Palestinian/ Israeli update 10/5/2016.. Israeli Airstrikes, Tank Fire Hit Gaza Strip

Israel hits Hamas posts after rocket fire from Gaza

Israeli warplanes strike Gaza strip 6 times

Israeli Airstrikes, Tank Fire Hit Besieged Gaza Strip

http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13950714001457

Israeli airstrikes and tank shells pounded the besieged Gaza Strip after Tel Aviv claimed the attacks were carried out after rocket attack from the Palestinian coastal sliver targeted the occupied territories. The tank shelling hit an observation post belonging to the Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, near the Northern city of Beit Hanoun on Wednesday, with local residents and Hamas-run media saying that no one sustained injuries in the attack, presstv reported. Hamas security sources said that the post, which came under the Israeli shelling, was run by the movement’s military wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades. According to Hamas security officials, Israeli jets also carried out two strikes in Eastern Gaza Strip, while two other air raids hit the Southern city of Khan Yunis and the al-Tufah neighborhood of Gaza City in the coastal enclave’s North. Local sources further reported that Israeli reconnaissance planes were hovering over Beit Hanoun.

The developments came hours after the Israeli military claimed a rocket had hit a street of Sderot in the occupied territories. Back in August, Tel Aviv also targeted Gaza with dozens of airstrikes and tank shelling after a rocket hit Sderot. Israel has waged three wars on Gaza since 2008, including the 2014 offensive, which left more than 2,200 Palestinians dead and over 11,100 others injured. Israel continues to carry out attacks on the Palestinian coastal sliver from time to time. Israeli fighter jets also frequently bomb Gaza. The Israeli military also uses drones over the impoverished region either to monitor and photograph Palestinian military units in the blockaded coastal enclave, or launch aerial attacks against targets. Gaza has been under an Israeli siege since June 2007. The blockade has caused a decline in the standard of living as well as unprecedented levels of unemployment and unrelenting poverty in the Palestinian coastal enclave.

“Women’s boat to Gaza” surrounded by Israeli navy

Israeli Gunboats on Way to Hijack Gaza-Bound Women’s Boat

http://www.globalresearch.ca/israeli-gunboats-on-way-to-hijack-gaza-bound-womens-boat/5549511

A few hours before the Zaytouna boat reaches Gaza shores, a cry for help has been launched by onboard activists to guarantee their safe arrival to the coastal territory. With Israeli threats materializing on the ground, the International Committee to Break the Siege on Gaza appealed for guaranteeing women onboard al-Zaytouna a safe arrival to Gaza shores without being hijacked by Israel. A fleet of Israeli gunboats has, meanwhile, set sail from the Ashdod Harbor in an attempt to intercept the Zaytouna solidarity boat.

The American activists onboard the ship appealed to the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv to deter Israel from attacking the boat. However, they were told by the embassy that the occupation navy has received instructions to commandeer the boat right as it approaches Gaza shores and to tow it to the Ashdod Seaport. In case of any defiance, activists will be arrested. Israeli gunboats docked in Ashdod navigated to international waters so as to force Zaytouna to backtrack. The international anti-siege committee dubbed Israel’s projected takeover of the boat an infringement of international laws and parliamentary immunity and also a crime against peaceful activists that do not pose any threat to Israel.

The committee’s chairman Zaher Birawi called on activists around the world to launch a solidarity campaign via social media in the event of an Israeli assault. A similar Gaza-bound aid flotilla ended in tragedy in 2010 when the Turkish “Mavi Marmara” aid ship was raided by Israeli commandos, who killed 10 Turkish activists. Since 2007, the Gaza Strip has groaned under a crippling Israeli/Egyptian blockade that has deprived its almost two million inhabitants of most basic commodities, including food, fuel, medicine and desperately-needed building materials. The original source of this article is The Palestinian Information Center Copyright © The Palestinian Information Center, The Palestinian Information Center, 2016

Ja’afari: Israel looting Palestinians’ natural resources

US slams Israel again over West Bank settlements

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/10/05/us-slams-israel-again-over-west-bank-settlements.html

The Obama administration on Wednesday once again condemned Israel for plans to construct housing on land claimed by the Palestinians, saying a new project announced last week profoundly hurts efforts to forge a two-state solution to the long-running conflict. In unusually strong statements, the White House and State Department lashed out at a proposal announced last week to construct a significant new settlement of up to 300 housing units and establish an industrial zone in the West Bank. Both Israel and the Palestinians responded quickly with statements accusing each other of being the real obstacle to peace.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said every U.S. administration since 1967 has opposed Israeli settlement activity in the occupied territories, and the Obama administration has publicly restated that view because of the concern that settlement activity in the West Bank and East Jerusalem undermines the goal of a two-state solution. “The actions of the Israeli government in announcing this settlement undermine the pursuit of peace,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. He added that the U.S. had also received public assurances from the Israeli government that contradicted the settlement announcement. “I guess, when we’re talking about how good friends treat one another, that’s a source of serious concern as well,” he said.

At the State Department, spokesman Mark Toner said moving ahead with the project would be “another step toward cementing a one-state reality of perpetual occupation that is fundamentally inconsistent with Israel’s future as a Jewish and democratic state.” “Such moves will only draw condemnation from the international community, distance Israel from many of its partners, and further call into question Israel’s commitment to achieving a negotiated peace,” he said. Toner said the proposal was “deeply troubling” because Israel announced the proposal so soon after the U.S. agreed last month to a new 10-year, $38 billion military aid package for Israel. He also said it was “disheartening” as the announcement came the world was mourning the death of former Israeli leader Shimon Peres. U.S. officials said the administration was particularly disturbed because the announcement came as President Barack Obama was visiting Jerusalem last week for the Peres’ state funeral. “It is deeply troubling, in the wake of Israel and the U.S. concluding an unprecedented agreement on military assistance designed to further strengthen Israel’s security, that Israel would take a decision so contrary to its long-term security interest in a peaceful resolution of its conflict with the Palestinians,” Toner said. “Furthermore, it is disheartening that while Israel and the world mourned the passing of President Shimon Peres, and leaders from the U.S. and other nations prepared to honor one of the great champions of peace, plans were advanced that would seriously undermine the prospects for the two-state solution that he so passionately supported.”

SunWillRise

USS Liberty survivor’s new book soon to be a full-length feature film | Veterans Today

…by Phillip F. Tourney

It’s hard to believe that nearly 50 years has passed since Israel attacked my good ship USS Liberty in international waters.

I have personally spent the last 30 years getting the truth out; writing thousands of letters to politicians, attending events across the country, having the great honor of being the only three-time president of the USS Liberty Veterans Association.

I have been hosting a radio show, writing articles and books, and whatever else I could do to teach anyone I could about the vicious attack, that is still covered up today by not just the Zionist state of Israel, but the U.S. government as well.

My first book, What I Saw That Day: Israel’s June 8, 1967 Holocaust of U.S. Servicemen Aboard the USS Liberty and its Aftermath, helped to educate thousands about Israel’s pre-meditated, cold-blooded attack and cover-up that slaughtered 34 of my shipmates and wounded 174 others, including myself.

Now, as the 50th anniversary of that horrific attack approaches, I have a new book that has just been released, which is sure to be just as popular as my first, and maybe more so. Perhaps most importantly, this new book, Erasing the Liberty: My Battle To Keep Alive The Memory Of Israel’s Attack On The USS Liberty, is the primary funding vehicle for a full-length feature film of the same name.

Containing not just my memoirs of that day and the decades that followed, Erasing the Liberty has eyewitness accounts of 12 of my shipmates, all Liberty survivors and crew members, as well as firsthand testimony of six sailors who served aboard ships who came to the Liberty’s rescue, plus testimony from other military men.

The book ties in thousands of facts and first-hand accounts to present one undeniable conclusion: the attack on the Liberty was anything but a mistake, and our own government betrayed, and continues to betray, all Americans with its disgraceful cover-up.

Erasing the Liberty is packed with all available information on Israel’s vicious attack on my unarmed spy ship and the U.S. government’s continuing cover-up, gleaned from every book about the assault, as well as from other sources.

As self-important as it may sound, the attack on my ship and its aftermath had and continues to have a lasting impact on nearly all of our lives—every inhabitant of planet Earth—from June 8, 1967 to the current day. In fact, the attack on the Liberty—perhaps more than any other post-WW II event—set the stage for how our world has unfolded.

The ways this is manifested are many, but the consequences of allowing Israel to fulfill and maintain its illegal land grab, and to suffer no punishment for its slaughter of innocent Americans on the high seas in international waters, has certainly not moved the world on a peaceful path.

We all know that if those in charge of the mainstream media—whether the print media, the big book publishing houses, the television networks, or the major movie studios—wanted you to know about the Liberty, you would already know.

They don’t want this story told: not today, not tomorrow, and not ever. But I do. And I hope you do, too.

I encourage all Americans, and anyone else interested in the truth and peace, to visit http://usslibertymovie.com and make a donation today. For any amount over $25, we’ll mail out my new book, Erasing the Liberty, right away. God bless you for your support, and God bless the United States of America.