The explosion occurred in the area of border crossings between Israel and Gaza

Gaza City - The explosion occurred in the area of border crossings between Israel and Gaza. One Palestinian was killed and several others injured by the blast.

According to Israeli and Palestinian authorities, as reported by Reuters on Tuesday (11.11.2014), the explosion that occurred at the Kerem Shalom border crossing, triggered by a technical error during refueling in the region.
A fuel truck exploded carrier when the charge transfer process.

But the report presented the Palestinian news agency, Ma'an as reported by The Times of Israel, is slightly different. According to Ma'an, the incident was triggered by a gas pipeline that exploded in the region.

Regardless, both the Israeli and Palestinian authorities believe the explosion was purely an accident. Other Israeli media, Israel Radio also mention that this explosion was not related to security issues.

The incident came amid rampant fears and attacks against Israelis for some time, which could have triggered a counterattack.

Ma'an reported, the fire had occurred at the site for half an hour, before firefighters managed to extinguish the Gaza region. Palestinian paramedics said there were two injuries in the incident.

The explosion occurred in the area of border crossings between Israel and Gaza

Posted by Unknown

Gaza City - The explosion occurred in the area of border crossings between Israel and Gaza. One Palestinian was killed and several others injured by the blast.

According to Israeli and Palestinian authorities, as reported by Reuters on Tuesday (11.11.2014), the explosion that occurred at the Kerem Shalom border crossing, triggered by a technical error during refueling in the region.
A fuel truck exploded carrier when the charge transfer process.

But the report presented the Palestinian news agency, Ma'an as reported by The Times of Israel, is slightly different. According to Ma'an, the incident was triggered by a gas pipeline that exploded in the region.

Regardless, both the Israeli and Palestinian authorities believe the explosion was purely an accident. Other Israeli media, Israel Radio also mention that this explosion was not related to security issues.

The incident came amid rampant fears and attacks against Israelis for some time, which could have triggered a counterattack.

Ma'an reported, the fire had occurred at the site for half an hour, before firefighters managed to extinguish the Gaza region. Palestinian paramedics said there were two injuries in the incident.

Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip resumed cross-border air assaults

 GAZA CITY — Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip resumed cross-border air assaults after a three-day cease-fire expired on Friday, but the renewed violence seemed less about meeting military goals than about jockeying for leverage in talks that had made little progress toward a more durable truce.

Militants led by Hamas, the Islamist faction that dominates Gaza, sent a rocket soaring toward southern Israel exactly as the agreed-upon pause expired at 8 a.m., and fired about 50 throughout the day, wounding one soldier and one civilian and damaging a house in the border town of Sderot.

Israel, which withdrew its ground troops earlier this week, responded quickly with airstrikes and artillery shelling that by day’s end had hit nearly 50 targets and killed five people, including three children. But Israel showed no signs of seeking to re-invade Gaza or escalate its airstrikes.

The cause of the fighting appeared to be Hamas’s frustration that it could not get what it considers meaningful concessions from Israel and Egypt at the talks in Cairo.

The Egyptian foreign ministry asserted that the parties had reached agreement on “the great majority of topics” and urged an extension of the cease-fire to address “the very limited points still pending.” But Palestinian officials said the Israeli delegation had hardly addressed their demands to open border crossings, remove restrictions on trade, establish a seaport and release prisoners.

Palestinian and Israeli analysts alike said that after a month of death and destruction, Hamas could not stop fighting without a tangible civic achievement, and was finding it difficult to climb down from an ambitious agenda in the face of a strong Egyptian-Israeli alliance.

The conflict on the ground between an advanced, high-tech military and a guerrilla group appeared to find an echo in diplomacy, as Egypt, Israel and the United States all pushed for President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority to take a leading role in running and rehabilitating Gaza. That would be a blow to Hamas, which took control of the territory in 2007, and tricky for Mr. Abbas, whose perceived cooperation with Israel has already hurt his credibility among Palestinians.

Ahmed Yousef, a former Hamas leader who remains close to the movement, likened the renewed fighting to two people biting each other’s fingers to see who would surrender first.

“This is like a game, a chess game — you have all the time to continue, to show your enemy that you stay strong,” Mr. Yousef said in an interview at a seaside hotel in Gaza City. “For three days we couldn’t have a solid answer from the Israelis, so you have to go back to fighting. Your legitimate demand is not answered, so you have to put pressure on the other side.”

Ehud Yaari, an Israel-based fellow of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy who specializes in Arab affairs, said, “Hamas is in a bind because they have set such a high bar with their demands.

“But you can see today Hamas and Israel exchanged blows but on a low scale — they were not firing all that they can,” Mr. Yaari noted. “Everybody understands there may be an extension or a new cease-fire.”

A senior Palestinian official briefed on the Cairo negotiations said that Israel and Egypt had essentially dismissed all talk of a seaport or restored airport in Gaza, and only agreed to ease limits on travel and imports. In exchange for these concessions, Israel and its international backers demanded the demilitarization of Gaza, something the Palestinians said would come only with the establishment of an independent state.

Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip resumed cross-border air assaults

Posted by Unknown

 GAZA CITY — Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip resumed cross-border air assaults after a three-day cease-fire expired on Friday, but the renewed violence seemed less about meeting military goals than about jockeying for leverage in talks that had made little progress toward a more durable truce.

Militants led by Hamas, the Islamist faction that dominates Gaza, sent a rocket soaring toward southern Israel exactly as the agreed-upon pause expired at 8 a.m., and fired about 50 throughout the day, wounding one soldier and one civilian and damaging a house in the border town of Sderot.

Israel, which withdrew its ground troops earlier this week, responded quickly with airstrikes and artillery shelling that by day’s end had hit nearly 50 targets and killed five people, including three children. But Israel showed no signs of seeking to re-invade Gaza or escalate its airstrikes.

The cause of the fighting appeared to be Hamas’s frustration that it could not get what it considers meaningful concessions from Israel and Egypt at the talks in Cairo.

The Egyptian foreign ministry asserted that the parties had reached agreement on “the great majority of topics” and urged an extension of the cease-fire to address “the very limited points still pending.” But Palestinian officials said the Israeli delegation had hardly addressed their demands to open border crossings, remove restrictions on trade, establish a seaport and release prisoners.

Palestinian and Israeli analysts alike said that after a month of death and destruction, Hamas could not stop fighting without a tangible civic achievement, and was finding it difficult to climb down from an ambitious agenda in the face of a strong Egyptian-Israeli alliance.

The conflict on the ground between an advanced, high-tech military and a guerrilla group appeared to find an echo in diplomacy, as Egypt, Israel and the United States all pushed for President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority to take a leading role in running and rehabilitating Gaza. That would be a blow to Hamas, which took control of the territory in 2007, and tricky for Mr. Abbas, whose perceived cooperation with Israel has already hurt his credibility among Palestinians.

Ahmed Yousef, a former Hamas leader who remains close to the movement, likened the renewed fighting to two people biting each other’s fingers to see who would surrender first.

“This is like a game, a chess game — you have all the time to continue, to show your enemy that you stay strong,” Mr. Yousef said in an interview at a seaside hotel in Gaza City. “For three days we couldn’t have a solid answer from the Israelis, so you have to go back to fighting. Your legitimate demand is not answered, so you have to put pressure on the other side.”

Ehud Yaari, an Israel-based fellow of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy who specializes in Arab affairs, said, “Hamas is in a bind because they have set such a high bar with their demands.

“But you can see today Hamas and Israel exchanged blows but on a low scale — they were not firing all that they can,” Mr. Yaari noted. “Everybody understands there may be an extension or a new cease-fire.”

A senior Palestinian official briefed on the Cairo negotiations said that Israel and Egypt had essentially dismissed all talk of a seaport or restored airport in Gaza, and only agreed to ease limits on travel and imports. In exchange for these concessions, Israel and its international backers demanded the demilitarization of Gaza, something the Palestinians said would come only with the establishment of an independent state.

Ceasefire ends in Gaza

EGYPT has urged Israel and Hamas to halt hostilities in the Gaza Strip as fighting resumed on Friday after a 72-hour ceasefire expired without agreement on extending the lull.
MILITANTS fired rockets at Israel, which responded with airstrikes, after indirect truce negotiations in Cairo mediated by Egypt reached a deadlock.

The return to hostilities appeared to be measured, however. Responsibility for the rocket fire was not claimed by Hamas but by other militant factions, and many of the Israeli strikes hit open areas, according to police in Gaza. Five Palestinians were reported killed, and two Israelis were injured by a rocket strike. Hamas had said earlier it would not renew the temporary ceasefire unless it obtained agreement in principle to its demands to lift a blockade on the Gaza Strip and enable the opening of a seaport there. Israel had informed Egypt it was prepared to extend the ceasefire for an additional 72 hours, said an Israeli official who, under Israeli rules, cannot be identified.

But Hamas officials said Israeli negotiators rejected their terms for a broader truce. Those include lifting Israeli and Egyptian border closures imposed on the Gaza Strip, opening a seaport and airport, removing fishing limits off the Gaza coast, and allowing access to areas near Gaza's border with Israel that have been declared no-go zones.

Hamas also demands the release of former prisoners re-arrested by Israel during a crackdown in the West Bank in June after the kidnapping and killing there of three Israeli teenagers. Israel blamed the abduction on Hamas, though the group did not claim responsibility. Egyptian officials had been working to extend the three-day ceasefire to allow further truce talks. In a veiled criticism of Hamas, the Egyptian foreign ministry said agreement had been reached on most issues and "some limited points remained undecided ... which should have led to agreement to renew the ceasefire". The statement called on both sides to "return immediately to the ceasefire commitment and seize the opportunity available to resume negotiations on the very limited (unresolved) points that remain, as soon as possible." Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, said although Israel had rejected the group's demands, "we did not close the door and will continue with the negotiations".

 However, Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said: "There will not be negotiations under fire." The Israeli army said that since the expiration of the ceasefire at 8am local time on Friday, 57 rockets and mortar rounds had been fired at Israel, injuring two people. One rocket hit a house in the southern town of Sderot, and two were intercepted near the southern coastal city of Ashkelon, the military said. The renewed Israeli strikes in Gaza killed a 10-year-old boy and wounded five others near a mosque in Gaza City, local health officials said, and three other people were reported killed near the town of Khan Yunis.

Ceasefire ends in Gaza

Posted by Unknown

EGYPT has urged Israel and Hamas to halt hostilities in the Gaza Strip as fighting resumed on Friday after a 72-hour ceasefire expired without agreement on extending the lull.
MILITANTS fired rockets at Israel, which responded with airstrikes, after indirect truce negotiations in Cairo mediated by Egypt reached a deadlock.

The return to hostilities appeared to be measured, however. Responsibility for the rocket fire was not claimed by Hamas but by other militant factions, and many of the Israeli strikes hit open areas, according to police in Gaza. Five Palestinians were reported killed, and two Israelis were injured by a rocket strike. Hamas had said earlier it would not renew the temporary ceasefire unless it obtained agreement in principle to its demands to lift a blockade on the Gaza Strip and enable the opening of a seaport there. Israel had informed Egypt it was prepared to extend the ceasefire for an additional 72 hours, said an Israeli official who, under Israeli rules, cannot be identified.

But Hamas officials said Israeli negotiators rejected their terms for a broader truce. Those include lifting Israeli and Egyptian border closures imposed on the Gaza Strip, opening a seaport and airport, removing fishing limits off the Gaza coast, and allowing access to areas near Gaza's border with Israel that have been declared no-go zones.

Hamas also demands the release of former prisoners re-arrested by Israel during a crackdown in the West Bank in June after the kidnapping and killing there of three Israeli teenagers. Israel blamed the abduction on Hamas, though the group did not claim responsibility. Egyptian officials had been working to extend the three-day ceasefire to allow further truce talks. In a veiled criticism of Hamas, the Egyptian foreign ministry said agreement had been reached on most issues and "some limited points remained undecided ... which should have led to agreement to renew the ceasefire". The statement called on both sides to "return immediately to the ceasefire commitment and seize the opportunity available to resume negotiations on the very limited (unresolved) points that remain, as soon as possible." Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, said although Israel had rejected the group's demands, "we did not close the door and will continue with the negotiations".

 However, Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said: "There will not be negotiations under fire." The Israeli army said that since the expiration of the ceasefire at 8am local time on Friday, 57 rockets and mortar rounds had been fired at Israel, injuring two people. One rocket hit a house in the southern town of Sderot, and two were intercepted near the southern coastal city of Ashkelon, the military said. The renewed Israeli strikes in Gaza killed a 10-year-old boy and wounded five others near a mosque in Gaza City, local health officials said, and three other people were reported killed near the town of Khan Yunis.

Israel Attack Targeting Hospitals In Gaza Strip

Israel has denied deliberately targeting hospitals or civilians in Gaza as a three-day truce ended in more bloodshed.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government said it is targeting "terror sites across the Gaza Strip" in response to Hamas rocket attacks.

A 10-year-old Palestinian boy was killed and five other boys injured in an airstrike near a mosque in Gaza City, according to doctors in the area.

At least 30 rockets have been fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel since the truce ended at 6am UK time, Israeli army officials say.

A rocket that hit the Sdot Negev regional council injured a civilian and a soldier, the Israeli military tweeted.

Earlier, Amnesty International claimed it has evidence that Israel's military forces have specifically targeted hospitals, health workers and ambulance personnel during the conflict.

However, Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev told Sky News: "We don't target hospitals, we don't target civilians."

He added: "What we've had to do on a number of occasions is to hit terrorist targets in the immediate vicinity of hospitals and things like that, where they've abused them.

"And what you've seen is there's a whole series of reports coming out of Gaza from journalists across the planet - not Israeli journalists, Canadians, Finns, Indian journalists and others - who have all reported that Hamas has got this systematic pattern of behaviour where they deliberately abuse humanitarian structures to shoot their rockets at Israel.

"So actually if they're turning these humanitarian sites into warzones, they should be accountable."

He said Hamas "threw away the chance" to extend the ceasefire and Israel waited six hours before striking back.

Thousands of Palestinians are fleeing their homes in north and east Gaza as Mr Netanyahu ordered "forceful retaliation".

Sky's Katie Stallard, in Gaza City, heard two loud explosions and Israeli F16 fighters overhead.

Israeli tanks also fired into northern Gaza and Israeli gunboats targeted the central area of the strip, according to reports.

Delegates from Israel have left talks in Cairo with Hamas and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) on stopping the bloodshed.

The month-long violence, punctuated by brief periods of truce, has killed nearly 1,900 Palestinians, while Israel has lost 64 soldiers and three civilians.

UN figures indicate that 73% of the Palestinian victims, 1,354 people, were civilians.

Of that number, at least 429 were children.

As the conflict continued, a Gaza teenager and Israeli teacher - both living under threat of bombardment in the region's ongoing conflict - have taken part in a passionate Google Hangout discussion on Sky News.

Farah Baker and Adele Raemer tackled controversial issues including allegations that Hamas uses civilians as human shields and Israel's shelling of UN schools used as shelters by Palestinian children.

Israel Attack Targeting Hospitals In Gaza Strip

Posted by Unknown

Israel has denied deliberately targeting hospitals or civilians in Gaza as a three-day truce ended in more bloodshed.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government said it is targeting "terror sites across the Gaza Strip" in response to Hamas rocket attacks.

A 10-year-old Palestinian boy was killed and five other boys injured in an airstrike near a mosque in Gaza City, according to doctors in the area.

At least 30 rockets have been fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel since the truce ended at 6am UK time, Israeli army officials say.

A rocket that hit the Sdot Negev regional council injured a civilian and a soldier, the Israeli military tweeted.

Earlier, Amnesty International claimed it has evidence that Israel's military forces have specifically targeted hospitals, health workers and ambulance personnel during the conflict.

However, Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev told Sky News: "We don't target hospitals, we don't target civilians."

He added: "What we've had to do on a number of occasions is to hit terrorist targets in the immediate vicinity of hospitals and things like that, where they've abused them.

"And what you've seen is there's a whole series of reports coming out of Gaza from journalists across the planet - not Israeli journalists, Canadians, Finns, Indian journalists and others - who have all reported that Hamas has got this systematic pattern of behaviour where they deliberately abuse humanitarian structures to shoot their rockets at Israel.

"So actually if they're turning these humanitarian sites into warzones, they should be accountable."

He said Hamas "threw away the chance" to extend the ceasefire and Israel waited six hours before striking back.

Thousands of Palestinians are fleeing their homes in north and east Gaza as Mr Netanyahu ordered "forceful retaliation".

Sky's Katie Stallard, in Gaza City, heard two loud explosions and Israeli F16 fighters overhead.

Israeli tanks also fired into northern Gaza and Israeli gunboats targeted the central area of the strip, according to reports.

Delegates from Israel have left talks in Cairo with Hamas and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) on stopping the bloodshed.

The month-long violence, punctuated by brief periods of truce, has killed nearly 1,900 Palestinians, while Israel has lost 64 soldiers and three civilians.

UN figures indicate that 73% of the Palestinian victims, 1,354 people, were civilians.

Of that number, at least 429 were children.

As the conflict continued, a Gaza teenager and Israeli teacher - both living under threat of bombardment in the region's ongoing conflict - have taken part in a passionate Google Hangout discussion on Sky News.

Farah Baker and Adele Raemer tackled controversial issues including allegations that Hamas uses civilians as human shields and Israel's shelling of UN schools used as shelters by Palestinian children.