Violence Flaring on Gaza Strip: Roundup of Stories

(SALEM) - When I set out to gather this information, I visited the English Website for the Israeli Defence Forces only to see that every sentence in their news releases began with the word "terror" or "terrorist" as they go on to discuss Israel's recent, deadly attacks on the civilian areas of Gaza.

It is important to remember when watching western news reports, that the only armed resistance coming out of Gaza are feeble rocket attacks, and that the Palestinians and Hamas do not possess drones or fighter jets with which they can randomly attack Israeli cities, the way Israel routinely targets and attacks theirs. Israeli forces get away with these acts constantly.

Because Israel operates with such constant, erratic military violence and general imbalance, which really amounts to a slew of ongoing war crimes, it would not be fair to our readers if I presented them with information from Israel's military, which has overwhelmingly and consistently voided its own credibility by publishing information proven to be blatantly false.

Remember that we have had reporters on the ground in Gaza much of the time and on more than one occasion, we have proven in rock-solid ways with video, that Israel does not truthfully discuss its military operations, instead they are exclusively crafted only to benefit Israel on a political and public basis.

"All occupied lands will be liberated from Israeli occupation,"

Al Qassam website- Tehran- Hamas would never acknowledge the Israeli state, said Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the Palestinian movement in Gaza, on Friday in Tehran.

"They (West) want from us to stop resistance and acknowledge Israel but I herewith announce that this will never happen," Haniyeh said though an interpreter at a ceremony marking the 33rd anniversary of the 1979 Iranian revolution.

"Our message and the message of all those who lost their blood in the Palestinian lands is that all occupied lands will eventually be liberated from Israeli occupation," Haniyeh said.

He thanked Iran for its constant support for Palestinian resistance groups and called on maintaining unity in the Islamic world.

Haniyeh arrived in Tehran on Friday and is to meet President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Israeli drone targets north Gaza Strip injuring 2 people

Al Qassam website\ Agencies - At least two Palestinian young men have been wounded in the latest Israeli drone attack on besieged Gaza Strip.

According to hospital sources, the two wounded Palestinians have received moderate injuries.

Israel regularly targets the Gaza Strip, killing and injuring Palestinians. Most of the victims are women and children.

Palestinians of the Gaza Strip are living in what is called the “world's largest open-air prison” as Israel retains full control of the airspace, territorial waters, and border crossings of the territory.

IOF arrest three people in al-Khalil

Al Qassam website - IOF troops on Friday morning arrested three Palestinians after raiding a number of neighbourhoods in al-Khalil district in the southern West Bank.

Security sources and eyewitnesses told PIC correspondent that IOF troops entered the village of Ethna to the west of al-Khalil, raided and ransacked the house of Ismail Nattah before arresting him.

IOF troops also arrested Shadi Thweeb and Sulaiman Tarayrah from the village of Bani Naim after the troops raided the village and ransacked a number of homes there.

The IOF on Thursday stepped up security measures in the district and set up a number of roadblocks causing traffic congestion.

Security sources told PIC that IOF troops set up check points at the entrances to the city of al-Khalil, one of them in the Nabi Younos neighbourhood and another at the north-eastern entrance to the city.

Occupation soldiers also held Palestinian travellers for more than two hours at the entrance of Beit Ummar to the north of al-Khalil. They thoroughly searched them and humiliated them.

Israel approves the establishment of new settlement

Al Qassam website - Israeli occupation continue with plans to grab more Palestinian land to establish Jewish colonies and push Palestinians out. Occupation war minister Ehud Barak approved the establishment of a new settlement in Gush Etzion settlement bloc to the south of Bethlehem.

Maariv newspaper reported that the talk is about an old military base set up by the IOF in 1984 called Gafanot to the west of the settlement bloc. The abandoned military base lies on the road between Gush Etzion and Beit Shemesh inside the green line and that setting up a colony there would mean contiguity.

The Israeli occupation government decided in 1997 to give the military base a civilian nature, but difference between settlers, especially of Efrat as to who owns the land meant the base was left empty.

The interim head of the Etzion council Yaer Wolf contacted the Zionist war ministry last month to change the status of the land of the abandoned military base in favour of a new settlement to serve settlers with special needs and the war ministry agreed.