GAZA CITY — The Egyptian military has flown its first air mission over the Gaza Strip since the 1967 war with Israel. Palestinian sources said the Egyptian Air Force sent an attack helicopter into the Gaza Strip over such cities as Khan Yunis and Rafah on July 12. “The helicopter came from Sinai and flew low over the tunnels and border area,” a source said. The Palestinian news agency Safah reported that this marked the first time that an Egyptian Army helicopter entered the Gaza Strip. The helicopter, which entered Gaza at 2:30 a.m. local time, is said to have flown over the Gaza Strip for nearly an hour and returned to Sinai Peninsula. Later, both Israeli and Egyptian security sources confirmed the report, but attributed the helicopter flight to a navigational error. Earlier, Israel granted Egypt permission for additional troops and military assets, including the U.S.-origin AH-64D Apache helicopter, to be deployed in eastern Sinai. The sources said the Egyptian helicopter did...

Rush transcript: Michael Deas, Europe coordinator with National Palestinian BDS Committee Audio link The Electronic Intifada: Let’s have you assess the last eight years of the BDS movement — how it’s grown since that initial call, and what it looks like now. Michael Deas: What I think is really exciting is that BDS is now recognized as one of, if not the most important and effective tools of solidarity with the Palestinian struggle. When the BDS call was launched in 2005, lots of solidarity groups and solidarity networks endorsed and took the BDS call as one of their main frameworks of action. But those groups didn’t just endorse the call, they built BDS campaigns and the built effective BDS campaigns, and they went out and they won support for those campaigns — from trade unions and faith groups, and celebrities and so on. And what we have now is we have BDS winning huge amounts of support from those types of organizations like unions and faith groups and NGOs and political par...

The inhabitants of the Gaza Strip have no other refuge than the Mediterranean coast to escape the summer heat and enjoy some leisure time amid the electricity crisis. However, even in their escape, the sewage problem chases them. There are three sewage drains that dump their water in the Mediterranean, causing massive pollution along the coast. These sewage drains have been dumping thousands of liters of sewage water into the sea for years. The first drain is located in the Shalehat resort, considered the best in Gaza, while the second faces the basin of Gaza’s main port. The third drain faces the Beach refugee camp. Fayez al-Safadi said that he took his family to the beach to relax, adding, “We usually go to the beach to escape the intense heat waves back home, but we are never completely happy. The beaches are polluted with sewage.” He clarified that the sewage drains that dump their water in Gaza’s sea constitute a big problem and cause dangerous environmental pollution that thre...

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- A five-year-old boy was killed in the Gaza Strip on Saturday after being struck by a stray bullet inside his home, police said. Yousef Darwish sustained fatal injuries after a stray bullet hit him in Nuseirat refugee camp, Gaza police spokesman Ayoub Abu Shaar told Ma'an. The boy was taken to a hospital in Deir al-Balah but pronounced dead on arrival. more

JERUSALEM (AFP) -- Israel is ready to "immediately" build 10,000 homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem to lower housing costs, Housing Minister Uri Ariel was quoted as saying on Thursday. "To immediately alleviate the housing crisis we must massively build in (East) Jerusalem and the settlement blocs in Judea and Samaria," the Yediot Aharonot newspaper quoted Ariel as telling a parliamentary committee. "Settlements like Beit Arye, Ofarim, Elkana are in the center of the land," he said, "and we are prepared to launch 10,000 units there immediately." On his Facebook page, pro-settler Ariel noted that "For an entire year there has been no state marketing in Judea and Samaria (the biblical term for the West Bank) and east Jerusalem." more

Seventy prominent Canadian writers, including Michael Ondaatje (The English Patient), Yann Martel (Life of Pi), Lorna Crozier, and Lisa Moore (Open), wrote an open letter to Canadian and Israeli officials urging Israel to cease its plans to evict Palestinians in the South Hebron Hills, and to reject the Begin-Prawer Plan that would forcibly relocate 20,000-70,000 Bedouins from their homes in the Negev. Israel has designated the land of the South Hebron Hills as a military firing zone, and says that the native Palestinians must be evicted because the area will be an unsafe and unsuitable place to inhabit. International law, however, dictates that Israel’s annexation of land in the West Bank is illegal, and Canadian writer Yann Martel asked “if you’re going to have a firing zone, why don’t you have it on your own land, not in occupied land?” According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OCHAOPT), Israel has...

After two days of being partially open, Egypt once again closed its border crossing with the Gaza Strip on Friday, a security source told. The Rafah crossing was closed on Friday 5 July due to security concerns, hours after an assault on military and police sites in north Sinai. It was later opened on Wednesday for several hours to allow stranded Palestinians to return and foreigners to leave the Gaza Strip. The passage is the only gateway to the world for the 1.7 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip, which is governed by the Islamist Hamas group, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood movement of ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi. Tunnels along Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip, which Palestinians used to circumvent the Israeli blockade of the enclave and Egyptian-imposed border restrictions, have also been shut for ten days, leading to an acute shortage of food and goods in Gaza, particularly fuel. A crackdown by Egypt's army months ago on the large ne...

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces on Thursday detained a 54-year-old man returning to Gaza at the Erez crossing on the Israeli border, Palestinian officials said. Israel closes the Erez crossing to most Palestinians, but Mohammad Abu Harbid, 54, had been granted permission to enter Israel to accompany his sick brother. Abu Harbid's brother had sought medical treatment in Israel but died in hospital. more

Despite being below the age of criminal responsibility, 5-year-old Wadi' Maswadeh was detained for two hours by Israeli soldiers July 9th near the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron after he allegedly threw a stone at a settler’s car. The Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem reported that when local residents tried to intervene, the Israeli soldiers put the crying child and another local resident into a military jeep and drove them to the boy’s home. When the boy’s father, Karam, came home, the Israeli soldiers informed him that they were arresting his son and handing him over to the Palestinian police, and they threatened the father with arrest if he did not comply. Karam and Wadi' were then detained for half an hour at the local Israeli military base, where the father was blindfolded and handcuffed. The father and son were then taken to the Policeman’s checkpoint, where they were detained for a further half hour. Eventually, Karam’s blindfold and handcuff...

NABLUS (Ma'an) -- Israeli settlers on Thursday cut down 1,150 olive trees in Palestinian groves near Nablus, a Palestinian Authority official said. Residents of Itamar settlement used chainsaws to cut down the trees north of Awarta, said Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors settlement activity in the northern West Bank. more

JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- An Israeli court on Thursday sentenced two Palestinian MPs to 30 months, a committee official said. PLC deputy Mohammad Tawtah and former Jerusalem affairs' minister Khalid Abu Arafa were sentenced to 30 months plus a one-year suspended sentence for conducting "Hamas activities," said Amjad Abu Asab, the director of the Jerusalem prisoners' families committee. The judge ruled that the MPs must serve an additional six months if they enter Jerusalem, their hometown, Abu Asab told Ma'an. The MPs have been in Israeli custody since Israeli police detained them in a raid on the Jerusalem headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross in January 2012. more

Canadian, European, and Palestinian activists plan to launch a flotilla – dubbed “Gaza’s Ark” – from Gaza to Europe carrying produce and textiles, with the goal of raising awareness of the strife caused by Israel’s blockade of the territory. Charlie Anderson, a Swedish activist in Gaza, said that a fishing boat would be converted to a cargo vessel, and that it would depart for Europe in September carrying Gazan produce and textiles. He claimed that they were not worried about the Israeli navy intercepting the boat, adding that if Israel were to stop the boat, it would have great difficulty explaining its refusal to allow a civilian vessel to carry produce and textiles from Gaza to Europe. The flotilla organizers claim that civilians are organizing the flotilla project independently, and they deny any Hamas involvement. An Israeli military spokesperson affirmed Israel’s commitment to securing its maritime borders, but did not specify how the military would handle the Gaza’s Ark flot...

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli Mossad agents detained a Palestinian in Egypt's Sinai in June, Israeli media reported Wednesday. An Israeli judge cleared news of the arrest for publication on Wednesday and said Wael Abu Rida, from Gaza. He was detained on suspicion of "offenses of national security," the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported. A magistrates' court in Beersheba on Wednesday extended Abu Rida's remand by eight days, the report said. Judge Yuval Livadaro allowed the publication of some details in Israeli media, but extended the gag order of other details by 10 days. The detainee's wife, Amani Abu Rida, had told Ma'an on July 3 that her husband disappeared during a visit to Egypt for medical treatment. more

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Egypt reopened the Rafah crossing on Wednesday after a five-day closure, allowing stranded Palestinians to return to the Gaza Strip. The terminal will reopen in both directions for two days, the Hamas-run Ministry of Interior in Gaza said Tuesday. For those leaving the Gaza Strip, priority will be given to those with visas for foreign countries, Egyptian citizens and patients who require medical treatment abroad, said Mahir Abu Sabha, Palestinian director of borders and crossings. Egypt's army closed the terminal on Friday amid unrest in Sinai following the military's ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi. Two people died in a militant attack on a security checkpoint in North Sinai on Wednesday. Near Rafah, militants shelled a police base with mortar rounds and fired truck-mounted heavy machine gun, and attacked another police checkpoint in the town of El-Arish, some 45 kilometers west of Rafah. more

JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- Palestinian youths smashed holes in Israel's separation wall in East Jerusalem on Tuesday. The protest marked the ninth anniversary of an International Court of Justice advisory opinion that ruled the wall illegal and called for its removal. Activists declared the anniversary a national day for the destruction of the wall. In Eizariya, dozens of youths tore two holes in the wall before Israeli forces arrived and dispersed them with stun grenades and plastic-coated steel bullets, Fatah official Mohamed Amin said. "The destruction of a portion of the wall is a protest to the daily raids at Al-Aqsa holy mosque. The Palestinians have a right to break the barriers and the wall to reach Jerusalem and protect its holy sites from the Israeli violations," Amin told Ma'an. more

A campaign against drugs was launched by Gaza's interior ministry last month targeting tramadol tablets which are widely used by youth in the Sector. Tramadol is a drug prescribed by doctors as a pain killer; however it is widely misused by drug addicts as a replacement drug. Opium, marijuana and various other kinds of drugs are in short supply in Gaza as a result of the strict anti-drug campaigns carried out by the ministry of interior. This drug is imported officially by the ministry of health in Gaza and by several pharmaceutical companies; however it is also widely imported by drug dealers through smuggling tunnels between Gaza and Egypt. Despite strict monitoring of the tunnels, smugglers use several tricks to deceive security officers in order to get the drug into the country. Regarding the purpose of this campaign, the spokesman of the ministry of interior in Gaza Islam Shahwan said: "It aims at ending the destructive effects of tramadol which may have a psycho...

Egyptian and Palestinian officials say the main border crossing in the Gaza Strip will be reopened to passenger traffic on Wednesday. Egypt closed the Rafah crossing five days ago in the wake of the military's ouster of President Mohammed Morsi. Egypt has also taken other security measures in the northern Sinai Peninsula near Gaza, fearing militants could try to exploit the unrest. Rafah is the main passage for people going in and out of Gaza. The closure has stranded thousands of travelers on both sides of the border just ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. more

On July 7, London-based newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat quoted its correspondent from Ramallah as saying that the head of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee, Avigdor Lieberman, who is also the leader of Yisrael Beiteinu party and an ally of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, called for the occupation of the Gaza Strip without delay. Lieberman also stated that that if he were the prime minister, he would order the conquest of the Gaza Strip. Lieberman said in a radio interview that "the dubious quiet" in Gaza is being used by Hamas to build up its powers. He said there is a link between the fall of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and the activity taking place between Sinai and Gaza, adding that he has no doubt that the jihadist elements in the Sinai Peninsula will try to exploit the situation to undermine Israel's security. more

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Israeli military vehicles crossed into Absan village east of Khan Younis early Tuesday in a limited incursion, a Ma’an reporter said. Two military vehicles and six bulldozers were seen crossing the area. There were no reports of injury or damage. more

JERUSALEM (AFP) -- Israel is relying on the Egyptian army to suppress Islamist militants in the Sinai and to ensure the country's stability after the dismissal of Mohamed Mursi as president, media and politicians said. The Egyptian military overthrew Mursi on Wednesday after millions of protesters rallied to demand the Islamist leader quit for failing the 2011 revolution and bolstering his Islamist base at the expense of the rest of the country. Ministers in the Israeli cabinet have so far stuck to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's order for silence on the subject. But MP Tzahi Hanegbi, who is close to Netanyahu, welcomed the ouster of Mursi, Egypt's first democratically elected president who hails from the Muslim Brotherhood. "Israel's clear interest is for Egypt to remain stable, favorable to the West and the US, and that it does not let itself get carried away by a wave of religious extremism," said Hanegbi, former head of the Knesset (parliament)...