Hundreds of residents from the Gaza Periphery protested in Kikar Rabin on Saturday night against the ongoing cease-fire talks between Israel and Hamas that are taking place via Egyptian intermediaries. Residents of the communities held up signs saying that “The South is on fire”, and “We are sick of burnt fields, we are sick of our children crying.”

The Israeli navy fired warning shots at a number of boats attempting to sail from Gaza into the Mediterranean Sea. The boats turned back a after the warning shots were fired and thus, the attempt to break the naval blockade failed for the second week in a row.

On Friday, terrorists from the Gaza Strip threw improvised bombs and Molotov cocktails at security forces along the border fence with Gaza. No Injuries or damage was reported in the incident. According to Israeli news reports, the IDF responded by using crowd dispersing ammunition against the rioters gathered by the fence to prevent attempts to cross over to the Israeli side of the border. According to Arabic media, two terrorists were killed in the riot and another 270 were injured. Since the beginning of the weekly Friday riots, 170 Gazans have been killed, most of them terrorists, and another 18,300 have been injured.

A 35-year-old man was found dead in the Ben Shemen forest on Shabbos morning. Police have opened an investigation into the incident and from their early findings, it appears that there are no signs of wrong-doing by another party.

Two more fatal drowning incidents occurred on Shabbos morning. The first instance took place when a 24-year-old man drowned to death on the southern beach of Kibbutz Ma’ayan Tzvi, which is located in the Hof HaCarmel regional council district.

The second instance occurred on Hasharon Beach in Hezliya where a 50-year-old man drowned to death.

A 37-year-od Rishon LeZion man was rescued on the Kinneret after his rubber dingy was dragged out some 2-and-a-half miles into the middle of the Kinneret with him aboard the raft. Maritime police rescued the man and his dingy and returned him to shore. According to reports in the Israeli media, the man had gone fishing in the evening hours by himself and was swept away with the current.

Fire Fighters rescued a man who had fallen down a shaft on Shprintzik Street in Afula on Friday. The man had been lying in the  shaft for a number of hours until he was found by his wife who gone out searching for him after he hadn’t returned home for an extended period of time.

a 45-year-old man was seriously injured in an act of violence on Yigal Alon Street in Be’er Sheva. United Hatzalah and MAgen David Adom first responders treated the man foro his injuries and transported him to Soroka Hospital for further treatment.

A dramatic decline in hikers and tourists was seen in the rivers and streams of northern Israel over Shabbos to less than half of what it was last week Shabbos. The decrease in tourism and hikers is being attributed to the threat of Leptospirosis that has infected many of the northern streams and hikers who have entered them over the past few weeks.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)