Hamas’s Gaza prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, delegated his powers to his deputy Ziyad El-Zaza on Tuesday, according to an AFP report that said the announcement was made in a speech Haniyeh gave at a ceremony honouring former ministers in the Gaza Strip. Ahram Online reporter in Gaza Saleh El-Naami said that Haniyeh would still be the official prime minister, but that he had chosen to give up most of his authority to focus on the Hamas movement's internal reform portfolio. Haniyeh was appointed prime minister in 2006. According to Palestinian authority law, only the president has the power to appoint a new prime minister. Earlier reports claimed that Haniyeh is seeking to run in the Hamas political office, to replace Khaled Meshal as the chairman of the executive committee. However, sources in Gaza have told Ahram Online that there is strong internal opposition to Haniyeh’s plan to replace Meshal. During his speech, Haniyeh said: "This is the first experience for an...

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Material for reconstruction of the Gaza Strip is to be shipped via Egypt and not Israel, the Qatari ambassador in the coastal enclave said Tuesday. Muhammad al-Imadi told a news conference that the goods, promised weeks earlier, would be shipped via the Gaza-Egypt Rafah crossing rather than through Israel. The Egyptians will receive a list from a Gaza reconstruction committee with details about specifications and quantities of the needed material, he said. The list will also include a timetable for shipments. Construction will start with a medical center for rehabilitation and surgery involving artificial limbs, construction of the Sheikh Hamad city, and rehabilitation of three streets, he added. more

TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma'an) -- Palestinian militants fired anti-aircraft missiles at an Israeli warplane flying over the Gaza Strip last week, Israeli media reported Tuesday. The missiles missed their target but the incident marked the first time anti-aircraft weaponry has been used in Gaza, the Hebrew-language daily Yedioth Ahronoth said. Israeli warplanes have killed eight Palestinians in a series of airstrikes on the Gaza Strip in the last 10 days. On Oct. 7, Israel bombed a busy neighborhood in Rafah in southern Gaza, killing one militant who was riding a motorbike and wounding 10 others, including five children. more

RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Israeli troops on Tuesday used force to break up a protest against settler attacks on a main road in the West Bank. Dozens of Palestinians and international activists blocked Route 443 near Beit Ur, west of Ramallah. Israeli troops used force to break up the protest, firing sound grenades and pepper spray. An Israeli military spokeswoman told Ma'an that forces used "riot dispersal means" to move protesters who were blocking traffic. A Ma'an reporter said several protesters were injured. "The direct action today was organized in light of the increasing settler terrorism against Palestinians and their properties during the current olive harvest season, including the torching, uprooting or setting fire to olive trees, the theft of harvested olives, and the attacking of Palestinian families while picking olives," the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee said in a statement. "We organized this action today to stress t...

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- The Emir of Qatar is set to visit the Gaza Strip in the coming few days, the first visit by an Arab leader since Hamas took power in the coastal enclave, a Gaza TV channel said on Sunday. Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and his wife Sheikha Mozah are slated to come to Gaza following the arrival of Qatari delegates on Sunday, al-Kitab satellite channel said. Gaza's ministry of interior said in a statement it had deployed security officials throughout the Gaza Strip to prepare for the Qatari delegation, headed by Amb. Muhammad al-Amadi. more

Two days ago, on October 13, three hours before I was to board a flight to Europe to meet up with the Swedish boat to Gaza, the "Estelle," the next boat to challenge the Israeli blockade, I was called by a board member of the Estelle who said that because of the furor around Greta Berlin's posting and because I am a member of the new, two-week-d board of the Free Gaza Movement, I was no longer invited to be a passenger on the "Estelle." The board representative acknowledged that the reason for their invitation to me to be on the "Estelle" was that I am a retired US Army Colonel and former US diplomat who resigned in March, 2003 in opposition to the Iraq war, that I am a vocal critic of Israeli and United States policies on Palestinians. Also, that I have been to Gaza four times in the past three years, assisted seven groups to go to Gaza in 2009, helped organize the December, 2009 Gaza Freedom March, was a passenger on the 2010 Gaza Freedom Floti...

(Reuters) - Apple's new iPhone 5 is selling well in the Gaza Strip despite inflated prices, reaching the Palestinian enclave via smuggling tunnels even before high-tech hub Israel next door. The cutting edge smart phone is being snapped up for almost double what it costs in the United States, its price jacked up by middlemen on its circuitous delivery route from Dubai via tunnels linking the blockaded territory with Egypt. The iPhone 5 will not be available until December from mobile operators in tech-mad Israel, which along with Egypt maintains a partial blockade of Gaza to prevent the entry of anything that could be used for military purposes. But the phones have been available for a couple of weeks in Gaza and they were on display on Monday in three independent mobile stores in a one-block radius in downtown Gaza City. Prices ranged from 4,500 Israeli shekels ($1,170) for the 16 gigabyte model to 5,700 ($1,480) for 64 gb. "I ordered 30 and I've sold 20 so fa...

Newly released today, Defence for Children International-Palestine Section (DCI) has produced this short film about Israel’s ill-treatment of Palestinian children during their arrest, transfer and detention. Alone: Palestinian Children in the Israeli Military Detention System contains images of children who found the courage to talk about the appalling treatment. For example, 14-year-old Ala tells how he was handcuffed and blindfolded during his arrest. “They [Israeli soldiers] put me in the jeep and transferred me to Etzion interrogation center. The interrogator told me to say goodbye to my friend Muhannad, because he was going to throw me from the third floor. No one was there to protect me. No one was with me. I was alone.” Since 2000, around 7,500 Palestinian children from the occupied Palestinian territories have been detained, interrogated and imprisoned within the Israeli military law system. The film also presents basic information and the impact of their arrest and detent...

GAZA, (PIC)-- A new batch of relatives of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli occupation jails crossed the northern Gaza Strip crossing of Beit Hanun (Erez) en route to Eshel prison. Ayman Al-Shihabi, a spokesman for the Red Cross in Gaza, said in a press release on Monday that 39 families left for Erez at dawn to visit 27 prisoners in Eshel. He pointed out that the batch is the 11th of its kind after restoring visits to Gaza prisoners in Israeli jails. more

An Israeli soldier beat (Marwan Mufid Sharabati, 7 years of age) when he was passing checkpoint 56 to his house, the soldier terrified the little kid and after that he hit him on his chest and smacked him of his face. The child's father came angrily towards the soldier screaming and shouting. The Israeli soldier did not listen and started to shout in the angry father's face.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Amal Ashour, 18, loves Shakespeare and American pop music. One of the brightest students in the Gaza Strip, she studied her senior year of high school in Minnesota through a U.S.-government funded program. She had planned to study English literature this fall at a university in the West Bank through another U.S.-sponsored program, but just a month before school started, she was informed the scholarship was no longer available. "When you live in Gaza, you're a pawn in a greater political game," she said in a telephone interview. "There's nothing we can do about it." She is now enrolled at Islamic University, a stronghold of Gaza's ruling Islamic militant Hamas. Under Israeli pressure, U.S. officials have quietly canceled a two-year-old scholarship program for students in the Gaza Strip, undercutting one of the few American outreach programs to people in the Hamas-ruled territory. The program now faces an uncertain future, just tw...

Israeli daily, Maariv, reported Sunday that Israel issued a warning informing Finland that its army will intercept and stop the Estelle solidarity ship heading to the Gaza Strip to deliver humanitarian supplies. The ship sailed from Italy heading to the coastal region carrying activists from different countries, including human rights defenders from Finland. Israel sent an official letter in this regard to the Finnish Foreign Ministry, but did not state what type of action it will be taking against the ship sailing under a Finnish flag. Israel said that the ship will not be allowed to reach Gaza, and will be stopped. Finland told Israel that the ship carries civilians from Finland, and several other countries, and called on the Israeli Government of Benjamin Netanyahu to show self-restraint. Estelle left Napoli – Italy on October 7th carrying 20 solidarity activists who are determined to sail to Gaza to deliver supplies, including cement, basketballs, music supplies, thea...

(A relative of Palestinian militant Yasser al-Atal mourns over his body during his funeral in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip October 14, 2012. - Reuters/Ahmed Zakot) GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- Two men were killed and two others seriously injured in an Israeli airstrike on central Gaza on Sunday afternoon, medics said. Israeli warplanes launched a deadly strike on a tuk-tuk vehicle in Deir al-Balah, Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra told Ma'an. He said the casualties were all evacuated to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah. Medics identified the victims as 23-year-old Izz Addin Abu Nuseira, and 22-year-old Ahmad Abu Fatayir who succumbed to his injuries upon arrival at hospital. Israel's army said it targeted a "terrorist squad" who had just fired a rocket from the central Gaza Strip at Israel, adding that a hit was confirmed. The two victims brought Gaza's death toll from Israeli airstrikes to 5 within 24 hours. more

(Image Credit: Nasser Najjar/Gulf News A ribbon for breast cancer awareness is displayed in the Gaza Strip. The ribbon is believed to be the biggest in the world.) Gaza: Sitting on the Gaza beach Eman Shanoun, a breast cancer survivor, 45, is witnessing the procedures of measuring the biggest awareness ribbon in the world by the Guinness World Records. Eman said: “It was a normal day like any other. Thirteen years ago I went to the clinic assuming that I might have a small problem in my skin, but the doctor there transferred me to Al Shifa hospital, I felt there might be something and tried to check up myself and remained optimistic but after two weeks later my doctor informed me that I have breast cancer.” Eman said: “After the doctor mentioned cancer I didn’t hear anything else. I stood speechless and my mind was full of fear and thoughts on one thing, my daughter. The first question I asked the doctor was the cancer hereditary and when he answered ‘not usually’ I felt a littl...

GAZA CITY (Reuters) -- An Israeli airstrike in Gaza killed a Palestinian gunman and wounded another on Sunday, hospital officials said, hours after Israel killed the leader of a Salafi militant group. An Israeli military spokesman said the men targeted in southern Gaza had been preparing to fire rockets into Israel. Medics said Yasser al-Atakal, 24, was killed in the strike on his motorbike east of Khan Younis, and another person was seriously wounded. The air strike came hours after Israel killed two other militants in a similar attack in the northern town of Jabalia late on Saturday. Both Hamas, the Islamist group that rules Gaza, and Israel identified one of the men killed in the earlier attack as Salafi leader Hisham Al-Saedni, 52, also known as Abu Al-Walid Al-Maqdisi. Medics said the other man killed in the strike was Al-Saedni's bodyguard Fayiq Abu-Jather. A 10-year-old boy who was passing by the area was also wounded. more

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- An Israeli airstrike on northern Gaza killed one person and injured two others on Saturday, a Ma'an correspondent said. The strike targeted a motorbike in the city of Jabalia, instantly killing one man and injuring two others. The wounded were taken to hospital for treatment, with one said to be in a critical condition. Another airstrike east of Gaza City targeted a building belonging to the military wing of Hamas, the Al-Qassam brigades, Ma'an's correspondent quoted witnesses as saying. Israel's army said it had targeted "terror operatives of the (Shura) Council of the Mujahideen, a Gaza-based Global Jihad affiliate," a statement said. No militant group in Gaza claimed the men as members, but the Shura Council of the Mujahideen did claim responsibility for a rocket that was fired into Israel on Friday and that landed near a house in the Israeli town of Netivot. more

AL-KHALIL, (PIC)-- A nine-year-old boy was left alone without any of his parents when Israeli soldiers kidnapped at dawn Saturday his mother Nora Ja'bari, the wife of Mohamed Abu Warda, a leading Hamas figure and prisoner in Israeli jails. According to the family of Abu Warda, a force of Israeli troops kidnapped Nora from the house of her father and then took her to the house of her husband's family (Abu Warda) in Al-Fawwar refugee camp, southwest of Gaza. The troops ransacked the house before taking her in chains to an unknown destination without considering that she has a little child to take care of, the mother of Abu Warda added. An Israeli military court had sentenced Mohamed Abu Warda to life in prison 48 times on allegations of masterminding operations that were carried out by Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, following the outbreak of the Aqsa Intifada in 2000. more

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) – Israeli warplanes attacked multiple targets in the Gaza Strip early Saturday, a Ma'an reporter said. There were no immediate reports of injury in the attacks, which targeted two training sites for Palestinian militants and an open area, the correspondent said. The first attack targeted a training site for Hamas' military wing in the Sheikh Marwan neighborhood in Gaza City. The strike caused material damage to the site and surrounding buildings. A second attack struck a training site used by resistance factions near Gaza's power plant in Nuseirat refugee camp, the reporter said. Later, a missile landed in an open area in Bureij refugee camp causing material damage but no injuries. more

RAMALLAH (Ma’an) -- Two Palestinian prisoners are in critical condition in Israeli hospitals, the Palestinian Authority's ministry of prisoners announced Saturday. The conditions of Riyad al-Amour and Muhammad al-Taj are deteriorating rapidly, according to a report from the ministry. The report said al-Amour, 42, who is held in Assaf Harofeh medical center near Tel Aviv, needs urgent open-heart surgery which cannot be performed due to weak coronary muscles. Al-Amour slips into comas at least five times a day and suffers from exhaustion and incontinence. The detainee sustained a gunshot wound to the abdomen in the past, and parts of internal organs had to be removed leading to the deteriorating conditions and weak coronary muscles. Al-Amour is from Tuqu village east of Bethlehem. He was arrested on May 4, 2002 and sentenced to 11 life terms for involvement in the resistance. more

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Brigades in Gaza on Friday said advances in Hezbollah's weapons capabilities would benefit the Palestinian resistance. Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Thursday said his movement had sent the reconnaissance drone shot down over Israel last weekend. The Gaza-based Al-Mujahideen Brigades described Hezbollah's operation as "unprecedented" and said it proved that resistance was the best way to face Israel and to stop its continuous attacks. The Salah al-din Brigades, the military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, said Hezbollah's improved capabilities would strengthen the resolve of the Palestinian people and deter Israel from attacking them and their holy places. The drone also highlighted the weakness of Israel's military and security systems which failed to detect the aircraft's entry into Israeli airspace, the PRC wing said. The brigades congratulated Hezbollah on its achievement, noting that it...