Tag Archives: Gaza

Israeli, Palestinian violence flares along Gaza border

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly government cabinet meeting in Jerusalem

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) – Violence erupted along the Israel-Gaza border on Wednesday as Israeli forces and Palestinian militants exchanged fire and Israeli war jets bombed targets in the enclave, ruled by the Islamist Hamas group.

There were no immediate reports of casualties in the rare flare-up along the frontier, which has been largely quiet since a 2014 war.

The outbreak of violence coincided with work by the Israeli military to uncover tunnels being built by Gaza militants that Israel fears could be used to infiltrate its territory. The Palestinians fired mortar bombs at Israeli forces operating near the border fence, prompting fire from Israeli tanks and warplanes that bombed open areas in the northern and southern sectors of the Gaza Strip. “Our efforts to destroy the Hamas terror tunnel network, a grave violation of Israel’s sovereignty, will not cease or be deterred,” military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner said.The Hamas armed wing, Izz el-Deen Al-Qassam Brigades, said the raid was a violation of the 2014 ceasefire and demanded that Israel pull out its forces “immediately”.”The enemy must not make pretexts and must leave Gaza immediately, they should deal with their fears and concerns outside the separation line,” the group said in a statement.

A senior Hamas official in exile, Moussa Abu Marzouk, said calm along the Gaza-Israel border was being restored following intervention with the two sides on the part of Egypt, which brokered the truce that stopped the 2014 war.

“Contacts were made with Egyptian brothers, who sponsored the last ceasefire agreement. Their response was quick, serious, which helped restore things to where they were before,” Abu Marzouk in a post on his official Facebook page.

On Tuesday Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu inspected a large tunnel discovered in April on the Israeli side of the border. Israel said it had been dug by Hamas.

Israeli security sources say half a dozen classified anti-tunnel technologies have long been under development, though held up by funding problems that were partly alleviated by a U.S. research grant of $40 million this year.

Hamas leaders, while stressing they do not seek an imminent war, see tunnels as a strategic weapon in any armed confrontation with Israel and have vowed not to stop building them.

More than 2,100 Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed during the 2014 Gaza conflict. Sixty-seven Israeli soldiers and six civilians in Israel were killed by rockets and attacks by Hamas and other militant groups.

(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi, Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Hamas not seeking a war with Israel, says top official

GAZA (Reuters) – A senior leader of the Islamist group Hamas said the Palestinian movement was not seeking a new war with Israel and insisted a network of tunnels it is digging, some of which have reached into Israel in the past, was “defensive”.

Speaking to members of the Foreign Press Association in Gaza, Mahmoud al-Zahar, a medical doctor seen by many as a hardliner, suggested the prospects of reconciliation with the rival Fatah party of President Mahmoud Abbas were slim, despite years of international efforts to forge unity.

“I think nobody here in the region is looking for a war,” said Zahar, 71, who has survived two Israeli assassination attempts, one of which, in 2003, killed his son.

“We are not looking for any confrontation with Israel, but if they are going to launch an aggression we have to defend ourselves,” he told reporters late on Wednesday.

Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007 after a brief civil war with Abbas’s forces. It maintains strict security over the coastal territory, where more than 1.9 million people live. Zahar is one of Hamas’s founders and one of its most senior figures in Gaza, regarded as close to the military wing.

The movement has, since its founding in 1987, advocated the destruction of Israel, seeing all of historic Palestine, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean, as its land.

However, some of its leaders have indicated in recent years that they would accept a Palestinian state in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, captured by Israel in a 1967 war, in return for a long-term truce with their neighbor.

Israel regards the truce idea as a ploy and will not negotiate with Hamas, which the EU and United States list as a terrorist group.

Asked why Hamas was building tunnels, Zahar said they were defensive and suggested they were nothing against the might of the U.S.-supplied Israeli military.

“You are speaking about tunnels? You are not speaking about F-35 (fighter planes)? You are not speaking about the nuclear bomb in Israel… The tunnels are a matter of self-defense,” he said.

Hamas’s armed wing has lost 10 fighters this year in tunnel collapses. In strongly worded speeches, the group’s leaders have pledged to pursue the tunnel building, prompting alarm in Israel, which has stepped up efforts to find the tunnels and stop them reaching its territory.

The heightened tension on both sides has fueled fears of another war, which would be the fifth since Hamas won Palestinian elections in 2006. The last war, in July-August 2014, left more than 2,100 Palestinians dead, most of them civilians, while 73 Israelis, nearly all soldiers, were killed.

INTERNAL SPLIT

With an Israeli-Egyptian blockade on Gaza making it difficult for goods and people to move in and out of the territory, Hamas and Fatah have made efforts to reconcile their differences and form a functioning unity government.

Yet the latest round of discussions in the Qatar capital Doha has become bogged down, despite early signs of progress, and Zahar gave the impression that a deal was some way off.

He said Abbas and Fatah were not sincere about achieving reconciliation, a charge Fatah threw back. He also vowed that his group would never recognize the state of Israel, which Abbas and Fatah have done and want Hamas to do.

“They (Fatah) have no will to achieve an agreement. There is no intention,” he said.

The blockade on Gaza and the breakdown of relations with Fatah have created huge strains on the economy in Gaza. Since Fatah controls the budget from the West Bank, it has so far resisted making payments to security forces and other state employees in Gaza who were hired by Hamas since 2007.

As a result, Hamas is heavily dependent on support from abroad, including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Iran. While Saudi and Iran are at odds, Zahar said Hamas was not taking sides.

“We are looking to have good relations with everybody,” he said. “We will not play any factor or element in the internal or external confrontation between these countries.”

(Editing by Hugh Lawson)

U.N. rights expert accuses Israel of excessive force against Palestinians

GENEVA (Reuters) – The U.N. human rights investigator for Gaza and the West Bank called on Israel on Thursday to investigate what he called excessive force used by Israeli security forces against Palestinians and to prosecute perpetrators.

Makarim Wibisono, United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, also challenged Israeli authorities to charge or release all Palestinian prisoners being held under lengthy administrative detention, including children.

“The upsurge in violence is a grim reminder of the unsustainable human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the volatile environment it engenders,” he said in a final report to the Human Rights Council.

Israel, backed by its ally the United States, accuses the Geneva-based forum of bias against it.

Twenty-seven Israelis and a U.S. citizen have been killed since October in near-daily Palestinian attacks that have included stabbings, shootings and car-rammings. Israeli forces, for their part, have killed at least 157 Palestinians, 101 of them assailants, according to Israeli authorities.

The spokesman for Israel’s Foreign Ministry declined to give an immediate response, saying he was looking into Wibisono’s remarks.

Wibisono announced his resignation from the independent post last month, effective March 31, accusing Israel of reneging on its pledge to grant him access to Gaza and the West Bank.

Wibisino said any individual violence was unacceptable

He said the upsurge came against a backdrop of “illegal” Jewish settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, construction of a wall, and Israel’s blockade of Gaza that amounted to a “stranglehold” and “collective punishment”.

Israel must address these issues to uphold international law and ensure protection for Palestinians, he said.

Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war and later annexed East Jerusalem, declaring it part of its eternal, indivisible capital, a move never recognised internationally.

Some 5,680 Palestinians were detained by Israel as of the end of October 2015, including hundreds of minors, Wibisono said, citing figures from the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem.

Regarding those under administrative detention, he said: “Hundreds of Palestinians being held, now including children, often under secret evidence, and for up to six-month terms that can be renewed indefinitely, is not consistent with international human rights standards.”

“The government of Israel should promptly charge or release all administrative detainees.”

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; additional reporting by Dan Williams in Jerusalem; editing by Ralph Boulton)

Travel agency in isolated Gaza recalls the ‘golden’ 1950s

GAZA (Reuters) – Nabil Shurafa’s travel agency in Gaza was once packed with clients booking flights to London, Paris, New York or cities across the Arab world. These days, he’s lucky if anyone comes in, as so few people can get out.

The posters of the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty and a map of the world look out of place on the walls, given the sense of isolation that pervades Gaza, a narrow strip of land hemmed in by Israel on two sides, Egypt to the south and the blockaded Mediterranean to the west.

“Once borders are closed, things switch off,” said Shurafa with a sense of resignation. A plastic model of a passenger plane stands on his desk, next to the silent phones.

When Shurafa’s father opened the bureau in 1952, it quickly earned a reputation as a helpful and reliable agency.

Back then, Gaza was governed by Egypt and there was not much of a border to speak of. Gazans could book a plane ticket and take a four-hour bus or train to Cairo to catch their flight.

The agency had a close relationship with BOAC, the forerunner of British Airways, and Air France and is general sale agent for each. It remains a member of IATA, the International Air Transport Association.

“The era from 1952 to 1967 was a golden one,” Shurafa, 53, told Reuters. People used to travel to Gaza as well, at least until the 1967 Middle East war, when Israel captured Gaza from Egypt and the West Bank from Jordan.

“Gaza was like a duty-free zone, with Egyptians coming to buy goods brought by merchants from Lebanon,” he recalled.

There was also a boom in the late 1990s, after the Oslo peace accords between Israel and the Palestinians, and Gaza opened Yasser Arafat International Airport in 1998.

But the years since have seen a steady decline in business as Gaza has become more and more cut off from the world.

When the second Palestinian uprising erupted in 2000, the airport’s runway and control tower were bombed by Israel and it remains in ruins.

Since 2007, when the Islamist group Hamas seized control of the territory following a brief civil war with the Western-backed Fatah movement, entry to and exit from Gaza have become even more restricted, both by Egypt and by Israel.

LINKS TO THE WORLD

Israel does allow around 1,000 Gazans to cross into its territory every day, for work, medical treatment or other humanitarian reasons. But it is a far cry from the thousands that could pass through the vast border terminal Israel built in the mid-2000s, before Hamas took over.

Egypt meanwhile has kept its crossing with Gaza mostly closed over the past five years, citing security concerns and to put the squeeze on Hamas. Human rights groups say 95 percent of Gaza’s 1.95 million people cannot get out of the enclave.

Even those that are able to cross into Israel cannot easily travel from there. They need special dispensation to fly out of Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport or to travel to the West Bank and on to Jordan to catch a flight. Jordan, too, has started restricting visas for Palestinians from Gaza.

Every few months, Egypt lets around 3,000 Gazans leave via Rafah, but the arrangements are a lottery. The crossing stays open only for two or three days, so no one can be sure they will get across. They call Shurafa once they are over the border and the agency then scrambles to book them flights or hotels.

There are currently 15,000 Gazans who have registered requests to travel across Rafah, Palestinian officials say, including 3,000 who say they need medical treatment.

From 1994 to 2000, after Oslo and before the second intifada, Shurafa estimates his office sold 6,000 airline tickets a year. Last year, he sold 120. He’s had to let eight staff go and now mostly employs family to keep costs down. He seldom covers his $5,000 monthly rent and running costs.

Mhareb Al-Burai, who runs the rival Al-Batra tourism office, has faced similar problems. Rather than flights, his agency now focuses on trying to get visas for Dubai, Turkey and China.

“With Rafah largely closed, our main clients are businessmen and merchants, those who have valid permits to cross into Israel and from there travel to Jordan,” said the 64-year-old.

For Shurafa, the airline stickers on his glass front door may seem out of place, but he hasn’t given up.

“It may sound like satire to talk about a travel agency in a place like Gaza,” he said. “But someone has to have hope because this is a history we can’t abandon.”

(Editing by Luke Baker and Andrew Roche)

Violence Escalates; Sweeping Through Israel

At the beginning, the tension in Israel centered at the al-Aqsa the holy site for Palestinians otherwise known as the Temple Mount for the Jewish people in Jerusalem’s Old City.  Palestinians feared that Israel wants to change the status quo there and the violence began with a vengeance.  The cycle now has no answers as to the beginning or end and reports of what is causing the random stabbings and shootings throughout Israel depends on who you are speaking to at the moment.  It has become a never ending cycle.  

Four suspects were shot in three separate attempted stabbing attacks in Jerusalem on Monday, Israeli police said.

Extra police were deployed around the Old City as the latest wave of violence  blankets Israel and the West Bank show no signs of abating.

“To our shock and horror, the cruelty of murderers who attack innocent civilians and children on their way home from school knows no limit, confronting us all with a shocking form of evil,”Jerusalem’s Mayor Nir Barkat said in a statement. “We must act swiftly and decisively.” So far, 23 Palestinians and four Israelis have been killed.

Around 20 Israelis and more than 500 Palestinians have been injured.

A number of rocket attacks have been launched from Gaza in recent weeks amid an escalation in violence against Israeli security forces and civilians in the West Bank and Jerusalem.  

On Sunday, a pregnant Palestinian mother and her 3-year-old daughter were killed when their house in the Gaza Strip collapsed after an Israeli airstrike that allegedly targeted a Hamas weapons site.

Palestinian President Says His People No Longer Bound By Peacekeeping Oslo Accord

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas announced at the United Nations General Assembly that Palestinians are no longer bound by the 1995 Oslo accord that established the foundation for a two-state solution because Israel did not implement it. This announcement has risen even more between Palestine and Israel and has sent Middle Eastern negotiations into uncharted territory.

The Oslo Accord was a peacekeeping agreement between Israel and Palestine that stated Palestine would be independent and free of Israeli occupation by 1999. Since then, Israel set up three areas in the West Bank for transitional governance.

“As long as Israel refuses to commit to the agreements signed with us, which render us an authority without real powers, and as long as Israel refuses to cease settlement activities and to release of the fourth group of Palestinian prisoners in accordance with our agreements, they leave us no choice but to insist that we will not remain the only ones committed to the implementation of these agreements, while Israel continuously violates them,” Abbas said.

Nadia Hijab, a senior fellow at the Institute for Palestine Studies, says one of the implications could be for countries to implement legally bound sanctions against Israel for not meeting its commitments.

“The EU would have to take a much further stand in labeling products that emerge from settlements. They could have to ban settlement products altogether and be even legally inclined to sanction Israel,” she said.

Other analysts believe that Abbas’ announcement would not change anything. Aaron David Miller, a Middle East expert and scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Institute in Washington, stated that the announcement was “an expression of frustration and an effort to create a new point of political departure for his international drive for recognition.”

The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel stated that Abbas’ declaration was “deceitful.” The director of Israel’s Foreign Ministry, Dore Gold, stated in an interview with the New York Times that “Israel does uphold its agreements.”

Israel Launches Airstrikes in Gaza in Response to Palestinian Rocket

The Israeli Air Force (IAF) launched a series of airstrikes in the Gaza strip after the Palestinian enclave shot a rocket that was heading for the Jewish nation. The Palestinian rocket was stopped by the Iron Dome anti-missile system.

Palestinian sources told Ynet that the IAF hit 4 “terror targets” inside Gaza, and at least two of the targets belonged to Hamas.

While many citizens heard explosions and reported them on social media, there were no immediate reports of injuries. Israel also had no reports of injuries from the rock that had been intercepted by the Iron Dome near the city of Ashdod.

Israel Defence Force (IDF) spokesman, Lt. Col. Peter Lerner stated: “This evening, the third day of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, a rocket was fired at southern Israel sending the residents of Ashdod as well as several surrounding communities to nearby bomb-shelters. Hamas is responsible and will be held accountable for every attack emanating from the Gaza Strip. The IDF will continue defending all Israelis who are repeatedly attacked by such blatant acts of aggression.”

Sheikh Omar Hadid, and ISIS affiliated Salafist group, used social media to claim responsibility for the rocket attack. The group stated that the rocket was a response to the fatal shooting of Hadeel al-Hashlamon, an 18-year-old woman who was killed at the checkpoint in the West Bank last week. The arrest of an Israeli Arab women for allegedly joining ISIS was another stated reason for the rocket attack.

Israeli President, Prime Minister Mark Anniversary of Operation Protective Edge

Israeli leaders held an official ceremony marking a year since the beginning of the 50 day war with Gaza.

Both Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paid tribute to the 67 soldiers who died during Operation Protective Edge and warned that the next battle could be even more difficult and costly to the nation of Israel.

“The next conflict will be even more difficult than the last. It is clear that such a conflict will require a decisive and difficult decision,” Rivlin said. “When there is no fire towards Sderot, Nahal Oz, Nir Banim, Ashdod or Ashkelon — then there will be no fire towards the Gaza Strip.”

“We are not a people of war, but if forced to take up arms to defend our borders and our existence, we will not hesitate to do so,” the president added.

The remembrance comes as the United Nation’s Human Rights Council voted to condemn Israel for alleged war crimes during the conflict.

Netanyahu, however, appeared to be unmoved the opinion of the United Nations in his comments.

“I say to all enemies of Israel — Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran and the Islamic State, too — whoever tries to harm us, their blood is upon their heads,” Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu also spoke directly to the families of those who perished saying that each one saved lives.

“There isn’t any remedy for your pain,” Netanyahu said. “But with all that pain, you truly understand that your loved ones saved lives… for the sake of Israel.”

“Life is a flowing river that takes us forward and you will eventually know days of hope and happiness,” he continued. “There will always be pain, but your loved ones died as heroes.”

Netanyahu’s brother Yoni died during a 1976 Israeli military action.

Rocket Shot Into Israel From Gaza

A rocket was launched from the Gaza Strip toward Israel on Tuesday night.

Residents scattered for shelter as alarms pierced through the quiet night.  The IDF said the sirens sounded in Zikim, Karmia, Netiv Ha’asara and Yad Mordechai.  All of those towns border the northern Gaza Strip.

Radio Israel reported the rocket landed in an open area between two towns although the IDF would not confirm that report.

The rocket attack was the latest in a string of launches at Israel over the last month due to in-fighting among groups in the Gaza Strip.  A salafi group has been fighting against the Hamas leaders in the Strip and their clashes seem to end with rockets being fired into Israel.

Israeli officials say that Hamas is responsible any time a rocket is fired into their nation from the Gaza Strip.

The attack comes on the heels of the United Nations claiming that Israel could be found liable for war crimes from last summer’s rocket attacks by Palestinian groups.

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon earlier this month warned Israel would not allow the conflicts between Hamas and the salafi organization to disrupt Israeli life.

“In recent days we received another reminder about the complexity of the situation in the Gaza Strip, a hostile entity controlled by a murderous terrorist organization, Hamas, which is also challenged by terror gangs affiliated to the global jihad,” he said.

Rockets Fired Into Israel

Rockets were fired toward Ashdod and Lakhish on Tuesday night.

An army source told the Jerusalem Post said that sirens went off in the areas before the rockets headed toward the cities.

Various Israeli media outlets reported five rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip toward the country but that only one rocket actually landed inside Israeli territory.  Initial reports had said that three had landed inside the country.

Sources in Gaza told the Times of Israel that Islamic Jihad fired the rockets toward Israel.  There are disputes inside the organization that led to kidnappings in northern Gaza and ended with the rocket launches into Israel.

The IDF said they are investigating the launch and attempting to confirm the launches were the result of in-fighting among Islamic Jihad.