Archive for southern Israel

Military confirms missiles fired from Rafah into Israel

by admin
November 14th, 2012

 

Egyptian military sources confirmed on Wednesday reports that missiles were launched from the border town of Rafah toward an Israeli settlement

The two countries are forming a joint military committee at Israel's request to determine the circumstances surrounding the missile launch, the sources said.

Israeli commercial broadcaster Channel 10 had earlier reported that four missiles fired from Rafah struck southern Israel in an area near the Gaza Strip‫.

Three of them landed in an open area, while the fourth hit a settlement in the Eshkol region but did not cause any injuries or damage, Channel 10 reported.

The attacks coincided with the announcement of the death of Ahmed al-Jaabari, who ran the Izz al-Din al-Qassam armed wing of Hamas and is wanted by Israel.

Jaabari died along with an unnamed associate when their car was blown apart by an Israeli missile, Reuters reported Wednesday.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

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Israeli official: Egypt brokers informal Israel-Gaza truce

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October 25th, 2012

JERUSALEM — Palestinian militants held fire overnight on Thursday and Israel refrained from air strikes as an informal truce brokered by Egypt appeared to take hold following two days of violence along the Israel-Gaza border.

Palestinians had launched dozens of rockets into Israel over the preceding two days and Israel conducted a number of air raids on the coastal enclave, raising fears of a prolonged, bloody confrontation between the two sides.

An Israeli military spokesperson said the last known rocket was fired from Gaza on Wednesday at 8:00 pm.

An Israeli defense official said no formal agreement had been reached with Hamas, the Islamist faction which controls the Gaza Strip, although Egyptian defense officials had been instrumental in restoring calm.

"The Egyptians have a very impressive ability to articulate to [Hamas] that its primary interest is not to attack and use terror against Israel or other targets," Israeli defense official Amos Gilad told Israeli Army Radio.

But he added that there was no direct agreement with the Islamist faction which refuses to recognize the Jewish state and calls for its destruction.

"It can be said categorically that there is no agreement with Hamas, there has never been and there will never be … The only thing that has been set and said is that there will be calm. We are not interested in an escalation," Gilad added.

On Wednesday, Israel killed a Hamas militant in an air strike which it said was intended to stop rocket launches. On Tuesday, Israel killed three Hamas men, saying they had either launched attacks or were about to do so.

In southern Israel, three agricultural workers were wounded when a Palestinian rocket exploded near them on Wednesday.

An Israeli military spokesperson said 86 projectiles had been fired at Israel between Tuesday and Wednesday and that the Iron Dome system had intercepted eight of them. Several homes had been damaged by Palestinian rockets.

Israeli schools reopened on Thursday after they had been kept shut in communities near the fenced Gaza boundary and residents were urged to remain indoors.

Hamas has refused to renounce violence or recognize Israel's right to exist, and is ostracized by the Quartet of Middle East mediators comprising the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia.

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Categories Egypt, Egypt Top Stories
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Morsy: Egypt does not accept aggression toward Palestinians

by admin
October 24th, 2012

President Mohamed Morsy said Wednesday that Egypt does not accept nor can turn a blind eye to any aggression against Palestinians, the state-owned news agency MENA reported.

“We don’t accept that people of Palestine be besieged,” Morsy said during an Endowments Ministry celebration of Preachers’ Day.

An Israeli air strike killed a one in Gaza and Palestinians had fired rockets into Israel from Gaza earlier Wednesday, Reuters reported. On Tuesday, three Hamas men were killed by Israel, which said that they had attacked or were planned to do so. An IDF spokesperson said that 79 projectiles were fired at Israel. Hamas claimed responsibility for some of the attacks.

"We did not choose this escalation, nor did we initiate it, but if it continues, we are prepared for a much wider and deeper operation," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said while visiting an anti-missile site in southern Israel. He pledged to press on with "targeted attacks" against militants preparing to fire rockets, Reuters reported.

Morsy explained that Egypt after the revolution would never consent to any aggression over Palestinians, alluding to the Hosni Mubarak regime’s role in the Israeli war against Gaza in 2008. Observers had accused the regime of turning a blind eye to it.

Morsy stressed that Egypt supports Palestinians with food and medications, adding that “the Palestinian case is pivotal for us.”

"We do not declare war on anyone. Palestinian rights will not be lost, we are in the same trench with our kin [Palestinians] against any aggression toward them."

According to Reuters, a Palestinian official said the Egyptian government was attempting to organize a truce.

"The contacts Cairo made resulted in a verbal promise by Hamas to calm the situation, and Israel said it was monitoring the situation on the ground and would refrain from attacks unless it was subject to rocket fire from Gaza," said the official.

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Hizbullah confirms it sent drone downed over Israel

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October 11th, 2012

Hizbullah leader Sayed Hassan Nasrallah acknowledged Thursday sending a drone aircraft which was shot down last weekend after flying some 25 miles into Israel.

Nasrallah said in a televised speech that the drone was Iranian-made.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had said earlier Thursday that a drone aircraft, which flew some 35 miles into Israel before being shot down last weekend, was sent by Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hizbullah.

In a statement from his office, Netanyahu said during a tour of the southern frontier with Egypt that Israel would "act with determination to defend its borders," just as "we thwarted over the weekend Hizbullah's attempt" to penetrate Israeli airspace.

Under surveillance by Israeli fighter jets, it was shot down on Saturday over a forest near the occupied West Bank. Defense officials did not, at the time, directly accuse Hizbullah — who fought an inconclusive war with Israel in 2006 — of sending it.

On at least one previous occasion, Hizbullah has launched a drone into Israel across its northern border with Lebanon. And in 2010, an Israeli warplane shot down an apparently unmanned balloon near the Dimona nuclear reactor in southern Israel.

The Israeli military released a 10-second video clip of what it said was Saturday's mid-air interception. In the video, a small, unidentified aircraft is seen moments before being destroyed by a missile fired from a fighter jet.

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Shots fired at Israeli soldiers from Sinai

by admin
July 22nd, 2012

 

Assailants on the Egyptian side of the border with Israel opened fire at a bus carrying Israeli soldiers on Sunday, causing no casualties but damaging the vehicle, a military spokeswoman said.

"Fire was opened at an Israeli army bus carrying soldiers," she told AFP. "Nobody was injured but damage was caused to the bus."

According to the spokeswoman, the attack took place on the "central-southern part" of Israel's 240-km border with Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. She had no immediate details on the weapons used.

On 13 July, Israeli border police killed one man and wounded another when the pair tried to cross the Egyptian border into Israel.

Border security incidents have increased over the past year, with an increase in lawlessness since the overthrow of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in February 2011.

Israel has accused Gaza-based militants of infiltrating its border with Egypt to perpetrate attacks, such as one in August 2011 in which gunmen launched coordinated ambushes in southern Israel, killing eight people.

Last month, at least three militants sneaked across the border and ambushed two cars carrying Israeli construction workers, killing one and sparking a firefight in which two of the gunmen died.

Israel has speeded up work on a massive steel barrier along its border with the Sinai.

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Shots fired at Israeli soldiers from Sinai

by admin
July 22nd, 2012

 

Assailants on the Egyptian side of the border with Israel opened fire at a bus carrying Israeli soldiers on Sunday, causing no casualties but damaging the vehicle, a military spokeswoman said.

"Fire was opened at an Israeli army bus carrying soldiers," she told AFP. "Nobody was injured but damage was caused to the bus."

According to the spokeswoman, the attack took place on the "central-southern part" of Israel's 240-km border with Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. She had no immediate details on the weapons used.

On 13 July, Israeli border police killed one man and wounded another when the pair tried to cross the Egyptian border into Israel.

Border security incidents have increased over the past year, with an increase in lawlessness since the overthrow of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in February 2011.

Israel has accused Gaza-based militants of infiltrating its border with Egypt to perpetrate attacks, such as one in August 2011 in which gunmen launched coordinated ambushes in southern Israel, killing eight people.

Last month, at least three militants sneaked across the border and ambushed two cars carrying Israeli construction workers, killing one and sparking a firefight in which two of the gunmen died.

Israel has speeded up work on a massive steel barrier along its border with the Sinai.

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Militants infiltrate Israel from Egypt, 2 reported dead

by admin
June 18th, 2012

Unidentified militants infiltrated Israel early Monday, opening antitank fire against Israeli civilians building a security fence along the border with Egypt's turbulent Sinai desert, the Israeli military said.

Israeli radio and TV stations reported that one worker was killed and that an explosive device was also set off during the attack. Military spokesman Brig.-Gen. Yoav Mordechai told Israel Radio that one militant was shot dead by forces who arrived at the scene.

He said other militants were believed to be at large and that troops were searching for them. Israelis living in the area were asked to remain inside their communities until the military concludes its search, and two major roads in the area were closed to civilian traffic, he said.

The incident underscored the Egyptian government's increasing loss of control over the Sinai, where political turmoil, weak policing and difficult terrain have encouraged Islamic militant activity in the region.

Israel had been bracing for the possibility of attacks from the area after rockets believed fired from Sinai struck southern Israel over the weekend.

Last August, gunmen from Sinai crossed into Israel and ambushed vehicles on a desert highway, killing eight Israelis. Six Egyptians were killed in Israel's subsequent hunt for the militants, causing a diplomatic crisis that ended with an Israeli apology.

In response to the growing threat, Israel has increased its surveillance on the Egyptian border and is building an electronic barrier along the 230-kilometer (150-mile) frontier in a bid to keep out both militants and illegal migrants from Africa.

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Brotherhood denies reports it ordered rocket fire at Israel

by admin
June 17th, 2012

The Muslim Brotherhood has denied Israeli media reports that the group ordered a Hamas-allied Bedouin cell in the Sinai to launch rockets into southern Israel.

"Israel makes up lies to tarnish the image of the Brotherhood," said Brotherhood Shura Council member Sayed Nazily. "We had nothing to do with this."

Brotherhood lawyer Abdel Moneim Abdel Maqsoud said Israel is trying to weaken the chances of the group’s candidate in the presidential election runoff by fabricating such claims. "We pay no attention to what the Israeli media says," he said.

Haaretz newspaper on Saturday said rockets that landed on Friday in the area near Ovda and Mitzpeh Ramon in Israel "were launched after a request by senior leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt."

The paper also said that, "Officials say that due to the elections in Egypt, the IDF will react moderately, even though it will continue monitoring rocket launching at areas that were not targeted before."

Earlier on Sunday, AFP quoted a senior Israeli security source as saying that the two rockets were linked to the Egyptian presidential election.

"The rockets fired at Israel over the weekend were a one-off and carried out by those who wanted to influence the Egyptian presidential election," the source said, referring to militant groups in the Sinai.

Senior Israeli defense ministry official Amos Gilad ruled out any involvement of the Muslim Brotherhood in an interview with Israel's army radio.

"The Muslim Brotherhood wants to change the face of the Middle East and doesn't get involved in attacks," he said.

"Many extremist elements operate in Sinai with the support of Iran and Hezbollah, and we are investigating who was behind the firing," he said.

"We want to preserve peaceful relations with Egypt. It is in our interest and also in theirs."

Israeli sappers on Saturday recovered the debris of two rockets, both of which landed near towns and villages in the far south of the country, police and the army said.

Police said they responded to two reports of explosions at around 1 am on Saturday, one in the Negev desert and the second in the Arava desert not far from the Red Sea resort town of Eilat.

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Report: Israeli forces kill infiltrator at Sinai border

by admin
March 16th, 2012

Israeli military forces killed one and injured three individuals trying to cross into Israel from Egypt Thursday night, Israeli news website Ynetnews reported.

The report said the incident took place around 8:30 pm, when an elite force of the Israeli military deployed in the area where the Israeli, Egyptian and Gazan borders meet spotted several individuals approaching the border fence. The troops reportedly called on the men to stop but were ignored, and then initiated arrest protocols followed by several warning shots.

After being met with heavy gunfire, the Israeli soldiers returned fire, Ynetnews added.

A subsequent sweep of the area revealed the body of the dead smuggler and the three wounded. No firearms were found in their possession.

A military medical evacuation helicopter then evacuated the injured to the Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva, southern Israel. No injuries were reported among the Israeli soldiers, the report said.

Border security incidents have increased in recent months as Israel has warned that lawlessness in post-revolution Egypt is allowing militants to use Sinai to stage attacks against the Jewish state. Israel accuses militants based in Gaza of using the long border between Egypt and Israel to infiltrate and carry out attacks, including one last August in which gunmen launched coordinated ambushes on vehicles in southern Israel, killing eight Israelis.

Israel is building a giant steel security barrier along the frontier, which is due to be completed by the end of this year.

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Parliament demands expulsion of Israeli ambassador

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March 12th, 2012

In an evening session Monday, the People’s Assembly demanded the deportation of the Israeli ambassador, Yaakov Amitai, and the withdrawal of the Egyptian ambassador from Tel Aviv.

The assembly voted unanimously on a statement prepared by the Committee on Arab Affairs, which also called for stopping gas exports to Israel in protest against the brutal attacks committed by Israel against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, considering it a flagrant violation of human rights.

Assembly speaker Saad al-Katatny asked a special parliamentary committee to follow up the implementation of the demands with the government.

The statement said, “Egypt after the revolution will never be a friend of the Zionist entity, the first enemy of Egypt and the Arab nation,” and demanded that the Egyptian government review all its relations and agreements with that “enemy.”

It also called for activating the Arab boycott of the “Zionist entity” and the international companies that deal with it, considering such boycott strong support of the “choice of resistance,” the strategic option for the liberation of the occupied territories.

Israel has launched several air strikes on the Gaza Strip, while militants in Gaza continued to fire rockets into southern Israel on Monday, the fourth day of violence that has taken the lives of 23 Palestinians.

Egyptian efforts to mediate a cease-fire were met with a demand by the Islamic Jihad Movement that Israel agree first not to target the movement’s leaders in future air strikes.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr had condemned the Israeli raids on the Gaza Stripon Saturday, and called for an immediate end to bloodshed, but Israel refused as long as rockets are still launched from the strip.

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