After Gaza protests, rockets strike Israel

BY FARES AKRAM / ASSOCIATED PRESS

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Transcribed from the clipping

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip—Israeli aircraft struck several militant sites across the Gaza Strip early Saturday shortly after militants fired rockets into southern Israel, the Israeli military said. Israel's chief of staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot conducted situational assessment while the airstrikes and barrages of rockets continued, the army added without elaborating.

The cross-border violence came hours after Israeli forces shot and killed four Palestinians protesting along the perimeter fence dividing the Hamas-ruled Gaza and Israel.

In a rare statement implicitly claiming responsibility for the rocket fire, the smaller Islamic Jihad group said it has always exercised restraint, but it "can no longer stand idle before the continued killing of innocents and bloodshed by the Israeli occupation." There was no word on injuries as a result of the rockets and airstrikes.

The bloodshed and exchange of missiles complicated the mission of Egyptian mediators, who intensified their shuttle diplomacy to achieve calm and prevent a full-blown conflict between the militant Hamas group and Israel. The Israeli army has confirmed at least 12 launchings, adding its Iron Dome defense system intercepted several missiles.

On Friday, thousands of Palestinians gathered at five locations along the boundary, burning tires and throwing rocks, grenades and firebombs at Israeli troops who responded with tear gas and occasional live fire. The Israeli army said some suspects briefly crossed the fence.

In a separate incident, the military said its aircrafts struck three Hamas military posts in northern Gaza Strip. Three of the dead were reported in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, according to the ministry. Witnesses said that dozens of protesters approached the fence there. In northern Gaza, a 27-year-old man died after being shot in the head, the ministry said.

It added that 170 other protesters sustained various injuries.

How this transcription was made

Date and publication rest on the collector's slide label; no masthead, folio or printed dateline appears on this clipping. Filed under the archive’s spelling; the page prints “The Free-Lance Star”.

Context added by this archive

Maria's note on this row is "also this photo is amazing". The photograph is a shirtless young man mid-throw, the Palestinian flag raised over burning tyres; caption: "A protester hurls stones Friday while holding the Palestinian flag near the Gaza Strip/Israeli border." Credit: ADEL HANA / ASSOCIATED PRESS.

It is the only image in this batch in which a Palestinian is the subject rather than the backdrop, and the only one where the flag is legible. Worth noting that the AP photographer and the AP reporter (Fares Akram) are both working from inside Gaza.

This is the same AP story as s010_1 (Chicago Tribune), and the two cuts differ: this version carries Akram's byline, says "implicitly claiming responsibility", counts "at least 12 launchings", puts the protesters at "five locations", and includes "grenades" among what was thrown; the Tribune version drops the byline, drops "implicitly", drops the launch count and the five locations, and omits "grenades".

That both run Eisenkot's single "situational assessment" sentence unchanged is the point: the one line about him survives every cut.

Cite this clipping

"After Gaza protests, rockets strike Israel," The Free Lance-Star, 27 October 2018. Covering Palestine archive, CP-2018-032. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-2018-032