The Lastest News From Gaza

Army: Israeli soldier killed by rocket attack

An Israeli soldier was killed on Tuesday by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, Israel's army said.

They identified the casualty as 18-year-old Yosef Fartuk, from Israeli settlement Immanuel in the northern West Bank.

He was killed by a rocket fired from Gaza into the Eshkol Regional Council, a military statement said.

Another Israeli man, a Bedouin construction worker for the Israeli ministry of defense, was also killed on Tuesday after a rocket exploded near Beersheba, The Times of Israel reported.

Another man was reported injured in the attack.

The army said earlier that five Israeli soldiers were lightly to moderately injured by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, without specifying the location.

Four Israelis were also lightly injured when a rocket directly hit a six-story building in Rishon Lezion, just south of Tel Aviv, Israeli news site Ynet said.

Hamas official: Israel, Gaza militants agree to ceasefire

An Egyptian-brokered ceasefire in the Gaza conflict will go into effect later on Tuesday, a Hamas official said.

"An agreement for calm has been reached. It will be declared at 9.00 p.m. and go into effect at midnight," Hamas official Ayman Taha told Reuters from Cairo, where efforts have been under way to end seven days of hostilities.

Al-Jazeera TV reported that Islamic Jihad secretary-general Ramadan Abdullah Shallah and Egyptian officials will also take part in a 9 p.m. news conference.

The TV channel said the terms of the agreement are a halt of Israeli targeted assassinations, easing of border crossings, and Gaza halting rocket fire into Israel.

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev told CNN that a deal has not been finalized and the "ball is still in play."

"Until you're there, you're not there," he said.

Earlier on Tuesday, Egyptian President Muhammad Mursi said that "Israeli aggression" against Gaza would end later in the day, according to the Egyptian state news agency MENA.

"The efforts to conclude a truce between the Palestinian and Israeli sides will produce positive results in the next few hours," he was quoted as saying.

The truce deal is expected to bring an end to violence which has seen 140 Palestinians killed and over 900 injured since Israel launched its assault on Gaza after assassinating Hamas military commander Ahmad al-Jaabari on Wednesday.

Israel's military has struck over 1,000 targets since Wednesday, causing extensive damage to civilian infrastructure in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Three Israelis died in a rocket attack last Thursday.

Hamas armed wing says it interrupted  Israeli broadcasts BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) --  Hamas' al-Qassam Brigades hijacked  Israeli TV channels on  Tuesday evening and broadcast  messages warning against a ground  invasion of  the Gaza Strip, the group said. The Israeli news site Ynet said  viewers reported that broadcasts were  interrupted by  short films with Hamas insignia  showing an Israeli army tank being  hit by a missile. "This is a message to the armored corps, " the text read. A video uploaded to YouTube claims  to show the interruption on Channel 10.  The text reads in Hebrew and Arabic:  "A message for the Zionist tanks forces,"  then "Do you remember."

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -- 

The United States blocked on Tuesday

 a UN Security Council statement 

condemning the escalating conflict 

in the Gaza Strip, setting the scene

 for a possible showdown between 

Washington and Russia on the issue.

The United States opposed the statement

 -- which had to be approved by consensus

 -- because it "failed to address the 

root cause" -- missile attacks by 

Hamas -- of the escalation in fighting

 between Israel and Hamas militants in 

Gaza, said Erin Pelton, spokeswoman

 for the US mission to the United Nations.

Israel said it was these Hamas rocket 

attacks that prompted its major offensive

 against the militants in Gaza on Wednesday.

"We made clear that we would measure

 any action by the Security Council based

 on whether it supported the ongoing

 diplomacy toward de-escalation of 

violence and a durable outcome that 

ends the rocket attacks on Israeli cities," 

Pelton said.

"By failing to call for the immediate 

and permanent halt to rocket launches

 from Gaza into Israel, this press 

statement failed to contribute 

constructively to those goals," she said. 

"As such, we could not agree to this 

statement."

Russia said on Monday that if the 

15-member council could not agree

 on a statement then it would put

 a resolution - a stronger move by 

the council than a statement - 

to a vote later on Tuesday to 

call for an end to the violence and 

show support for regional and 

international efforts to broker peace.

A resolution is passed when it receives

 nine votes in favor and no vetoes

 by the five permanent council members

 - Russia, China, Britain, the United States 

and France. Some diplomats said a 

vote on the Russian resolution would 

likely be tight and could force a veto 

by the United States.

The Security Council is generally

 deadlocked on the Israeli-Palestinian

 conflict, which UN diplomats say

 is due to US determination to protect 

its close ally Israel. The council held 

an emergency meeting last Wednesday 

to discuss the Israeli strikes on Gaza

 but took no action.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

 headed to the region on Tuesday to

 try to calm the conflict.

Egypt was trying to broker a truce 

between Israel and Hamas. An 

Egyptian intelligence source said

 "there is still no breakthrough and 

Egypt is working to find middle ground."

 Israeli air strikes and Palestinian rocket 

fire continued on Tuesday for a seventh day.

Mustafa Barghouthi visits Gaza Strip

Palestinian lawmaker Mustafa Barghouthi 

visited the Gaza Strip on Tuesday

 with a delegation from his political

 party the Palestinian National Initiative. 

Barghouthi visited Shifa Hospital in Gaza 

City to visit Palestinians injured in the 

ongoing Israeli military offensive. 

He told reporters that what he saw

 was enough proof of "the scale of Israeli crime

 and genocidal war against our people in Gaza."

Barghouthi added that the "crimes that the

 Netanyahu government committed and 

the extermination of whole families will not go 

unquestioned."

He urged the international community to sue Israeli

 leaders in international

criminal courts.

Barghouthi said he would visit victims’

 families and have meetings 

with representatives of Palestinian factions. 

Israeli army drops thousands 

of leaflets over Gaza

 Israel's army said Tuesday it had dropped leaflets

 over the Gaza Strip warning residents to stay away 

Hamas facilities.

Israeli air craft dropped thousands of leaflets over 

numerous Gaza neighborhoods warning civilians to get 

out of the way, as its army prepared for a possible invasion

 of the enclave.

Two messages were sent in Arabic by the Israel's army 

telling residents where to go.

The first said:

"To the residents of Sheikh Ajlin, Tel Al-Hwa, Rimal South, Zeitoun, Sjaiya, 

Turkeman and Sajiya Jadida:

"For your safety, you are required to evacuate your residences immediately 

and move towards the central Gaza city, via Al-Khara, Jma'at Al Dul Al Arabia,

 Al Aqsa Al Qudsiya, Um Alaimoun, Salah A-din, Al-Maqsurra, Hal's Mjdad.

"In the central Gaza city, you are required to stay between the areas of

 Salah A-din from the west, Amar Al-Muchtar from the north, Al-Nasser

 from the east and Al-Quds St. from the south.

The second leaflet said:

"To the residents of of the outskirts of

 Shati, Al-Atatra, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun:

"For your safety, you are required to evacuate your residences

 immediately and move towards central Gaza city via Al-Falujah, 

Al-Udda and Salah A-din. In the central Gaza city, you are required to stay

 between the roads of Salah A-din from the west, Amar Al-Muchtar from

 the north, Al-Nasser from the east and Al-Quds St. from the south."