Gaza death toll rises to 1,018 - A third are children

Date: 14 / 01 / 2009  Time:  22:16
Gaza – Ma’an –

The death toll from the Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip reached 1,018 on Wednesday evening, said Dr. Mu’awiyah Hassanain, the director of Ambulance and Emergency Services in the Health Ministry in Gaza.

Hassanain told Ma’an that nearly a third (322) of the dead are children. Another 4,580 Palestinians have been injured.

Israeli terrorist forces have killed Seven Gazans since sunset on Wednesday. Heavy artillery shelling continued and Israeli warplanes struck several houses and other buildings throughout the Strip.

Two people were killed and eight injured when Israeli forces shelled the Al-Qawasmi in northwest Gaza City. Among the wounded were members of the civil defense and a cameraman for Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa Television.

Palestinian medical sources also confirmed the death of seven-year-old Muhammad Aqila, who was seriously injured three days ago.

In the central Gaza Strip, Israeli forces killed Mohammed Abu Kamil, from Al-Buraij Refugee Camp.

A 15-year-old boy, Izzuddin Al-Farra, was killed in the town of Al-Qarara, near the Israeli border in southern Gaza.

Two unidentified people were killed when Israeli terrorist forces warplanes struck smugglers tunnels in Rafah, along the border with Egypt. Residents say that Israeli warplanes have been bombing the border area constantly for days. In the last day alone, locals said warplanes had hit some 40 targets in the area.

Earlier in the day another 20 Palestinians were killed as Israeli warplanes continued to bombard Gaza from the air, while ground forces continued to push into the densely populated areas in and around Gaza City.

Areas of the northern outskirts of Gaza City, including the town of Jabaliya and neighboring Jabaliya Refugee Camp, appeared to be the deadly focus of the Israeli offensive. In Jabaliya, three Palestinian fighters were killed in the early morning. Later, Israeli forces reportedly intensified their shelling of the area, killing at least six people, including two women. Jabaliya has been one of the areas worst affected by the Israeli invasion.

In the Shaikh Radwan neighborhood, close to the Gaza City Center, missiles fired from Israeli warplanes destroyed a cemetery, bringing down nearby houses.

Israel terrorist forces tanks also reportedly shelled houses in the Touffah neighborhood, in Western Gaza City, injuring dozens according to one report.

In the central region of the Gaza Strip, witnesses again reported that Israeli warplanes deployed white phosphorus, a chemical that is illegal when knowingly used to harm civilians.

19th Day under attack: 997 killed in Gaza and 4525 injured

Wednesday January 14, 2009 11:00 by Ghassan Bannoura - IMEMC News & Agencies

The Israeli terrorist forces continued its offensive targeting the Palestinian costal region for the 18th day on Wednesday.  

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza reported that at least five Palestinians were reported killed by Wednesday midday; this brings the dearth toll in Gaza since the start of the Israeli operation 19 days go to 997.  

The Ministry added that among those killed are 311 children, meanwhile the number of those injured reached 4,525 among them 300 in critical conditions.  

Palestinian sources reported that the Israeli army shelled residential areas in Gaza City and in the nearby Jabalyia town, meanwhile Israeli tanks advanced from several areas deeper into the Costal region.  

Witnesses and reporters said that a clouds of smoke covered sky over Gaza City in the morning due to the Israeli intense bombardment.

In Gaza City one of the targets was a local graveyard, Israeli jetfighters fired missiles at the tombs destroying them and leaving the buried bodies out in the open due to the explosions.

 Palestinian resistance groups clashed with the Israeli terrorist ground forces in deferent location, the groups reported that they managed to injure 10 Israeli soldiers.

Israeli sources said that 5 soldiers were injured in the morning and overnight clashes, adding that one of them sustained critical wounds.   Meanwhile home-made shells fired from Gaza continued to hit the Israeli, the Israeli army radio said that at least 10 home-made shells hit northern Israel towns and the Negev. Damage was reported but no injures.  

The Israeli Army embarked on its military offensive on Saturday, December 27th, 2008. Israeli warplanes began the military operation by shelling every possible Palestinian security posts in Gaza. In the following days, the air raids were expanded; hospitals, homes, blacksmith workshops, schools, mosques, ambulances, media and UN relief efforts were targeted.   

Day and night, the entire Palestinian coastal region has been under attack. On Saturday, January 3rd, 2009, Israeli ground forces entered the Gaza strip and have since divided Gaza into two sections. The Israeli government decided on Sunday night to intensify its operation in Gaza and extend hostilities to "phase three".  

Women killed in Jabaliya; missile detonates Gaza City cemetery

Date: 14 / 01 / 2009  Time:  09:55
Gaza – Ma’an –

The Palestinian death toll for Wednesday had already reached 10 shortly after noon, as Israeli terrorist forces shelled a man’s home, killing him and injuring five members of his immediate family.

The house, which belonged to the Ashoor family, was destroyed in the Al-Shayma neighborhood of northern Gaza City, witnesses said. Residents on the scene reported that five artillery shells consecutively slammed into the building, killing one of the at least six people inside.

Just after noon on Wednesday, a Palestinian fighter was shot to death by Israeli troops in Gaza during an attempted ambush, according to a statement. The armed wing affiliated with Hamas told Ma’an that one of its fighters was killed as he stormed a house occupied with Israeli Special Forces in Atatra, northern Gaza Strip.

The armed group claimed the man “injured and killed” a number of Israeli forces before being shot to death, himself. The faction’s claims could not be immediately verified.

Ten Palestinians were dead by early Wednesday afternoon.

Israeli aircraft launched an attack on a group of civilians north of Shati' Refugee Camp, west of Gaza City, early on Wednesday afternoon. The attack killed three Palestinians, who were pronounced dead on arrival at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

Israeli tanks continued to shell houses, one of them struck near the home of Khaled Al-Af and another near the home of Osama Al-Maghary in the Tofah district, in eastern Gaza City. Injuries were reported.

An unmanned drone apparently launched a missile toward a vehicle in the Sha’af neighborhood, critically wounding the son of a man who escaped uninjured.

Minutes before, two women were killed in intensified Israeli shelling in Jabaliya, medical sources told Ma’an late on Wednesday morning. Three artillery shells struck a house near Sultan Tower in Jabaliya, northern Gaza Strip, leading to the deaths of two women there and injuring a number of others.

Sources at Kamal Odwan Hospital confirmed the deaths of Hanan Al-Masry and Shafa Al-Mutawaq, who were inside a residence belonging to Ibrahim Al-Najjar. His house was destroyed in the assault, which also destroyed a number of other houses and injured several Palestinians, including an infant, who was is in serious condition.

Twelve other Palestinians arrived from areas targeted in separate attacks on Wednesday, the Health Ministry’s Dr Mu’awiyah Hasanein said. The doctor, who is also head of the ministry’s Emergency and Ambulance Services Department, added that renewed shelling was ongoing in the Al-Sha’af area northeast of Gaza City, as well as in Al-Jurn and Jabaliya.

Chaos in the Strip seemed to peak Wednesday morning as Israeli terrorist warplanes detonated a cemetery in the center of Gaza’s most populous city.

Residents said the missiles dug into Sheikh Radwan Cemetery in central Gaza City, simultaneously bringing down homes in Sheikh Radwan, which left at least one man dead, next door, who was identified as Osama Abu Jayab and injuring ten other Palestinians.

Earlier, two Palestinians affiliated with the armed An-Nasser Brigades were killed in shelling at eastern Rafah; the faction identified them as Mohammad and Muneer Abu Sunaimah, who were killed instantly.

Muhammed Abu Daqqa, an Al-Quds Brigades fighter, was reported seriously injured in Israeli shelling while riding a motorcycle in Khan Younis.

Aircraft also fired on dozens of targets throughout central Gaza, covering the area with a cloud of thick white smoke, according to witnesses. Numerous residents were hospitalized after inhaling the apparently weaponized white phosphorous chemical.

Another explosion rocked a municipal park elsewhere in Gaza, according to reports that described the blast as “enormous.” In Rafah, eyewitnesses confirmed that over 40 targets were struck by Israeli missiles along the border area and in Tal Zo’rob in the west, destroying several homes.

More than 50 Palestinians were killed in 24 hours throughout the Gaza Strip, 11 of them in Khuza’a, the site of heavy chemical bombing, and in Khan Younis, where as many as 40 homes were leveled by the Israeli military.

The de facto Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed that nearly 1,000 Palestinians were dead by early Wednesday, as well as some 4,500 injured since the Gaza assault began on 27 December.

***Updated 14:32 Gaza time

Report: Israeli soldiers killed would-be suicide bomber in Gaza

Date: 14 / 01 / 2009  Time:  12:43
Bethlehem – Ma’an –

A Palestinian resistance fighter strapped with explosives was prevented from detonating himself among a group of paratroopers on Wednesday.

The resistance fighter approached the group of Israeli soldiers in northern Gaza, planning on detonating a belt laden with explosives, Israeli news site Walla! reported.

But soldiers managed to fire on the man, whose explosive belt detonated, killing him but sparing the invading Israeli troops of any casualties.

Israeli shelling kills two women, three men in Jabaliya

Date: 14 / 01 / 2009  Time:  11:56
Gaza - Ma'an -

Two women were killed in intensified Israeli shelling in Jabaliya, medical sources told Ma’an late on Wednesday morning.

Three artillery shells struck a house near Sultan Tower in Jabaliya, northern Gaza Strip, leading to the deaths of two women and injuring a number of others.

Meanwhile, sources at Kamal Odwan Hospital confirmed the deaths of Hanan Al-Masry and Shafa Al-Mutawaq, who were inside a residence belonging to Ibrahim Al-Najjar.

His house was destroyed in the assault, which also destroyed a number of other houses and injured several Palestnians, including an infant, who was is in serious condition.

Twelve other Palestinians arrived from areas targeted in separate attacks on Wednesday, the Health Ministry’s Dr Mu’awyeh Hasanein said.

The doctor, who is also head of the ministry’s Emergency and Ambulance Services Department, added that renewed shelling was ongoing in the Al-Sha’f area northeast of Gaza City, as well as in Al-Jurn and Jabaliya.

Six Israeli terrorist soldiers shot in northern Gaza Strip

Date: 14 / 01 / 2009  Time:  09:32
Bethlehem – Ma’an –

Six Israeli terrorist soldiers were shot by Palestinian fighters in the Gaza Strip early on Wednesday morning, according to news reports.

Hebrew-language newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth said two were described as moderately injured, while the rest suffered only minor injuries.

Three of the soldiers are reportedly officers.

They were shot in clashes between soldiers and Palestinian fighters inside a building seized by the invading Israeli terrorist forces in the northern Gaza Strip, the paper said.

***Updated 11:53 Gaza time

Israel shells south Lebanon after Katyushas hit Galilee

Date: 14 / 01 / 2009  Time:  09:11
Bethlehem – Ma’an/Agencies –

A number of Katyusha rockets fired from south Lebanon struck Israel’s upper Galilee early on Tuesday morning, according to Hebrew news reports.

In Lebanon, television news sources reported that four projectiles were launched near the southern Lebanese down of Hasbaya.

Israel responded by shelling areas of south Lebanon with 17 shells (according to Aljazeera TV) in response to what sources said were at least three rockets that landed in northern Israel on Tuesday.

Hizbullah’s official broadcaster Al-Manar reported that the Israeli forces fired mortar shells south of the launch site. Israel did not immediately confirm Hizbullah’s assessment.

No injuries were reported on either side other than “shock,” while Israeli authorities ordered its northern citizens into bomb shelters in fear that more reciprocal attacks were eminent as Israel entered its 18th day of a deadly onslaught on the Gaza Strip.

Both Hizbullah and the Lebanese military denied responsibility for the earlier projectile attacks, which are believed to have been fired by descendants of Palestinians displaced from Palestine in 1948.

Israeli police said the rockets landed in open areas, Israeli press reports indicated, also confirming that there were no immediate reports of damage of casualties on either side.

Back in Israel, warning sirens sounded throughout the northern town of Kiryat Shmona, which suffered some of the heaviest damage by Hizbullah during the 2006 Lebanon War.

"There was a siren followed by three or four explosions, Deputy Matala Mayor Amir Meltzer told Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth. "Some of them were weak, except for one which was pretty strong."

He added that Israeli residents in the north "hope this is a passing incident and not [evidence] for a war which is about to reach us too. It has been relatively quiet here since the end of the Second Lebanon War, and we really don't want to go back to that period."

The latest Katyushas are the most recent since Thursday, when two struck northern Israel, injuring two. Israeli forces fired artillery shells in response to that attack, as well, which apparently injured no one in Lebanon.

***Updated 11:00 Bethlehem time

Doha to host summit on Gaza despite Saudi, Egyptian refusal

Date: 14 / 01 / 2009  Time:  11:00
Bethlehem – Ma’an –

Sources close to the Arab League’s urgent summit scheduled for Friday said on Wednesday that the participants had finally reached the necessary quorum following the announcement that the United Arab Emirates plans to attend.

Along with the UAE, 16 Arab countries plan to attend the talks, namely: Syria, Qatar, Palestine, Lebanon, Libya, Sudan, Algeria, Yemen, Djibouti, the Comoros, Somalia, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco and Iraq.

Egypt and Saudi Arabia refused to take part, suggesting deliberations during a Kuwait economic summit planned for this week.

Tunisia, which has originally refused, later said the ongoing bloodshed forced it to agree to the talks in Doha and announced its participation.
Fourteen Arab countries have agreed to attend an urgent summit in the Qatari capital city of Doha next Friday.

The Arab League had until Wednesday failed to achieve the necessary quorum to discuss Israel’s ongoing assault on the Gaza Strip, a Syrian news agency reported.

On the agenda is Hamas and Israel’s refusal to comply with UN Security Council Resolution 1860, Syria’s Sana press agency said.

Arab League Secretary General Amr Mousa told the Syrian agency that he is awaiting word from other Arab countries on whether or not they plan to attend the urgent summit in Doha.

Moussa had originally announced that 12 countries agreed to the Qatari proposal, which required 14 nations to reach quorum.

Tunisia announced late Tuesday evening that it, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait would not take part in the talks next Friday. Tunisia had said it supported discussing the Gaza situation in Kuwait during a scheduled economic summit Monday and Tuesday.

Tunisia is traditionally allied with the Palestinian Authority, along with Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

Qatar called the urgent meeting in Doha for Friday to discuss the situation in the Gaza Strip, not expecting that both Saudi Arabia would refuse the invitation and the Arab split in support between allies of Fatah and affiliates of Hamas.


***Updated 14:15 Bethlehem time

UN secretary-general says he won't meet with Hamas

Date: 14 / 01 / 2009  Time:  13:20
Bethlehem – Ma’an –

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon arrived in Cairo Wednesday for talks aiming to end the ongoing bloodshed in the Gaza Ship.

The stop in the Egyptian capital is the first step in a region-wide tour aimed at achieving a ceasefire, according to news reports and a joint press conference with the Egyptian president.

“I will urge Israel to stop its operations but I won’t be able to visit Gaza,” the secretary-general said, citing Israel’s closure policy on the besieged coastal strip. He also called on both sides to accept a recent UN Security Council resolution aimed at stemming the violence.

“I repeat my request for a viable, immediate ceasefire,” the UN leader said, adding that he hopes the Egyptian plan for a temporary calm “will yield results as soon as possible.”

He is not expected to have any direct communication with fighters affiliated with Hamas, which rejected his call for an immediate ceasefire, along with Israel.

“I tried to visit Gaza myself but the circumstances did not permit me to do that,” he said. But Ki-Moon said he plans to send a team to evaluate the situation there and report back.

The Gaza Strip has not enjoyed regular access to border crossings since 2007, when Israel began its blockade that many consider collective punishment on the Palestinian people for electing a Hamas-led government.

Ki-Moon concluded by saying he plans to meet with Israeli leaders and pressure them to stop the assault.