Biodun Iginla, BBC News

Biodun Iginla, BBC News
Showing posts with label Gaza-Israel border. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gaza-Israel border. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 17, 2018

BREAKING: Israel further tightens Gaza blockade over arson kites


by Jenny Feder and Biodun Iginla, France24, Jerusalem. Disclosure: Jenny Feder and Biodun Iginla were involved in a romantic relationship when she was based in New York.


    © AFP | Palestinian security forces stand at the Kerem Shalom crossing, the main conduit for goods entering the Gaza Strip, on July 9, 2018

    JERUSALEM - 
    Israel further tightened its blockade of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, preventing fuel deliveries through its only goods crossing with the Palestinian enclave after scores of kites carried firebombs across the border to burn Israeli farmland.
    The defence ministry announced the move late Monday after saying last week it was closing the crossing to most deliveries, citing the kites and balloons that have for months carried firebombs into Israel from Gaza.
    Fuel deliveries will be suspended until Sunday, the ministry said in a statement. The fishing zone enforced by Israel off the Gaza Strip will also be reduced from six nautical miles to three.
    The goods crossing, known as Kerem Shalom, will remain open for food and medicine on a case-by-case basis.
    "In light of the continued terror efforts of Hamas, Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman has decided, after consulting with the chief of (military) staff, to close Kerem Shalom for the passage of fuel and gas until Sunday," a statement said.
    Islamist movement Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip and has fought three wars with Israel since 2008, denounced the move.
    It had called the initial closing last week a "crime against humanity".
    Palestinians in Gaza view the balloons and kites as legitimate resistance against Israel's more than decade-long blockade.
    The closed crossing is the only one between Gaza and Israel for goods transport. A separate crossing, known as Erez, is for people.
    Gaza's only other border crossing is with Egypt. That crossing has been largely closed in recent years, but Egypt has opened it since mid-May.
    There were reports in the Israeli media of Egypt moving to close its crossing, but no confirmation.
    Israeli authorities say the hundreds of arson kites and balloons sent over the border fence from Gaza have caused major damage to farms in the area.
    A spokesman for Israel's fire service says around 750 fires have burned some 2,600 hectares, estimating the damage at millions of shekels (hundreds of thousands of dollars or euros).
    The tightening of the blockade comes after the heaviest exchange of fire between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza since a 2014 war on Saturday.
    Israel carried out air strikes partially in response to the months of fires started by the kite firebombs, but also over continuing protests and clashes along the Gaza border.
    Israel hit dozens of sites it said belonged to militants in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, killing two Palestinian teenagers.
    The same day, around 200 rockets and mortars were fired at Israel from the Hamas-run enclave and four Israelis were wounded when a rocket hit a house in the nearby Israeli city of Sderot.

    Posted by at No comments:
    Labels: , , , , , , , ,

    Friday, May 18, 2018

    Egypt to open Gaza border for Palestinians during Ramadan

    May 19, 2018  04H:19  GMT/UTC/ZULU TIME
    RAFAH, GAZA, PALESTINE - Gazans lined up from dawn on Friday to travel across the border into Egypt after President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said his country’s gateway with the Gaza Strip would be opened throughout the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
    A Palestinian boy looks out a bus window as he waits to travel into Egypt through the Rafah border crossing, in the southern Gaza Strip May 18, 2018. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa
    Sisi’s announcement late Thursday, if fully implemented, would open the Rafah crossing to Palestinians for the longest single period in years.
    The Egyptian leader’s Twitter account said the opening of the crossing would “alleviate the burdens of brothers in Gaza.” On Friday the first Gaza passengers who lined up from 5 a.m. were finally let through into Egypt eight hours later, at 1 p.m.
    Hamas has denied Cairo pressure but the opening was widely seen in Gaza and Israel as the likely result of a deal to provide Gazans with a lifeline to the outside world in return for the de-escalation of a deadly six-week protest on the Gaza-Israel border.
    Israeli troops killed dozens of Palestinians at the ‘Great March of Return’ protest on May 14, the day that the United States opened its new embassy to Israel in the contested holy city of Jerusalem.
    “This is political. I can bet my life on it,” said one 34-year-old Gazan as he waited among busloads of passengers at Rafah.
    A Palestinian girl sleeps as she waits with her mother to travel to Egypt through the Rafah border crossing, in the southern Gaza Strip May 18, 2018. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa
    He pointed to the May 13 visit by Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh to Egypt, which has sought to act as a broker between Israel, Hamas and its Palestinian rivals.
    “I believe this is part of a deal Haniyeh made with the Egyptians, who asked him to calm down the situation in Gaza,” he said, refusing to give his surname because he feared Egypt would refuse him entry.
    “We are not against it. On the contrary, we hope it will also include lifting the Israeli blockade. It would mean the marches were effective.”
    With Israeli border crossings closed to the vast majority of Palestinians since Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007, the Egyptian border has become critical to Gaza’s economic survival.
    Although Hamas controls Gaza, it is not directly in control of the strip's most important crossings, Rafah with Egypt and Erez with Israel. It handed control of those crossings late last year to its rival, the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, in a reconciliation deal signed in Cairo.[tmsnrt.rs/2wP39MO]
    Egyptian government spokesmen did not immediately respond to requests for comment on whether Egypt had indeed brokered a deal.
    Preaching in Gaza on the first Friday of Ramadan, Hamas leader Haniyeh did not say whether he had reached a deal with Egypt. Instead he sought to present the Rafah opening as the fruit of protests which, he said, had “revived the Palestinian cause and attracted international and Arab support.”
    “We are witnessing steps, we are witnessing a real beginning for lifting the blockade on Gaza,” he said.
    Slideshow (3 Images)
    But Israel said recent events showed Hamas has never been weaker, short of money and weakened by isolation. Officals say Hamas has been “weaponising” civil unrest after seeing its rockets and attack tunnels blunted by Israeli counter-measures.
    “Egypt is very dominant in relations with Hamas,” Israel’s Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked told Israeli radio. “Hamas controls everything, and they simply understood that they have a lot to lose - both from Israel and from Egypt.”
    Israel cited security considerations for imposing its closures on Gaza, fearing suicide bombers and gun and knife attacks on Israelis.
    The Gaza-Israel border protests were less crowded on Friday than in earlier weeks. Hundreds, instead of thousands, gathered at the border camps, burning tyres as Israelis fired tear gas.
    Elsewhere, the first Friday prayers of Ramadan passed peacefuly - including in Jerusalem, where tens of thousands gathered to pray at Al-Aqsa mosque.
    (For a graphic on 'Map of Gaza Crossings and Protest Sites' click tmsnrt.rs/2wP39MO)
    Posted by at No comments:
    Labels: , , , , , , , , ,

    Saturday, April 21, 2018

    Gunmen shoot dead Palestinian lecturer in Malaysia

    April 22, 2018  00H:59  GMT/UTC/ZULU TIME
    KUALA LUMPUR - Two unidentified men shot dead a Palestinian man in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday, Malaysian and Palestinian authorities reported, and Malaysia’s Deputy Prime Minister said the suspects were believed to be linked to a foreign intelligence service.
    A man hangs a poster depicting Palestinian electrical engineer Fadi al-Batash, who was shot to death in Malaysia, on his family house in the northern Gaza Strip April 21, 2018. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
    Kuala Lumpur police chief Mazlan Lazim said two men on a motorcycle fired 10 shots at the 35-year-old victim, killing him on the spot.
    “Preliminary investigations found four gunshot wounds on the victim’s body. Two bullet slugs were found at the scene of the incident,” Mazlan said in a statement.
    When contacted later by Reuters, Mazlan declined to comment on reports that the victim was a member of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas or had been targeted by hitmen.
    “It’s too early to say, we are still investigating all aspects.”
    Palestine’s ambassador to Malaysia Anwar Al Agha later identified the victim as Palestinian Fadi al-Batsh, an engineering lecturer, but declined to say if he was a member of Hamas. Witnesses at the scene had told him that the two suspects had “European features”, the ambassador told us at Reuters.
    Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the suspects were believed to be Europeans with links to a foreign intelligence agency, state news agency Bernama reported.
    He added the victim had links with foreign intelligence and was active in pro-Palestinian non-governmental organizations, describing him as an expert in electrical engineering and rocket-building.
    ADVERTISING
    The victim could have been seen as “a liability for a country that is an enemy of Palestine,” Zahid was quoted as saying by Bernama.
    Hamas, which exercises de facto control over Gaza, said one of its members had been “assassinated” in Malaysia and it had sent a delegation to meet with Malaysian officials to discuss the killing.
    Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh said Israel’s Mossad intelligence service had been behind past attempts to assassinate Palestinian scientists, and that al-Batsh’s killing “follows this sequence.”
    Officials in Israel declined to comment.
    Batsh’s uncle Jamal al-Batsh spoke to us at Reuters in the town of Jabalya in the northern Gaza Strip.
    Relatives of a Palestinian electrical engineer Fadi al-Batash, who was shot to death in Malaysia, mourn outside his family house in the northern Gaza Strip April 21, 2018. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
        Asked who he blamed, he replied: “The Israeli Mossad. The Israeli Mossad stood behind the assassination of educated people and intellectuals because Israel knows Palestine will be liberated by scientists.
        “Therefore, they tracked this young educated man.”
    Batsh was a lecturer at Universiti Kuala Lumpur, specializing in power engineering, according to the university.
    A Palestinian in Malaysia who knew Batsh told us at Reuters on condition of anonymity that the victim was also an imam at a mosque close to his residence.
    In recent weeks, tensions have been running high at the Gaza-Israel border as Palestinians have ramped up protests demanding the right to return to their former homeland.
    Israel’s use of live fire has drawn international criticism but the Israeli government says it is protecting its borders and takes such action when protesters come too close to the border fence.

    Posted by at No comments:
    Labels: , , , , , , , , ,
    Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)