Israeli soldiers invaded, on Friday evening, an area east of the Al-Boreij Refugee Camp, in central Gaza, firing dozens of rounds of live ammunition, while military choppers flew overhead firing flares.
Archive Photo – rabeta.net
The motives of the invasion remain unknown as the soldiers just searched the area and withdrew later on; no arrests or injuries were reported.
On Friday at dawn, two Palestinians were wounded after the Israeli Air Force fired missiles in the Car Market area in Gaza; one of them was treated by field medics while the other was moved to a local hospital.
Also on Friday, Israeli troops shot and killed one Palestinian near the central West Bank city of Ramallah during clashes that took place after the Palestinians held a protest against the ongoing settler attacks, and the Friday attack carried out by the soldiers against worshipers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem.
In its weekly report for the week of 16 – 22 Feb. 2012, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights found that 25 civilians were wounded, and 21 were abducted in 74 invasions carried out by the Israeli military into the Palestinian territories.
Israeli warplanes fired on a Gaza City neighborhood early Friday, lightly injuring two Palestinian fighters.
The airstrike on the Zeitoun neighborhood injured two militants who were evacuated to hospital, emergency services’ spokesman Adham Abu Salmiya said. Their identities and affiliations were not immediately identified.
An Israeli army statement said the warplanes hit “two terror activity sites in the northern Gaza Strip…in response to the rockets fired at Israel.”
Three rockets fired from Gaza landed in southern Israel on Thursday evening, and two projectiles early Friday, without causing injuries of damage.
The armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committees said in a statement on Friday it had launched projectiles at southern Israel early on Friday.
The Nasser Salah al-Din brigades said they fire was in response to Israel’s violations of the sanctity of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, and Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians.
On Sunday, Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip injured six people, including a one-year-old infant.
Two Palestinian civilians were wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a metal workshop Saturday night in southern Gaza City, medics and witnesses said.
The witnesses said they heard two explosions as an Israeli army helicopter fired two missiles at a goldsmith shop in a two-storey building in the Zeitoon neighbourhood in southern Gaza City.
Black smoke was seen billowing from the flaming building, where firefighters and rescue crews rushed after the missile strikes.
Medics in Gaza City said that two bystanders were moderately injured and were taken to a hospital.
Security sources in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip said that police and security evacuated all police stations and security headquarters for fear of intensive Israeli retaliation to rocket attacks by Palestinian militants earlier Saturday against southern Israel.
Around noon, three Grad rockets were fired from eastern Gaza and landed near the southern Israeli city of Beer Sheba. No injuries were reported, and no one claimed responsibility for the attack.
Israeli gunboats opened fire on Friday evening toward Palestinian fishing boats at sea near Beit Lahiya off the coast of northern Gaza; no injuries were reported.
Mahmud Al-Asi, head of the Tawfiq organization for fishermen, said the gunboats open fire regularly toward the fishing boats, forcing fishermen to head back to shore.
The fishermen have suffered a reduction in earnings due to the navy, he added.
One Palestinian man was injured on Sunday and two others were reported missing after Egyptian authorities pumped sewage inside a Rafah smuggling tunnel running underneath the border with the Gaza Strip, medics said.
Palestinian medical sources told Ma’an that a tunnel worker was hurt and two others went missing inside the Rafah tunnel as a result of sewage pumped in from the Egyptian side.
Two Palestinians were killed and three others injured on Saturday after a gas canister exploded in a smuggling tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip, medics said.
Egyptian security officials said in early September that they were cracking down on the network of tunnels used by smugglers from the coastal enclave.
Medics say over 160 Palestinians have died in the network of underground tunnels since Israel imposed a siege on the Gaza Strip in 2006.
Under Israel’s crippling blockade, the tunnels have provided a lifeline for residents of the coastal enclave.
Egypt’s reopening of the Rafah border eased the impact of the siege for some residents, who were able to leave Gaza freely for the first time in years.
A Gaza military court on Thursday played the alleged confessions of four men accused in the April kidnap and murder of Italian peace activist Vittorio Arrigoni.
Of the four men, all from Gaza, two are accused of murder, a third of having helped in the kidnap and killing, and a fourth of providing the house where the body of Arrigoni was found hanging, hours after he was snatched.
The defendants appeared in Gaza City courtroom unshackled and in civilian clothes. They appeared calm and responded to questions from the court’s three judges.
The prosecution submitted four CDs purportedly containing videotaped confessions from each defendant.
The judges called each of the accused to the bench to observe a portion of their alleged confession being played on a laptop, which was not visible to the court’s audience.
“Is this your confession?” one of the judges asked Tamer al-Husasna, 25, who is charged with murder.
“Yes, but it was taken from me by force,” he replied, alleging he had been tortured by Hamas’ internal security forces.
The three other defendants also claimed that their confessions were extracted from them by torture, though they gave no details of their alleged mistreatment.
A lawyer observing the trial on behalf of a Gaza rights group said on condition of anonymity that the trial had been adjourned to Oct. 3, when the prosecution was expected to present additional witness testimony.
The three other defendants in the case are 23-year-old Mahmud al-Salfiti, who is charged with murder, Khadr Faruk Jerim, 25, who is accused of assisting the kidnap and murder, and Amer Abu Ghola, also 25, who allegedly provided the house in which Arrigoni was held and later killed.
Arrigoni, a long-time member of the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement, was kidnapped on April 14.
Shortly after his disappearance, a previously unknown Salafist group released a YouTube video showing a bruised and bloodied Arrigoni and threatened to kill him within 30 hours if Hamas failed to release a group of jihadist prisoners.
Security forces found Arrigoni’s body shortly afterward, ahead of the stated deadline, in an abandoned house in northern Gaza.
Among those the group demanded be freed was a leader of the Salafist group Tawhid wal Jihad (Unity and Holy War), which denied involvement in the incident.
Hamas quickly arrested several suspects in the case, and a week later raided a house where three more suspects were reportedly hiding.
Two were killed during the raid, and a third was taken into custody.
Arrigoni’s death shocked the local community and international aid workers and activists in Gaza, where he had lived and worked for much of the three years prior to his death.
Israeli troops have launched an attack on the northeastern Gaza Strip on the eve of the presentation of the Palestinians’ proposal for membership in the United Nations.
The assault targeted an area in the northeast of Gaza City on Monday, a Press TV correspondent reported.
Residential buildings were struck during the offensive, but there are no reports of any casualties so far.
Although Israeli military forces officially withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, they still frequently attack the territory.
The Palestinian Authority will formally submit a request to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for approval of Palestine’s membership in the world body on September 20, during the 66th session of the UN General Assembly.
Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip violates international law, a panel of human rights experts reporting to a UN body said on Tuesday, disputing a conclusion reached by a separate UN probe into Israel’s raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship.
The so-called Palmer Report on the Israeli raid of May 2010 that killed nine Turkish activists said earlier this month that Israel had used unreasonable force in last year’s raid, but its naval blockade of the Hamas-ruled strip was legal.
A panel of five independent UN rights experts reporting to the UN Human Rights Council rejected that conclusion, saying the blockade had subjected Gazans to collective punishment in “flagrant contravention of international human rights and humanitarian law.”
The four-year blockade deprived 1.6 million Palestinians living in the enclave of fundamental rights, they said.
“In pronouncing itself on the legality of the naval blockade, the Palmer Report does not recognize the naval blockade as an integral part of Israel’s closure policy towards Gaza which has a disproportionate impact on the human rights of civilians,” they said in a joint statement.
An earlier fact-finding mission named by the same UN forum to investigate the flotilla incident also found in a report last September that the blockade violated international law. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says the blockade violates the Geneva Conventions.
Israel says its Gaza blockade is a precaution against arms reaching Hamas and other Palestinian guerrillas by sea.
The four-man panel headed by former New Zealand Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer found Israel had used unreasonable force in dealing with what it called “organized and violent resistance from a group of passengers.”
Turkey has downgraded ties with Israel over the incident.
Richard Falk, UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories and one of the five experts who issued Tuesday’s statement, said the Palmer report’s conclusions were influenced by a desire to salve Turkish-Israeli ties.
“The Palmer report was aimed at political reconciliation between Israel and Turkey. It is unfortunate that in the report politics should trump the law,” he said in the statement.
About one-third of Gaza’s arable land and 85 percent of its fishing waters are totally or partially inaccessible due to Israeli military measures, said Olivier De Schutter, UN special rapporteur on the right to food, another of the five.
At least two-thirds of Gazan households lack secure access to food, he said. “People are forced to make unacceptable trade-offs, often having to choose between food or medicine or water for their families.”
The other three experts were the UN special rapporteurs on physical and mental health, extreme poverty and human rights, and access to water and sanitation.
Today the ‘Irish Ship to Gaza’ group have announced that their vessel MV Saoirse will again be sailing to break the ILLEGAL blockade of the coastal enclave.
MV Saoirse was set to sail as part of this years ‘Freedom Flotilla 2′ but was sabotaged with a damaged prop shaft in port whilst in Turkey. Dr Fintan Lane, national coordinator of Irish Ship to Gaza, who own the vessel, said on the sabotage : “This is an appalling attack and should be condemned by all right-thinking people. It is an act of violence against Irish citizens and could have caused death and injury. If we had not spotted the damage as a result of a short trip in the bay, we would have gone to sea with a dangerously damaged propeller shaft and the boat would have sunk if the hull had been breached. Imagine the scene if this had happened at nighttime.”
He continued: “One of the most shocking aspects is the delayed nature of the sabotage. It wasn’t designed to stop the ship from leaving its berth; instead, it was intended that the fatal damage to the ship would occur while she was at sea and this could have resulted in the deaths of several of those on board. This was a potentially murderous act.”
Dr Lane, who was on board Challenger 1 in last year’s flotilla, said: “The Freedom Flotilla is a non-violent act of practical and humanitarian solidarity with the people of Gaza, yet Israel continues to use threats and violence to delay its sailing. They attacked us in international waters last year; now they are attacking us in Turkish and Greek ports. There is no line that Israel won’t cross.”
“We will not be intimidated by attacks like this — it simply highlights the aggression that the Palestinian people of Gaza have to put up with on a daily basis. It strengthens our determination to continue until this illegal and immoral blockade is lifted.”
Israel likes to portray itself as a small, defenceless nation in the middle of a sea of angry Arabs. However, while Israel is anything but defenceless – it is after all a nuclear power with one of the most well-equipped and well-trained armies in the world – it is indeed beginning to be the focus of an upsurge of hostility and anger from its neighbours. Even long-time allies have started to lose their patience with Israel for its consistent law-breaking, daily human rights violations, lack of accountability and unabashed arrogance about the fact that it has, until now, been able to commit serious crimes with impunity.
Israel’s status as a pariah state is becoming more and more entrenched as a result of two key developments. The first is the gradual democratisation of countries in the Middle East and the second is Israel’s own conduct in refusing, for example, to apologise for killing the citizens of a former friendly state, or to bring those responsible to justice.
In terms of the democratic shifts in the region, countries like Turkey and Egypt, which once turned a blind eye to Israel’s criminality or were complicit therein, are finally waking up and taking a stand against the bully of the Middle East. Israel’s past reliance on its close ties with the Turkish military is no longer a winning hand. Since the ruling AKP came to power the army has been sent back to barracks and its influence over Turkish politics has diminished. The Israeli government now has to contend with its peers in Ankara and the likes of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyib Erdogan, who is making it very clear that the past alliance between Israel and Turkey is no longer assured. Understandably, he maintains that any relationship between the two countries is conditional and must be based on mutual respect. It is Israel’s apparent lack of respect and, it could be said, contempt for the people of Turkey which is placing the once cosy relationship in jeopardy.
Ever since May 2010 when Israeli commandos killed nine Turkish citizens on board the Mavi Marmara on a humanitarian mission to break the siege on Gaza but still in international waters, Turkey’s stance against Israel has been hardening. Erdogan’s government in Ankara has waited patiently to give time for diplomacy to run its course in the hope that Israel would do the right thing and offer, at the very least, an apology for the killings. To no avail, it seems; the Israelis responsible have not been brought to justice and Israel’s piracy and kidnapping has gone unpunished. Israel’s refusal to offer a simple apology for the murder of Turkish civilians is an insult that the government of Turkey cannot let pass; it has become a matter of national dignity.
The escalation in diplomatic tensions between the two “allies” has seen Turkey expel Israeli diplomats from Ankara and downgrade its own diplomatic representation in Tel Aviv. Turkey has also said that its navy will now maintain a constant presence in the Mediterranean and provide a military escort for any future humanitarian flotillas heading for Gaza. Furthermore, Prime Minister Erdogan is visiting Egypt, with speculation rife about a possible visit to the besieged Gaza Strip. That would be a bold statement creating both anger and embarrassment in Israel which would be applauded across the Arab and Muslim world. Erdogan’s visit to Cairo may also see Turkey and Egypt solidifying their stand against Israel; if so, that would be bad news for the Zionist state.
Israel’s arrogance and refusal to apologise for its criminality is foolhardy as it has the potential to lose one of its strongest allies in the region. Turkey is emerging as a huge regional power, politically and economically, and is leading the way for many other countries to step out of the shadows and challenge Israel. Many of the emerging post-revolution Arab governments will be looking to Turkey for leadership and guidance and may well take Ankara’s lead on how to deal with Tel Aviv.
In Egypt, the same two issues are also having a major impact on the country’s relationship with Israel. Democratic change and Israeli intransigence place the countries’ peace treaty under threat. The Zionist state has enjoyed the protection of its Egyptian ally ever since the Camp David accords in 1979; post-revolutionary Egypt, however, is emerging as an entirely different kettle of fish. While the government and military institutions may more or less still be the same, the Egyptian people are not and never will be the same again. The nation has found its voice and will not be silenced. If the first significant victim of the Egyptian people’s freedom was Hosni Mubarak, the second may well be the treaty with their Israeli neighbour. It suited Israel to be surrounded by Arab dictators, particularly Mubarak, at its beck and call, but that era has now passed.
When Israeli troops killed six Egyptian soldiers on the border recently, could Tel Aviv have guessed that this would prompt demonstrations in Cairo leading to the Zionist ambassador and his staff having to flee the country? It is significant that the Palestinian flag was raised alongside the Egyptian flag over the embassy after the demonstration; that is indicative of the mood of the people of Egypt. The sight of the Palestinian flag around the Middle East does not bode well for the Zionist state.
Israel is in a quandary, not simply because the Middle East is undergoing such a seismic shift but also, primarily, because Israel is not evolving and adapting its own policies to the changes taking place around it. The stubborn refusal to amend its policies and practices towards the Palestinians is clearly costing Israel in terms of relations with its erstwhile allies.
Cries from Tel Aviv about the attack on the “sovereign land” of its embassy in Cairo fall on stony ground. How can the Israeli government have the audacity to complain while it continues to abuse Palestinians in their own land; build illegal settlements across the occupied Palestinian territories; kill Egyptians going about their lawful business; launch invasions of Lebanon apparently at will; and annex land stolen from its Arab neighbours? Israel cannot continue to insist on one set of rules for itself and another for everyone else. It has to get used to being judged by the laws and conventions by which the rest of the world is expected to abide. There is a limit to global patience, and it is running out, as is the time for Israel to make amends. If it ends the occupation of Palestine, perhaps that will give Israel a glimmer of hope. If not, what sort of future can there be for a pariah Zionist state in a sea of emerging Arab democracies?
Israeli soldiers stationed in the eastern borders of Gaza strip on Tuesday opened massive fire at Palestinian houses and agricultural lands in Abasan town, eastern Khan younis.
Local sources confirmed that Israeli soldiers stationed inside Srig military site in the east of Abasan town opened massive fire at Palestinian houses for several hours, creating fear and terror among civilians.
Israeli fire also targeted Palestinian farmers during their work, with no injuries reported.
Israeli forces continue to target Palestinian houses and agricultural lands along the eastern and southern borders of Gaza Strip.
Israel has escalated its attacks on the Gaza Strip in the past few days, killing two Palestinians and injuring several others in Israeli airstrikes that targeted civilian areas.
An Israeli army unit of four Israeli bulldozers and five tanks entered Gaza today and raided Palestinian land to the east of Rafah, razing the area under heavy military air cover and sporadic shooting, according to local sources.
Israeli bombardment attacks were regenerated on Jabaliya refugee camp in Gaza in the morning. The attacks targeted a group of civilians, causing several deaths and injuries. Locals said Israeli attacks are leaving no chance for a ceasefire.
The air raids happened less than an hour after the assassination of Al-Quds Brigades military wing of Islamic Jihad movement member, Rumah Al-Hassani, in an air raid that targeted central Gaza strip.
The assault targeted an area in the northeast of Gaza City on Monday, a Press TV correspondent reported.
Today the ‘Irish Ship to Gaza’ group have announced that their vessel MV Saoirse will again be sailing to break the ILLEGAL blockade of the coastal enclave.
