The Gush Katif (Gaza) Jewish community Netzer Hazani was the target of a series of Palestinian attacks over the weekend. It began with Friday morning\'s remote-controlled explosion that wounded the town\'s security coordinator as he was supervising the departure of Arab workers from the town. It continued that night with a mortar attack there and in Kfar Darom - no one was hurt - and intensified yesterday afternoon when five shells were launched at the town. Four fell harmlessly at the gate, while another one hit the lawn of a youth clubhouse, wounding five teenagers. Aviah Tennenbaum, 16, recently completed a First Aid course, as many Israeli teenagers do, and was in the building at the time. She later told Ma\'ariv: \"We heard a blast, but we didn\'t know what it was at first, and everyone was in shock. Then our friends started coming in, bleeding badly. We immediately started treating them. We used clothes as tourniquets to stop the bleeding... The entire room was full of blood, it was a shocking sight.\"
Another boy said that there were not enough people to treat all the wounded: \"I kept on looking at my brother, who was also wounded and was being treated by Ya\'ir, while I stopped Harel\'s bleeding...\" Emergency and army personnel arrived quickly at the scene, and one soldier said, \"I couldn\'t believe what I saw. Boys and girls lying on the floor in their blood, and their friends coolly saving their lives by stopping the bleeding with their bare hands ...\" Two of the wounded were released from the hospital by this afternoon, and two are listed in light condition. Amichai (ben Aliza) Yifrach, 17, is in moderate condition.
A mortar shell fell over the weekend in the area of the northern Gaza community of Nisanit, and, as mentioned, shells were also fired at Netzer Hazani (twice) and Kfar Darom. Dozens of youths and other Gush Katif residents demonstrated outside the Prime Minister\'s office today against the continued mortar attacks on their homes. Gaza Coast Regional Council head Aharon Tzur explained the residents\' demands: \"We want only two things. One, we want the government to know that after every security meeting, shells are fired or shots are launched. We therefore want to make it clear that this path of security coordination and Peres\' contacts lead to Jewish casualties, and the government should simply stop! Second, the army must be instructed to do whatever they can to respond to these attacks.\"
Arutz-7 correspondent Haggai Huberman adds: \"It\'s important to note that on Friday, despite the continued mortar attacks, the army removed almost all restrictions on Palestinian travel in Gaza by opening the Diskaot Route, which is more or less parallel to the main Gaza highway. The Palestinian response to this gesture was quick in coming: the mortar shells on Kfar Darom and Netzer Hazani within a matter of hours. We should remember that, after the Palestinians fired shells at Sderot, the army divided the Gaza Strip into three parts and did not allow free travel from one to the other. The army explained at the time that this was to prevent the mortars from being delivered from place to place; now the army has made it even easier for the Palestinians to travel around, and we see the result.\" Huberman noted that though the Palestinians claimed over the weekend that the IDF had reinstated the three-part division, \"the IDF denies this, and, to my surprise, the PA claim has in fact no basis in reality.\"
IDF tanks shot this morning at the PA city of Khan Yunis. Palestinians fired late this morning at IDF positions in Gadid and N\'vei Dekalim.
Another boy said that there were not enough people to treat all the wounded: \"I kept on looking at my brother, who was also wounded and was being treated by Ya\'ir, while I stopped Harel\'s bleeding...\" Emergency and army personnel arrived quickly at the scene, and one soldier said, \"I couldn\'t believe what I saw. Boys and girls lying on the floor in their blood, and their friends coolly saving their lives by stopping the bleeding with their bare hands ...\" Two of the wounded were released from the hospital by this afternoon, and two are listed in light condition. Amichai (ben Aliza) Yifrach, 17, is in moderate condition.
A mortar shell fell over the weekend in the area of the northern Gaza community of Nisanit, and, as mentioned, shells were also fired at Netzer Hazani (twice) and Kfar Darom. Dozens of youths and other Gush Katif residents demonstrated outside the Prime Minister\'s office today against the continued mortar attacks on their homes. Gaza Coast Regional Council head Aharon Tzur explained the residents\' demands: \"We want only two things. One, we want the government to know that after every security meeting, shells are fired or shots are launched. We therefore want to make it clear that this path of security coordination and Peres\' contacts lead to Jewish casualties, and the government should simply stop! Second, the army must be instructed to do whatever they can to respond to these attacks.\"
Arutz-7 correspondent Haggai Huberman adds: \"It\'s important to note that on Friday, despite the continued mortar attacks, the army removed almost all restrictions on Palestinian travel in Gaza by opening the Diskaot Route, which is more or less parallel to the main Gaza highway. The Palestinian response to this gesture was quick in coming: the mortar shells on Kfar Darom and Netzer Hazani within a matter of hours. We should remember that, after the Palestinians fired shells at Sderot, the army divided the Gaza Strip into three parts and did not allow free travel from one to the other. The army explained at the time that this was to prevent the mortars from being delivered from place to place; now the army has made it even easier for the Palestinians to travel around, and we see the result.\" Huberman noted that though the Palestinians claimed over the weekend that the IDF had reinstated the three-part division, \"the IDF denies this, and, to my surprise, the PA claim has in fact no basis in reality.\"
IDF tanks shot this morning at the PA city of Khan Yunis. Palestinians fired late this morning at IDF positions in Gadid and N\'vei Dekalim.