Blockade of the Gaza Strip

Hamas on Oct. 11 warned Israel against ?foolishness? after an air strike by the Jewish state in the Gaza Strip in response to rocket fire killed a pregnant woman and her toddler.

?This shows the occupation?s desire to escalate,? said Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip. ?We warn the occupation against continuing this foolishness.?  

U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said Sept. 9 that she has spent years trying to convince Israeli to apologize to Turkey for a deadly attack on an aid flotilla to Gaza in 2010.

"We lost what was not just a working relationship but a real bridge," Clinton said. "I spent, you know, literally years trying to get the Israelis to finally apologize to the Turks on the flotilla."

The Turkish government will begin rebuilding nine mosques that were devastated during a summer 2014 operation by Israel, according to Israeli officials.

The procedure for full confirmation of the projects that will be carried out by the Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) was completed last week, Israeli officials told the Hürriyet Daily News.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) ordered July 16 its chief prosecutor to review a decision not to probe Israel?s deadly raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla in 2010, saying ?errors were made.?

Israel and Palestinians mark one year since last summer's devastating war in the Gaza Strip on July 8, with a ceasefire still largely holding but few of the issues that led to the conflict resolved.

Israel deported Tunisian ex-president Moncef Marzouki and European parliament member Ana Miranda on June 30 after they took part in a flotilla seeking to defy its Gaza blockade, an official said.

Israel's navy boarded and took over an activist vessel seeking to break its Gaza blockade and was escorting it to port on June 29 in an operation that did not use force, the military said.

Gaza reconstruction is moving at a "snail's pace" and at this rate, it would likely take 30 years to rebuild the extensive damage from last summer's Israel-Hamas war, a senior UN official said.
     

An announcement by an Arab Israeli lawmaker that he plans to join a pro-Palestinian flotilla seeking to break Israel's blockade on Gaza caused outrage June 22 among the country's political class.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on June 19 denounced what he called the "hypocrisy" of the United Nations after UN chief Ban Ki-moon demanded Israel protect the lives of children in Gaza.