30 oct 2011
Netanyahu warns of 'kill or be killed' policy on Gaza
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Sunday that Israel would hit back against rocket fire, while insisting the country wants to avoid escalating hostilities after Israeli airstrikes killed 10 Palestinian militants in some 24 hours.
Israel is "not eager for escalation" but uses two principles in response to Gaza militants "kill or be killed" and "hurt us – on your own head be it," Netanyahu said according to Israeli news site Ynet.
Speaking at a university opening in Safed in northern Israel, the premier vowed Israel will "defend ourselves according to these principles," Ynet reported.
Netanyahu and Israeli President Shimon Peres, speaking at the same ceremony, pinned responsibility for rockets hitting Israel, which killed one Israeli on Saturday, on Gaza-rulers Hamas.
"Hamas claims that it controls Gaza and so the direct responsibility for everything that happens there lies with the group. The writing is on the wall, and they will bear the harsh consequences of their actions," Peres said according to Ynet.
The president called rockets fired from Gaza a "declaration of war," the report added.
Israeli airstrikes killed nine Islamic Jihad militants on Saturday, and a barrage of rockets hit southern Israel, killing a man in the city of Ashkelon. Hours after Islamic Jihad confirmed it would abide by an Egyptian-brokered truce Sunday morning, Israeli war planes struck southern Gaza, killing a leader of the armed wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Richard Miron, the spokesman for UN special envoy for the peace process Robert Serry, said the recent escalations "are very worrying."
Miron said Saturday in a statement received by Ma'an that "it is vital to de-escalate now, without delay. We strongly appeal for calm and an end to the violence and bloodshed."
President Mahmoud Abbas' office called for a halt to violence, as senior Hamas leader Ahmad Bahar warned Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip were an attempt to "trick the resistance into a new round of escalation."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=433719
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Sunday that Israel would hit back against rocket fire, while insisting the country wants to avoid escalating hostilities after Israeli airstrikes killed 10 Palestinian militants in some 24 hours.
Israel is "not eager for escalation" but uses two principles in response to Gaza militants "kill or be killed" and "hurt us – on your own head be it," Netanyahu said according to Israeli news site Ynet.
Speaking at a university opening in Safed in northern Israel, the premier vowed Israel will "defend ourselves according to these principles," Ynet reported.
Netanyahu and Israeli President Shimon Peres, speaking at the same ceremony, pinned responsibility for rockets hitting Israel, which killed one Israeli on Saturday, on Gaza-rulers Hamas.
"Hamas claims that it controls Gaza and so the direct responsibility for everything that happens there lies with the group. The writing is on the wall, and they will bear the harsh consequences of their actions," Peres said according to Ynet.
The president called rockets fired from Gaza a "declaration of war," the report added.
Israeli airstrikes killed nine Islamic Jihad militants on Saturday, and a barrage of rockets hit southern Israel, killing a man in the city of Ashkelon. Hours after Islamic Jihad confirmed it would abide by an Egyptian-brokered truce Sunday morning, Israeli war planes struck southern Gaza, killing a leader of the armed wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Richard Miron, the spokesman for UN special envoy for the peace process Robert Serry, said the recent escalations "are very worrying."
Miron said Saturday in a statement received by Ma'an that "it is vital to de-escalate now, without delay. We strongly appeal for calm and an end to the violence and bloodshed."
President Mahmoud Abbas' office called for a halt to violence, as senior Hamas leader Ahmad Bahar warned Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip were an attempt to "trick the resistance into a new round of escalation."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=433719
Yousef Abu Abdo (picture)
Ali Aqqad
Two more Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli airstrike that targeted the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza Strip.
Medical sources said the bodies of the two men, identified as Yousef Abu Abdo and Ali Aqqad, were found during the early hours of Monday after a midnight Israeli airstrike, Palestinian WAFA news agency reported.
The discovery was made as another Israeli raid targeted the city of Rafah on Sunday, killing one Palestinian named Ahmed Jarghun, who was a member of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), and injuring another DFLP member.
Israeli military officials claimed that the airstrikes were against what they described as “a rocket squad that attacked Israel from the southern Gaza Strip.”
On Saturday, nine members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement were killed in three separate attacks on Rafah. Six others also sustained injuries in the strikes.
Meanwhile, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called on the Israeli regime on Sunday to “exercise maximum restraint,” expressing “deep concern” over the recent violent incident.
The Israeli military has carried out airstrikes on the Gaza Strip on an almost regular basis since the end of the December 2008-January 2009 war on the Palestinian territory.
Scores of Palestinians have been killed and many more have been injured over past months.
The airstrikes have been carried out under the pretext of preventing attacks on Israel.
The latest Israeli bombings came as Shaul Mofaz, a member of Israel's Knesset, said on Sunday that the Tel Aviv regime must continue its targeted assassination of high-ranking figures within the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Mofaz added that Israel must “restore its deterrence capabilities” against what he claimed as “rocket attacks from Gaza.”
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/207591.html
Mother of killed Islamic Jihad leader mourns son
The mother of Islamic Jihad military leader Ahmad al-Sheikh Khalil told Ma'an she was laughing with her son hours before he was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Saturday.
"We have been expecting him to die as a martyr every day except the day he was actually killed, because we were so happy after Palestinian prisoners were released," his brother Radwan al-Sheikh Khalil told Ma'an.
The Al-Quds Brigades leader was killed with four others when Israeli war planes struck a site used by the group near Rafah on Saturday afternoon.
Airstrikes since Saturday have killed 12 militants and a volley of rocket fire from Gaza killed one Israeli. Islamic Jihad says it is holding to an Egyptian-brokered truce.
The latest flare up came less than two weeks after Gaza celebrated Hamas' deal for the release of over 1,000 prisoners from Israeli jails in exchange for a captured Israeli soldier.
His mother, Fatima, expressed hope that her fifth son had not died in vain.
"We will, God willing, triumph in the end even if we have to sacrifice our lives, because we are the owners of this land, and the (Israeli) occupiers are the aliens."
Fatima only has two surviving sons.
"We were laughing and he was telling me secrets" hours before the airstrike, she said.
"That day it never occurred to me that I will not see him again."
Khalil's mother expressed anger at Palestinians who aid Israel's attacks.
"We must eliminate all collaborators, who are more dangerous than the (Israeli) occupiers and the US as they are the ones who spy on our sons and watch their movement."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=434057
Ali Aqqad
Two more Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli airstrike that targeted the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza Strip.
Medical sources said the bodies of the two men, identified as Yousef Abu Abdo and Ali Aqqad, were found during the early hours of Monday after a midnight Israeli airstrike, Palestinian WAFA news agency reported.
The discovery was made as another Israeli raid targeted the city of Rafah on Sunday, killing one Palestinian named Ahmed Jarghun, who was a member of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), and injuring another DFLP member.
Israeli military officials claimed that the airstrikes were against what they described as “a rocket squad that attacked Israel from the southern Gaza Strip.”
On Saturday, nine members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement were killed in three separate attacks on Rafah. Six others also sustained injuries in the strikes.
Meanwhile, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called on the Israeli regime on Sunday to “exercise maximum restraint,” expressing “deep concern” over the recent violent incident.
The Israeli military has carried out airstrikes on the Gaza Strip on an almost regular basis since the end of the December 2008-January 2009 war on the Palestinian territory.
Scores of Palestinians have been killed and many more have been injured over past months.
The airstrikes have been carried out under the pretext of preventing attacks on Israel.
The latest Israeli bombings came as Shaul Mofaz, a member of Israel's Knesset, said on Sunday that the Tel Aviv regime must continue its targeted assassination of high-ranking figures within the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Mofaz added that Israel must “restore its deterrence capabilities” against what he claimed as “rocket attacks from Gaza.”
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/207591.html
Mother of killed Islamic Jihad leader mourns son
The mother of Islamic Jihad military leader Ahmad al-Sheikh Khalil told Ma'an she was laughing with her son hours before he was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Saturday.
"We have been expecting him to die as a martyr every day except the day he was actually killed, because we were so happy after Palestinian prisoners were released," his brother Radwan al-Sheikh Khalil told Ma'an.
The Al-Quds Brigades leader was killed with four others when Israeli war planes struck a site used by the group near Rafah on Saturday afternoon.
Airstrikes since Saturday have killed 12 militants and a volley of rocket fire from Gaza killed one Israeli. Islamic Jihad says it is holding to an Egyptian-brokered truce.
The latest flare up came less than two weeks after Gaza celebrated Hamas' deal for the release of over 1,000 prisoners from Israeli jails in exchange for a captured Israeli soldier.
His mother, Fatima, expressed hope that her fifth son had not died in vain.
"We will, God willing, triumph in the end even if we have to sacrifice our lives, because we are the owners of this land, and the (Israeli) occupiers are the aliens."
Fatima only has two surviving sons.
"We were laughing and he was telling me secrets" hours before the airstrike, she said.
"That day it never occurred to me that I will not see him again."
Khalil's mother expressed anger at Palestinians who aid Israel's attacks.
"We must eliminate all collaborators, who are more dangerous than the (Israeli) occupiers and the US as they are the ones who spy on our sons and watch their movement."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=434057
Ahmed Jargoon
A fighter from the armed wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine was killed, and another critically injured, as Israel launched an airstrike on the Gaza Strip hours after a ceasefire truce was agreed upon by Gaza militants.
Medical spokesman in the Gaza Strip Adham Abu Salmiya said that one man was killed in the airstrike on Rafah. The victim was identified as Ahmad Jarkhoun.
Another man was critically wounded and rushed to hospital, he added.
The National Resistance Brigades, the armed wing of the DFLP, announced in a statement that Jarkhoun was one of their leaders. They confirmed that he was killed in the Israeli airstrike.
The statement called on resistance factions in Gaza to retaliate for "this cowardly crime."
The Israeli army confirmed the strike, claiming that militants in the southern Gaza Strip were preparing to fire projectiles, a statement said.
The latest strike on the coastal enclave comes as the Islamic Jihad movement confirmed earlier on Sunday that it would abide by truce efforts.
"Islamic Jihad is committed to the truce as long as the occupation commits to it," an official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"This decision comes after Egyptian efforts to convince the resistance factions, especially Islamic Jihad leaders in Damascus," he added.
Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip killed nine fighters from Islamic Jihad's armed wing on Saturday, and Gaza militants fired a volley of rockets and mortars into southern Israel, killing one Israeli in Ashkelon.
The most recent flareup in violence is the worst since August, when clashes in and around the Gaza Strip killed 27 Palestinians and an Israeli.
The confrontations erupted when Israel launched airstrikes on the coastal enclave after blaming a militant group for an attack in Israel which killed eight people.
http://maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=433763
Truce fails as Gaza border violence continues
A fighter from the armed wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine was killed, and another critically injured, as Israel launched an airstrike on the Gaza Strip hours after a ceasefire truce was agreed upon by Gaza militants.
Medical spokesman in the Gaza Strip Adham Abu Salmiya said that one man was killed in the airstrike on Rafah. The victim was identified as Ahmad Jarkhoun.
Another man was critically wounded and rushed to hospital, he added.
The National Resistance Brigades, the armed wing of the DFLP, announced in a statement that Jarkhoun was one of their leaders. They confirmed that he was killed in the Israeli airstrike.
The statement called on resistance factions in Gaza to retaliate for "this cowardly crime."
The Israeli army confirmed the strike, claiming that militants in the southern Gaza Strip were preparing to fire projectiles, a statement said.
The latest strike on the coastal enclave comes as the Islamic Jihad movement confirmed earlier on Sunday that it would abide by truce efforts.
"Islamic Jihad is committed to the truce as long as the occupation commits to it," an official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"This decision comes after Egyptian efforts to convince the resistance factions, especially Islamic Jihad leaders in Damascus," he added.
Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip killed nine fighters from Islamic Jihad's armed wing on Saturday, and Gaza militants fired a volley of rockets and mortars into southern Israel, killing one Israeli in Ashkelon.
The most recent flareup in violence is the worst since August, when clashes in and around the Gaza Strip killed 27 Palestinians and an Israeli.
The confrontations erupted when Israel launched airstrikes on the coastal enclave after blaming a militant group for an attack in Israel which killed eight people.
http://maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=433763
Truce fails as Gaza border violence continues
|
|
Airstrikes and rocket attacks between Israeli and Palestinian fighters killed several people on Saturday.
Following the border violence, Egyptian officials tried to secure a tacit truce between the two sides. But the attempt failed on Sunday as Israel said that three rockets had been fired at them from Gaza after the ceasefire deadline had passed. Saturday's exchange began with an Israeli attack in Rafah city, which Israel said was in response to rocket attacks launched from Gaza earlier in the week. Hamas official calls Israeli leaders 'war criminals' |
The Minister of Justice in the Hamas government on Sunday denounced Israeli airstrikes against the coastal enclave and called for Israeli leaders to be tried as "war criminals," a statement said.
Al-Ghoul condemned the killing of Gaza militants, saying "a crime like this will only increase the stubbornness, stability and resistance of the Palestinian people."
He called on Arab and Islamic countries, as well as the international community, to put pressure on Israel to end its violent treatment of the Palestinians.
Al-Ghoul also called on the International Criminal Court to pursue Israeli leaders for their violations of international humanitarian law.
Al-Ghoul condemned the killing of Gaza militants, saying "a crime like this will only increase the stubbornness, stability and resistance of the Palestinian people."
He called on Arab and Islamic countries, as well as the international community, to put pressure on Israel to end its violent treatment of the Palestinians.
Al-Ghoul also called on the International Criminal Court to pursue Israeli leaders for their violations of international humanitarian law.
29 oct 2011
|
Suleiman Mahrous Abu Fatma, 21
Sami Hamad Abu Sabt, 23 ‘Abdul Karim Mousa Shatat (al-Masri), 30 |
Bassem Mohammed Abu al-‘Ata, 33
Hassan Mohammed al-Khudari, 27 Suheil Gindia 34 |
Mortada Hajaj 24
Ahmed Khalil al-Sheikh Khalil, 36 Mohammed Ahmed ‘Aashour, 26 |
Palestinians wheel the wounded into the al-Najar hospital in Rafah following an Israeli airstrike on the southern Gaza Strip on October 29, 2011.
Israeli warplanes pound the southern Gaza Strip for a second time within the space of a day, killing at least nine Palestinians, Press TV reports.
Two members of the Palestinian resistance group of Islamic Jihad Movement were among those killed in an Israeli attack on the city of Rafah on Saturday evening.
Initial reports said seven people were killed in the attack. But medical sources in Gaza later said two of those wounded in the airstrike died of the serious wounds they had sustained in the raid.
Earlier in the day, five other members of the movement were killed in another Israeli airstrike in the area.
Later, the group fired two long-range Grad rockets from the Gaza Strip at two Israeli cities in retaliation.
Israeli media reports said at least one person was killed in the rocket attacks.
Over the past months, Tel Aviv has stepped up its strikes against the besieged coastal strip, killing scores of Palestinians and injuring many more.
Israel has launched attacks on Gaza prior to and after its December 2008-January 2009 war on the territory, which left more than 1,400 Palestinians dead.
The airstrikes have been carried out under the pretext of preventing attacks on Israel.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/207378.html
BREAKING NEWS Palestinian medical sources: Nine killed after Israeli attacks on Gaza
Israeli airstrikes kill 9 militants in Gaza, Palestinian rockets kill 1 Israeli, wound 4
Israeli aircraft struck at Palestinian militants in Gaza on Saturday who responded with a volley of rockets which rained on southern Israeli towns, Israeli and Palestinian officials said. Palestinian officials said seven militants were killed, while on the Israeli side one civilian was killed and four others were wounded.
Exchanges of fire are common between southern Israel and the Gaza strip controlled by the militant Hamas group, but this is the worst one in months.
Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Adham Abu Salmia said that seven people were killed and 15 wounded in two separate attacks on militant targets.
Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said one Israeli civilian was killed and four others wounded when Palestinian rockets exploded in residential areas in southern Israel.
An Israeli military spokesman confirmed a total of three strikes in Gaza, saying the military hit Palestinian militants from the Islamic Jihad, one of several groups in Gaza which fires rockets into southern Israel. The spokesman said that the first attack specifically targeted a cell responsible for a Wednesday rocket attack that exploded deep inside Israel. That attack had caused no casualties.
The military “will not tolerate any attempt to harm Israeli civilians,” the spokesman said. He spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with military protocols.
The Israeli military released video footage taken from a military drone Saturday afternoon that shows Palestinians unloading rockets from a truck and preparing them for firing at Israel. The strike took place shortly afterward.
Abu Salmia, the Gaza health official, said five people had been killed and 11 wounded in the first attack. Islamic Jihad spokesman Abu Ahmed confirmed that one of its local field commanders, Ahmed Sheikh Khalil, was among the dead. He said Khalil was one of the group’s chief bomb makers. “Today it was a great loss for us in the Islamic Jihad,” he said. “The size of our retaliation will equal our loss,” it said in a text message sent to reporters.
“Our response shall be in the depths of the Zionist entity,” it said in reference to the Israeli heartland.
After the first airstrike, militants in Gaza fired over 20 rockets at southern Israel, Rosenfeld said.
Islamic Jihad took responsibility for firing the rockets in a text message to reporters, and released photos of the rockets being launched from the backs of pickup trucks. The group said this is the first time they are using this system as opposed to firing them from launchers on the ground.
One rocket hit an apartment building in the southern city of Ashkelon and injured a 50 year-old Israeli who later died of his wounds, Rosenfeld said. Another exploded outside an apartment building in nearby Ashdod, injuring one person. Israeli television showed about a dozen cars in flames outside the building.
Another Israeli sustained shrapnel wounds in the nearby town of Gan Yavneh and others in the Ashdod region were treated for shock, the Israeli military spokesman said.
Gaza death toll reaches 7, one Israeli dies from injuries
An Israeli airstrike on the Gaza Strip killed two more fighters from the Islamic Jihad's armed wing on Saturday evening, after earlier airstrikes on the coastal enclave had killed five members from the group.
Medical spokesman in Gaza Adham Abu Salmiya said that two fighters from the al-Quds Brigades were killed in the strike on Rafah, south Gaza.
He identified the victims as 21-year-old Sami Abu Sabt and 25-year-old Suleiman Abu Fatima, both from Rafah. Their bodies were transferred to Abu Yousef al-Najjar Hospital in the city, he added.
Israeli media reported that a man had died from his injuries after a projectile fired from the Gaza Strip hit the southern city of Ashkelon.
More than 20 projectiles and mortar bombs hit different sites in southern Israel on Saturday, wounding two civilians and damaging buildings, Israeli police and the army said.
Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades separately took credit.
Richard Miron, the spokesman for UN special envoy for the peace process Robert Serry, said the recent escalations "are very worrying."
Miron said in a statement received by Ma'an that "it is vital to de-escalate now, without delay. We strongly appeal for calm and an end to the violence and bloodshed."
An Israeli army statement confirmed a direct hit on a site being used to fire projectiles into Israel.
Remarking on the Rafah deaths, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri accused Israel of a "serious escalation against our people."
Earlier on Saturday, Israeli warplanes had fired on southern Gaza, killing five members of Islamic Jihad's armed wing and injuring 15 others, four of them seriously, medics and security officials said.
Witnesses told Ma'an that Israeli forces fired two missiles at a military site operated by the al-Quds Brigades northeast of Rafah. The attack killed Ahmad al-Sheikh Khalil, a prominent leader in the brigades.
Shortly thereafter rockets were launched toward Israeli targets, the military said. An army spokeswoman confirmed that three projectiles struck Israeli territory around 5 p.m., lightly injuring two people.
President Mahmoud Abbas' office on Saturday called on Israel to stop its escalation against the Gaza Strip.
Nabil Abu Rdeina, the president’s spokesman, was quoted by the official Palestinian Authority news agency Wafa as calling on factions in Gaza “to avoid giving Israel a pretext to wage a new war on Gaza and to tighten the siege.”
Senior Hamas leader Ahmad Bahar on Saturday said that Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip were an attempt to "trick the resistance into a new round of escalation."
The latest round of Israeli violence was a way of compensating for the recent prisoner deal, which Bahar described as a “strategic victory for Palestinian resistance.”
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=433504
Israeli warplanes pound the southern Gaza Strip for a second time within the space of a day, killing at least nine Palestinians, Press TV reports.
Two members of the Palestinian resistance group of Islamic Jihad Movement were among those killed in an Israeli attack on the city of Rafah on Saturday evening.
Initial reports said seven people were killed in the attack. But medical sources in Gaza later said two of those wounded in the airstrike died of the serious wounds they had sustained in the raid.
Earlier in the day, five other members of the movement were killed in another Israeli airstrike in the area.
Later, the group fired two long-range Grad rockets from the Gaza Strip at two Israeli cities in retaliation.
Israeli media reports said at least one person was killed in the rocket attacks.
Over the past months, Tel Aviv has stepped up its strikes against the besieged coastal strip, killing scores of Palestinians and injuring many more.
Israel has launched attacks on Gaza prior to and after its December 2008-January 2009 war on the territory, which left more than 1,400 Palestinians dead.
The airstrikes have been carried out under the pretext of preventing attacks on Israel.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/207378.html
BREAKING NEWS Palestinian medical sources: Nine killed after Israeli attacks on Gaza
Israeli airstrikes kill 9 militants in Gaza, Palestinian rockets kill 1 Israeli, wound 4
Israeli aircraft struck at Palestinian militants in Gaza on Saturday who responded with a volley of rockets which rained on southern Israeli towns, Israeli and Palestinian officials said. Palestinian officials said seven militants were killed, while on the Israeli side one civilian was killed and four others were wounded.
Exchanges of fire are common between southern Israel and the Gaza strip controlled by the militant Hamas group, but this is the worst one in months.
Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Adham Abu Salmia said that seven people were killed and 15 wounded in two separate attacks on militant targets.
Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said one Israeli civilian was killed and four others wounded when Palestinian rockets exploded in residential areas in southern Israel.
An Israeli military spokesman confirmed a total of three strikes in Gaza, saying the military hit Palestinian militants from the Islamic Jihad, one of several groups in Gaza which fires rockets into southern Israel. The spokesman said that the first attack specifically targeted a cell responsible for a Wednesday rocket attack that exploded deep inside Israel. That attack had caused no casualties.
The military “will not tolerate any attempt to harm Israeli civilians,” the spokesman said. He spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with military protocols.
The Israeli military released video footage taken from a military drone Saturday afternoon that shows Palestinians unloading rockets from a truck and preparing them for firing at Israel. The strike took place shortly afterward.
Abu Salmia, the Gaza health official, said five people had been killed and 11 wounded in the first attack. Islamic Jihad spokesman Abu Ahmed confirmed that one of its local field commanders, Ahmed Sheikh Khalil, was among the dead. He said Khalil was one of the group’s chief bomb makers. “Today it was a great loss for us in the Islamic Jihad,” he said. “The size of our retaliation will equal our loss,” it said in a text message sent to reporters.
“Our response shall be in the depths of the Zionist entity,” it said in reference to the Israeli heartland.
After the first airstrike, militants in Gaza fired over 20 rockets at southern Israel, Rosenfeld said.
Islamic Jihad took responsibility for firing the rockets in a text message to reporters, and released photos of the rockets being launched from the backs of pickup trucks. The group said this is the first time they are using this system as opposed to firing them from launchers on the ground.
One rocket hit an apartment building in the southern city of Ashkelon and injured a 50 year-old Israeli who later died of his wounds, Rosenfeld said. Another exploded outside an apartment building in nearby Ashdod, injuring one person. Israeli television showed about a dozen cars in flames outside the building.
Another Israeli sustained shrapnel wounds in the nearby town of Gan Yavneh and others in the Ashdod region were treated for shock, the Israeli military spokesman said.
Gaza death toll reaches 7, one Israeli dies from injuries
An Israeli airstrike on the Gaza Strip killed two more fighters from the Islamic Jihad's armed wing on Saturday evening, after earlier airstrikes on the coastal enclave had killed five members from the group.
Medical spokesman in Gaza Adham Abu Salmiya said that two fighters from the al-Quds Brigades were killed in the strike on Rafah, south Gaza.
He identified the victims as 21-year-old Sami Abu Sabt and 25-year-old Suleiman Abu Fatima, both from Rafah. Their bodies were transferred to Abu Yousef al-Najjar Hospital in the city, he added.
Israeli media reported that a man had died from his injuries after a projectile fired from the Gaza Strip hit the southern city of Ashkelon.
More than 20 projectiles and mortar bombs hit different sites in southern Israel on Saturday, wounding two civilians and damaging buildings, Israeli police and the army said.
Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades separately took credit.
Richard Miron, the spokesman for UN special envoy for the peace process Robert Serry, said the recent escalations "are very worrying."
Miron said in a statement received by Ma'an that "it is vital to de-escalate now, without delay. We strongly appeal for calm and an end to the violence and bloodshed."
An Israeli army statement confirmed a direct hit on a site being used to fire projectiles into Israel.
Remarking on the Rafah deaths, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri accused Israel of a "serious escalation against our people."
Earlier on Saturday, Israeli warplanes had fired on southern Gaza, killing five members of Islamic Jihad's armed wing and injuring 15 others, four of them seriously, medics and security officials said.
Witnesses told Ma'an that Israeli forces fired two missiles at a military site operated by the al-Quds Brigades northeast of Rafah. The attack killed Ahmad al-Sheikh Khalil, a prominent leader in the brigades.
Shortly thereafter rockets were launched toward Israeli targets, the military said. An army spokeswoman confirmed that three projectiles struck Israeli territory around 5 p.m., lightly injuring two people.
President Mahmoud Abbas' office on Saturday called on Israel to stop its escalation against the Gaza Strip.
Nabil Abu Rdeina, the president’s spokesman, was quoted by the official Palestinian Authority news agency Wafa as calling on factions in Gaza “to avoid giving Israel a pretext to wage a new war on Gaza and to tighten the siege.”
Senior Hamas leader Ahmad Bahar on Saturday said that Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip were an attempt to "trick the resistance into a new round of escalation."
The latest round of Israeli violence was a way of compensating for the recent prisoner deal, which Bahar described as a “strategic victory for Palestinian resistance.”
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=433504
26 oct 2011
Hamas: Israeli army orders to kill own soldiers to avoid capture reflect panic
The Israeli army orders to fire at and liquidate captors of soldiers even if that meant the killing of the soldiers reflected a state of panic and fear of Palestinian resistance, Hamas spokesman Dr. Sami Abu Zuhri said on Wednesday.
He told the PIC that the decision would affirm the Palestinian resistance’s insistence on capturing more Israeli soldiers to trade them for Palestinian prisoners.
The spokesman said that the decision also reflected Israel’s cowardice and a disregard for the lives of its own soldiers just to avoid paying the price of their capture.
He recalled that the Israeli army had already done that during the latest war on Gaza when the soldiers fired at the captors of their comrades and killed the lot of them.
Abu Zuhri advised Israel to release all Palestinian prisoners if it really wished to avoid the capture of its soldiers.
Israeli chief of staff Benny Gantz had ordered commanders of various military units to avoid the capture of Israeli soldiers even if that meant killing the captured soldier in the process, Hebrew daily Yediot Ahronot reported on Tuesday.
Hamas: Israeli army orders to kill own soldiers to avoid capture reflect panic
The Israeli army orders to fire at and liquidate captors of soldiers even if that meant the killing of the soldiers reflected a state of panic and fear of Palestinian resistance, Hamas spokesman Dr. Sami Abu Zuhri said on Wednesday.
He told the PIC that the decision would affirm the Palestinian resistance’s insistence on capturing more Israeli soldiers to trade them for Palestinian prisoners.
The spokesman said that the decision also reflected Israel’s cowardice and a disregard for the lives of its own soldiers just to avoid paying the price of their capture.
He recalled that the Israeli army had already done that during the latest war on Gaza when the soldiers fired at the captors of their comrades and killed the lot of them.
Abu Zuhri advised Israel to release all Palestinian prisoners if it really wished to avoid the capture of its soldiers.
Israeli chief of staff Benny Gantz had ordered commanders of various military units to avoid the capture of Israeli soldiers even if that meant killing the captured soldier in the process, Hebrew daily Yediot Ahronot reported on Tuesday.
25 oct 2011
PA: Israeli inaction encourages settler violence
The Palestinian Authority on Monday said the Israeli government was "implicitly encouraging settlers to continue on their rampage" by failing to hold them to account for violent crimes.
"Israeli violations against Palestinians and their property and livelihood continue to increase with little or no action by the Israeli authorities to hold people to account under the rule of law," a government statement said.
The PA criticized Israeli settlers' ongoing assaults on Palestinians harvesting olives in Qalqiliya, Nablus, Salfit and Ramallah, and said settlers shot at villagers harvesting olives in Jaloud near Nablus on Friday, injuring four including a 12-year-old boy.
The Ramallah-based government also noted that the soldier who killed 33-year-old Issam Kamal Odeh in the northern West Bank in September has not been arrested.
The soldier's commander has been demoted following several operational and disciplinary events but will remain in the army, the PA noted.
Odeh was shot dead by Israeli forces following a settler raid in Qusra, near Nablus. An army inquiry said opening fire in response to a settler raid was an error in judgment, the Israeli news site Ynet reported, adding that the decision to remove the officer came after a number of different incidents.
No further action has been taken over the killing of Odeh, who was the father of seven children.
Meanwhile, several Palestinian children have been attacked in the last week. In Jerusalem, settlers kidnapped a child in Jerusalem and beat him before handing him to the Israeli army, the PA said, while undercover police kidnapped a 9-year-old child in Silwan.
Settlers threw stones at Palestinian cars near Ramallah, injuring an 11-year-old girl, and attacked students and teachers at a school near Hebron, the government said, adding that Israeli authorities had made no arrests in any of the incidents.
"We call on the international community to ensure that lawlessness is not allowed to pass unnoticed and, without consequences. As the occupying power, Israel is obliged by international law to prevent abuse of the occupied population. It is failing to do so."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=432028
PA: Israeli inaction encourages settler violence
The Palestinian Authority on Monday said the Israeli government was "implicitly encouraging settlers to continue on their rampage" by failing to hold them to account for violent crimes.
"Israeli violations against Palestinians and their property and livelihood continue to increase with little or no action by the Israeli authorities to hold people to account under the rule of law," a government statement said.
The PA criticized Israeli settlers' ongoing assaults on Palestinians harvesting olives in Qalqiliya, Nablus, Salfit and Ramallah, and said settlers shot at villagers harvesting olives in Jaloud near Nablus on Friday, injuring four including a 12-year-old boy.
The Ramallah-based government also noted that the soldier who killed 33-year-old Issam Kamal Odeh in the northern West Bank in September has not been arrested.
The soldier's commander has been demoted following several operational and disciplinary events but will remain in the army, the PA noted.
Odeh was shot dead by Israeli forces following a settler raid in Qusra, near Nablus. An army inquiry said opening fire in response to a settler raid was an error in judgment, the Israeli news site Ynet reported, adding that the decision to remove the officer came after a number of different incidents.
No further action has been taken over the killing of Odeh, who was the father of seven children.
Meanwhile, several Palestinian children have been attacked in the last week. In Jerusalem, settlers kidnapped a child in Jerusalem and beat him before handing him to the Israeli army, the PA said, while undercover police kidnapped a 9-year-old child in Silwan.
Settlers threw stones at Palestinian cars near Ramallah, injuring an 11-year-old girl, and attacked students and teachers at a school near Hebron, the government said, adding that Israeli authorities had made no arrests in any of the incidents.
"We call on the international community to ensure that lawlessness is not allowed to pass unnoticed and, without consequences. As the occupying power, Israel is obliged by international law to prevent abuse of the occupied population. It is failing to do so."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=432028
10 oct 2011
Man killed in northern Gaza Strip
Man killed in northern Gaza Strip
Ahmad al-Azazmeh 22
A 22-year-old man was killed in the northern Gaza Strip on Monday afternoon, after witnesses reported Israeli troops fired at him near the border with Israel.
The military wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed Ahmad al-Azazmeh, from the northern city of Beit Hanoun, as a fighter in their brigades, and said he was on a "jihad mission."
An Israeli army spokesman said soldiers identified two people planting an explosive device near forces at the border in northern Gaza early Monday afternoon, and a loud explosion was heard. She denied Israeli troops opened fire.
Witnesses told Ma'an that al-Azazmeh was by the wall when troops shot him and blocked an ambulance from reaching the man before he died.
Israeli forces impose a no-go zone in the border area of the Gaza Strip.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=427894
A 22-year-old man was killed in the northern Gaza Strip on Monday afternoon, after witnesses reported Israeli troops fired at him near the border with Israel.
The military wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed Ahmad al-Azazmeh, from the northern city of Beit Hanoun, as a fighter in their brigades, and said he was on a "jihad mission."
An Israeli army spokesman said soldiers identified two people planting an explosive device near forces at the border in northern Gaza early Monday afternoon, and a loud explosion was heard. She denied Israeli troops opened fire.
Witnesses told Ma'an that al-Azazmeh was by the wall when troops shot him and blocked an ambulance from reaching the man before he died.
Israeli forces impose a no-go zone in the border area of the Gaza Strip.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=427894
