Editorial Note: The following news reports are summaries from original sources. They may also include corrections of Arabic names and political terminology. Comments are in parentheses.

14 Palestinians Killed, Scores Injured in Continuous Israeli Air Attacks, Bombardment on Gaza Strip

July 7-8, 2014

Israeli occupation forces bombard various areas of Gaza Strip causing scores of injuries, and 9 deaths, July 7-8, 2014	9 Palestinians Killed by Israeli air strikes on Gaza on July 7, 2014

14 Palestinians Killed, Scores Injured

Arabic TV stations reported the first death and 27 injuries today, July 8, 2014, as a result of aerial attacks and bombardment by Israeli occupation forces Against various areas in Gaza Strip.

Then, an Israeli drone unmanned airplane targeted a car in Gaza City with a missile, which resulted in the assassination of four Palestinians inside the car, and injuring several people in the street.

Thus, the total number of Palestinian deaths is fourteen in addition to scores of injuries since the start of Israeli attacks on Gaza Strip.

9 resistance fighters killed in a series of Israeli air strikes on Gaza

[ 07/07/2014 - 06:38 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)--

Nine Palestinian resistance fighters were killed and others were wounded in a series of Israeli air raids on the Gaza Strip on Sunday night and at dawn Monday.

The PIC reporter said that two fighters affiliated with the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, were killed while a third was wounded in an Israeli aerial raid on Breij refugee camp in central Gaza Strip on Sunday night.

The armed wing announced that six other fighters, including two brothers, were killed in a similar Israeli air strike on one of its positions in Rafah, south of the Strip, at dawn Monday.

The PIC reporter said that a Qassam fighter succumbed to serious wounds suffered during an earlier raid on northern Rafah.

Other Israeli raids targeted areas in Gaza City, east of Khan Younis, south of the Strip, and northern Beit Lahia, north of the Strip, with no casualties reported.

Health ministry spokesman Dr. Ashraf al-Qudra said on his Facebook page that two Palestinians were wounded one of them seriously in an Israeli raid on Rafah city.

He said that five other citizens were injured when an Israeli missile exploded near their home in Beit Hanun town, north of the Strip.

Seven civilians, including three children and three girls, were wounded in a raid east of Zaitun suburb to the east of Gaza City.

Two groups of resistance fighters survived missile attacks on northern Gaza Strip areas.

Israeli warplanes and reconnaissance planes took part in the intensive air raids since Sunday night. Warplanes are still hovering over the besieged enclave, which harbingers more raids.

Israel launches operation “Protective Edge” against Gaza

[ 08/07/2014 - 01:57 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)--

The Israeli occupation government launched a new aggression on Gaza Strip under the name of “Protective Edge” in light of the continued fall of rockets from Gaza on “southern Israel”, according to an Israeli TV broadcast at dawn Tuesday.

It said that the Israeli cabinet endorsed the new operation after rockets fired from Gaza reached areas west of Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, Hebrew daily Yediot Ahronot quoted a senior source in the Israeli cabinet as saying that Israel will not be dragged into a full-fledged war.

Dozens of rockets were fired from Gaza overnight Monday in retaliation to the Israeli wave of aerial raids that killed nine resistance fighters and wounded many other citizens including children.

4-year-old child wounded in Israeli raid

[ 07/07/2014 - 03:26 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)--

A four-year-old Palestinian child was wounded in an Israeli air strike on an agricultural land lot to the north of the Gaza Strip on Monday.

Israeli warplanes launched a series of air raids on the besieged enclave on Monday evening one of which targeted the land lot to the east of Jabaliya refugee camp, local sources said.

They noted that the child was injured when the warplanes targeted the same area again with two missiles.

Meanwhile, Israeli warplanes dropped leaflets on residents of northern Gaza asking them to prevent resistance fighters from firing rockets on Israeli targets. 

16 civilians wounded, homes destroyed in Israeli aerial aggression against Gaza

[ 08/07/2014 - 09:20 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)--

Israeli intensive airstrikes on different areas of the Gaza Strip last night and at dawn Tuesday rendered 16 Palestinian civilians wounded and destroyed five homes, according to local sources.

The air raids targeted agricultural lands, homes and resistance sites.

The intensity of the aerial aggression against Gaza increased after the Israeli occupation army declared its launch of a large-scale operation dubbed "Protective Edege."

The operation includes a possible ground invasion, according to the army

A spokesman for the health ministry in Gaza said that 16 Palestinians suffered moderate to serious injuries in this renewed wave of air raids.

The number of casualties are likely to rise because of the ongoing airstrikes on Gaza, the spokesman added.

36 Jerusalemites, 3 Ramallah natives captured in IOF incursions

[ 08/07/2014 - 09:18 AM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)--

36 Jerusalemites and 3 Ramallah natives have been rounded up so far in the arbitrary mass-arrest campaign launched by the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) in Occupied Jerusalem and Ramallah at dawn Tuesday.

Lawyer of the Palestinian Prisoner Society, Moufid al-Haj, said the Jerusalemite captives have been incarcerated in different detention centers, including the so-called al-Keshla, al-Maskoubiya, and Salah al-Din prisons.

The three Ramallah natives were captured in an IOF raid on Aboud village, west of Ramallah, early Tuesday morning

SAFA News Agency said, quoting local sources, the IOF apprehended Osama Bassem al-Barghouthi, Muhammad Hassan al-Barghouthi, and Ali Hassan al-Barghouthi after storming their homes in Aboud.

IOF attacks brought a wave of violent clashes at the eastern entrance to the village.

Palestinian youths have been on the alert to the assaults carried out by Israeli settler hordes on the village over the past few days.

Other break-ins, home-raids, and combing operations have been documented across the adjacent Deir Nidham village.

Hamas, Islamic Jihad: Israel started war

[ 08/07/2014 - 07:19 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)--

Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements have charged Israel with starting war on Gaza and said that it should bear the consequences.

Official spokesman for Hamas Fawzi Barhoum said in a statement on Monday night that the “Zionist enemy” was the one that launched all kinds of aggression on the Palestinian people.

He mentioned in this regard attacks on Palestinian citizens in the West Bank, Jerusalem, and 1948 occupied Palestine and the raids on Gaza, adding that Israel was re-arresting ex-prisoners who were released in Wafa al-Ahrar deal, blockading Gaza, closing crossings, and pursuing systematic killing as a policy.

Barhoum said that Hamas did not start attacks, but rather Israel was the one that started a large-scale aggression, warning that Israel was playing with fire.

He said that the Palestinian people have launched a new intifada, which he called the Jerusalem intifada, in defense of the Palestinian people and their land and holy shrines.

For its part, Islamic Jihad said that Israel’s air strikes that killed nine Palestinians and wounded many others meant that it was declaring war on Gaza and should wait for the results.

Daoud Shihab, a spokesman for the movement, said on Monday that Palestinian resistance was committed to defending the Palestinian people in face of the Israeli “ferocious (military) campaign”.

Pharmaceutical and fuel crises threaten to stop health services in Gaza

[ 07/07/2014 - 03:15 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)--

The Palestinian health ministry warned that all its health services in hospitals and primary care centers in the besieged Gaza Strip could come to a halt because of an acute shortage of medical and fuel supplies.

Deputy health minister Yousuf Abul-Rish told a news conference held on Sunday at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza that the ministry's storerooms ran out completely of more than 25 percent of essential medicines, and another 15 percent would become unavailable in the coming few days.

Abul-Rish added that 52 of medical disposables would also run out, and another 12 percent is threatened with depletion.

He also pointed to the fuel crisis, saying that the fuel supplies needed to operate power generators of hospitals are only enough for a few days, and half of the ambulances have become out of service for the same reason.

The companies providing cleaning services for hospitals would also recall its workers because they have not received their payments till today, according to the health official.

He held the Israeli occupation state fully responsible for the worsening health situation in Gaza and appealed to local and international medical groups to save the health sector from collapsing.

He also called on the Palestinian unity government in Ramallah to assume its humanitarian and moral responsibilities towards its people in Gaza, and urged Egypt to open the Rafah border crossing before relief groups and convoys.

830 Palestinians arrested since start of Israeli arrest campaign

[ 07/07/2014 - 12:11 PM ]

RAMALLAH, (PIC)--

Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) detained 830 Palestinians from different parts of the West Bank since the Israeli arrest campaign started in mid-June, the Palestinian Prisoner Society revealed on Monday.

56 arrests were carried out on Sunday night including 47 Palestinians from 1948 occupied territories, 3 others from Ramallah, and 5 Palestinians from occupied Jerusalem and its environs, while one citizen was arrested in al-Khalil.

On the other hand, Israeli jailers stormed at dawn Monday Nafha prison. Prisoners’ rooms were violently searched during the break-in.

A state of tension prevailed among the prisoners who complained of the Israeli prison administration’s provocative practices and raids, prisoners told a PIC reporter.

Israeli prison administration has escalated recently its attacks and punitive measures against prisoners.