Palestine

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel said its aircraft hit military sites for Gaza’s Hamas rulers early Saturday after two rockets were fired from the Palestinian enclave.

This was Israel’s first strike against Hamas since the start of this week’s cross-border fighting with another Gaza militant group, the Iran-backed Islamic jihad. The shooting ended in a shaky cease-fire announced Thursday.

The worst bout of fighting in months began Tuesday after Israel’s targeted killing of a senior Islamic Jihad commander in an airstrike.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Residents say the airstrike came without warning: With fighting raging between Israel and Islamic Jihad militants throughout Gaza, two loud blasts shook the night, destroying the Abu Malhous home and killing eight members of the family in a split second.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel and the militant Islamic Jihad group in Gaza appeared to have reached a cease-fire on Thursday to end two days of heavy fighting that killed at least 34 Palestinians and paralyzed parts of Israel.

Islamic Jihad spokesman Musab al-Berim said the Egyptian-brokered deal went into effect at 5:30 a.m. There was no immediate confirmation from Israel, which rarely acknowledges deals with Gaza militant groups, but some restrictions were lifted on residents of the south, despite the continued fire of several rockets.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel killed a senior Islamic Jihad commander in Gaza early Tuesday in a resumption of pinpointed targeting that threatens a fierce round of cross-border violence with Palestinian militants.

Minutes after the Iranian-backed group confirmed the death of the commander, Bahaa Abu el-Atta, at dawn, barrages of rockets could be heard fired toward southern Israel from Gaza.

The Islamic Jihad said Abu el-Atta, 42, was undergoing “a heroic act” when he was assassinated. It did not elaborate, but vowed revenge.

HEBRON, West Bank (AP) — A young Palestinian man who was shot in the back by Israeli forces in an incident caught on video last year says the footage shows just a small part of what was a horrifying day for him.

Speaking to The Associated Press after the video emerged last week, Karam Qawasmi said he was run over by a military jeep, then beaten for several hours before troops released him, only to shoot him in the back with a painful sponge-tipped bullet as he walked away. He said Israeli investigators have never contacted him.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli airstrikes on Gaza killed a Palestinian man Saturday as aircraft pounded militant sites in response to barrages of rockets launched toward Israel from the seaside enclave.

The exchange of fire shattered a monthlong lull across the volatile frontier.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said Ahmed al-Shehri, 27, died from shrapnel injuries during the Israeli bombings that continued through the early hours of Saturday.

RAMALLAH, Oct. 28 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian government's plan for economic disengagement from Israel faces grave challenge, including Israeli threats to impose sanctions on the Palestinians.

The plan comes in line with the resolutions of the Palestinian National and Central councils to suspend the recognition of Israel, until it recognizes the state of Palestine on the borders of 1967.

GAZA, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -- At least 49 Palestinians were injured on Friday afternoon during clashes between hundreds of Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli soldiers in the eastern Gaza Strip close to the border with Israel, an local official said.

Ashraf al-Qedra, spokesman of the health ministry in Gaza, told reporters that 49 demonstrators were injured, including 14 children.

Clashes broke out on Friday afternoon between the Palestinian demonstrators and the Israeli soldiers during the weekly anti-Israel protests, better known as the Great March of Return.

RAMALLAH, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday chaired a meeting of his Fatah party's central committee to discuss preparing for holding elections in the Palestinian territories.

"We will discuss the elections, preparing for holding it and measures that will be taken to achieve this goal," Abbas was quoted by the official WAFA news agency as saying during the meeting.

GAZA, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- At least 63 Palestinians were injured on Friday during the weekly anti-Israel protests in eastern Gaza Strip, close to the border with Israel, medics said.

Ashraf al-Qedra, spokesman of the health ministry in Gaza, said that among the injured, 32 were shot and wounded by Israeli soldiers' gunfire in eastern Gaza.