MIDDLE EAST: Hamas calls on EU to step up pressure on Israel, while residents from all over Israel show solidarity with Sderot

Record ID: 1526294

  • Title: MIDDLE EAST: Hamas calls on EU to step up pressure on Israel, while residents from all over Israel show solidarity with Sderot
  • Date: 23rd February 2008
  • Summary: (BN11) MA'ASRA, NEAR BETHLEHEM (FEBRUARY 22, 2008) (REUTERS) VIEW OF HUNDREDS OF PROTESTERS MARCHING TO SITE WHERE SEPARATION BARRIER IS BEING BUILT CLOSE OF PROTESTERS HOLDING RED AND ORANGE FLAGS STANDING IN FRONT OF BARBED WIRE ON THE GROUND WIDE OF TENS OF ISRAELI SOLDIERS LINED IN FRONT OF PROTESTERS CLOSE OF SOLDIERS YOUTH AND PROTESTERS RUNNING AWAY FROM TEAR GAS GRENADES (AUDIO: EXPLOSIONS) CLOSE OF TEAR GAS AND STUN GRENADES GOING OFF (AUDIO: EXPLOSIONS) VARIOUS OF INTERNATIONAL AND LOCAL PROTESTERS AND JOURNALIST COUGHING AS A RESULT OF THE TEAR GAS CLOSE OF WOMAN COUGHING WIDE OF YOUTH TRYING TO GET RID OF TEAR GAS CANISTER MORE OF TEAR GAS CANISTERS GOING OFF AMONG PROTESTERS INJURED MAN BEING EVACUATED TO AN AMBULANCE NEAR BY INJURED MAN LAYING INSIDE AMBULANCE WIDE OF PROTESTER HOLDING A LARGE PALESTINIAN FLAG LOOKING AT ISRAELI SOLDIERS WIDE OF AMBULANCE DRIVING AWAY
  • Embargoed: 9th March 2008 12:59
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: European Union
  • Reuters ID: LVA51MCGGBAKKQUKJRKTTT45WKXA
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text: Thousands of people participated on Friday (February 22) in a funeral procession for one of the militants killed in an Israeli air strike, in the streets of the Maghazi refugee camp in Gaza city.
    Militants fired in the air as they took the militant's body to his family home for a final farewell before he was buried at the nearby cemetery in central Gaza.
    An Israeli missile strike killed at least two Palestinian militants and wounded a third in the central Gaza Strip, close to the border fence with the Jewish state on Friday, medical staff and Hamas security officials said.
    The Hamas officials, who did not wish to be named, said the militants were members of the Islamic Jihad militant group who were walking east of the Maghazi refugee camp when they were targeted.
    Hamas called on the European Union (EU) to step up pressure on Israel to lift its economic and military blockade of the Gaza Strip, which is controlled by the Islamist group.
    On Thursday (February 21), EU lawmakers urged Israel not to inflict "collective punishment" on Gaza's population, saying its isolation of the territory had failed and its actions were endangering civilians.
    Israel tightened its blockade on Gaza last June after Hamas routed forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement and seized control of the impoverished coastal territory. Israel said its tightened restriction were in response to cross-border rocket fire by Gaza militants.
    Israeli air strikes and ground incursions into the Gaza Strip have killed some 300 Palestinians in the past year, including dozens of civilians, but have failed to prevent rocket fire, which killed two Israelis in the same period. Shunned by the West for refusing to renounce violence after beating Abbas's Fatah faction in a parliamentary election two years ago, Hamas says it would cease fire if Israel stopped its military operations in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
    Also on Friday (February 22) four Palestinians, including two children, were injured in clashes with Israeli soldiers in the village of Ma'asra, near the West Bank town of Bethlehem, during a protest by Palestinians on Friday against Israel's separation barrier. In another demonstration near the West Bank city of Nablus, resident of a near by village protested the Israeli army closing the entrance to the village in order to open a new road. Protesters, who scuffled with the Israeli forces, demanded the opening of a new entrance to the village.
    Meanwhile, residents from different cities and towns in Israel flocked to the southern town of Sderot in a day of solidarity with the residents of the town devastated by frequent makeshift rocket attacks fired by Palestinian militants from Gaza. Israeli army counted 800 rocket launches from the beginning of the year 2008.
    The residents did their shopping for the Jewish day of rest, Shabbat (Saturday) in shops in Sderot, in an effort to boost the economy of the town, music was playing loudly in a festive atmosphere throughout the streets. Among the visitors, groups of cyclists and motorcyclists who came to show solidarity.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register