- 12 mrt 2012
Gaza militants claim rocket fire into Israel
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Militant groups in Gaza announced responsibility for firing rockets across the border as the Israeli army said 42 projectiles landed in Israel.
The Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the military wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, said it fired 30 rockets into Israel.
The armed wing of Islamic Jihad, the Al-Quds Brigades, said it fired four Grad rockets toward Ashdod, while the An-Nasser Salah Ad-Din Brigades -- affiliated with the Popular Resistance Committees -- said it launched three Nasser rockets and four projectiles at Israeli targets.
Leaders from Islamic Jihad and the PRC were among the 23 Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza since Friday, as well as civilians including a teenager, a 12-year-old boy, an elderly man and his daughter.
The An-Nasser Salah Ad Din Brigades and the Abdul Qader Al-Husseini Brigades announced that they fired two missiles toward Erez and Sderot military targets and an Aqsa rocket at Ashkelon.
The Al-Aqsa Martyr Brigades, affiliated with Fatah, said it fired two rockets across the border.
An Israeli military spokeswoman said 42 rockets hit southern Israel, and reached the Gedera area. The Israeli daily Haaretz reported that rockets landed 40 kilometers south of Tel Aviv.
The projectiles caused no casualties but Israeli police said three people were wounded.
The latest escalation began after Israel assassinated the head of the Popular Resistance Committees near Gaza City on Friday.
Israel signaled that it would not halt what it calls "preventive targeting" operations aimed at stopping rocket fire and cross-border attacks.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told members of his Likud party in Parliament: "The Israeli army will continue to attack the terrorists in Gaza with strength and determination."
He also said the Israeli military was prepared to widen its operations and continue them for as long as necessary.
Washington -- Israel's principle ally -- and the United Nations expressed concern at the violence.
"Once again civilians are paying a terrible price," Ban told the UN Security Council.
He denounced rocket attacks on Israel as "unacceptable" and urged Israel to "exercise maximum restraint."
In her remarks to the council, Clinton condemned the rocket fire at Israel and urged both sides to restore calm. But she did not specifically mention the Israeli air strikes nor the dozens of Palestinian casualties.
France and Russia also both appealed for an end to the fighting and stressed the need to avoid civilian suffering.
Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Al-Arabi issued a statement in Cairo condemning the Israeli raids and urged the Security Council to step in and "stop the aggression."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=467398
Israel TV celebrity, wife of vice PM demands bombing, "suffering" of Gaza civilians
Judy Nir Mozes Shalom
Israeli talk show personality and socialite wife of Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom has called for escalated bombing of Gaza and for the “passive residents” to be made to “suffer.”
Judy Nir Mozes Shalom, wrote on her Facebook page in Hebrew on Saturday:
I hope that at tomorrow’s cabinet meeting a decision will be accepted to enter Gaza and kill all those responsible for the nightmare that is happening in the south.
It’s time even for the passive residents of Gaza to suffer the way the residents of the south are suffering.
Since Friday, Israeli bombing has killed more than 20 people in Gaza and injured dozens more, following an Israeli extrajudicial execution on Friday that set off retaliatory rocket fire by Palestinian armed groups. No Israelis have been. Today, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on “both sides – all sides – to make every effort to restore calm.”
Nir Mozes Shalom’s Facebook post is followed by dozens of other comments by users, many of which support her violent sentiments.
The celebrity also used her Twitter account to incite bombing and violence against civilians in Gaza, and when some people objected she responded,
@JudyMozes “I forgive those who hate themselves and respond against my tweet to attack Gaza. Keep sunbathing.
Perhaps if Gazans get hurt in their home they will eventually take action against the killers.”
But even that wasn’t enough for some of her followers. Inbal Shalit, for example, responded
@inbalshalit “We don’t need to attack Gaza, we need to spray and destroy Gaza!!!! The sooner the better.”
Shalit did not specify with what substance she wanted Gaza to be “sprayed.”
Judy Nir Mozes Shalom frequently takes part in hasbara efforts, including a recent meeting with a delegation from Zionist campaign group One Voice that included former Seinfeld star Jason Alexander.
http://fwd4.me/0wK5
"Mowing the lawn": On Israel’s latest massacre in Gaza and the lies behind it
A wounded Palestinian child is checked by doctors at a hospital in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, on March 11, 2012, following a fresh Israeli air raid, bringing the death toll from strikes since March 10 to 17 and dashing Hamas hopes of restoring a tacit truce.
By Sunday evening in Gaza, a weekend of relentless Israeli bombing has left 18 people dead and dozens wounded. Israeli propaganda insists that the attacks are about preventing “terrorism” and stopping “rockets.”
But in fact, Israel provoked this violence and according to some Israeli commentators its goals are to escalate pressure for war with Iran and to drag Hamas away from diplomacy and back into violence.
Sunday’s victims of the Israeli bombing included Ayoub Useila, 12, of Jabalya refugee camp, whose seven year-old cousin was injured, and Adel al-Issi, 52, a farmer near Gaza City. Others suffered horrifying injuries, as recounted by doctors at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital.
On Monday, another 5 people were reported killed, and dozens more injured, bringing the reported total of dead to 23.
Israel launches attack on Friday
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gL1qgR3f84I
The Israeli assault began on Friday, when Israeli forces carried out the extrajudicial executions of Zuhair Al-Qaisi and Mahmoud Al-Hannani of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), whom Israel alleged were “masterminds” of an attack near Eilat last year.
Except, as Max Blumenthal demonstrated, this is untrue, as even Israel previously acknowledged.
This weekend’s attacks have followed a typical pattern. Israel launches a lethal attack knowing full well that Palestinian resistance factions will respond. It then uses the response—dozens of rockets falling on Israel rarely causing injuries or damage—as the very pretext for continued bombing. Israel also claims to have shot down several dozen incoming missiles using its US-subsidized “Iron Dome” anti-missile system.
On Twitter, the Israeli military spokesperson even praised Israel for its “restraint” as if Israel hadn’t started the violence itself on a completely false pretext:
@IDFSpokesperson IDF #IDF Spox: No other country in the world would have allowed 130 rockets in 48 hours and shown such restraint. #IsraelUnderFire
Recall that after the Eilat attack last August, Israel launched a ferocious assault on Gaza, also on false pretexts, killing 14 people including a 2-year old child, a 13-year-old boy and a doctor.
Extrajudicial murder
Beyond the propaganda, informed Israeli commentators, even those supporting the action, acknowledge that Israel chose to initiate the current escalation of violence:
In the Jerusalem Post, Yaakov Katz wrote:
When the IDF decided on Friday afternoon to assassinate the leader of the Popular Resistance Committees in the Gaza Strip, it knew what it was getting itself into.
Assessments ahead of the decision to bomb the car carrying Zuhair Qaisi predicted that around 100 rockets could be fired into Israel during each day of the round of violence expected to erupt. This was a price the government felt it was capable of paying.
In other words, Israel was prepared to carry out an extrajudicial execution, a war crime, knowing that there would be retaliation. Israel’s routine policy of executing Palestinians in occupied territories without charge or trial, based on flimsy allegations made by the killers themselves, is a major violation of international humanitarian law and makes a mockery of Israel’s claim to be a “democracy” by any possible measure.
Even in China, Iran, and the United States, all prolific users of the death penalty where no doubt many innocent people have been put to death, authorities at least go through the formality of a trial. Not so in Israel, where in the past decade hundreds of Palestinians have been sentenced to death in secret and then executed in their beds, on the street, while riding in cars, or even when confined to wheelchairs, along with hundreds of bystanders.
Of course now, the Obama administration has openly adopted Israeli-style extrajudicial execution even of its own citizens—just another example of the “shared values” US and Israeli leaders are always eager to proclaim.
Israeli commentators cut through the official propaganda
In Haaretz, Gideon Levy undercut the official propaganda, that extrajudicial executions—“targeted killings”—are ever justified, let alone in this instance:
Who started it? The IDF and the Shin Bet security service did. The impression is that they carry out the targeted killings whenever they can, and not whenever it is necessary.
When are they necessary? Do you remember the debate on targeted killings sometime in the distant past? Then, it seemed the targets had to be “ticking time bombs” en route to carry out their attacks. In any event, such a vague standard no longer applies. In 2006, in his last court ruling handed down before his retirement, then Supreme Court President Aharon Barak barred such killings when they were meant to be “a deterrent or punishment.”
The latest target killed was Zuhair al-Qaissi, the secretary general of the Popular Resistance Committees in Gaza. IDF sources said he was responsible for the terrorist attack on the Egyptian border last August - which would make his killing an act of “deterrence or punishment.” But to be on the safe side, it was also noted that he had “led and directed plans to carry out a terror attack within Israel, which was in its final stages of preparation.”
This convoluted announcement by the IDF spokesman was enough to get the Israeli public to accept this latest regular dose of targeted killing with automatic understanding and sympathy. And who knows what the late al-Qaissi had planned? Only the Shin Bet does, so we accept his death sentence without unnecessary questions.
Also in Haaretz, Zvi Bar’el cast further doubt on the Israeli claim that the executed PRC men posed a threat that would justify the Israeli attack:
It is hard to understand what basis there is for the assertion that Israel is not striving to escalate the situation. One could assume that an armed response by the Popular Resistance Committees or Islamic Jihad to Israel’s targeted assassination was taken into account. But did anyone weigh the possibility that the violent reaction could lead to a greater number of Israeli casualties than any terrorist attack that Zuhair al-Qaisi, the secretary-general of the Popular Resistance Committees, could have carried out?
“Mowing the lawn”
Perhaps the most chilling explanation of why Israel was bombing Gaza came, again, from Yaakov Katz in The Jerusalem Post:
the IDF is using this as an opportunity to do some “maintenance work” in Gaza and to mow the lawn, so to speak, with regard to terrorism, with the main goal of boosting its deterrence and postponing the next round of violence for as long as possible.
So 12 year-old Ayoub Useila is not even an animal. He’s just part of a “lawn” of faceless nameless Palestinians, to be bombed into submission as routinely as an Israeli settler on stolen West Bank land maintains his suburban-style yard and swimming pool.
Hamas “completely uninvolved”
Katz continues:
This is essentially the situation in the Gaza Strip since Operation Cast Lead ended in January 2009.
Every few months, something happens, setting off a round of violence that usually lasts a few days until it suddenly ends just like it began. Once it is an antitank missile attack against an Israeli school bus and the next time a targeted killing of a top terrorist.
Either way, the scenario is pretty much played out the same way. The main difference today is that Hamas is completely uninvolved in the sense that its operatives are not firing rockets into Israel. On the other hand, Israel does believe that Hamas could be doing more to stop the fire into Israel.
Katz himself had already acknowledged that Israel set off the round of violence by its assassination of the PRC activists but then he goes on to admit that Hamas isn’t even involved. Hamas, the usual bogeyman and justification for Israel’s aggression on Gaza “is completely uninvolved in the sense that its operatives are not firing rockets into Israel.” That’s quite an admission.
Indeed it has been reported that leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad are completely uninterested in escalating violence with Israel and are committed to a “ceasefire.” That would be consistent with their long-term policies which are to retaliate against Israeli aggression but not to seek out confrontation.
“The escalation in Gaza is good for Israel”
So given all this, why has Israel decided to kill people in Gaza for no discernible reason? According to Bar’el in Haaretz it has everything to do with Israel’s effort to build support for an attack on Iran:
Advocates of a strike on Iran couldn’t have hoped for a more convincing performance than the current exchange of fire between Israel and Gaza. “A million Israelis under fire” is only a taste of what is expected when Iran’s nuclear project is completed. When that happens, seven million Israelis will be under the threat of fire and nuclear fallout.
This is what happens when “only” the Islamic Jihad fires Grad rockets, when Hamas stays out of the fight, and when the “miraculous system” that prevents missiles from falling on kindergartens still works. Under the threat of a nuclear Iran, miracles won’t help, and people in Tel Aviv will also be forced to hide in bomb shelters or escape to Eilat.
Here’s the proof: There is no alternative to striking Iran and there is no better time than the present, when the weather permits and world diplomacy is preoccupied with Syria. For Israelis, there is no better proof that no harm will come to them as a result of an attack on Iran than the performance of the Iron Dome anti-rocket system, which has demonstrated a 95% rate of effectiveness. The escalation in Gaza is good for Israel – that is, for that part of Israel that wants to strike Iran.
It is hard to understand what basis there is for the assertion that Israel is not striving to escalate the situation. One could assume that an armed response by the Popular Resistance Committees or Islamic Jihad to Israel’s targeted assassination was taken into account. But did anyone weigh the possibility that the violent reaction could lead to a greater number of Israeli casualties than any terrorist attack that Zuhair al-Qaisi, the secretary-general of the Popular Resistance Committees, could have carried out?
Bar’el sees at least one other compelling reason why Israel chose violence once again: the ‘threat’ from Hamas’ ever more determined turn to reliance on diplomacy over armed struggle—which Bar’el attributes in part to Hamas’ need to maintain good relations with Egypt:
This dependence on Egypt has managed in the past to produce extended ceasefires which have proven themselves in recent months, especially after the signing of the reconciliation agreement with Fatah, which produced Khaled Meshal’s declarations that Hamas would restrict itself to nonviolent forms of struggle against Israel.
However, it seems that the change in Hamas not only hasn’t convinced Israel, but even stands in the way of its “no partner” policy and could sabotage its efforts to head off the creation of a Palestinian unity government, which would lead to renewed efforts at the UN to secure an independent Palestinian state.
Thus, Hamas must be dragged toward military activity against Israel, and nothing is easier, at least in Israel’s estimation, than to launch a “unilateral” attack against a wanted non-Hamas man, to wait for the response to come, and hope that Hamas joins in.
So far, it hasn’t happened. Hamas still prefers the diplomatic channel and has carried on intensive diplomatic contacts over the past two days with Egypt’s Supreme Military Council. Israel apparently needs to wait for another opportunity.
What that “opportunity” will be no one yet knows, but what is sure is that innocent people will pay with their lives.
Facts behind Israel’s rocket propaganda
Whenever you hear Israel’s tired hasbara refrain about rockets, rockets, rockets, remember to ask the question Yousef Munayyer recently asked: Why don’t Israel’s spokespeople ever tell us how many rockets, missiles and bullets Israel has fired on Gaza?
Of course the answer is because it is by orders of magnitude greater in both number and explosive power than anything Palestinian armed groups have or ever could muster against Israel. There are some data, however.
In one 18-month period between September 2005 and May 2007 in which Palestinian armed groups fired 2,700 rockets toward Israel killing four people, Israel fired 14,617 heavy artillery shells into Gaza killing 59 people, including at least 17 children and 12 women. Hundreds more were injured and extensive damage caused.
This data comes from a 2007 Human Rights Watch reported titled Indiscriminate Fire, which states in addition that:
A subsequent artillery attack on November 8 [2006] killed or mortally wounded 23 and injured at least 40 Palestinians, all civilians.
The report adds:
Human Rights Watch has been unable to find any report or claim that those killed or injured by artillery fire included persons believed to be combatants, and the IDF has not responded to a Human Rights Watch request about whether any Palestinians killed or injured by artillery fire into the Gaza Strip were combatants or believed to be combatants. Israeli artillery strikes in 2006 also left many unexploded shells strewn on the ground that constitute a continuing hazard to lives and livelihoods.
That report dates from 2007, but in the years before and since, thousands more Palestinian civilians were killed and injured in Israeli attacks, by what must be tens of thousands of Israeli munitions. This included the 2008-2009 assault called “Operation Cast Lead” and Israeli fire has been an almost daily occurrence since its end claiming many innocent lives.
And Operation Cast Lead itself was launched on the false pretext—echoed ad nauseam by media—that Palestinians were firing unprovoked barrages of rockets into Israel leaving it no choice to attack in “self-defense.” That too was a lie as Israel’s own official figures showed at the time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixrYv5pUzps
As Munayyer notes, citing UN statistics:
In 2011, the projectiles fired by the Israeli military into Gaza have been responsible for the death of 108 Palestinians, of which 15 where women or children and the injury of 468 Palestinians of which 143 where women or children.
The methods by which these causalities were inflicted by Israeli projectiles breaks down as follows: 57% or 310, were caused by Israeli Aircraft Missile fire, 28% or 150 were from Israeli live ammunition, 11% or 59 were from Israeli tank shells while another 3% or 18 were from Israeli mortar fire.
That is why Israeli official propaganda has to be so distorted and selective.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwMkwdvrHGw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9sjdb5iI6w
http://fwd4.me/0wHx
Quds Brigades: Calm only at resistance’s conditions
GAZA, (PIC)-- The armed wing of Islamic Jihad movement, the Quds Brigades, has affirmed that calm would be only restored according to Palestinian resistance’s conditions.
Addressing a press conference in Gaza on Monday, the Brigades said that rockets would continue to fall on Israeli targets as long as the Israeli military escalation did not stop, reminding that Israel was the one that breeched the calm.
The armed wing asked those mediating for calm to address their mediation to Israel and not the resistance that was defending the people.
It lashed out at the Israeli occupation forces for blasting indiscriminate targets in Gaza killing civilians and schoolchildren and shelling houses.
http://fwd4.me/0wIR
Lets talk about the IDF lies
Earlier today the Israeli army spokesperson on Twitter Avital Leibovich tweeted a video that she claimed was of an Islamic Jihad rocket launcher in action from the latest ongoing Israeli massacre of the Gaza Strip which until now, has killed 21 people (including two children) and injured over 60 in the past four days.
I recognized the video immediately as I had already watched the same 10 second clip a few months ago. - After a very short search I found http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tslm1734mMMthe on October 11,2011, from the time when the Israeli army warplanes killed killing 7 Islamic Jihad members in an airstrike on Rafah, south of Gaza.
The video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKPEFaKlew4
Avital through her tweets tried to mislead her followers by implying this video is from the encounter currently taking place in Gaza in an attempt to justify the brutal crimes committed by the only democracy in Middle East.
Before I end, I must point out this tweet came hours after this post on the IOF blog. The Israeli army propagandists are gleefully congratulating themselves after proving a photo of an injured girl was from a few years ago, but as is the nature of Zionist trolling they have fallen in the same trap and unwittingly made the same mistake. Too bad not all of their followers are brain dead, and once again the Israeli army has its lies exposed.
http://fwd4.me/0wHC
Militant groups claim responsibility for launching projectiles
A smoke trail from a rocket launched from the Gaza Strip towards Israel is seen from an area near the Israeli city of Ashkelon March 10, 2012
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- Several militants groups have claimed responsibility for firing rockets into southern Israel on Monday.
Islamic Jihad's military wing, the Al-Quds Brigades, claimed responsibility for firing Grad missiles at Beer Sheva, Ashkelon and Sufa on Monday morning, a statement said.
The PRC's military wing, the Nasser Saladin Brigades, said they had launched projectiles at Netivot, Ashkelon, Sderot and Beeri, while the PFLP's armed wing, the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, said it had fired two projectiles at Israeli towns.
The al-Ahrar movement claimed that its military wing, the al-Ansar Brigades, fired two homemade projectiles at southern Israel.
A military group called Jaysh al-Umma, army of the nation, said its' fighters had fired two 107 mm rockets at Israeli towns.
An Israeli army spokeswoman said that over 20 projectiles had been launched at southern Israel on Monday.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=467147
Gazans need to be armed to defend themselves
Gaza attack 12 mrt 2012
By Khalid Amayreh
The ongoing pornographic killings in the Gaza Strip at Israel's criminal hands underscore the urgent need for arming these proud and oppressed Gazans with the necessary means to defend themselves and their children.
The latest brutal killings, which claimed dozens of casualties, are totally unjustified and unprovoked. The assassination by Israel of one resistance leader, Zuheir al Qeisy, and his body guard a few days ago, was a naked aggression in every sense of the word.
However, to justify its criminality and aggression, the mouthpieces of lie in Israel claimed that the victims were planning to carry out an attack on Israeli troops across the borders in Sinai. Unfortunately, Zionist-controlled and Zionist-influenced media in the west kept parroting the same lies as if what the Israeli military spokesperson was reading from the Quran or the Bible.
There is no sliver of evidence corroborating the mendacious Israeli claim. When it comes to the Palestinians, Israel lies as often as she breaths.
The latest killings show that Zionist Jews can't sleep well at night without satiating their thirst for Palestinian blood. This is the most likely explanation of the latest episode in Gaza where a state, which is armed to its teeth with the most lethal and most advanced weapons of death under the sun, is ganging up on poor, defenseless and helpless people whose only guilt is their enduring yearning for freedom from the clutches of Zio-Nazim or Jewish Nazism.
Besides the sheer criminality and nefariousness of the unprovoked killings (unprovoked because the Palestinians were meticulously observing an Egyptian-brokered truce with Israel), Israel is really acting cowardly by using F-16 fighter jets and Apache helicopter gunship against unarmed or scantily-armed people who don't possess the wherewithal to defend themselves.
This really put Israel on equal footing with the worst criminal regimes in history, including the Third Reich and the regime of Joseph Stalin.
I understand that appealing to America, Israel's guardian ally, is pointless. After all, American administrations and politicians, especially during an election year, are transformed into real political whores.
An expression of his political whoredom was made by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a few days ago when she condemned the firing of some projectiles from Gaza onto the 1948-territories.
According to that woman, the Palestinian must die and be killed and massacred in the most pornographic manner by Israel as quietly and silently as possible.
Not an allusion or a distant hint was made by the secretary of state of the country of Patrick Henry, who said the famous words (give me freedom of give me death), to the Israeli aggression, and the use by the apartheid state of state-of-the-art of the American technology of death against innocent people who lack the means to defend themselves and their children.
The promiscuous moral duplicity of the American policy vis-à-vis the Palestinian people should underscore the futility and naivety of banking on America to give justice to the Palestinians, e.g. by forcing Israel to give up the spoils of the 1967-war.
Of course, one can go on and on and on explaining America's criminality with regard to enabling Israel to maintain and perpetuate its own criminal discourse versus the Palestinians and other peoples of the Middle East.
It is a criminality that will eventually lead to the collapse and demise of a country that dominated the world during much of the 20th century and is still widely considered the strongest country in the world, politically, economically and especially militarily.
But America's status is fast receding and years are counted; and it is a matter of a few decades before America finds itself in the shoes of Great Britain following the second World War.
The Muslims' obligations toward Gaza
In a certain sense, it is probably futile and pointless to blame America and Israel for killing the Palestinians. America is the country that has an uninterrupted history of killing. The white settlers in North America killed more than ten million native Americans and called the genocide manifest destiny. They even designated a special day to celebrate that genocide. They called it "Thanksgiving Day."
And Israel, the country whose very existence is based on ethnic cleansing, land theft and mendacity, is yet to recognize the sheer humanity of Gentiles or non-Jews.
We are talking about a criminal cult which can't really live a normal life without dominating and tormenting non-Jewish neighbors.
Just listen to any rabbinic authority speaking about the status of non-Jews under Halacha or the Talmudic Sharia and you will be shocked by the striking similarity between the Nazi perception of the inferiors and the rabbinic perceptions of non-Jews.
One Y-tube recently featured a rabbi who said it was perfectly permissible for a Jew, from the Halacha perspective, to murder a non-Jew in order to extricate his organ if the Jew needed one.!!!
Now do Europeans and Americans have the guts to approach this matter? Or will they keep silent as they shake of fear of upsetting Jews who would accuse them of being anti-Semites?
But regardless of what the rest of the world may or may not do to protect innocent victims in Palestine and elsewhere who are facing relentless aggression and death, it is the responsibility of Arab and Muslim states, such Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey and Iran to provide these oppressed people with the most elementary means of defense and protection against a brutal enemy that is armed with most advanced machine of death in the world.
The Gazans need effective anti-aircraft weapons as well anti-tank missiles. These are defensive weapons which can be provided easily to those who are at the forefront of fighting for Muslim sanctuaries and Muslim dignity.
Egypt, given its territorial contiguity to Gaza, has a special duty to see to it that defenseless Gazans possess the means to defend themselves.
In the final analysis, what was acceptable from the Husni Mubarak regime, can't be acceptable from the revolutionary government.
Well, hell with the Camp David peace treaty with Israel if maintaining it must mean having Palestinian civilians getting killed, maimed and incinerated every hour, every day and every night at the hands of the Nazis of our time.
http://fwd4.me/0wGK
As Rockets Fly, New Conditions Shape Fight in Gaza
JERUSALEM — Cross-border fighting between Israel and Palestinian militant groups in Gaza continued for a fourth day on Monday, with the Palestinian death toll rising from Israeli airstrikes and the militants’ rockets reaching farther into Israel.
Yet there was no sign that either Israel or Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules Gaza, wanted an all-out confrontation. The prospects of an imminent showdown, like the one that led to Israel’s three-week offensive in the winter of 2008-9, seemed unlikely. Some of the old rules of the conflict have changed since then, and new domestic and regional factors have emerged.
For Israel, the success of its recently deployed Iron Dome antirocket missile system has had an impact. Since the hostilities began on Friday, the missile batteries have managed to intercept 54 of the nearly 70 Palestinian rockets that were aimed at the major cities of the south, the Israeli military said.
The prevention of mass casualties and damage has reduced pressure on the country’s leaders to embark on a major military operation in Gaza and given them more time to weigh their options, according to Israeli officials and experts.
“There is a serious strategic change here,” Dan Meridor, the minister of intelligence and atomic energy, told Israel Radio on Monday. “Years ago it was not simple to incorporate into Israeli military doctrine the great importance of defense.”
The regional changes of the past year are also playing a role in the calculations of both Israel and the Islamic groups.
Since the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, a close ally of Israel, and the rise of Islamic political parties there, Israel has been aware that there is less tolerance in Cairo for a major Israeli offensive in Gaza. The Israel-Egypt peace treaty is already under strain.
“The interim situation in Egypt is unclear,” Ehud Yaari, an Israel-based fellow of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said in an interview. “Israel has no interest in putting the Egyptians to the test.”
Hamas has been involved in a delicate balancing act, allowing the smaller militant groups like Islamic Jihad to avenge the deaths of their comrades in Israeli airstrikes but at the same time urging a restoration of calm.
Islamic Jihad, the group firing most of the rockets in this round of violence, is challenging Hamas in Gaza. The chief of Islamic Jihad, which is backed by Iran, has remained in Syria. The Hamas leadership recently abandoned its base there and expressed its support for the Syrian people in their struggle against President Bashar al-Assad.
Mkhaimar Abusada, a political science professor at Al-Azhar University in Gaza, said that Hamas, as the ruling power in Gaza, feels it has more responsibility than other groups and knows that any confrontation with Israel would cost it dearly. Islamic Jihad, he added, wants to demonstrate that it is not switching sides and abandoning Syria.
Israel’s military chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, has warned in recent months that the repeated rounds of violence in the south will eventually require Israel to carry out another large-scale military operation in Gaza.
The finance minister, Yuval Steinitz, also told reporters on Sunday that “Israel cannot accept in the long run a Hamas and Islamic Jihad regime in Gaza, and sooner or later, and I don’t want to quote dates, we will have to do a ‘root canal.’ ”
But the prevailing sense in Israel is that now is not the time. Some Israeli politicians have warned that a major conflagration would divert world attention from what Israel considers the more existential threat of a nuclear Iran.
Israeli officials confirmed that Hamas had sent messages via Egypt asking to restore the informal cease-fire that had largely been effect since the last round of fighting.
Israel said it would continue to act in Gaza as long as necessary. A spokesman for Islamic Jihad implicitly criticized Hamas for running from conflict after a lull, telling reporters in Gaza on Monday that from now on, “the resistance would impose conditions for any truce.”
In the meantime, there remained a risk that hostilities could escalate, however unintended.
More than 150 rockets have fallen in Israeli territory since Friday, and its airstrikes killed five Palestinians on Monday, bringing the overall toll to 23. Though most of those killed have been militants, three of the five who died on Monday were civilians.
One of the victims, Nayif Shaaban Qarmout, 14, was killed and five other youths were wounded as they were walking back from school, according to a Gaza medical official.
The Israeli military said it had aimed at a squad preparing to launch rockets from within a residential area of northern Gaza. It blamed the Palestinian groups for operating from urban areas and using civilians as “human shields.”
Another missile killed Muhammad al-Hassumi, 65, and his daughter Fayza, 30, as they put out a fire on their land. The Al Mezan Center for Human Rights in Gaza said the fire had been caused by a Palestinian rocket that fell short of its target.
Two of the Palestinians’ rockets struck near Gedera, Israel, about 17 miles southeast of Tel Aviv. Another slammed into the center of Ashdod, a major Israeli port city, causing widespread panic, shattering storefronts and damaging buildings and cars.
The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, said he was “gravely concerned at the latest escalation between Gaza and Israel, and once again civilians are paying a terrible price.”
Mr. Ban told the Security Council that rocket attacks on Israeli civilians were “unacceptable,” but he urged Israel to “exercise maximum restraint.”
Isabel Kershner reported from Jeruslaem, and Fares Akram from Gaza. Rina Castelnuovo contributed reporting from Ashdod, Israel.
http://fwd4.me/0wJn
IOF soldiers raid ex-prisoner’s home
Ministry: 11 prisoners injured in Israeli jail raid
Jewish settlers destroy dozens of trees in Beit Ummar
13 mar 2012, 08:41 , Respect -
Maria 13 mrt 2012
PRC says will hold to truce with Israel
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- The military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees said at a press conference Tuesday it was committed to a truce with Israel to halt fighting sparked by the assassination of the movement's leader.
The Al-Nasser Salah Ad-Din brigades told reporters in Gaza that it would halt fire as long as Israel keeps its commitment to the Egypt-brokered deal, which includes ending hostilities and assassination of political leaders.
If Israel breaks the deal by killing any Palestinians, the brigades will respond with greater force, the group said.
It claimed it had fired 56 rockets into Israel in response to the killing of its chief Zuheir al-Qaisi on Friday. Rockets injured eight Israelis in the ensuing violence, while Israeli airstrikes killed 25 Palestinians and wounded more than 80.
Islamic Jihad, whose fighters were targeted in the strikes, announced earlier Tuesday it would hold to the truce.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=467692
Islamic Jihad, PRC say committed to truce with Israel
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- Islamic Jihad said on Tuesday it would adhere to its commitments under a truce deal brokered by Egypt to end four days of fighting with Israel that killed 25 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Jihad leader Daoud Shihab told Ma'an the deal was reached after many meetings and discussions with Egypt. The movement stressed it demanded that Israel halt assassinations of political leaders, Shihab said.
The military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees said later it would also hold to the deal, at a press conference in Gaza.
The latest fighting was sparked when Israeli warplanes killed the leader of the Popular Resistance Committees on Friday.
Shihab said Islamic Jihad is committed to the truce as long as Israel adheres to its commitments. "We do not trust Israel, but we trust our power and if Israel does not commit, we will reply," he added.
He called the truce a victory for Islamic Jihad, and a Palestinian achievement.
The Al-Nasser Salah Ad-Din brigades warned if Israel breaks the deal by killing any Palestinians, the group will respond with greater force.
A senior Egyptian security official told Reuters that the deal to cease hostilities was set to take effect at 1 a.m. local time.
The official said in a telephone call from Cairo that both sides had "agreed to end the current operations", with Israel giving an unusual undertaking to "stop assassinations", and an overall agreement "to begin a comprehensive and mutual calm."
"There is an understanding," Israeli Civil Defense Minister Matan Vilnai told Israel Radio. "At the moment the direction is toward calm and it appears, unless there are last minute developments, that this round is now behind us."
Amos Gilad, a senior Israeli defense official, said Israel would feel free to take "pre-emptive action" if Israeli lives were in danger -- a reference to future strikes against Palestinian militants believed to be planning attacks.
But, he told Army Radio, if "there is quiet on their part, there will be quiet on our part."
A Palestinian official close to the talks said "the factions are committed," alluding to the Islamic Jihad and Popular Resistance Committees, who were most active in the fighting, but that these groups were waiting to see how Israel would respond.
An Israeli army spokesman said three rockets landed in southern Israel Tuesday morning, without causing injuries.
Israeli airstrikes killed 25 Palestinians since Friday, targeting a number of Islamic Jihad fighters, as well as civilians including a teenager, a 12-year-old boy, an elderly man and his daughter.
At least 80 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been wounded in the violence.
Israel said Gaza militants had fired about 200 rockets at its southern towns and cities from Gaza, injuring eight Israelis.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=467507
Israel and Gaza militants agree truce after clashes
A ceasefire is in place between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza after four days of deadly clashes.
The Egyptian-mediated truce took effect at 01:00 local time (23:00 GMT Monday), and there have been no new attacks.
The recent violence "appears to be behind us," said Israeli Cabinet Minister Matan Vilnai.
At least 25 Palestinians have died in Israeli air strikes since Friday, reports say. Israel says 35 people were injured in Palestinian rocket attacks.
Officials from Hamas, which runs Gaza, told the BBC that Israel had agreed to stop targeting leaders of militant groups in Gaza, if rocket attacks on its southern cities ceased.
The deal was brokered by the Egyptian authorities, who reportedly negotiated with each side separately.
Four days of cross-border violence was triggered by an Israeli air strike on Friday that killed a senior leader of the militant group, the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), who Israel said had been planning an attack.
Militants in Gaza responded quickly by unleashing a barrage of rockets towards southern Israel, triggering further air strikes.
Most of those killed in Gaza were militants, but several civilians also died, Palestinian medical sources say.
Israel said the major reason for a relatively low number of injuries among its population was the country's new Iron Dome missile system, which shot down about 50 rockets launched from Gaza.
The US has condemned the rocket attacks as "cowardly"; the Arab League called the Israeli air strikes "a massacre".
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has expressed grave concern over the flare-up in violence, describing rocket attacks on Israeli civilians as "unacceptable" and urging Israel to "exercise maximum restraint".
Islamic Jihad and the PRC - and not Hamas - have said they have been behind the rocket attacks.
The increase in violence has alarmed world powers trying to bring peace talks between Palestinians and Israelis back on track.
http://fwd4.me/0wLE 13 mar 2012, 18:41 , Respect -
Maria 13 mrt 2012
Israel: Rocket lands in Negev
TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma'an) -- A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip landed in the Hof Ashkelon regional council hours after a truce between Israel and Palestinian armed groups took effect, news reports said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=467768 (not confirmed)
IOF troops fire at funeral in violation of calm
Jewish settlers steal 250 olive trees
IOF soldiers storm West Bank cities, round up 10 Palestinians
Israeli forces arrested released detainee Muhammad Masalha, 29, and his 4 brothers
Metsada and Nahshun forces transfer many detainees in Nafha jail elsewhere to punish Gaza prisoners for their constant protests against their deprival of seeing their families for more than five years
14 mar 2012, 21:23 , Respect -
Maria 15 mrt 2012
Islamic Jihad says committed to truce
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Islamic Jihad remains committed to a truce with Israel but will retaliate to any attacks on the Palestinian people, leader Ahmad al-Mudallal said Thursday.
The Egypt-brokered ceasefire took hold at 1 a.m. Tuesday following four days of Israeli airstrikes which killed over 20 Palestinians and injured more than 80, medics in the Gaza Strip said. Militants responded with a barrage of rocket fire into southern Israel which Israeli medics said injured eight people.
Al-Mudallal told Ma'an his movement, which lost over a dozen militants in the attacks, agreed to the ceasefire after assurances by Egyptian mediators that Israel would stop assassinating its members.
"We don’t trust the occupation but we trust our steadfastness and resistance. We cannot be quiet during any aggression on the Palestinian people," the Islamic Jihad official said.
"The resistance is ready to respond to any Israeli attacks."
Meanwhile, the acting speaker of the Palestinian parliament Ahmad Bahar urged all factions to unite in their response to Israeli aggression. He told Ma'an that Israel was not interested in a ceasefire and looked to the Palestinian people "as if the should not exist."
Within 24 hours of the truce, Israel bombed northern Gaza and on Wednesday night Israeli warplanes again shelled the northern and southern Gaza Strip.
The Israeli army said the strikes were in response to rockets fired from Gaza. An Israeli military spokeswoman told Ma'an that nine projectiles have landed in Israel since the truce began.
No faction has claimed responsibility for firing any projectiles since the ceasefire.
The armed wings of Islamic Jihad, the Popular Resistance Committees, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Fatah and several other brigades announced they had fired rockets prior to the truce.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=468389 14 mar 2012, 21:26 , Respect -
Maria 17 mrt 2012
Islamic Jihad threatens to hit Tel Aviv
Smoke rises from an explosion following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza (file photo)
A member of Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Gaza-based resistance group Islamic Jihad has hinted that it could strike Tel Aviv if Israel continues the systematic killing of the Palestinians.
A member of the armed wing, by the pseudonym Abu Ibrahim, said the group was even ready to further expand the reach of its rocket fire beyond the Israeli town of Ashdod- about 35km outside Gaza.
"If the occupation targets any leader of any Palestinian group whatsoever or any citizen, the Brigades will respond with force and expand the reach of the response beyond Ashdod," AFP quoted Abu Ibrahim as saying
"The enemy is aware of the range that the Brigades rockets can reach," Abu Ibrahim further said, adding that the Quds Brigades were in possession of "many thousands" of rockets.
Islamic Jihad was the main resistance group that responded Israel during the recent conflict, which began on March 9 with Israel's assassination of a top Palestinian commander.
Abu Ibrahim also said that the group was receiving major help from Lebanon's Lebanon's resistance movement Hezbollah . He said the organization provides "fundamental support" to the Quds Brigades, mainly by "facilitating the training of fighters".
According to another member of the Quds Brigades, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity "certain resistance groups, including the Quds Brigades, have Fajr-3 and Fajr-5 missiles, with a range of 60-110km".
"But they are not for use unless Israel targets an important figure," he said.
Moreover, he claimed that resistance also possessed SAM-7 missiles, saying that the missiles had been fired at Israeli helicopters last year.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/232190.html
16 mar 2012, 11:11 , Respect -
Maria 18 mrt 2012
Abu Zuhri: Hamas did not receive any Israeli warning
GAZA, (PIC)-- Dr. Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, has said that Israel did not give his movement 24 hours, ending Saturday night, to stop the firing of rockets at Israeli targets.
He told the Palestine.online website on Saturday that reports of an Israeli warning to Hamas to control the field conditions were not true.
He accused Israel of triggering the latest round of violence in the region when it assassinated Zuhair Qaisi, the secretary general of the popular resistance committees.
Abu Zuhri, meanwhile, said that dialogue is the only means to solve differences over reconciliation issues between Hamas and Fatah.
The spokesman said that his movement was keen on concluding reconciliation, denouncing in this respect Fatah statements that Hamas was the one obstructing the process.
http://fwd4.me/0wf9 18 mar 2012, 21:54 , Respect -
Maria 19 mrt 2012
Qassam rocket hits Negev
Rocket explodes in open area in Eshkol Regional Council after two-day lull; no injuries.
A two-day lull in Gaza rocket fire came to an end on Monday morning when a Qassam exploded in an open area in the Eshkol Regional Council. No injuries or damage were reported.
The Color Red alert sounded in several area towns around 9:50 am, and residents were urged to seek shelter. The rocket hit shortly after.
It was the first rocket to be fired on Israel since Friday evening, when a Qassam hit an open area in the same northwestern Negev region.
Schools in the council continued to operate as usual despite the escalation, while southern municipalities, including Beersheba, Ashkelon and Ashdod cancelled all activities. On Sunday, some 210,000 students returned to school due to the lull.
http://fwd4.me/0wht (not confirmed)
14 mrt 2012
Child dies of injures suffered from Israeli military attack
Israeli warplane attacks northern Gaza Strip
Israeli artillery shelling targets central Gaza
IOF soldiers raze car wash
Settlers Assault Palestinian in West Bank
15 mrt 2012
1 killed, another hurt by gunfire at memorial
Aircraft open fire west of Gaza City
Israel launches fresh air raids on Gaza
IOF troops storm West Bank areas
Israeli troops raid Tulkarem
Violent raid on Ofer jail, injuries reported
Local official: Army uproot olive trees in Nablus village
Israeli Forces, Settlers Raze Land, Uproot Trees in West Bank
Soldiers Turn Rooftop into Outpost
Mother with Baby Arrested while Crossing Checkpoint in Hebron
Sheds Demolished in Nablus Area
16 mrt 2012
Israeli army: Man shot dead along Egypt border
Eight Injured, one Seriously, as Israeli Troops attack West Bank Anti Wall Protests
Clashes between locals and IOF troops south of al-Khalil
17 mrt 2012
Ahmed Shetewi from Kafr Qaddum village in Qalqiliya city was seriously injured when he was attacked by dogs
IOF soldiers storm Jenin, Al-Khalil villages
Israel displaces Palestinian families, razes their homes in Jordan Valley
Israel allocates millions of dollars for building synagogues in O. Jerusalem
Israel unveils its grid of tunnels under Aqsa Mosque and Old City
Jewish settlers cut off hundreds of olive trees in Nablus village
Jewish settlers assault Palestinian shepherd
18 mrt 2012
Israeli forces injure six-year-old Palestinian boy
IOF troops storm Al-Khalil villages
Operation Dove: Settlers Attack Palestinian Shepherd North of Hebron
19 mrt 2012
27 laborers injured in road accident, military jeep intentionally hit the vehicle
Israeli settlers take over water springs in West Bank: UN report
2 people injured in Hebron army raids
IOF carry out military exercises in Jenin
Israeli Forces' Continuous Raids on Nabi Saleh Village
Settlers Attack Homes In Hebron
Israel for planning 187000 new housing units in O. Jerusalem
19 mar 2012, 15:54 , Respect -
Maria 21 mrt 2012
Hamas renews its adherence to resistance as option to liberate Palestine
DAMASCUS, (PIC)-- The Hamas Movement on Wednesday renewed its oath of adherence to the option of resistance until the liberation of all Palestine.
In a press release on the anniversary of martyr week, Hamas highlighted that Israel's assassination and killing policy against the Palestinian people and their leaders would never be able to extinguish the flame of resistance and steadfastness of the coming generations.
It said that the anniversary of martyrs is an occasion for the Palestinian people to recall the heroic lives of noted Palestinian leaders who watered the Palestinian soil with their blood.
The Movement underlined that the occupied Palestinian city of Jerusalem and its Aqsa Mosque would be ever the address of the Palestinian cause regardless of the Israeli occupation's attempts to Judaize them and erase their Islamic and Arab identities.
http://fwd4.me/0wsi 21 mar 2012, 18:47 , Respect -
Maria 29 mrt 2012
Army: Rocket lands in Israeli territory (unconfirmed)
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip landed in Eshkol regional council late Thursday, an Israeli army spokeswoman said.
There were no reports of injury or damage, the official said.
Israeli media reported that three rockets were fired from Gaza.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=472403
21 mrt 2012
Palestinian worker loses spleen in savage Israeli police attack
Israeli gunboats fire at Palestinian fishing boats
Israeli Forces Storm Ramallah Area Village, Confiscate Properties
Israel to seize 1, 235 dunums of Walja village for its Jewish gardens
Settlers to Take Over More Houses in East-Jerusalem
22 mrt 2012
Gaza official reports airstrike, Israel denies
IOF raid Jenin city, search house of senior Islamic Jihad figure
Israelis Destroy Agricultural Land near Bethlehem
15 prisoners hurt in scuffle with guards
23 mrt 2012
Football supporters attacked Palestinian workers at a shopping mall in Jerusalem
Two Civilians Injured, One Critically, As Troops Attack West Bank Anti Wall Protests
Three women injured by IOF during a demonstration in solidarity with Shalabi
Report: No arrests in racist mall riot
Settlers Break into Building in Hebron
24 mrt 2012
Medics: Palestinian hurt by settler gunfire
Medics: Explosion near Gaza City injures 2 children
Palestinian child injured in explosion of Israeli army ordnance
soldiers attack South African and Portuguese ambassadors with tear gas
Committee: Settlers uproot 85 olive trees near Bethlehem
Statistics: Israel arrested around 900 Palestinians since start of 2012
IOA serves demolition notice to Palestinian family in Bethlehem
25 mrt 2012
Jewish settlers assault Palestinian farmer
OCHA: IOA demolished 20 Palestinian homes in West Bank last week
AFEH warns of turning Islamic cemetery into Talmudic park
26 mrt 2012
Settlers Attack Farmers, Injure One
IOF soldiers launch demolition campaign in Jordan Valley
Israelis Demolish Shacks in Jordan Valley
Israeli plan to expel all Palestinian Bedouins from Area C
27 mrt 2012
Hebron teen 'shot by Israeli settler'
Three brothers injured during Israeli raid on their house
Israli Occupying Force raids Bethlehem, Hebron and Jenin
Demolition Orders Issued for Silwan Residents
Violent Israeli criminals transferred to section of Palestinian female detainees
28 mrt 2012
Israel begins new air and ground assaults on Gaza
Soldiers, Settlers, Break Into The Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound
Council: Settlers assault north Jordan Valley village
Israel Seizes Thousands of dunums of land, Uproots Thousands of Trees, says Report
Israeli occupation to raze water wells in Al-Khalil villages
Settlers Seize House Near Ibrahim Mosque in Hebron
29 mrt 2012
Settlers Expand Illegal Outpost in Nablus
Jewish settlers terrorize Palestinian family, seize their house in Al-Khalil
16 apr 2012, 12:34 , Respect -
Maria 14 apr 2012
Fatah-affiliated militants claim Gaza rocket launch
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- The Ayman Judah Brigades, a division of Fatah's military wing, said they fired a rocket into Israel from the Gaza Strip on Saturday night.
An Israeli army spokeswoman said no rockets had landed in Israel overnight.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=476544
30 mrt 2012
Palestinian youth killed and dozens, including journalist injured in Gaza
31 mrt 2012
Jewish settlers attack Palestinian farmer and his children
4 hospitalized after settler attack near Ramallah
Jewish settlers assault Jerusalemite in light rail
1 apr 2012
Israel kills Gaza 'gunman' along border
IOF soldiers open machinegun fire at residential quarters south of Gaza
Israeli jailers storm Nafha prison, wound 61 prisoners
Projectile explosion injures 4 scrap metal workers in Gaza
Jewish settlers batter Palestinian citizens including two women
2 apr 2012
Man dies of wounds from Israeli West Bank raid
Israel drops leaflets into Gaza warning of no-go zone
3 Violently Arrested As 20 Attempt to Occupy House in Hebron
Israeli Forces Demolish 10 Palestinian Tents East of Nablus
IOF soldiers kidnap Palestinian child from his father’s car
3 apr 2012
Father of two martyrs survives Israeli shelling
15 Israelis Attack Palestinian Worker in Jerusalem
Israeli minister: State should encourage settler takeover of Hebron home
Israeli Forces Demolish 4 Houses, Uproot Electric Poles in Beit Jala
IOF soldiers bulldoze land, damage olive trees near Yatta
IOA officially reveals a new settlement project in Abu Dis
Raid, Confiscation of Hona Al-Quds Equipment, New Israeli Assault on Media Freedoms
4 apr 2012
Four years old Palestinian child dies of Israeli gunshot wound
Medical teams find body of Palestinian citizen killed by IOF troops
MP Beitawi dies in hospital after IOA refused his travel abroad for treatment
IOF soldiers wound Palestinian, arrest two others in Gaza
IOA summons 80-year-old mother of prisoner for interrogation
IOF soldiers arrest 109 Palestinians in Al-Khalil in March including 17 children
Settlers Expand Illegal Outpost near Hebron
Settlement Expanded Despite Court Evacuation Order
5 apr 2012
Armed Settlers Attack Farmers near Nablus
Soldiers stole jewelry during raid
Occupation forces storm Nafha prison and assault captives
AFEH warns of growing Zionist calls for demolition of Aqsa
7 apr 2012
Two Palestinian citizens injured in Israeli air raid
Two Palestinian children wounded in explosion of IOF ordnance
IOF quelling of peaceful marches wounds dozens
Villagers confront IOF attempt to storm their village
Palestinian man chased by settlers dies after his tractor crashed
Detainees injured in prison raid
8 apr 2012
Palestinian resistance fighters survive Israeli raid
Occupation threatens military operations in the Sinai
Palestinian child, two foreign activists wounded in IOF quelling of march
Settlers Raid Agricultural Land near Jenin
Jewish settlers desecrate the Aqsa mosque
Settlements eat up 65% of Al-Khalil territory
9 apr 2012
Palestinian worker wounded in IOF shooting
IOF artillery shells Juhr Al-Deek
Nabi Saleh villagers confront IOF incursion
Fire broke out in the Ibrahimi Mosque as settlers desecrate it
Zionist Settlers Defile Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque
Israeli authorities turn Islamic cemetery into car park
10 apr 2012
On Video; Soldiers Abuse Elderly Shepherd, Sheep Near Hebron
11 apr 2012
Palestinian woman seriously injured in settlers’ attack
Palestinian Believed Kidnapped by Setters Found with Hands Tied
Palestinians Injured Trying to Stop Settlers near Al-Aqsa
Aqsa guard injured in quarrel with Jewish settlers
Settlers Establish New Outpost East of Ramallah
Dozens wounded, arrested in IOF quelling of Bilin conference
12 apr 2012
Three Palestinian farmers wounded in Jewish settlers attack
13 apr 2012
Settlers uproot olive trees near Yatta
23 apr 2012, 10:26 , Respect -
Maria 15 apr 2012
Saraya al-Quds: the resistance has the right to obtain weapons
GAZA, (PIC)-- Abu Ahmed, the spokesman of saraya Al-Quds, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad, stressed on the right of the resistance to get weapons in any way it deems appropriate, denying at the same time, Zionist accusations about activities of Saraya Al-Quds in the Egyptian Sinai peninsula
Abu Ahmed said in a statement to the Voice of Jerusalem radio "Saraya Al-Quds has no activity outside the framework of the occupied Palestine" He explained that the Zionist claims about the existence of bases for Saraya Al-Quds in the Sinai are unfounded, expressing his respect for Egyptian sovereignty over the Sinai.
He added "The resistance has the right to use all the means and geography to get arms." noting that during the war on Gaza in 2008, the entity obtained thousands of tons of weapons violating the territorial waters and World's airspace.
Concerning the possibility of a new war on the Gaza Strip by the Zionist army, Abu Ahmed said, "We do not think that at this stage the enemy will wage war against the Gaza Strip," explaining that the Palestinian resistance has succeeded in last March's attack to send severe messages to the occupation through targeting the depth of the Zionist enemy who knows exactly what capabilities the resistance owns.
He also added that “Not waging war does not negate the possibility of the occupation committing new foolishness by the occupation, but this will be neither significant nor expanded."
Abu Ahmad drew attention to the resistance's improvements in combat and tactical abilities and to the occupation's awareness of the resistance's power and to which extent can its strikes reach.
According to Abu Ahmed: "any Zionist foolishness against the Gaza Strip and aiming to test the capabilities of his army, and the means they possess, as the iron dome, will result in a total failure for the Zionists as in the aggression of last March,” he explained.
http://fwd4.me/0yVh 5 jun 2012, 18:09 , Respect -
Maria 22 apr 2012
Abu Ataya warns Israel of targeting resistance fighters
GAZA, (PIC)-- Abu Ataya, the Nasser Salahuddin Brigades’ spokesman, has warned Israel of targeting his armed wing’s cadres or leaders.
He said in a terse statement on Saturday night that any such targeting would entail serious consequences and the “Zionist enemy will pay a heavy price”.
Aby Ataya said that the renewed Israeli accusation against his armed wing of planning attacks against Israel through the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula was heralding a new aggression on Gaza.
The spokesman said that his armed cadres were ready for any attack and would defend the Palestinian people and resistance with all means available.
http://fwd4.me/0z11 5 jun 2012, 18:09 , Respect -
Maria 22 apr 2012
Army: Rocket fired from Gaza lands in south Israel (unconfirmed)
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- A rocket fired from Gaza landed in southern Israel on Sunday afternoon, an Israeli army spokeswoman said.
The projectile landed in the Shaar Hanegev region, with no reports of injuries or damage, she said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=478692
14 apr 2012
Israeli gunboats fire at Palestinian fishing boats, destroy one
Jewish settlers assault Palestinian woman
Jewish settlers assault an old man and his son
11-year-old child beaten in pro-prisoners march
15 apr 2012
Israeli settlers injure three Palestinians, uproot dozens of olive trees in two separate incidents
WATCH: IDF Lt. Col. rams rifle in face of activist (UPDATED)
16 apr 2012
Israeli reconnaissance plane fires missile at Palestinian field
Resident Injured By Army Fire In Jerusalem
IOF soldiers fire at residents in Nabi Saleh in night raid
Settlers Plan Takeover of Hebron-Area Land
Jewish settlers chop off 250 olive trees
Israeli Forces Destroy Ponds, Wells, Land near Hebron
17 apr 2012
Palestinian man wounded in IOF shooting
IOF soldiers demolish water wells in Salfit
18 apr 2012
Israeli Soldiers Shoot Woman near Gaza Borders
Thousands of Jewish settlers storm Qalqilia village to perform rituals
Settlers Assault Palestinian in Hebron
Israeli Forces Destroy Roads, Retaining Walls near Tubas
Warehouses Raided, Equipment Confiscated near Bethlehem
19 apr 2012
New settlement outpost in Ramallah
IOA evicts Palestinian family from its home in O. Jerusalem
IOF soldiers fire teargas at schoolchildren
IOF soldiers arrest two Palestinians, rob money
20 apr 2012
Zionist Occupation Forces Storm Al-Khalil and Jenin
Israeli settlers assault UN delegation in al-Khalil
Settlers raided two farms in the village of Bardala near Toubas in the northern Jordan valley and damaged crops. Settlers also attacked farmers in the area and threatened them with expulsion and confiscation of their lands.
Occupation to cut off electricity supply to Palestinian hamlet
21 apr 2012
IOF artillery shelling targets Beit Hanun
Israeli jailors storm prison cells, confiscate prisoners’ belongings
22 apr 2012
Six Palestinian workers injured in Israeli army chase of their vehicle
IOA expands settlement in occupied Jerusalem
5 jun 2012, 18:09 , Respect -
Maria 10 mei 2012
Report: Hamas forms anti-rocket force in Gaza
Security officers march during a ceremony marking the one-year anniversary of Israel's offensive in Gaza City
TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma'an) -- An Israeli newspaper reported Thursday that Gaza's Hamas government has been operating a force over the past few months whose sole task is to prevent the firing of rockets into Israel.
The report in Haaretz, which was denied by the government in Gaza, quoted a source who said a 300-man force was under the direct command of Interior Minister Fathi Hammad.
It operates "day and night, 24 hours, everywhere in the Strip, particularly near the borders with Israel," the source was quoted as saying.
A spokesman for the interior minister, Ihab Ghussein, told Ma'an that Ismail Haniyeh's government was a "resistance government," and he referred to the Haaretz report as "only propaganda or rumors."
"These statements are Israel's attempt to export its (domestic political) crisis and internal conflict to Gaza, which stands with the prisoners" who are on hunger strike inside Israeli jails, Ghussein said.
"The occupation government attempts to cover up its crimes against the Palestinian prisoners, and to direct threats against Gaza," he said, adding that "the Palestinian government is a resistance government that came (about) to protect the resistance."
According to Haaretz, the government is now using its authority to foil the firing efforts of cells from other organizations such as the Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees. The report said Islamic Jihad operatives are usually released quickly.
Haaretz said the anti-rocket force wears black uniforms and rides on motorcycles and four-wheel drive vehicles. A Hamas source said the force was authorized to use deadly force against those who resist arrest.
The force does not stop militants from responding to attacks from Israel, the report noted.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=484426 5 jun 2012, 18:09 , Respect -
Maria 11 mei 2012
Israeli army: Gaza rocket fired into southern Israel (unconfirmed)
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Militants in Gaza on Friday fired a rocket into southern Israel, the Israeli army said.
The projectile landed near Ashkelon and caused no injuries, an Israeli military spokeswoman told Ma'an.
No group has claimed responsibility for firing the rocket.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=484620
23 apr 2012
Army: Rocket reports 'false alarm'
24 apr 2012
Settlers attacked Chilean delegation in Al-Khalil
Jewish settlers storm Yousuf’s tomb
Occupation razes Araqib village in Negev for 37th time
27 apr 2012
Settlers raise the Zionist flag on the Ibrahimi Mosque
28 apr 2012
Jewish settlers storm Bethlehem village
IOF planning eviction of Palestinian inhabitants in Jordan Valley
1 mei 2012
Occupation decides to uproot 1000 olive trees
2 mei 2012
Jewish settlers wound Palestinian, damage fruit trees
Jewish settlers destroy 200 olive trees in Nablus village
3 mei 2012
Occupation forces target Palestinian farmers and their crops
6 mei 2012
IOF soldiers demolish ancient water well, old olive trees
Jewish settlers sneak into Aqsa mosque
7 mei 2012
Israeli authorities raze Araqib village for 38th time
8 mei 2012
Occupation bulldozes lands in Al-Khalil
IOF serves demolition notices to Palestinian families in Al-Khalil
9 mei 2012
IOF launch military drills in Dura town, terrorize citizens
Jewish settlers set hundreds of olive trees on fire
10 mei 2012
Jewish settler assault Jerusalemite
IOF soldiers destroy Palestinian crops south of Al-Khalil
[b]11 mei 2012
Occupation displaces hundreds of families from southern al-Khalil