorism: the weakness of Arab and Muslim communities and states that fail to join the advances of the modern world; the erosion of the secular state and the rise of ethnic politics, particularly in Iraq, the Palestinian territories, and Lebanon; and the rise of political Islam.
Mizrahi also noted that the clash between Sunni and Shia Islam tends to bring out the extremists on both sides. He pointed out that both sides support terror groups that further their interests, including the Gulf States and Saudi Arabia, despite the fact that some characterize them as "moderate Arab states" or "good guys." Mizrahi said that many Arab states would be better characterized as an "axis of fear," because they share a fear of Iranian influence. 6. (S)
There are few forces restraining radical Islam, said Mizrahi, particularly now that the United States and Israel are viewed as weakened powers. Supporters of radical Islam believe that their cause is ascendant, he continued, given what they perceive as successes in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, North Africa, Iraq, and Lebanon -- as well as growing militancy among Muslim communities in Europe and the Far East. Iran supports terrorism throughout the region, said Mizrahi, who asserted that Iran is currently sheltering two senior al-Qaeda operatives.
http://bit.ly/hrei6V
PFLP: The calm with Israel is a resistance tactic
GAZA, (PIC)-- Senior official of the popular front for the liberation of Palestine (PFLP) Kayed Al-Ghoul stated that the truce with the Israeli occupation is a tactical decision in the context of resistance, but it should be addressed by a unified resistance front able to develop tactics to confront the occupation.
Kayed in a press release on Saturday said that the mission of this front is to decide when and where the resistance can confront or declare a truce with the Israeli occupation.
He also called for not approving or dealing with the remarks that portray rocket attacks or any kind of resistance as the cause of the Palestinian people's suffering and the reasons that justify Israel's aggression against them, stressing that Israel's crimes against them did not stop for a moment whether there were resistance activities or not.
In this regard, Palestinian interior minister Fathi Hammad said that the Palestinian security forces in Gaza fear no psychological warfare or threats from the Israeli occupation.
"We declare to the world that we will remain loyal to the blood of all martyrs and we will continue to protect and support the resistance," Hammad stated on Saturday during the opening of a new police station in Azeitoun neighborhood east of Gaza.
For his part, Hamas's representative in Lebanon Ali Baraka said that any Israeli incursion into Gaza would be no picnic for the Israeli occupation and its troops, highlighting that the Gazans are able more than before to defend themselves against any new aggression.
Baraka stated in televised remarks on Saturday that Israel is trying to amplify the capabilities of the Palestinian resistance in Gaza in order to justify its war tendencies against Gaza, but despite that Gaza today is stronger than before and cannot be intimidated by the blockade or war threats.
http://bit.ly/g9CKVI 19 jan 2012, 21:18 , Respect -
Maria 17 jan 2011
Gaza rocket hits Israel despite truce
JERUSALEM (AFP) -- A rocket fired by militants in Gaza landed in southern Israel early on Monday, in the first incidence of firing since armed Palestinian groups there agreed to observe a truce last week.
The projectile, a home-built rocket, caused no injuries or damage when it landed in the Shaar HaNegev regional council which flanks Gaza's northeastern border.
Last Wednesday, Gaza's main factions agreed to observe a period of calm after weeks of increased rocketfire and rising tensions along the border which prompted a warning from Arab leaders that they were risking a major new Israeli invasion.
Gaza's Hamas rulers said they would ensure the "national consensus" truce was observed and deployed forces along the border zone.
Over the past month, Gaza militants have fired scores of rockets into Israel, prompting a flurry of air strikes and raising fears of another massive operation along the lines of the 2008-9 war.
The 22-day conflict, which ended in a ceasefire on Jan. 18, 2009, killed 1,400 Palestinians, more than half of them civilians, and 13 Israelis, 10 of them soldiers.
http://bit.ly/dDZknv
Qassam explodes in western Negev
Rocket hits orchard near community where most houses are not fortified; no injuries reported.
A Qassam rocket fired from the northern Gaza Strip exploded Monday morning in an open area near a community in the Shaar Hanegev Regional Council. There were no reports of injuries or damage.
Three mortar shells were fired at the Shaar Hanegev Regional Council on Sunday.
The rocket exploded in an orchard near a community where most of the houses are unfortified. The government has refused to fund the fortification, claiming the community is located more than 4.5 kilometers (2.8 miles) from the border fence %u2013 100 meters (328 feet) less than the criteria set by the State.
The council had petitioned the High Court to instruct the State to fortify the distant communities as well.
"Today's rocket fire, as in the past, proves that the rockets continue to land in this area as well, on an almost regular basis. The government should have fortified the community," the council's security officer, Yoav Peled, told Ynet.
"There has been a certain alert here recently due to the rocket fire in the past few weeks. Unfortunately, this is a routine we are familiar with."
On Wednesday it was reported that Egypt had relayed a message to the Hamas leadership in Gaza that the Israeli army might launch a military offensive if the rocket and mortar fire from the Strip continued.
"Egypt told Hamas that the situation in the Strip was very similar to the situation in December 2008," said a source involved in the talks, addressing the tense period before Operation Cast Lead.
He added that "Hamas is not interested in another escalation, unless it is dragged into it."
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4014645,00.html
Home Front Command reduces warning time for incoming missiles to 90 seconds
Hamas and Hezbollah possess more missiles than ever before and can launch longer range missiles with heightened precision.
The Home Front Command has decided to shorten the warning time for Tel Aviv and Gush Dan residents against incoming missiles from two minutes to 90 seconds. The move comes largely due to Hezbollah and Hamas' improved missile launching capabilities.
In the past, The Israel Defense Forces were able to use sensors that would detect any incoming fire and missiles as well as the direction they were coming from.
The sensors would trigger a siren, giving Tel Aviv and Gush Dan residents a two-minute grace period to find shelter. After taking cover they were required to wait ten minutes until an additional siren was sounded, signifying the end of the threat.
However now, Hamas and Hezbollah can launch longer range missiles with heightened precision. They possess more missiles than ever before, concealed in buildings and underground bunkers.
This has prompted not only the 25 percent reduction in warning time, but also a modification of emergency Home Front Command protocol.
This protocol will be passed on to each municipality, with a guidebook detailing the number of missiles that could hit the district as well as the level of damage and number of injured each municipality would potentially have to deal with.
The Home Front Command will also be distributing guidebooks to local emergency forces; the police, firefighters and Magen David Adom, to prepare for the event of war.
According to security assessments, Israel will not have an effective deterrent for medium-range missiles, the type that Hezbollah and Hamas will most likely use on central Israel, until 2013.
It is therefore the hope that the Magic Wand defense system will be operational in the near future. Two weeks ago, security forces tested the missile interception device, developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems for the first time.
Iron Dome, which is meant to intercept shorter range missiles of up to 70 kilometers, was supposed to be ready for use by the end of 2010, however, due to some technical difficulties this is yet to happen.
According to an assessment by a top air force official, Iron Dome should be operational in the next few weeks. The first stage will involve the use of two Iron Dome batteries. It is unclear when there will be funding to acquire additional batteries.
The air force has instructed that Israel will need to acquire 13 to 15 more batteries for Iron Dome if they wish to be effectively protected from short range missiles.
http://bit.ly/f0ZGt0
Abu Hilal: Maintaining field calm not sign of weakness
GAZA, (PIC)-- Khaled Abu Hilal, the secretary general of the Ahrar movement, said that the Palestinian factions were keen on maintaining field calm in the Gaza Strip in light of Israeli preparations for a new war to evade its internal and external crises.
Abu Hilal was responding to a question by Al-Quds satellite TV channel after a meeting for the Palestinian factions in Gaza that focused on Israeli war threats.
He said that the factions' decision to maintain calm along the Gaza borders was based on keenness to spare the Palestinian people a new Israeli aggression and not a sign of weakness. He added that the decision did not deny the Palestinians the right to retaliate to Israeli attacks.
http://bit.ly/dZ8TM9 19 jan 2012, 21:19 , Respect -
Maria 18 jan 2011
Factions fire on Israeli forces in Gaza
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Israeli tanks, military vehicles and bulldozers were seen entering two areas of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday prompting retaliatory fire from armed factions.
One group said it fired on a force in the south, and two factions said a joint operation fired on the northern force.
Near Beit Hanoun, witnesses told Ma'an that there were four Israeli bulldozers and three military vehicles, while others told AFP that seven Israeli tanks and one bulldozer entered 400 meters into Palestinian territory.
Shortly after the reports surfaced, a statement was received by Ma'an from the Abu Ali Mustapha Brigades, the armed wing of the PFLP, and Fatah's Al-Aqsa Brigades, in which the groups announced a joint attack on an Israeli bulldozer.
The brigades said the attack caused the bulldozer to catch fire, and said immediately after the "sky filled with planes" looking for the attackers.
"The brigades will always fight to free Palestine," the statement said.
An hour later, a man identified as Amjad Kamil Za'anin was said to have been killed and two other injured in an Israeli strike near Beit Lahiya, northwest of Beit Hanoun where the original attack was reported.
In the south, next to the closed Sufa crossing, witnesses reported Israeli bulldozers digging up lands in the unilaterally-declared no-go zone, and said Palestinian resistance activists fired five mortar shells at the Israeli vehicles.
The military wing of the Islamic Jihad, the Al-Quds Brigades, said they had attacked an Israeli bulldozer in the south. They said in a statement that the fire was in retaliation for "ongoing Israeli aggressions."
An Israeli military spokesman said he could neither confirm nor deny any incursion, but later a spokeswoman told Ma'an that there were four mortar shells fired from Gaza which landed in the Eshkol Regional Council.
Israel has often demolished structures and cleared land along Gaza's border, citing security concerns.
Israel and Hamas are formally committed to a truce agreed after Israel's devastating 22-day Operation Cast Lead, which ended in January 2009.
But in recent months, militants have fired dozens of rockets into southern Israel, prompting retaliatory airstrikes by the Israeli military.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=352179 19 jan 2012, 21:19 , Respect -
Maria 19 jan 2011
Brigades claim fire on Israeli civilians
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- A statement from the Gaza militant group the Abu Ali Mustapha Brigades said Wednesday that fighters targeted a civilian Israeli vehicle traveling on the main road near the border and fired.
The brigades, affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, said the attack was against "three settler cars" near Kissufim, an Israeli military base north of Khan Younis, and that militants "opened fire directly" on the vehicles.
The statement said the attack took place in the afternoon, and that injuries had been sustained by the cars' passengers.
An Israeli military spokesman said there were reports of fire in the Kissufim area at 2 p.m. the same afternoon, but said no casualties were reported.
The announcement comes following a series of meetings with armed factions in Gaza hosted by Hamas, where militant groups were asked to adhere to a halt in projectile fire toward Israeli areas.
Following the meeting, resistance activity along the Gaza border focused on attacks against Israeli military forces operating inside Gaza, particularly along the Israeli-declared "no-go zone," which restricts access for Palestinians in the enclave to what the UN says is 17 percent of the lands in Gaza.
Resistance factions say Israeli forces must remain outside of Gazan territory.
While Israel said four mortar shells landed in Israeli territory on Tuesday, resistance factions aid the fire was aimed at an Israeli bulldozer operating in the area.
The same day, Israeli forces shot one man dead and injured two others who they said were handling the detonation device for a roadside bomb that exploded beneath a vehicle operating inside Gaza.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=352579
'World must protect Palestinians from Israeli violence'
UN Rapporteur Richard Falk calls for international action to "offer this long-vulnerable Palestinian population protection."
UN Special Rapporteur Richard Falk has called on the global community to protect the Palestinians from excessive Israeli violence.
It is time for the international community to step in and offer this long-vulnerable Palestinian population protection against the violence perpetrated by Israeli authorities, Falk said in a statement on Friday.
Since 2008, he has been charged by the UN with investigating the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, including in east Jerusalem.
He spoke out last week, in the aftermath of the demolition of the Shepherd Hotel http://bit.ly/gYOfLh in east Jerusalem and the death of four Palestinians at the hands of the IDF. http://bit.ly/gVl3aL
He included in his list the death of a West Bank woman, Jawaher Abu Rahma, 35, who died on January 1, allegedly as a result of inhaling IDF tear gas at a demonstration against the security barrier in Bil'in, near Modi'in Illit. The army says Abu Rahma's death was not connected to the tear gas.
The other deaths on his list came in three instances in which the IDF shot to death Palestinian men; twice at the Al-Hamra checkpoint east of Nablus and once in Hebron.
The deaths and the demolition are illegal, Falk said.
Together these events demonstrate a general and unacceptable Israeli disposition to use excessive force against Palestinians, who are already suffering from prolonged occupation, he said.
It is impossible to separate this pattern of excessive use of force against Palestinians from the indiscriminate use of force against civilians in Israel's larger occupation policy, as illustrated by the cruel, punitive blockade that has been imposed on the people of Gaza for more than three years and by the illegal manner in which Israel carried out attacks for three weeks on the defenseless population of Gaza two years ago, Falk said.
He also chastised Israel for the Shepherd Hotel demolition, which he described as a Palestinian landmark. Plans to replace it with homes for Jewish families were particularly troublesome, he said.
This is part of an accelerating pattern in Jerusalem that consists of shifting the demographic balance to reinforce Israeli claims to control permanently the entire city, making the creation of a viable Palestinian state, with its capital as east Jerusalem, virtually unattainable, he said.
A professor emeritus in international law at Princeton University, Falk, an American Jew, is an outspoken critic of Israeli actions in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. In the past he has compared some Israeli policies toward the Palestinians with the actions of Nazis toward the Jews.
http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=204255
Bardawil: Israel is trying again to incite against Gaza with its Qaeda claims
GAZA, (PIC)-- Senior Hamas official and lawmaker Salah Al-Bardawil strongly denounced the Israeli occupation state for renewing its claims about the presence of Qaeda members in the besieged Gaza Strip, stressing that Israel is trying once again to incite the west against Hamas and Gaza people.
In a press release on Wednesday, Bardawil said these lies are old and Israel is attempting to reproduce them every once in a while in order to convince some western countries to stop their sympathy with Gaza in case it decides to wage any war on Gaza.
He emphasized that every time, the Israeli occupation finds itself in political crisis, it makes such claims and lies and misleads the international public opinion.
This Israeli incitement campaign against Gaza is taking place simultaneously with escalating military attacks, the latest of them on Tuesday led to the killing of one citizen and the injury of two children.
http://bit.ly/hXRnEY
21 jan 2011
Israeli media says Lebanese militant running cells in Gaza
TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma'an) -- Days after Israeli military chiefs warned of Al-Qaeda operatives in Gaza, Israel's daily newspaper Ma'ariv reported Thursday that a Lebanese militant released in a 2008 prisoner exchange was running cells in the coastal enclave.
Samir Quntar, imprisoned at 19 for his role in the planning and execution of an attack on Israel including the slaying of two children, was released along with the bodies of 200 slain Lebanese and Palestinians in exchange for the bodies of two Israeli pilots captured in Lebanon in the 1980s.
After his release, the newspaper said, Quntar has started running two "terror cells" in the Gaza Strip, and has been "using his good relations with Palestinian prisoners" fostered during his time incarcerated in Israel, "to recruit Palestinian activists for the sake of Hezbollah."
The newspaper cited "informed Palestinian sources" that the cells were now active.
On Tuesday, head of Israel's Shin Bet internal security organization Yuval Diskin told a parliamentary committee that the multinational network of militant Islamist groups was most likely behind some of the latest violence from Gaza, estimating that "There are about 500 militant activists that identify with this idea there, and some are in touch with Al-Qaida's regional command."
Responding to the comments the following day, Hamas leader Salah Al-Bardawil said "The aim of these Israeli statements is to create animosity between Hamas, the Palestinians in Gaza and the Western world."
"Such statements are not new, they get reproduced not and again to create animosity," he said, adding that the claims that Al-Qaeda is getting deeper into Gaza "borders on incitement."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=352970
24 jan 2011
2 soldiers reported shot; Israel denies
GAZA CITY (Ma`an) -- The armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said Monday that its forces shot two Israeli soldiers in the southern Gaza Strip.
The Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades said in a statement that it opened fire on the soldiers east of Khan Younis. The attack came in response to Israel's crimes, according to the statement.
An Israeli military spokeswoman said the army was aware of no such incident.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=353925
26 jan 2011
Army: Gaza rockets hit Israel, no casualties
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Two rockets fired by militants in the Gaza Strip hit southern Israel on Tuesday evening but there were no reports of casualties, the Israeli army told AFP.
Israeli media said two home-built projectiles landed in open ground near a kibbutz in the Sdot Negev district, just east of the coastal strip.
Two weeks ago, Gaza's main factions agreed to observe a period of calm after weeks of increased rocket fire and rising tensions along the border which prompted a warning from Arab leaders that there was a risk of a major new Israeli invasion.
Gaza's Hamas rulers said they would ensure the "national consensus" truce was observed and deployed forces along the border zone.
Since then the border has mainly been quiet, although one rocket was fired on Jan. 17 and the following day Israeli tanks staged a rare incursion into the northern Gaza Strip, killing one Palestinian and wounding two, medical officials said.
In the weeks before the latest truce, Gaza militants fired scores of rockets into Israel, prompting a flurry of air strikes and raising fears of another massive operation along the lines of the 2008-9 war.
The 22-day conflict, which ended in a ceasefire on Jan. 18, 2009, killed 1,400 Palestinians, more than half of them civilians, and 13 Israelis, 10 of them soldiers.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=354524
28 jan 2011
Gaza militants say group fired on Israeli patrol
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- The militant wing of Islamic Jihad issued a statement Friday claiming fighters with their Al-Quds Brigades opened fire on an Israeli military patrol operating inside the Gaza Strip.
A cluster of Israeli military vehicles patrolling what Israel has declared as a "no-go zone" along the Gaza border were targeted shortly before sunrise, the statement said. The patrol was driving east of Al-Qarrara, near the Kissufim military base, north east of Khan Younis.
An Israeli military spokeswoman said no reports of fire had been registered.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=355045
31 jan 2011
Grad rockets hit near Netivot, Ofakim
For first time since Egypt riots began, rockets fired from Gaza towards south Israel; four suffer shock. 'We're terrified; we have no shelters,' resident says .
Tensions in Egypt appear to be spreading to Gaza: Grad rockets fired from the Hamas-ruled territory Monday night landed near the southern Israeli cities of Ofakim and Netivot. Also Monday, a Qassam rocket exploded in an open area in the Eshkol Regional Council. No injuries or damage were reported
During the rocket attack on Netivot- the first attack on Israel since the mass protests against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak began a week ago four people suffered from shock, and damage was caused to a road and a parked car.
The rocket landed near a residential neighborhood.
Another Grad hit the Ofakim area a few minutes later, but there were no reports of injury or damage.
"It was terrifying," an Ofakim resident said. "We heard a boom like a nuclear bomb. We thought it was thunder; there was smoke and explosions. We're dying of fear that another wave of Grads and Qassams will begin. We have no shelters or secure rooms, and the rocket fell about 10 meters (33 feet) from the houses."
One of the people who attended a wedding in a small hall near the rocket's landing site in the Netivot area said, "There was music, then we suddenly hear a loud blast. Everyone - little children and men ran for cover. People fell over one another. It's a miracle no one was hurt."
Another person who attended the wedding said, "Luckily, the rocket landed after the chuppah, while everyone was already eating at the tables. If it had landed a few meters closer, this could have been a mass casualty event."
Rise in activity
Colonel Eitan Yitzhak, the Home Front's Southern Command chief told Ynet that the missile alert systems did not work Monday and added that the army has launched an inquiry into the matter. He noted that civilians are instructed to continue with routine activity and follow Home Front Command guidelines in case of any alert.
"In the past month there have been a number of events and put together one can say there is a rise in activity," he said.
Meanwhile, Ofakim residents are complaining of a shortage of shelters and fortified spaces. Yaffa, who lives near the scene of the explosion, said: "I was making a cup of coffee and suddenly heard a blast. It caused me to move sideways towards the oven and my window was cracked. I'm traumatized and afraid of sleeping. We are at God's mercies, I don't even have a protective space here. They need to reenter Gaza and launch another operation."
Last week two Qassams were fired from Gaza. One rocket landed in an open area in the western Negev, while the other apparently landed in an open area in Gaza. There were no reports of injury or damage.
Earlier this month Egypt warned Hamas that the IDF may launch an offensive if the rocket attacks on Israel are not halted, as was the case in Operation Cast Lead.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4022042,00.html