Comments (0)Israeli Airstrikes Hit Arms Factory, Tunnels
October 23, 2009Jerusalem
JTA Wire Service
The Israeli Air Force bombed a building and two smuggling tunnels in Gaza.
Wednesday night’s raid was in response to a Kassam rocket attack near a kibbutz in the western Negev several hours earlier.
The building located in Gaza City was used to produce weapons, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
Some 55 rockets and mortar shells have been launched at Israel in the past three months, the IDF said. More than 250 rockets have targeted Israel since the end of Operation Cast Lead in January and more than 750 in 2009.
Hezbollah Accuses Israel of Planting Spy Equipment
Hezbollah accused Israel of placing listening devices in southern Lebanon at the end of the 2006 war between the two sides.
On Monday, the Lebanon-based terror group released a statement saying it had discovered the devices and that Israel detonated them remotely once they were discovered.
Israel reportedly detonated two of the spy devices and another was destroyed by the Lebanese military.
Three explosions were reported in southern Lebanon over the weekend.
“Preliminary indications are that these explosions were caused by explosive charges contained in unattended underground sensors which were placed in this area by the Israel Defense Forces apparently during the 2006 war,” UNIFIL reported, according to the French news agency AFP.
The IDF has not acknowledged the existence of the alleged listening devices, which would violate U.N. Resolution 1701, the cease-fire agreement that ended the Second Lebanon War. The Lebanese government also has complained that Israeli drones flying recently in Lebanese airspace are a violation of the resolution.
Israel has accused Hezbollah of violating the cease-fire after recent explosions in southern Lebanon showed that the group was stockpiling weapons there.
Palestinian Students Unable to Leave Gaza for Studies
More than 800 Gaza Palestinians have been unable to leave the coastal strip for university study abroad, an Israeli legal center says.
The academic year has started, but 838 students are still waiting for exit permits from Israel, according to Gisha-Legal Center for Freedom of Movement.
Some 1,145 students have left through the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, and another 69 received permits to exit from the Erez crossing into Israel, according to Gisha, citing figures from the Palestinian Interior Ministry in Gaza.
The rest either do not meet Israel’s criteria, which includes having a diplomatic escort, or have not been able to get out through the Rafah crossing, which only opens infrequently.
Responding to Gisha’s claims, Israel’s Civil Administration told Ynet that “The policy of allowing scholarship recipients from Gaza is derived from the government’s overall policy regarding the Strip. Israel is under no legal obligation to allow Palestinian students to cross into it for the mere sake of traveling abroad to school. Nevertheless, it was recently decided to ease such departures and some 200 scholarship recipients have left Gaza since 2008.”
This story reprinted courtesy of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.