From Wafa News Agency – GAZA, Wednesday, March 4, 2020 (WAFA) – Israeli navy today opened gunfire towards Palestinian fishermen who were sailing off the Gaza shore to the west of the town of Beit Lahia, north of the enclave, reported WAFA correspondent. No injuries were reported, however.   more

Israeli forces attacked the Gaza Strip with tank fire overnight Sunday, causing no injuries, a short while after the Israeli army said a projectile fired from the besieged coastal enclave landed in an open area in the Negev desert without causing injuries or damages. Locals in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip told Ma'an that several Israeli tank shells landed in the area and caused no reported injuries. However, a statement from the Israeli army said it targeted a Hamas post in the southern part of the small Palestinian territory. Israeli officials have accused Hamas, Gaza's de facto leading party, of "preparing" for another war with Israel and have threatened retaliatory measures against the Gaza Strip as a whole, while Israeli authorities hold Hamas responsible for all attacks against Israeli targets coming from the Gaza Strip. more

Israeli soldiers shot a 15-year-old Palestinian Friday evening with a live bullet near the village of Nilin in the central occupied West Bank district of Ramallah for allegedly throwing a Molotov cocktail at an Israeli settler's vehicle near an Israeli bypass road in the territory. The boy was identified as Utayba Jiyad Hussein Amireh. The details of his injury were not yet known as of Saturday. Israeli media reported that the youth had allegedly thrown a Molotov cocktail at an Israeli settler vehicle on a nearby bypass road - roads cutting through occupied Palestinian territory connecting Israel's illegal settlements to Israel and Jerusalem. Israeli soldiers sealed the area following the shooting and prevented people and Palestinian Red Crescent ambulances from approaching the wounded teenager, according to locals. Amireh was detained and transferred to an unidentified location. more

Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinian lands in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday morning, according to locals. Witnesses told Ma’an that Israeli forces deployed behind the border fence in eastern Rafah city opened fire at Palestinian agricultural lands in the area. No injuries were reported. An Israeli army spokesperson told Ma’an she would look into reports on the incident. Israeli army incursions inside the Palestinian territory have long been a near-daily occurrence, as the Israeli army regularly opens fire on unarmed Palestinian fishermen and farmers along the border areas if they approach Israel’s unilaterally declared “buffer zone,” which lies on both the land and sea sides of Gaza. more

After being found guilty of manslaughter for the filmed, execution-style shooting of 21-year-old Abd al-Fattah al-Sharif, 20-year-old Israeli soldier Elor Azarya was sentenced to 18 months in prison, a year's probation, and a demotion in his military rank on Tuesday. The prosecution had sought a three- to five-year prison sentence for the killing, with the maximum sentence for manslaughter being 20 years in prison. The sentence was scheduled to begin on March 5, though Azarya’s defense team said it would submit an appeal to block the sentence, saying it had a “good chance” and “nothing to lose,” according to reports from Israeli media from inside the courtroom. After al-Sharif and Ramzi Aziz al-Qasrawi, also 21, allegedly carried out a stabbing attack on another soldier in the southern occupied West Bank city of Hebron last March, al-Qasrawi was fatally shot, while al-Sharif was shot and left severely wounded on the ground for several minutes before Azarya stepped forward and sh...

Two Palestinian teenagers held in Israel’s Ofer detention center have been shot, abused, and tortured during their detention and interrogation by Israeli authorities, according to a statement released Tuesday by the Palestinian Committee for Prisoners’ Affairs. Lawyer for the committee Hussein al-Araj said that 17-year-old Musab Muhammad Ghuneimat from Surif in the southern occupied West Bank district of Hebron and 16-year-old Ayid Amr from Dura in the Hebron district told him they were tortured in Israeli custody. Ghneimat was was shot and injured in the foot by Israeli forces on Oct. 23, 2015, after he allegedly stabbed an Israeli soldier. He told the lawyer that after soldiers claimed he carried out a stabbing attack, they chased after him and shot him in the foot, immobilizing him. After he stopped, an Israeli soldier fired two rounds on the ground near him and a third at his wounded foot from point-blank range. Minutes later, he added, an Israeli ambulance arrived to evacuate ...

An Israeli army tank fired two shells into eastern Beit Lahiya in the northern besieged Gaza Strip on Monday morning, locals sources said, after a rocket landed in an open area in the Ashkelon region of southern Israel, according to the Israeli army. The cross-border fire came after locals in Gaza reported two separate incidents of Israeli forces opening fire at them. The Israeli army confirmed in a statement after 10 a.m. that a tank fired into the northern Gaza Strip, claiming they were targeting a Hamas post, saying the artillery fire came in response to a projectile that was fired from Gaza about an hour earlier. The Israeli army said the rocket landed in an open area in Ashkelon, reporting no injuries or damages. Meanwhile, locals reported earlier Monday that Israeli forces fired at Palestinian locals and fishermen in two separate incidents, while Israeli bulldozers also made an incursion into central Gaza to level lands. more

Israeli forces opened live fire at Palestinian lands east of Gaza city, while Israeli naval forces also opened fire on fishermen off the coast of Beit Lahiya in the northern part of the besieged enclave on Thursday morning. Witnesses told Ma’an that Israeli forces stationed behind the border fence between Gaza and Israel opened live fire at Palestinian farmers. No injuries were reported. Witnesses also told Ma’an that Israeli forces opened live fire at fishermen off the coast of Beit Lahiya, without any injuries being reported. An Israeli army spokesperson told Ma’an she would look into reports. more

From the BBC – Israel's military says it has uncovered a scam by Hamas militants to spy on its soldiers by hacking their mobile phones after posing as women on social media. Members of the Palestinian group found the soldiers online, then tried to strike up a friendship using the fake identities, an officer told reporters. Dozens of soldiers were persuaded to install an application that controlled their phone cameras and microphones. However, the officer said Hamas was not able to uncover any major secrets. Most of the soldiers were low-ranking, he added, and the scammers were interested in information about Israeli army manoeuvres, forces and weaponry around the Hamas-dominated Gaza Strip. more

A driver was shot dead after ramming a large truck into a group of pedestrians, killing four Israeli soldiers and injuring at least 15 other people Saturday afternoon, at a bus stop in the illegal Israeli settlement of East Talpiyyot in the Jerusalem district of the occupied West Bank. An Israeli police spokesperson confirmed in a statement that the "terrorist" was shot and killed after carrying out the suspected attack. Israel's emergency medical service Magen David Adom (MDA) said that the slain Israeli soldiers were in their 20s. According to Israeli media, three were women and the fourth was a man. MDA added that 15 others were wounded -- one severely, four moderately, and ten lightly. The severely wounded person, reportedly a woman, was evacuated to Israel's Shaare Zedek hospital in Jerusalem. It remained unconfirmed if all of those injured were Israeli soldiers. more

In a report released Monday from Human Rights Watch (HRW), the group outlined instances when senior Israeli officials have either openly called for the extra-judicial killing of Palestinians or have failed to condemn the calls. According to the group, there have been more than 150 instances since October 2015 where Israeli forces have “fatally shot Palestinian adults and children suspected of trying to stab, run over, or shoot Israelis in Israel and the West Bank.” The killings have been condemned by rights groups who say that at many times the alleged Palestinian assailants have been killed after they no longer posed a threat. HRW said in the report that since 2015, the group had documented “numerous statements” made by senior Israeli politicians, including Israel’s defense minister and police minister “calling on police and soldiers to shoot to kill suspected attackers, irrespective of whether lethal force is actually strictly necessary to protect life.” Sari Bashi, the Israel adv...

Israeli naval forces Wednesday opened live fire at Palestinian fishing boats off the coast of al-Sudaniyya in the northern Gaza Strip. Witnesses told Ma’an that Israeli boats opened fire at Palestinian fishing boats and forced the fishermen back to the shores of the besieged coastal enclave. No injuries or damages were reported. An Israeli army spokesperson told Ma’an she would look into reports on the incident. Israeli military incursions inside the besieged Gaza Strip and near the “buffer zone" which lies on both land and sea sides of Gaza, have long been a near-daily occurrence. Palestinians who work near the “buffer zone” often come under fire from military forces, as the Israeli military has not made clear the precise area of the designated zone. more

Israeli forces Friday morning fired several mortar shells at targets near Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, according to Israeli media. Israeli media reported that Israeli forces fired 5-6 mortar shells at several “suspicious” targets near Khan Younis in southern Gaza. No injuries or damages were reported. An Israeli army spokesperson told Ma’an she would look into reports on the shelling. Last month, the Israeli army shelled a site allegedly used by Palestinian militant groups in the central Gaza Strip, after a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip hit an open area in southern Israel. No injuries were reported at the time. Israeli forces also carried out several airstrikes on the besieged Gaza Strip in mid-September, after a rocket was launched from Gaza and exploded in an open area in southern Israel. No injuries were reported. more

At least 20 Palestinians were detained by Israeli forces during overnight and pre-dawn military raids Sunday, according to Palestinian and Israeli security sources. Palestinian Authority (PA) security sources told Ma’an that in the northern occupied West Bank district of Nablus, Israeli forces detained six Palestinians from the town of Sebastiya. Sources identified the detainees as Nimir Hatim Ghazal, Abd al-Karim Buhluq, Ramzi Naser al-Hajj, Ahmad Azim, Adham Radi, and Rami Radi. The sources highlighted that Israeli forces sealed off an apartment and a warehouse in Nablus city that were allegedly being used for manufacturing explosive devices. Israeli troops also reportedly broke into a print shop on al-Salam street in Nablus and confiscated equipment. From the northernmost West Bank district of Jenin, Israeli forces raided the town of Qabatiya and detained Majdi al-Qazaha. An Israeli army spokesperson told Ma’an that there were three detentions from Sebastiya, and confirmed one...

The Israeli army shelled a site allegedly used by Palestinian militant groups in the central Gaza Strip on Thursday, after a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip hit an open area in southern Israel. Israeli military vehicles stationed along the border between Gaza and Israel reportedly shelled an area east of the Maghazi refugee camp, without causing any injuries. An Israeli army spokesperson told Ma’an that they were looking into the reports. Earlier in the day, an Israeli army spokesperson told Ma’an that a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip hit an open area in the Eshkol regional council, causing no injuries. The shelling and rocket came a day after another rocket hit Israel and the Israeli army launched airstrikes in the besieged Palestinian territory. Israeli airstrikes and artillery shells hit multiple targets in the blockaded Gaza Strip on Wednesday after a rocket fired from the blockaded Gaza Strip landed on a road inside the Israeli city of Sderot earlier that day. No injuries...

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Several Israeli military vehicles Wednesday morning entered northeastern Rafah City in the southern Gaza Strip and proceeded to level lands near the border. Witnesses said that four Israeli military bulldozers entered some 50 meters into Palestinian lands from the Sufah military site between the districts of Rafah and Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. The bulldozers reportedly leveled lands near the border. No shootings were reported. An Israeli army spokesperson told Ma'an she would look into reports on the incident. Israeli military incursions inside the besieged Gaza Strip and near the “buffer zone" which lies on both land and sea sides of Gaza, have long been a near-daily occurrence. more

Israeli bulldozers raided al-Bureij refugee camp and leveled lands in the central Gaza Strip district of Deir Al-Balah Wednesday morning. Witnesses told Ma’an that four Israeli bulldozers crossed into the Gaza Strip from Israel and raided the east side of the camp as Israeli drones flew overhead. Witnesses added that Israeli soldiers randomly opened fire, though no injuries were reported. An Israeli army spokesperson told Ma’an they were looking into reports of the incident. Israeli military incursions inside the besieged Gaza Strip and near the “buffer zone" which lies on both land and sea sides of Gaza, have long been a near-daily occurrence. more

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Israeli naval forces Tuesday evening opened live fire at Palestinian fishing boats off the coast of the northern Gaza Strip. Coordinator for fishermen committees Zakariya Bakr told Ma’an that Israeli naval ships opened fire at fishing boats, after reportedly chasing the boats for two nautical miles. An Israeli army spokesperson told Ma’an she would look into reports. Israeli military incursions inside the besieged Gaza Strip and near the “buffer zone" which lies on both land and sea sides of Gaza, have long been a near-daily occurrence. Palestinians who work near the “buffer zone” between the Palestinian enclave and Israel often come under fire from military forces, as the Israeli military has not made clear the precise area of the designated zone. The Israeli army regularly open fires on Palestinian fishermen and farmers along the border areas, despite a ceasefire agreement that ended the 2014 war. more

Israeli forces stationed along the border fence between Israel and the Gaza Strip opened fire at Palestinian farmlands east of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday, according to locals. Witnesses said Israeli forces opened live fire at farmlands near the military tower in the al-Sanati area east of Khan Yunis on Sunday morning. On Gaza's western sea border, Israeli naval forces also opened fire at fishing boats near the al-Sudaniyyah area in the north. No injuries were reported in either incident. An Israeli army spokeswoman said she was looking into reports. more

Israeli forces reportedly opened fire at Palestinian shepherds near the border in the central Gaza Strip on Friday. Witnesses said Israeli forces stationed behind the security fence east of Al-Bureij refugee camp opened fire at a group of shepherds near the Abu Qatrun area in central Gaza Strip. No injuries were reported. An Israeli army spokesperson said they was looking into reports. On a near-daily basis, the Israeli army fires "warning shots" at Palestinian fishermen, farmers, and shepherds entering the Israeli-enforced “buffer zone” on land and sea, implemented after Israel imposed a blockade on the Gaza Strip nearly a decade ago. more