Description

Photo of Hala Abu Sbeikha, killed by Israeli fire, Al-Aqsa hospital, Deir Al Balah, Gaza, Palestine Dec. 24, 2013 (photo: Adel Hana)

Salah Abu Latif 22

Video: Flooding in Gaza,
uploaded to YouTube
by Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU), 12/22/2013
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GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Israeli air forces launched airstrikes across the Gaza Strip, killing a 3-year-old Palestinian child and injuring her mother and brother, after an Israeli and a Palestinian were shot dead at the border in the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday afternoon.

Spokesman for the Gaza ministry of health Ashraf al-Qidra said that Hala Abu Sbeikha, 3, was killed and her mother and brother injured in an airstrike in al-Maghazi refugee camp.

Later, three Palestinians were injured in an Israeli artillery bombing east of Gaza City.

Israeli forces also launched three airstrikes on a military site belonging to al-Quds Brigades, the militant wing of the Islamic Jihad movement, between Khan Younis refugee camp and the city of Deir al-Balah and in the al-Atatra area of the northern Gaza Strip. It remains unclear if there were any casualties resulting from these strikes.

Earlier on Tuesday afternoon, a Palestinian man was shot and killed by Israeli fire west of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, Palestinian sources said.

The attack follows an incident where a Palestinian sniper shot and killed an Israeli man working on the border fence in northern Gaza Strip a few hours earlier.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said the man was killed while doing "maintenance" work on the border fence.

Israeli news site Ynet reported that the Israeli man had been working on the border fence when he was shot, and was taken to Soroka University Medical Center in Beersheba.

He died of his wounds shortly after.

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By Gili Cohen , Shirly Seidler, Chaim Levinson and Reuters
Haaretz| Dec. 24, 2013 | 6:19 PM |

The Israel Defense Forces struck targets in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday afternoon, hours after a contract worker employed by Israel's Defense Ministry was shot and killed Tuesday by gunfire originating from the coastal territory.

The Israel Air Force attacked six separate sites across the territory linked to Hamas and the Islamic Jihad. A 3-year-old Palestinian child was killed and her mother and brother wounded in one of the strikes in the Al-Maghazi refugee camp, Palestinian news agency Ma'an reported.

The IDF said in a statement that the Israel Air Force, tanks as well as infantry corps soldiers attacked two sites in the southern Strip, though ground forces did not enter the territory. The IDF said that one of the targets was a weapons building site and defined the second as a "terror infrastructure" site. The IDF also struck two additional sites in the central Gaza Strip and another "terror infrastructure" sites in the north as well.

"The IDF responded with a wave of attacks and are currently considering our next steps," a senior IDF officer said. He added that while the army wants to avoid an escalation, soldiers in the Gaza Division were on high alert "in case the situation deteriorates."

The Palestinian group Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) took responsibility for the morning shooting at Kibbutz Nahal Oz that killed Defense Ministry employee Salah Abu Latif, 22.

"One of our snipers hit an Israeli officer, who is in the Engineering Forces of the Israeli army, and seriously wounded him, near the borders between eastern Gaza Strip and Israel," the PRC said.

Israeli army officials said that the victim, a resident of the predominantly Bedouin town of Rahat in southern Israel, was hit by a single gunshot, leading them to believe a sniper perpetrated the attack. There was no exchange of gunfire during the incident.

The victim, a civilian who had been helping repair a part of the security fence that was damaged by the extreme winter weather last week, was airlifted to Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva for treatment. He was initially listed in serious condition, but later succumbed to his wounds.

He is the second Israeli to be killed this month and the sixth since September.

In a separate incident Tuesday afternoon, IDF soldiers shot a Palestinian man who approached the security fence in the northern Gaza Strip. Soldiers said the man was hit in the lower torso and was evacuated for medical treatment by members of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Defense Minister: If there's no quiet in Israel, there will be no quiet in Gaza

Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon rejected speculations that the terror attacks in the last few days were linked to the shooting on the border, but said that Israel was treating each of the incidents with "utter severity."

He added that the Defense Ministry holds Hamas responsible for the shooting and for the rocket attacks. "We will not let life in the south be disrupted, and we will respond aggressively and painfully to any attack on our authority and against our civilians and soldiers. I suggest Hamas not test our patience and use its authority in the territory. If there is no quiet in Israel, there will be no quiet in Gaza."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the attack at Nahal Oz "an extremely grave incident" adding that woul "not ignore it. Our policy until now has been to thwart and to respond forcefully – and this is how we will act in this case as well." Netanyahu was visiting the southern town of Sderot, about a kilometer (half a mile) from the Gaza border, at the time of the shooting.

The victim's employer said he has been working for him for about a year. "He was a young man, and extremely diligent," he said. He added that the Gaza border has felt calm in recent months, but that in light of Tuesday's incident, they would likely stop working along the border fence.

"We worked for there for a long time and nothing happened, and then suddenly everything started. We got used to wandering around the area freely, but after what happened I don’t think we'll go back there. It's scary."

IDF soldiers from the Gaza Division have been sweeping the border area in recent days in efforts to locate underground smuggling tunnels. Army officials surmised that the stormy weather last week could help uncover the tunnels infiltrating into Israel.

The shooting near Kibbutz Nahal Oz comes after a spate of terror-related incidents and rocket fire in recent days. A police officer helping to direct traffic outside Ramallah was stabbed in the back on Monday, while his Palestinian assailant fled the scene. Israeli security forces opened fire at the attacker, but missed.

On Monday, what could have been a deadly bus bombing in Bat Yam was averted when an alert passenger notified the driver about a suspicious bag on the bus. The driver ordered all passengers to disembark after which a police bomb squad arrived at the site and began inspecting the suspicious object. The bomb exploded, shattering all the bus windows and charring the sides of the vehicle.

Also on Monday, police found the remains of the Qassam rocket near a bus stop for transporting children in the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council. The bus stop was only slightly damaged.

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Annie Robbins on December 26, 2013 for Mondoweiss

Israel attacked Gaza Tuesday, launching a series of air strikes across the Strip killing 3 year old Hala Abu Sbeikha and wounding 10 others (including children). The attack was in retaliation for the killing of, Salah Abu Latif, 22, a Bedouin and Israeli civilian, who was killed by a Palestinian sniper while Abu Latif was doing military contract work for Israel, repairing a fence near the border with Gaza.
Salah Abu Latif 22

Salah Abu Latif 22

According to Haaretz, the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) claimed responsibility for Abu Latif’s shooting. Hamas told Israel’s Ch. 10 that it was not interested in an escalation with Gaza; and AP reported Hamas “ordered its forces to evacuate offices and compounds and redeploy to safer sites.”

Israeli P.M. Benjamin Netanyahu was visiting Sderot at the time of Abu Latif’s killing and said he held Hamas responsible. ”Our policy until now has been to thwart and to respond forcefully – and this is how we will act in this case as well.”

Meantime, Abu Latif’s family has been highly critical of the Israeli government, with members saying Netanyahu is to blame for shooting. They also had to wait hours to get his body back, and said that a Jewish victim’s family would have been treated differently. “Nobody here cares for a Bedouin boy,” Haaretz quotes a family member.

Tuesday was Abu Latif’s first day on the border job. Haaretz quoted his cousin, Khaled Abu Latif, re Salah’s service:

“Nobody is happy about working there, but for us, it’s a living … He worked and built his house by himself, without help from anyone. But that’s fate, and it’s impossible to do anything about fate.”

“He trusted the state,” he added. “But clearly we can’t rely on the state for anything. I don’t wish this on any family.”

Saeb Erekat, Palestine’s chief negotiator in the “peace talks,” responded to the attack by saying Israel had a ”government of terror, not of peace” in carrying out the attacks:

“Israel gave a Christmas present to the Palestinian people by killing a 3-year-old girl,” he said.

More from Ynet:

Palestinian officials reported at least 16 Israeli attacks, causing a series of loud explosions across the territory in rapid succession.

Medics said Hala Abu Sbeikha was killed by shrapnel during the Israeli air strike on the Al Maghazi camp. Hala means halo in Arabic.

On December 7, 2013 when an Israeli military sniper killed a child, 14 year old Wajih Wajdi Al-Ramahi, Palestinian government officials did not respond by bombing densely populated Israeli neighborhoods and Israel said they would ‘investigate’. How’s that investigation going?