New Israeli air raids on Gaza

Tuesday December 30, 2008 14:14 by Rami Almeghari - IMEMC&Agencies

Israeli occupation terrorist forces warplanes carried out on Tuesday a series of new air strikes on the Gaza Strip, wounding three Palestinian residents including one critically.

According to witnesses, Israeli air crafts bombarded early this morning a Hamas-run police station and a dairy in Gaza city, causing great damages.

Also, the warplanes attacked a workshop in the city as well as a Hamas post in the northern town of Beit Lahiya. Also, three Israeli missiles landed on another Hamas post in the nearby Beit Hanoun city.

Renewal of the Israeli occupation terrorist forces air strikes came shortly after the Israeli warplanes shelled a third Hamas post in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis.

In addition, the Israeli terrorist raids hit another target in the Buraij refugee camp in central Gaza Strip. With these new attacks, death toll reached 368 as the number of injuries rose to 1724 , according to medics.

Israeli occupation terrorist army shelled 56 targets on Tuesday at dawn

Tuesday December 30, 2008 10:10 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

The Israeli occupation terrorist air forces continued its offensive against the Gaza Strip and shelled overnight and until morning hours of Tuesday 56 targets in different parts of the Gaza Strip. The targeted included Qassam training camps, homes, ambulances, mosques and medics.

The shelling also targeted the houses of Qassam Brigades leaders Abdul-Karim Al Shaer and Adnan Rayyan in Rafah in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, and the house of Raed Sa’ad, a Qassam leader in Jabalia.

 The Israeli occupation terrorist air forces also shelled a sports club in Tal Al-Hawa, a police station in Beit Hanoun, Bani Suhaila City Council, blacksmith workshop in Gaza, and training grounds for the Al-Qassam Brigades in northern Gaza, west of Gaza City and a third camp in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.

Furthermore, the Israeli occupation terrorist air forces soldiers shelled the mosque of Omar Bin Al-Khattab Mosque in Al-Buraij in the central Gaza Strip; this is the sixth mosque that gets directly targeted and shelled by the Israeli Air Force since Saturday.  

The Israeli terrorist troops also shelled Al-Khulafa’ Mosque, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, the governor’s office in northern Gaza, and several others targets that were shelled a number of times since the offensive was initiated.

Several attacks were carried out targeting the Ministries Compound in Tal Al-Hawa in Gaza completely destroying it, and a military camp that was previously used by Force 17, loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas.

The Gaza death toll is has increased to more than 368 in less than four days; nearly 1724 Palestinians have been wounded

At Least 10 Palestinians Killed in Fresh Israeli Strikes on Tuesday

Tuesday December 30, 2008 02:43 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

Dr. Mu'awiya Hassanain, head of the Emergency Unit at the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, reported that the Israeli occupation terrorist air forces carried out further air strikes on Tuesday at dawn and killed 10 Palestinians. The Israeli occupation terrorist army also shelled medics trying to evacuate casualties, injuries were reported. The Gaza death toll is has increased to more than 360 in less than four days, nearly 1700 Palestinians have been wounded.

The Israeli terrorist air strikes targeted the Ministries Compound behind the Islamic University, a former base of the Palestinian Preventive Security in Tal al-Hawa.  The Israeli air raids also demolished a Navy base west of Gaza, Al-Qassam Brigades center east of al-Zaytoon neighborhood in Gaza City, a civilian vehicle in al-Jala’ street north of Gaza City, a blacksmith workshop in the center of Gaza, and a house which belongs to one of the leaders of the al-Qassam Brigades in northern Gaza, amongst several other targets.

Also, US-made Apache helicopters used by the Israeli occupation terrorist forces fired two missiles at a center which belongs to the Popular Resistance Committees, west of Gaza City. The shelling took place after Israeli announced that two Israelis were killed in southern Israel at midnight.

On Monday evening, seven Palestinians were killed and several others were wounded when the Israeli air force shelled the house of Maher Zaqqout, one of the leaders of the Al-Qassam Brigades, in Beit Lahia, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.

The house of Zaqqout was already empty as he anticipated the attack, but the casualties were bystanders. The missiles also caused damage to nearby homes.  

The Israeli occupation terrorist forces also fired a missile at a fuel truck in northern Gaza, killing the driver.

Al-Aqsa TV station of Hamas reported that several residents were killed and wounded in an air strike that targeted the house of Ayman Siyam, one of the leaders of the Al-Qassam brigades in Jabalia.

Also, the guard of an UNRWA school in Al-Qarara, in southern Gaza, was killed after it was shelled by the Israeli Air Force, badly damaging it.

The Israeli occupation terrorist forces also shelled the house of Nour Baraka, in Bani Suhaila town, east of Khan Younis.  Three residents, including the father of Baraka, were seriously wounded. Baraka is one of the leaders of the Al-Qassam brigades.

At least 360 Palestinians have been killed and over 1600 injured in the ongoing Israeli assaults.

On Monday evening, the Israeli occupation government defense minister and war criminal, Ehud Barak, held an meeting with senior Israeli military and security officials and discussed with them the possibility of launching a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli warplanes bomb 4 and 11-year-old sisters taking out the garbage, 363 now dead

Date: 30 / 12 / 2008  Time:  09:30
Gaza – Ma’an –

Israeli terrorist shelling in the northern Strip killed two girls and a third civilian in the south Tuesday morning.

The girls, 4 and 11-year old sisters, were throwing garbage bags into dumpsters outside their home on Al-Sekka Street in Jabaliya. Medical sources said Israeli missiles made a direct hit on the girls, and a third sister was loaded onto a donley carriage and transported to Gaza City's hospital.

The third casualty was a passerby, killed by flying debris as Israeli warplanes dropped missiles on a de facto government police station in Al-Qarara east of Khan Younis.

Early in the morning on Israel’s fourth day of attack residents could hear heavy shelling and airstrikes against the northern and central regions of the Gaza Strip.

The death toll has reached 363 with more than 1,780 injured, hundreds seriously so.

Overnight Monday

Israeli occupation terrorist forces warplanes, drones and apache helicopters hit 56 targets overnight on Monday including training sites and homes affiliated with the Al-Qassam Brigades, as well as de facto government ambulance services and medical crews.

A home next to the Caliph’s Mosque in the northern Gaza Strip was demolished along with an Al-Shamal Governorate building in the Ash-Sheikh Zayid area. The car of a Gazan civilian received a direct hit on Aj-Jala Street, and several already damaged buildings in the area were further bombarded.

Airstrikes in the north also targeted strikes on government ministry buildings in Tel Al-Hawa, which was bombed several times through the night and completely demolished.

In the southern Gaza Strip a de facto government building was demolished when Israeli launched two missiles at the structures. This is the second time Israel has targeted the buildings, the first was on Saturday in the first wave of massive strikes.

West of Gaza City Israeli occupation terrorist forces targeted the Bader area, which is affiliated to the Al-Qassam Brigades. Also demolished was the Omar Bin Al-Khattab mosque in the central city. It is the sixth mosque to be targeted since Saturday.

***Updated 15:11 Bethlehem time

DFC: 30 Palestinian children killed since start of IOF raids on Gaza

[ 30/12/2008 - 12:37 PM ]

Ramallah, (PIC)--

The Defense for Children / Palestine Section has said that 30 Palestinian children were killed in the ongoing Israeli occupation forces' air raids on the Gaza Strip since Saturday.

The DFC said in a statement on Monday that its researchers were currently investigating all incidents in which children were the victims. It predicted that the number of causalities among children would increase as the children constitute 56% of the Gaza population.

The statement attributed the increased number of casualties in lines of children to the fact that the first major Israeli air strikes coincided with the return of school children to their homes, a thing that has been surely known by those who planned the strikes.

Israel's indifference towards the lives of civilians reflects its disrespect to its commitment as an occupation power and to rules and laws of war, the DFC said, adding that the raids killed seven students of an UNRWA professional training center in central Gaza while waiting for the bus to take them home.

Human rights organizations and media reports estimated that more than 360 Palestinians were killed in the air raids while around 1700 others were injured many of them in critical conditions.

IOTF intensified air raids on Gaza continue unabated for the 4th day running

[ 30/12/2008 - 12:33 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)--

The Israeli occupation terrorist forces (IOTF)continued their devastating air raids on the Gaza Strip for the fourth day running on Tuesday as more casualties were suffered among the Palestinian civilians other than the vast material destruction.

Local sources in Buraij refugee in central Gaza Strip reported that IOF warplanes dropped tons of explosives and bombs on a five-storey mosque late Monday that completely destroyed it and damaged nearby houses.

They said that the mosque included a kindergarten and a small charitable desalination plant.

The IOTF aerial raids had destroyed seven other mosques in the savage aerial bombardment that left 360 martyrs and 1700 wounded, many of whom are in serious conditions.

The IOTF US-made F-16s late Monday night intensified their raids on Gaza city targeting official and sports facilities dropping a big number of bombs in the course of five minutes.

Witnesses said that F-16s fired around 20 missiles at the ministries' compound, a sports club and a former preventive security building.

They said that tens of casualties were inflicted and ambulance cars could not reach the area in view of the continued raids.

At an early hour on Tuesday more raids targeted Qarara, southern Gaza Strip, police station completely destroying it and the ministries' compound.

In the West Bank, IOF soldiers were seen deployed in various areas fearing more demonstrations against the Gaza onslaught.

The Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, in retaliation to the IOF bloodbath in Gaza fired 57 home made missiles at Israeli targets adjacent to the Gaza Strip on Monday.

Israeli police sources said that a soldier was killed in Nahal Oz settlement while seven others were wounded in the firing of those missiles while two setters were killed in Ashdod port city and a number of others injured.

Israeli occupation holocaust in Gaza reaps 360 lives and 1700 wounded

[ 30/12/2008 - 12:23 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)--

The death toll resulting from the Israeli occupation holocaust in the Gaza Strip, at dawn Tuesday, has reached 360, and the number of wounded rose to more than 1700, Palestinian sources confirmed.

Israeli occupation terrorist forces warplanes, at dawn Tuesday, have launched airstrikes against the government buildings killing ten people and wounding tens others.

Israeli occupation terrorist forces warplanes intensified their bombardment of the west of Gaza City targeting sports and government facilities. A huge number of bombs were dropped on the targets in three minutes.

Eyewitnesses said that an F16 fired about 20 rockets on the ministries complex in the western part of Gaza City, al-Shams sports club, naval police headquarters and the headquarters of the defunct preventive security.

They added that all these rockets were fired within five minutes, that there were many injuries amongst the residents, and that ambulances were hampered by the continuation of the air raids.   Earlier Israeli occupation warplanes and gunboats concentrated their air strikes and missile attacks on buildings and targets west of Gaza city, including building of the Palestinian civil defense, inflicting huge damage in the area.

The continued Israeli terrorist raids have also buried five young sisters under the rubbles of their devastated home after it was bombed along with a mosque next to it. Bodies of the perished sisters were mutilated as a result of the attack.

Although the Israeli occupation government alleged it wasn’t targeting civilians in the assault on Gaza, international agencies, including the UNRWA among others accused it of committing horrible carnage against the children and civilians in Gaza.

Dr. Basim Naim, the PA health minister, confirmed earlier that Gaza hospitals have ran out of medicine, in addition to spare parts and electricity to keep medical equipments in Gaza functioning.

He also blamed the siege on the Strip for suspending half of the Palestinian ambulances working through out the densely populated Strip where more than 1.5 million Palestinians were lacked up.

Four Israelis injured by homemade projectile in Sderot

Editor's Note:

The area to the north of Gaza until the city of Isdood (Ashdod) is an occupied territory, according to the UN Partition Resolution 184, as it is part of Gaza Strip, which is part of the Palestinian Arab state.

Date: 30 / 12 / 2008  Time:  13:55
Bethlehem – Ma’an –

Four Israelis were injured on Tuesday morning as a homemade projectile launched from the Gaza Strip landed in the Israeli town of Sderot in the western Negev, Israeli medical sources said.

According to Israeli ambulance service Magen David Adom, one of the four injured sustained scrapes to the face from projectile shrapnel, while another three suffered from shock.

On Monday night, an Israeli soldier and a woman were killed and 32 injured, including three seriously, as a result of a barrage of Grad missiles and mortar shells, which hit Ashdod and the western Negev.

Israel prepared for ground invasion to last several weeks

Date: 30 / 12 / 2008  Time:  13:46
Bethlehem – Ma’an –

The Israeli army is prepared to launch a ground invasion that is expected to last several weeks, announced Deputy to the Israeli Defense Minister Matan Vilnai Tuesday.

The Israeli army has launched hundreds of airstrikes at the Gaza Strip damaging, according to one Hamas spokesperson, at least 95% of the government infrastructure, killing close to 400 and injuring some 2,000 individuals.

Vilani said to the media that the Israeli army is prepared to deliver a painful blow and will prevent Palestinian resistance fighters from launching a single additional projectile into Israeli towns. He did not rule out, however, that more projectiles would land before the strike is successful.

In preparation for the invasion Israel has declared all areas in a 30 kilometer radius around the strip a “special situation” area. This essentially allows the Israeli military to dictate the civil situation in the areas, including the opening of schools, government offices and services.

Three Israelis have died since the Saturday attacks began; one of the casualties was a soldier at the Nahal Oz military base near the Gaza border. The other two casualties were civilians. The number of injured Israelis is close to 90.

Projectile attacks kill Israeli soldier, civilian, injure 34 others

Date: 30 / 12 / 2008  Time:  10:29
Bethlehem – Ma’an –

Israeli medical sources announced on Monday night the death of two Israelis as Palestinian projectiles landed in the Israeli cities of Ashdod, Ashkelon and Ofakim in the western Negev, and Nahal Oz military base.

One of the dead was a soldier, killed near the border wall in northern Gaza, and the second was a civilian woman who died in an attack on Ashdod.

An additional 34 Israelis were injured in the attacks, and were taken to nearby hospitals. Medical sources said three are seriously injured.

In Ashkelon the attacks cut power to the city overnight.

The Popular Resistance Committees claimed the shelling at Nahel Oz, while the An-Nasser and Al-Qassam Brigades claimed the launches towards Ashdod in a phone call to Ma’an.

Late Monday night five Israeli soldiers were reported injured as Palestinian projectile landed in Ashdod.