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5 Women, 9 Children Out Of 23 People Killed On Sunday ; Death Toll 71

By Ma'an News Agency

18November, 2012
Maannews.net

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Israeli air raids across the Gaza Strip killed 23 people on Sunday, including five women and nine children, as Israel pounded the Gaza Strip for the fifth day.

Since Wednesday, 71 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes, tank fire and naval shelling.

On Sunday evening, an Israeli airstrike on Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip killed 54-year-old Atiyyeh Mubarak and critically injured three others.

Minutes earlier, seven members of the Abu Shehada family were injured when their home was bombed in the al-Maghazi camp in central Gaza.

An Israeli airstrike hit a vehicle in Jabaliya in the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday afternoon killing Suheil Hammad, 45, and his 15-year-old son Muamin. They were driving a water tanker to sell water to residents, a Ma'an reporter says.

Four women and four children were among 10 killed in an Israeli missile attacked that leveled the al-Dalou family home in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City.

Israeli airstrikes killed two men in separate airstrikes on Gaza City's Shujaiyya neighborhood, killing Saadiyya al-Theib and 24-year-old Sami al-Faqir, medics said.

Muhammad Abu Naqira died after Israeli jets bombed his home in the Shaboura neighborhood of Rafah in southern Gaza, witnesses said.

In northern Gaza, medics recovered the body of 52-year-old woman, identified as Nawal Abed al-Ali, from the rubble of an airstrike on a police station in the al-Tufah neighborhood.

Medics said 27-year-old Ahmad Nahhal and 9-year-old Tasneem Nahhal died and eight others suffered injuries in a strike on al-Shati refugee camp, on the coastline of Gaza City.

A strike on al-Bureij refugee camp killed 18-month-old Eyad Abu Khousa and wounded his brother, a Ma'an correspondent said.

Earlier, two children died and more than 12 people sustained injuries as two houses came under fire in northern Gaza early Sunday, medical official Ashraf al-Qidra said. Medics identified the two children as Tamer Abu Asaifan and one-year-old Jumana Abu Asaifan.

Witnesses said Israel's aerial bombardment of Gaza continued with intensity overnight.

Earlier airstrikes hit two media headquarters in Gaza City, including Ma'an's office, injuring at least six journalists.

Israeli shelling pummeled Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, while fighter jets struck southern Gaza. Meanwhile, Israeli gunboats shelled the coastline of Gaza City and central Gaza, eyewitnesses said.

Israel's army said fighter jets fired on approximately 70 sites in the Gaza Strip overnight, and 50 sites during the day.

No rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel after midnight Saturday, the army said, until several projectiles hit the south after 8 a.m. One rocket salvo unleashed Sunday wounded two people when it hit a house in the coastal city of Ashkelon, police said.

Hamas' al-Qassam Brigades says it has carried out 900 rocket attacks on Israeli military bases and across the border since Wednesday, reaching Tel Aviv and an Israeli settlement south of Jerusalem for the first time.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel is ready to widen its offensive.

"We are exacting a heavy price from Hamas and the terrorist organizations and the Israel Defense Forces are prepared for a significant expansion of the operation," he said at a cabinet meeting, giving no further details.

On Sunday, Israel's military chief Benny Gantz instructed forces to intensify attacks on "terror targets" in Gaza, Israeli news site Ynet reported.

Egyptian President Muhammad Mursi had said there were "some indications" a ceasefire could be reached soon between Israel and Gaza Palestinians but he had no firm guarantees.

The head of the Arab League and a group of Arab foreign ministers will visit Gaza on Tuesday to show solidarity with Palestinians under Israeli attack, officials said Sunday.

Arab league ministers had called at an earlier meeting for a mission to go to Gaza. Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi told reporters in Cairo the visit would take place on Tuesday. A League source said al-Arabi would lead the delegation.

Airstrike on Gaza media complex injures 6 journalists

An Israeli airstrike damaged a complex of media offices in Gaza City early Sunday, injuring six journalists, witnesses said.

The Al-Shawa building houses a number of foreign and Palestinian media organizations, including Ma'an News Agency's headquarters in the Gaza Strip.

A Ma'an correspondent said the impact was focused on the eleventh floor, where the office of al-Quds TV is located.

Six journalists were moderately injured, five of whom were identified as al-Quds TV employees.

Khader al-Zahhar, a cameraman with al-Quds TV, had a leg amputated due to injuries sustained in the attack.

Darwish Bulbul, Ibrahim Labed, Muhammad al-Akhras and Hazem al-Daour were also wounded, Ma'an's correspondent said.

Witnesses said Israel's aerial bombardment of Gaza continued with intensity overnight. Israeli shelling pummeled Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, while fighter jets struck southern Gaza.

Gaza live report: Day 5

18:43 Explosion heard in Tel Aviv area.

18:33 At a news conference during a visit to Bangkok, Obama says Israel has "every right to expect that it does not have missiles fired into its territory".

He added: "If this can be accomplished without a ramping up of military activity in Gaza that is preferable. That's not just preferable for the people of Gaza, it's also preferable for Israelis because if Israeli troops are in Gaza they're much more at risk of incurring fatalities or being wounded."

18:20 A 54-year-old man, Atiyyeh Mubarak, has been killed in an airstrike on Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip.

18:17 The latest photos from Gaza.

18:11 The al-Qassam Brigades says its fighters have shelled Israeli miltary bases and a warship in response to the killing of 11 civilians in Sheikh Radwan.

18:08 A delegation of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation will visit Gaza on Monday

18:00 Seven members of the Abu Shehada family have been injured in an Israeli airstrike east of al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza.

17:52 Another child, Ranin al-Dalou, has died from Israel's missile attack on the al-Dalou family home in Sheikh Radwan in Gaza City.

The death toll from the strike is now 11, including four children and four women.

|195422*Palestinians carry the body of a child killed in an Israeli missile strike on the al-Dalou family home.
Reuters/Ahmed Zakot)|
17:46 The Committee to Protect Journalists says it is alarmed by Israel's targeting of two media facilities in Gaza today. "Journalists are civilians and are protected under international law in military conflict ... "Israel knows this and should cease targeting facilities housing media organizations and journalists immediately."

17:42 A Ma'an reporter has identified the men killed in Israel's strike on a vehicle in Jabaliya as Suheil Hammad, 45, and his 15-year-old son Muamin.

They were driving a water tank to sell water to residents.

17:39 Hamas' al-Qassam Brigades tweets: "Al Qassam Brigades to #IDF: " Massacre against Ad-Dalo family will not go unpunished" #Gaza #GazaUnderAttack #Humanrights #WarCrimes #Israel"

An Israeli missile hit the al-Dalou family home in Gaza City on Sunday, killing 10 people including four women and three children.

17:36 Palestinian journalists are staging a sit-in at Ramallah's Manara square to protest Israel's targeting of a media headquarters in Gaza City.

17:25 The Israeli military says it targeted "over 50 terror sites" in the Gaza Strip today.

With 21 fatalities so far, including five women and seven children, Sunday is already the deadliest day in the Gaza Strip since Israel's Operation Cast Lead concluded in January 2009.

17:31 Reporters Without borders condemns Israeli airstrikes targeting news organizations in Gaza City and calls for an immediate end to such attacks.

17:05 The Palestinian Authority government media center has condemned Israel's dawn airstrikes on media buildings in Gaza City.

The attack was "an assault on free journalism and the journalists' right to do their important job freely and expose the results of the ongoing Israeli assault against our people in the Gaza Strip."

Israel is trying to impose a blackout on its aggression against Gaza, the center says in a statement.

16:55 An Israeli warplane hit a vehicle in Jabaliya killing two, medics say.

16:54 The Independent Commission for Human Rights calls on the international community to ensure immediate protection for the 750,000 Palestinian children in Gaza: "The children of the Gaza Strip are being terrorized and traumatized by the unrelenting numbers of bombs being dropped on an hourly basis and there are no places of safety or shelter available for families and children."

Israeli airstrikes killed seven children in Gaza on Sunday.

16:45 24-year-old Sami al-Faqir killed in airstrike on Shujaiyya, Gaza City.

16:34 Update: Four women, three children and three men died in the Sheikh Radwan airstrike.

16:27 Update: Death toll rises to 10 in Sheikh Radwan airstrike.

16:17 Update: A man, a woman and a child from the Abu al-Dalou family have been found dead after the Sheikh Radwan airstrike, medics say.

Samah and Salifa al-Dalou were killed in the same strike, which leveled the family home.

15:55 Fatah leader Nabil Shaath is on his way to Gaza, the PLO says.

President Mahmoud Abbas has instructed Shaath, a senior PLO official, to join efforts to prevent an Israeli ground invasion of the Gaza Strip. He is expected to arrive tonight.

15:45 An Israeli missile levels a home in Gaza City's Sheikh Radwan neighborhood killing two women, Samah and Salifa al-Dalou. The attack also injured 10 including one critically, a health official says.

15:30 According to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, 10 journalists and media professionals suffered injuries in Israel's attack on media buildings this morning.

15:15 The head of the Arab League and a group of Arab foreign ministers will visit Gaza on Tuesday to show solidarity with Palestinians under Israeli attack, officials say.

15:07 Local press freedom group Mada "strongly condemns the renewed Israeli aggression in the Gaza Strip and the direct targeting of a number of journalists and media institutions."

15:03 The humanitarian situation is dramatically deteriorating in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights says. Israel's borders with Gaza are closed, preventing the delivery of food, medical supplies and fuel, PCHR says, and the lives of 1.7 million civilians in Gaza are in danger.

"There has been no safe place in the Gaza Strip, which essentially does not have any shelter where civilians can have protection from day and night bombardments ... A number of people have been killed or wounded while inside their houses, as a result of the bombarding of residential areas and their vicinities, with bombs weighing up to one ton dropped by F-16 fighter jets."

14:56 US President Barack Obama says he will know in the next 36 to 48 hours whether any progress can be made in halting the Gaza crisis.

14:51 Reuters photographer Majdi Fathi caught this image of Israel's second attack on a media building this morning in Gaza City:

|195382|
14:44 Reports of two more deaths in Gaza this morning, bringing the death toll to 56: Muhammad Abu Naqira was killed in a Rafah bombing and an airstrike on Gaza City's Shujaiyya neighborhood killed Saadiyya al-Theib, medics and witnesses say.

14:33 Medics have identified two Palestinians killed in a strike on al-Shati refugee camp as 27-year-old Ahmad Nahhal and 9-year-old Tasneem Nahhal.

They say 539 people have been injured in Gaza since Wednesday.

14:31 Israel has taken over Hamas radio waves, an army spokeswoman tells Ma'an, declining to comment on the purpose or content of the military's broadcasts to residents of Gaza.

14:28 Israeli army warning journalists to stay away from Hamas.

Advice to reporters in #Gaza, just like any person in Gaza: For your own safety, stay away from #Hamas positions and operatives.
— IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) November 18, 2012

14:26 Israeli army chief Benny Gantz instructs forces to intensify attacks on "terror targets" in Gaza, Israeli news site Ynet reports.

14:18 Seven reported injured as Israeli helicopters bombard al-Dana residential tower in Gaza City's al-Nasr neighborhood.

14:14 Hamas' al-Qassam Brigades says it fired a long-range missile toward Herziliya, north of Tel Aviv. Israel's army says no missile landed there.

14:12 UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will arrive in Egypt on Monday for talks with the Egyptian president and other officials, foreign ministry says, without giving details of his agenda.

14:10 Palestinian militant groups announce firing over 15 missiles at Ashdod and Ashkelon.

13:35 Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh has called Egyptian President Mohammad Mursi to discuss truce efforts, the Gaza premier's office says.

13:30 Palestine Airlines is transporting a medical delegation from Amman to Egypt's el-Arish, PA transport minister and airline chief Ali Zaidan Abu Zuhri says.

Israel destroyed Gaza's international airport in 2002.

13:23 Israel has bombed an area near the al-Sheikh Zuweid towers in northern Gaza, wounding several people, a Ma'an reporter says.

13:10 Ofir Gendelman, spokesman of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has tweeted that "No Western journalists were hurt" during Israel's raid on international media bureaus in Gaza City.

At least six non-Western journalists were wounded including an employee of Beirut-based al Quds television station who lost his leg in the attack, medics said.

12:57 An Israeli military spokeswoman confirms that soldiers shot and arrested a man in Beit Ummar in the southern West Bank during an arrest raid early Sunday. She says soldiers aimed at the man's lower body and that he had threatened to throw a firebomb at troops.

A local spokesman told Ma'an 20-year-old Ahmad Awad sustained three bullet wounds to his back and is in a critical condition

12:40 The Israeli army calls on international journalists and correspondents in Gaza "to stay clear of Hamas' bases and facilities" in a statement.

It says it bombed the Shawa media offices because it is "an infrastructure of Hamas' operational communications, located inside a civilian building," and forces targeted roof communication devices to minimize damage.

The second media office it targeted is "also part of Hamas' operational communications that was deliberately located on the roof of the building," the army says.

12:31 Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld says an Israeli has been moderately wounded by a rocket fired on Shaar Hanegev.

12:12 A Reuters TV crew saw the car hit by rocket debris in Tel Aviv catch on fire. Its driver escaped unharmed, Reuters says.

Israeli news site Ynet reported earlier that remnants of an intercepted rocket fell on a car in Tel Aviv.

12:03 The body of a 52-year-old woman has been found in the rubble of an Israeli airstrike on a police station in al-Tufah in northern Gaza, a Ma'an reporter says. She has been identified as Nawal Abed al-Ali.

11:51 Israel hits al-Shati refugee camp on the coast of Gaza City, killing two Palestinians including a child, a Ma'an reporter says. Eight are wounded in the attack.

11:47 Israeli is trying to silence Palestinian and international press by targeting media headquarters in Gaza City, Palestinian National Initiative leader Mustafa Barghouti tells Ma'an.

"They are trying to frighten the press," Barghouti says, calling the strikes a war crime. Six journalists were injured in the strikes earlier this morning.

11:36 Israeli army spokeswoman Avital Leibovich tweets that she will conduct a press briefing on the targeting of media buildings in Gaza City.

11:20 Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel is prepared for "significant expansion" of the Gaza offensive.

11:15 Al-Arabiya TV, whose Gaza offices are located in one of the buildings hit by Israeli forces this morning, releases footage of the attack.

 

11:14 The Foreign Press Association is "concerned" by Israel's strike on a media building housing FPA members Sky News, Sky News Arabia, MBC TV, Al-Arabiya, ORF and other European broadcasters.

10:57 Remnants of an intercepted rocket fell on a car in Tel Aviv, no injuries, Israeli news site Ynet reports.

10:53 An Israeli police spokesman says at least one rocket was intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome air shield over Tel Aviv.

Police are searching for remains, but are not aware that any projectiles hit the city, Mickey Rosenfeld says.

10:41 Rockets shot down by Israel's Iron Dome air shield over Tel Aviv, witnesses and police say.

10:35 Witnesses report two explosions after sirens sound in Tel Aviv.

09:53 Infant dies in Israeli airstrike on Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, Ma'an correspondent says.

09:44 PLO official Saeb Erekat condemns the airstrikes which hit media offices in Gaza overnight.

"Last Thursday, the Israeli Government Spokesperson said that there is no free media in Gaza, which is an insult to the brave journalists covering the situation from there. It would now seem that some Israelis want to make sure that there is no free media in Gaza," Erekat says.

09:43 The head of the Iranian parliament's national security and foreign policy committee says Israeli claims that Iran is supplying militant groups in Gaza with rockets were unfounded.

09:17 Israeli forces detained Hamas leader Tayseer Omaran in northern West Bank city Nablus earlier this morning, locals tell Ma'an.

08:29 Several rockets hit southern Israel after an overnight lull in fire from Gaza, Israel's army says.

08:17 Israeli artillery fire into Syria earlier this morning in response to incoming fire may have killed Syrian soldiers, Israel's army tells Army Radio.

"There was small arms fire (at Israeli forces), there was a response and from what I hear over Arab media it appears Syrian soldiers were killed," Israel's chief military spokesman, Brigadier-General Yoav Mordechai, says.

07:50 Israeli forces shot and arrested a Beit Ummar man during a raid on his home, a local official says.

Ahmad Awad sustained three bullet wounds to his back and is in a critical condition, said popular committee spokesman Muhammad Awad.

07:42 Israeli army says no rockets fired from Gaza reached Israel since midnight. Meanwhile, Israeli military jets fired on approximately 70 sites in the Gaza Strip overnight.

07:38 Israeli army spokesman says the airstrike which hit the first media complex this morning aimed to hit the antennae of the building.

He said it was used by Hamas for carrying out terror activities.

07:10 An Israeli airstrike hits the second media complex in Gaza City this morning, the al-Shuruq building.

Sky News Arabia and Al-Arabiya report their offices have been affected.

No reports of injuries as yet, a Ma'an correspondent says.

06:56 BBC reporter Jon Donnison has uploaded a sound recording of Israeli ships firing off the Gaza shore earlier this morning.

05:39 Israeli envoy to the UN deletes a tweet saying Israel would sit down with Hamas if it halts fire, saying it was sent erroneously by a staff member, US site Buzzfeed reports.

Israel and Hamas do not recognize each other and negotiate truces through intermediaries.

05:21 Israel has launched more than 950 air strikes on Gaza since Wednesday, Reuters reports.

A senior Israeli commander briefing reporters on condition of anonymity said Israel had scored "good achievements" in striking at nearly 1,000 targets, Reuters says.

04:43 Warplanes hit a training site of the Popular Resistance Committee's al-Nasser Salah Addin brigades in Rafah, without causing injuries. Another raid targets a location of Hamas' Al-Qassam Brigades in the city, and another in Gaza City.

Also in Rafah, an airstrike flattens the home of an al-Qassam fighter who was killed in 2008, Hamdan Abu Naqira, witnesses say.

04:26 British Prime Minister David Cameron "expressed concern over the risk of the conflict escalating further and the danger of further civilian casualties on both sides," in a conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a spokesperson for Cameron says.

The United Kingdom was "putting pressure on both sides to de-escalate," the spokesman says, adding that Cameron had urged Netanyahu "to do everything possible to bring the conflict to an end."

03:45 Palestine's ambassador to the United Nations says he has written letters to UN leaders calling for Security Council action on the Gaza bombardment.

Israel's military operation breaches the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, Riyad Mansour wrote to the UN Secretary-General, and the presidents of the Security Council and General Assembly.

03:44 Eyewitnesses say Israeli gunboats are heavily shelling the coastline of Gaza City and central Gaza.

03:39 Khader al-Zahhar, a cameraman with al-Quds TV, has had a leg amputated due to injuries sustained in bombing of media offices in Gaza City, a Ma'an correspondent says.

03:33 The two children injured in a strike on Jabalia camp have been identified by medics as Tamer Abu Asaifan and one-year-old Jumana Abu Asaifan.

Twelve others were injured, medics tell Ma'an.

03:11 Palestinian official tells Reuters that truce discussions would continue in Cairo on Sunday, saying "there is hope," but it was too early to say whether the efforts would succeed.

03:06 Israeli army spokesperson says navy targeted "several Hamas terror sites in the Gaza Strip."

02:45 Three others have been wounded in Gaza's media complex, a Ma'an reporter says, but their identity could not be immediately confirmed.

02:40 Two children have been killed in an airstrike in northern Gaza, medical official Ashraf al-Qidra says.

02:46 Al-Qassam Brigades condemns Israeli strike that hit a media office in Gaza City in a Twitter post.

02:20 Ma'an staff are not among the injured, our office confirms. But just hours earlier, Ma'an reporter Ibrahim Qanan was bringing us news of the airstrikes from the roof of the office in Gaza.

02:16 An Israeli airstrike struck a complex of media offices in Gaza City early Sunday, injuring three journalists from Al-Quds TV, a Ma'an reporter in Gaza says.

 

The Al-Shawa towers houses a number of foreign and Palestinian media organizations, including Ma'an News Agency's headquarters in the Gaza Strip.

01:36 Israeli army says shots fired at soldiers near Syria in the Golan Heights, who responded with artillery fire. Israel has reported the incident to the UN, army spokeswoman says.

00:53 Israeli planes bomb a site used by Hamas' military wing west of Rafah in south Gaza, witnesses say.

00:36 Protests were held across the West Bank to support Gaza on Saturday, leaving dozens injured and at least 10 arrested.

 

Ma'an TV captured the arrest of one female protester near Nablus. Four people were injured, one seriously, and eight arrested when Israeli soldiers and protesters clashed near Huwwara checkpoint.

00:33 An Israeli military jeep was damaged near Nablus by a Molotov cocktail thrown by youths, locals tell Ma'an.

Palestinian youths in the village of Sarra confronted Israeli forces in the area and threw stones and a firebomb at a military jeep, causing it to set alight.

00:10 The spokesman of Hamas' armed wing warns Israel not to launch a ground invasion into Gaza, saying in a televised statement that al-Qassam was ready to return ten-fold fire.

This round of fighting will not be the last, Abu Obeida says. He reiterates claims that the brigade downed an Israeli fighter jet and drone over Gaza, and blames Israel of a cover-up.

Israel has strenuously denied al-Qassam's claims, calling them "extraordinary."

00:01 Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip has entered its fifth day. Follow this live report for minute-by-minute updates of events as they happen. Saturday's coverage is here.

You can also follow Ma'an on Twitter and like our Facebook page. To receive SMS updates on your Jawwal mobile, text “sub news” to 37192.

 




 

 


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