- 19 aug 2011
New Israeli Strike Kills Gaza Militant on Motorbike
Israeli airplanes fired a missile at a motorcycle in northern Gaza Strip around sunset, killing a militant, the third Palestinian killed Friday, witnesses and medical sources said.
The 25-year old Gaza militant, a member of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), was immediately killed when driving the motorbike, said Adham Abu Selmia, an emergency spokesman.
Six others were killed Thursday in another round of airstrike at a house in the southern city of Rafah, including a military leader and three of his assistants.
The PRC has claimed responsibility for firing dozens of mortar shells, locally-produced missiles and Russian-made Grad rockets into Israel since Thursday afternoon in retaliation for the killing of the PRC leader in Rafah.
Israel mounted its attacks in Gaza shortly after accusing Palestinian activists of taking part in deadly shootings and blasts in the Red Sea resort of Eilat in southern Israel. Eight Israelis were killed in the attacks.
Earlier on Friday, a Palestinian was killed in an Israeli raid in the Gaza Strip.
Another Palestinian was wounded when several artillery shells landed in eastern Gaza City. The dead and the wounded were taken to a hospital. Doctors said the dead was 22-year-old Mohammed Enaya, and that the wounded received moderate injuries.
Gaza's Hamas rulers denied any involvement in Eilat attacks, and said that the attackers have not reached the area through Sinai, which borders Gaza and Eilat.
Ahmed Bahar, deputy speaker of the Hamas-dominated Palestinian Legislative Council, called on the international community, mainly Egypt and Turkey, to intervene and press Israel to stop its operations in Gaza.
http://fwd4.me/09QV
Netanyahu says Eilat response 'only beginning'
TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma'an) -- The Israeli prime minister said Friday that his army's operations in Gaza were "only beginning," the Israeli daily Haaretz reported.
"We have a policy of extracting a very high price from anyone who causes us harm, and this policy is acted upon," Benjamin Netanyahu said, according to the report.
He thanked the Shin Bet security service as well as the army for “wiping out the leaders” of the organization behind the attacks and preventing an “even bigger catastrophe”.
Netanyahu also sent his condolences to the families of those who died, Haaretz reported.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=414488
Israeli air raids damage government buildings in Gaza
GAZA, (PIC)-- Israeli air raids on Friday morning resulted in widespread destruction and damage to many government buildings in Gaza City.
The airstrikes caused damage to the general employment office, the ministry of justice and the government information office, according to a government statement.
The government’s information office called on journalists to document the Israeli occupation crimes against Gaza and the Palestinian people.
Meanwhile, the general employment office said it will not be able to provide services to the public for now because of the severe damage the airstrikes caused to its building.
Israeli aircraft carried out ten airstrikes on Friday morning against various targets in Gaza. The airstrikes resulted in the killing of a Palestinian child and wounding of 18 people.
http://fwd4.me/09QI
Medics: 2 killed near Bureij refugee camp
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Two Palestinians were killed late Friday in new Israeli raids near Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, a medical official said, bringing the day's death toll in Gaza to four.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=414508
PRC, others claim Israel rocket attacks
TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma'an) -- Several armed groups in the Gaza Strip announced Friday that they targeted Israeli sites with rockets in response to the killing of several militants in Rafah a day earlier.
The military wing of the PRC said it fired a rocket at the "Karmia settlement" in response to the killing of its leaders Thursday in Rafah. Five members of the armed group were killed.
The Al-Aqsa Brigades said it launched a Grad rocket at Beersheva, and the Al-Mujahedeen brigades said its operatives launched projectiles toward Nahal Oz area east of Gaza.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=414460
Reporter: Airstrike near Khan Younis
AZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces launched an airstrike near the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis late Friday, a Ma'an correspondent reported. There were no immediate reports of injury or damage.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=414502
News Analysis: Israeli tyranny in Gaza
(24:38) News Analysis: Israeli tyranny in Gaza
Hours after gunmen attack military vehicles and buses Israel carried out airstrike on Gaza, Seven Palestinians' including a young girl were killed in the airstrike in Gaza town of Rafah.
This episode of News Analysis will discuss Israel's posturing & how this may turn focus away from their own domestic problems. Perhaps the growing protesters will be disregarded & likewise the significance of the timing of this attack in Israel, as Palestinians get ready for their September bid for statehood at the UN.
Palestinian killed in Israeli airstrike
At least one Palestinian has been killed and another injured in the latest Israeli airstrike against the besieged Gaza Strip, medics report.
The 22-year-old Mohammed Enaya was killed after Israeli air force targeted an area in the Zeitun neighborhood, east of Gaza City, on Friday.
His death brought to at least 12 the number of Gazans killed in the past 24 hours since Israel launched a series of air strikes against Gaza.
The strikes began after eight Israelis were killed in shooting attacks in the Negev Desert on Thursday.
Two children are reported to be among the dead. Dozens of Palestinians have also been injured in Israel's attacks.
Tel Aviv has accused resistance groups affiliated with Hamas of organizing the attacks and has vowed a “full force” response against the Palestinians in Gaza.
Hamas, however, has strongly dismissed the allegations, saying the group's fighters had nothing to do with the assault and has warned against any act of aggression against the enclave.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/194710.html
30 oct 2012, 14:25 , Respect -
Maria 19 aug 2011
Israelis injure Palestinian worshipers
Palestinian women queue to cross an Israeli-controlled checkpoint in the West Bank city of Bethlehem on August 19, 2011.
Several Palestinians have been injured after Israeli forces attacked a group of Palestinian youth as they tried to cross Israeli-controlled checkpoints into East al-Quds (Jerusalem.)
Palestinians were heading towards the al-Aqsa Mosque compound to attend the third Friday prayers in the holy month of Ramadan when they were attacked.
Israeli troops used water cannons to disperse the crowd and made several arrests, AP reported.
Since the beginning of Ramadan, Tel Aviv has restricted Palestinian access to the holy site for the Friday Prayers, allowing only Muslim men aged between 45 and 50 into the complex. Any Palestinian from the West Bank under the age of 35 has been denied entry.
This is not the first time that Israel has limited Palestinian access to the al-Aqsa Mosque compound for the Friday Prayers.
On several occasions, Israel has also attacked Palestinian worshippers inside the compound using tear gas, stun guns and rubber bullets.
Al-Aqsa is one of the holiest sites in Islam. It has been the scene of violent clashes between Palestinian worshipers and Israeli troops in the course of the occupation of Palestinian territories by the Tel Aviv regime.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/194666.html
30 oct 2012, 14:25 , Respect -
Maria 19 aug 2011
15 Palestinians killed and 40 wounded in 24 hours
GAZA, (PIC)-- The number of victims in the Gaza Strip in the latest Israeli occupation aggression rose to 15 martyrs and 40 wounded over the past 24 hours, the latest of whom were three victims killed while riding a motorcycle in the centre of Gaza City.
Palestinian sources said that Israeli aircraft fired at least one rocket at a motorcycle travelling on Road 30 in the centre of Gaza City ridden by more than one person including a child resulting in the death of three Palestinians.
Adham Abu Selmeyyah, spokesman of the emergency services in Gaza, said that three Palestinians including a two-year-old child died and a number of wounded people, including a woman were brought to hospital.
The victims were Dr. Monther Qureqe and his brother Mu’taz who is a commander affiliated with the Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad and his two-year-old son who were riding a motorcycle to hospital to seek treatment for the child.
Abu Selemeyyah said that Anwar Salim and Imad Abu Abdeh after an occupation aircraft targeted the motorcycle they were riding at the southern entrance to the Buraij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. Both of them are affiliated with the Quds Brigades.
PIC correspondent said that occupation aircraft Friday evening fired one rocket towards a group of residents in Abasan al-Jadida to the east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, but no casualties were reported.
Occupation aircraft also targeted a motorcycle in the Sheikh Zayed neighbourhood in the northern Gaza Strip killing Samed Abed, who is affiliated with the Salahuddin Brigades.
Earlier the PIC correspondent reported that occupation aircraft targeted a group of people at a stone cutting factory near the Wafa hospital to the east of Gaza City wounding two people one of theme a 15-year-old child.
Muhammad Enaya (22 years) was killed and another was wounded in a separate airstrike targeting a group of people in east Gaza City.
Two others, including a pregnant woman, were wounded in a separate airstrike.
This is in addition to the victims of the airstrikes that took place on Thursday evening.
http://fwd4.me/09Su
Israel Knew Attack was Coming, Expected Kidnapping Attempt
An initial investigation carried out by the Israeli army on the armed attack that targeting a bus loaded with Israeli soldiers, close to the border with Egypt, in the Israeli coastal city of Eilat, revealed that information regarding an attack was available before it took place, but pointed out a possible kidnapping attempt, not a shooting. Seven Palestinians, including children, and seven Egyptian officers were killed by Israeli bombardment.
The army stated that it found it difficult to deal with the information due to the large number of similar warnings, and that the military leadership estimated that the potential time for this attack would be at night, not in broad daylight.
The investigation also revealed that the attackers infiltrated into Israel through an area near an Egyptian military base, an unlikely location to infiltrate into Israel.
Israeli daily, Haaretz, reported that this attack was planned by the Popular Resistance Committee in the Gaza Strip, and that the fighters managed to infiltrate from the Gaza Strip into the Sinai desert through tunnels, before they travelled nearly 200 kilometers to an area that is only protected with tattered wire fence, 15 kilometers north of Eilat. They then opened fire at a bus carrying Israeli soldiers north of Netafim Crossing.
Haaretz further stated that the soldiers managed to kill five of the fighters while the Egyptian Security Forces killed two others. Israel believes that at least 15-20
fighters participated in the attack, and that most of them managed to escape.
According to Haaretz, the driver of the bus said that the attackers were dressed in Egyptian military uniforms, and that he thought that they were just repairing the border fence.
Haaretz added that the attack was initiated at noon on Thursday, and that approximately 15 gunmen, armed with rifles, grenades and explosives, infiltrated into Israel from Egypt and stationed themselves 200 meters away from each other at the Eilat Highway, Route 12, close to the border.
They then opened fire at the bus around 12:30 afternoon, wounding seven passengers. Minutes later, an empty bus and several cars arrived at the scene, and came under fire from the fighters while one of the gunmen ran towards the bus before activating his explosive belt killing himself and the bus driver.
The gunmen reportedly infiltrated into Sinai through a tunnel before they headed to an area that is 200 kilometers away, that is only protected by a tattered wire-fence, just 15 kilometers north of Eilat.
The Israel army shot and killed five gunmen while Egypt reported that its border police shot and killed two others. The rest apparently managed to escape unharmed.
Israel said that one of the fighters even fired an RPG (Rocket Propelled Grenades) at a military helicopter that arrived at the scene, but missed it.
Following the attack, Israel carried out several air strikes targeting a number of areas in different parts of the Gaza Strip killing seven Palestinians, including a 2 year old child and a teenager, aged 13. At least 19 residents, including children, were injured.
It is worth mentioning that Cairo stated that seven Egyptian officers were killed by Israeli military fire, targeting them in Sinai, while several others were injured.
Following the attack, a senior Egyptian military officer headed to Sinai along with several soldiers of the special brigades to assess the situation, especially since the Egyptian soldiers were in Egyptian territory close to the border and did not infiltrate into Israel.
Egypt says that an Israeli military helicopter chased the fighters in Egyptian territory and opened fire at them wounding Egyptian military personnel.
A massive protest is planned in front of the Israeli embassy in Cairo on Friday where hundreds are expected to attend.
Lieutenant Al-Sayyed Abdul-Wahab Mabrook, north Sinai Governor, denied the Israeli claims regarding Palestinian fighters infiltrating into Egypt through the border before they headed to Eilat, and stated that these claims are impossible to believe, as he said Egypt has a firm grip on the border through traps and extensive military deployment.
Mabrook, who headed the Egyptian Border Police until he became the governor of North Sinai, stated that Egypt has full control over the border with Gaza, and that the extensive security presence was not affected by the regime change in Egypt.
He also stated that the border from Rafah in the north to Taba in the south is very long, and that Egypt’s security presence there prevents any suspects from infiltrating through the area.
http://www.imemc.org/article/61855
Several killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza
(1:46) Several killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza - PressTv 110819 2 x viewed
Israel has carried out series of air strikes in Gaza Strip, killing at least eight people, including a senior Hamas leader.
Scores of others including children and women were also wounded in the Israeli raids.
Atef Abu Samra who lost his 13 year son in the overnight Israeli air raid had this to say.
The Israeli raids came following Thursday's attacks, in which at least eight Israelis were killed by gunmen who opened fire on a bus near Eilat.
The Hamas government denied responsibility for the attacks, saying that Israel's accusations and air strikes against the Palestinians in Gaza are mainly meant to export its internal crisis.
SB: Dr. Salama Marouf-Hamas Deputy Minister Of Information
Many here fear that another war is looming in Gaza similar to Israel's devastating assault in early 2009 that killed more than 1400 Gazans mainly civilians.
Observers say Israel's previous attempts have failed to launch a major attack on Gaza in order to hamper the Palestinian Authority's statehood bid at the UN next month.
Yet Thursday's attacks in Eilat were a precious opportunity for Israel to implement its plans.
http://presstv.com/detail/194752.html
Hamas seeks world’s help in ending escalation
Hamas Prime Minister in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, spoke with UN officials, Egyptian officials and with the Arab League secretary general in an effort to end the escalation in the Gaza Strip.
http://fwd4.me/09RL
GazaYBO Gaza Youth Break Out
Breaking : the 3 martyers minutes ago is Dr. Monther qreke and his brother moataz and his son Islam. so the 3 are relatives!!!
Report: Drone attack kills 3 in Gaza City
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- An Israeli drone attack on a civilian car in Gaza City killed three Palestinians including a five-year-old boy, Al-Jazeera reported. Three people including a woman were reportedly injured.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=414530
Hamas threatens Israel with 'disaster' if strikes continue
Hamas's military wing, the Izz a-Din al-Qassam Brigades, has issued a flier saying that "the blood of resistance leaders has not been shed in vain, the continuance of Israel's crimes will bring a disaster on its head."
The organization stressed that if Israel continues its airstrikes, Hamas will punish the state. Meanwhile, the Popular Resistance Committees' military wing claimed responsibility for firing five Grads, three Nasser rockets, and seven mortar shells at Israel Friday.
http://fwd4.me/09Qc
30 oct 2012, 14:25 , Respect -
Maria 30 oct 2012, 14:26 , Respect -
Maria 20 aug 2011
16 Gazans killed in 2 days of airstrikes
Israel has launched another round of airstrikes targeting Gaza.
Another round of Israeli airstrikes on the besieged Gaza Strip has killed three people, raising the death toll to 16 in two days of attacks.
In one airstrike, Israeli warplanes struck a target in the town of Khan Yunis, but no casualties have been reported from that attack yet.
Medical sources say a five-year-old was among the fatalities of the attacks carried out late on Friday.
The Israeli airstrikes began on Thursday, shortly after eight Israelis were killed near the Red Sea resort town of Eilat.
Dozens of Palestinians have also been injured in the attacks.
Israeli officials have blamed a Gaza-based militant group called the Popular Resistance Committee (PRC) for Thursday's attack and have vowed a “full force” response targeting Gaza.
Israel said the attackers had infiltrated from the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, although the PRC, which is not affiliated with Hamas, denied involvement in the incident.
Hamas has said that it had nothing to do with the assault and has warned against any act of aggression against the Gaza Strip.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/194758.html
Airstrikes, rocket attacks continue
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Israel and Palestinian armed groups battled for a third day Saturday with rockets fired from Gaza wounding three in southern Israel while Israeli planes attacked the coastal enclave in the early hours.
Israeli forces attacked a group of people in northern Gaza early Saturday injuring a Palestinian man near the city of Beit Hanoun, medical officials and witnesses said.
The man, who was not immediately identified, was standing with a group of Palestinians at a junction on the edge of the city when Israeli aircraft opened fire, a Ma'an correspondent reported.
Israel's ongoing bombardments across Gaza have left 14 Palestinians dead since Thursday and 44 injured, among them 11 children, 10 women, and three elderly people, medics say.
Seven Palestinians died late Friday and early Saturday at the height of the assault which Israel says is an ongoing response to a series of attacks Thursday that killed eight Israeli citizens.
The casualties from Saturday's early-morning rocket fire on the southern Israeli city of Ashdod were all "illegal" Palestinian workers, sleeping rough, according to Israeli police officials.
Israel radio reported that the workers, in their 20s, sustained serious injuries and were receiving treatment at a hospital in southern Israel. Israeli paramedics said they were hit by shrapnel.
"One rocket hit a house, causing damage but no casualties," police spokeswoman Luba Samri said.
"The second fell on open ground, among sand dunes, where it wounded three people, Palestinians staying in Israel illegally, injuring two seriously and one moderately," she said.
Several Palestinian groups have claimed rocket attacks on Israeli targets in the past 24 hours. The military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees said its operatives launched a rocket attack early Saturday.
The An-Nasser Brigades said in a statement that the rocket was in retaliation for Israeli attacks that left dead the group's commander Abu Awad An-Nayrab and four others Thursday.
Meanwhile airstrikes renewed across Gaza, targeting sites along the border with Egypt and in the north, Israel's military said.
The army said in a statement that its air force had targeted "two terror tunnels and a weapons storage facility" in southern Gaza as well as a "terror activity site" in the north.
"The terror tunnel was intended for the infiltration of terrorists into Israeli territory and for executing terror attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers," the statement said.
"The four sites were targeted in response to the terror attacks executed in the proximity of Eilat on Thursday, and the rockets fired from Gaza at Israel since," the statement added.
Palestinians reported no casualties from the overnight strikes but said that air raids on Friday and Thursday killed a total of 14 people and wounded over 40.
Israeli diplomatic officials were holding internal discussions on Saturday in the wake of Egypt's decision to recall its ambassador from Israel, the foreign ministry spokesman said Saturday.
"There was such an Egyptian announcement and we are holding discussions based on what has transpired," spokesman Yigal Palmor said.
Egyptian state television said Saturday that the ambassador was being withdrawn to protest the deaths of five Egyptian policemen killed during an Israeli pursuit of militants after Thursday's killings.
The Israeli military has pledged to probe the incident and advise Egypt of its findings.
"The IDF will investigate the matter thoroughly and update the Egyptians," a spokesman said Friday.
There have been conflicting reports from the Egyptian military and police about how they lost their lives.
A military official told MENA on Thursday that they were killed by stray Israeli helicopter fire aimed at the fleeing gunmen.
But on Friday, the state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper quoted a military official as saying the policemen were killed by gunmen trying to slip in from Israel.
Enan's visit was announced shortly after another policeman was declared dead following a border gunfight on Friday, which left one of his comrades gravely wounded with a bullet in the head.
Earlier, Israeli security sources said they had information that a man had blown himself up on the Egyptian side of the border, saying they believed he was one of the men on the run.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=414668
'Gaza raids seek to hide Israel woes'
(22:33) News Analysis: Escalating Instability in Middle East
A political observer says Israel's recent attacks on Gazans are an attempt to divert its public's attention away from its own internal problems.
“This [attacking Gaza] is causing the government inside of Israel itself to try to deflect attention away from its own internal problems that have resulted from the world economic crisis and focus more on this ongoing conflict [between Israel and Gaza]”, Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of Pan-African News Wire, told Press TV.
Israelis have for nearly a month demonstrated against Tel Aviv's bad handling of the economy, which has resulted in an increase in social inequalities.
Last Thursday, Israel began its airstrikes on Gaza shortly after eight Israelis lost their lives near the Red Sea resort town of Eilat.
Dozens of Palestinians have been killed and injured during the attacks.
Israeli officials have blamed a Gaza-based militant group called the Popular Resistance Committee (PRC) for Thursday's attack and have vowed a "full force" response targeting Gaza.
Israel said the attackers had infiltrated from the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, although the PRC, which is not affiliated with Hamas, denied involvement in the incident.
Hamas has said that it had nothing to do with the assault and has warned against any act of aggression against the Gaza Strip.
Israel has also imposed a blockade on Gaza since the Hamas government took control of the territory in 2007.
The blockade has had a disastrous impact on the humanitarian and economic situation in the impoverished territory.
Some 1.5 million people are being denied their basic rights, including the freedom of movement and their rights to appropriate living conditions, work, health and education.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/194908.html
AL plans emergency talks on Gaza
A policeman carries a wounded boy into a hospital following an Israeli air strike in Gaza City, August 20, 2011.
The Arab League (AL) has announced plans to hold an emergency meeting to discuss the continuous Israeli air raids on the impoverished Gaza Strip.
"The Arab League will hold an emergency meeting on Sunday, at the request of Palestine, to examine the repercussions of the dangerous situation following Israel's continuous aggression on Gaza," AFP quoted AL Deputy Secretary General Ahmad Bin Helli as saying on Saturday.
He further added that the 22-member organization would hold the meeting on the level of the permanent delegates.
Since Thursday, Israel has launched numerous air raids on the Gaza Strip, killing at least 16 and injuring dozens of Palestinians.
Moreover, Israel has claimed it launched the attacks in response to assaults that targeted two buses and a military vehicle near the Red Sea resort of Eilat in southern Israel, which left eight Israelis dead.
Israeli Minister for Military Affairs Ehud Barak quickly accused resistance groups in Gaza for the attacks and vowed a “full response.”
However, the democratically elected government of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas in Gaza strongly dismissed the allegations and warned against any act of aggression against the enclave.
Israel has also imposed a blockade on Gaza since the Hamas government took control of the territory in 2007.
The blockade has had a disastrous impact on the humanitarian and economic situation in the impoverished territory.
Some 1.5 million people are being denied their basic rights, including the freedom of movement and their rights to appropriate living conditions, work, health and education.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/194872.html
Arab League to hold emergency meeting on Gaza
CAIRO, (PIC)-- The Arab League is to hold an emergency meeting on Sunday to discuss the ongoing Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, announced ambassador Ahmed Bin Hili, the deputy secretary general, on Saturday.
He said in a statement that the meeting at the level of permanent representatives would discuss the serious repercussions of the Israeli aggression on Gaza.
Arab sources said that the meeting would reactivate previous resolutions supporting Gaza and its reconstruction in addition to exchanging ideas on means of responding to the Israeli attacks including asking for an urgent UN Security Council session.
The series of Israeli air raids on the Strip since Thursday killed 15 citizens and wounded more than 40 including women and children.
http://fwd4.me/09Tn
Fresh Israeli air raid injures Gazan
Another Palestinian has been injured in the latest Israeli air strike on the Gaza Strip as the casualties are rising in the besieged region.
The new attack follows a series of air raids targeting the Gaza Strip which killed at least 16 Palestinians in the past three days, Press TV correspondent reported.
The Israeli airstrikes began on Thursday, shortly after eight Israelis lost their lives near the Red Sea resort town of Eilat.
Dozens of Palestinians have also been injured during the recent attacks.
Israeli officials have blamed a Gaza-based militant group called the Popular Resistance Committee (PRC) for Thursday's attack and have vowed a "full force" response targeting Gaza.
Israel said the attackers had infiltrated from the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, although the PRC, which is not affiliated with Hamas, denied involvement in the incident.
Hamas has said that it had nothing to do with the assault and has warned against any act of aggression against the Gaza Strip.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/194825.html
Three more Palestinians, including child, injured in Israeli air strikes
GAZA, (PIC)-- Three Palestinians, among them a child, were injured Saturday as Israeli warplanes carried out several strikes on the Gaza Strip.
The warplanes fired at least one missile around a petrol station at the edge of Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza Strip injuring one man, Palestinian sources said.
He was transported to a local hospital, medical sources said, describing his injuries as minor.
Two others in the Al-Shaja’iyya district of Gaza were injured after being fired at by a reconnaissance plane hovering over the area.
Witnesses said reconnaissance planes struck a civilian vehicle near Muadh ben Jabal school in the Al-Shaja’iyya neighborhood in eastern Gaza at noon Saturday.
They added that at least one Palestinian was injured and lost his foot in the strike. In addition, a child was left with minor injuries in the same strike.
Since Thursday, fifteen Palestinians have died and some forty have been injured in a string of Israeli strikes.
Among the casualties was the secretary general of the Popular Resistance Committees Kamal al-Neireb and four members of the same organization during a strike in Rafah in southern Gaza Strip.
http://fwd4.me/09Tm
Palestinian youth injured in renewed wave of Israeli air strikes
GAZA, (PIC)-- A Palestinian youth was wounded in an Israeli air raid on the northern Gaza Strip city of Beit Hanun on Saturday morning, Palestinian sources said.
They said that Israeli warplanes fired at least one missile near a petrol station in the northern city wounding the citizen, who was hospitalized with minor injuries.
Israeli aircraft launched four other separate raids on the coastal enclave before dawn Saturday but no casualties were reported.
Local sources told the PIC reporter that the first raid targeted Qarara to the north east of Khan Younis, south of the Strip.
They said that two other raids blasted tunnels along the Egyptian borders in Rafah while a fourth strike was registered in northern Gaza.
Adham Abu Salmiya, the spokesman for emergency services in Gaza, charged the Israeli occupation forces with using a new type of missiles that cause severe burns.
He added in a statement at dawn Saturday that a number of the wounded had their limbs amputated.
Abu Salmiya urged the world community to protect the Palestinian civilians and to stop the incessant Israeli targeting of the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian government had asked the UN Human Rights Council to send a fact-finding mission to Gaza to probe the Israeli war crimes in the wake of the Israeli air strikes that killed 15 Palestinians and wounded dozens since Thursday.
http://fwd4.me/09Tl
Israeli former commander calls for murdering Haneyya and Jabari
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Zvika Fogel, a former commander in the Israeli army's southern district, called for assassinating Palestinian premier Ismail Haneyya and head of Al-Qassam Brigades Ahmed Al-Jabari and recapturing Philadelphia route between Egypt and Gaza.
Fogel told Israeli journalists that Israel should respond to Eilat operation by targeting the political leadership of Hamas represented by Haneyya who heads the government in Gaza and its military leadership represented by Al-Jabari.
He also called for reseizing Philadelphia area at the pretext of preventing the infiltration of resistance fighters from Gaza to the Sinai Peninsula to carry out operations against Israeli targets.
The Israeli officer claimed the attackers in Eilat area were intending to kidnap Israeli soldiers.
http://fwd4.me/09Ta
Egyptian security experts warn Israel planning on occupying part of Sinai
CAIRO, (PIC)-- Egyptian security experts warn Israel is planning on taking control in part of the Sinai Peninsula with support from the United States.
The move would be a proactive step by the Israelis after the ouster of Israeli ally and former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.
Former Major General Sameh Seif El-Yezel, an expert on national security and intelligence, said that Israel was planning on crossing Egyptian borders and occupying somewhere between five and seven kilometers of the Sinai Peninsula in order to secure its borders. He pointed out that world powers would support Israel in case that happened.
Another security expert Ibrahim Salah said the plan had leaked during the onset of Egypt’s Jan. 25 revolution. He said that Israel managed to convince the U.S. that the Mubarak removal would threaten the stability of its borders with Egypt and that it was in the best interest to secure those boundaries by occupying part of Sinai by any means necessary.
Egyptian newspaper Al-Masri Al-Yawm quoted Egyptian security sources as saying that the situation in Sinai has become serious, as tensions rise at home and abroad. He said on one hand there is an internal conflict across the peninsula between elements from the Egyptian armed forces and armed groups, and on the other hand, the Israelis have attacked in the north, confirming fears that Israel has intent to move into the peninsula.
The sources said that Israel wanted to demonstrate that Egypt was unable to control security in Sinai and that its borders with Egypt are not secure. He also said there was a possibility that in the near future, Israel would ask for international armed forces to be deployed to monitor its borders with Egypt.
Meanwhile, Israeli war minister Ehud Barak has instructed to take additional contractors to accelerate the constructing of a security fence on its boundaries with Egypt following the Elat attacks. The new plan is to have the wall built by the end of 2012 instead of 2013 as initially planned.
http://fwd4.me/09TV
Haneyya contacts Qatari Emir, Egyptian officials on Israeli raids
GAZA, (PIC)-- Palestinian premier in Gaza Ismail Haneyya briefed the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad Al-Thani, over the phone on Friday night on latest developments of the Israeli aerial raids on the Gaza Strip.
A statement for the premier’s office said that Haneyya briefed the Emir on latest field developments in light of the ongoing Israeli air aggression on the besieged enclave.
Haneyya earlier made similar contacts with Egyptian officials and the UN asking for immediate intervention to stop the Israeli attacks on the Strip.
Taher Al-Nunu, the government spokesman, said in a statement late Friday night that Haneyya reached Arab League Secretary General Nabil Al-Arabi on the phone and discussed with him the serious developments in Gaza.
http://fwd4.me/09TG
'Israel prepares for war in Sinai desert'
An Israeli military convoy along the Egyptian border
The former head of Israel's National Security Council (NSC) urges military action by the regime in the Sinai Peninsula, following growing tensions with Egypt.
Uzi Dayan told Israel's Channel 7 on Friday that Israeli military and security forces should prepare for a period different from the past in dealing with the new Egyptian government.
He claimed that the military effort would aim to target those that represent a threat to the Israeli regime.
"This is the time for the Israeli army to prevail its control inside Sinai," Dayan went on to say.
Israeli troops are banned from entering the Sinai Peninsula under a 1979 peace treaty with Egypt.
Tensions have escalated between Cairo and the Tel Aviv regime after Israeli soldiers killed several Egyptian military and security personnel on Thursday.
Dayan also revealed that a meeting was held in the presence of Israeli Army Chief of Staff Benny Jants last week to discuss issues related to Sinai Peninsula but he did not elaborate on details of the talks.
Stressing on preserving the US-sponsored peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, he proclaimed that Israeli officials should "maintain the security of their civilians whilst ensuring that no tensions between Israel and Egypt escalate."
Israeli military must "respond strongly by pursuing the terrorists and to inform the Egyptian government that we may militarily intervene in Sinai" to prevent the Israeli border from becoming a vulnerable zone for militant attacks.
On Saturday, Egypt decided to withdraw its ambassador to Tel Aviv as relations between the two governments remain strained.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/194803.html
Israel continues deadly air strikes on Gaza
Fourteen people killed in Gaza over the past two days as fighters launch rockets into Ashdod, injuring three people.
Palestinian fighters in Gaza have launched more rockets into southern Israel, injuring three people.
The attacks against the coastal town of Ashdod on Saturday were in response to continued Israeli raids on the Gaza Strip that have now killed 14 people during the past two nights.
The violent exchanges follow coordinated deadly assaults by gunmen who targeted two buses, a car and an army vehicle in the area north of Israel's Red Sea resort of Eilat on Thursday.
Eight Israelis, including six civilians and two soldiers, were killed that day alongside seven of the attackers, among which were two suicide bombers who detonated near a bus and during a confrontation with soldiers. Over 40 Israelis were also wounded, local media reported.
Israel has vowed to "hunt down" the perpetrators who it said had infiltrated from the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.
Israeli officials have blamed a Gaza-based armed group called the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) for Thursday's attacks, although the faction has denied any involvement.
The PRC is not affiliated with the Hamas.
Gaza hit
Three Palestinians including a five-year-old boy were killed and three passersby were injured in an attack on a vehicle in central Gaza City on Friday, Al Jazeera's Safwat Al Kahlout reported.
Previously, the latest air strike on the Gaza Strip hit Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza late Friday night, killing two men.
The Al-Quds Brigade, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad, confirmed that one of the men, Emad Abu Abda, was their member. The other man's identity and possible affiliations were not immediately known.
This was the Israeli air forces' sixth operation since beginning their raids in retaliation for Thursday's incidents.
Hours earlier, the Israeli air force targeted rocket launchers, "two weapons manufacturing sites in central Gaza" and "terrorist activity in the north and the south" of the strip", the Israeli military told Al Jazeera.
Five members of the PRC, including its leader, were killed in Thursday's overnight air strike in Gaza's southern city of Rafah and another killed on Friday, Al Kahlout reported from Gaza.
Abu Mujahid, a PRC spokesman, has said the group vows to take revenge "against everything and everyone" for its members’ deaths.
Medical sources said at least three civilians have also been killed, including two boys aged three and 13 who died early on Friday.
Rockets from Gaza
Over 24 rockets had been fired from Gaza into Israel by Friday night, some reaching as far as the southern coastal city of Ashdod, the Israeli military confirmed.
Two rockets fired at Ashdod "caused damage and injuries at a synagogue and school", according to a military statement. Four Israeli civilians were injured in Ashdod, the Israeli medical service Magen David Adom told Al Jazeera.
Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said on Thursday that his country "will exact a price, a very heavy price" for those who "attempt to escalate terrorist war against Israel" and "believe that they can attack our citizens and get away with it".
While visiting the wounded at a medical center in the southern city of Beer Sheva on Friday, Netanyahu said Israel's ongoing retaliatory measures against Gaza is not Israel's "first reaction". He also pledged to "speed up" the construction of a bolstered barrier along its southern border with Egypt to cover 100km of the stretch by the end of the year.
The barrier currently runs for 45km of the full 200km stretch. The Israeli defence ministry had planned several months ago to complete the project by 2012.
Lieutenant Colonel Avital Leibovich, a spokeswoman for the Israeli military, said Israel does not seek to escalate the situation because it is "not the ones who chose to target civilian buses and vehicles".
Leibovich said Israeli forces were targeting "not only specific terror organisations in Gaza, but rather anyone who has some influence ... with terror", including groups of people it suspects of launching rocket attacks.
According to Gaza residents, three Hamas-controlled compounds in Rafah were among the targets hit in Thursday's late night air strikes.
Ghazi Hamad, Hamas' deputy foreign minister, denied any connection between Hamas or the people of Gaza with the attacks in southern Israel.
"From the first moment we are surprised that Israel started to target people. To target civilians, to target places, to target buildings before knowing who stands behind this operation. So, I think that Israel [always] considers Gaza a weak point that they can target them under any circumstances," he said.
Hamad called the rocket attacks from Gaza,"a kind of natural reaction against the Israeli aggression against our people."
He continued: "If they stop their aggression and attacks against Gaza, I think people here are interested in keeping Gaza calm and quiet."
Hamad also said that Hamas was "surprised" that members of the international community had not condemned Israel for "killing civilians".
http://fwd4.me/09TE
Medics: Palestinian injured in attack on northern Gaza
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces attacked the northern Gaza Strip early Saturday injuring a Palestinian man near the city of Beit Hanoun, medical officials said.
Warplanes fired a missile at a group of Palestinians at a junction on the edge of the city, a Ma'an correspondent reported.
Israel's ongoing bombardments across the coastal enclave have left 14 Palestinians dead since Thursday and 44 injured, among them 11 children, 10 women, and three elderly people, medics say.
Seven Palestinians died late Friday and early Saturday at the height of the assault which Israel is calling retaliation for a series of attacks Thursday that killed eight Israeli citizens.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=414615
Egypt protests Israeli escalation in Gaza
The Egyptian government and population have challenged the Israeli response to a Palestinian attack on Thursday, which has involved bombardment of different areas of the Gaza Strip and a full lockdown of the borders.
Egypt lodged an official protest demanding an investigation of the killing of three Egyptian border guards by the Israeli military during Israeli operations that followed a Palestinian attack on an Israeli bus.
An Egyptian official told the MENA News Agency, "Egypt has demanded an urgent probe into the circumstances of the deaths and injuries of Egyptian forces' members inside our borders."
Although the Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak claimed that the bus attackers entered Israel from Egypt in order to carry out the attack, Egyptian officials denied the charge, claiming that their hold on the border is secure.
Following the attack on the Israeli bus, Egyptian border officials shut down the Rafah border, the only crossing point for Gazans to leave or enter the besieged coastal strip.
Also on Friday, dozens of Egyptian protesters gathered outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo, demanding an end to the Israeli assault on Gaza.
Protesters chanted, "Close the embassy! Expel the ambassador!", and some of the protesters burned an Israeli flag. They challenged the Israeli bombardment of Gaza that continued through Thursday night and Friday, following the attack against Israeli soldiers and civilians on Thursday afternoon.
http://www.imemc.org/article/61857
Twitter
occpal occupiedpalestine Last night 2 children brought into shifa hospital, mentioned as being in critical condition. Medics also mentioned injuries caused by unknown and not seen before weaponry, burning and shredding the bodies of the martyred.
(video Extremely graphic & shocking)
Attacking from Israel Army to Gaza from Mohammed Al Majdalawi on Vimeo.
Israeli army confirms 4 airstrikes overnight
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Airstrikes renewed across Gaza early Saturday, targeting sites along the border with Egypt and in the north, Israel's military said.
The army said in a statement Saturday morning that its air force had targeted "two terror tunnels and a weapons storage facility" in southern Gaza as well as a "terror activity site" in the north.
"The terror tunnel was intended for the infiltration of terrorists into Israeli territory and for executing terror attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers," the statement said.
"The four sites were targeted in response to the terror attacks executed in the proximity of Eilat on Thursday, and the rockets fired from Gaza at Israel since," the statement added.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=414576
Update: Medics: Drone strike kills 3 in Gaza City
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Israeli warplanes killed three Palestinians in an airstrike in central Gaza City late Friday, medics said, raising the death toll to 14 in the coastal enclave since a deadly attack in southern Israel on Thursday.
The latest strike hit a civilian car killing three people from the same family including a 5-year-old boy and a doctor, Gaza medical official Adham Abu Salmiya said, adding that three others were wounded.
Israel has carried out more than a dozen airstrikes across the Gaza Strip following a series of deadly shooting attacks in the Negev desert left eight Israelis dead on Thursday.
Fourteen Palestinians have now been killed and scores injured after Israeli officials blamed Gaza-based militant group the Popular Resistance Committees, although the faction has denied any involvement.
On Friday evening, Hamas' armed wing the Al-Qassam Brigades called off a ceasefire with Israel and urged factions in Gaza to respond to Israeli attacks, Al-Aqsa Radio reported.
"There can be no truce with the Israeli occupation while it commits massacres against the Palestinian people without justification," a representative of the militant group was quoted as saying.
On Friday evening two Palestinians were killed in air raids near the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, a medical official said.
Earlier, an airstrike killed Samed Abdul Mu'ty Abed while he was riding a motorcycle in the north, medics said.
Another Palestinian, a 22-year-old identified as Muhammad Enayeh, was killed in a separate attack. His body and another injured person were taken Shifa hospital in Gaza City, medics said.
Abu Salmiya said missiles also targeted a concrete factory in the same area seriously injuring two locals.
On Friday morning, Israeli warplanes struck An-Nuseirat refugee camp leaving one Palestinian lightly injured, he said.
Fighter jets bombed a generator near the camp, causing a power outage across the area and missiles hit a training camp of the armed wing of Hamas, the Al-Qassam Brigades, witnesses said.
The Israeli military said aircraft "targeted two weapons manufacturing sites in the central Gaza Strip and a terror activity site in both the northern and southern Gaza Strip."
"This is a response to the terror attacks executed against Israel in the last 24 hours," an army statement said.
At around 8 a.m. Friday Israel launched airstrikes on the Az-Zaitoun neighborhood south of Gaza City causing damage but no injuries, medics said.
Just after midnight Friday, Israeli warplanes launched a series of raids targeting Gaza City, the northern towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya, and Khan Younis in the south.
Abu Salmiya said an airstrike on a home near the former intelligence services headquarters in Gaza City killed 13-year-old Mahmoud Abu Samra and injured 18 others.
Elsewhere, Apache helicopters fired at least two missiles toward a Palestinian military site in the town of Beit Lahiya and a missile near Khan Younis landed in an open area and caused no injuries or damage.
The overnight strikes followed a day of violence in which gunmen unleashed bloody mayhem on on a desert road near the Red Sea resort town of Eilat.
Six Israeli civilians, a soldier and a police officer were killed in several hours of attacks on a desert road some 20 kilometers north of Eilat.
Israel officials were quick to point the finger at Gaza, although the territory's Hamas rulers denied any connection to the attacks.
But the Israeli military said it held the Islamist group ultimately responsible for violence coming from the territory it controls.
"If Hamas wants an escalation, it will pay a high price," Brigadier General Yoav Mordechai told public radio on Friday, saying some form of ground operation in Gaza was not out of the question.
"All options are open, including a pin-point [ground] operation," he said.
Shortly after the attack near Eilat, Israeli warplanes attacked targets in southern Gaza which killed six people, including a two-year-old toddler and five militants from the Popular Resistance Committees.
The PRC vowed bitter revenge for the attack, which killed its leader and three other top cadres, and on Friday claimed responsibility for firing at least seven rockets and mortars into Israel.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=414545
Criminal Zionism will bring about lasting disaster unto Jews
By Khalid Amayreh in occupied East
Israeli leaders have nearly lost their composure, reacting to a rare resistance attack originating from the Sinai Peninsula near the southernmost town of Um al Rushrash, renamed by the Zionists as Elat.
Appearing existentially anxious and morbidly hypochondriac, Israeli prime minister Benyamin Netanyahu was behaving in a conspicuously convulsive manner.
He vowed to murder Palestinians, saying "we must kill those trying to hurt Jews." Netanyahu, an inherently dishonest and racist politician, thought that the only way Israel could prove her military might was by ganging up on nearly helpless and virtually undefended Gazans who are languishing under a lingering blockade that has made the coastal enclave very much a modern-day version of the Warsaw Ghetto.
But like the rest of the Zionist establishment, Netanyahu is living in a state of denial. He easily forgets or ignores the fact that Israel itself is a gigantic crime against humanity if only because that state happens to be the effect of the grandest land theft in history.
In fact, Israel not only occupies the ancestral homeland of another people, the Palestinians, but is also trying rather incessantly to ethnically cleanse the native Palestinians and obliterate the Arab-Islamic identity of their patrimonial homeland from time immemorial.
The resistance operation in southern Palestine was not thunder on a clear day. The brutal occupation of Palestine by East European Jews, shipped to the Holy Land in order to compensate them for the German holocaust, created a quagmire of problems that won't go away until the slate is wiped clean.
No one is against the principle of Jews living peacefully in Palestine. However, Jews or any other people have no right to lord it over the truly native people of the land or worse, enslave, torment, oppress, and murder them as Israel has been doing ever since its misbegotten birth sixty-three years ago.
The Palestinians are an integral part of the awakening Arab and Muslim world. They would never ever allow themselves to become the aboriginals of Palestine, nor the Seminoles, Cherokees, or Navahos of the region. Their attachment to the land is umbilical and their memories don't succumb easily to oblivion.
Hence, the latest incident near Elat should be viewed as a mere reminder to all concerned that no matter what level of insolence and arrogance of power Israel is maintaining or aspiring to reach, Zionists will continue to live a life of anxiety, insecurity and instability.
Israelis can't and won't have peace if the Palestinians are not granted justice. But true justice for the Palestinian people would effectively spell the end of the state known as Israel . In fact, this summarizes the conflict in Palestine in one small nutshell.
So, let the Zionist establishment not go euphoric about Jewish control over U.S. Congress, politics and policies, because even the mighty American empire will have to meet its days of demise sooner or later.
The Nazi-like Israeli state (Nazi-like because when Jews or anyone else think, behave and act like the Nazis, they effectively become Nazis themselves) is unlikely to change course until it is too late. This is why they will continue to murder Palestinians, steal their land, destroy their homes, and banish them away from their families and beloved ones. Israel will also continue to try to consummate Jewish fascism in the same manner the German Nazis had tried to consummate theirs. And, certainly, the Zio-Nazis will meet their ineluctable fate more or less the same way the German Nazis had met theirs.
One would have hoped that the voices of wisdom and reason would prevail among the Jewish community in this land. However, with Zionism, which is nothing less than Jewish Nazism despite efforts to portray a different image through its vast network of propaganda and hasbara, succeeding in transforming most Jews from basically decent people with a special concern for justice and fairness into land thieves, child-killers and hate-mongers, the face of world Jewry seems to have irreversibly changed to the worse.
This is certainly a bad omen for Jews, especially those who wouldn't stand up for justice, and opt just to go with the flow because Zionism represents the Zeitgeist or spirit of the time.
Jews had experienced such episodes several times when they incurred the disastrous consequences of their insolence, vanity, arrogance of power and criminality. But this time, they most likely will meet the mother of all disasters because the modern-day Golden Calf, which is Zionism, has succeeded in blinding the eyes and obliterating the senses of most Jews..
When the Roman Jewish historian Josephus, author of the "Jewish War," described the destruction of Jerusalem at the hands of the Romans more than 2000 years ago, he spoke of a city that "deserved these terrible misfortunes on no other account than that she produced a generation such as brought about its ruin."
I am certain that future historians, Jewish and otherwise, would write more or less the same thing about the arrogant and conceited generation of Zionists who are going to bring about a lasting disaster to the Jewish people, thanks to their corruption, immorality and evil deeds.
http://fwd4.me/09Sv
Hamas armed wing abandons ceasefire with Israel
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- The military wing of Hamas, the Al-Qassam Brigades, has called off a ceasefire with Israel and will allow factions in Gaza to respond to Israeli attacks, Al-Aqsa Radio reported late Friday.
"There can be no truce with the Israeli occupation while it commits massacres against the Palestinian people without justification," a representative of the militant group was quoted as saying.
Al-Qassam "calls on all factions to respond to the Israeli occupation's crimes."
Air attacks have killed at least 13 Palestinians in 24 hours, after Israeli leaders threatened to respond harshly to an operation Thursday near Eilat that left eight Israeli citizens dead.
Israel blames a group of Gaza militants for the shooting attacks near the Egyptian border, but the Popular Resistance Committees has denied that its operatives were involved.
Hamas, too, has denied charges by Israeli officials that the attacks "originated" in Gaza.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=414541
30 oct 2012, 14:26 , Respect -
Maria 20 aug 2011
Israeli forces 'fire live ammunition' at Hebron rally
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces on Saturday used live ammunition to disperse a demonstration against land confiscation in Beit Ummar near Hebron, local officials said.
Popular committee spokesman Younis Arar said soldiers stormed the rally as demonstrators marched toward the illegal Karmi Zur settlement, built on Palestinian-owned land.
Arar said it was the first time Israeli troops used live bullets at the weekly protest in Beit Ummar. He added that forces assaulted several protesters.
Locals Yousif Abu Maria, 36, and Majdi Zaaqiq, 40, and five foreign nationals were detained, he added.
An army spokeswoman did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=414756
30 oct 2012, 14:26 , Respect -
Maria 20 aug 2011
Egypt: Israel violated 1979 peace treaty
A Palestinian boy inspects damages following an Israeli airstrike on Rafah in the Gaza Strip.
Egypt's state media say Israel violated a peace treaty signed between Cairo and Tel Aviv in 1979 after Israeli troops entered Egyptian territory and killed five security personnel.
The international force known as Multinational Force and Observer (MFO), the monitoring force stationed in the Sinai desert under the 1979 treaty, said on Saturday that it has recorded two violations of the treaty committed by Israel.
The MFO said the violations included entering Egyptian territory and firing from the Egyptian side of the border.
The MFO report, however, mentioned nothing about Israel's accusations that militants it was pursuing on Thursday had infiltrated the Negev desert from Egypt.
Egypt, which is the first Arab country to sign a peace deal with Israel in 1979, summoned the Tel Aviv's envoy demanding an apology and an investigation.
Egypt's state television reported on Saturday that the country would recall its ambassador in Tel Aviv.
The death toll for Egypt's military personnel climbed to five on Friday afternoon after two officers that were wounded in the Israeli strike succumbed to death at a hospital.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/194905.html
Quartet warns Gaza at 'risk of escalation'
BRUSSELS (AFP) -- World powers trying to broker peace in the Middle East warned Saturday there is a "risk of escalation" after three days of fighting over Gaza, and urged key players in the region to hit the brakes.
"The Quartet remains concerned about the unsustainable situation in Gaza as well as the risk of escalation, and calls for restraint from all sides," read a statement agreed by the European Union, the Palestinians' largest aid donor, Russia, the United Nations and the United States.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=414788
Egypt tells Israel to stop Gaza attacks
CAIRO (AFP) -- Egypt called on Israel Saturday to immediately halt punitive strikes on the Gaza Strip after militants carried out deadly attacks in Israel.
"Egypt denounces the use of force against civilians in any circumstance and strongly advises Israel to immediately stop its military operations against Gaza," a foreign ministry statement said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=414783
Haniyeh seeks international advice on crisis in Gaza
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- Prime Minister in Gaza Ismail Haniyeh made calls Friday with Egyptian, UN and Arab officials in order to stop Israel's attacks on the Gaza Strip, aides said.
Haniyeh spoke with the Arab League secretary-general and the Qatari emir, they said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=414670
Egypt envoy: Initial agreement to restore ceasefire
RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Egypt's ambassador to the Palestinian Authority said Saturday that Cairo was exerting efforts to calm tensions between Israel and factions in Gaza following a sharp escalation in violence.
Yasser Othman said both sides have reached an initial agreement to restore a ceasefire between Israel and factions in the Gaza Strip. Egypt is mediating to stop "Israel's aggression on Gaza," he said.
Hamas' armed wing called off the two-year lull late Friday after a series of deadly Israeli airstrikes. Still, the Al-Qassam Brigades is not believed to have taken part in the latest hostilities.
As for Egypt's own breakdown with Israel over the deaths of security forces in the Sinai, Othman said, "What is needed from Israel is a formal apology and a commitment to never do this again."
Israel is not interested in escalating tensions with Egypt, he added.
But Othman told Ma'an that Israel must apologize for the deaths of five Egyptian policemen killed in the Sinai if it hoped to restore normal relations with its oldest ally in the region.
Asked how recalling Egypt's ambassador from Tel Aviv would help the dispute, Othman said the move "sends a strong message to Israel that Egypt stands by its civilians and soldiers."
Israel knows well Egypt's critical role in maintaining security in the Sinai area, he said, and it shares responsibility for the attack Thursday in Eilat because both sides are responsible for protecting the border.
He pointed out that investigations into the Eilat attack were ongoing.
State television said Saturday that Egypt decided to withdraw its ambassador from Israel to protest the deaths on the border during retaliatory attacks on Palestinian militants.
"Egypt has decided to withdraw its ambassador to Israel until there is an official apology," it said.
The Egyptian government had asked "for an official apology from Israel" at the end of a crisis meeting overnight, the state-run MENA news agency reported in a statement.
Information Minister Osama Heykal said the policemen were killed "inside Egyptian territory as a result of an exchange of fire between Israeli forces and armed elements inside Israeli territory."
It is the second time that Egypt, the first Arab country to have signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, recalls its ambassador from Tel Aviv.
In November 2000 Egypt recalled its envoy from Israel to protest over what it said was "the excessive use of force by Israel against the Palestinians after the second intifada," or Palestinian uprising.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=414680 30 oct 2012, 14:26 , Respect -
Maria 30 oct 2012, 14:26 , Respect -
Maria 21 aug 2011
Fresh Israeli attacks wound 8 Gazans
Fresh Israeli attacks on two towns in the impoverished Gaza Strip have left at least eight Palestinians wounded, medics say.
According to Palestinian medical sources, several civilians, including two children, were injured after the Israeli army fired a rocket at a group of people in the town of Beth Lahia, a Press TV correspondent reported on Sunday.
Meanwhile, airstrikes targeting Gaza City on Sunday left several other Palestinians injured in the besieged enclave.
At least 16 Palestinians have been killed and more than 48 others injured since Israel began launching its airstrikes on the Gaza Strip on Thursday. Half of the victims are believed to be women and children.
Israel claimed the attacks were launched in response to assaults that targeted two buses and a military vehicle near the Red Sea resort of Eilat in southern Israel, which left eight Israelis dead.
Israeli Minister for Military Affairs Ehud Barak quickly accused resistance groups in Gaza for the attacks and vowed a “full response.”
Hamas has said that it had nothing to do with the assault and warned against any act of aggression against the Gaza Strip.
Israel also imposed a blockade on Gaza since the Hamas government took control of the territory in 2007.
The blockade has had a disastrous impact on the humanitarian and economic situation in the impoverished territory.
Some 1.5 million people are being denied their basic rights, including the freedom of movement and their rights to appropriate living conditions, work, health and education.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/195039.html
Opposition MKs urge IDF action in Gaza as rockets keep falling on southern Israel
Kadima lawmakers call for launch of extensive operation in Gaza after Thursday's terror attacks, weekend in which more than 100 rockets struck Israel.
Members of Knesset from Israel's leading opposition party, Kadima, urged the cabinet on Sunday to launch a military campaign in the Gaza Strip, following the barrage of rockets that struck Israel over the weekend and the deadly terrorist attack that predeced on Thursday.
At a meeting of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, committee chair MK Shaul Mofaz of Kadima said that Israel must take steps against Hamas, "topple their infrastructures and create a system of ties with Egypt in order to prevent terrorism coming from its border."
MK Yohanan Plesner, also of Kadima, said the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee would support a large-scale military operation in the Gaza Strip. "Creating a fixed reality of attrition in the south will constitute a victory for Hamas and the terrorist organizations," he said. "The State of Israel cannot put up with such a situation."
Head of Kadima party Tzipi Livni made a similar call on Saturday, saying the party will support an extensive military campaign. "You must use force against terrorism," she said. "Just as we have taken steps against terrorism in the past, we will also support steps now that will defend the citizens of Israel."
MK Avi Dichter (Kadima) said in the meeting that "following recent events, the world should think hard before recognizing a Palestinian state." Labor Party MK Amir Peretz said Israel should add another ten Iron Dome system, adding that "we must protect the lives of citizens."
Nine rockets and a barrage of mortar shells were fired from the Gaza Strip at southern Israel over the course of Saturday night and Sunday morning. The Iron Dome system successfully shot down one rocket aimed at Be'er Sheva and another three targeting the city of Ashkelon.
http://fwd4.me/09Y4
7 injured as Israeli forces raid northern Gaza
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces launched another round of fierce air-strikes on the northern Gaza Strip Sunday afternoon as explosions rattled Gaza City.
Gaza medical official Adham Abu Salmiya said Israeli warplanes fired two missiles at a Hamas military site in Beit Lahiya injuring seven Palestinians including three children.
The attack came hours after an Israeli missile strike hit a group of children in the same area seriously injuring a 12-year-old boy, Abu Salmiya said.
Israeli forces have killed 14 Palestinians in the coastal enclave since Thursday, and wounded dozens more.
Tensions in and around the Gaza Strip have soared and residents fear Israel is planning a major offensive in the Gaza Strip. Israeli Knesset members on Sunday urged the cabinet to respond to dozens of rockets fired from Gaza with an extensive military campaign.
Despite an unusually quiet night in Gaza on Saturday, after three days of bombardment people are afraid to move in the streets and security buildings have been evacuated, a Ma'an correspondent reported.
Political analyst Talal Ukal says he expects Israel to escalate hostilities in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank. He highlighted that 120 Palestinians were detained in a major campaign conducted in the southern West Bank overnight Saturday.
Israel began bombarding the Gaza Strip after militants staged a series of bloody shooting attacks in the Negev desert on Thursday, killing eight Israelis and prompting a wave of bloody tit-for-tat exchanges.
Israel blamed the Gaza-based Popular Resistance Committee for the Eilat attacks, although the group denied involvement.
But Ukal said Israel began its escalation on the coastal enclave before the attacks in Eilat.
The Israeli government was facing a domestic crisis as thousands of Israelis protested against housing costs, as well as an external crisis on the diplomatic front as Israeli leaders tried to avoid a Palestinian bid for statehood at the United Nations.
Ukal said the only way Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could avert these crises was by going to war and "creating chaos in the region."
On Sunday, Jordan condemned Israel for its "military escalation and operations in Gaza that have killed civilians as well as Egyptian officers," urging an immediate halt to the strikes in order to avoid regional instability.
Meanwhile, the Arab League urged Israel to stop hostilities immediately following emergency talks Sunday to discuss the escalation.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=415067
BREAKING NEWS 8 Palestinians, including TWO children, hurt in latest Israeli attack on Gaza
Arab League raps Israeli raids on Gaza
The Arab League (AL) has condemned the continuous Israeli air raids on the impoverished Gaza Strip that have killed at least 16 Palestinians and injured more than 47 others in the past three days.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/195013.html
Gaza residents donate blood as tensions escalate
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Gaza residents responded to a call to donate blood in anticipation of further Israeli attacks following three days of intensive airstrikes on the coastal enclave, hospital officials said Sunday.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in southern Gaza appealed for blood donations as Israeli ministers urged the cabinet to launch an extensive military campaign on the coastal enclave.
Head of the blood unit at the hospital Dr Dia Miqdad said the hospital was already suffering from a shortage of blood due to the high number of injuries in the last 48 hours.
Israeli forces have killed 14 Palestinians and wounded dozens more in a series of airstrikes since Thursday as Tel Aviv blamed militants in Gaza for an attack near Eilat which left eight Israelis dead.
Violence in and around Gaza entered its fourth day on Sunday as militants fired over 20 rockets into Israel and the air force hit targets near Gaza City, a day after a rocket killed an Israeli.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=415002
Qatar Condemns Israeli Attacks on Gaza Strip
Doha, August 21 (QNA) - The State of Qatar has condemned Israel''s brutal raids on Gaza and the killing carried out by Israeli forces against the Palestinian people. This came in a statement by an official source at the Foreign Ministry to Qatar News Agency (QNA). The source said the raids constitute a continuation of the aggression policy carried out by Israel against the Palestinian people in a clear challenge and a flagrant violation of the international legality''s resolutions and the international and humanitarian law''s principles.
The source called on the International community to shoulder its responsibility and to move immediately and effectively to halt such attacks and end the unjust siege imposed on the Palestinian people by Israel. The official source also reiterated Qatar''s support of the Palestinian people in their just struggle for their legitimate rights, foremost the right to self-determination and establishing their independent state on their national soil with Jerusalem as its capital. (QNA) AMA
http://fwd4.me/09Xi
Devastated Wastewater Pumping Station and Partially Damaged the Headquarter
Coastal Municipalities Water Utility facilities in the Gaza strip were badly damaged due to raids by Israeli jet-fighters over the Gaza Strip, where the jet-fighters deliberately targeted a wastewater pumping station in the middle area and devastated it completely.
CMWU headquarter, also, was partially damaged due to bombardments of a close building in the area after midnight. The bombardment fully damaged CMWU furniture, shuttered all the windows in addition to the disruption of the electricity and internet networks.
In a talk on the attack, CMWU director general Engineer Monther Shoblaq said that the Israeli strikes cost CMWU large losses that may impede the CMWU workflow. “The headquarter, which was gravely affected, is the main base for running all the CMWU facilities; water wells, pump stations and the other branches” Eng. Shoblaq added.
Talking about the results of targeting the sewage pump station, Engineer Omar Shatat, the CMWU head of technical affairs directorate, Said: “The targeted pump station was constructed in 2004 with funding from the Japanese government through UNRWA. The station was designed to dump the sewage collected from the middle area and it was designed to pump the wastewater to Gaza main wastewater treatment plant”.
Engineer Shatat added “ The station serves 200,000 people in the middle area and it would play a key role in the rehabilitation project of Wadi Gaza which funded by ICRC”.
It is worth mentioning that CMWU facilities were affected during the cast lead operation at the end of 2008.
http://www.cmwu.ps/en/news.php?view=63
30 oct 2012, 14:26 , Respect -
Maria 21 aug 2011
Medics: Boy seriously injured in Israeli strike on northern Gaza
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Israeli missiles struck the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday morning seriously injuring a 12-year-old boy, medics said.
Gaza medical official Adham Abu Salmiya said the boy was injured in his chest and stomach as Israeli warplanes bombed a group of children in Beit Lahiya.
The children were transferred to the Kamal Oudwan Hospital, he said.
An Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed the attack but could not immediately identify the target of the strike.
The airstrike followed an unusually quiet night in Gaza after three days of constant bombardment by the Israeli air force.
Tensions in and around the Gaza Strip have soared since Thursday when militants staged a series of bloody shooting attacks in the Negev desert, killing eight Israelis and prompting a wave of bloody tit-for-tat exchanges.
Israel blamed the Gaza-based Popular Resistance Committee for the Eilat attacks, although the group denied involvement.
Since Thursday, 14 Palestinians have been killed, nine of them militants, and 47 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza, while one Israeli has been killed and dozens injured in a barrage of more than 100 rockets and mortars fired on cities and towns in the south.
On Saturday night, rockets hit the southern city of Beersheva some 40 kilometers from Gaza, killing a man and injuring 15, one of whom was in critical condition, Israeli medics said.
Overnight, Gaza militants fired 17 rockets into Israel.
Shortly after the hit on Beersheva, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened his inner forum to discuss Israel's response to the violence, although a senior diplomatic official quoted by Haaretz insisted the focus was on containment.
"No-one wants an Operation Cast Lead 2," he told the newspaper, referring to Israel's devastating 22-day operation in Gaza over New Year 2009 which killed more than 1,400 Palestinians and 11 Israelis.
That operation, which ended in January 2009 with a truce which has largely held, was launched to stamp out persistent rocket fire on southern Israel.
The Popular Resistance Committees claimed Saturday's deadly rocket fire on Beersheva, while the armed wing of Hamas said it had fired four Grad rockets at Ofakim, lightly wounding two children.
It was the first time the Al-Qassam Brigades had claimed any rocket fire on southern Israel since April when a truce was declared following a similar escalation which saw the air force killing 19 after an anti-tank missile killed a youngster on an Israeli school bus.
But it made no mention of an end to the April 10 truce agreement, which was brokered by Hamas and agreed to by all the main militant factions.
Following the claim, Israel forces began a major operation in the southern West Bank, arresting 120 members of the Islamist Hamas movement, including an MP, Palestinian security sources said.
The military refused to comment on the operation, which the Palestinians said was still ongoing by mid-morning.
In Dura village, youngsters protested the operation by hurling stones at troops, who fired rubber bullets moderately injuring one youngster, medics said.
President Mahmoud Abbas has called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council over Israel's attacks on Gaza, while the Arab League was to hold emergency talks on Sunday to discuss the situation, which prompted worried murmurs from the international community.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=414957
Jordanians urge Israel envoy expulsion
An anti-Israeli demonstration in Jordan's capital, Amman
Hundreds of Jordanians have rallied near Israel's embassy in the capital city of Amman, demanding the expulsion of Tel Aviv's ambassador to Jordan.
Late on Saturday, the protesters condemned Israel's airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, calling for the closure of the Israeli embassy.
Raising the flags of Jordan, Egypt and Palestine, the demonstrators also demanded the abrogation of Amman's 1994 peace treaty with Tel Aviv, DPA reported.
Israel claims it launched its latest attacks on the Gaza Strip on Thursday in response to assaults that targeted two buses and a military vehicle near Eilat in southern Israel, in which eight Israelis were killed.
The Israeli offensive claimed the lives of at least 16 Palestinians and injured more than 45 others, including children.
Israeli Minister for Military Affairs Ehud Barak quickly accused resistance groups in Gaza for the attacks and vowed a “full response.”
The democratically elected government of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas in Gaza, however, strongly dismissed the allegations and warned against any act of aggression on the enclave.
Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza since the Hamas government took control of the territory in 2007.
The blockade has had a disastrous impact on the humanitarian and economic situation in the impoverished territory.
Some 1.5 million people are being denied their basic rights, including the freedom of movement and their rights to appropriate living conditions, work, health and education.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/194953.html
Three Palestinians, including child, injured in Israeli air strikes – Ezzedeen Al-Qassam Brigades
Al Qassam website- Gaza- Three Palestinians, among them a child, were injured Saturday as Israeli warplanes carried out several strikes on the Gaza Strip.
The warplanes fired at least one missile around a petrol station at the edge of Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza Strip injuring one man, Palestinian sources said.
He was transported to a local hospital, medical sources said, describing his injuries as minor.
Two others in the Al-Shaja’iyya district of Gaza were injured after being fired at by a reconnaissance plane hovering over the area.
Witnesses said reconnaissance planes struck a civilian vehicle near Muadh ben Jabal school in the Al-Shaja’iyya neighborhood in eastern Gaza at noon Saturday.
They added that at least one Palestinian was injured and lost his foot in the strike. In addition, a child was left with minor injuries in the same strike.
Since Thursday, fifteen Palestinians have died and some forty have been injured in a string of Israeli strikes.
Among the casualties was the secretary general of the Popular Resistance Committees Kamal al-Neireb and four members of the same organization during a strike in Rafah in southern Gaza Strip.
http://fwd4.me/09Wy
BREAKING NEWS Several injured in Israeli airstrike in Beit Lahia in north Gaza Strip ( press tv)
Air raids exact heavy toll on Gaza infrastructure
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- A physiotherapy clinic, sewerage pump, civil society organizations and government buildings have been damaged in Israeli raids on the Gaza Strip since Thursday, witnesses and officials said.
Israeli warplanes have bombarded the coastal enclave for three days in what the military says is a response to a deadly attack in southern Israel on Thursday.
Fourteen Palestinians were killed and more than 40 wounded in a series of airstrikes across the Gaza Strip.
A specialist physiotherapy clinic in Gaza City funded by the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries was amongst the buildings seriously damaged in the assault, witnesses said.
The clinic was the first of its kind in Gaza and run by the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development.
An electricity generator and four water pumps for the sewerage system in An-Nuseirat refugee camp were destroyed on Friday, causing power cuts in central Gaza.
The offices of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation sustained damages in air raids at dawn on Friday. The Gaza City office was opened to provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza residents in the wake of Israel's Operation Cast Lead offensive in December 2008.
The same building was also bombed in July 2010. Officials said the damage would affect the organization ability to provide humanitarian services.
Israeli forces also shelled a library located in a residential area and among government buildings, the Gaza government said.
The Hamas-run Ministry of Justice, civil servants' bureau and government media office were severely damaged, the ministry said.
In a statement, the justice ministry said Israeli forces deliberately targeted civil institutions in what it described as a war crime.
Israel was bombarding Gaza in an attempt to escape its internal crisis "at the expense of Palestinian blood," the statement added.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=414778
Egypt says Israeli regret over police deaths not enough
CAIRO (AFP) -- Egypt's cabinet said on Sunday that an Israeli statement expressing regret for the border deaths of five policemen was not enough but stopped short of saying if it would recall its Tel Aviv envoy.
"The Israeli statement was positive on the surface, but it was not in keeping with the magnitude of the incident and the state of Egyptian anger toward Israeli actions," the official MENA news agency quoted a cabinet statement as saying.
But the statement did not assuage more than 1,000 angry protesters outside the Israeli embassy, who celebrated when a man clambered up to the embassy on a top floor of a high-rise, took down the Israeli flag and replaced it with an Egyptian flag.
The red, white and black flag of Egypt was illuminated in the night sky as the protesters lit up fire works and chanted "Long live Egypt!"
Military police in riot gear stood outside the building but did not try to disperse the protesters. The man who took down the flag escaped after he climbed down, witnesses said.
MENA said the cabinet insisted on a timetable for an Israeli offer of a joint investigation into the deaths on Thursday as Israeli troops pursued militants who carried out attacks earlier in the Negev that killed eight.
"Egypt affirms its solicitude for maintaining peace with Israel, but Israel must also assume responsibility for protecting this peace," it said.
Egypt became the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979.
But Israel remains deeply unpopular in the most populous Arab state and there have been growing calls for the treaty's revision since a February revolt overthrew president Hosni Mubarak, seen as a close ally of Israel.
On Saturday afternoon, the foreign ministry summoned Israel's charge d'affaires for a reprimand.
The envoy, who was summoned because the ambassador was outside the country, read out a statement by Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak expressing regret for the deaths and offering a joint probe, Egypt's foreign ministry said.
Egyptian state television had reported earlier in the day that Egypt would recall its ambassador from Tel Aviv, but Israel said it received no notification of the decision.
Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said that "at no time has Israel been officially notified of a recall of the Egyptian ambassador."
Egyptian officials privately said discussions on the matter were still underway and that no decision had been reached yet. One official said Egypt would not recall its envoy.
After conflicting reports, Information Minister Osama Heykal was quoted by MENA as saying five policemen were killed "inside Egyptian territory as a result of an exchange of fire between Israeli forces and armed elements inside Israeli territory."
Israeli officials accused Palestinian militants in Gaza, which also borders Egypt, of planning the attack and carrying it out after slipping into the Negev desert from Egyptian territory.
Egypt has denied the gunmen used its territory and bristled at suggestions that it had lost control of the Sinai peninsula, where its military has been conducting a week long operation to root out Islamist militants.
Prime Minister Essam Sharaf also expressed his anger in a message on his Facebook page.
"Egyptian blood is too precious to be spilled for no reason," wrote Sharaf.
"Our glorious revolution took place so that Egyptians could regain their dignity at home and abroad. What was tolerated in pre-revolution Egypt will not be in post-revolution Egypt," he said..
If Egypt recalls its envoy, it would be the second time since the two neighbors made peace.
In November 2000 Egypt did so to protest an Israeli crackdown on a Palestinian uprising.
Following Mubarak's overthrow, some in Israel expressed fears that the government that followed him would listen to public calls and downgrade relations with Tel Aviv.
Egypt's military, which took charge after Mubarak's ouster, pledged to honor the treaty.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=414852
'Israel exploiting attacks to sway UN'
(24:41) Waging Another War?-News Analysis-08-20-2011
A Palestinian professor believes that Israel is using the attacks on its soldiers in a bid to prove to the UN that the Palestinians do not deserve a state of their own.
“This [attack on Israeli soldiers] is going to give Netanyahu enough time to launch a diplomatic attack on the Palestinians and that the Palestinians do not deserve a state of their own as a result of the attack on Israeli soldiers and civilians in Eilat,” Mukhaimer Abu Saada, a professor at al-Azhar University, told Press TV.
Israel mounted its airstrikes on the impoverished Gaza Strip, immediately after the attack on Israeli buses and a military vehicle near the Red Sea resort of Eilat, which left eight Israeli forces dead.
Tel Aviv has accused Hamas of being behind the Thursday rocket attack on Israel.
Hamas, however, has strongly denied the allegations and warned against any act of aggression against the Gaza Strip.
The renewed Israeli violence against Palestinians comes at a time when the Palestinian Authority is heading to the UN for a statehood bid in September.
Experts say instability and possible violent attacks by Israel and counter attacks by Palestinian factions will likely hamper Palestinian efforts for statehood.
More than 100 countries have so far officially recognized Palestine as a sovereign state based on the 1967 borders.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/195061.html
30 oct 2012, 14:26 , Respect -
Maria 21 aug 2011
Barak: IDF strike hard, those who are working against us -separated his head from his body
Defense Minister Ehud Barak, visited one of launchers of the "Iron Dome" and referred to the escalation in the south region. "IDF operations will severely hit and attack, and the IDF will continue to operate as required.
Fast and strong action eliminated the organization's leaders and committees who sent the perpetrators.
Those who are working against us, his head will be separated from his body," Barak declared.
http://fwd4.me/09Yw
Health Ministry: Israel continues to attack civilians directly
GAZA, (PIC)-- The Gaza Health Ministry has confirmed that Israeli forces are continuing to attack civilians directly as the number of civilian casualties goes on the rise.
The ministry has called on Gazans to avoid gathering in targeted areas and to make way for medical crews to provide care for casualties.
On Sunday, a Palestinian child sustained critical injuries from shrapnel after an Israeli war plane targeted a group of Palestinians in Beit Lahya in northern Gaza Strip.
Seven others were wounded in another airstrike that targeted a police position to in west Gaza City.
Also on Sunday, Israeli occupation forces opened fire on two Palestinian men in Dheisha refugee camp in the southern West Bank.
The troops also proceeded to arrest the men after raiding the home of Bethlehem province mufti Abdul-Majid Ata. One of the men shot and arrested was the mufti’s son.
The troops prevented rescue vehicles from arriving at the scene and arrested the men as they were injured.
http://fwd4.me/09ZF
Palestinian officials call for halt to Gaza military assault
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- The Palestinian Authority and Hamas government have both appealed to international and regional powers to halt Israeli attacks on Gaza, officials said Sunday.
President Abbas has asked Israel to stop its military escalation in the Gaza Strip, Nabil Abu Rudeinah, the presidents spokesman, told Ma'an.
Abbas has also asked Palestinian foreign ambassadors in Europe to pressure their respective countries to halt the assault.
“The efforts towards that are continuing but we hope Israel will stop the attack,” Abu Rudeinah said.
Military escalations in the area could lead to more extremism, he added.
Hamas Foreign Affairs Minister Mohammad Awad told Ma'an that Israeli forces want to send a message to the Gazan people that it is in control of the area.
“The Israeli occupation is trying to burden Gaza, that’s why the world has to try to stop the attack on Gaza, everyone knows that this method won’t break the will of the Palestinian people,” Awad said.
The assassination of Palestinian leaders will not affect the the people's will, Awad added, noting that it will only increase the determination of the Palestinians in achieving their goals and national rights.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=415122
Israel threatens to strike Gaza painfully
GAZA, (PIC)-- Minister of Israel's internal security Yitzhak Aharonovich threatened to deal a painful strike to Hamas Movement in response to the wave of counterattacks launched by the Palestinian resistance lately.
Aharonovich made his threats on Saturday evening during a visit to a house hit by a grad missile in Beersheba city, which led to the killing of two Jewish settlers and the injury of ten others.
"Israel will strike Hamas painfully and things will be clearer in the next few days," he stated.
A number of right-wing Knesset members also called for responding to Beersheba attack by assassinating Hamas leaders, especially premier Ismail Haneyya and political leader Khaled Mashaal, and reinvading Gaza.
Israeli security officials held Hamas and its armed wing Al-Qassam Brigades fully responsible for Beersheba attack and demanded an immediate military response.
Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper stated for its part that the Israeli security cabinet held on Saturday an urgent meeting to discuss the ways to escalate the military action against the Palestinian resistance in Gaza.
A reporter for Israel's channel two said the Israeli army moved its tanks to Gaza borders following the military escalation, which he described as dangerous, in the area to the south of the 1948 occupied lands.
Palestinian resistance fighters were widely deployed along the borderline of Gaza in anticipation of any Israeli military moves into the Strip, according to eyewitnesses.
http://fwd4.me/09YS
PA condemns collective punishment 'tactics' in Gaza Strip
RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- The Palestinian Authority has condemned Israeli government tactics of 'collective punishment' in the latest military assault on the Gaza Strip, calling on the international community to take immediate action, a statement from the government media center said Sunday.
The PA called upon the Israeli government "to cease and desist in its use of its unjustified aggression against the Palestinian people in Gaza and to respect international law and refrain from revenge, terror, and collective punishment tactics," the statement said.
Israeli tactics in the Gaza Strip are effectively the same as the "price tag" policy adopted by settlers in the West Bank, the PA said, and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak is carrying out "illegal and immoral actions against the people of Gaza."
"This type of rogue behavior must end," the PA said, urging the international community "to take immediate action to restore calm and order to the region and hold Israel accountable for its illegal practices."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=415033
UN envoy 'worried' about escalation in violence
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- The UN coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Robert Serry expressed concern on Sunday over the latest escalation in violence in the Gaza Strip, Egypt and Israel.
The UN special coordinator is to consult with the Egyptian government, including Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohamed Amr, on Sunday and has also called on Nabil Al-Arabi, the secretary general of the League of Arab States.
Serry expressed his "deepest condolences to the families of those Egyptians who lost their lives," a statement said.
The UN envoy "remains worried about continuing tensions, in particular the escalation of violence in Gaza and southern Israel," and has urged a return to full calm.
He also expressed concern over the impasse in the peace process and reiterated the UN's "strong opposition to recent Israeli settlement announcements in the occupied Palestinian territory, including in East Jerusalem, contrary to international law."
The international community must provide a balanced framework "that can carry forward efforts for a negotiated two State solution and the creation of a Palestinian state," Serry added.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=415078
Hamas demands Arab League to act against Israel's crimes in Gaza
DAMASCUS, (PIC)-- The Hamas Movement demanded the Arab League to take decisive and concrete decisions to confront Israel's aggression against the Gaza Strip and its violation of Egypt's sovereignty.
Hamas in a statement called on the Arab League to activate in its emergency meeting on Sunday the political and economic boycott against the Israeli occupation.
It also demanded the League to enforce the previous resolutions it took to break Gaza blockade and support the Palestinian people's steadfastness.
For their part, Hamas lawmakers in the West Bank strongly denounced the international silence on Israel's crimes in Gaza.
The lawmakers in a press release said this silence is complicity in the killing of children, women and civilians that happens everyday in Gaza, and encourages Israel to commit more crimes.
They appealed to the Arab governments to assume their responsibilities towards Gaza people and move to stop Israel's massacres.
http://fwd4.me/09YU
AL urges UN action on Israel Gaza raids
The Arab League (AL) has condemned the continuous Israeli airstrikes on the impoverished Gaza Strip, calling on the United Nations to intervene in order for the raids to be stopped.
“We issued a statement condemning the Israeli offensive on Gaza,” AFP quoted AL Secretary General Nabil El-Araby as saying on Sunday.
“The United Nations has to take procedures to stop the Israeli offensive on Gaza,” he added.
The remarks come after the 22-member organization held an emergency meeting to examine the dire situation of the people of Gaza due to Israel's continuous airstrikes on the coastal sliver since late Thursday.
Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 16 Palestinians and injured nearly 50 others in the past nearly four days.
Israel claimed the attacks were launched in response to assaults that targeted two buses and a military vehicle near the Red Sea resort of Eilat in southern Israel, which left eight Israelis dead.
Israeli Minister for Military Affairs Ehud Barak quickly accused resistance groups in Gaza for the attacks and vowed a “full response.”
Hamas has said that it had nothing to do with the assault and warned against any act of aggression against the Gaza Strip.
Israel also imposed a blockade on Gaza since the Hamas government took control of the territory in 2007.
The blockade has had a disastrous impact on the humanitarian and economic situation in the impoverished territory.
Some 1.5 million people are being denied their basic rights, including the freedom of movement and their rights to appropriate living conditions, work, health and education.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/195047.html
30 oct 2012, 14:26 , Respect -
Maria 21 aug 2011
IDF Spokesperson: We DIDN’T say PRC was behind Eilat attack
(7:20) Dubious Evidence Israeli Bus Attackers Based in Gaza
Yesterday morning, I wrote a piece questioning the journalistic ethics of some in the Israeli media and, to a larger extent, the entire international press corps over of their rush to adopt the Israeli government claim that Gaza-based terror organization Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) were behind Thursday’s triple terror attack near Eilat. As the terror attack was unfolding, Israeli warplanes were warming up to carry out airstrikes in the Gaza strip without revealing any concrete proof to the public confirming that the culprits of the attack were from Gaza. After a night of bombing, a number of senior operatives in the PRC were killed along with a handful of civilians including children.
The Real News Network’s Lia Tarachansky asked IDF Spokesperson Lt. Colonel Avital Leibovitz for evidence that the PRC was, indeed, responsible for the Eilat terror attack. Liebovitz responded that the Israel “did not say that this group was responsible for the terror attack.” This quote distanced the IDF spokesperson from the public statements Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made on the evening of the attack placing clear responsibility on the PRC. Backtracking in the interview, Liebovitz said,
We did not say that this group was responsible for the terror attack. We based this on intelligence information as well as some facts that [we] actually presented an hour ago to some wires and journalists. Some of the findings that were from the bodies of the terrorists, and they are using, for example, Kalashnikov bullets and Kalashnikov rifles [which] are very common in Gaza.
In response to this quote, Paul Woodward at War in Context responded “So, the IDF says it “knows” the gunmen came from Gaza because they were using Kalashnikovs. That’s about as logical as saying they know they came from Gaza because they appeared to be Arabs.”
(4:53) 'Volatile and dramatic week in store for Middle East'
The simple yet difficult to answer question remains open, who is responsible for the Eilat terror attacks? If the PRC and Hamas, both of which have denied responsibility, are not the culprits, as Lt. Col Avital Liebovitz alleges in the Real News interview, why is Israel attacking targets in Gaza with overwhelming force? Why are senior members of the Israeli and international press corps reporting unsubstantiated Israeli government claims as fact without doing the necessary legwork of revealing sources and providing verifiable proof of their material.
If the PRC episode is a harbinger of how the media is going to handle the next Israeli offensive in Gaza one sorry conclusion can be made, Prime Minister Netanyahu will be left unmolested with obloquy demanding that his government provide factual evidence to support their rationale for war.
Read more about the Eilat terror attacks:
Dimi Reider – News coverage of the shooting and bombing
Yossi Gurvitz – Why Israel shouldn’t attack Gaza
http://fwd4.me/09XK
30 oct 2012, 14:26 , Respect -
Maria 30 oct 2012, 14:31 , Respect -
Maria 22 aug 2011
Doctor: Israel using new weapons against Gaza
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- The head of an emergency ward in a Gaza City hospital said Monday that Israeli forces were using new, more brutal weapons against residents of the Gaza Strip.
On Thursday, Israeli forces began a four-day bombarded the coastal enclave killing 14 Palestinians and wounding dozens more in a series of airstrikes and drone attacks.
Dr Ayman As-Sahbani said patients were admitted with horrific injuries and that some bodies delivered to Al-Shifa Hospital were so badly burned they were unrecognizable.
He said Israeli weapons made no distinction between women, children and the elderly, pointing out that a two-year-old toddler and a 13-year-old boy were among those killed in the latest escalation.
http://fwd4.me/09dv
30 oct 2012, 14:32 , Respect -
Maria 22 aug 2011
Rights group: Teenager killed Tuesday was disabled
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- A young Palestinian shot dead Tuesday in the Gaza Strip suffered from mental disabilities and was in an area that had not been declared as prohibited, a local rights group has charged.
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights said Wednesday that Sa'd Abdul Rahim Mahmoud Al-Majdalwai, 17, from Nusseirat refugee camp, was hit by 10 live bullets mostly to the head.
The victim's father said his son suffered from a mental disability and a speech impairment, the rights group said citing his death as evidence for a "total disregard for the lives of Palestinian civilians."
The teenager was left wounded without being offered first aid, the rights group said.
PCHR said the army "could have arrested or used less than lethal force against him" as he did not appear to pose a threat and was not in an area which the army explicitly prohibits Palestinians from entering.
At the time, an Israeli military spokeswoman told Ma'an that "IDF forces opened fire at a suspect approaching the security fence. The forces identified a hit," the official said.
The teenager had approached the border east of the refugee camp of Maghazi in central Gaza, Agence France-Presse quoted Palestinian witnesses as saying at the time.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=414278