{"id":446884,"date":"2010-03-19T00:22:00","date_gmt":"2010-03-19T04:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16711557.post-6335266554915772026"},"modified":"2010-03-19T00:22:44","modified_gmt":"2010-03-19T04:22:44","slug":"israel-hits-gaza-after-announcing-plans-to-build-more-settlements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/446884","title":{"rendered":"Israel Hits Gaza After Announcing Plans to Build More Settlements"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Palestinian youth resist the Israeli military in East Jerusalem. The Zionist regime has maintained its settler-colonial state with the backing of U.S. imperialism.<\/a>
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n

Friday, March 19, 2010
06:07 Mecca time, 03:07 GMT \t <\/p>\n

Israel hits Gaza after rocket death<\/p>\n

Israel had threatened a “strong” response to the earlier rocket strike from Gaza <\/p>\n

Israeli aircraft have launched a series of strikes on Gaza, striking multiple targets in the strip.<\/p>\n

The raids came after Israel threatened a “strong” response following the firing of a rocket from Gaza earlier on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The rocket attack killed a Thai man working on a farm near Ashkhelon.<\/p>\n

It was the first death caused by a missile launched from the strip since the end of Israel’s war on Gaza in January 2009.<\/p>\n

Al Jazeera producer Ashraf Amritti, reporting from Gaza, said there had been at least 10 Israeli strikes, with Israeli F-16 aicraft and Apache attack helicopters continuing to fly above the area.<\/p>\n

An Israeli statement released after the air raid said that six sites had been targeted.<\/p>\n

‘Continued aggression’<\/p>\n

The targets in the Israeli raids included smuggling tunnels along the Gaza-Egypt border, two open areas in Khan Younis and a metal foundry near Gaza City.<\/p>\n

A previously unknown Gaza group, Ansar al-Sunna, as well as the al-Aqsa Martrys Brigades, a wing of the mainstream Fatah movement, both claimed responsibility for the rocket attack from Gaza that preceded the air raids.<\/p>\n

“The jihadist mission came in response to the Zionist assaults against the Ibrahimi and al-Aqsa mosques and the continued Zionist aggression against our people in Jerusalem,” Ansar al-Sunna said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Matan Vilnai, the Israeli deputy defence minister, said that regardless of any claims of responsibility, Israel blamed the rocket strike on Hamas, the Islamic movement which rules the Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n

If Hamas did not prevent such attacks, Israel would act, he warned.<\/p>\n

“Israel is not interested in a military confrontation but it will not allow its citizens to be fired upon,” Vilnai told defence officials at a planning meeting.<\/p>\n

Silvan Shalom, the Israeli vice prime minister, described the attacks “a crossing of the red line, which Israel cannot accept. The Israeli response will be appropriate. It will be strong”.<\/p>\n

Hamas in return, blamed Israel’s behaviour for the escalation.<\/p>\n

“The government of the Zionist enemy, which has launched a war against the Palestinian people and against holy sites and al-Aqsa mosque, bears the responsibility for all the escalation,” Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, said.<\/p>\n

Ashton’s visit<\/p>\n

The rocket attack occurred as Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s foreign affairs chief, was visiting the enclave.<\/p>\n

Ashton, who earlier visited a UN-run girls’ school in the Jabalya refugee camp, said she condemned “any kind of violence”.<\/p>\n

“We need to move forward to get the peace process moving toward a successful resolution,” she said.<\/p>\n

The attacks also come a day before the international Quartet of Middle East mediators is to meet in Moscow to discuss ways to revive peace talks frozen since December 2008.<\/p>\n

Ashton later flew to Moscow to attend the Quartet meeting along with Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, and the UN chief.<\/p>\n

Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, is to visit the Middle East, including Gaza, over the weekend amid mounting tension in the region as well as between Israel and the United States.<\/p>\n

George Mitchell, the US Middle East envoy, who brokered a now troubled deal for indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinians on a previous visit, is due back in the region on Sunday, a senior Palestinian official said.<\/p>\n

Since the beginning of 2010, at least 30 projectiles, including rockets and mortars, fired from Gaza have landed in Israeli territory.<\/p>\n

Source: \tAl Jazeera and agencies
<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Palestinian youth resist the Israeli military in East Jerusalem. The Zionist regime has maintained its settler-colonial state with the backing of U.S. imperialism.Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos Friday, March 19, 201006:07 Mecca time, 03:07 GMT Israel hits Gaza after rocket death Israel had threatened a “strong” response to the earlier rocket strike […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4243,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-446884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4243"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446884\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}