Israeli air strikes kill three in Gaza after rocket fire

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Israeli security forces gather at Israel-Gaza border near the kibbutz of Kfar Aza, as smoke rises from a bus that was reportedly hit by a rocket fired from the Palestinian enclave on Monday. (AFP)
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A picture taken from the Gaza Strip on November 12, 2018 shows missiles being launched toward Israel. A number of rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip toward Israel. (AFP)
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The Hamas-run television station Al-Aqsa TV in Gaza during an Israeli air strike. (AFP)
Updated 13 November 2018
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Israeli air strikes kill three in Gaza after rocket fire

  • Israel's military says it hit militant sites in response to rocket launches from Gaza
  • Hamas said it launched the rockets in revenge for a deadly Israeli military operation late Sunday

GAZA: Israeli warplanes have struck targets throughout the Gaza Strip on Monday, while Hamas has unleashed a barrage of rocket fire into Isreal in deadly clashes that have raised fears of another major war between the foes. 
Three Palestinians and an Israeli have so far been killed, with a number of injuries reported on both sides.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged all sides to exercise maximum restraint as his organization said it was working with Egypt to restore calm. 
The flare-up came after a deadly Israeli special forces operation in the Gaza Strip on Sunday that left Hamas vowing revenge.
Israel's military said it had so far struck more than 70 militant sites in response to over 300 rockets fired from the Hamas-run territory Monday afternoon into the evening.
Missile defences had intercepted dozens of the rockets from Gaza and most others fell in open areas, though some hit houses and other civilian structures, the military said. Medics reported at least 10 Israelis wounded.




A picture taken from the Gaza Strip on November 12, 2018 shows missiles being launched toward Israel. (AFP)

The army said an Israeli bus was hit by an anti-tank missile from the Gaza Strip, causing several injuries. A soldier was severely wounded, it said.
Palestinian militant groups in Gaza, including Hamas, claimed responsibility for the rocket fire and the missile attack on the bus, which they said was being used by Israeli soldiers.
Israeli military spokesman Jonathan Conricus said he could not yet provide further details on the bus or its passengers.
Gaza's health ministry said three Palestinians were killed in the Israeli strikes and nine wounded.
Militant group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said two of those killed were its members, while the third was from Islamic Jihad's armed wing.




A picture taken from the Gaza Strip on November 12, 2018 shows missiles being launched toward Israel. A number of rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip toward Israel. (AFP)

The building for Hamas's Al-Aqsa TV was destroyed in an Israeli strike after a series of warning shots, with Israel's army saying the station "contributes to Hamas's military actions".
No injuries were reported and workers were believed to have evacuated after the warning shots.
Gaza militants threatened a harsh response and, according to police, more rockets hit in the Israeli city of Ashkelon.
Hamas said the initial rocket fire was in revenge for the deadly Israeli operation late Sunday.
On Sunday, a clash erupted during the covert operation in the Gaza Strip that killed seven Palestinian militants, including a local commander for Hamas's armed wing, as well as an Israeli army officer.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cut short a trip to Paris and rushed home as tensions rose, and on Monday convened a meeting of security chiefs.
UN Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov, who along with Egypt has been seeking a long-term truce between Israel and Hamas, called the escalation "extremely dangerous" and said on Twitter that "restraint must be shown by all".

Israel had stressed its covert operation on Sunday was an intelligence-gathering mission and "not an assassination or abduction", but Hamas strongly denounced it and vowed revenge.
Israel signalled that Sunday's mission did not go as planned and resulted in the clash, which Palestinian officials said included Israeli air strikes.
Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, said the Israeli special forces team had infiltrated near Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip in a civilian car.
An exchange of fire followed in which local Al-Qassam commander Nour Baraka was killed along with another militant, it said.
The car then attempted to flee and Israeli aircraft provided covering fire.
Israel's military declined to comment on the Al-Qassam account "because of the sensitive nature of the operation".
A funeral was held for the seven Palestinian militants on Monday attended by thousands, including masked Al-Qassam members carrying rifles, some firing into the air.
The latest clashes came after months of deadly unrest along the Gaza-Israel border had appeared to be calming.
Recent weeks have seen Israel allow Qatar to provide the Gaza Strip with millions of dollars in aid for salaries as well as fuel to help ease an electricity crisis.
Before the flare-up, Netanyahu had defended his decision to allow Qatar to transfer the cash to Gaza despite criticism from within his own government, saying he wanted to avoid a war if it was not necessary.
Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza have fought three wars since 2008, and recent months have raised fears of a fourth.
Deadly clashes have accompanied major protests along the Gaza-Israel border that began on March 30.
At least 231 Palestinians have since been killed by Israeli fire, the majority shot during protests and clashes, while others died in tank fire or air strikes.
Two Israeli soldiers have been killed in that time.

 


US touts ‘New Gaza’ filled with luxury real estate

Updated 6 sec ago
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US touts ‘New Gaza’ filled with luxury real estate

Davos, Switzerland: US officials on Thursday presented their vision for a “New Gaza” that would turn the shattered Palestinian territory into a glitzy resort of skyscrapers by the sea, saying the transformation could emerge in three years.
The war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel, left much of the Palestinian territory damaged or destroyed and forced most of its residents to flee their homes.
A US-brokered ceasefire took effect last October, reducing the level of bombing and fighting, but for most Gazans, the humanitarian disaster has endured three months on.
“We’re going to be very successful in Gaza. It’s going to be a great thing to watch,” President Donald Trump said while presenting his controversial “Board of Peace” conflict-resolution body in Davos.
“I’m a real estate person at heart... and I said, look at this location on the sea. Look at this beautiful piece of property. What it could be for so many people,” he said at the World Economic Forum.
His son-in-law Jared Kushner, who has no official title but is one of Trump’s envoys for the Gaza ceasefire, said his “master plan” aimed for “catastrophic success.”
With a slide showing dozens of shiny terraced apartment towers overlooking a tree-lined promenade, he promised a Mediterranean utopia rising from the scarred Gaza landscape.
“In the Middle East they build cities like this, you know for two or three million people, they build this in three years,” Kushner said.
“And so stuff like this is very doable if we make it happen.”
He touted investments of at least $25 billion to rebuild destroyed infrastructure and public services.
Within 10 years, the territory’s GDP would be $10 billion, and households would enjoy average income of $13,000 a year thanks to “100-percent full employment and opportunity for everybody there,” he said.
“It could be a hope. It could be a destination, have a lot of industry and really be a place that the people there can thrive.”

’Amazing’ opportunities

Kushner said the so-called National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) had enlisted help from Israeli real estate developer Yakir Gabay.
“He’s volunteered to do this not for profit, really because of his heart he wants to do this,” Kushner said.
“So the next 100 days, we’re going to continue to just be heads down and focused on making sure this is implemented.”
Trump had earlier in the conflict floated his vision of turning Gaza into a “Riviera of the Middle East,” sparking outrage around the world.
Notably absent from Kushner’s presentation was Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, whose country had spearheaded in 2025 a reconstruction plan for Gaza supported by Arab nations and welcomed by the European Union.
According to a brief statement from his office, El-Sisi flew home at dawn on Thursday, hours after he and Trump exchanged praise in a tete-a-tete, with the US president calling him “a great leader, a great guy.”
Ali Shaath, Gaza’s recently appointed administrator under Trump’s “Board of Peace,” has said the Egyptian plan was the “foundation” of his committee’s reconstruction project.
A top UN official warned this month that Gazans were living in “inhumane” conditions even as the US-backed truce entered its second phase.
Entire neighborhoods, hospitals and schools have been heavily damaged or destroyed, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to live in makeshift shelters.
Kushner said 85 percent of Gaza’s economic output had been aid for a long time.
“That’s not sustainable. It doesn’t give these people dignity. It doesn’t give them hope,” he said.
He insisted that the full disarming of Hamas, as called for in the October ceasefire, would convince firms and donors to commit to the territory.
“We’ll announce a lot of the contributions that will be made in a couple of weeks in Washington,” he said.
“There’ll be amazing investment opportunities.”
Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, and 251 people were taken hostage that day, including 44 who were dead.
Israel’s retaliatory assault on Gaza has killed at least 71,562 people, according to figures from the territory’s health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.
The ministry also said 477 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire took effect on October 10.