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Palestine Today a service of the International Middle East Media Centre www.imemc.org for Wednesday July 11Th, 2006
A couple and their seven children were killed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza, Two Israeli soldiers abducted, seven killed in attack by Hezbollah, while the army arrests more civilians from several West Bank cities
These stories and more coming up stay tuned.
Husband, his wife and their seven children killed in an Israeli Air Strike in Gaza
The Israeli army killed fifteen Palestinians Wednesday including a married couple and their seven children in the Gaza Strip.
The family was identified as Nabil Abu Salmiya, a lecturer at the Islamic University in Gaza, his wife Salwa, both 39, and their seven children Nasrallah, Basima, 16, Sumayya, 12, Huda, 8, Eman, 11, Aya, 7, and Yahia, 13.
Sources reported the Abu Salmiya family was at home when a one-ton bomb hit their Al-Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in the city. At least 37 residents were injured in the attack, three of them seriously. Most of the injured residents were children.
Medical sources said the burned and mutilated state of the bodies caused delay in identification. Israel claims the buildings targeted were housing armed Hamas operatives. Palestinian sources confirmed that dead and injured were civilians.
The source later added that another man died of his wounds sustained in the morning’s bombing.
Dr. Joma Al-Saqa, head of the public relations office at al Shifa Hospital in Gaza
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"Along the past week, we have been receiving martyrs completely burnt, severely mutilated, in some cases, relatives could not identify their dead. In addition, we had several cases of sever shots in the head. There are also several death caused by snipers. We receive cases along the hour from all ages and both sexes."
A separate Israeli air strike killed three more Palestinians in the Al Matahin residential area in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.
Earlier that day, Israeli troops killed a Palestinian man near the Kissufim crossing that links the Gaza Strip and Israel.
The Israeli air force fired several missiles at a Palestinian vehicle in Gaza Wednesday, injuring several residents.
Troops were also positioned on the rooftops of houses in the town of Deir Al-Balah. Soldiers opened fired at a Palestinian security checkpoint, killing Ziad Abu Mugheisib, 20, and wounded three others.
Rami Meghari reporting from the Gaza Strip
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Six Israeli Human Rights groups petitioned the Israeli High Court demanding that the crossings in Gaza be re-opened to allow supplies of fuel, food, medicine, and equipment in to help curb a growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Dr. Joma Al-Saqa head of the public relations office at al Shifa Hospital in Gaza, talks about the crisis:
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"Unfortunately we have a very small storage for emergency for the coming period. This will definitely be badly affected if aggressive Israeli attacks against the Gaza Strip continue. We are economizing the consumption as much as possible to allow it to serve longer."
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, “Ham-o-ked,” Center for Defense of the Individual, “B’tselem,” the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel and Gisha, the Center for the Legal Protection of Freedom of Movement all asked for an hearing on to protect the health of the civilian population, especially patients in hospital, and to prevent the breakdown of the water and sewage system in Gaza.
Two Israeli soldiers abducted, seven killed in attack by Hezbollah
Hezbollah, the Islamic Resistance Movement of Lebanon, declared Wednesday at 9.05 am that it had captured two Israeli soldiers in an attack meant to secure the release of Palestinians being held as ‘prisoners of war’ in Israeli prisons.
The statement read that in order to fulfill a promise to free the prisoners and detainees, the Islamic Resistance captured two Israeli soldiers at the borders with occupied Palestine. The statement added that the soldiers are safe and have been moved to a secure location. An Israeli army spokesman confirmed the abduction this morning.
Hezbollah fighters fired dozens of Katyusha rockets and mortar rounds on the Israeli occupied Shebaa Farms border area, security sources said.
There was also a barrage of fire towards Israel from Lebanon on the northern border, close to the Mediterranean coast, the sources added.
The shelling, accompanied by automatic gunfire, began at 9:00 am, Israeli military sources said. Israeli forces promptly launched a ground and air assault on Lebanon, a military spokesman said.
Eight residents arrested in Hebron, several surrounding villages
Israeli soldiers arrested eight Palestinian residents Wednesday in the West Bank city of Hebron and several surrounding villages and the Al Arroub refugee camp, local sources reported.
Soldiers invaded Hebron, Tarqoumia, Beit Ummar, Surif, and the Al Arroub refugee camp and broke into a charitable society office and an office that belongs to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
The Hebron office of the Palestinian Prisoners Society identified five of the arrestees as; Yousef Mousa Abu Khdeir, 23, Baha’ Kamal Baradeyya, 18, both from Surif, north west of Hebron, Mohammad Waheed Shallaf, 31, from Tarqoumia west of Hebron, Ashraf Ayid Al Ghrous, 18 and Sa’id Dieb Hajajra, 18, from Al Arroub refugee camp, north of Hebron.
Palestinian security sources in Hebron also reported that soldiers broke into an educational society and an office that belongs to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in Hebron.
Troops blew open the door to two offices and confiscated documents.
Mousa Al Natsha, head of the Al Risala Al Elmiyya Society in Hebron, said that twenty soldiers broke into the society after destroying its main door and conducted military searches causing damage to the property, especially the computers.
Al Natsha added that soldiers confiscated files, documents and pictures that belong to the society which provides charitable services in Hebron.
The society provides poor school and university students with the needed aid and that the society does not have any political activities.
Army arrests four residents in Salfit
Israeli troops invaded the West Bank city of Salfit and arrested four residents on Wednesday.
Troops and army jeeps stormed the city, searched scores of residential houses before arresting Sa’ed Abd Al Razik, 21, the son of the imprisoned Minister of Finance Aziz Al Fatash. Razik brother Rizek and Fawaz Mo’ali were also arrested.
All were taken to unknown locations.
Army arrests one resident from Nablus
The Israeli army arrested one resident from the West Bank city of Nablus during a predawn invasion Wednesday.
More than 15 army vehicles stormed the old city and several other neighborhoods, searching scores of residential homes before arresting Ammer Al Halabi, 27. He was moved to unknown location, eyewitnesses reported.
Conclusion
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