A Palestinian girl was killed and and her brother was injured by Israeli shelling in the central Gaza Strip on Thursday evening, medics told Ma'an. Medical sources at Al-Aqsa Hospital identified the slain girl as Hiam Abu A'yesh, 17, and reported that her 24-year-old brother Husam was also injured by shrapnel that struck the family's home in the Juhor Ad-Dik neighborhood. 

The Palestinian political cartoonist Naji al-Ali was assassinated in London in July 1987 and to this day he remains one of the most popular artists in the Arab world. His drawings are relentlessly critical of despotism and repression and are ever-supportive of the underprivileged and those whose voices could not be heard. 

Twenty-one international human rights workers were seized by Israeli naval frigates in international waters Tuesday as their boat 'The Spirit of Humanity' tried to carry humanitarian aid to Gaza. The human rights workers, including former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and Irish Nobel Peace laureate Mairead Maguire, and nationals from 11 other countries were part of the Free Gaza Movement (FGM) efforts to break Israel's naval and border blockade of Gaza. 

A new report by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) paints a grim picture of life in the Gaza Strip: insufficient housing, damaged infrastructure, limited access to clean water and the discharge of raw sewage into the sea. The report identifies restrictions on the movement of people and goods over the past two years as one of the main causes of the crisis in Gaza.  

On Wednesday, Israel forces shot and injured four Palestinians south of Nablus, near the Kfar Tuppuah settlement. One youth, identified as 15-year-old Layth Saleh Muhammad Hamayel is in critical condition at the Nablus hospital after sustaining two gunshot wounds to the leg. He was evacuated by Red Crescent medical crews who have not been able to reach the other three victims. 

Israel inflicted "wanton destruction" in the Gaza Strip during its 22-day war on the coastal enclave in December and January, Amnesty International, the London-based human rights group has said. In a 117-page report released on Thursday, Amnesty cited evidence that Israeli troops put children and other civilians in harm's way "by forcing them to remain in or near houses which they took over and used as military positions". 

The blockade of Gaza is causing severe humanitarian hardship and the situation is getting worse every day, the head of the U.N. aid agency for Palestinian refugees warned on Wednesday. Gaza's borders were closed by Israel and Egypt after the takeover two years ago of the territory by Hamas, considered a terrorist organization by the West. Egypt opens the crossing periodically. 

The Palestinian Authority this week accused Israel of planning to declare another 2 percent of the West Bank state land, thus effectively expropriating it. But the defense establishment rejected this claim, saying the land in question had been under the Dead Sea until the shrinkage of that body of water uncovered it and the goal of the declaration is to prevent the land from being taken over by private or commercial entities. It is not clear which claim is correct.