Early Friday morning, a bomb blast in Gaza City killed 28 year old leader resistance leader Abdul Moeti Mohammad Daf and seriously injured a second man; in a separate incident Friday morning, two Palestinian workers were shot to death trying to cross into Israel to work; and a third strike, a missile attack, injured two.
While Israeli military sources claim the workers were trying to plant explosives at the border, eyewitnesses claimed that they were merely trying to cross the border, near Kissufim crossing, in order to get to work. The two men killed in the incident were identified as Solaiman Hamaeda and Mohammed Ahmed. A third man was injured by Israeli gunfire.
Unemployment rates have reached 80% in many parts of the Gaza Strip, as Israeli forces closed the borders into Israel where many Palestinians have their jobs. Some manage to sneak across the borders to work, but many more, afraid of Israeli forces at the border, remain home, unable to feed their families. Malnutrition rates of children in the Gaza Strip have been estimated by the World Health Organization to be about 40%. Meanwhile, Dov Weisglass, the top advisor to the Israeli Prime Minister, called last week for sanctions in order to, as he put it, "put the Palestinians on a diet", as punishment for voting for the Hamas party in January elections.
Later Friday morning, Israeli aircraft fired a missile at a car carrying militants on their way to fire rockets, an official from the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades resistance group said. The occupants jumped to safety before the car was hit. Two passers-by were slightly hurt.
