Israël - Gaza

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Israel launches air strikes in Gaza
Israel launched air strikes in the Gaza Strip on Monday, wounding at least 19 people, after militants fired mortar shells and rockets into the Jewish state, witnesses and militant groups said.

The number of raids and casualties in one evening showed the rising tension between Israel and Hamas, the Islamist group that controls Gaza.

Hamas has stepped up rocket salvoes into Israel after a hiatus since the two sides fought a war two years ago, claiming responsibility for firing more than two dozen mortars and rockets at the weekend.

Israel killed two Palestinians in Gaza in a separate border confrontation on Saturday, medical officials said.

The Israeli military confirmed one of Monday's air raids, saying several Hamas-affiliated militants were targeted in northern Gaza, as well as a tunnel used to smuggle weapons. Hamas medical officials said 19 people were wounded in these strikes, including four militants, seven children and two women. Witnesses in Gaza said Israeli warplanes fired a missile after three mortar rounds were shot at Israel. The Israeli missile landed harmlessly.

Israel fired five more missiles later, aiming at a Hamas security compound in Gaza City, a training camp north of the city, a brickworks and metal foundry in northern Gaza, and a target in southern Gaza, witnesses said. Palestinian analysts linked the growing violence to calls for President Mahmoud Abbas to heal a four-year rift with Hamas.

Militants in Gaza often fire rockets at Israel but Hamas itself had avoided doing so or claiming responsibility for such attacks in recent months.

Abbas said last week he was willing to visit Gaza for talks aimed at reunifying Palestinian ranks. Hamas seized control of Gaza in a bloody 2007 struggle with Abbas's Western-backed Fatah movement.

Some Hamas officials fear a reconciliation with Fatah could threaten the Islamists' hegemony in Gaza. Israel has signalled it would see such reconciliation as a threat, given Hamas's refusal to recognise its existence and join peace talks.

"I think the escalation from Hamas side is calculated," Talal Okal, a Palestinian expert said in an interview, adding he believed Israel had similar motives, although both sides may try to avoid a wider conflagration.(Reuters)

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Eyewitness report claiming that IAF jets launched 5 bombing attacks on the coastal Strip comes after Israel confirmed it had hit a smuggling tunnel near its border with Gaza.

Israel launched five air strikes in the Gaza Strip on Monday in response to a barrage of mortars and rockets, Gaza witnesses and militant groups said.

At least five Palestinians were wounded, two of them children, medics said, in the raids which showed the rising tensions between Israel and Hamas, the Islamist group that controls Gaza.

Hamas has stepped up rocket fire at Israel after a lengthy hiatus since a war of two years ago, claiming responsibility for the firings of more than two dozen mortars and rockets at the weekend.

The Israeli military confirmed one of Monday's air raids, saying several Hamas-affiliated militants were targeted in northern Gaza, as well as a tunnel used to smuggle weapons.

Witnesses in Gaza said Israeli warplanes fire a missile after three mortars were shot at Israel, and the Israeli missile landed harmlessly in a bin for animal feed.

Israel fired four other missiles at as many targets later in the evening, aiming at a Hamas security compound in Gaza City, a training camp north of the city, and a brickworks and metal foundry in northern Gaza, witnesses said.

Earlier Monday, an IDF statement confirmed that an Israel Air Force fighter jet struck a Gaza tunnel running along the border with Israel, as well as Hamas militants in the northern Gaza strip on Monday.

The IDF spokesperson's office released a statement saying that the Gaza tunnel was used to smuggle terrorists into Israeli territory with the intent to execute attacks against Israeli citizens.

The strike came shortly after a recent upsurge in the number of rockets being fired from Gaza, the peak being on Saturday when the southern part of the country was hit by over 50 rockets.

Also on Saturday, IDF soldiers killed two Palestinian terrorists near the Gaza border. Later in the day, a grad rocket fired from Gaza exploded in an open area in the industrial district of Ashkelon. A few people were treated for shock following the explosion, which caused no damage.(via)

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Sources in Strip say Israeli aircraft bomb various targets, including 'metal foundry', police outpost. Hamas says will agree to ceasefire if Israel commits to 'stopping its aggression'

Palestinian sources in Gaza said Israeli aircraft bombed a number of targets in the Hamas-ruled territory late Monday night. At least 17 people, among them seven children and two women, were injured in the air raids, Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Adham Abu Salmia said.

The IDF has yet to confirm or deny the report.

According to the sources, one of the targets was a Palestinian police outpost in north Gaza. The outpost was vacant at the time of the strike. The Air Force also attacked in the Jabal al-Ris area in eastern Gaza. Palestinians said another aerial raid targeted a construction material factory near the al-Shaaf neighborhood, located east of Gaza city.

The Air Force also bombed a "metal foundry" in Gaza City's Zeitun neighborhood and an unidentified target in the Shati refugee camp. One of the outposts attacked was manned by terrorists from the Hamas-affiliated Al-Ahrar organization.

On Monday evening it was reported that Israeli helicopters opened fire on a garage in the Sajaiya neighborhood east of Gaza City. The structure was damaged, but there were no reports of injury.

Hamas has stepped up rocket fire at Israel after a lengthy hiatus since a war of two years ago, claiming responsibility for the firings of more than two dozen mortars and rockets at the weekend.

Earlier Monday, the spokesman for Hamas' Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Abu Obeida, said his organization was once again ready to impose an unofficial ceasefire in the Gaza Strip "if Israel commits to stopping its aggression".

In an official statement Abu Obeida said, "We will also commit to this and toe the line with the national consensus." He warned, however, that Israel would "pay dearly" if it continued its airstrikes.

"The recent operations by the military wing are a response to Israel's ongoing crimes, which caused the deaths of two people and destruction of buildings in Gaza," he said. (via)

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BullMitchum Bull Mitchum
GAZA (Xinhua) - Israeli warplanes carried out seven intensive airstrikes on posts belonging to Islamic Hamas movement armed wing al-Qassam.

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RanaGaza Rana B. Baker
last explosion took place a few minutes ago, at the moment drones are still hovering heavily. #Gaza #Palestine #Israel