- Title: MIDEAST: Gaza morning after airstrikes by Israel
- Date: 13th March 2014
- Summary: BORDER AREA BETWEEN ISRAEL AND GAZA, ISRAEL (MARCH 13, 2014) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF GAZA STRIP AS SEEN FROM ISRAELI SIDE VARIOUS OF ISRAELI MILITARY VEHICLES AT THE BORDER AREA WITH GAZA SIGN READING IN ARABIC AND HEBREW: "GAZA" RAFAH, GAZA (MARCH 13, 2014) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF KEREM SHALOM COMMERCIAL CROSSING CLOSED SIGN READING IN ARABIC: "STOP, KEREM SHALOM" GAZA CITY, GAZA (MARCH 13, 2014) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF VEHICLES ON GAZA STREET GAZA RESIDENT, HAITHAM AL HIMS, WALKING BY (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) GAZA RESIDENT, HAITHAM AL HIMS, SAYING: "It is obvious that when there are martyrs there should be rockets (firing against Israel). Escalation brings escalation and calmness brings calmness that's what we are used to in the Gaza Strip." VARIOUS OF VEHICLES ON STREET PEOPLE WALKING ON ROAD SIDE (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) GAZA RESIDENT, MAZEN AL AIUBI, SAYING: "The Jews now are afraid because the rockets will reach further than Tel Aviv, that's what the Jews think about. The Jews will never go for ground invasion, the Jews will only hit with airstrikes. I do not think they will do ground invasion so we ask the militants to keep firing rockets and we support them and do not care about the closing of Kerem Shalom crossing, and do not care about all." VARIOUS OF VEHICLES IN THE STREET
- Embargoed: 28th March 2014 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Israel
- City:
- Country: Israel
- Topics: International Relations,Politics
- Reuters ID: LVAAAP4L5N8VRZ7NH5CN2MW83SIW
- Aspect Ratio:
- Story Text: Gaza residents woke up on Thursday (March 13) to rainy weather after an eventful night during which the Israeli military carried out some 29 airstrikes against targets in Gaza.
Israel also closed Kerem Shalom crossing for the second day after the recent violence during which dozens of rockets were fired by Gaza-based militants and Israeli airstrikes that targeted mainly southern Gaza.
Israel said that the rocket attack was the heaviest such barrage in two years. One of the rockets landed on the Gaza border town of Sderot causing minimal damage.
The rocket fire, which police said caused no casualties, was claimed by Islamic Jihad and came a day after Israel killed three of its members in a Gaza airstrike.
The weather seems to have kept the situation calmer than many had anticipated.
"It is obvious that when there are martyrs there should be rockets (firing against Israel). Escalation brings escalation and calmness brings calmness that's what we are used to in the Gaza Strip," Haitham Al Hims said in Gaza City.
"I do not think they will do ground invasion so we ask the militants to keep firing rockets and we support them and do not care about the closing of Kerem Shalom crossing," Mazen Al Aiubi, from Gaza City said.
Israel pulled its soldiers and settlers out of the territory, now run by Hamas Islamists, in 2005. But it maintains a naval and air blockade and severely restricts the overland movement of people and goods across the volatile border. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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