ISRAELI STRIKES GAZA TARGETS AFTER ROCKET ATTACKS

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_XRo13OE_yLGHi7yW4ySg8nebdxbe9-sD5-QVrML1l0fAm3XzEYhJyy_925_v7LPVNPdM2CvWNf3Xw18WRrYC_Y3Yg4QQ8TBgKDhU9BPTf2BOo3EhTfbBgBI-Txzu-ze55oJLUJuqZrg/s1600/00000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_XRo13OE_yLGHi7yW4ySg8nebdxbe9-sD5-QVrML1l0fAm3XzEYhJyy_925_v7LPVNPdM2CvWNf3Xw18WRrYC_Y3Yg4QQ8TBgKDhU9BPTf2BOo3EhTfbBgBI-Txzu-ze55oJLUJuqZrg/s640/00000.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> The Israeli Air Force struk three terrorist infrastructure sites, including a Hamas run telecommunications facility in the North of Gaza, early Saturday morning in response to multiple rocket attacks from the coastal enclave the previous day.<br /> <br /> The IDF Spokesperson's Office released a statement saying that the IDF viewed the rocket attacks on Israel with the utmost severity and that it would not tolerate attempts to harm Israeli citizens.<br /> <br /> The IDF said that Hamas was responsible for the attack. <br /> <br /> Just before midnight Friday evening, an Iron Dome anti-rocket battery shot down a Gazan rocket over the southern city of Ashkelon.<br /> <br /> There were no injuries or damages, the IDF said.<br /> <br /> Warning sirens rang out across the city, sending residents fleeing for cover, before Iron Dome went into action. It was the second rocket attack by terrorists in Gaza within a few hours.<br /> <br /> A Salafist organization affiliated with Islamic State calling itself "The Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade" took responsibility for the rocket attack on Ashkelon after posting a statement on Twitter.<br /> <br /> And earlier Friday,  a Palestinian rocket was fired from the Gaza Strip exploding in Sderot, causing damage to a home and a nearby bus.<br /> <br /> Rocket sirens sounded in the western Negev town as well as surrounding localities shortly after sunset as Jews in Israel sat down for Sabbath dinner.<br /> <br /> Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said a rocket exploded in Sderot, causing damage but no injuries. A bus in the southern city sustained damage in the attack.<br /> <br /> The IDF added that it detected a single rocket launched from Gaza.<br /> <br /> According to reports, the rocket struck the front yard of a home in Sderot, causing light damage to the residence and a bus that was parked nearby. There are believed to be no injuries.

ISRAELI STRIKES GAZA TARGETS AFTER ROCKET ATTACKS

The Israeli Air Force struk three terrorist infrastructure sites, including a Hamas run telecommunications facility in the North of Gaza,...

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Gaza to be UNINHABITABLE by 2020 if trends continue says The UN

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA-11Ar2OfvF0jDoTnVd6d4jOwTHHkWUWGcw-OQcaYaRxmBGOXTKOPFZlLyPWc8Dl9oD3puQ5_bKH0o_lO3PE-XinwxPLML2rbPeVz6Nnjxskcj0VDvTHBlAqrK1hz13_HMSezxQnONXQ/s1600/0000.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA-11Ar2OfvF0jDoTnVd6d4jOwTHHkWUWGcw-OQcaYaRxmBGOXTKOPFZlLyPWc8Dl9oD3puQ5_bKH0o_lO3PE-XinwxPLML2rbPeVz6Nnjxskcj0VDvTHBlAqrK1hz13_HMSezxQnONXQ/s640/0000.png" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> A new United Nations report says Gaza could be "uninhabitable" in less than five years if current economic trends continue.<br /> <br /> The report released Tuesday by the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development points to the eight years of economic blockade of Gaza as well as the three wars between Israel and the Palestinians there over the past six years.<br /> <br /> Last year's war displaced half a million people and left parts of Gaza destroyed.<br /> <br /> The war "has effectively eliminated what was left of the middle class, sending almost all of the population into destitution and dependence on international humanitarian aid," the new report says.<br /> Gaza's GDP dropped 15 percent last year, and unemployment reached a record high of 44 percent. Seventy-two percent of households are food insecure.<br /> <br /> The wars have shattered Gaza's ability to export and produce for the domestic market and left no time for reconstruction, the report says. It notes that Gaza's "de-development," or development in reverse, has been accelerated.<br /> <br /> Israel and Egypt have maintained a blockade of Gaza since the Islamic militant group Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007.<br /> <br /> The report comes as Egyptian military bulldozers press ahead with a project that effectively would fill Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip with water and flood the last remaining cross-border underground smuggling tunnels, which have brought both commercial items and weapons into Gaza.<br /> The report calls the economic prospects for 2015 for the Palestinian territories "bleak" because of the unstable political situation, reduced aid and the slow pace of reconstruction.<br /> <br /> By CARA ANNA of Associated Press<br /> <div> <br /></div>

Gaza to be UNINHABITABLE by 2020 if trends continue says The UN

A new United Nations report says Gaza could be "uninhabitable" in less than five years if current economic trends continue. T...

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