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, 21 Injured in Israeli Air Raids on Gaza Strip

March 9-10, 2012

Israeli aerial raid kills two resistance fighters

[ 10/03/2012 - 01:58 PM ]

KHAN YOUNIS, (PIC)--

An Israeli air raid on Abbassan to the east of Khan Younis, south of the Gaza Strip, on afternoon Saturday killed two Palestinians affiliated with the armed wing of the popular resistance committees.

PIC reporter said that the Israeli warplanes targeted a motorbike near the police station in Abbasan killing one instantly and seriously injuring another, who later succumbed to his wounds.

He said that one of them was 51-year-old Hussein Breik and the other was Mansour Abu Neseria.

The number of Palestinian casualties thus rose to 14 dead and 21 wounded since the Israeli aggression on the Strip started on Friday.

For its part, Euromed for human rights said that Israel should be brought to account for its so-called targeted killing, which is in violation of the international law.

It said that such extra-judicial killings of “wanted” persons were in escalation of the Israeli targeted killing of wanted activists without trial.

Most of those killed in such attacks were not liquidated in combat, it said in a statement on Saturday.

IOF attacks kill 12 Palestinians, wound 21

[ 10/03/2012 - 06:58 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)--

Israeli occupation forces (IOF) launched a series of air raids on the Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours killing 12 Palestinians and wounding 21 others.

The IOF warplanes bombed a civilian car in Dair Al-Balah in central Gaza at dawn Saturday killing a 26-yerar-old man and injuring four others.

Medical sources earlier said that Ahmed Hajjaj died of his wounds suffered in Friday’s raids.

The PIC reporter said that IOF warplanes blasted a house in Beit Lahia, north of the Gaza Strip, in a pre-dawn raid that killed two members of the Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad movement.

He said that the warplanes fired a missile at a house north of Gaza city wounding four people including a child.

IOF artillery shelling on Friday night killed a member of the Quds Brigades while another citizen was wounded.

An earlier aerial raid on Friday night targeted a two-story building in Tufah suburb in Gaza city wounding two citizens.

The fresh Israeli military escalation on the Palestinian coastal enclave started earlier on Friday when the IOF warplanes assassinated the secretary general of the popular resistance committees, Zuhair Al-Qaisi, and his assistant Mahmoud Hanani, who was deported form the West Bank to Gaza a few years back.

Before midnight Friday IOF warplanes launched five raids on various areas in the Strip while Israeli artillery fired at all eastern areas of Gaza and the gunboats fired at the western areas of the enclave.

In response to the fresh Israeli crimes, Palestinian resistance factions fired dozens of crude rockets at nearby Israeli targets.

The Quds Brigades announced that its fighters fired 44 rockets at Israeli positions and settlements adjacent to the Strip in retaliation to the Israeli crimes.

The popular resistance committees’ armed wing, the Nasser Salahuddin Brigades, fired 12 projectiles at Israeli settlements and the armed wing of the Ahrar movement fired ten rockets at similar targets.

Israeli military sources said that the rockets injured a number of settlers and caused material damage.

Health ministry appeals for saving deteriorating health situation in Gaza

[ 10/03/2012 - 09:53 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)--

The Palestinian ministry of health warned that Israel's military attacks on Gaza would aggravate the health and medical situation in the densely-populated area which already suffers from an acute shortage of medical supplies and power outages affecting services in hospitals.

In a press release on Friday, the health ministry stated that the medical cadres in Gaza are extremely worried nowadays that they would fail soon to provide medications and regular services for the civilians Gaza.

The health ministry appealed to the Red Cross, the World Health Organization and all relief institutions to urgently intervene to save the health situation in Gaza and ensure its stability especially in light of the Israeli military attacks on Gaza and the fall of casualties.

Popular resistance and its armed wing vow to retaliate to assassination of Qaisi

[ 10/03/2012 - 09:01 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)--

The popular resistance committees and its armed wing Salahuddin Brigades said they are absolved of any truce in Gaza and urged their resistance fighters to retaliate strongly and launch counterattacks against Israeli targets.

This came in a press release issued by the resistance committees following the Israeli assassination of its secretary general Zuhair Al-Qaisi and its senior official Ahmed Al-Hanani on Friday.

For his part, spokesman for the Islamic Jihad Movement Dawoud Shihab said this new crime confirmed that the Israeli occupation does not want calm and stability and wants to turn Gaza into a training ground for its army.

Spokesman Shihab called on the Palestinian resistance factions to re-evaluate the calm in Gaza and the West Bank and agree on a strategy to respond to Israel's constant aggression and violations. A spokesman for Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, stated that the truce with the Israeli occupation died when it assassinated the secretary-general of the popular resistance committees and attempted to kill two of its senior officials, and vowed to respond.

Al-Ahrar Movement also condemned the Israeli crime as an Israeli attempt to create confusion in the Palestinian arena and urged the resistance to strike back.

The democratic front for the liberation of Palestine, for its part, called for building a united resistance front to confront Israel's aggression on Gaza and its Judaization and settlement activities in Jerusalem and the West Bank.

In the same context, Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, said in a press release on Friday that "the blood of the martyrs that watered the inviolate soil of Gaza would not go in vain and the occupation's crimes would be a curse on it."

For his part, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum stated in a press statement to the PIC that the Israeli occupation wants to blow up the situation in Gaza to cover its violations and its war of Judaization against the occupied city of Jerusalem, its natives and the Aqsa Mosque.

Barhoum held the Israeli occupation fully responsible for what might happen in response to its military escalation, and demanded the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority to end its restrictions on the resistance in the West Bank and enable it to defend its people.