- Maria 27 aug 2011
Islamic Jihad truce 'to protect Palestinians'
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Islamic Jihad leader Dawood Shibab said Saturday that the movement agreed to a truce with Israel to protect the Palestinian people and leaders.
Islamic Jihad agreed to a ceasefire on Friday after a previous truce broke down when Israeli forces killed two Islamic Jihad militants, and the faction launched projectiles across the border.
Shibab told Ma'an that when Egypt initiated talks to renew a ceasefire, Israeli leaders had already threatened to target Palestinian and Islamic leaders.
Shibab said Egypt stepped in to broker the renewed ceasefire after Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said those who fired rockets at Israel would have "their heads separated from their bodies."
Islamic Jihad officials told Egypt the movement was not interested in escalating violence and sought a mutual ceasefire with Israel but fired missiles in self defense, Shibab said.
The senior Jihad leader said the ceasefire only applied to Gaza, not the West Bank.
Palestinian sources, meanwhile, say Egypt managed to stop Israel from following through on a plan to assassinate Ismail Haniyeh, the prime minister in Gaza, reports said Saturday.
Egypt's Al-Ahram daily quoted Palestinian sources as saying Israel's plan, approved in the wake of last Thursday's deadly attacks in Eilat, was aborted after Egypt pressured Israel to back down.
The report did not specify how Egypt pressured Israel, although media in both countries have reported over the past week that Cairo took an active role in calming tensions between the Israelis and factions in Gaza.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=416470
Israel threatened launching extensive military assault on Gaza Strip
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Israel threatened it would launch a massive ground and air military attack on the Gaza Strip in response to new rockets Palestinian factions fired into southern Israel in retaliation to Israeli occupation raids.
Israeli Channel One said Saturday morning that Israeli authorities, using unidentified mediators, have sternly warned Palestinian factions in Gaza that Israel would respond harshly with intensive air strikes and possible ground operations should the rockets continue.
The warnings came after the Israeli Political-Security Cabinet, chaired by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, convened on Friday evening, the source said..
Since Tuesday evening, Israel has killed 11 Palestinians and injured dozens in an onslaught of air strikes across the Gaza Strip. Those attacks came after the factions declared a ceasefire following another series of Israeli attacks that killed 15 Palestinians and injured some 60.
The ceasefire between the Israeli occupation and Palestinian factions which was brokered by Egypt, was broken every time by the Israeli occupation prompting the resistance factions to retaliate.
http://fwd4.me/0A2V
Palestinians accept new Israeli truce
Palestinians carry the body of an Islamic Jihad resistance fighter in Gaza city, August 25
Palestinian resistance movement Islamic Jihad has agreed to a new ceasefire with the Israeli regime after Tel Aviv escalated its attacks on the impoverished Gaza Strip.
The Hamas government in Gaza confirmed the deal, which was brokered by Egyptian authorities, AFP reported.
The resistance movement launched a volley of rockets and mortars towards southern Israel in response to Israeli airstrikes on Wednesday that killed two Islamic Jihad leaders.
An earlier ceasefire was made between Hamas and Tel Aviv on Monday, but it did not stop the Israeli regime from launching further deadly airstrikes on the Gaza strip, killing more Palestinians.
Tel Aviv has intensified its attacks against the impoverished territory over the past week. The indiscriminate Israeli bombing raids followed the killing of eight individuals by unknown assailants near Israel's Red Sea resort town of Eilat.
The Arab League has condemned the air strikes and called for the United Nations intervention to halt the Israeli aggression.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/195967.html
Report: Rockets land in southern Israel overnight
TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma'an) Two rockets exploded late Friday in open areas in Israel's Shaar HaNegev regional council, local news reports said. There were no reports of injury or damage.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=416392 20 jan 2012, 13:31 , Respect -
Maria 28 aug 2011
Gaza rocket hits southern Israel
JERUSALEM (AFP) -- A rocket fired by Gaza militants on Sunday hit southern Israel in what was the fourth projectile lobbed across the border since a truce took hold two days earlier, Israeli officials said.
The rocket landed near Khatzerim, a village just west of the southern desert city of Beersheva, a police spokeswoman said.
An army spokeswoman said it was the fourth incidence of firing since the truce came into effect at 1 a.m. on Friday morning. "The rocket hit an empty area without causing injuries or damage," a she said.
The Islamist group Tawhid wal Jihad claimed responsibility for firing a grad rocket towards Beersheva on Sunday morning.
Tawhid wal Jihad said in a statement Sunday that the shelling was in response to the assassination of Popular Resistance Committee Leaders in southern Gaza earlier this month.
The group said it had launched 10 rockets since the assassinations.
The latest ceasefire was put in place after a week of spiraling violence in and around Gaza which left 26 Palestinians and an Israeli dead. An earlier truce announced last Sunday lasted less than 48 hours.
The fighting erupted after a deadly series of shooting attacks on a desert road just north of the Red Sea resort town of Eilat that killed eight Israelis and which Israel blamed on the Gaza-based Popular Resistance Committees.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=416603 20 jan 2012, 13:31 , Respect -
Maria 29 aug 2011
Palestinian man wounds eight Israelis in Tel Aviv
Haoman 17 night club
Israeli sources report that a Palestinian man attacked a crowd of Israelis outside a nightclub early Monday morning, stabbing several of them with a knife.
The stabbings came after the man stole a taxi, then ran over a Border Police officer near the nightclub. A barrier had been set up by Border police outside of the Tel Aviv nightclub 'Hoamin 17' for a big party attended by 2,000 people. The attacker drove through the barricade, then jumped out of the vehicle and began stabbing both police and partygoers, according to the Israeli police.
One employee of the nightclub told reporters with Ha'aretz newspaper, "We saw the taxi run into the barrier and we ran to help. We thought it was an accident."
Border police added that they originally thought the driver was drunk, and drove through the barrier by accident. But when he pulled a knife and stabbed people with it while shouting 'Allahu akbar (God is great)', they say they realized it was a politically-motivated attack, and subdued the man.
He was taken to a Tel Aviv hospital with wounds sustained when Israeli border police subdued the man. Israeli authorities confirm that he is currently undergoing interrogation by Israeli intelligence services.,
According to Israeli police, the attacker, who resides in Nablus in the West Bank, hailed a cab in the city of Jaffa, south of Tel Aviv, and then stabbed the taxi driver in the hand and stole the taxi.
The attack comes after a week of deadly Israeli airstrikes on Gaza that killed eighteen. A shooting attack against Israeli soldiers and civilians in southern Israel the previous week was initially blamed on Palestinians by the Israeli authorities, but was apparently carried out by Egyptians.
http://www.imemc.org/article/61905
Israel says Gaza gets arms from Libya
By Dan Williams
JERUSALEM (Reuters) -- Palestinians in Gaza have acquired anti-aircraft and anti-tank rockets from Libya during its six-month civil war, enlarging but not significantly improving their arsenal, Israeli officials said on Monday.
While the rebellion against Moammar Gadhafi has stirred concern abroad about the fate of Libya's aging chemical weapons stockpiles, Israel has no indication Hamas or other Palestinian factions have sought these, the officials said.
Instead, Israeli officials have detected an inflow of SA-7 anti-aircraft missiles and rocket-propelled grenades, said one official, describing an overland supply route that opened up between eastern Libya -- after it fell to the rebels -- and the Gaza Strip via Egypt.
"We've been seeing more SA-7s and RPGs coming across," said the official. "It's not a major qualitative enhancement for them."
The Soviet-designed SA-7 is a shoulder-fired, heat-seeking missile which Israel said Palestinians had previously smuggled into Gaza. Rocket-propelled grenades, designed to penetrate armor, are plentiful in the territory.
Another Israeli official said "thousands" of the weapons had reached Gaza in recent months, but did not provide figures on how many had originated in Libya.
Egypt's Sinai peninsula, which borders both Israel and Gaza, has long seen traffic in arms bound for Palestinians. The weapons come up through Sudan or arrive by ship over the Mediterranean.
State television reported in Cairo on Monday that Egyptian border guards had discovered "a large quantity" of weapons at the border with Libya, giving no more details.
Hamas and smaller armed factions declined comment on the Israeli statements.
Egypt has stepped up efforts to impose order in Sinai, though Cairo's authority has been weakened by the citizen revolt that forced President Hosni Mubarak from power.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=416925 - 1 sept 2011
Israeli army: Projectile fired from Gaza Strip
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- A projectile was fired at southern Israel from the Gaza Strip Wednesday night, an Israeli army spokeswoman said.
The projectile landed in the Eshkol regional council with no reported injuries.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=417120
7 sept 2011
Report: Rocket hits western Negev
TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma'an) -- A rocket exploded in an open area near a kibbutz in the Shaar Hanegev Regional Council in the western Negev on Wednesday, Israeli news reports said.
No injuries were reported, Israel's Ynet news site reported.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=418392
Israel security forces foil multiple terrorist attacks in Jerusalem, arrest dozens of Hamas militants
Shin Bet security service intercepts explosive after it was smuggled to Jerusalem, it emerges Wednesday; dozens of Hamas militants operating in 13 separate cells arrested by security forces.
The Israeli Shin Bet security service foiled a suicide terrorist attack last month in Jerusalem, it emerged Wednesday. An explosive belt was seized only 24 hours before the planned attack, after it was already smuggled into Jerusalem.
The interception of the planned attack was part of a large-scale operation by the Shin Bet, the IDF and the police against the Hamas military infrastructure in the West Bank and Jerusalem. During the operation, dozens of Hamas militants – operating in alleged 13 separate cells – were arrested.
The main cell charged with carrying out the attack was based in Hebron. The cell was in touch with the Hamas headquarters in Syria, and the date of the attack was set for August 21. The planned attack involved a fire extinguisher which contained six kilograms of explosives. The device was supposed to be carried by a suicide bomber in a bus or a mall in the Pisgat Ze'ev neighborhood in Jerusalem.
The same cell was responsible for the March 23 attack in the central bus station in Jerusalem, where Mary Jean Gardner, a British tourist, was killed, and 47 other people were injured.
The Shin Bet has recently noted significant attempts to restore Hamas' military infrastructure in the West Bank and execute terrorist attacks. The main goal, according to estimates, is kidnapping a soldier in order to negotiate the release of Palestinian prisoners.
Another terrorist cell exposed by the Shin Bet was operated from within Ketziot prison. The group included about twenty militants, whose prime objective was to kidnap an IDF soldier for bargaining purposes.
Yet another cell that has been arrested recently operated from Hebron under directions from Hamas leadership in Gaza. The cell's objective was also to kidnap an IDF soldier, smuggle him into the Sinai and then back through the tunnels to the Gaza Strip. The head of the cell, Ahmad Madhoun, aged 44 from Hebron, received 10,000 dollars on a visit to Saudi Arabia to purchase weapons for the operation.
http://fwd4.me/0AxY
Hamas official: No direct contacts with Israel
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- Hamas said Wednesday that the truce with Israel, which has mostly held for two weeks, was coordinated with Palestinian factions and not directly with Israeli authorities.
The lull "was not a joint decision with Israel," said Hamas lawmaker Salah Bardawil.
Hamas is not consulting with Israel about the "Palestinian national consensus" to restore calm. If the resistance acts outside the deal, the results will be negative, he said.
But he predicted that Israeli "escalation" would continue and even get worse as the country deals with an internal political crisis and Arab regimes undergo unrest which limits their ability to challenge Israel.
"Israel wants to run away from its internal crisis and pin it on Gaza," Bardawil said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=418355 20 jan 2012, 13:32 , Respect -
Maria 8 sept 2011
Update: Report: Israel foils Hamas attacks in Jerusalem
TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma'an) -- Israel's security service foiled a suicide attack last month in Jerusalem and seized an explosive belt 24 hours before the attack, Israeli news reports said Wednesday.
The Shin Bet's prevention of the attack was part of a large operation involving multiple Israeli security agencies during which "13 separate cells" were arrested, the Haaretz newspaper reported.
A spokesman for Hamas' Al-Qassam Brigades, however, dismissed the report in Haaretz and other Israeli news sites as false and said the security agencies made the allegations for political purposes.
Abu Ubayda, the spokesman, said the arrests of Hamas members were more likely intended to increase Israel's bargaining power in negotiations for a prisoner swap for captured soldier Gilad Shalit.
He said the reports "express a hostile point of view."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=418413 20 jan 2012, 13:32 , Respect -
Maria 9 sept 2011
Gunshots fired at western Negev homes; no injuries
Palestinian snipers fire at houses in Netiv Haasara, causing damage to several homes.
While the rocket fire has subsided, a new threat has emerged for the Gaza vicinity communities – gunshots fired from the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian snipers from the northern Gaza Strip fired at least 10 shots at houses in Netiv Haasara on Friday. No injuries were reported, however damage was caused to several houses. The residents were ordered to stay indoors as the IDF canvassed the area and were allowed to leave an hour later.
Security forces estimate Friday's shooting attack was a limited event. However, locals are calling the army to take a firm hand against the perpetrators of the attack.
Hof Ashkelon Council head Yair Farjoun said: "This town is like a military outpost, exposed to mortar shell and Qassam fire, and now firearms. We are pleased that the army is working to intercept the cells and doing a good job at that, and hope it will not be repeated."
One of the local residents recounted the experience: "My wife and kids were outside and I was indoors. My wife yelled that she heard gunshots. A friend called and told me that shots were fired at his house too as well as at the town's grocery store.
"It's a miracle that people who were there at the time were not hurt. It's very frightening. It's the sort of thing one can't prepare for. There is no alert and there are several spots exposed to this kind of fire."
He added, "I hope we don't have to face a new situation like this now."
On Wednesday, a Qassam rocket exploded in an open field in the Eshkol Regional Council. Several hours later Palestinians reported of IDF strikes in the Gaza Strip which killed an Islamic Jihad operative. The army denied the report.
Earlier, a Qassam rocket exploded in an open field in the Shaar Hanegev Regional Council. There were no injuries.
http://fwd4.me/0B2q - 19 sept 2011
Al-Quds Brigades threatens to wage war against PASF
JENIN, (PIC)-- Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad party, issued strong threats against the Palestinian Authority security forces, warning it would wage a “war of attrition” unless the PASF released one of its commanders Mahmoud al-Saadi.
“We address you as Mujahedeen before we launch a war of attrition on the members of your ‘puppet’ services,” the statement says, adding that “if you do not release Sheikh Mahmoud al-Saadi, one of the most prominent leaders of the PIJ in the West Bank, you will know who Al-Quds Brigades are.”
“The PIJ and its armed wing have been keen over the years not to violate Palestinian blood, now we say bluntly: release Sheikh Mahmoud al-Saadi before it’s too late.”
The PASF arrested Saadi Friday afternoon after a clash with his family during an attempt to arrest him.
In a separate statement, Al-Quds Brigades said Israeli occupation forces (IOF) arrested another of its elements Murad Malaysha, 24, from Jaba’ near Jenin in northern West Bank, on allegations of belonging to the PIJ party.
The statement also accuses the PASF of carrying out an arrest campaign against its cadres in the West Bank after those forces arrested Saturday eventing five of its cadres in Qalqilya city.
The previous night, the PASF arrested four PIJ cadres in the Tulkarem and Jenin governorates.
On Monday, in a continued campaign to suppress the Palestinian resistance, the PASF arrested eight supporters of Islamic resistance group Hamas in Tulkarem and Nablus governorates in the West Bank.
The IOF, also active in the West Bank, arrested Monday morning senior Hamas official Abdul-Jabbar Jarrar after raiding his home in Jenin and interrogating residents.
Jarrar had been previously detained in the Israeli prisons as well as those of the PASF, in the framework of “a revolving door policy” employed against resistance supporters by coordinating IOF and PASF.
Witnesses reported that the IOF arrested the same morning two other Palestinians in Jenin in raids where IOF troops set up ambushes were set up in the alleys and provocatively fired ammunition in the air.
http://fwd4.me/0BoW - 28 sept 2011
Army: 2 rockets hit southern Israel
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Two rockets fired from Gaza landed in open areas in southern Israel overnight Tuesday, without causing injuries, the Israeli army said.
The Ynet news site said one of the rockets hit a power line and cut off electricity in the locale, near a kibbutz in the Shaar Hanegev Regional Council in the western Negev.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=424384 20 jan 2012, 13:34 , Respect -
Maria 30 sept 2011
Israeli warplanes raids central Gaza Strip
Army invades Jenin and Other Villages