One dead in new Israeli air strike in Gaza

Date: 07 / 05 / 2008  Time:  14:32
Gaza – Ma'an –

One Palestinian was killed on Wednesday afternoon in an Israeli air strike on the town of Abassan, east of the city of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip.

Sources in Gaza said the victims of the strike were fighters affiliated to an armed group called the Abu Al-Rish Brigades. Medical sources announced that fighter Mahmoud Abu Maslama was killed.

Mu'awiya Hassanain, the director of ambulance and emergency services in the Palestinian Health Ministry affirmed that six injured people were hospitalized in Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. One of the men was critically injured.

Medical sources later said that 18 people had been injured in the fighting.

Hassanain identified five of the victims as Salim Arafat, Fatima Shahin, Muntasser Abu 'Anza, Walid Abu Duqqa, and Hamada Abu Duqqa.

The Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, claimed their snipers shot and injured an Israeli soldier who was riding on top of a tank during the Abassan incursion. They also claimed to have fired a rocket-propelled grenade at an Israeli bulldozer.

Separately, Hamas' Al-Qassam Brigades claimed that their fighters hit another Israeli soldier in Khan Younis.

Earlier, Israeli air and ground attacks in the same area of Southern Gaza left seven people wounded, six of them fighters with the armed wing of Hamas, the Al-Qassam Brigades.


***Updated at 16:29 Bethlehem time

Resident dies of wounds sustained on Monday

Wednesday May 07, 2008 06:12 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

Palestinian medical at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City reported that one resident died of wounds sustained on Tuesday at dawn when the Israeli occupation army shelled Sheikh Zayid city, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. Three residents were wounded on Wednesday at dawn in an Israeli shelling east of Khan Younis.

The sources stated that resident Hisham Najeeb Shoamar, 22, died of his wounds at local hospital.
Shomar lost his arms and legs when the army shelled homes in Shaikh Zayid city and sustained severe burns.
In a separate incident, three residents were wounded, one moderately,  in Abassan Al-Jadeeda town, east of Khan Younis in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, after the army invaded the area, on Wednesday at dawn, and an Israeli fighter-jet fired one missile at a group of residents.
Eyewitnesses reported that several armored vehicles and jeeps invaded the area while military bulldozers uprooted farmlands and soldiers fired rounds of live ammunition in several directions.

Seven Gazans injured in Israeli attacks

Date: 07 / 05 / 2008  Time:  09:30
Gaza – Ma'an –

Seven Palestinians were injured on Wednesday morning in Israeli air and ground attacks on the southern Gaza Strip.

Palestinian sources said that an Israeli reconnaissance plane launched a missile at a group of Palestinian fighters affiliated to Hamas' military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, in the Al-Faraheen neighborhood of the city of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

The shelling left three fighters injured, one of them seriously, all of whom were taken to a hospital. The group was attempting to confront Israeli forces which were invading the area, the sources said.

Mu'awiya Hassanain, the director of ambulance and emergency services in the Palestinian Health Ministry, identified the injured activists as 24-year-old Tariq Abu 'Anza, 23-year-old Muhammad Abu 'Anza, and 23-year-old Abdullah Abu 'Anza.

Later Israeli tanks injured four people in the town of Abassan. Hassanain said medics were evacuating the victims even as Israeli forces advanced towards the area. Local sources said three of the four wounded were Al-Qassam Brigades fighters.

The Al-Qassam Brigades said they launched five mortar rounds and two rocket-propelled grenades at the invading forces.

The National Resistance Brigades, the military wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), said that a group of their fighters survived an Israeli airstrike in Abasan.

***Updated at 09:53 Bethlehem time

Undercover Israeli occupation forces abduct Palestinian worker in Beit Layiha

Date: 07 / 05 / 2008  Time:  12:30
Gaza – Ma'an –

Undercover Israeli occupation forces infiltrated the town of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday, stormed a water pumping station and abducted one employee after damaging part of the facility.

Sources in the Gaza-based Ministry of Agriculture, affiliated to the de facto government, said that 32-year-old Nidal Ad-Dahnoun was kidnapped by the Israeli occupation force while he was working at the water station, which provides water to irrigate farms in Beit Lahiya

The Ministry condemned the abduction calling on international organizations to investigate the incident and work for his release.

Undercover Israeli occupation forces kidnap Palestinian fighter near Nablus

Date: 07 / 05 / 2008  Time:  10:15
Nablus – Ma'an –

Israeli occupation special forces disguised as civilians kidnapped a Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighter near the West Bank city of Nablus on Tuesday night.

Eyewitnesses and Palestinian security sources said that that the Israeli operatives commandeered a Palestinian car, belonging to Nablus resident Usama Sanakra, who is from Balata refugee camp. Witnesses said the soldiers stopped the car on Al-Quds street in southern Nablus, pulled Sanakra from the vehicle, and drove away.

The Israeli occupation soldiers, traveling in the Palestinian-plated car, headed to the village of Kafr Qallil, south of Nablus. The Israeli forces approached 27-year-old Younis Al-Qinni in the street and seized him. Israeli occupation military forces then invaded the village to ferry Al-Qinni and his captors to the nearby Huwwara military base.

Israeli sources said Al-Qinni has been pursued by the military for several months, and that he was accused of firing at Israeli targets and planting explosive devices to sabotage Israeli patrols. He had been arrested several times.

Israeli settlers attack Palestinians in Hebron

Date: 07 / 05 / 2008  Time:  11:40
Hebron – Ma'an –

Illegal Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian houses in the West Bank city of Hebron on Wednesday morning, witnesses said.

Israelis from the illegal settlement of Kiryat Arba threw stones and other objects at Palestinians near the settlement. Israeli occupation soldiers also severely beat 18-year-old Mahdi Maher Abu Hetta before arresting him.

Israeli occupation army kidnaps three civilians from Hebron and nearby Sourif village

Wednesday May 07, 2008 15:37 by Ghassan Bannoura - IMEMC News

The Israeli occupaiton army kidnapped on Wednesday three Palestinian civilians from the northern West Bank city of Hebron and the nearby Sourif village.

In Hebron troops searched and ransacked homes in the old part of Hebron city, during the search troops kidnapped Bassam Al Tamimi, 16, local sources reported.

Meanwhile another force attacked and searched homes in the nearby Sourif village and kidnapped Mohamed Al-Huwar, 34, and Mahmoud Al-Huwar, 26.

The Palestinian Society for Prisoners Affairs in Hebron reported on Wednesday that since he beginning of may the number of Palestinian kidnapped by the Israeli army from the city of Hebron and nearby villages have now reached 23.