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

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

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...

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) -- A rocket launched from the Gaza Strip landed in southern Israel overnight, Israel's army said, with no reported injuries. The rocket landed in the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council overnight, with Israeli forces conducting searches in the area. Sirens did not sound before the rocket fire, Israeli media reported. No Palestinian group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Israeli warplanes attacked several targets across the Gaza Strip on Friday night after rockets were fired at an Israeli town bordering Gaza. Friday’s rocket fire marked the eleventh such attack to hit Israel since January, according to the Israeli army, with no injuries caused. more

Israeli tanks fired three shells at the northern Gaza Strip late Thursday after a rocket was fired from the coastal territory, witnesses and Israel's army said. The artillery fire struck a site belonging to Hamas' military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, east of Beit Hanoun, locals told Ma'an. Ministry of Health spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra said no injuries were reported. Israel's military said in a statement that it targeted a "terrorist" site in response to a rocket fired at southern Israel which landed in an open area in the Shaar Ha Negev regional council. No militant group in Gaza has claimed responsibility for the rocket. more

A rocket fired from he Gaza Strip landed in southern Israel on Friday, with no damage or injuries reported, Israel's army said. A rocket siren sounded in the Eshkol regional council at around noon, with residents reporting blasts shortly afterwards. Israeli army forces searching the area found a rocket in an open area. Another rocket fired from Gaza hit southern Israel on Nov. 1. On Nov. 23, Fadil Muhammad Halawah, 32, was hunting birds east of Jabaliya when Israeli soldiers shot him dead. more

Rocket warning sirens sounded in Israeli towns near Gaza early Friday, Israeli media reported. The Israeli news site Ynet said the rocket did not land in Israeli territory but in the Palestinian enclave. Last Friday, a rocket fired from Gaza fell in Israeli territory, without causing any casualties or damage. The rocket was the first to hit Israel since Sept. 16, and the second since the end of Israel's devastating 50-day war on Gaza. Since the ceasefire has been in place, Israeli forces have regularly fired upon Gaza fishermen and occasionally at Palestinians the army says came too close to the border. more

The Israeli military on Saturday said that a rocket from Gaza had landed in southern Israel the day before, causing no injuries or damage but reminding locals of the tenuousness of a ceasefire signed in August. An Israeli military spokeswoman told Ma'an that a rocket was fired and hit an open area near the border town of Eshkol. She said the rocket was fired at 7 pm. Israeli media reports said that the rocket fell near the border on the Israeli side and exploded upon impact. Sirens warning locals of the rocket fire reportedly failed to activate. more

From Haaretz - A mortar shell fired from the Gaza Strip landed in Israeli territory on Tuesday, the first time since the end of the recent war between Israel and the Palestinian factions in Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces confirmed. There was no word of injuries or damages. Hamas said it had no knowledge of any mortar attack on Israel and that the Palestinians factions remained committed to the truce. The shell exploded in an open area near the Gaza border, opposite a town in the Eshkol Regional Council, Channel 2 reported. Earlier on Tuesday, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon estimated that fighting would not resume with the Gaza Strip at the end of this month, despite the difficulties in reaching a permanent Israel-Hamas cease-fire agreement. more

UN PRESS RELEASE, 23 August 2014, East Jerusalem - Israeli officials retracted this morning their earlier claim on Friday that the rocket that killed a four-year-old child in Southern Israel was launched from an UNRWA school in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli news reports that the rocket was launched from an UNRWA school were false. The same media outlets that rushed to report the incident without seeking confirmation from UNRWA are required and called upon to also report the Israeli army retraction. We also call on Israeli military spokespersons and other official sources to ensure the accuracy of their facts before going public. UNRWA deplores the killing of all children during this conflict, including the killing of the four-year-old Israeli child yesterday and the hundreds of Palestinian children killed since the start of the current fighting. We call on all parties to ensure protection and care of children affected by armed conflict, in accordance with their obligations under inte...

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- A Hamas spokesman on Wednesday accused Israel of having violated the temporary ceasefire on Tuesday, saying that Israel had failed to offer a serious partner for peace in ongoing negotiations in Cairo. Hamas spokesman Moussa Abu Marzouq told Ma'an via telephone on Wednesday that Israel "ended the truce and claimed that three rockets hit Israel, which Hamas had no information about." Abu Marzouq added that "all options" are on the table now, saying that the group was ready for peace but was not afraid of continuing to defend itself if Israel continued to choose war. "All options are open now: a new truce, keeping the war going, or signing an agreement," he added. He said that Egypt is currently making efforts with both sides as part of ongoing attempts to reach a lasting agreement to bring to an end a six-week Israeli assault that has left more than 2,040 Palestinians dead. more

From Haaretz - Hamas says in an official statement that Israel "failed" to kill the group's military wing's commander Mohammed Deif, and that he will continue to lead the Palestinian struggle. Earlier, Fox News reported that an Israeli intelligence source said Deif was killed in an Israel airstrike on Tuesday. "The leaders of the enemy were behind their offices looking at the screens and their intelligence and apparatuses made them believe that the moment of celebration was imminent," the Hamas spokesman said. "You have failed and you have missed." Hamas' spokesman also warned foreign airline carriers to stop flying to Ben Gurion International Airport starting on 6:00 A.M. Thursday . (Haaretz, Reuters) more

Four rockets fired from Gaza late Tuesday hit an illegal Israeli settlement west of Ramallah, causing a fire, witnesses told Ma'an. Witnesses said a rocket landed in the settlement of Modiit Illit, and that Israeli ambulances and firetrucks rushed to the area. They said they saw clouds of smoke rising from the settlement, and added that rocket warning sirens could be heard from several Israeli settlements in the Ramallah area. An Israeli police spokesman did not answer calls seeking comment. more

JERUSALEM (AFP) -- Israel on Tuesday ordered the military to respond after three rockets from Gaza struck the south as the two sides were observing a 24-hour truce, an Israeli official said. Speaking to AFP, the official said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "ordered the IDF to attack terror targets in Gaza" in response to the fire, which saw three rockets hit near the southern city of Beersheba that is home to some 200,000 people. A new 24-hour ceasefire in Gaza will last until midnight on Tuesday under a last-minute deal reached in Cairo on Monday night. more

GAZA CITY (AFP) -- All Palestinian groups in the Gaza Strip have refused to extend a three-day truce with Israel, Hamas said Friday, as the ceasefire ended. "All the Palestinian factions, including Hamas, have agreed not to renew the ceasefire because (Israel) is refusing to accommodate our demands, but negotiations continue in Cairo," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum told AFP. Thousands of Palestinians were fleeing their homes east of Gaza City on Friday in fear of Israeli attacks. Militants in the Gaza Strip fired rockets at Israel minutes after the 72-hour truce between Hamas and Israel ended, the army said. more

LONDON (AFP) -- Rockets capable of hitting deeper into Israel than ever before and naval commandos launching a beachhead assault show that Hamas has increased its capabilities with help from Iran and Syria, analysts said Wednesday. The last Israeli offensive against Gaza was meant to have degraded the Palestinian militant group's capabilities but less than two years later, Hamas is firing new longer-range projectiles, they said. An "unprecedented" attack by four Hamas militants who emerged from the sea to attack an Israeli military base shows the group is also trying to break the naval blockade of the coastal enclave. "Hamas were very badly damaged by the Israeli defense forces back in 2012, but since that time they have been re-equipped significantly by Iran and also by weapons from Syria," Colonel Richard Kemp, of the Royal United Services Institute think-tank in London, told AFP. The main weapon employed by Hamas and their armed wing, the al-Qassam Briga...

CAIRO (Ma'an) -- Three grad missiles were fired at Israel from the village of al-Arja south of the Egyptian city of Rafah on Wednesday evening, Egyptian officials said. Military officials said forces at the border detected three rockets launched from Egypt towards the Kerem Shalom kibbutz near the border with Gaza and Egypt. more

GAZA CITY (AFP) -- The armed wing of Hamas claimed that it fired several rockets at Jerusalem and Israeli cities Tel Aviv and Haifa Tuesday. "For the first time, the Qassam Brigades strike Haifa with an R160 rocket, and strike occupied Jerusalem with four M75 rockets and Tel Aviv with four M75 rockets," a statement said. It was the first time since a major 2012 conflict that Gaza-based militants had fired rockets at the holy city, and came as Israel pressed an aerial offensive against the besieged coastal Strip. more

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- The militant wings of four Palestinian political groups claimed responsibility for rocket fire at southern Israel overnight Sunday. The National Resistance Brigades, the military wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, said that its fighters fired four "107 missiles" at the Negev on Monday. Fatah's military wing, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, said that fighters from the al-Asifa army have fired 35 rockets at southern Israel since Sunday. An independent military wing, the al-Mujahadin Brigades, claimed to have fired three rockets, while the PRC's military wing, the al-Nasser Saladin Brigades, said it fired two rockets late Sunday. more

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Fourteen rockets were fired at southern Israel from the Gaza Strip overnight after an Israeli airstrike killed one Palestinian and injured at least three others late Sunday. At least 14 rockets were fired at southern Israel, with one causing damage to a residential property in the Sdot Negev regional council, Israel's army said. The Iron Dome intercepted two rockets, an army spokeswoman added. Israeli warplanes struck 12 targets overnight, which the army said were being used for "terrorist activity". One man was killed and three others injured in the attacks. more