The IAF struck four Gaza targets overnight, after a day in which at least 10 mortar shells, an anti-tank missile, and a Qassam were fired at Israel. The targets were a tunnel linking Gaza to Israel, a weaponry workshop in Gaza City and two smuggling tunnels linking Gaza to Egypt.
According to palestinian medics, one palestinian was killed, two were wounded and several others were feared trapped inside the ruins.
Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)
2:50PM: Egypt has engaged in some garbage disposal and prevention.
Egypt has declared renegade British politician George Galloway persona non grata, accusing him of incitement after his harsh criticism of Cairo over delays in an aid convoy’s entry into Gaza.
A Foreign Ministry statement on Friday said Galloway will not be allowed to enter Egypt again. The activist left Egypt that morning from Cairo airport.
I’m sure this speech didn’t help matters.
11:28AM: Another humanitarian gesture on the part of the IDF.
In a joint effort of Israeli and Syrian authorities, a Druze doctor on Thursday was brought to burial in Israel after living in Syria for the past 30 years. The doctor, Afif Jamal al A’aur, was born in the Golan Heights village of Bukata and passed away last Monday. He was in his 50s. The deceased was transferred to Israel via the Red Cross and was laid to rest in his native village.
In 1977, al A’aur left his village and moved to Syria in order to attend medical school. His parents and brothers stayed behind. After completing his studies, al A’aur married in Syria and had two children.
After 1982, he was forbidden to return to Israel and began working as a doctor in the Druze village of Suwayda, near Damascus.
Once receiving word of al A’aur’s death, his family members turned to Israeli authorities and requested that they allow their loved one to be buried in Israel. The family members turned to Deputy Minister of the Development of the Negev and Galilee Ayoob Kara, who initiated talks with representatives of the Red Cross as well as the ministries of interior, defense and health.
“As part of efforts to boost relations and open the Quneitra Crossing for humanitarian and economic purposes, as well as for the passage of religious figures, students and apples from the northern Golan Heights to Syria, there was a true willingness to allow a deceased person’s body to be returned for burial in his native village,” said Kara.
IDF sources stated that al A’aur’s body was permitted to be returned to Israel as a humanitarian gesture and with full permission and cooperation of the Red Cross.
8:52AM: Someone please show Galloway the way to the gallows..
Left-wing British politician George Galloway (L) is greeted by senior Hamas leader Ismail Hanyieh during a rally honouring international peace activists in Gaza City January 7, 2010. Egypt has reached a deal with members of an aid convoy, led by Galloway, to take supplies to Palestinians in Gaza after protests overnight, but Cairo barred their private cars from crossing, an Egyptian security source said. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
An international “peace activist” cosying up to the leader of a terror organization whose charter states, amongst other things:
Israel will rise and will remain erect until Islam eliminates it as it had eliminated its predecessors (preamble).
And:
[Peace] initiatives, the so-called peaceful solutions, and the international conferences to resolve the Palestinian problem, are all contrary to the beliefs of the Islamic Resistance Movement….There is no solution to the Palestinian problem except by Jihad (article 13)
8:38AM: Class is in session: Media bias 101.
