Salem-News.com Israel articles Page 21

Mowing The Grass

"They do not forget. All that endure the humiliation, abuse and murder of those they love do not forget." -Chris Hedges

(LONDON) - Today is Sunday and in the West it is a day of leisure. A popular activity is tending well-manicured gardens, enjoying the peace and quiet and mowing the grass.

Mowing the grass in Israeli military speak has a different connotation altogether. ‘Mowing the grass’ is a recognized Israeli military strategy as defined by Professor Efraim Inbar and Dr Eitan Shamir, both of the Begin-Sadat Center of Strategic Studies at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University.

Israel Announces Short Ceasefire as Death Toll Nears 2,000

As many as 3,000 Palestinian homes have been destroyed or damaged.

(GAZA CITY) - Israel said it would unilaterally hold fire in most of the Gaza Strip on Monday to facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid and allow some of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by an almost four-week-old war to go back to home.

The announcement, made first to Palestinian media, met with suspicion from Gaza's dominant Hamas Islamists and followed unusually strong censure from Washington at the apparent Israeli shelling on Sunday of a U.N.-run shelter that killed 10 people.

Israeli Troops Leaving Gaza after Deadly Air Strike on UN School

The United States was "appalled by today's disgraceful shelling" and urged Israel to do more to prevent civilian casualties.

(GAZA CITY) - An Israeli air strike killed 10 people and wounded about 30 on Sunday in a U.N.-run school in the southern Gaza Strip, a Palestinian official said, as dozens died in Israeli shelling of the enclave and Hamas fired rockets at Israel.

With the fighting in its 27th day, Reuters TV footage showed a column of Israeli tanks and dozens of infantrymen leaving Gaza. But an Israeli military spokesman denied reports by Israeli and some U.S. media that most Israeli troops had been pulled out of the coastal enclave.

Israel Says Hamas Will Pay Heavy Price for Soldiers Death

Israel said Palestinians on Saturday launched 86 rockets across the border.

(GAZA CITY) - Israel on Sunday declared dead a soldier feared abducted by Hamas Islamist militants in the Gaza Strip and said it would continue to fight even after the army completes destroying cross-border tunnels used by Palestinian fighters to attack its territory.

As Israeli television showed live footage of some tanks withdrawing from Gaza in an apparent winding down of the 26-day campaign, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas would pay an "intolerable price" if it continued to attack Israel.

50 Palestinians Killed, over 200 Wounded as Ceasefire Falls Apart

The UN condemned Hamas's reported violation of the ceasefire and demanded the release of the soldier.

(JERUSALEM) - Israel declared a Gaza ceasefire over on Friday, saying Hamas militants breached the truce soon after it came into effect and apparently captured an Israeli officer while killing two other soldiers.

Renewed Israeli shelling killed more than 50 Palestinians and wounded some 220, hospital officials said.

Israel and Hamas Agree on 72-Hour Ceasefire

Israel and Palestinian delegations in the meantime will travel to Cairo for separate negotiations to reach a more durable ceasefire.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) - A three-day ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militant groups in the Gaza Strip went into effect on Friday, and negotiators were due to travel to Cairo to discuss a longer-term solution.

The 72-hour break, the most ambitious attempt so far to end more than three weeks of fighting, began at 1:00 a.m. EDT. The truce was announced in a joint statement released by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

15 to 19 Dead After Israeli Artillery Attack on UN Refugee Camp

An Israeli military spokeswoman said militants had fired mortar bombs from the vicinity of the school and troops shot back in response. The incident was still being reviewed.

(JERUSALEM) - Israeli shelling killed at least 15 Palestinians sheltering in a school in Gaza's biggest refugee camp on Wednesday, the Health Ministry said, as Egyptian mediators prepared a revised proposal to try to halt more than three weeks of fighting.

Some 3,300 Palestinians, including many women and children, were taking refuge in the building in Jabalya refugee camp when it came under fire around dawn, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency said.

As Gaza Death Toll Tops 1,000, UN Calls for Immediate Cease-Fire

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed the call by Hamas for a cease-fire, saying the group violated its own call for a brief stoppage in violence.

(GAZA CITY) - With more than 1,000 people killed in the Israel-Hamas conflict, the U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting in New York early Monday and announced "strong support for an immediate and unconditional humanitarian cease-fire" in Gaza.

The call for a cease-fire came after Hamas and Israel began firing again at each other Sunday after a temporary cease-fire failed.

Battle in Gaza Hits Day 20 as Death Toll Passes 1,000

Rocket barrage fired toward southern and central Israel after cabinet agrees to extend humanitarian ceasefire.

(TEL AVIV) - An Israel Defense Forces soldier was killed early on Sunday by a mortar shell near the Gaza border as Israel's Operation Protective Edge entered its 20th day.

Hours earlier, Israel's security cabinet voted to extend a humanitarian cease-fire that began on Saturday morning until midnight Sunday.

Israel Agrees to Truce Extension; Hamas Answers by Launching Rockets

Late on Saturday, militants ignored an Israeli announcement that it would extend the truce by four hours and resumed firing rockets into Israel.

(JERUSALEM) - Israel's security cabinet approved extending the humanitarian ceasefire begun early on Saturday until midnight local time 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, an Israeli government official said.

"At the request of the United Nations, the cabinet has approved a humanitarian hiatus until tomorrow -- Sunday -- at 24:00. The IDF (Israel Defence Forces) will act against any breach of the ceasefire," the official, who was not named, said in a statement.