Five killed, 25 injured in multiple attacks on Israeli targets

[ 18/08/2011 - 12:54 PM ]
EILAT, (PIC)-- Five were killed and 25 injured in two attacks on Israeli buses carrying soldiers near the southern occupied city of Um al-Rashrash (Eilat) on Thursday, Hebrew media reported. They said that the Egged buses were mainly carrying soldiers and were heading from Beer Sheba to Eilat when they came under fire but continued their ride until they reached an Israeli military barrier.  Reports indicated that a projectile was fired at the second bus which caused the deaths. Reuters said that the attack took place 30 kilometers north of Eilat. A big number of Israeli occupation troops backed by army choppers rushed to the scene amid reports of a clash with the attackers. http://www.palestine-info.co.ukd

IOF troops deploy in Silwan to search for weapons, find nothing

[ 17/08/2011 - 01:48 PM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Israeli troops and special forces backed by choppers stormed the Silwan town, south of occupied Jerusalem, on Wednesday and were deployed in Batn Al-Hawa and Ein Bir Ayub suburbs, local sources said. They said that tension ran high in the town as they feared a wave of demolition of local homes in the process. Fakhri Abu Diab, a member of the committee defending the land of Silwan, said that Israeli soldiers occupied rooftops of Palestinian homes in Silwan and deployed large numbers of forces at the entrances to the town and inside its suburbs. The Israeli army command claimed that the operation was meant to search for weapons but did not declare finding any. Local sources in Bustan suburb reported that the soldiers barged into the sit-in tent pitched to protest land and property confiscation on part of the Israeli occupation authority and used hounds in searching homes in the company of intelligence elements.

IOF launches arrest sweep, burns down farmland in Jenin vicinity

[ 17/08/2011 - 02:02 PM ]

JENIN, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation forces launched wide-ranging arrest sweeps around the West Bank city of Jenin, and burned dozens of dunams of farmland west of the city. Witnesses said several patrols raided Kafr Rai village south of Jenin and deployed throughout the streets. The home of 16-year-old Bilal Nabil Jawabira, 16, was searched in the operation. The sources added the soldiers set up ambushes in the local cemetery, in the olive groves, and on the rooftops of nearby homes. IOF troops raided several other villages in the area with patrols that went on until early morning without report of arrest. Meanwhile, IOF soldiers set fire to dozens of dunums (1 Dunum= 1000 square meters) of olive groves and almond fields causing heavy damage in the village of East Barta’a in the southern region of Jenin governorate. Locals said troops posted at the Barta’a checkpoint stopped fire vehicles from Jenin’s civil defense service from arriving to fight the blaze. They said Israel forces had been burning grass piled on the sides of the roads where they were patrolling, when fire spread to nearby olive groves. Meantime, locals reported that a gang of Jewish settlers burned down tens of dunams of farmland in the dismantled Jewish settlement of Homesh and directed verbal insults at Arabs and tried to assault the vehicles of Palestinians who drove along the road between Jenin and Nablus. Witnesses said the settlers set fire to hundreds of olive and almond trees as Israeli military forces remained idle. IOF troops arrived to the region for the protection of the settlers, they said.

http://www.palestine-info.co.uk

Israeli troops shoot dead Palestinian approaching border

Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian man on Tuesday in the Gaza Strip as he came near to the border with Israel, Palestinian medics and witnesses said.

10:23PM BST 16 Aug 2011

The shooting came hours after Palestinian medics reported that a Palestinian was killed and seven wounded in at least four overnight Israeli air strikes across Gaza.

The Israeli military said its aircraft had targeted four areas in the Gaza Strip in response to the firing of a Grad rocket from the Palestinian territory into southern Israel.

The man killed near the border fence with Israel was identified by his family as Mohammed al-Majdalali, aged 22.

Majdalali had approached the border east of the refugee camp of Maghazi in the central Gaza Strip, the sources said.

Relatives said he did not belong to any armed group.

An Israel army spokesman confirmed that "soldiers opened fire at a suspect who was approaching the border fence in this sector, and hit the suspect."


She did not say if the suspect had any weapons or explosives on him.

The Israeli army opens fire systematically on Palestinians who go near the border fence separating the Gaza Strip from the Jewish State to prevent attacks on patrols, infiltration attempts or bids by suspects to plant bombs.

Earlier on Tuesday Adham Abu Selmiya, spokesman for the Hamas-run emergency services in the Gaza Strip, said air strikes had killed one Palestinian and wounded seven in the coastal enclave.
"We learned of the martyrdom of the youth Musa Shtawe, 29, who died of his injuries after a strike east of Gaza City," he said.

"The outcome of the Israeli aggression during the past 24 hours is now one martyr and seven injured."
The Israeli military did not specify which sites it had targeted, but Palestinian sources said they counted five air strikes across Gaza.

Three of the raids hit targets east of Gaza City, including the Zeitun neighbourhood, they said.
Further south, two more raids were carried out east of Khan Yunis and on a tunnel under the border with Egypt near Rafah, they said.

"The raid in Rafah left three people injured, including a child," Abu Selmiya said.

In a statement, Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said Shtawe was a member of the group. "He was martyred after a journey of jihad ... and hard jihadi work," it said.

The Israeli military said it carried out the strikes "in response to the firing of a rocket from the Gaza Strip at the city of Beersheva.

The rocket that hit near Beersheva did not cause any damage or injuries, the military said. Israeli public radio said a second rocket had been fired at Beersheva, but it was not immediately clear where it landed.

Since last month there has been an increase in the number of rockets fired from Gaza, which are usually followed by retaliatory air raids.

The incidents have interrupted several months of calm following a flare-up in April, when an anti-tank missile hit an Israeli school bus, killing a teenager.

Israel responded to that attack with a series of air strikes that killed at least 19 Palestinians in the deadliest violence since Israel's devastating 22-day assault on Gaza over New Year 2009.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/8705554/Israeli-troops-shoot-dead-Palestinian-approaching-border.html