Seven Palestinians were injured during clashes with Israeli forces in several parts of Gaza Strip on Friday, the Ministry of Health said. Clashes broke out in the area of al-Faraheen east of Khan Yunis, near the Nahal Oz kibbutz east of Gaza, and near the Beit Hanoun crossing in the northern Gaza Strip. The spokesman for the ministry of health in Gaza, Ashraf al-Qidra, said seven people were wounded after Israeli forces fired live bullets and tear gas at the protesters. Qidra added that one Palestinian suffered serious injuries after being shot in the head. An Israeli army spokesperson confirmed to Ma’an that there had been clashes in the Gaza Strip on Friday after “hundreds” allegedly tried to breach the buffer zone. more

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Gaza Strip following the collapse of a ceasefire earlier in the day. Palestinian medical sources said that paramedic Atef Zamili was killed in an airstrike on his vehicle and that seven passengers were wounded. Zamili's death brings to 16 the number of health workers who have been killed in Israeli strikes since the beginning of the assault 25 days ago. This is third 13th ambulance to be targeted in an Israeli attack, according to the ministry of health. Meanwhile, Israeli forces widened their assault across the Gaza Strip on Friday afternoon, launching further ground movements in Shujaiyya in eastern Gaza City, Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip, and Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. The expansion of the invasion comes after Israel said one of its soldiers was captured during an attack on its military position east of Rafah inside the Gaza Strip. more

From the International Solidarity Movement - At 19:00 Beit Hanoun Hospital was hit by an Israeli tank shell. Inside the hospital are 61 medical staff, three patients, civilians, and ISM volunteers who are all trapped inside. Israeli soldiers are in the area, approximately 150 meters behind the hospital. Gunfire can be heard in the area. This afternoon Israeli forces targeted an ambulance with two paramedics inside in Beit Hanoun, North Gaza. One paramedic was killed and another was critically injured. This is the third Israeli attack on Gazan medical facilities and personnel in the last 24 hours. The first resulted in the destruction of Al Durrah Children’s Hospital in Gaza City last night. A two year-old child in the Intensive Care Unit was killed, and 30 others injured. Since Israel began its attack on Gaza, 13 ambulances have been completely destroyed and two paramedics have been killed. Throughout the massacre, medical staff and facilities have been repeatedly targeted. “Is...

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces have shelled a UN school in Beit Hanoun, with at least 17 dead and 200 injured as many more are feared killed among the hundreds who had taken shelter there with Israeli coordination. The shelling of the school, which is affiliated with the UN's Palestine refugee agency UNRWA, is the fourth time in two days that Israeli forces have bombed schools serving as shelters for the displaced in the besieged Gaza Strip. A local radio station quoted an eyewitness as saying that immediately before the shelling, a man who introduced himself as a Red Cross official had asked displaced people taking shelter at the school to gather in the yard because they would be evacuated to another shelter. An UNRWA official intervened when he saw people gathering and argued that there had been no coordination with UNRWA, telling them to go back to their rooms. During the argument, Israeli artillery shells started to hit the school. UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness ...

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- An elderly woman died on Friday as a result of injuries sustained during an explosion in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip a day earlier. Gaza Strip Ministry of Health spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra told Ma'an that Aisha al-Hamadeen, 62, died as a result of serious injuries she sustained during the blast on Thursday. Al-Qidra added that five people had been injured in an explosion in Beit Hanoun on Thursday night, including the woman as well as two children. The cause of the blast was not immediately clear. more

Update : air strike on Beit Hanoun kills 2 GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- Four Palestinians were injured on Monday morning as Israeli warplanes bombarded the Tal al-Zaatar neighborhood of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, officials said. Spokesman of Gaza's ministry of health Ashraf al-Qidra told Ma’an that the four people were evacuated to Kamal Udwan Hospital in north Gaza. Israel's army said it "targeted a rocket launching squad ... in response to mortar shell fire at a routine (army) patrol in the area." It said a direct hit was confirmed. Separately, dozens of Israeli military tanks entered within the borders of the northern Gaza Strip near Beit Hanoun, while warplanes hovered over the area, according to eyewitnesses. more

GAZA (Petra) - A supply convoy for Jordan’s military field hospital in the Gaza Strip, dubbed "Gaza 19", arrived in the coastal enclave on Monday through the Beit Hanoun border crossing. "Gaza 19" hospital director Mohammad Al Itna said the ten-truck convoy was laden with medical equipment and other supplies. Also today Jordan’s military field hospital Gaza 20 began arriving at the coastal enclave. Since its deployment in Gaza in January 2009, upon directives of His Majesty King Abdullah II, the hospital provided treatment to more than 863,000 Palestinians in Gaza. more

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Palestinian medical teams on Saturday morning evacuated the body of a man killed a day earlier in the Gaza Strip near the northern border with Israel. Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said the body would be transferred to Kamal Udwan hospital in Jabaliya, after emergency teams coordinated with Israel to retrieve the body. The man, who was not identified, was found dead near the Bedouin village by Beit Hanoun, close to Israel's Erez crossing. more

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- A Palestinian was injured Thursday by Israeli forces near Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip, and was transferred to hospital, a reporter said. Mohammad Akhrat, 20, was shot in his right leg and his wounds were described as moderate. The victim was collecting iron scrap when soldiers opened fire, medics said. more

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- 1825: A Palestinian protester has been killed in a clash with Israeli forces in the northern Gaza Strip, a Palestinian medical official says. Adham Abu Salmiya identified the victim as Mahmoud Zaqouq, 20. An army spokesman did not immediately return calls. more

On Tuesday, 17 January 2012, the International Solidarity Movement joined the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative for its weekly march into the deadly No Go Zone in the northern Gaza Strip. For more information see the International Solidarity Movement at http://palsolidarity.org http://facebook.com/ismpalestine http://flickr.com/ismpalestine http://myspace.com/palsolidarity http://twitter.com/ismpalestine http://youtube.com/ismpalestine

Palestinian medical sources reported Saturday that a Palestinian man was shot and wounded by Israeli military fire, north of Beit Hanoun, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, the Arabs48 news website reported. The sources stated that medics transferred the wounded 32-year-old man to Kamal Odwan Hospital after he was shot in the leg. Israel imposes an illegal buffer-zone along the border, preventing the Palestinians from entering their own lands that are close to the border fence. Dozens of casualties, including several fatalities were reported in similar attacks. more

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces killed two people in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday, after clashes broke out between forces and unknown gunmen near the border with Israel, medics and witnesses said. Earlier, Israeli artillery fired on fighters near Beit Hanoun after gunfire from militants towards the northern border, witnesses told Ma'an. Israeli forces entered the Gaza Strip and were joined by the Israeli air force, they said. Medical officials in the Gaza Strip said Muhammad Abu Halmiya, 22, and Nasser al-Layyan, 23, were killed by an Israeli helicopter after the clashes broke out. Al-Layyan is a member of the Al-Qassam Brigades, a representative from the Hamas armed wing told Ma'an. A Ma'an reporter said Abu Halmiya is a farmer. more

From the International Solidarity Movement Gaza doesn’t have very much farmland left. The expanding no go zone imposed by Israeli bullets and bulldozers constantly erode the amount of land left for Palestinians to farm in Gaza. Mohamed Ashure Shimbari lives on the edge of the no-go zone. If you look east from his land you see the no go zone, what Israel euphemistically refers to as “the buffer zone.” Little grows there. Israeli bulldozers regularly come to kill anything which has managed to find a life there. You can see the destroyed well which once provided water for the orchards that used to cover the no-go zone. Now, there is no water, and no life, only a zone of death. Israel claims that the buffer zone is “only” 300 meters wide, but Mohamed’s land is about 800 meters from the border, and still he is afraid. The Israelis often shoot into this area, especially at night. The olive harvest has begun in Gaza. The Beit Hanoun Local Initiative and the International Solidarity Mo...

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- A 22-year-old man was killed in the northern Gaza Strip on Monday afternoon, after witnesses reported Israeli troops fired at him near the border with Israel. The military wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed Ahmad al-Azazmeh, from the northern city of Beit Hanoun, as a fighter in their brigades, and said he was on a "jihad mission." An Israeli army spokesman said soldiers identified two people planting an explosive device near forces at the border in northern Gaza early Monday afternoon, and a loud explosion was heard. She denied Israeli troops opened fire. Witnesses told Ma'an that al-Azazmeh was by the wall when troops shot him and blocked an ambulance from reaching the man before he died. Israeli forces impose a no-go zone in the border area of the Gaza Strip. more

GAZA CITY ( Ma'an ) -- Israeli forces launched an airstrike on northern Gaza on Saturday evening seriously injuring one man and wounding two others, medical officials said. Gaza emergency services spokesman Adham Abu Salmiya said three men were hospitalized, adding that one man sustained serious injuries in the attack. An Israeli army spokeswoman said forces struck Beit Hanoun targeting militants attempting to fire a rocket into Israel. In a statement, the military said the "squad of terrorists" was involved in "a number of cases of launching rockets at Israel in recent weeks." The group was responsible for a rocket fired into southern Israel on Thursday which damaged an abandoned building, the army said. more

From the International Solidarity Movement Today, like every Tuesday in Beit Hanoun, we marched into the buffer zone to protest it and the illegal Israeli occupation. In many ways it was the same as every Tuesday. We gathered at the Agricultural College, we marched down the road that leads to the buffer zone, we sang, and we chanted. What was different this week? The demonstration was bigger than it has been in a long time, Ramadan is over, and the people are newly energized. Also people were more afraid than they had been in a long time. Israel has just finished its latest round of heavy violence on Gaza. We were worried that Israel would fire on us, we are always afraid of this. Israel often shoots at us when we go to the buffer zone, and this week we marched with the recent attacks fresh on our minds as we stopped fifty meters from reaching the wall. Something else was different though. When we reached the buffer zone it was newly plowed. If you didn’t know better you might h...

From the Palestine Telegraph Gaza Strip, (Pal Telegraph)-A Palestinian youth was shot on Tuesday as Israeli troops opened fire at a nonviolent demonstration organized in the town of Beit Hanoun in the north of Gaza Strip. Adham Abu Silmiya, medical emergency spokesman, said that the man was injured by a bullet hit his neck after Israeli forces intensively opened fire at a protest near the border fence. He added that the victim known as Mohammed al-Kafarna, in his twentieth, was evacuated to Kamal Udwan hospital to receive medication; his health condition was described as moderate. more International Solidarity Movement report has more detail: According to the doctor treating him, there were three pieces of metal lodged in his neck, thigh and abdomen. Mohammed is in a stable condition, which will be monitored over the next 24 hours while doctors decide whether or not to operate. more

BEIT HANOUN, ( PIC )-- An 18-year old Palestinian young man was shot dead at noon Sunday east of Gaza city in Shujaiya district. 90 other citizens, mostly children, also sustained different injuries when the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) opened intensive fire and shelled a peaceful march held on the nakba anniversary near Beit Hanoun crossing. Doctors said most of these citizens were moderately wounded and one of them is in critical condition. A reporter for the Palestinian information center (PIC) said the IOF fired five artillery shells and machine guns at the march which led to this number of casualties, while ambulances rushed to the scene to transfer the wounded to hospitals. Thousands of Palestinians participated in this peaceful march and raised Palestinian flags and symbolic keys to indicate their determination to return to their homes in the 1948 occupied lands. Dozens of Italian peace activists were also in the march. more

IDF tanks invaded Gaza yesterday and as a result one Palestinian has been killed and several injured. Gaza, ( Pal Telegraph ) -One Palestinian was killed and two were injured yesterday as Israeli artilleries shelled Abu Safia hill in the east of Jabalya, northern Gaza strip. Witnesses told SAFA News Agency that occupation forces stationed at the eastern border of Jabalya and started firing several artillery shells, leaving two citizens injured. Adham Abu Silmya, Medical Emergency Unit spokesman,said that one Palestinian was killed named Amjad El-Zaanin,17, and two others were injured in Israeli bombing at Abu Safia hill eastern north Gaza strip. more