NOVANEWS
Intensive efforts underway to bring about cease-fire ● IDF confirms death of Sgt. previously declared missing ● Palestinian officials file complaint against Israel to International Criminal Court ● Six Palestinians killed in West Bank.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.607184
By Haaretz
July 25, 2014
Israel’s Operation Protective Edge entered its 18th day on Friday, marking the 8th day of the IDF’s ground incursion into the Gaza Strip.
Two Palestinians were killed near the Qalandiyah checkpoint in the West Bank and over 200 were wounded, many of them by live IDF fire, when some 10,000 protesters marched from Ramallah toward Jerusalem late on Thursday night. Israeli authorities say live fire was fired at IDF troops from with the crowd. Four Palestinians have been killed during Friday demonstrations.
In Gaza, the Palestinian death toll in Gaza since Israel launched Operation Protective Edge surpassed the 800 mark, most of them since Israel entered Gaza a week ago.
Sgt. Oron Shaul, previously declared missing, was officially declared “killed in action” by the IDF. Israel military fatalities stand at 35 since the operation commenced. 134 soldiers are currently hospitalized due to wounds incurred in the fighting, and one soldier is missing.
Israel asserted Thursday that the hospital it struck the day before was empty of patients and being used for missile attacks, while Palestinians asserted that 15 people were killed when a UNRWA school was hit by artillery fire on Thursday.
For Thursday’s live updates, click here
11:45 P.M. Two rockets explode in open fields in the Eshkol Regional Council.
11:29 P.M. The U.S. Embassy in Israel issued a notice saying that official U.S. personnel and their families are restricted from traveling to Bethlehem after 9:30 p.m. and from staying there overnight until further notice. The notice went on to caution that Americans should stay clear of Jerusalem’s Old City overnight and all day Fridays.
10:48 P.M. More than 80 rockerts were launched at Israel over the past 24 hours, according to the IDF Spokesperson. 61 of the rockets hit Israel and 16 were intercepted.
Since the beginning of Operation Protective Edge, approximately 2,430 rockets have been launched at Israel, and at least 1,500 targets “associated with rocket-launching capabilities” have been targeted. (Gili Cohen)
10:44 P.M. France will host an international meeting on Saturday in order to reach a cease-fire agreement “as quickly as possible,” according to a French diplomatic source.
Representatives from the U.S., Britain, Germany, Italy, the EU, Turkey and Qatar will reportedly attend talks in Paris aimed at converging “all efforts” for reaching a cease-fire. (Reuters)
10:40 P.M. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon are still discussing Ban Ki-moon and John Kerry’s request for a 12-hour pause in Gaza fighting, according to an Israeli official. (Barak Ravid)
10:35 P.M. Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon tells soldiers to “be prepared for the possibility that IDF will be ordered to expand Gaza ground operation very soon.” (Barak Ravid)
10:28 P.M. Hamas gunmen attempt to kidnap IDF soldier by dragging him into a tunnel. An IDF tank fired shells at the site of the attempted abduction, enabling the soldier to break free. (Gili Cohen)
10:01 P.M. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to a “down payment” of a 12-hour pause in Gaza.
Kerry said all parties are “working towards a brief, seven-day humanitarian cease-fire to try to create a more durable, sustainable cease-fire,” but the parties “still have some terminology in the context of the framework to work through.”
Kerry added that the Israeli cabinet “may have rejected some language on a potential truce,” yet Israel never formally rejected the proposal since it was never officially offered. (Barak Ravid)
9:45 P.M. Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry: More efforts needed to get all parties to agree to a cease-fire proposal. (Barak Ravid)
9:40 P.M. Eid Fidila’at, 32, was killed at the Al-Arroub refugee camp in the West Bank, north of Hebron.
The IDF reported that Fidila’at attempted to grab a soldier’s gun, who opened fire in response.
Fidila’at’s death brings the West Bank death toll over the past 24 hours to seven. (Gili Cohen and Jack Khoury)
8:51 P.M. Air France says it will resume flights to Tel Aviv later Friday, the latest major airline to lift a ban on flights to Israel imposed earlier in the week over security concerns. (Reuters)
8:39 P.M. IDF Spokesman says soldier killed in Gaza Friday is Staff Sgt. Guy Levy, 21, from Kfar Vradim. Levy was killed by mortar fire from a structure near an UNRWA school in the central Gaza Strip, according to the IDF Spokesperson.
8:37 P.M. Rocket barrage targets south and central Israel.
8:34 P.M. Israeli cabinet rejects John Kerry’s cease-fire proposal, according to a senior Israeli official. Discussions continue on how to improve the proposal in Israel’s favor. (Barak Ravid)
8:24 P.M. IDF artillery shell hits hospital in Beit Hanoun, according to eyewitness Palestinian reports. Hospital personnel, civilians and volunteers from the International Solidarity Movement are trapped inside. Earlier Friday, an IDF shell hit a private ambulance on its way to pick up wounded. According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, one medic was killed and another was seriously wounded.
Overnight, the IDF struck al-Dora Hospital in Gaza. a one-year-old baby hospitalized in the intensive care unit was killed and 30 other patients were wounded. At least 52 Palestinian civilians were killed by IDF fire in the Gaza Strip between Thursday night and Friday evening. (Amira Hass)
8:01 P.M. Head of IDF Southern Command Sami Turgeman said the IDF will take advantage of all the time it has to deal with the Gaza tunnels, commenting on a potential cease-fire.
Torjamin told reporters that the IDF has so far targeted “hundreds of terrorists” and taken dozens captive.
7:45 P.M. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah pledged full support on Friday to Hamas in its conflict with Israel despite a deep rift between the two militant organizations over the civil war in Syria.
“We in Hezbollah will be unstinting in all forms of support, assistance and aid that we are able to provide,” Nasrallah said.
“We feel we are true partners with this resistance, a partnership of jihad, brotherhood, hope, pain, sacrifice and fate, because their victory is all our victory, and their defeat is all our defeat,” he said.
Nasrallah delivered his speech in public in Hezbollah’s stronghold of south Beirut, a rare event for the militant Shi’ite Lebanese leader who has lived in hiding, fearing for his security, after Hezbollah’s 2006 war with Israel. (Reuters)
7:19 P.M. Iron Dome intercepts rocket over Ashkelon, two rockets explode in open areas. Three rockets previously intercepted over Ashdod. (Shirly Seidler)
7:08 P.M.: IDF Spokesman says a soldier was killed Friday afternoon in the Gaza Strip, bringing the death toll of IDF soldiers to 35. (Gili Cohen)
7:01 P.M. Germany’s Lufthansa said it would resume flights to Ben-Gurion International Airport on Saturday July 26, lifting a ban imposed in response to fears that rockets being fired from Gaza could pose a threat to aircraft.
“On the basis of the most up-to-date information we have available and our own assessment of the local security situation, the airlines of the Lufthansa Group will resume their flights from and to Ben-Gurion International Airport,” the airline said on Friday.
Lufthansa Group also operates Germanwings, Austrian Airlines and Swiss. (Reuters)
6:36 P.M. Two rockets intercepted over an open area near Sderot. (Shirly Seidler)
6:17 P.M. Top Palestinian officials have filed a complaint to the International Criminal Court, accusing Israel of war crimes in Gaza.
Palestinian Justice Minister Saleem Al-Saqqa and Ismail Jabr, the Gaza court public prosecutor, started legal proceedings Friday via a Paris-based lawyer over the 18 days of fighting between Hamas and Israel.
To process the complaint, the Hague-based court must first rule if it has jurisdiction in the Palestinian Authority. (AP)
6:01 P.M. An Egyptian security official says gunmen killed two senior officers in the northern Sinai Peninsula.
The official says the attackers opened fire on the officers’ vehicle near the city of el-Arish on Friday, sprayed it with bullets and fled the scene. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to media. (AP)
5:29 P.M. IDF confirms Sgt. Oron Shaul, who had been previously declared missing, did not survive the attack on his APC in Gaza on Sunday.
A special committee established by IDF Chief Rabbi Rafi Peretz concluded that Shaul is defined “a soldier killed in action whose burial site is unknown”.
Shaul’s family has been notified.
5:23 P.M. Six Palestinians have been killed over the last 24 hours in the West Bank.
Palestinians and Israeli security forces clashed in Beit Ummar, north of Hebron. Israeli reserve soldiers shot and killed Sultan al-Zakik, 30, and Hashim Hadar, 47, during the clashes, according to Palestinian media.
An Israeli citizen opened fire from a car during clashes in Huwara, south of Nablus, and shot 18-year-old Khaled Odeh to death, according to Israeli human rights group Yesh Din.
Only later did a woman fire a gun into the air, as previously reported.
The shooter fled the scene in his car.
Two Palestinians were killed during clashes at the Qalandiyah checkpoint Thursday night. (Chaim Levinson and Jack Khory)
4:59 P.M. Iranians took part in huge rallies across the country on Friday to show solidarity with Palestinians, urging them to keep up their struggle despite the Israeli assault on Gaza, Iranian state television reported.
Footage showed hundreds of thousands of people demonstrating in the capital Tehran. They chanted “Death to Israel” and “Death to America” and carried pictures of Palestinian children killed in Gaza.
State media said “millions” of people joined the rallies nationwide, which were called to mark Iran’s annual day of solidarity with Palestinians. (Reuters)
4:34 P.M. Rocket explodes in an open area in Ashdod. No injuries reported, parked cars were damaged. Police are at the scene. (Shirly Seidler)
4:30 P.M. John Kerry’s joint press conference with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon postponed until 8:30 P.M. (Barak Ravid)
4:25 P.M. A third Palestinian was killed during separate clashes in Beit Ummar near Hebron, according to Palestinian medical sources. (Reuters)
4:21 P.M. Security cabinet convenes to discuss John Kerry’s cease-fire proposal. (Barak Ravid)
4:17 P.M. Second Palestinian died following demonstrations in Huwara, near Nablus.
Tayib Oudeh, 22, succombed to gunshot wounds. (Chaim Levinson and Jack Khoury)
3:57 P.M. One Palestinian was killed and three were wounded Friday afternoon during a demonstration at Huwara, near Nablus.
Khaled Odeh, 18, of Huwara, was shot in the chest. Circumstances surrounding the incident are being investigated after a settler tesitified she fired into the air, fearing her life was in danger. She was taken in for questioning.
The incident occured at 2:30 P.M., after a protest against Israel’s operation in Gaza came out of a local mosque.
Soldiers used riot control measures to prevent the closure of a main road, which connects the settlements of Yitzhar, Itamar, Elon Moreh and Har Bracha.
Meanwhile, a resident of a nearby settlement allegedly ran into the scene and fired into the air. (Jack Khoury)
