Tag: Gaza

JERUSALEM - Israel's naval blockade of the Gaza Strip and its deadly raid on a flotilla of aid ships bound for the coastal enclave last year conform with international law, an Israeli probe concluded on Sunday.
The May 2010 raid, in which nine Turkish activists were killed, soured relations between Ankara and Israel and earned the Jewish state widespread international censure. Israel set up its own commission of inquiry into the raid, headed by former judge Yaakov Tirkel, after

ISTANBUL - Israel used "excessive" force in its assault on a ship carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza that killed nine Turkish activists, according to the findings of a Turkish inquiry announced on Sunday.
The preliminary conclusions of the report said "the Israeli army used excessive force against the Mavi Marmara". The preliminary conclusions of a report were released on Sunday, coinciding with the findings of Israel's own inquiry into the incident in the eastern Mediterranean

GAZA CITY - A Palestinian was killed and two were injured on Tuesday as Israeli tanks carried out an operation in the northern Gaza Strip, a medical official said. Hamas emergency services spokesman Adham Abu Selmiya named the victim as 17-year-old Amjad al-Zaanein, saying he died after being hit by Israeli tank fire near the northern town of Jabaliya. One of the two injured men, who were hit by shrapnel, was said to be in critical condition, he added. Seven Israeli tanks made a rare

GAZA - Palestinians gave anonymous burials on Tuesday to two men killed by Israeli forces on the Gaza border and whose unclaimed bodies stirred speculation they might have been foreign migrant workers or al Qaeda supporters.
The two were shot on Jan. 5 while trying to clamber into Israel from the northern Gaza Strip, the army said. Palestinian medics who collected their corpses said the men wore civilian clothes and carried no weapons. Their skin was darker than most Gazans'.

JERUSALEM - A projectile fired from the Gaza Strip landed in an open area in southern Israel, the military said on Wednesday.
No-one was hurt and it did not cause any injuries when it landed in the Eshkol region, which flanks the northeastern sector of the Israel-Gaza border, the army said. It was not immediately clear if it was a mortar or a Qassam rocket, which takes its name from the armed wing of the Islamist movement Hamas. Gaza militants have fired dozens of rockets and

RAFAH - Around 100 pro-Palestinian activists, part of an aid convoy from Asia, crossed into the Gaza Strip from Egypt early Monday, an AFP photographer said. The convoy's aid cargo is expected to arrive in Gaza later on Monday, after travelling separately from Syria to Egypt by boat, Indian organiser Feroz Mesberola said.
An Egyptian security official told AFP that around 20 Iranians and some, though not all, of the Jordanians travelling with the convoy had been denied visas to

JERUSALEM: Israel has urged the UN Security Council to issue a "clear and resolute" message to Palestinian militants against firing rockets into its territory from Gaza, in a letter made public on Wednesday.
The December 21 letter, released by the foreign ministry, comes amid rising tensions on Israel's border with the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave. On Tuesday, Israel launched a series of air strikes against what it said were tunnels, training sites and weapons facilities in Gaza

GAZA CITY: Members of Hamas fanned out across the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, draping the Islamist movement's flag across buildings ahead of a mass rally to celebrate their 23rd anniversary.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians were expected at the celebration being held in Gaza City's Kateeba Square, where an enormous replica of Jerusalem's Dome of the Rock mosque, with its famous golden dome, was being erected.
Large pictures of Hamas leaders, including the group's assassinated