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2 Gazans Wounded in Israel Air Strike after Rocket Fire

A retaliatory Israeli air strike on Hamas' military wing in the Gaza Strip wounded two people Friday, a Palestinian official said, following a rocket attack on Israel.

Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra told AFP that one person was seriously hurt and the other moderately in the strike on a training facility of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, near El Bureij refugee camp in the center of the strip.

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Explosion Kills Four, Wounds 30 at House in Gaza

An explosion that ripped through a house in the southern Gaza Strip Thursday killed four people and wounded dozens, an official said, but the cause of the blast was unclear.

"Four Palestinians were killed and 30 others wounded" in a blast inside a house in Al-Shabura (refugee) camp near Rafah, Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said, updating an earlier toll of two.

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Hamas Warns of New Violence unless Israel Lifts Blockade

The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas warned Wednesday of renewed violence unless Israel lifts its blockade of Gaza, at a ceremony marking the end of a military-style summer camp for 25,000 Gazans.

"Today, our message to the occupier is very clear: We will not accept a blockade," said Mahmud Zahar, a senior leader of Hamas which rules the Gaza Strip and has been holding indirect contacts with Israel over a long-term truce in return for an end to the nine-year-old blockade.

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Hamas Renews 'Revolt' Call against Palestinian Authority

Deputies of the Islamist movement Hamas which rules Gaza on Wednesday renewed calls for a "revolt" against the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority over its sweeping arrests of anti-Israeli militants.

The deputies, in an act of defiance, held a meeting in the parliament building in Gaza City that has not convened officially since 2007 when Hamas expelled PA security forces after a week of deadly clashes.

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Hamas Armed Wing Gives 25,000 Gazans Combat Training

The military wing of Hamas opened its Gaza summer camp on Saturday, aimed at providing basic combat training for 25,000 Palestinians in the embattled strip.

Hamas, the de facto power in Gaza, is currently engaged in indirect contacts with Israel to try to reach a long-term truce, but a year after last summer's devastating 50-day war the militant movement has kept up the fighting talk.

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Palestinians Lay First Brick for Gaza Reconstruction

Palestinian housing minister Mufid al-Hasayneh laid a brick Wednesday for the first Gaza home to be rebuilt since the Israel-Hamas war a year ago, as frustration mounts over the slow pace of reconstruction.

The 50-day war in July-August 2014 killed 2,200 Palestinians, 73 on the Israeli side, and destroyed or damaged tens of thousands of homes in the besieged Gaza Strip.

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Anti-Hamas Gaza Jihadists Threaten Rocket Fire on Israel

Jihadists in the Gaza Strip have threatened to fire rockets at Israel in response to a Hamas crackdown on extremists in the Palestinian territory.

The threat came in reaction to the arrest of militants suspected of targeting members of Hamas' armed wing Sunday with a series of bombings.

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Gaza's Sole Power Plant Shuts over Palestinian Tax Dispute

The Gaza Strip's sole power plant has halted production, the Hamas-run energy authority said Tuesday, in the latest dispute with the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority over fuel tax.

Relations between Islamist movement Hamas and the PA, which is dominated by bitter rivals Fatah, are at rock bottom despite an April 2014 agreement that installed a unity government and was meant to centralize administration of the Palestinian territories.

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Poll: Most Israeli Jews Favor Return of Gaza Settlements

Most Israeli Jews favor the reconstruction of a block of settlements in the Gaza Strip, a decade after Israel withdrew from the Palestinian territory, a poll published on Monday showed.

Some 51 percent of Israeli Jews said they were in favor of rebuilding the Gush Katif group of settlements, located in southern Gaza and where more than 8,000 Israelis lived prior to the 2005 withdrawal.

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Gaza Car Blasts Target Hamas, Islamic Jihad Armed Wings

Five near-simultaneous explosions in Gaza on Sunday targeted members of the armed branches of Hamas and Islamic Jihad amid growing tensions between the Palestinian territory's rulers and extremist opponents.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blasts that rocked an area in the north of Gaza City and destroyed five cars belonging to members of the Ezzedine al-Qassam and al-Quds brigades, the armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

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