PEACE and TOLERANCE, cost's us NOTHING, Lets ALL just do it. These are my View's and the Material's, that I have received from emails and when I surf the Internet. I do NOT and WILL NEVER approve of any form of terrorism (doing or promoting), In any Place on this Earth, especially in The OCCUPIED Palestinian Land.
May The Creator of ALL thing's grant us peace and Tolerance for All
Two brothers from the UK in their mid-twenties have been convicted for operating websites that indexed links to unauthorized streams of copyrighted movies. The pair were charged in 2010 and this week were handed nine month suspended jail sentences and ordered to complete 150 hours of unpaid work. The convictions follow an investigation by West Yorkshire Police in collaboration with the movie industry group FACT, who feel that in the UK the tide is turning in favor of copyright holders.
With more than a million monthly visitors filmzzz.com and legalmovies.tv were among the most-visited movie streaming indexes back in 2009.
The sites were operated by Faraz and Ayaz Saddiq, two brothers from Leeds, UK. In common with other “linking” sites they didn’t host any copyrighted content but merely linked to it. However, that did not prevent the men from running into trouble with the law.
Tipped off by the Hollywood-funded anti-piracy group FACT, West Yorkshire Police’s Economic Crime Unit launched an investigation into possible copyright offenses. The police confirmed that the two men were responsible for the sites in question and in August 2010 they were charged.
According to the complaint the Saddiq brothers were responding to takedown requests, but made no effort to remove other clearly infringing content. The men were warned that they could be committing a criminal offense under copyright law but continued to operate the websites.
Last week 27-year-old Faraz Saddiq and his 26-year-old brother Ayaz were both sentenced to a 9 month jail terms, suspended for two years. In addition they were ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work.
FACT welcomes the verdict and reports a significant change in attitude since the owner of TV streaming links site SurfTheChannel was sentenced to four years jail-time earlier this year.
“We have seen a definite shift since the conviction and sentencing of Anton Vickerman which proved conclusively that running an ‘indexing’ or ‘search’ site is criminal activity,” a FACT spokesperson told TorrentFreak today.
FACT is using the Vickerman verdict to convince operators of other streaming sites to “voluntarily” hand over their domains to escape prosecution, which many have done since.
“FACT seeks to reduce pirate activity by targeting source piracy and those running criminal businesses providing access to pirated material. However, not every case needs to end up in criminal prosecution and we always attempt to contact site operators to ask them to comply with the law,” FACT explains.
“Anyone who creates content, who works in the film or broadcasting sector or whose family relies on the income from someone working in those areas deserves the right to be protected,” FACT adds.
With these new convictions it appears that the UK has transformed into something of a no-go area for streaming link sites. This is quite different from the position two years ago. In 2010, the admins of TV-Links, a similar linking website, were acquitted because their website was deemed to be a ‘mere conduit’ of information.
The United States and Russia have announced an agreement to crack down on online piracy. The countries have agreed to disrupt sites that facilitate infringement and take action against their operators. As a result, uncertain times may lie ahead for the many BitTorrent and other file-sharing sites hosted in Russia.The agreement also allows for the improved takedown of infringing content and discussions on allowing Russian rightsholders to use the United States’ “six strikes” system.
For many years Russia has been viewed as a soft touch on the issue of copyright infringement.
Dozens, perhaps hundreds of allegedly infringing sites operate there with impunity, some due to aspects of Russian law and others simply because authorities have no interest in doing anything about them.
Of course, this situation is unacceptable to the United States where authorities and rightsholders regularly take the opportunity to complain about the poor levels of protection provided by the Russian authorities. Time and again Russia has given the impression that something might be done, but up to now progress has been slow.
However, yesterday came an announcement from United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk which suggests that for the U.S. things are moving more quickly towards a favorable situation.
Kirk said that the United States and Russian Federation have reached agreement on an Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Action Plan aimed at improving copyright protection and enforcement online.
“Strong IPR protection and enforcement are vital to promoting innovation and creativity by securing the rights of innovators and the creative community, attracting high-technology investment, and fostering the jobs necessary for long-term sustainable growth,” the action plan reads.
If carried through, the plan could have serious implications in the file-sharing space.
According to the USTR, in addition to conducting enforcement actions against unauthorized camcording, agreement has been reached to “disrupt the functioning” of sites that “facilitate criminal copyright infringement.” In addition to disruption – whatever form that may take – Russia has reportedly agreed to take action against the creators and operators of sites through which copyright infringement is committed.
The plan also reveals an agreement on the thorny issue of takedowns. The removal of links to infringing content is a big deal at the moment, with Google being hit particularly hard by rightsholder and their agents. Russia has been criticized in the past for not doing enough on this front but according to the plan has agreed to “provide for takedown of infringing content.”
The USTR also reports that Russian authorities have agreed to conduct “meaningful consultations” with rights holders to take action against high-priority websites. In the short term the sites on that list will probably be the ones submitted to the USTR by the RIAA and MPAA for the “Notorious Markets” report. If that is indeed the case, expect discussions on BitTorrent giant RUTracker, cyberlocker RapidGator, and social networking site Vkontakte.
There are also dozens of public and private torrent sites, plus file-hosting services hosted in Russia at this very moment. Up to now they’ve had a very easy ride and only time will tell if that will change as a result of the agreement.
The plan also gives an idea of where the U.S. sees potential weakness in current Russian law that could hold back potential legal action. According to the USTR, Russian authorities have agreed to support “special legislation” to combat Internet piracy that will “establish a fair framework for liability of Internet service providers in appropriate cases of infringement of intellectual property rights over the Internet.”
The vast majority of the report is targeted at larger entities that might be engaged in or connected to online piracy, but the USTR appears to have dangled a carrot that would enable Russian companies to target U.S. citizens in a limited way. The United States has agreed to discuss the possibility of allowing Russian rightsholders to use the upcoming “Copyright Alerts” system.
After revealing that employees at Hollywood movie studios are pirating movies themselves, we now move on to some other high profile organizations. As it turns out, the Big Three record labels are also using BitTorrent to pirate movies and software. And they’re not alone, we also found plenty of pirates at the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, the U.S. House of Representatives and at various European Parliaments.
Most TorrentFreak readers know that when you use BitTorrent without a VPN, the whole world is able to see what you’re downloading and where from.
Dozens of companies collect this incriminating data on alleged BitTorrent pirates, and some even go as far sharing this information in public. This allows us to reveal that unauthorized downloads occur even in the most unexpected of places.
Yesterday we documented that employees at several of the largest Hollywood movie studios are avid BitTorrent users. Today we’ll highlight a few other organizations, starting with three of the biggest record labels, Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group.
Universal Music Group
At Universal Music Group employees have been caught downloading several movies and TV-shows including The Cleveland Show, Transformers and Finding BigFoot. Below are three of the torrents that were shared from static IP-addresses registered to the record label, but there are many more.
Sony Music Entertainment
At Sony Music Entertainment’s New York office we found plenty of BitTorrent pirates as well. The XBox 360 game “Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions” and a recent episode of Gossip Girl are among the downloaded titles the record label is linked to.
Warner Music Group
IP-addresses registered to Warner Music Group are sharing on BitTorrent as well. An episode of Suits for example, and the movies House at the End of the Street and Finding Nemo.
And there’s more.
The U.S. Department of Justice, who are accusing Kim Dotcom of sharing a 50 Cent track, harbors several BitTorrent pirates in their offices too.
The same can be said for the Department of Homeland Security, where not all employees appear to be law abiding citizens.
Sometimes the content that’s being downloaded is rather topical for the organization or institution. For example, here’s what an employee of the “Army Air Force Exchange Services” has downloaded.
And then there are the lawmakers at the U.S. House of Representatives where we see that, among other things, the TV-shows Game of Thrones and Person of Interest are being downloaded.
BitTorrent is also used in the highest political offices in Europe of course.
Perhaps what we can learn from this exercise is that there are BitTorrent pirates in all decent sized companies and institutions. We can repeat the above for every outfit that has IP-addresses registered in their name, and a search for Facebook, Netflix (!) or Microsoft will bring back plenty of results.
BitTorrent is used by millions of people every day, including people who work at major Hollywood studios. Those who are said to be suffering the most from online piracy are no stranger to sharing copyrighted files themselves. New data reveals that employees at Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., Disney, Sony Pictures and 20th Century Fox are openly pirating movies, games and other forms of entertainment while at work.
While Christmas is a time for sharing there are certain files that some people believe should be excluded from that experience.
For more than a decade the MPAA has waged war against “thieves” who dare to share their movies online. Online piracy is costing the creative industries billions of dollars in lost revenue, they say.
The Hollywood group is therefore one of the main facilitators of the “six strikes” copyright alerts plan that will begin in the coming year. The main goal of this plan is to educate members of the public about piracy, and point them to legal sources.
However, new data uncovered by TorrentFreak shows that the MPAA might want to start in-house, as plenty of copyrighted material is being shared by employees of major Hollywood studios. With help from BitTorrent monitoring company Scaneye we found that BitTorrent piracy is rampant in Hollywood.
Let’s take a look at some of the files these Hollywood studios are sharing, starting with Paramount Pictures. Keep in mind that what we show here is just a small fraction of the files that are actually being shared. It’s the tip of the iceberg.
Static IP-addresses registered to Paramount were associated (e.g.) with the downloading of a wide variety of content as can be seen below. The indie production Battle Force was one of the movies shared, as well as the Lionsgate film The Hunger Games. And what about Happy Feet, a movie distributed by competitor Warner Bros?
Paramount Pictures
At Warner Bros. BitTorrent is also used by many employees. Here there appears to be a particular interest in adult entertainment. The Expendables 2 is also among the titles that were downloaded via Warner Bros. IP-addresses. This is not without risk, as the makers of the movie are known to sue alleged BitTorrent downloaders.
Warner Bros.
Moving on, we see that Sony Picture employees are sharing games, TV-shows and movies at work. The list below includes 20th Century Fox’s Ice Age: Continental Drift, and an episode of Top Chef.
Sony Pictures
20th Century Fox employees appear to be sharing the least out of all studios we checked. We only found three titles: the independent film Jeff, Who Lives at Home, an episode of 90210 and the Ubisoft game Hollywood Squares.
20th Century Fox
Disney is the last studio we checked out, and even at this mighty copyright icon employees are carelessly sharing files on BitTorrent. Fast and Furious 6, for example, and the TV-shows Person of Interest and Downton Abbey.
Walt Disney
The above is no surprise of course. Last year the now defunct website YouHaveDownloadedalready revealed that BitTorrent is used at virtually every company.
That said, it never hurts to point out that Hollywood isn’t without ‘sin’ when it comes to piracy. The MPAA and others lobby very hard for anti-piracy measures, but can’t even stop piracy in the offices of their own member studios.
Finally, we want to point out that we also “caught” BitTorrent Inc. sharing several files on BitTorrent. Interestingly enough, these files were all legally distributed with permissionfrom the makers.
Last week, UK Prime Minister David Cameron announced a new porn filtering system that will go online sometime during the coming year. However, the blockades, which are intended to deal with porn, may end up developing into a backdoor ban on BitTorrent and other file-sharing related sites.
Online censorship is a controversial subject. It’s often used in an attempt to ‘protect’ a group of people from something, but it rarely works as intended, and once in place feature-creep often sets in.
Unfortunately, in the rush to censor content for the claimed good of some group or other, the unintended consequences of these systems usually take a back seat.
In 2008, the UK Internet Watch Foundation (a private company operating confidentially) added a Wikipedia page to their list with the result that all Wikipedia visitors fromCleanfeed-using ISPs used one of a handful of IP addresses, leading to user verification issues and bans.
Another example closer to home involves UK ISP TalkTalk. They offer their customers a filtering system already and TorrentFreak – strictly a news resource – is unavailable when customers turn on the option to block file-sharing sites.
Not all such consequences are unintended, however. The new anti-porn lists, which are opt-out, may end up instituting a block on torrent and other filesharing-related sites. The listswere announced along with a piece by Prime Minister David Cameron in the Daily Mail newspaper (which has plenty of sexually-charged content of its own), who had run a morality campaign on the topic for the last few months.
Torrent site blocking has been postulated occasionally and has been implemented in the UK via High Court orders, which have both over-reached and been easily circumvented. Site blocks in other countries have also been tried, mainly against the claimed “root of all evil”, The Pirate Bay, albeit with extremelylimitedsuccess (seriously).
The lengthy and costly High Court approach may not be needed now though. Many torrent sites contain, to a greater or lesser extent, pornographic content, as well as more acceptable (but likely still to be blocked) ‘adult’ or ‘mature’ content. As such, we can only assume that torrent sites will be included initially or added later on.
This will be another blow against independent artists and creators who have leveraged the power of torrents to distribute content. And like all other attempts to legislate some personal interpretation of morality, it’s doomed to fail at its intended use, while creeping to the personal desires of those in charge, to the public detriment.
We’ll report more on how these lists impact torrent sites when more details become available.
UPDATE/Clarification 17:33 29/12/2012 While many commenters have pointed to this BBC piece about it being rejected, the piece was written about the rejection of an ‘opt-out’ system, and printed 4 days before Prime Minister Cameron’s Daily Mail announcement. In his plan, the system will be opt-in, and involve the ISPs in some form, but will have the default values (for people that just click through without reading) to turn on a basic level of filtering, if there are children in the house.
Advocates expressed concerns over a £100 million project that will see DNA information of 100,000 cancer patients mapped out in a database. Big Brother Watch has called the plan “wholly wrong”. In the meanwhile, David Cameron promised that the plans will be worked on over the next 5 years to finally hold the genetic details of every UK citizen.
According to the Prime Minister, this move will push the boundaries of science and allow genetic sequencing by unlocking the power of DNA information. However, the UK’s genome plan has also raised some concerns that the information could be used to create commercial deals with such entities as drug firms. People also fear that people having access to the database might use the genetic codes in order to identify and track everyone on it, as well as their relatives.
The Prime Minister’s office also promised that the genome sequencing would be entirely voluntary and the patients will have a choice to opt out without affecting their NHS care.
While the Conservative-Lib Dem Coalition has faced criticism that it’s dismantling the NHS to an outstanding extent, the Prime Minister said the £100 million funding will come from existing NHS budgets. This money will initially be spent on training scientists and creating secure systems to process the data.
According to privacy and civil liberties campaign group Big Brother Watch, the NHS shouldn’t be treated as a government asset, but rather details of people’s illnesses, treatments and hugely personal data. They believe that if private companies want access to medical records, they should ask permission, because it is entirely wrong for this to be an opt-out scheme: everyone can see the implications for privacy. Apparently, assurances of anonymity have been demonstrated to be hollow in other states, so it’s just a matter of time before insurance or marketing companies try to make use of this information.
Despite the outfit has made assurances that the information would be absolutely anonymized before it’s stored, it warned that the government has to listen to a range of opinions, including patient and privacy outfits, in order to prevent policy being introduced just to appease large pharmaceutical firms. They aren’t sure that this policy has fully taken into consideration the real privacy concerns sharing large volumes of patient data entails.
It recently turned out that the advanced snooping technology of the British Highways Agency has proved so useless that no drivers at all have received tickets for speeding on the M25.
Although a lot of users of the largest carpark in the world may be surprised that anyone could go fast enough to get a speeding ticket, it’s clear that at least someone must have got past 70 miles per hour during the past year. Local newspapers explained that certain technical and legal difficulties were the reason why the Highways Agency couldn’t switch on the network of 36 new digital cameras.
The cameras were purchased and installed in order to enforce variable speed limits on the London orbital motorway. It was found out that the equipment was wasted only after AOL wondered which section of the road netted the most cash. Surprisingly enough, it turned out that the cameras had caught no speeders at all.
After the first digital camera was installed three years ago, the Highways Agency representative admitted that it had still not received statutory authority to use them in a number of English counties. In the meantime, in other parts of the road, the difficulties were “technical”, with the older generation of “wet film” cameras being upgraded to new digital devices. However, it also turned out that for some reason in a few counties these cameras haven’t even been tested.
The Highways Agency representative failed to reveal how much the overhead cameras had cost or when the organization would be able to use them. In the meanwhile, Jim Fitzpatrick, Labour’s road safety spokesperson, pointed out that the M25 was widely used as a racetrack by many reckless drivers, so it was ridiculous that the network didn’t work.
According to Claire Armstrong, representing the anti-camera group named Safespeed, there’s the only question: if the Highways Agency believed that the cameras were any good, then why wasn’t the outfit using them?
The
Open Rights Group made an attempt to avoid complications of website
blocking, at the same time having in mind transparency and
accountability. The outfit asked ISPs to maintain the public lists of
blocked sites, provided by the entertainment industry.
In
2012 the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) in cooperation with ISPs
managed to block such websites as The Pirate Bay and Newzbin2 across the
country. Nevertheless, these giants were only the primary targets,
while received injunctions enable the outfit to block other sites
providing access to “rogue websites” via alternative addresses. The
lists in question are sent to ISPs that ultimately apply the blockage.
In the meantime, the Open Rights Group asks for transparency and
accountability, because this method can easily result in mistakes. For
instance, The Pirate Bay injunction lets the music industry lobby group
to ask Internet service providers to block www.thepiratebay.se, its
sub-domains and all other IP addresses or URLs serving to enable or
facilitate access to TPB.
According to media reports, the latest collateral damage appeared to be
The Promo Bay – a completely legal site started by The Pirate Bay. In
the meanwhile, ORG believes that other sites could share the same fate.
According to Jim Killock, the executive director of the Open Rights
Group, the BPI is planning to obtain blocking orders for around 50-100
sites, and each order will allow the outfit to create a ban list of
clone websites or IP addresses. Killock points out that these ban lists
might end up blocking up to 500 or more domains and IP addresses, all at
the behest of the British Phonographic Industry.
As you can understand, there is a clear need for transparency, because
there are too many mistakes, which are only being corrected thanks to
public pressure. That’s why the Open Rights Group call on Internet
service providers and the UK music industry to publish the blocking
lists in order to ensure legal transparency and public accountability.
At the moment, the BPI hasn’t provided any comments regarding the ORG’s initiative.
Despite
the fact that Germany warned about the implications of allowing deep
packet inspection, a UN summit decided that this method can help protect
copyrighted works.
Media
reports confirm that a UN summit has approved the Chinese proposals to
spy on BitTorrent file-sharers. Back in November, Dubai held a meeting
where ITU agreed upon a secret Y.2770 proposal, which allowed access to
the papers to members only. Another meeting began this week, where the
American government and a few Internet companies harshly criticized the
decision.
Despite the secrecy around the proposal, a Korean standards body
revealed a document saying how network operators are planning to
identify embedded digital watermarks in MP3 files and uploading
BitTorrent users.
The opponents argue that UN’s agency barely acknowledges that DPI has
privacy implications and the potential privacy threats associated with
the technology might be mitigated. The matter is that deep packet
inspection proves useful in addressing network attacks, detecting
malware, or managing applications. However, it also draws attention on
other issues like governmental surveillance. The arguments are that
mandatory standards can’t be a good idea even if they are well thought
through. If the organization forces the world’s tech firms to adopt
standards developed in a body which can’t even conduct privacy analysis,
it may face dire global consequences for online trust and users’
rights.
The secret proposal also asks Internet service providers to decrypt
their subscribers’ online traffic. However, this method has been already
used by a number of ITU member countries: for example, Amesys (a unit
of the French firm Bull SA) helped Moammar Gadhafi spy on his people in
2011.
This is not the only example: this past summer, New York Times reported
about FinSpy – a malware sold by a British firm. The software allowed
the distant activation of computer cameras and microphones and was
linked to repressive governments, including Turkmenistan, Brunei, and
Bahrain.
Anyway, in spite of all warnings, the Y.2770 proposal seems to become
just another censorship instrument for the governments to spy on its
people and whatever else.
As armed conflict between the Israeli military and Palestinian militants escalated, a new kind of war broke out between the two foes – over Twitter and other social media.
A Palestinian boy pushes his bicycle through the rubble in an area targeted by an Israeli air strike in Gaza CityPhoto: AFP/Getty Images
Since the start of Operation Pillar of Defence on Wednesday, the Israeli Defence Force in particular has used its Twitter account to report attacks, highlight its successes, aim for the moral high ground and threaten the enemy.
Within minutes of the strike that incinerated the vehicle Ahmed al-Jaabari, the Hamas militant wing leader, was travelling in, the IDF spokesman's office posted video of his car exploding on YouTube, which then quickly began circulating on Twitter.
It posted a red-tinted graphic of killed in an air strike, with the word "Eliminated" emblazoned in capital letters. It urged online users following the account to "retweet" the graphic.
Later in the day, the IDF, via its @IDFSpokesperson Twitter account, issued a transparent threat: "We recommend that no Hamas operatives, whether low level or senior leaders, show their faces above ground in the days ahead."
The @AlqassamBrigade account of Hamas's military wing account quickly retorted: "@IDFSpokesperson Our blessed hands will reach your leaders and soldiers wherever they are (You Opened Hell Gates on Yourselves)."
Social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook have been used to galvanise political protest in the Middle East and elsewhere, but this is the first time either has been used for such blatantly belligerent purposes.
The IDF's Twitter account rapidly gained followers, more than tripling its numbers to 103,000 by Thursday evening. The less sophisticated Hamas account gained followers more slowly with only 10,800.
Though the Israelis were both inflicting more casualties on the ground and winning the Twitter war in terms of volume, there were signs that its bold approach on both fronts could backfire.
Twitter users responded to the IDF's tweets with denunciations of Israeli aggression and pictures of a Palestinian girl killed in the air strikes.
The hashtag #GazaUnderAttack was created by Palestinian sympathisers to allow Twitter users to keep up with reports and pictures of civilian suffering. Its usage was heavier than the IDF's account.
But generally on the service, there were also however plenty of comments supporting the Israelis or condemning both sides at once.
Latest updates as the renewed conflict enters a second day, as Tel Aviv is hit for the first time by Gaza rockets.
A rocket launched by Palestinian militants towards Israel makes its way from the northern Gaza Strip, seen from the Israel Gaza Border, southern IsraelPhoto: AP Photo/Ariel Schalit
By Daniel Fisher, Chris Irvine
9:25PM GMT 15 Nov 2012
21.25 Three more Palestinians have been killed in a fresh round of air strikes on Beit Hanun in the northern Gaza Strip, a spokesman for Hamas emergency services has just told AFP.
Three citizens were martyred and 12 injured in an air strike in Beit Hanun.
20.32 Phoebe Greenwood, who is retiring for the evening, leaves us with a couple of notes.
There has been heavy bombing around our hotel here in Gaza City in the last hour or so. Reports are coming through the Twittersphere of troops amassing along the Israeli-Gaza border, following the Israeli announcement they are ready for "Phase 2". The assumption here is that there will be a ground offensive of some sort over night.
20.20 The UN has said that an Israeli airstrike killed a UN schoolteacher in Gaza on Wednesday.
Marwan Abu El Qumsan was in a car near the scene of a strike on the Palestinian territory. The Arabic teacher at a UN school was killed and his brother severely injured in the blast, said Chris Gunness, a spokesman for the UN Palestinian refugees agency, UNRWA.
19.32 Suspect this might be too late considering what's happened the last two days, but Francois Hollande, the French president, has reportedly begun talks with Benjamin Netanyahu to avoid escalation in Gaza.
19.10 The Associated Press is reporting that Israel has begun moving troops towards the Gaza Strip, following the announcement of reservists being called up.
Gently soothing his crying toddler, Mr Misharwi struggled to explain why his family was hit.
"We don't belong to any political faction. There is no Hamas presence in this neighbourhood, no training grounds, no rocket launching sites. We are all just normal civilians here. I never expected this to happen," the 27 year-old said, absorbing the charred remains of his home.
As he pointed to the gaping hole in the roof under which Hiba and Omar died, his eyes filled with tears.
"They were all together. It was a matter of seconds between them but my wife survived and Omar is dead. It feels so random."
19.00 One of the remarkable things about this conflict is that a new kind of war has broken out between the two foes - a Twitter war. Alex Spillius, our Diplomatic Correspondent explains:
Within minutes of the strike that incinerated the vehicle Ahmed al-Jaabari, the Hamas militant wing leader, was travelling in, the IDF spokesman's office posted video of his car exploding on YouTube, which then quickly began circulating on Twitter.
It posted a red-tinted graphic of killed in an air strike, with the word "Eliminated" emblazoned in capital letters. It urged online users following the account to "retweet" the graphic.
Later in the day, the IDF, via its @IDFSpokesperson Twitter account, issued a transparent threat: "We recommend that no Hamas operatives, whether low level or senior leaders, show their faces above ground in the days ahead."
The @AlqassamBrigade account of Hamas's military wing account quickly retorted: "@IDFSpokesperson Our blessed hands will reach your leaders and soldiers wherever they are (You Opened Hell Gates on Yourselves)."
Social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook have been used to galvanise political protest in the Middle East and elsewhere, but this is the first time either has been used for such blatantly belligerent purposes.
18.50 For those of you just joining us, Agence France Presse has done us a very handy timeline of the events of the last 24 hours. Here's where we are:
- Wednesday
- Ahmed Jaabari, head of the military forces of Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, is killed in an Israeli missile strike on his car in Gaza City. His bodyguard also dies.
- The attack marks the start of an Israeli offensive that initially kills eight, including Jaabari, and injures around 90 according to Palestinian officials.
- The Israeli military says it is prepared to launch a ground operation if necessary in order to stamp out rocket fire from Gaza into Israeli territory.
- A Hamas spokesman says the offensive is a "declaration of war." A spokesman for the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, which Jaabari headed, says Israel has "opened the gates of hell."
- Egypt, the only Arab state to have full diplomatic relations with Israel, withdraws its ambassador from Tel Aviv.
- Thursday
- New Israeli raids on Gaza kill seven more Palestinians.
- The funeral of Jaabari takes place in the presence of thousands of people, including dozens of Hamas militants.
- Hamas says it will not consider a truce with Israel for now.
- Israel will take "whatever action is necessary" to defend its citizens from Palestinian rocket attacks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says.
- A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip lands in the water just south of Tel Aviv, the farthest that a rocket from Gaza had ever hit inside Israel.
- Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi rejects on what he calls Israel's aggression in Gaza. Iran condemns as "organised terrorism" the Israeli operation.
- The Israeli army says it has carried out a total of 150 strikes on the Gaza Strip. Israel says more than 250 rockets have been fired from Gaza into its territory. Of that number, 48 were stopped by its vaunted Iron Dome anti-missile system.
18.44 Al-Jazeera has published an interactive map of Gaza, showing how different cities in the strip are impacted by Israeli air attacks.
18.17 More from Barak. According to AFP, Barak has greenlit a call-up of 30,000 reservists.
The US is meanwhile asking Egypt to use their influence to help end the Gaza violence. Mark Toner, the deputy State Department spokesman, said Hillary Clinton had spoken with her Egyptian counterpart.
We ask Egypt to use its influence in the region to help de-escalate the situation.
18.09Ehud Barak, the Israeli defence minister, has warned that the rocket fire at Tel Aviv is an escalation that will exact a price from Gaza militants.
This escalation will exact a price that the other side will have to pay.
17.24 Tel Aviv residents say they have heard an explosion following an air-raid alert, raising fears that a Gaza rocket strike on the commercial capital is increasingly likely.
Israeli authorities are trying to determine where the rocket may have landed. Eli Bean, the head of Israel's rescue service, told AP no injuries have been reported.
Israeli military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai says nothing landed on the ground, raising the possibility it fell in the sea.
A strike on Tel Aviv would be the first time Gaza rocket squads have reached the city and that would mark a significant escalation.
16.50 The White House has released a statement blaming Hamas for the explosion of violence in Gaza, mirroring comments made by William Hague earlier today.
Expressing regret for the victims on both sides of the conflict, White House spokesman Jay Carney said there was "no justification" for the violence on the part of Hamas, saying it "does nothing to help the Palestinians."
Carney's statement, given to reporters aboard Air Force One as it carried the president to New York, built on the US account of a telephone conversation the night before between Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Obama called on his counterpart in Israel to "make every effort to avoid civilian casualties," while stressing Israel's right to defend itself from Hamas' attacks, the White House said.
The two leaders agreed that Hamas needed to stop attacks on Israel to "allow the situation to de-escalate," the statement continued, putting the blame for the outbreak of violence squarely in the hands of the Islamist movement.
16.11 Resident's in the southern Israeli town of Kiryat Malachi, where three people died in a rocket attack earlier today, say they are fully behind the operation underway in Gaza.
Gaby Peretz, who worked with one of the three people killed in attack, told AFP: " Even if the rocket fire continues, the military operation should continue until there is quiet here."
"The Palestinians must pay a heavy price," he added.
Michael Ben-Ari, an extreme right-wing Israeli lawmaker, said: "Israel must stop using tweezers. Gaza should run red with the blood of terrorists."
16.03 Meanwhile in Tunisia, hundreds have gathered for a demonstration against Israel's attacks on Gaza.
Several hundred protesters gathered on Habib Bourguiba Avenue in the centre of Tunis shouting slogans such as "No to reconciliation," and "The people want to criminalise normalised relations with the (Zionist) entity."
Youth supporters of Tunisia's ruling Islamist party Ennahda also called for a demonstration on Friday, "after the odious crimes committed by the Zionist entity, which has violated the land and places that are sacred."
16.01 Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Qandil will visit the Gaza Strip tomorrow, Hamas spokesman Taher al-Nunu told AFP:
The Egyptian leadership informed us that Prime Minister Hisham Qandil will visit Gaza tomorrow, accompanied by a number of ministers. We welcome this visit and appreciate this courageous stand.
15.39 Alistair Lyon has written an analysis for Reuters on how this latest flare-up in the conflict will affect the situation in the Middle East, arguing that it is unlikely to ignite a wider war or destroy the Jewish state's 1979 peace treaty with Egypt.
Hamas, an offshoot of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, had become newly assertive in recent weeks, buoyed by a visit to Gaza by the emir of Qatar and by an apparent belief that Israel would not risk strong military action with Islamists ruling Egypt.
Egypt's Islamist President Mohamed Mursi, who has demanded that Washington rein in Israel's "unacceptable" attacks, faces popular pressure to act tough, but jettisoning the peace treaty would incur grave risks for a nation still in turmoil after last year's revolt against Hosni Mubarak, who upheld it for 30 years.
However, U.S. President Barack Obama, in telephone calls with Mursi and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, merely emphasised Israel's right to self-defence and gave no hint that he was considering any new push for peace with the Palestinians.
Cairo receives $1.3 billion a year in U.S. military aid and looks to Washington for help with its ailing economy, constraining Mursi despite his need to show Egyptians that his policies differ from those of his U.S.-backed predecessor.
"Mursi cannot do anything beyond reaching out to the international community because the balance of power in the region is tilted towards Israel," said Nabil Abdel Fattah, at Cairo's Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.
"Arab countries also remain too weak militarily and diplomatically for any serious push against such aggression."
Obama has other Middle East headaches for his second term, from the nuclear dispute with Iran to instability in Iraq and a conflict in Syria that has caused sometimes violent tensions on borders with Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan and Israel.
15.26 A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip landed in a city just nine miles southeast of Tel Aviv, by far the farthest strike by Gaza militants in two days of fighting, according to the Israeli army.
"There was a rocket that hit in an open field in the Rishon LeTzion area. There were no injuries or damage," a spokeswoman said.
A smoke trail is seen as a rocket is launched from the northern Gaza Strip (REUTERS/Nir Elias)
15.19 The Shadow foreign secretary, Labour's Douglas Alexander, has spoken about the crisis:
The priority must be an immediate end to the violence to avoid a spiral downwards to even greater suffering. Escalating tension serves no one's interest.
Citizens in both Israel and Gaza deserve to live in peace and security.
The recent rocket attacks into southern Israel that have led to this latest response deserve our categorical condemnation but Israel must at all times act in accordance with international law.
This latest escalation of violence only emphasises why it is vital that negotiations to achieve a political solution to the Israeli - Palestinian conflict must resume with urgency.
14.54 A few more details are coming in on the Hamas spokesman's comments regarding a truce with Israel.
Sami Abu Zuhri told a press conference:
We will not be exposed to further tricks by the occupation. We consider talk of a truce at this time an attempt to provide more cover for the continuation of the escalation on Gaza
14.40 Breaking on the AFP newswire: Hamas has rejected talk of a truce with Israel at this time, according to a spokesman. More on that when it comes in.
14.20 Speaking earlier today, Israeli Army Spokeswoman Lieutenant Colonel Avital Leibovich said that "all the options are on the table, including the possibility of a ground operation" into Gaza:
14.00 Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has given a press conference in Tel Aviv in which he has warned Israel will take "whatever action necessary" to defend its citizens from Palestinian rocket attacks.
He said he has spoken to US President Barack Obama who has offered "unequivocal" support for Israel's right to defend itself from attack.
13.51 The Israeli operation has drawn fresh condemnation from Turkey and Iran, both Muslim countries that both have good relations with Hamas.
Turkish President Abdullah Gul "strongly" condemned Israel and criticized Washington for supporting Israel. Turkey's once close ties with Israel have collapsed over an Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound Turkish aid ship in 2010.
Iran, a major backer of Hamas, called the Israeli operation "organized terrorism." Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast urged the world to cut ties with Israel.
13.43 Khaled Meshaal, the exiled chief of the Hamas movement has given a defiant speech in Sudan, declaring that "Israel will never defeat Gaza". Addressing a conference of Sudanese Islamists, he said:
This enemy is weak and cannot vanquish Gaza
I call on my brothers who have their fingers on the trigger to run the battle wisely and with a brave heart. The war against the enemy will go on even after Jaabari departed us. Women and men are queuing for jihad and martyrdom
13.38 The Telegraph's Chief Foreign Correspondent David Blair writes this analysis of the Israel/Gaza crisis: now the bloodshed will mount:
The clouds of smoke billowing across the white tower blocks of Gaza City and the towns of southern Israel are achingly familiar. Once again, the Arab-Israeli conflict has flared up into another confrontation. Over the next few days it will become clear whether Israel’s operation is a limited strike or one that will escalate into another war, comparable to the 22-day conflict of 2008-09.
In particular, Israel’s leaders will have to decide whether to follow up their air strikes with an incursion by troops on the ground. That is a far riskier proposition. Israel would have to weigh the probability of casualties against the likelihood of achieving its goals. And what objectives could be achieved from the ground and not from the air? If the aim is to destroy caches of weapons and kill Hamas operatives, that could all be done from the air. I could be proven wrong very quickly, but on balance I’d venture to suggest that a ground attack is unlikely.
13.12 Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is cutting short his European tour and flying home after talks with Swiss officials as the situation in Gaza deteriorates, according to Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian negotiator. He told reporters:
We have a very grave situation in Gaza, we have situation deteriorating on the hour every hour and President Abbas now is in touch with His Excellency President Mursi of Egypt, Dr. Nabil Elaraby of the Arab League, Ban Ki-moon ... and others in Europe and the United States, hoping to begin a process of de-escalation of the conflict.
Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (EPA)
12.31 The Associated Press has filed a new wrap of the day's events so far, as the Israeli military presses forward with a second day of intense air raids and naval attacks on militant targets.
With Israel threatening to invade the Palestinian territory, the heaviest fighting between Israel and Hamas in four years shows no signs of letting up:
Militants fired salvoes of rockets into Israel on Thursday killing three while seven Palestinians died in waves of air strikes, as Israel pressed a vast offensive in Gaza into a second day.
The military said it had carried out more than 150 air strikes since it launched Operation Pillar of Defence on Wednesday with the targeted killing of Hamas military chief Ahmed Jaabari, as militants fired some 250 rockets at southern Israel.
The Israeli assault on the Palestinian territory is its toughest in nearly four years and comes as the Jewish state heads towards general elections.
It has prompted fury from Palestinians and calls for restraint from world leaders.
In Gaza, thousands joined a procession carrying Jaabari's body from Shifa hospital to his home in Shejaiya, east of Gaza City, as militants fired in the area, breathing violent threats of revenge.
Even as the funeral was being held, Israeli raids continued, with the toll from more than 22 hours of strikes rising to 15 dead and 150 injured, medics said.
In the same period, three Israelis were killed and five injured as at least 195 rockets hit southern Israel while another 48 were intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile system, a military spokesman said.
In the latest strike on the northern town of Beit Lahiya, 60-year-old man was killed, health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said, as medics said a child succumbed to injuries sustained in a morning strike on Khan Yunis.
And in the southern Israeli town of Kiryat Malachi, police said two men and a woman had been killed when a rocket landed on a residential building.
Medics said a total of 16 people were injured in rocket strikes on Thursday.
A building targeted by an Israeli air strike explodes inside the Gaza strip (JACK GUEZ/AFP/Getty Images)
12.21 Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal has condemned the killing of military commander Ahmed al-Jaabari and vowed to continue the "resistance" against Israel.
"Men and women in Palestine, we will continue the resistance," Meshaal said at a meeting of Islamic leaders in the Sudanese capital Khartoum, according to Reuters.
Khaled Meshaal, leader of Hamas, meeting with with Ahmed al-Jaabari in Cairo, on 18 October 2011 (EPA/HAMAS MEDIA OFFICE)
11.46 Minutes after William Hague's statement blaming Hamas for the renewed conflict comes this from Russia, condemning Israel's "disproportionate" use of force in air strikes on the Gaza Strip.
Foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich told reporters:
Attacks on the south of Israel and the disproportionate strikes on Gaza - especially when civilians are killed on both sides - are completely unacceptable.
We strongly appeal on all the involved parties to immediately end their armed confrontation and to keep the conflict from resulting in still further bloodshed.
We believe that considering the fragile situation in the Middle East and the entire North African region, such large flare-ups of violence are fraught with dangerous consequences, including in other parts of the Arab world.
11.29 The Foreign Office has just released this statement from Foreign Secretary William Hague in which he states that "Hamas bears principal responsibility for the current crisis".
“I am gravely concerned by the situation in Gaza and Southern Israel and deeply regret the loss of civilian life on both sides. I call on all those involved to avoid any action which risks civilian casualties or escalates the crisis.
“Hamas bears principal responsibility for the current crisis. I utterly condemn rocket attacks from Gaza into southern Israel by Hamas and other armed groups. This creates an intolerable situation for Israeli civilians in southern Israel, who have the right to live without fear of attack from Gaza. The rocket attacks also risk worsening the plight of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, which is already precarious.
“Hamas and other armed groups in Gaza should cease attacks against Israel immediately. I call on those in the region with influence over Hamas to use that influence to bring about an end to the attacks.
“I also strongly urge Israel to do their utmost to reduce tension, avoid civilian casualties and increase the prospects for both sides to live in peace. It is imperative to avoid the risk of a spiral of violence. The escalation of the conflict would be in no one's interest, particularly at a time of instability in the region.
“These events underline once again the fragility of the situation and the urgent need for progress toward a two state solution which allows Israelis and Palestinians to live alongside each other in peace and security. Britain will do all it can to support such progress and an urgent resumptions of negotiations.”
11.10 Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi has rejected what he calls Israel's "aggression" in Gaza, saying it threatens to destabilise the region, the AFP newswire reports.
In televised remarks, Morsi said:
We are in contact with the people of Gaza and with Palestinians and we stand by them until we stop the aggression and we do not accept under any circumstances the continuation of this aggression on the Strip.
The Israelis must realise that this aggression is unacceptable and would only lead to instability in the region and would negatively and greatly impact the security of the region.
Egypt's Islamist administration, which has close ties with Gaza's ruling Hamas movement, recalled its ambassador in protest at the Israeli operation which killed Ahmed al-Jaabari.
In an earlier telephone conversation with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed Kamel Amr "called on the United States to immediately intervene to bring to an end the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people in Gaza," the ministry said in a statement.
10.45 Despite the ongoing violence and repeated attacks on Gaza over 1,000 people marched in the funeral of Ahmed Jabari today.
In this video interview Phoebe Greenwood, who followed the Jabari funeral procession in Gaza City, says the assassination was "the straw that's broken the camel's back".
"We have three killed," Israeli police spokesman Luba Samri told AFP, saying four other people were also injured in a "direct hit on a house" in the town which lies 18 miles north of the Gaza Strip.
The rocket attack comes amid a vast Israeli operation against Gaza militants which began on Wednesday with Israel's killing of Hamas military chief Ahmed Jaabari in an air strike on a car in Gaza City.
Iran issued a statement on Thursday morning accusing Israel of "organised terrorism".
"Iran considers the criminal act of Israeli military forces in killing civilians as organised terrorism and strongly condemns it," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.
An Israeli missile is launched from the Iron Dome missile system in the southern Israeli city of Beer Sheva in response to a rocket launch from the nearby Palestinian Gaza Strip (EPA/JIM HOLLANDER)
Jihad Misharawi, who is employed by BBC Arabic, lost his 11-month-old baby Omar. His brother was also seriously injured when his house was struck in the Israeli operation and his sister in law was killed.
Jihad al-Masharawi, a Palestinian employee of BBC Arabic, carries the body of his 11-month-old son Omar (REUTERS/Mohammed Salem )
10.22 The Telegraph's editorial this morning warns that Israel's action in Gaza highlights the region's volatility and why everyone must tread with care when looking for a settlement.
The National Security Council meets today, ostensibly to discuss the civil war in Syria and consider what, if anything, Britain should be doing to alleviate the humanitarian catastrophe there, or to facilitate a political settlement. But as if there were not enough already to preoccupy diplomats and military planners, Israel’s renewed offensive on targets inside Gaza serves as a brutal reminder of the region’s volatility.
It is almost four years since the Israeli Defence Force last entered Gaza in response to rocket attacks against its territory by Hamas. The three-week Operation Cast Lead resulted in a terrible loss of life and was one of President Barack Obama’s first major foreign policy headaches. The reason for Israel’s air assault yesterday was the same as in December 2008 – Hamas has launched 100 missiles over the border since last Saturday. But the political dynamics of the region are fundamentally different today.
It was shortly before four o’clock when Ghalib al Hatour glanced up from sorting through spare parts at his streetside workshop in Gaza City.
Driving towards him in the distance was a grey, Kia saloon – a new model it appeared. As he bent his head down to continue his task, he was thrown backwards, an ear-splitting blast detonating in the relative confines of the quiet, mostly residential street.
When the thick black smoke cleared, Mr Hatour could pick out the severed front of the Kia blazing furiously only yards away. But only the front. The rest of it was gone, strewn in charred pieces across the road, amid a carpet of glass, blood and blackened metal.
Looking around, he saw pieces of undercarriage and exhaust lying next to him. Blood was splattered on the white walls of one building opposite. Fragments of what appeared to be human flesh reached as far as a fourth floor window, above the height of trees in full leaf.
The Israeli army said that “Operation Pillar of Defence” was designed to stop Hamas from launching rocket attacks on its territory and that “if necessary” Israel was willing to “initiate a ground operation” inside Gaza.
The air strike killed Ahmed al-Jaabari, commander of the group’s military wing, and another official as they drove through Gaza City. Last night, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) posted video footage online showing the moment his car was struck as it passed along a crowded street.
Israel also bombed 19 more targets across the territory, triggering the most serious confrontation since the Gaza War of 2008-09, which claimed at least 1,200 lives.
Israel's Shin Bet domestic intelligence service confirmed it had carried out the attack, saying it had killed Jaabri because of his 'decade-long terrorist activity' (AFP)
10.00 Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of events in Gaza, where the renewed conflict has entered a second day.Israeli airstrikes on Gaza
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Three citizens were martyred and 12 injured in an air strike in Beit Hanun.
There has been heavy bombing around our hotel here in Gaza City in the last hour or so. Reports are coming through the Twittersphere of troops amassing along the Israeli-Gaza border, following the Israeli announcement they are ready for "Phase 2". The assumption here is that there will be a ground offensive of some sort over night.
Within minutes of the strike that incinerated the vehicle Ahmed al-Jaabari, the Hamas militant wing leader, was travelling in, the IDF spokesman's office posted video of his car exploding on YouTube, which then quickly began circulating on Twitter.
The clouds of smoke billowing across the white tower blocks of Gaza City and the towns of southern Israel are achingly familiar. Once again, the Arab-Israeli conflict has flared up into another confrontation. Over the next few days it will become clear whether Israel’s operation is a limited strike or one that will escalate into another war, comparable to the 22-day conflict of 2008-09.
