Israel launches ground incursion in Gaza Strip

[Jefferson23]

20 Palestinians killed in IDF bombardments overnight ● Home Front Command prohibits gatherings of over 1,000 people throughout most of Israel ● Netanyahu to make statement at 11:00


By Haaretz | Jul. 18, 2014

A contingent of Israeli ground forces entered the Gaza Strip last Thursday night on the orders of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - the first such incursion since Operation Protective Edge began 10 days ago.

By daybreak Friday, the IDF had sustained its first fatality: Eitan Barak, a 20-year-old IDF soldier from Herzliya. The IDF is investigating whether friendly fire was involved in his death.
Ahead of a cabinet meeting on Friday morning, Netanyahu told reporters that the main goal of the ground operation is to deal with the threat posed by the tunnels Hamas has dug along the Gaza-Israel border.

The IDF struck over 100 targets in the Strip overnight, among them 20 launchers and nine tunnels, the IDF said. Palestinian sources say 28 Gaza residents have been killed since the incursion began, thus raising the Palestinian death toll since the operation began to 256.

Palestinian sources reported heavy IDF artillery fire throughout the entire Gaza Strip. A Gaza resident told Haaretz, “They’re firing from every direction, everything here is shaking.”

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.605855

[Jefferson23]

1. 30 Palestinians killed as Israel presses Gaza ground assault

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- At least 30 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza by airstrikes and artillery fire since Israel launched a ground operation late Thursday, medics said.

Ahmad Abdallah al-Behnsawi was killed by shelling in Beit Lahiya, medics said, while the bodies of Saleh al-Zgheibi and Alaa Abu Shabab were found under rubble in eastern Rafah.

Three children were killed in a targeted shelling on a home in northern Gaza. The bodies of Ahmad Ismail Abu Musallam, 14, his sister Alaa, 13, and their brother Muhammad, 15, were taken to Kamal Adwan hospital.

The children were killed when a shell hit their bedroom.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=714088

[King_David]

2. Egypt proposed a cease fire

Hamas rejected it out of hand and Israel accepted it.

This all would of ended days ago.

[Jefferson23]

3. Israel targets hospitals in Gaza assault

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Israel shelled the Beit Hanoun hospital in northern Gaza on Friday, damaging the top floors and causing panic among patients and staff, employees said.

A nurse in the hospital told Ma'an that Israel fired a drone missile at the roof and third floor, damaging water supplies.

The area of the hospital targeted contained a ward for children, a reception area, and the offices of several doctors.

The building was evacuated immediately following the attack, with no injuries reported

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=714141

[Jefferson23]

4. 38 Palestinians killed as Israel presses Gaza ground assault/ Report: 3 Israeli soldiers wounded by

anti-tank missile in Gaza.

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- 38 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza by airstrikes and artillery fire since Israel launched a ground operation late Thursday, medics said.

Two Palestinians were killed in separate strikes in Rafah and one in Beit Lahiya on Friday afternoon.

Rafat Bahloul and Sihab Zurub were killed in airstrikes on Rafah, while Mohammad Matar, 23, was killed in the strike on Beit Lahiya .

Ahmad Hassan Saleh al-Ghalban, 23, Hamada Abdullah Mohammad al-Bashiti, 21, and Abdullah al-Samiri, 17, were killed in an airstrike which witnesses say completely destroyed a home in Khan Younis earlier on Friday.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=714088

[Jefferson23]

5. Woman hurt and home hit near Ashdod, intercepts over Tel Aviv as central Israel under heavy fire

At least 50 rockets fired at Israel since IDF ground troops entered Gaza on Thursday night; rockets also intercepted in southern Israel throughout Friday.

Ilana Curiel
Latest Update: 07.18.14, 18:49

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4545832,00.html

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

6. The leadership of both sides need to be

kicked off the planet.

[Jefferson23]

7. The violence has been horrific..the leadership is not what I would call leaders.

Replacing them on both sides would be best...how and when is the hard part.

[Jefferson23]

8. Jul. 18, 2014 | 05:52 PM Abbas, in Turkey, calls for approval of cease-fire

Agence France Presse

ISTANBUL: Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas Friday urged support for an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire proposal in the Gaza Strip, as he held talks with Turkey's leaders on a brief stop-over after a visit to Cairo.

"Israel accepted the cease-fire proposal. We (the Palestinians) must also accept it so that we can put the Israeli side at unease," Abbas told a news conference with Turkish President Abdullah Gul in Istanbul in comments translated from Arabic into Turkish.

Egypt-mediated talks to end the escalating Gaza Strip conflict have faltered amid Israeli plans to widen its ground operation in Gaza Strip, a Palestinian territory ruled by the Islamist Hamas movement.

Abbas voiced support for the cease-fire proposal which he said was floated by "our Egyptian brothers at our request."

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2014/Jul-18/264332-abbas-in-turkey-calls-for-approval-of-cease-fire.ashx#axzz37qDzaod1

[Jefferson23]

9. Pope phones Peres, Abbas to call for Gaza ceasefire

Pope Francis on Friday phoned Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas to call for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza conflict, the Vatican said.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/pope-phones-peres-abbas/1271286.html

[sabbat hunter]

35. Peres's term as president

ends in about a week, and I do not think that Bibi really listens to him anyhow.

Pope Francis really should have called Bibi, since the president of Israel is a ceremonial role anyhow, the power lies with the PM.

[Jefferson23]

10. Abbas asks France to lobby Hamas allies for Gaza truce

CAIRO (AFP) -- Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas reached out for French help Friday to lobby Hamas's regional allies to influence it into accepting a truce with Israel, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said.

Egypt-mediated talks to end the escalating Gaza Strip war have faltered, with Hamas insisting on a comprehensive ceasefire that would end the Israeli blockade of the coastal enclave, Palestinian officials said.

Abbas asked France to lobby Hamas allies Qatar and Turkey to pressure the militants into accepting the truce, Fabius told reporters after meeting the Palestinian leader in Cairo.

He said he had called his Qatari counterpart after Abbas's request and added he would also contact Ankara.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=714216

[Jefferson23]

11. Israel warns of wider Gaza assault as Palestinian toll hits 278

GAZA CITY (AFP) -- Israel warned Friday it could broaden a Gaza ground assault aimed at smashing Hamas's network of cross-border tunnels, as it intensified an operation that has so far killed 278 Palestinians and injured more than 2,000.

With diplomatic efforts to secure a ceasefire gathering pace, US President Barack Obama said he had telephoned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to voice concerns about the crisis.

And Abbas reached out for French help to lobby Hamas allies Qatar and Turkey to pressure the group into accepting a truce during talks in Cairo with Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius.

In the face of Israel's land, sea and air offensive that has sent terrified civilians running for cover, Hamas remained defiant and warned Israel it would "drown in the swamp of Gaza."

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=714212

[Jefferson23]

12. 26 Gazans killed by Israel since sunset, bringing Friday total to 63

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Twenty-six Palestinians including eight members of a single family were killed by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip on Friday evening, while the death of a young man wounded earlier in the week brought the total number of deaths in Israel's 11-day long assault to 298 and more than 2,200 injured.

The deaths bring the total killed since the beginning of the ground invasion late Thursday night to 63, as deaths and injuries across the besieged coastal enclave soared on the first day of the assault in both the northern and southern regions of the territory.

Of the 63 killed since the beginning of the Israeli invasion, 26 died after Gazans broke their fast at sunset on Friday evening as Israeli air strikes pounded the Strip.

Eight members of the Abu Jrad family including four children were killed when a missile struck their home in Beit Hanoun including Naim Musa Abu Jrad, 23, Abd Musa Abu Jrad, 30, Siham Musa Abu Jrad, 26, Rija Aliyan Abu Jrad, and four children: Haniyah Abd al-Rahman Abu Jrad, Samih Naim Abu Jrad, Musa Abd al-Rahman Abu Jrad, 6 months, and Ahlam Musa Abu Jrad.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=714213

[Jefferson23]

13. Three Israeli soldiers injured in gun battle with Gazan militants

Palestinians report six killed in Israeli airstrike; IDF says it unearthed 20 Hamas tunnels, and killed 20 Hamas operatives ● Hamas military wing: IDF tunnel claims 'a lie' ● Gaza death toll passes 300, with 30 killed Friday ● IDF probe indicates: First Israeli soldier to die in op killed by friendly fire.

By Haaretz | Jul. 19, 2014 | 3:23 AM

Three Israeli soldiers were injured in a gun battle with armed Palestinian in the northern Gaza Strip Friday night. They were rushed to hospital for further medical treatment.

Earlier on Friday, the United Nations' Security Council held an emergency meeting to discuss the ongoing operation Israel is holding in Gaza. During this meeting it was announced that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon will be visiting Israel on Saturday.

A contingent of Israeli ground forces entered the Gaza Strip Thursday night on the orders of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - the first such incursion since Operation Protective Edge began 10 days ago. By daybreak Friday, the IDF had sustained its first fatality: Eitan Barak, a 20-year-old IDF soldier from Herzliya. An initial IDF probe into his death found that he was most likely killed by friendly fire.

Netanyahu told reporters that the main goal of the ground operation is to deal with the threat posed by the tunnels Hamas has dug along the Gaza-Israel border. In a conversation with the Israeli prime minister, U.S. President Barack Obama underscored U.S. support for Israel's right to self-defense. The IDF has struck over 140 targets in the past 24 hours, including over 20 tunnels, the IDF said. Palestinian sources the Palestinian death toll since the operation began had passed 280 by Friday night.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.605994

[Jefferson23]

14. LIVE UPDATES: Israeli civilian killed, 4 wounded by Gaza rocket near Dimona

IDF soldiers and Hamas exchanged fire on Saturday morning in the Gaza Strip's center, on the 12th day of Operation Protective Edge.

Three soldiers were rushed to Be'er Sheva's Soroka hospital. Two were moderately injured and one was lightly hurt. Three other soldiers were wounded in a gun battle with armed Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip Friday night.

Earlier on Friday, the United Nations' Security Council held an emergency meeting to discuss the ongoing operation Israel is holding in Gaza. During this meeting it was announced that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon will be visiting Israel on Saturday.

A contingent of Israeli ground forces entered the Gaza Strip Thursday night on the orders of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - the first such incursion since Operation Protective Edge began on July 8. By daybreak Friday, the IDF had sustained its first fatality: Eitan Barak, a 20-year-old IDF soldier from Herzliya. An initial IDF probe into his death found that he was most likely killed by friendly fire.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.605994

[Jefferson23]

15. Hamas infiltrates Israel and attacks army patrol, injuring at least 2

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Fighters affiliated with Hamas' military wing on Saturday infiltrated the southern Israeli region of Eshkol near Ein HaShlosha through a tunnel and attacked an Israeli army patrol, injuring at least two soldiers in the ensuing firefight.

Hamas's military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, claimed responsibility for the raid in a statement, adding that "Heavy fighting is ongoing with the forces of the occupation."

The Israeli military said in a statement that militants opened fire on the attackers with machine guns and an anti-tank missile, "moderately" wounding two soldiers in the patrol.

The military said that they returned fire and killed one of the militants, while the rest re-entered the tunnel and returned to Gaza.

The Israeli military added that they pursued the attackers into Gaza.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=714355

[Jefferson23]

16. Gaza on alert for Israeli spies

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — He walked in silence, looking at houses and examining doors, holding something in his hand. He placed it on the wall of one of the houses, looked up and saw a woman watching him from the fourth floor. He walked away quickly, looking guilty, and broke into a run. The woman began to scream, alerting some neighborhood youths, who grabbed him and found a SIM card on him with an Israeli number. They took him in and handed him over to the security services.


?t=thumbnail_570




Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/07/gaza-murder-spies-israel-war.html#ixzz37vCuFyvK

[Jefferson23]

17. Egypt Says It Has No Plans to Revise its Gaza truce Proposal

UN Secretary-General Ban to visit Israel, but not Gaza due to security reasons; UN Palestinian envoy threatens to go to int'l courts, including ICC.

Associated Press
Latest Update: 07.19.14, 12:

Egypt has no plans to revise its ceasefire proposal to end fighting in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinian militant movement Hamas, which has rejected the initiative, Cairo's foreign minister said on Saturday.

"It provides the needs of all sides and we will continue offering it and we hope to get their support as soon as possible," said Sameh Shukri at a news conference with his French counterpart Laurent Fabius.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4546179,00.html

[bemildred]

18. Palestinian militant groups claim numerous attacks against Israel army

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- A number of Palestinian groups on Saturday claimed responsibility for numerous missiles launched against Israeli military sites and multiple attacks launched on Israeli soldiers on the second day of Israel's ground invasion of the Gaza Strip.

The fighting on the ground in the northern and southern Gaza Strip has claimed the lives of at least 17 Palestinian militants, while more than a dozen Israeli soldiers have been injured.

The Hamas-linked al-Qassam Brigades claimed responsibility for the shooting of three Israeli soldiers in northern Beit Hanoun and said that they had targeted Israeli military sites with 16 mortar shells as well as the Kisufim military site with two 107-missiles.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said that no soldiers were killed in Beit Hanoun.

The Al-Quds Brigades of Islamic Jihad declared that it had targeted Israeli military vehicles in eastern Khan Younis with six mortar shells and has targeted Israeli special forces with an RPG shell in northern Beit Hanoun.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=714471

[bemildred]

19. Mowing the Lawn in Gaza

The Palestinians of Gaza are guilty of that new post-Cold War misdemeanor: voting while Muslim. The punishment for this crime has been eight years of economic hardship, international isolation, and periodic Israeli bombardments.

Like the Algerians in 1990 and the Egyptians in 2012, Gazans went to the polls in 2006 and voted for the wrong party. Rather than supporting the secular choice, they cast their ballots for Hamas. Not all Palestinians are Muslim (6 percent or so are Christian). But by opting for the Islamic Resistance Movement—Hamas, for short—Gazans had effectively nullified their own ballots.

It didn't matter that the EU and other institutions declared the elections free and fair. The results were what mattered, and Israel's judgment carried the day. Even though the newly elected government extended an olive branch to both Israel and the United States, the Israeli government didn't consider Hamas a legitimate political actor.

"Israel stated that Hamas were terrorists and Western leaders did not challenge this line," writes Cata Charrett in an excellent piece at Mondoweiss. "On the contrary, they refused to meet diplomatically with Hamas leaders, they cut off all possible financing to the newly elected government, and they supported Israel's complete sanction and seizure of Gazan territory." A direct peace overture to President George W. Bush offering a long-term truce went unanswered.

http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/25046-mowing-the-lawn-in-gaza

[bemildred]

20. Israeli soldier 'mistakenly' shot himself in Gaza

An Israeli soldier was seriously injured Saturday when he "mistakenly" shot himself in the Gaza Strip, an army source said.

The source said that the soldier was injured during the military operations in the Gaza Strip, according to Israel Radio.

An Israeli soldier has been killed and 17 soldiers injured in clashes with Palestinians gunmen since Thursday, when the Israeli army launched a ground offensive into the Gaza Strip.

Since July 7, Israel has been pounding the Gaza Strip, home to some 1.8 million Palestinians, with crippling air and naval bombardments with the ostensible aim of halting rocket fire emanating from the strip.

http://www.aa.com.tr/en/rss/361422--israeli-soldier-mistakenly-shot-himself-in-gaza

[bemildred]

21. Israeli bombing kills nine in Gaza, toll now 333: medics

GAZA CITY: Nine Palestinians were killed in Israeli bombing across the Gaza on Saturday afternoon, raising the toll in 12 days of violence to 333, medics said.

The new deaths included a fifth member of the Zuweidi family killed in northern Gaza´s Beit Hanun, and three men killed in nearby Beit Lahiya, emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said.

Another man was killed in a separate air strike in Beit Lahiya, along with one person killed in the Qarara area of southern Khan Yunis. And three men were killed in an air strike in central Gaza, he said.

Four other members of the Zuweidi family had been reported killed earlier -- Mahmud, 23, Dalia, 37, and two girls aged six and two. (AFP)

http://www.thenews.com.pk/article-154341-Israeli-bombing-kills-nine-in-Gaza,-toll-now-333:-medics

[bemildred]

22. One Israeli killed by Palestinian rocket fire

One Israeli was killed and several others were wounded by Palestinian rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army said on Saturday.

"Israeli civilian [was] killed by Hamas rocket fire on southern Israel. Several others wounded,” the army wrote on Twitter.

The army published the picture of the deceased’s destroyed home, identifying him as an "Israeli Bedouin."

Four Israeli soldiers were reportedly injured Saturday in clashes with Palestinian gunmen in the Gaza Strip, the army said earlier.

http://www.aa.com.tr/en/rss/361354--one-israeli-killed-bu

[bemildred]

23. Israeli Troops Fight Hamas Militants On Border

The military wing of Hamas, the Ezzedine al Qassam Brigades, said some of its fighters were "behind enemy lines" and were involved in gun battles with the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) near the Gaza border fence.

In a statement, it said: "The Qassam Brigades carried out an operation behind enemy lines.

"Heavy fighting is ongoing with the forces of the occupation."

Israeli soldiers were injured during firefights in the north of the Gaza Strip and security alerts were issued on parts of Highway Four in southern Israel on Saturday, according to Ynetnews.

http://www.lbc.co.uk/israeli-troops-fight-hamas-militants-on-border-94060

[bemildred]

24. . nt

[bemildred]

25. Israeli tanks dig in at Gaza frontier as Palestinian toll tops 300

(Reuters) - Israeli tanks and bulldozers dug in across a mile-wide strip of Gaza's eastern frontier on Saturday, and Palestinian officials said military strikes had killed more than 300 people, most of them civilians.

Israel sent in ground forces on Thursday after 10 days of air and naval barrages failed to stop rocket fire from Gaza.

The military said its engineers were concentrating on a buffer zone 2.5 km (1.5 mile) wide and were looking to destroy concealed rocket launch pads and tunnels dug by Gaza's dominant Hamas Islamists after the last big flare-up of violence in 2012.

Hamas said its fighters used one such tunnel to slip into Israel on Saturday, inflicting casualties. The Israeli military confirmed the incident near central Gaza, saying it killed one militant, repelled the rest, and four soldiers were wounded.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/19/us-palestinians-israel-idUSKBN0FI04420140719

[bemildred]

26. Israeli border shelling sends refugees pouring inland

BEIT LAHIYA, Gaza Strip, July 19 (Reuters) - In a school in northern Gaza, scores of families sweat in cramped classrooms. Babies cry, while restless kids draw on chalkboards and worried parents give thanks for their relative safety.

They are among more than 50,000 civilians taken in by the main United Nations agency in Gaza, UNRWA, as they flee heavy shelling amid an Israeli ground offensive into the border areas of the Gaza Strip.

UNRWA is now warning that its funds and supplies are running critically low. From Sunday, it says, it will no longer be able to provide enough mattresses for the flow of refugees, and has launched an urgent appeal for 60 million dollars.

"The number of those fleeing continues to rise inexorably and has more than doubled in the last 36 hours," UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness told Reuters.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/19/palestinians-israel-shelling-idUSL6N0PU0ND20140719?rpc=401&feedType=RSS&feedName=rbssIndustryMaterialsUtilitiesNews&rpc=401

[Jefferson23]

27. Horrifying. Thank you for all the additonal info. n/t

[bemildred]

28. People are dying, can't really look away.

Last edited Sat Jul 19, 2014, 01:09 PM - Edit history (2)

Meanwhile the politicians all seem to be bickering among themselves and trying to score points.

[Jefferson23]

29. It is sickening, they are doing just that. Points to score over dead bodies...all of them. n/t

[bemildred]

30. Yep. nt

[bemildred]

31. Israel confirms 2 soldiers killed in cross-border attack

JERUSALEM (AFP) -- The Israeli army announced Saturday the deaths of two Israeli soldiers by militants who had breached the Gaza border, hours after they had been reported wounded.

An army statement said the two, Sergeant Adar Bersano, 20, from Neharyia, and Major Amotz Greenberg, 45, from Hod Hasharon, were killed during a clash with a number of militants who infiltrated Israel through a tunnel from Gaza.

The fighters, affiliated with Hamas' military wing, infiltrated the southern Israeli region of Eshkol near Ein HaShlosha through a tunnel and attacked an Israeli army patrol.

Hamas's military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, claimed responsibility for the raid in a statement, adding that "Heavy fighting is ongoing with the forces of the occupation."

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=714513

[shira]

32. Tunnel infiltration. The reason Israel launched a ground assault.

Imagine if Hamasniks were to come out of a tunnel near a Kibbutz.

[bemildred]

33. Yes the instance a couple days back, right around when the ground war started up.

Given the ponderous nature of Israeli war-making these days, it seems unlikely that that was the cause of the war, although no doubt it did not help the cause of peace. The jihadis do seem more enthusiastic than I would expect, thirteen of them, it said.

[azurnoir]

34. unconfirmed - Hamas armed wing: 5 Israeli soldiers killed in new cross-border attack

Hamas' armed wing said Saturday that a group of its operatives infiltrated Israeli territory for the second time in a day and killed five Israeli soldiers.

The al-Qassam Brigades said the fighters tunneled under the Gaza border into Israeli territory near the Sufa crossing east of Rafah. Then they shot five soldiers dead, the group said.

It said three were killed by direct gunshots to the head, while the others suffered bullet wounds in other areas of their bodies.

Only hours earlier, the Israeli army announced the deaths of two soldiers by militants who had breached the Gaza border.

An army statement said those two, Sergeant Adar Bersano, 20, from Neharyia, and Major Amotz Greenberg, 45, from Hod Hasharon, were killed during a clash with a number of militants who infiltrated Israel through a tunnel from Gaza.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=714530

[bemildred]

36. Well, I've seen it a couple of times now. nt

[bemildred]

37. A couple of others:

http://www.kuna.net.kw/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=2388481&Language=en

http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/07/19/hamas-militants-slip-through-untouched-tunnel-two-israeli-soldiers-die-in-lethal-attack/

[bemildred]

39. Israeli soldiers killed in militant infiltration

http://www.brecorder.com/world/middle-east/184750.html

[bemildred]

38. Israel demolishes Gaza tunnels, Hamas militants slip through

Israeli bulldozers demolished more than a dozen tunnels Saturday in the Gaza Strip, and Palestinian authorities reported intensified airstrikes and shelling as the death toll from Israel's ground offensive rose to at least 342 Palestinians. Diplomats struggled to revive a ceasefire.

Israeli soldiers uncovered 34 shafts leading into about a dozen underground tunnels, some as deep as 30 metres, that could be used to carry out attacks, the military said.

Still, Palestinian gunmen managed to infiltrate Israel from Gaza using another tunnel and killed two Israeli soldiers and injured several others, the military said. At least one Palestinian was killed in the clash. Hamas said 12 of its fighters participated in the attack.

It was the second time Palestinians had used their network of underground tunnels to penetrate Israel in the current round of fighting. Israel embarked on its ground offensive late Thursday in part to seek and destroy the tunnels.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/israel-demolishes-gaza-tunnels-hamas-militants-slip-through-1.2712036?cmp=rss

[bemildred]

40. Israel Says Gaza Has Used Up or Lost Half its Rockets

Jerusalem, Israel: Israel's army said on Saturday Gaza-based militants had used up or lost about half of their rockets in 12 days of fighting - though the Islamist fighters say they have been replenishing their arsenal.

The Israeli military said Palestinian fighters had fired at least 1,705 rockets out of an estimated stockpile of about 10,000, a depletion of about 17 percent.

"I think that we have hit and destroyed 30 to 40 percent of the rockets," chief military spokesman Brigadier-General Moti Almoz said, referring to an Israeli offensive on Gaza that escalated on Thursday.

Israel says it has launched air strikes, naval barrages and a ground assault in Gaza, controlled by Islamist group Hamas, to halt rockets fired into Israeli territory. Analysts say Israel's estimates of the size of Hamas' remaining arsenal will be a key factor in its deliberations on how long to continue the offensive.

http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/israel-says-gaza-has-used-up-or-lost-half-its-rockets-561581?curl=1405801757

[bemildred]

41. Gaza's Hospitals Under Fire in Israeli Operations

JERUSALEM —

Basman Alashi, the director of the al-Wafa Rehabilitation Center in Gaza, said he received a call at 8:45 pm last Thursday with a warning: leave the building, an assault will begin in ten minutes.

The call was from the Israel Defense Forces [IDF]. The military is known to inform residents of buildings being targeted during operations – in this case a campaign known as Protective Edge that is seeking to destroy the military capabilities of the Hamas Palestinian group that controls the Gaza Strip.

Alashi says he and his staff initially refused to evacuate.

"I told them I cannot leave," he said. "I have people who are paralyzed, unconscious, they produce no threat to the Israelis at all, they're just sitting in their beds."

http://www.voanews.com/content/gazas-hospitals-under-fire-in-israeli-operations/1961124.html

[bemildred]

42. 4 die in Hamas tunnel assault inside Israel

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Eight Palestinian militants emerged from a tunnel some 300 yards inside Israel on Saturday morning, surprising an Israeli border patrol with a rocket-propelled grenade shot at their jeeps and starting a gun battle that left two Israeli soldiers and one militant dead before the Palestinians retreated underground, the Israeli military said.

Hours later, another militant slipped through a different tunnel into Israeli territory and, according to the military, fired on troops who killed him. The infiltrations came as the Israeli military pressed deeper into Gaza in an intensifying ground war it says is meant to destroy a labyrinth of tunnels leading from Gaza into Israel before they can be used for launching attacks.

The morning clash was the first time in the current war that the militants killed soldiers inside Israel, and came just three days after another infiltration that the military said was the immediate trigger for adding a ground invasion to a deadly air campaign.

The developments also came as Israeli officials revealed that the tunnel network was far more extensive than had been publicly known, with 13 tunnels discovered and an estimated dozens more suspected. Though the government has said the ground campaign will be limited and aimed only at the tunnels, the growing intensity of the battles that are pushing deeper into civilian areas suggested that the fighting could grow far worse.

http://www.telegram.com/article/20140719/NEWS/307199683/1052/news01

[Jefferson23]

43. 13 Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza operation Sunday

IDF death toll rises to 18; Kerry: Israel has right to defend itself; 50 Palestinians killed in Shuja'iyya, Gaza death toll tops 350 ● IDF troops uncover 40 tunnels in Gaza, 14 of them whole.

By Haaretz | Jul. 20, 2014

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.606129

[Jefferson23]

44. Abbas meeting Meshal in Qatar in bid to promote cease-fire

The Palestinian president is promoting the Egyptian cease-fire proposal, while Qatar puts forward its own initiative, calling for an international conference.

By Jack Khoury | 13:33 20.07.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will meet with Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Meshal on Sunday in Qatar in an attempt to get him to accept an Egyptian proposal aimed at reaching a cease-fire with Israel. Abbas arrived in Bahrain on Saturday after a visit to Turkey.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.606170

[Jefferson23]

45. Shelling on Shujayea prompts Gazans to flee

At least 60 have been killed in the eastern district of Shujayea in the heaviest barrage of Israel's ground offensive.

Fares Akram Last updated: 20 Jul 2014 15:34

Many Palestinian families fled the Shujayea neighbourhood in the east of Gaza city after a sleepless night that witnessed the heaviest bombardment of the 13-day Israel assault on Gaza. Heavy tank and artillery shelling has left at least 60 people dead, most of them women and children and over 200 injured.

At midday, horrific images were aired on Al Jazeera where corpses of burnt women and children were lying on the streets of Shujayea as a result of the Israeli bombardment. According to several eye witness accounts,Shujayea residents fled under heavy bombardment.

According to Palestinian human rights organisations, women were seen taking their children out to flee from the area, and some of them were killed. "People who were not able to leave the area have been trapped under the Israeli selling and their destinies are unknown," said a statement issued by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights.

Among those who fled the Shujayea massacre was 29-year-old Ibtessam Batniji, walking with three children and clutching an infant, looking for a taxi to pick them up in a street void of cars.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/07/shelling-shujayea-prompts-gazans-flee-2014720105942605458.html

[Jefferson23]

46. Deprivation in Gaza Strip ( Sara Roy )

July 18, 2014

In almost three decades of research and writing on Gaza, I have often asked myself, “Is there a language to really express the torment of Gaza and the way in which the world’s unflinching indifference and heartlessness contribute to it?

Gaza’s present anguish did not emerge in a vacuum nor in response to a single terrible event as the Israeli government would have us believe. Instead, it emanates from a context of ongoing occupation and repression that has transformed Gaza — the center of Palestinian nationalism and resistance to Israeli occupation — into one of the most impoverished, imprisoned areas of the world.

Gaza’s deterioration, however, was not accidental or inadvertent. To the contrary, the devastation of Gaza’s economy (and environment) was deliberate and planned by Israel, imposed through separation and isolation and through a destructive economic blockade, which entered its eighth year last month. The blockade — which has been supported by the United States, the European Union, and Egypt in particular — virtually bans access to markets outside Gaza and confines the overwhelming majority of people to the Strip. This has ended all normal trade upon which Gaza’s tiny economy depends and has disabled the private sector and its capacity to generate jobs, preventing any viable recovery of Gaza’s productive sectors.

Unemployment in Gaza stands at 40.8 percent, a dramatic increase from 18.7 percent in 2000; however, for those people between 15 and 29 years of age, the unemployment rate is almost 60 percent. Because of this, poverty has increased with almost 80 percent of Gazans made dependent on humanitarian aid to survive although they are able and desperate to work.

in full: http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2014/07/19/deprivation-gaza-strip/6HybezDQv6N0lGzsVWoB4N/story.html

[Jefferson23]

47. Israel mows the lawn ( Mouin Rabbani )

In 2004, a year before Israel’s unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip, Dov Weissglass, éminence grise to Ariel Sharon, explained the initiative’s purpose to an interviewer from Haaretz:

The significance of the disengagement plan is the freezing of the peace process … And when you freeze that process, you prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state, and you prevent a discussion on the refugees, the borders and Jerusalem. Effectively, this whole package called the Palestinian state, with all that it entails, has been removed indefinitely from our agenda. And all this with … a [US] presidential blessing and the ratification of both houses of Congress … The disengagement is actually formaldehyde. It supplies the amount of formaldehyde that is necessary so there will not be a political process with the Palestinians.

In 2006 Weissglass was just as frank about Israel’s policy towards Gaza’s 1.8 million inhabitants: ‘The idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger.’ He was not speaking metaphorically: it later emerged that the Israeli defence ministry had conducted detailed research on how to translate his vision into reality, and arrived at a figure of 2279 calories per person per day – some 8 per cent less than a previous calculation because the research team had originally neglected to account for ‘culture and experience’ in determining nutritional ‘red lines’.

This wasn’t an academic exercise. After pursuing a policy of enforced integration between 1967 and the late 1980s, Israeli policy shifted towards separation during the 1987-93 uprising, and then fragmentation during the Oslo years. For the Gaza Strip, an area about the size of Greater Glasgow, these changes entailed a gradual severance from the outside world, with the movement of persons and goods into and out of the territory increasingly restricted.

in full: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n15/mouin-rabbani/israel-mows-the-lawn

[Jefferson23]

48. Bloody Sunday: Over 100 Palestinians killed on 13th day of operation

IDF continues destroying terror tunnel infrastructure as heavy losses are registered on both sides.

Yoav Zitun, AFP
Latest Update: 07.20.14, 22:37

Bloody Sunday: Day 13 of Operation Protective Edge has seen the greatest number of casualties so far on both sides, with 13 killed IDF soldiers and over 100 Palestinian deaths.

Thirteen Golani Brigade soldiers were killed overnight and early Sunday morning in several different incidents.

Their deaths raised to 18 the total number of soldiers killed since Israel's ground operation began late on Thursday. It was the largest number of soldiers killed in combat since the 2006 Lebanon war.

More than half of Sunday's Palestinian victims were killed in a blistering hours-long Israeli assault on Shejaia, near Gaza City, which began before dawn and has so far claimed over 60 Palestinian lives, with over 200 wounded.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4546718,00.html