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Al-Aqsa University

Al-AqsaGaza CityMiddle East university stubsMiddle Eastern school stubsPalestine stubs
Universities and colleges established in 1955Universities and colleges in Gaza Strip

Al-Aqsa University (Arabic: جامعة الأقصى) is a Palestinian university established in 1955 in the Gaza Strip, Palestine. Established in 1955 as the first higher education institution in the Gaza Strip, Al-Aqsa University is the oldest governmental higher education institution. It caters for some 26,000 students and has some 1400 employees, 300 of whom are lecturers and professors.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Al-Aqsa University (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

Al-Aqsa University
Sharia Salah Al-Din, Gaza Zeitun

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N 31.4836 ° E 34.445544444444 °
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Sharia Salah Al-Din

Sharia Salah Al-Din
888 Gaza, Zeitun
Palestinian Territories
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Zeitoun killings
Zeitoun killings

The Zeitoun killings refer to the Israeli military incursion, led by the Givati Brigade unit of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), into the Zeitoun district of Gaza as part of the three-week 2008-09 Gaza War. In the Arab world, it is referred to as the Zeitoun District Massacre (Arabic: مجزرة حي الزيتون). A total of 48 residents of Zeitoun were killed, most of them women, children, and the elderly; 27 homes, a mosque and a number of farms were destroyed by Israeli forces.The New York Times reported that during the three-week conflict "few neighborhoods suffered more than Zeitoun." A report released by United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs stated that the attack on the Samouni family, who were among the Zeitoun victims, was one of the "gravest incidents" in the conflict. According to Haaretz, the IDF delayed rescue services from reaching some of the casualties for three days of the incident.Zeitoun residents believed that because the area is a natural choke point where the Gaza strip narrows to just four miles wide, Israeli troops turned their neighborhoods into a military base from which to launch their operations. The IDF has refused to discuss individual charges in detail, but an army spokesman speaking on the condition of anonymity with The Los Angeles Times said, "As a matter of policy, we do not target civilians." He added, "These situations are very complex and our soldiers do the best they can."Lt. Col. (ret.) Jonathan D. Halevi of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, an Israeli think tank and advocacy organisation, said that printed flyers from Palestinian Islamic Jihad and its associated websites named five members of the Samouni extended family as being affiliated with the group in some role. Halevi also states that militants from that organisation were operating in the area around the time Israeli tanks began shelling the group of homes belonging to the Samouni extended family.According to the New York Times, members of the Samouni family "did not deny that Hamas militants operated in the area. A family member said there was no active Hamas resistance in the immediate vicinity, although militants were firing rockets at Israel a little more than a mile away." Newsweek reported that the survivors of Zeitoun all insisted that they were simply farmers and that their area had never been used to fire rockets.

Netzarim Corridor
Netzarim Corridor

The Netzarim Corridor is a zone of occupation that Israel has set up in the Gaza Strip during the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. The corridor splits the strip into a northern zone and a southern zone. According to the Institute for the Study of War, in July 2024 Israel increased the width of the corridor from 2 km to 4 km. The corridor is named for the site of the former Israeli settlement that it includes. Israel invaded the Gaza strip on 27 October 2023 as a response to the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel three weeks prior. By 31 October 2023, IDF troops were confirmed to have entered the area of the former Netzarim settlement. By 6 November, the IDF "had cut an informal, winding track" across the Gaza Strip which reached to the coast. On 24 November, it was reported that the IDF would "continue administrative and logistical movements on the Netzarim axis and coastal road in the northern Gaza Strip". Satellite imagery from March 6, 2024 showed that a 4-mile (6.5 km) long partially paved road, numbered Route 749, had been constructed within the corridor. The road reaches from the Gaza-Israel border to the Mediterranean Sea. Approximately 1.2 miles (2 km) of the road consists of pavement that existed prior to the Israel–Hamas war, with Israel clearing a path through the entire width of the strip. The IDF also repaired portions that were destroyed by armored vehicles and reinforced it with multiple lanes for various types of military vehicles. Satellite imagery from May 24, 2024 showed new pavement had been laid over gravel roads since May 18, 2024 up to the intersection with the Salah al-Din Road. The IDF considers this corridor to be essential for carrying out raids in northern and central Gaza, as well as securely channeling aid into the region. On August 17, 2024, two Israeli soldiers of the Jerusalem Brigade's 8119th Battalion were killed by a Hamas ambush consisting of a roadside bomb and militants firing on the convoy.

Killing of Muhammad al-Durrah

On 30 September 2000, the second day of the Second Intifada, 12-year-old Muhammad al-Durrah (Arabic: محمد الدرة, romanized: Muḥammad ad-Durra) was killed in the Gaza Strip during widespread protests and riots across the Palestinian territories against Israeli military occupation. Jamal al-Durrah and his son Muhammad were filmed by Talal Abu Rahma, a Palestinian television cameraman freelancing for France 2, as they were caught in crossfire between the Israeli military and Palestinian security forces. Footage shows them crouching behind a concrete cylinder, the boy crying and the father waving, then a burst of gunfire and dust. Muhammad is shown slumping as he is mortally wounded by gunfire, dying soon after.Fifty-nine seconds of the footage were broadcast on television in France with a voiceover from Charles Enderlin, the station's bureau chief in Israel. Based on information from the cameraman, Enderlin told viewers that the al-Durrahs had been the target of fire from the Israeli positions and that the boy had died. After an emotional public funeral, Muhammad was hailed throughout the Muslim world as a martyr.The Israel Defense Forces accepted responsibility for the shooting at first, claiming that Palestinians used children as human shields but later retracted the admission of responsibility. Critics of Enderlin's filmed report have since questioned the accuracy of France 2's footage. French journalists who saw the raw footage said that France 2 had cut a final few seconds in which Muhammad appeared to lift his hand from his face; they acknowledged that Muhammad had died, but said the footage alone did not show it. France 2's news editor said in 2005 that no one could be sure who fired the shots. Philippe Karsenty, a French media commentator, went further, alleging that the scene had been staged by France 2; France 2 successfully sued him for libel in 2006, with Karsenty ordered to pay symbolic damages of €1, while in 2013 Karsenty was convicted for defamation for the allegation and fined €7,000 by a Paris court. In May of that year, an Israeli government investigation suggested that the France 2 report "was so deeply flawed that it was possible that the boy had been neither shot nor killed during the incident." Jamal al-Durrah and Charles Enderlin rejected its conclusion and called for an independent international investigation.The footage of the father and son acquired what one writer called the power of a battle flag. Postage stamps in the Middle East carried the images. Abu Rahma's coverage of the al-Durrah shooting brought him several journalism awards, including the Rory Peck Award in 2001.