Published October 30, 2011

| Associated Press

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip –  An Israeli aircraft struck a pair of Palestinian militants on Sunday, killing one man and wounding a second in a new eruption of violence.

The airstrike cast doubts on efforts to forge a cease-fire after the deadliest round of fighting in months. In all, 10 Palestinian militants and an Israeli civilian have been killed in a weekend of Palestinian rocket attacks and Israeli airstrikes.

The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a small militant group, said the men targeted in Sunday’s strike were members of the organization. The Health Ministry of the Hamas militant group, which runs Gaza, said the attack occurred along the territory’s border with Israel.

The Israeli military confirmed the airstrike, saying the men were preparing to fire a rocket into Israel.

On Saturday, nine militants and an Israeli civilian were killed in some of the worst violence in the area in months. The exchange of fire continued overnight, with Palestinians firing 10 rockets into Israel in the early hours of the morning, and Israeli aircraft targeting six militant sites in Gaza, the military said.

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Gazan militants continued to launch rockets into Israel early Sunday morning, despite a report on Ma’an News Agency claiming that an Egyptian-mediated cease-fire would take effect at 3:00 A.M. A total of 31 rockets have been fired from Gaza since the beginning of the weekend.

Read more http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/gaza-militants-continue-to-fire-rockets-at-israel-amid-reports-of-cease-fire-1.392715

	A car engulfed by flames after a Grad rocket fired from the Gaza Strip exploded in Ashdod, Oct. 29, 2011.
	Photo by: Eliyahu Hershkowitz

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Strike comes following IDF attack targeting squad about to launch projectile; Militants in Gaza fire dozens of rockets at Israel in recent days

Read more http://www.haaretz.com/news/

	Site of Grad rocket explosion in school grounds in Ashdod, October 29, 2011.
	Photo by: Eliyahu Hershkowitz

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Image 1 of 7

Freed Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit Photo: REUTERS

^{A Palestinian man waits at the Beituniya checkpoint}

 

^{A convoy of buses carries Palestinians prisoners from Ktsiot prison camp in southern Israel’s Negev desert}

^{Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit makes his first telephone call after his release in Gaza}

_{alestinian prisoners enter Gaza via the Rafah crossing from Egypt (Reuters}

^{Gilad Shalit interviewed for the first time}

 

^{Palestinian prisoners taken to Israel-Egypt border as part of Gilad Shalit exchange}

 

_{Aviva (C) and Noam (2nd R) Shalit, parents of abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit walk towards a helicopter near their home in Mitzpeh Hila on their way to meet Gilad after over five years of captivity by Gaza-based militant groups}

 

^{Gaza’s Hamas Prime Minister Sheikh Ismail Haniyeh waves to Palestinian prisoners’ families}

 

^{Friends of abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit celebrate his release as they watch footage on television}

 

^{Palestinian children wave their national flags at the Palestinian Shatila refugee camp in Beirut}

 

^{Galid Shalit’s family on their way way to meet him}

 

^{Palestinians wait at Beituniya checkpoint near Ramallah for the release of prisoners}

 

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Hamas is expecting a turnout of 500,000 people at the rally in Gaza City Tuesday, to welcome home prisoners being exchanged with Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit.

During the rally, released prisoners will sit on a stage at the Al-Katiba square, along with senior Hamas officials. Construction of the stage has already been completed.

Read More http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/hamas-expects-half-a-million-at-gaza-rally-following-shalit-swap-1.390627

	Palestinians in the Gaza Strip celebrate announcement of prisoner swap deal, Oct. 11, 2011.
	Photo by: AP

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met the Shalit family at the Tel Nof Air Base Tuesday morning, to whom he expressed his joy that their son and brother would shortly be returning home after five years of captivity in Gaza.

“I am delighted we’ve arrived at this day. In a short time Gilad will return to you,” Netanyahu told the Shalit family.

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sraeli soldier Gilad Shalit is interviewed by Egypt TV in this video grab from Israel‘s Channel 10 accessed from Egypt TV October 18, 2011. Shalit was released to a national outpouring of joy on Tuesday after five years in captivity, exchanged for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in a deal with Gaza’s Hamas rulers. (REUTERS/Channel 10 via Reuters TV/Handout)

GAZA/JERUSALEM - Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was released to a national outpouring of joy on Tuesday after five years in captivity, exchanged for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in a deal with Gaza’s Hamas rulers.

Shalit, 25, was taken across the frontier from the Gaza Strip into Egypt’s Sinai peninsula and driven to Israel’s Vineyard of Peace border crossing, where a helicopter awaited to fly him to an Israeli air base for a reunion with his parents.

Simultaneously, Israel started freeing 477 Palestinian prisoners, with witnesses seeing the first batch arriving in Gaza with others due to be released in the occupied West Bank.

A further 550 jailed Palestinians are to be handed over later this year, and some 40 are being sent into exile to Turkey, Qatar and Syria.

In the first video of Shalit released since 2009, Egyptian television footage showed the soldier, dressed in civilian clothes and wearing a baseball cap, during the exchange.

Unsmiling and looking dazed, Shalit walked briskly, with Hamas officials flanking him and gripping his arms as they led him away from a vehicle. Israeli television stations played the brief video repeatedly in a loop for 20 minutes.

The deal, between two bitter enemies, seemed unlikely to have any immediate impact on efforts to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, which broke down last year.

The mood in Israel was one of elation, with “welcome home“ signs on street corners and morning commuters watching live broadcasts of the swap on cellular telephones.

Shalit has been popularly portrayed as “everyone’s son” and opinion polls showed that an overwhelming majority of Israeli backed the thousand-for-one deal, although many of the prisoners going free were convicted of deadly attacks.

For Palestinians, it was a time to celebrate what Hamas hailed as a victory, and a heroes’ welcome awaited the released prisoners. Palestinians see brethren jailed by Israel as prisoners of war in a struggle for statehood.

“This is the greatest joy for the Palestinian people,” said Azzia al-Qawasmeh, who waited at a West Bank checkpoint for her son Amer, whom she said had been in prison for 24 years.

The deal received a green light from Israel’s Supreme Court late on Monday after it rejected petitions from the public to prevent the mass release of prisoners, many serving life sentences for deadly attacks.

Source  http://www.torontosun.com/2011/10/18/israeli-soldier-freed-in-mass-prisoner-swap

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Hamas has handed over Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit to Egyptian mediators after five years’ captivity, as part of a prisoner swap deal with Israel, Hamas officials have told the BBC.

More than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners are due to be freed. The first 477 are being released on Tuesday.

Sgt Shalit was seized in 2006 by Hamas militants who tunnelled into Israel.

On Monday the Israeli Supreme Court rejected a bid by families of victims of militant attacks to delay the swap.

The day’s events are unfolding in a carefully choreographed sequence.

Early on Tuesday Gilad Shalit, 25, was taken to the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, to be handed over to Egypt in the presence of Israeli representatives.

Israeli Defence Forces later confirmed they had identified he was alive and well.

Egyptian TV showed footage of Sgt Shalit being escorted from a vehicle in Egypt. It was the first time he had appeared in a video since 2009.

Read more  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-15339604

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Israeli defense officials believe Hamas planning terror attack on Israel in attempt to distract from Abbas‘ UN bid.

The Israel Defense Forces has significantly boosted its presence along Israel’s border with Egypt due to urgent warnings that Hamas was planning on carrying out a terror attack in Israel, through the Sinai Peninsula.

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	IDF vehicle on the Israel-Egypt border.
	Photo by: Moti Milrod

The escalating violence, in which about 24 rockets hit Israel and 16 targets in Gaza were struck by Israeli warplanes, is the worst since April. The bloodshed raises the possibility of a more extensive Israeli military operation in the seaside strip that Hamas has controlled since 2007, after ousting forces loyal to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction

Read More http://theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com/2011/08/19/israel-end-game-escalating-conflict-in-gaza-skirmishes-with-egypt-looming-threats-from-iran/

Security Council unable to reach unanimous agreement on condemnation of terror attack after Lebanon conditions its support on the inclusion of critique of Israeli attacks on Gaza.

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	Newly appointed Israel ambassador to the United Nations Ron Prosor
	Photo by: Archive

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Image by Getty Images via @daylife

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	Supplies being transferred to the Gaza Strip (iilustrative)
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	Palestinian youths in Gaza walking past the remains of a Hamas training camp bombed by the IAF.
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