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Death toll from Typhoon Bopha is now well over 200. – Video

Posted on December 7, 2012



Death toll from Typhoon Bopha is now well over 200.
Philippines: Death toll from Typhoon Bopha is now well over 200. Turkey: Hundreds of Syrians flee into Turkey after Assad army shells their border town. West Bank: Israel begins construction of 3000 settler homes in occupied West Bank. China: Arson suspected in fire at clothing factory in Guandong province that kills 14. USA： World's oldest person dies at 116.From:VOA60NEWSViews:8 0ratingsTime:01:11More inNews Politics

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Death toll from Typhoon Bopha is now well over 200. – Video

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Gaza crowds surge at Israel border fence

Posted on November 24, 2012

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli troops fired on Gazans surging toward Israel’s border fence Friday, killing one person but leaving intact the fragile two-day-old cease-fire between Hamas and the Jewish state.

The truce, which calls for an end to Gaza rocket fire on Israel and Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, came after eight days of cross-border fighting, the bloodiest between Israel and Hamas in four years.

In a letter to the U.N. Security Council, the Palestinian U.N. observer Riyad Mansour called the situation in Gaza “extremely fragile” and said Israel’s cease-fire violations and other illegal actions risk undermining the calm that was just restored.

Hundreds of Palestinians approached the border fence Friday in several locations in southern Gaza, testing expectations Israel would no longer enforce a 300-yard-wide no-go zone on the Palestinian side of the fence that was meant to prevent infiltrations into Israel. In the past, Israeli soldiers routinely opened fire on those who crossed into the zone.

In one incident captured on video, several dozen Palestinians, most of them young men, approached the fence, coming close to a group of Israeli soldiers standing on the other side.

Some Palestinians briefly talked to the soldiers, while others appeared to be taunting them with chants of “God is Great” and “Morsi, Morsi,” in praise of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, whose mediation led to the truce.

At one point, a soldier shouted in Hebrew, “Go

Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra said a 20-year-old man was killed and 19 people were wounded by Israeli fire near the border.

Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. observer, said Israeli forces fatally shot Anwar Abdulhadi Qudaih in the head and injured at least 19 other Palestinian civilians in a border area east of Khan Younis.

During the incidents, Hamas security tried to defuse the situation and keep the crowds away from the fence.

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Gaza crowds surge at Israel border fence

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Israeli troops kill Palestinian on Gaza border

Posted on November 24, 2012

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip Israeli troops fatally shot a Palestinian man and wounded at least 13 others Friday morning on the Gaza Strips border with Israel, and each side accused the other of violating a cease-fire that took effect Wednesday night.

The shooting was the first flare-up of violence since the Egyptian-brokered truce ended eight days of Israeli bombardment of Gaza and Palestinian rocket attacks against Israel fighting that drove the two sides to the brink of all-out war.

Palestinian witnesses and human rights officials said the episode illustrated the ambiguities of the deal, which called for an examination of the safeguards along a fenced 300-meter-wide buffer zone that Israel enforces on the Gaza side of the border, as well as negotiations on ending Israels blockade of the territory.

The Israeli bombardment pulverized government buildings and militant weapons stores, along with many homes and shops, leaving 161 Palestinians dead. But the Gaza Strips Hamas leadership has emerged stronger than ever, Palestinians in Gaza said Thursday.

Hamas, along with the masked fighters of other Gaza militant groups, held boisterous victory rallies across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, the day after the cease-fire with Israel was announced.

Amid parades of flags and political bombast, each of the strips militant factions hailed what they called a triumph for the Palestinian resistance and a new era for Palestinian unity.

But the separate public appearances by each militant group rather than one unified rally raised questions about the sturdiness of the cease-fire.

Anwar Abdel Hadi Qdeih, 20, was killed on the Gaza side when Israeli forces opened fire across the border on a few dozen mostly young men as they approached the first of two fences Friday morning, according to hospital officials and witnesses in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis.

Hamas, the Islamist group that governs Gaza, denounced the shooting. But it then took the unusual step of escorting residents out of the buffer zone, after consulting with the cease-fires Egyptian mediators, Reuters news agency reported.

The Israeli military said hundreds of Palestinians had attempted to breach the border fence in several places Friday, prompting Israeli soldiers to shoot at them.

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Israeli troops kill Palestinian on Gaza border

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Life in the Gaza Strip

Posted on November 23, 2012

Home to 1.6 million people, Gaza is just 40km (25 miles) long and 10km wide, an enclave bounded by the Mediterranean Sea, Israel and Egypt.

Originally administered by Egypt which retains control of Gaza’s southern border, the area was captured by the Israelis in 1967 during the Six Day War.

In 2005, after 38 years during which Israeli settlements were a constant source of tension, Israel withdrew its troops and settlers.

A year later the Islamist militant group Hamas won elections in Gaza. In June 2007, Hamas took complete control of the strip, ousting the more moderate rival Fatah faction of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas which runs parts of the West Bank.

The Israelis swiftly tightened a blockade on Gaza, restricting the transit of goods and people into and out of the territory.

With Israel’s blockade choking off opportunities to trade with the outside world, Gaza is largely dependent on external aid and the shadow ‘tunnel’ economy.

Gazans are, on average, worse off than in the 1990s. Unemployment is around a 30% climbing to 58% for those aged between 20 and 24 years.

Farming has an important but limited role due to lack of access to water and the buffer zones imposed by Israel along the border.

Fishing for Gaza’s 3,000 fishermen is also restricted. Ten years ago, they could fish out to 12 nautical miles from the coast. That is now limited to three nautical miles.

The only part of the economy that could be said to be booming is the tunnel economy. Hundreds of these have been built under the border with Egypt, allowing the movement of goods in and out of the territory. The tunnels are also used to bring weapons into Gaza.

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Life in the Gaza Strip

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Gaza: William Hague warns that ground invasion would damage Israel

Posted on November 19, 2012

“The Prime Minister and I have both stressed to our Israeli counterparts that a ground invasion of Gaza would lose Israel a lot of the international support and sympathy that they have in this situation.

“It’s much more difficult to restrict and avoid civilian casualties during a ground invasion and a large ground operation would threaten to prolong the conflict.

“So we have made our views very clear on that with Israel, just as we have made very clear our view that the barrage of rockets from Gaza onto southern Israel is an intolerable situation for the Israelis and it’s not surprising they have responded to that.

“A ground invasion is much more difficult for the international community to sympathise with or support – including the United Kingdom.”

At the start of his weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday morning, Mr Netanyahu said: “The army is prepared to significantly expand the operation. The soldiers are ready for any activity that could take place.”

His remarks came as thousands of Israeli troops and hardware gathered along the border, fuelling concerns that the Jewish state was poised to expand its relentless aerial bombing campaign into a ground operation.

Israeli soldiers sit atop their tanks on the Israeli side of the border with the Gaza Strip (Getty Images)

The Israeli army sealed off the main roads around Gaza late on Friday and shortly afterwards, the cabinet authorised the recruitment of up to 75,000 reservists, prompting a flurry of diplomatic efforts to broker a truce to head off any escalation.

However, a truce remains a possibility and Mr Netanyahu’s warning could have been intended to maintain pressure on Hamas to stop firing rockets into Israel. Two more targeted Tel Aviv on Sunday morning, the fourth day in a row which the Israeli heartland has come under fire, but were intercepted by the Iron Dome’ missile defence system.

Israeli soldiers watch as an Iron Dome launcher fires an interceptor rocket near the southern city of Ashdod (Reuters)

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Gaza: William Hague warns that ground invasion would damage Israel

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Six killed in Gaza – Palestinians Israelis firing – Video

Posted on November 13, 2012



Six killed in Gaza – Palestinians Israelis firing
== BoozWheez – Updates the World == Please subscribe for regular updates ….. Like my Facebook page www.facebook.com Six killed in Gaza as Palestinians and Israelis exchange fire Six Palestinians have been killed and many more injured in a series of clashes with the Israeli military. It's the most serious escalation of violence since 2009. Israelis too have been injured as rockets were launched across the border from the Gaza StripFrom:BoozWheezViews:0 0ratingsTime:01:46More inNews Politics

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Six killed in Gaza – Palestinians Israelis firing – Video

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Israel trades fire with Gaza Strip militants

Posted on November 13, 2012

JERUALEM — Israeli forces struck targets in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, Nov. 11, killing one Palestinian and wounding more than 30 others as militants launched dozens of rockets in some of the heaviest fighting the area has seen in months.

The flare-up increased pressure on the Israeli government to put an end to the violence, which escalated over the weekend and could turn into a major conflagration just two months before the country’s general election.

Israeli leaders amped up their rhetoric, warning Islamic Hamas rulers they will pay a heavy price should they allow rocket fire toward Israel to continue.

“The world must understand that Israel will not sit idly in the face of attempts to attack us,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “We are prepared to intensify the response.”

Low-level cross-border fighting is common in the border area, but clashes escalated Thursday night when an explosives-packed tunnel under the Gaza-Israel frontier blew up, in what the Israeli military called an attempt by Palestinian militants to kill or kidnap soldiers. Palestinians said the blast was a roadside bomb to avenge the death of an 11-year-old boy.

Then on Saturday, militants fired an anti-tank missile into an Israeli military jeep patrolling the border fence, wounding four soldiers — one critically. Casualties of that order are rare for the Israeli military in clashes with Gaza militants.

In response, Israel launched airstrikes that have killed

Yael Talker, who lives in a kibbutz in southern Israel, said her family spent the night in a makeshift shelter.

“Each time the alarms ring, we hope it’s the last,” she said. “Our patience is running out … when we sleep, we dream about bombs. It must stop.”

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Israel trades fire with Gaza Strip militants

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Israel launches air raids Gaza Strip amid hints of ground invasion

Posted on November 13, 2012

One unnamed senior Israeli government official, said: “A ground incursion is certainly not out of the question although we hope it won’t come to that.”

The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) has confirmed that it is expecting, at the very least, instruction to intensify its campaign of air strikes on Hamas targets.

Commentators have pointed out similarities between this weekend’s violence and the last incursion into Gaza in 2008, when Ehud Olmert was drawn into an operation three months before losing elections to Mr Netanyahu. Israel again goes to the polls next January.

This latest escalation in the intractable conflict between Israel and Islamic militants in the Gaza Strip began on Thursday when a booby-trapped tunnel dug by Palestinians underneath the border fence from Gaza into Israel exploded, injuring an Israeli soldier. The Israeli military believes Hamas had planned to use this tunnel for a kidnapping similar to that of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2006 or to launch a terror attack inside Israel.

In a separate incident on the same day, a 12 year-old Palestinian boy playing football was killed by fire from an Israeli tank, having been caught in an exchange of fire with Palestinian militants.

In an act of retribution, an anti-tank missile fired from the northern Gaza Strip blew up an IDF jeep patrolling the border fence. Four Israeli soldiers were injured in the blast.

Israel responded by targeting several militant munition stores and rocket launch sites, while a funeral tent outside Gaza City was also hit, killing four Palestinian civilians including two teenage boys.

Violent exchanges consistently erupt along the Israel-Gaza border every few months but usually abate within days. In recent weeks, however, Hamas has shifted its focused to Israeli targets inside Israeli territory.

“Sometimes it looks as if they are trying to shake the status quo, pushing us to check our response. Every time, they push a little further,” a senior Israeli military official said

“Several Israeli soldiers have now been badly injured. I don’t think the government or the Israeli people are prepared to accept this.”

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Israel launches air raids Gaza Strip amid hints of ground invasion

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Four dead, 20 injured in Gaza attack

Posted on November 11, 2012

Six Palestinians have been killed and 30 injured by Israeli shelling and air strikes after militants fired on an Israeli jeep, wounding four soldiers.

The flare-up, which began on Saturday, is one of the most serious clashes in a single day since Israel’s devastating 22-day operation in the Gaza Strip over New Year 2009.

In the latest in a spate of attacks and counter-attacks between the army and Palestinians, a militant was killed and two other people wounded in an Israeli air strike near the northern town of Jabaliya just before midnight, medics said on Sunday.

The dead man was named as Mohammed Shwikani, a 20-year-old militant with the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, the group said.

Overnight, the military launched a series of air raids to the north and east of Gaza City, which left two more people injured, Palestinian witnesses and medical sources said.

Early on Sunday, medics reported finding the body of another Islamic Jihad militant who was killed in another air strike which struck east of Jabaliya, raising the death toll to six within 12 hours of bloodshed.

He was identified as Mohammed Abed, 20.

The army confirmed it had attacked seven different targets overnight, including arms dumps, a weapons-making facility and two rocket-launching sites “in response to recent events”.

As the air force pounded Gaza, militants fired 36 rockets over the border, injuring four people in the Israeli town of Sderot which lies several kilometres from the border.

The violence first erupted on Saturday evening when militants fired an anti-tank missile at an Israeli jeep near the Karni crossing along the border east of Gaza City.

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Four dead, 20 injured in Gaza attack

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Israel Kills 5 in Gaza After Missile Attack on Soldiers

Posted on November 11, 2012

More than 20 rockets fired from the Gaza Strip struck Israel after an outbreak of fighting yesterday between Israel and the Hamas-controlled territory violence killed at least six Palestinians.

The latest round of violence was ignited when Palestinian militants fired an anti-tank missile at an Israeli patrol along the Gaza border fence today, wounding four soldiers, one seriously, the army said in an e-mailed statement. The Israeli military responded with tank shelling and several air strikes into Gaza, including a direct hit on one rocket-launching squad, killing six and wounding more than 30, according to Ashraf al- Qedra, spokesman for the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza.

The Gaza border has been the site of several violent incidents in the past week and Defense Minister Ehud Barak vowed that We will not ignore the worsening situation along the border fence. The army has responded severely, and is considering further responses, he told Army Radio today.

Four Israelis were lightly wounded today by rocket shrapnel in the southern town of Sderot, Micky Rosenfeld, a police spokesman, said by phone. At least 50 rockets have been fired into Israeli this weekend, Rosenfeld said.

The Islamic Hamas movement seized control of Gaza from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbass Fatah party in 2007, ending a partnership government a year after winning parliamentary elections. The group refuses to recognize Israel or any prior deals signed with it and is considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the U.S. and the European Union.

The Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, took responsibility for the attack on the Israeli patrol, the group said in a statement. The group is one of several Palestinian militant groups in Gaza that operate independently of Hamas. Israel says it holds Hamas responsible for all attacks from Gaza.

Israel discovered an explosives-filled tunnel built underneath the Gaza border into Israeli territory, the army said on Nov. 8.

Two Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire near the border this past week, including a teenage boy, according to Gaza officials.

The fact that these outbreaks of violence in Gaza are becoming more frequent and severe is cause for concern, said Jonathan Spyer, a political scientist at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya. However, the Israeli government would prefer to avoid launching any kind of major ground operation in Gaza, especially as the political changes in Egypt would make it more complicated.

Egypts Muslim Brotherhood government, which was voted into power earlier this year, has close ties with Hamas and negotiated a temporary cease-fire on rocket attacks from Gaza after an outburst of violence last month.

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Israel Kills 5 in Gaza After Missile Attack on Soldiers

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