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Senin, 06 Mei 2019

Israel and Gaza reach ceasefire agreement amid tense calm - Al Jazeera English

Palestinian officials said a ceasefire agreement has been reached with Israel to end a surge of violence in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel that has led to the deaths of at least 23 Palestinians and four Israelis.

Gaza officials confirmed to Al Jazeera that a deal was reached at 1:30 GMT, and no Israeli air raids on the Palestinian territory have been reported since the deal came into effect.

The officials said Egypt and Qatar helped mediate an end to days of attacks between Gaza and Israel.

There was no confirmation from the Israeli side. However, the Israeli army early on Monday lifted all protective restrictions imposed near the Gaza area during the weekend's flare-up.

The Home Front Command instructed residents of the south to return to their routines.

The Israeli Transportation Ministry announced that all public bus routes in the south would return to full and normal operation. The railway line between the cities of Ashkelon and Beersheba was also set to resume later in the morning.

An Islamic Jihad official, on condition of anonymity, said the truce agreement was based on Israel easing its blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Among the steps, he said, were the easing of limits on the fishing zone to 12 nautical miles off the coast of Gaza and improvements in Gaza's electricity and fuel situation.

An Egyptian official also confirmed the deal on condition of anonymity.

The flare-up was the most serious clash between the two sides since a spate of fighting in November.

Rocket sirens in southern Israel, which had gone off continuously over the weekend, sending residents running for cover, were quite for a few hours straight before dawn on Monday.

On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had ordered "massive strikes" on the Gaza Strip after a two-day escalation in which Israeli warplanes and gunboats targeted the Gaza as fighters in the besieged enclave fired a barrage of rockets into southern Israel.

A 34-year-old Hamas commander was killed on Sunday in what the Israeli military described as a targeted strike.

An army statement accused Hamad al-Khodori of "transferring large sums of money" from Iran to armed factions in Gaza.

Other Palestinian victims included two pregnant women and three infants.

In the Israeli city of Ashkelon, a 58-year-old Israeli man was killed after being struck by shrapnel from a rocket attack. Two other Israelis, critically wounded in a separate rocket attacks on a factory on Sunday afternoon, later died.

Around two million Palestinians live in Gaza, the economy of which has suffered years of Israeli and Egyptian blockades as well as recent foreign aid cuts and sanctions by the Palestinian Authority, Hamas' West Bank-based rival.

Israel said its blockade is necessary to stop weapons reaching Hamas, with which it has fought three wars since the group seized control of Gaza in 2007, two years after Israel withdrew its settlers and troops from the area.

What does a Netanyahu election victory mean for Palestinians?

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https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/05/palestinians-truce-reached-israel-vowed-massive-strikes-190506022134617.html

2019-05-06 06:47:00Z
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Minggu, 05 Mei 2019

Exclusive: Images show North Korea missile launch as Pyongyang tests Trump - CNN

"The location of the launch, the thick, smoky appearance of the exhaust and the fact that there is only one rocket trail all suggest this was the short-range ballistic missile that North Korea showed in its propaganda," said Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Middlebury Institute.

The Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey provided CNN with two images of the smoke trail.

The missile test, North Korea's first since 2017, serves as a clear warning of leader Kim Jong Un's frustration at the state of talks with the US, which have been deadlocked since President Donald Trump walked out of their Vietnam summit early in February. The launch follows a warm meeting between Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin less than two weeks ago and likely signals more tests to come, Lewis said.

Lewis said the North Koreans began firing a barrage of short-range projectiles beginning at approximately 9:06 a.m. on Saturday (8:06 p.m., ET Friday). Sometime around or after 10 a.m., Pyongyang fired another projectile. The image of that launch and the smoky plume it trailed in its wake was caught by Planet Labs, which works with the Middlebury Institute.

"This is a one in a million shot," Lewis told CNN. The missile "was fired right about this time" and the photo would have been taken "within a few seconds, maybe a few minutes."

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, speaking on ABC News "This Week," confirmed that the projectile was "relatively short range" and "landed in the water east of North Korea and didn't present a threat to the United States or to South Korea or Japan."

The US and North Korea have hit an impasse as Pyongyang is demanding sanctions relief before it begins to denuclearize, while the US insists that Pyongyang relinquish its nuclear weapons before any economic pressure is eased.

Pompeo struck a positive note on ABC, saying, "We still believe there's an opportunity" to achieve "verified denuclearization" and that the US side hopes "we can get back to the table and find the path forward." The top US diplomat added that the US is still speaking with representatives of the regime since the failed Hanoi summit.

Pompeo and other senior security officials met to discuss the launch on Saturday. The US special representative to North Korea, former Ford auto executive Stephen Biegun, travels to Japan on May 5 for meetings.

Kim had pledged not to fire long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles, so the launch doesn't violate the letter of his agreement with Trump, but it does violate an understanding Pyongyang made with Seoul to stop firing missiles as a confidence building measure.

Lewis sees a historical parallel with a North Korean promise to declare a moratorium on long range missile tests in the early 2000s that lasted for several years. When Pyongyang broke that moratorium in 2006, they started with a short range missile test that technically did not break the agreement.

"But it was a warning," Lewis said. "Then as now, talks were deadlocked. They did a short-range missile test and in July they did a big one," using the long range Taepodong 2 missile. "This is a pretty classic move from them to start small and work their way up. It's a warning that there's more to come."

Despite the prospect of escalating tensions, Pompeo defended the President's negotiating tactics on ABC, saying "this is the President who has put on the toughest sanctions in the world on North Korea" and that "the US continues to apply pressure."

He said the US has to "play out every diplomatic effort we have" to achieve denuclearization and do that "without the use of force."

"We continue to work toward that," Pompeo said.

Asked about reports that North Korean negotiators involved in the failed Vietnam summit have been executed, Pompeo said, "I don't have anything to add to that this morning," but acknowledged that he may have to negotiate with other people going forward.

CNN's Matthew Hoye, Jennifer Hansler and Kylie Atwood contributed to this report

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https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/05/politics/north-korea-missile-launch-image/index.html

2019-05-05 19:39:00Z
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13 dead after Aeroflot plane's emergency landing, fire at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport - Fox News

At least 13 people were killed in a fire on a Russian airliner forced to make a hard emergency landing at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport on Sunday, officials said.

Russia's Investigative Committee said two children were among the dead but did not immediately provide further details.

Airport officials said Aeroflot flight SU1492, a Sukhoi SSJ-100 regional jet, had taken off for the northern city of Murmansk before it was forced to turn around with 73 passengers and five crew members on board.

In this image provided by Riccardo Dalla Francesca shows smoke rises from a fire on a plane at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport on Sunday, May 5, 2019. (Riccardo Dalla Francesca via AP)

Aeroflot said in a brief statement that the plane's engines were burning after the aircraft landed, but the sequence of events before and after the fire started was not clear. The statement did not specify what caused the plane to return to Sheremetyevo Airport, saying only that technical problems forced the jet to turn around.

This image taken from video provided by Instagram user @artempetrovich, shows an Aeroflot Airlines flight on fire during an emergency landing in Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow, Russia. (@artempetrovich via AP)

FORMER TRANSPORTATION DEPT OFFICIAL COMPARES JACKSONVILLE BOEING 737 ACCIDENT TO 'MIRACLE ON THE HUDSON'

Videos and pictures posted to Twitter showed the jet landing at Sheremetyevo Airport with large flames engulfing the rear section.

One video showed a massive amount of flames coming from what appeared to be the engine as the plane touched down on a runway.

Video aired by Russian news channel Rossiya-24 showed passengers leaping from the front of the burning aircraft onto an inflatable slide and staggering across the tarmac and adjoining grass.

A law enforcement source told the Interfax news agency that the plane gave a distress signal after departure, then tried to make an emergency landing. After a first attempt failed, the aircraft was able to make a landing on the second try.

The incident caused at least 53 flights to be delayed and one canceled, according to Interfax. Airport officials told the news agency that the airport was operating "in a limited mode with one runway."

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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https://www.foxnews.com/world/russia-moscow-aeroflot-plane-fire-sheremetyevo-airport

2019-05-05 19:14:58Z
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13 dead after Aeroflot plane's emergency landing, fire at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport - Fox News

At least 13 people were killed in a fire on a Russian airliner forced to make a hard emergency landing at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport on Sunday, officials said.

Russia's Investigative Committee said two children were among the dead but did not immediately provide further details.

In this image provided by Riccardo Dalla Francesca shows smoke rises from a fire on a plane at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport on Sunday, May 5, 2019. (Riccardo Dalla Francesca via AP)

FORMER TRANSPORTATION DEPT OFFICIAL COMPARES JACKSONVILLE BOEING 737 ACCIDENT TO 'MIRACLE ON THE HUDSON'

Videos and pictures posted to Twitter showed the jet landing at Sheremetyevo Airport with large flames engulfing the rear section.

One video showed a massive amount of flames coming from what appeared to be the engine as the plane touched down on a runway.

Video aired by Russian news channel Rossiya-24 showed passengers leaping from the front of the burning aircraft onto an inflatable slide and staggering across the tarmac and adjoining grass.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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2019-05-05 19:10:55Z
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Russian Aeroflot plane makes emergency landing in Moscow - BBC News

A Russian passenger plane has made an emergency landing at a Moscow airport after a fire broke out on board.

Videos on social media show passengers using emergency exit slides to escape and run away from the burning Aeroflot aircraft.

The Tass news agency said at least one person died but an official toll is yet to be released.

At least five others are said to have been injured, with the plane reportedly carrying 78 people.

It remains unclear what caused the large blaze and emergency landing.

The aircraft is reportedly a Sukhoi Superjet-100, and was scheduled to depart at 17:50 local time (14:50 GMT) for the city of Murmansk.

The Interfax news agency reports the crew issued a distress signal shortly after departure from Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport.

Reports also suggest it did not succeed in its first emergency landing attempt.

Data from tracking website Flightradar24 appears to confirm reports the emergency landing happened about 30 minutes after take-off.

Kristian Kostov, a former Bulgarian Eurovision contestant, has posted on social media about witnessing the incident.

He said people at the airport were left "shaking" after seeing the aircraft engulfed by fire and said other flights are now unable to take-off.

An investigation has been opened into the incident, reports say.

Did you witness the plane landing? Only if it is safe to do so please get in touch by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48171392

2019-05-05 16:47:28Z
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More than 600 rockets fired at Israel from Gaza in less than 24 hours, death toll rises - Fox News

The death toll continues to rise Sunday on both sides of the Israel-Gaza border in one of the most intense flare-ups of violence in the region in years, shattering a month-long lull in attacks.

Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired more than 600 rockets into southern Israel in less than 24 hours, killing at least four Israelis and leaving several more in critical condition.

Israel has retaliated with dozens of airstrikes against militant sites in Gaza. More than a dozen Palestinians, including a pregnant woman and her 14-month old niece, have also been killed.

According to Haaretz, four Israeli men and 16 Palestinians were killed so far since tensions increased along the border on Friday. Four Israelis were also wounded as rockets fell on the Israeli south on Saturday.

ISRAEL STRIKES GAZA TARGETS IN RESPONSE TO PALESTINIAN HEAVY ROCKET FIRE

On Sunday, the Israeli military said a misfired Palestinian rocket — not an Israeli airstrike — caused the death of a pregnant Palestinian woman and her infant niece in the Gaza Strip, disputing the Gaza Health Ministry's statement that Israel is to blame.

According to the Israeli military, Israeli forces struck dozens of targets in Gaza, including militant sites that were concealed in residential areas. Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said Israel’s strikes hit a variety of “high-quality” militant sites, including commanders’ homes in which militant activity was observed.

Israeli medical officials said an early morning rocket from Gaza Sunday killed an Israeli father of four, 58-year-old Moshe Agadi, outside a home in the coastal city of Ashkelon.

Agadi reportedly died of his injuries after he was struck by shrapnel, marking the first Israeli casualty from rocket fire since the 2014 war with Hamas militants.

According to The Barzilai Medical Center in Israel, a 49-year-old man was killed when a rocket hit an Ashkelon factory, while another man in Israel was killed when his vehicle was hit by a projectile near a small border community called Yad Mordechai.

Israeli medical officials also said a Thai laborer was critically injured in a rocket strike later on Sunday.

ISRAEL SAYS 2 SOLDIERS WOUNDED BY GUNFIRE FROM GAZA

By late afternoon, the Israeli military said militants had fired more than 600 rockets into Israel, and that Israeli forces had launched about 260 airstrikes against militant targets in Gaza.

Palestinian officials identified one of the militants who was killed as Hamas commander Hamed al-Khoudary, who Israel said was integral in transferring Iranian money to the militant group.

In Israel, sirens warning of incoming attacks were heard along the border region overnight and throughout the day. Schools were canceled and roads were closed as many Israelis reportedly hid in bomb shelters.

According to Haaretz, the Israeli army said it expects the flare-up to continue in the coming days. A Hamas political source told the news outlet that the group decided to take serious steps against Israel because the Israeli government has been slow in implementing understandings reached between the two parties.

Smoke rises from an explosion after an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, Sunday, May 5, 2019. The Israeli military said Sunday it had responded to more than 600 rockets fired from Gaza with more than 250 airstrikes against the besieged Palestinian enclave. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa) (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

In Gaza, large explosions thundered across the blockaded enclave throughout the night and plumes of smoke rose into the air.

One of the airstrikes hit a commercial and residential building that housed the office of Turkey’s official Anadolu news agency.

The Israeli military said its Iron Dome defense system intercepted more than 150 of the projectiles from Gaza, but several still managed to get through.

The sudden violence has ended a month-long lull as Egyptian mediators had been trying to negotiate a long-term cease-fire.

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Israel and Hamas are bitter enemies that have fought three wars since 2007 when the Islamic militant group seized control of Gaza. There have been also been several smaller flare-ups, most recently, in late March.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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2019-05-05 18:02:43Z
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Clashes Between Israel and Gaza Intensify as Death Toll Rises - The New York Times

JERUSALEM — Fighting between Israel and Gaza escalated rapidly on Sunday in the worst combat since the last full-blown war in 2014. Three Israeli civilians were killed in Palestinian rocket and missile attacks and Israeli forces began to take aim at individual Gaza militants, killing at least seven.

The three Israelis killed were the first civilians to die in clashes with Gaza since the two sides fought a brief war in the summer of 2014. Gaza health officials said 15 people had been killed since Friday, though Israel denied responsibility for two of those deaths.

One Palestinian rocket struck an Israeli cement factory in the southern city of Ashkelon, killing a Bedouin worker there. A woman was killed near Or Haner, a tiny kibbutz two miles from the Gaza border, when the truck she was driving in was hit by an anti-tank missile fired from Gaza. A third Israeli was killed in the early morning when he left his safe room for a cigarette break, his brother said.

Israel responded first by destroying what it said were the homes of several Palestinian militant commanders and then by following through on a longstanding threat — one heard more frequently in recent days from hawkish politicians — to start killing individual fighters in targeted attacks.

An airstrike that destroyed a car in Gaza City killed a man who the Israeli military said had been responsible for large transfers of cash from Iran to Hamas, the militant Islamic group that rules the territory, and to a rival faction in Gaza, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Israel said the man, Ahmad Hamed Al-Khudary, 34, owned a money exchange company that it designated a terrorist organization last June.

Israelis stand outside their building after it was hit by a rocket fired from Gaza in the costal city of Ashkelon on Sunday.CreditTsafrir Abayov/Associated Press

Asked why Israel had resumed its long-dormant tactic of assassination, Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman, said, “It’s important for Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad to understand the severity of the situation.”

Two other fighters with Palestinian Islamic Jihad were killed in an airstrike on the Al Buraij refugee camp early Sunday, the group said.

The attacks from Gaza mostly hit targets in southern Israel with no military value, including a building housing a kindergarten in the town of Sderot and the oncology department at Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon. An army post in the community of Kissufim was hit by a mortar that struck its synagogue, lightly wounding two soldiers.

More than 100 Israelis were treated at Barzilai for injuries in the day’s attacks, hospital officials said.

With rockets and mortars setting off sirens across southern Israel every few minutes — a two-day total of 600 launches, the army said — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered what he called “massive strikes,” and the military used tanks, artillery, jets, attack helicopters and drones.

An armored brigade and the Golani infantry brigade were deployed to the Gaza frontier to be available for a possible ground incursion, and another infantry brigade was put on standby.

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The aftermath of an Israeli airstrike that killed Ahmad Hamed Al-Khudary in Gaza City on Sunday. Israel said he was responsible for large cash transfers from Iran to Hamas and another militant faction in Gaza.CreditMahmud Hams/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Israel also pushed back aggressively on Sunday against Palestinian accusations that it had killed a pregnant Gaza woman and her young daughter in the first day of fighting on Saturday. An Army spokesmen insisted that the two were killed by a misfired Palestinian rocket, not by Israeli munitions, though Gaza officials continued to accuse Israel of responsibility for what they called a war crime.

The latest round of violence began much like several others since last summer.

Israel and Gaza have been locked what appeared to be a cycle of clashes quickly followed by de-escalations, with Egyptian-brokered talks repeatedly achieving a temporary cooling off along the border.

In November, there appeared to be a breakthrough. Israel promised to ameliorate conditions in Gaza by allowing in cash supplied by Qatar, fuel and humanitarian aid despite its blockade, expanding the zone in the Mediterranean in which it would allow Gaza fishermen to operate, and easing the movement of people in and out of the impoverished seaside territory. Hamas agreed in return to restrain protests along its frontier with Israel that have often devolved into violence.

But a truce has never taken hold, and indeed the cease-fires have only lasted a number of weeks.

Some resumptions of violence have been unforeseeable. In October, a freak of nature — a lightning strike — was said to have caused a rocket to be launched at Israel. In November, an Israeli undercover team was discovered inside Gaza, setting off a firefight as it made its escape and then two days of rocket attacks and airstrikes. And a rocket attack in mid-March was said to be a result of “human error” rather than Hamas policy.

But Israel has also accused Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, its more radical ally, of resorting to violence for political advantage. In late March, two weeks before Israel’s parliamentary elections, a rocket hit a house in northeast Tel Aviv and caused Mr. Netanyahu to cut short a trip to Washington.

Now, with Israeli Memorial Day and Independence Day celebrations coming this week, and a stream of international singers arriving to compete in the Eurovision song contest in Tel Aviv later this month, the Gaza militant groups may have gambled that Mr. Netanyahu would pay an even higher price for quiet in the short term.

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The home of an Israeli, Moshe Agadi, who was killed when his house in the city of Ashkelon, southern Israel, was hit by a missile fired by militants from the Gaza Strip.CreditAbir Sultan/EPA, via Shutterstock

“Both of them believe that only pressure and force will force Israel to ease the restrictions of the blockade,” said Tareq Baconi, an analyst with International Crisis Group. “And Israel has done nothing but reinforce that lesson.”

Indeed, the two Gaza factions have accused Israel of forgetting its promises as soon as violence gives way to calm.

“Hamas agreed to restrain the protests in return for concessions,” Mr. Baconi said. “Those haven’t materialized.”

Omar Shaban, an economist who runs PalThink for Strategic Studies, a Gaza think tank, said that some of the recriminations between Israel and Gaza officials over measures meant to ease the deprivations in Gaza had been missing the point.

“There’s no shortage of food in Gaza, but people don’t have purchasing power because there are no jobs,” he said. “There are some demands by the political factions that cannot be implemented: If you open the crossings while people don’t have cash for the private sector to operate, it’s pointless. Gaza needs a package of assistance.”

On the Israeli side, even some critics of Mr. Netanyahu said that the cycle of violence with Gaza was only strengthening his hand politically.

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The funeral for a 14-month-old Palestinian child who was killed on Saturday with her mother in the violence. Israel has denied Palestinian accusations that they were killed in an airstrike and says they were killed by a misfired Palestinian rocket.CreditKhalil Hamra/Associated Press

“His view — which, incidentally, is logical — is that the division between Gaza and the West Bank, which stems from the chronic conflict between Hamas and Fatah, weakens the national Palestinian movement and is worth the headache inherent in dealing with two semi-functional political entities,” Shimrit Meir, an Israeli analyst of Palestinian politics, wrote in the daily Yediot Ahronot.

The two Palestinian territories, Gaza and the West Bank, are governed by the rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah.

In Ashkelon, a concrete factory that makes large pipes for underground sewers and other equipment for the army was struck by a rocket around 1 p.m. on Sunday. A worker there who refused to give his name said he was standing between two of the workers who were hit by the rocket when the siren went off. He ran for shelter, but the others either didn’t try or didn’t make it.

“There weren’t many seconds,” he said.

With rockets still arcing toward Israel, and Iron Dome antimissile systems knocking out a good number of them but not all, the family of Moshe Agadi, 58, who was killed in Ashkelon at around 2 a.m., asked the public to avoid his 4 p.m. funeral. They feared that those attending could be subjected to another strike from Gaza.

But hundreds of Israelis packed the funeral hall anyway, and then streamed outside for Mr. Agadi’s burial, as home front soldiers wearing orange berets passed out instructions on what to do if the cemetery came under attack.

“We came to honor him, and to show that we’re not afraid of them,” said Tzipi Ben-David, 56, as distant blasts could be heard in the direction of Gaza. “Look how many came, even with this situation.”

At Mr. Agadi’s residence, a golden-painted suburban dream house, large shrapnel divots in the exterior wall, a felled tree and grapefruits strewn on the ground all testified to the weapon that had killed him.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/05/world/middleeast/gaza-rockets-israel-palestinians.html

2019-05-05 16:00:58Z
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