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Gaza
Residents of the Gaza Strip said Israeli aircraft launched a series of airstrikes at militant sites in the coastal Palestinian territory early Monday. The airstrikes appear to be a response to the firing of a rocket by Palestinian militants toward southern Israel Saturday evening. Israeli air defences intercepted the rocket. The Israeli military said the airstrikes targeted an underground rocket manufacturing complex run by Hamas, the militant group that rules Gaza. There were no immediate reports of casualties. The Gaza-Israel frontier had been largely quiet in recent months, but there have been intermittent rocket fire and airstrikes influenced by soaring violence between Israel and the Palestinians in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
Militants fired a rocket into Israel's south Wednesday, the army said, setting off sirens and raising already heightened tensions under the country's new ultranationalist government. Early Thursday, the Israeli military said it started attacking targets in the Gaza Strip in response to rockets. According to local media, Israeli fighter jets struck a militant site in the central Gaza Strip. There were no immediate reports of casualties. The rocket from the Gaza Strip was intercepted, according to the military. Israel usually responds to rocket fire with airstrikes, raising the possibility of further escalation. Local residents reported hearing explosions. Israel's rescue service said it received no reports of injuries except for a 50-year-old woman who slipped and fell while running to a shelter. The action in Israel's skies Wednesday comes after Gaza's ruling Hamas militant group has threatened Israel over the combative stance of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians thronged a Gaza City park on Saturday to mark the 58th anniversary of the founding of the Fatah party, a rare show of popularity in the heartland of the militant Hamas group, Fatah's main rival. The crowds turned Katiba Park into a sea of yellow flags and pictures of Fatah founders and leaders, including Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his predecessor Yasser Arafat. Hamas, which took over Gaza after routing pro-Abbas forces in 2007, permitted Fatah to hold the rally. In several past occasions following the 2007 takeover, Hamas had blocked or restricted activities for Fatah. While polls indicate Fatah is not that popular, the huge turnout could be seen as a rare opportunity to protest Hamas' heavy-handed rule in Gaza. The Islamic group has exhausted Gazans with heavy taxes amid record levels of unemployment and poverty. The 2.3 million residents live under a crippling Israeli-Egyptian blockade that Israel says is necessary to stop Hamas .
Investigators said Sunday that last week's massive apartment fire in the Gaza Strip was ignited accidentally by a man using gasoline in a party trick, but did not explain how they reached that conclusion. The blaze killed 22 members of the same family and there were no survivors who could have described the events. The fire had erupted Thursday in the third-floor apartment of the Abu Raya family home in the crowded Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza. Officials initially said 21 people were killed. Gaza attorney general Mohammed al-Nahal said Sunday the death toll reached 22, without elaborating. He told reporters that Nader Abu Raya invited his parents, siblings and their children to celebrate the return of his older brother from a trip abroad. With all the guests together at the family home, Nader began preparing in the living room what was suggested to be a party trick involving gasoline, al-Nahal said. The cause of the blaze was Nader using gasoline in a celebratory show w
Last spring, a Palestinian farmer was planting a new olive tree when his shovel hit a hard object. He called his son, and for three months, the pair slowly excavated an ornate Byzantine-era mosaic that experts say is one of the greatest archaeological treasures ever found in Gaza. The discovery has set off excitement among archaeologists, and the territory's Hamas rulers are planning a major announcement in the coming days. But it is also drawing calls for better protection of Gaza's antiquities, a fragile collection of sites threatened by a lack of awareness and resources as well as the constant risk of conflict between Israel and local Palestinian militants. The mosaic was uncovered just a kilometer (half mile) from the Israeli border. The floor, boasting 17 iconographies of beasts and birds, is well-preserved and its colors are bright. These are the most beautiful mosaic floors discovered in Gaza, both in terms of the quality of the graphic representation and the complexity of t