Israel / Palestine

[donsaeid]

Lutfi Halawa stood beside the hospital bed of his nine-month old daughter Isra, praying power cuts hitting the Gaza Strip will not shut down her ventilator.

"Without electricity my daughter will die," he said.

Palestinian health officials say an Israeli air strike which knocked out Gaza's main power plant has put the lives of hundreds of patients in imminent danger.

The attack was part an Israeli offensive to free a soldier captured by Palestinian militants last Sunday. Israel, which provides most of Gaza's electricity, says it has boosted supplies because of the current situation.

But the United Nations and the International Committee for the Red Cross say the strike has cut vital electric power for hospitals as well as families. Air strikes have also knocked out water supplies, they said.

Israel's closure of Gaza's borders has also halted commodities including gasoline, meaning the fuel Palestinians are using to power home generators is being depleted.

Al-Naser hospital for children, where Isra is being treated, has been relying on a generator during power cuts. But its gasoline reserve will only last four to five days, doctors say.

"Those patients await their execution if the gasoline runs out and electricity remains cut. Those who destroyed the power plant will be responsible," said doctor Majed Awadallah, head of an intensive care unit treating five infants.

"The difference is that people who usually await execution are criminals and these are innocent children," he said.

Dozens of children receive chemotherapy in the hospital's cancer unit. "Electricity is vital to every section and if it stops we enter a very critical situation," hospital director Abdel-Rahman Issa said.

CANDLES AND TORCHES

Palestinian energy authorities are supplying power to different parts of the Gaza Strip in rotation. Residents are denied supplies for eight hours a day. When power is cut, they turn on their generators.

But petrol station owners say gasoline supplies may only last a few more days. The Israeli army said on Friday it aimed to open one of the border crossings next week to let in supplies.

Meanwhile, supermarket owner Anwar Abu al-Kass has stocked his shelves with candles and pocket torches which Gazans are now forced to use to navigate the dim streets at night. "We are selling candles and torches the whole day," Abu al-Kass said.

Israel has rejected demands from Palestinian militants who captured the soldier to free 1,000 prisoners from its jails. The soldier was seized in a cross-border raid by the militants.

Foreign governments have urged militants to free the soldier, but also called on Israel to exercise restraint.

Many Palestinians believe Israel is using the abduction as a pretext to send troops into Gaza as part of a plan to topple the Hamas-led government.

"It is a lie to say that Israel was doing all of that to free its dirty soldier," Gaza taxi driver Ammar Hamed said.

"In a day or two I will not have fuel to fill my car and I will be out of business," he said.

[donsaeid]

The United Nations (UN) has warned that a human tragedy is emerging in Gaza; the target of attacks by Israel.

UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland asked Israel to refurnish electricity and fuel to the town, and said, “The situation in Gaza will otherwise become a quick sand.”

Israel arrested 64 people including eight government ministers on Thursday, and yesterday it cancelled the residential permit of a minister and three deputies in Eastern Jerusalem.

A number of politicians arrested by Israel have reportedly begun a hunger strike.

The international community has intensified its efforts to solve the crisis sparked by the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert spoke with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan yesterday and asked for Turkey’s support. Erdogan called for restraint.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said HAMAS (Islamic Resistance Movement) had agreed to a conditional release of the kidnapped soldier, however, Israel refused to agree to any conditions.

Egeland said they are anxiously monitoring the events following the abduction of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in Gaza last Sunday.

Egeland informed that 1.4 million Palestinians may be left without power and water.

Israel targeted power stations in the region; some 130 wells in Gaza run on electricity and back up diesel pumps are without fuel because Israel has also fuel to Gaza for four days.

“We are astonished to see how both parties play with the future of civilians including children,” Jan Egeland said.

The UN official stated that Israel’s selective bombing of the power station in Gaza that meets 40 percent of the region’s electricity needs is a violation of human rights and the situation is expected to get worse if aid is not sent directly to the region.

Egeland called on the Palestinians to release the kidnapped Israeli soldier and prevent Palestinian militants from conducting missile attacks against Israel, and said “I am sure neither party wants to further deaths in Gaza populated with 1.4 million people, half of whom are children.”

As part of the massive Israeli operation in Gaza to secure the return of the soldier, the Israeli army arrested 64 HAMAS officials including eight ministers on Thursday in the West Bank.

The Israeli army recommenced the severe practices it used during the Intifada and took measures to make it difficult for East Jerusalem residents to enter West Bank towns.

The Tel Aviv administration also cancelled the residential permit of a HAMAS minister and three deputies and issued an order to close the main passage between Jerusalem and Baytullahim to residents of East Jerusalem holding ID cards issued by Israel.

The 237,000 Palestinians living in Jerusalem and East Jerusalem residents living in the West Bank towns near Jerusalem including Ramallah and Baytullahim and with family ties and commercial relations with Palestinians have been issued “Blue” ID cards by Israel.

The HAMAS minister and most of the deputies arrested by Israel as part of the Gaza operation began a hunger strike.

The 45 HAMAS politicians taken to Israel’s Ofer Prison near Ramallah have reportedly begun a hunger strike to protest “their abduction.”

Thousands of Gaza residents bombarded by Israel gathered in the town center on Thursday evening condemning Israel and promised to support the HAMAS government.

Prime Minister Ismail Haniya addressing the public for the first time since the Israeli operation said the operation does not only aim at securing the release of the kidnapped soldier but was an attempt to overthrow the HAMAS government.

“This entire war is evidence of a pre-designed plan,” Haniya said and stated Israel’s roundup of ministers and deputies will not affect the government’s activities and the duties of these ministers will be undertaken by other members of the government.

Meanwhile, the arrest of HAMAS ministers met with widespread reaction from the international community, and France called on the Tel Aviv government to immediately release all Palestinian government ministers.

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HEBRON, July 4, 2006 (WAFA) - International Solidarity Movement (ISM) said protests against expansion of the Kurmei Tsur colony in Hebron continued today.

ISM said in a press release Palestinian landowners have been laying down in front of bulldozers that are building a fence surrounding the Kermi Tsur colony on land belonging to Hallhul and Beit Ummar farmers every day since work started Sunday.

"Tuesday morning Palestinian and International peace activists were beaten and detained by the soldiers. But only the Palestinian non-violent activist, Moussa Abu Meria, who was beaten severally, is still detained. He is currently being "held by the Shabak" (or Shin Beit, the Israeli secret service), said ISM according to Military sources.

According to a report by the Public Committee against Torture in Israel (PCATI), published two years after an Israeli High Court ruling against the legalised use of torture by the state, "every month, dozens of Palestinians undergoing interrogation by the GSS [General Security Service, or Shabak] are subjected, in some way, to torture and ill treatment."

ISM said Israeli soldiers broke the leg of one of the land owners, Awardalla Sabarna, while arresting him and fired rubber bullets and tear gas at the villagers during the protest.

The Movement added that three American peace activists were also arrested yesterday were released late last night from the ***yat Arba settlement police station

[donsaeid]

Operation Dove Nonviolent Peace Corp said colonisers attacked Tuesday shepherds near Havot Ma'on outpost with slingshots injuring 9-year-old boy. Israeli Police officers refused to go and take the complaint because of fear of coloniser attack.

Operation Dove said in a press release a Palestinian shepherd Shahadi Mahamri and his 9-year-old son Musleh were watering their sheep at the cistern above Maghayir al Abeed village in South Hebron Hills.

It added that a white Isuzu truck stopped near the cistern and three male colonisers got off the car and started throwing stones with slingshots.

The two shepherds run away but a stone hit the boy injuring his left leg. The attackers also hit two sheep breaking their legs.

"The Police arrived in At Tuwani village at 5.35 pm. International volunteers approached in order to give direction to reach the shepherd. The police officers told the internationals they would not go to the attack site, as they need a military escort to drive by the colony," said the press release.

They asked the shepherd to come past the colony from where the attackers came, to At Tuwani in order to file the complain, it added.

The shepherd identified one of the attackers as a coloniser living in the black tarp shack at the south edge of Havat Maon - Hill 833 outpost. The man is known as Gadi. At the same cistern 6 years ago colonisers shot Shahadi's mother in the leg.

Over the past years, colonisers from Ma'on have repeatedly harassed children from At Tuba and Maghayir al Abeed villages on their way to and from school. Attacks went on even after a Knesset order has set an official armed escort for the children provided by either the Israeli police or the army.

[Rasputin]

The war between Israel and Palestine is fake. It should have never been started in the first place and since it was, it should have been settled over 50 years ago. In the natural order of things the Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian people should be living in a peaceful, prosperous and symbiotic relationship.

Israel has the business talent, Palestine has the work force and Jordan has the land. There is no reason that their partnership shouldn't make that one of the most profitable prosperous regions of the world. By funneling Middle Eastern oil profits through their region, they could be a banking, industrial powerhouse to the benefit of all.

The perversion of this natural order was caused by the selfish ambitions of a handful of opulent dictators in Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, etc. They used the lessons taught by Mussolini and Hitler to use the Jews as scapegoats and the Palestinians as pawns for the sole purpose of securing their own illegitimate power.

The formula is simple. The dictator creates a scapegoat as a threat, then builds a security force to fight that threat and then uses the security force to oppress all internal opposition. For example: Iran's security force has killed thousands upon thousands of Iranians but I don't think it's ever killed a single Jew, which is odd since Israel is the enemy right?

Today's round of saber rattling by the Iranian regime has nothing to do with Israel. Its sole purpose is to generate nationalistic domestic support. The reality is Iran has no real use for a nuclear weapon that if was ever used would bring a vaporization of the Persian Nation. What the Mullahs desperately need is an attack by Israel or America to create a perceived "Pearle Harbor" to rally the Iranian people behind an ever-growing unpopular dictatorship.

Hamas and Hezbullah do not represent the interests of the Palestinian people but are mercenary wings of the Syrian and Iranian governments. Self-governance through free elections is a basic human right. But the Middle Eastern dictators have never offered that basic right to the Palestinians. Whenever a peace agreement is proposed that would allow Palestinians to gain their basic human rights Syria and Iran order their mercenary forces to attack and thwart the effort.

The Hamas victory in Palestine will cut off Western money and will open the window to Hamas' true masters. Do they continue Iran's and Syria's fake war while Palestinians starve or do they forge the natural peace with Israel that the Palestinian people need to prosper?

The best realistic hope for the future of the Palestinians is a partnership with Israel. If they partner with Iran, Syria or any of the other dictatorship they won't have their freedom since even the citizens of those countries are not free. The truth is that the only way to bring peace to the Palestinians is to overthrow their oppressors, the Iranian, and Syrian dictators.

One of the biggest criticisms of Israel can be made that it has not done enough to liberate its Palestinian allies from the oppression of Syria and Iran. The decapitation of the illegitimate Syrian regime on behalf of the Palestinians would be a completely moral act. A regime that uses violence to get and retain power should expect the same to end it.

I think it is important for every single person in the Middle East to remember. While you are cursing Israel, it is your dictator who is oppressing the Palestinians. The Israelis don't threaten you but your dictator sure does. Try standing in downtown Teheran or Damascus and say the same things about them that you say about Israel and see what happens.

[Rasputin]

was just watching CNN when I saw a report, Ismail Haniya, the Palestinian prime minister, who was supposed to be fearful of his life, though courageous enough not to be hiding, attending the Friday prayers in a mosque in the occupied territories.

I was thinking, God, it's so humiliating to be a Palestinian, living in a land like that. It's probably even more humiliating to be the prime minister in Palestine, to fear for your life, being supposed to be ruling some sort of a nation.

And then, it came to me, it seems also very humiliating to be an Arab actually, to see your Arab brothers being humiliated by about 5 million Jews (they actually have more than 10% of the population Arabs living as Israeli citizens). It seems to be humiliating for all the Arabs because they are about 200 million, almost all anti-Israel, though, the realities on the ground are very clear. Israelis are able to cause the humiliation of the Palestinian prime minister, the whole Palestinian population, and the whole Arab world. That's 5 to 200. These populations do not include Jews or Arabs living in other countries than Jewish or Arabic ones.

What I described above is as simple and as true as it is cynical. It really is the fact. However there are some things about this issue that are not often observed by the Arab people. The power of the Jewish state is incontestable by the neighbouring or farther Arab countries. It has been checked a few times. And that was before Israel became a nuclear power. So, why is it that a not-so-rich country (e.g. citizens of the United Arab Emirates are much richer than Israelis) with a 5 million population is able to humiliate a 200-million nation, the Arab nation?

When one does something wrong, and the outcome is unsatisfactory, there are two options: do it again, or find out what you did wrong and change the way you did it. Here comes the unanimous flaw of the Arabs: They're continuing to do the same thing all over again, being humiliated again and again. They are persistent though. Some day they're probably going to make it, either annihilate Israel, or find some other formula to take the long-awaited revenge. How long it may take? Well, as long as there are Arabs out there, there will definitely be Jews. But maybe there can be a smart way.

Sit back Arabs, relax, calm down, and analyze the situation with the facts on the table! How many Palestinians are out there? Not that many actually. Not more than 3 or 4 million. Maybe a bit more if we count all the descendants spread all around the Middle East. Compared to the Arab population of the world there are few Palestinians.

The suggestion is this. Arab leaders, hold a conference, sit in a round table (or any sort of a table or even a video-conference) and take all the Palestinian refugees in to your countries, and not just the refugees, but also the trouble-maker ones in the occupied territories. Leave the quiet Palestinians to stay in Palestine, so they can actually get the country they want too! Give some decent lives and possibilities to all the Palestinians and just get over this issue. It's not worth so much humiliation.

When a person realises his past mistakes, accepts and learns to live with the losses and damages, and finds out how to go on, the good feeling of being smart that comes along is really nice and enjoyable. Arabs doing what I suggested above would definitely have this good feeling too.

But it's clear this is not going to happen soon. You cannot possibly bring together more than two or three Arab leaders who would not go to quarrel after just a few minutes of verbal exchanges. Why is that? Well, just imagine you were in Bashar al Assad's or Gadhafi's place! As being a warlord type of person, a bully, a trouble-shooter Middle-Eastern strongman who has risen to absolute control due to rather unorthodox (probably even un-Islamic) circumstances, all you actually care about is to stay in power. Let's see whether if you were one of these Arab strongmen, would you fix the Palestinian issue in order to stay in power, or you would rather not?

It's quite simple, this type of warlord, strongman, Feudalistic patron, is never inclined to do good for others. Doing real good to the Palestinians would have one terrible plausible consequence at home. It would open up the mere possibility of normally agonised and dissatisfied citizens to demand some good for them as well. Good, in a ruthless world of Middle-Eastern political jungle would only come at the cost of having done bad to some other party.

This mentality is so strong that conspiracy theories are all over the place in the Middle-East. Even if one catches cold it is a conspiracy. And a Middle-Eastern ruler would never be inclined to lose his grip on his absolute control, doing himself wrong by doing some sort of right to his own people. Let's not forget, Middle-Eastern dictators are what they are because they are tough and ruthless and they don't let anybody else take their place.

What about Israel! Why is Israel so good at what it does and so successful? There is no bully in Israel. We should not compare 200 million Arabs to 5 million Jews. We should compare 20 to 30 Arab individual thugs (rulers) to millions of Jews. And Israelis have many more leaders than Arabs, because when an Arab strongman dies, today's Iraq, Palestine, or Lebanon is the outcome, but when an Israeli leader dies, there are so many to fill in his shoes even the stock market doesn't bother the death.

All we can do is to watch for now, when the first big step will be taken in the Arab world.

[Rasputin]

Two-and-a-half weeks after two Israeli soldiers were killed by Palestinian militants linked to the ruling Hamas party, Israeli forces are pushing further into Gaza in search of a third soldier kidnapped that same day. In trying to force the release of Cpl. Gilad Shalit, Israel has tried cutting off power, The Christian Science Monitor says that the Israeli army faces a juggling act: "It wants to make life intolerable enough for someone in the Palestinian leadership to yield, but not so intolerable that international censure will come down on Israel for sparking a humanitarian disaster in Gaza."

Now, that international censure has arrived. Human rights groups and even some Israeli commentators are saying that Israel's response constitutes "collective punishment" against Palestinians, which some could consider a war crime under the Geneva Conventions.

The Daily Star of Lebanon reports that the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, South African John Dugard (who is already a controversial figure to many Israelis) told a meeting of the UN Human Rights Council that the Israeli actions are unacceptable.

"It is clear Israel is in violation of the most fundamental norms of humanitarian law and human rights law," Dugard said in an address to a special session of the UN Human Rights Council. He accused the so-called "Quartet" of Mideast mediators of doing nothing to rein in Israel.

Last Friday, Amnesty International released a statement in which it said, "Deliberate attacks by Israeli forces against civilian property and infrastructure in the Gaza Strip violate international humanitarian law and constitute war crimes." The human rights group said Israeli bombardment of "the Gaza Strip's only electricity power station, water networks, bridges, roads and other infrastructure is a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention."

According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, "collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited" (article 33) as is the destruction of private or public property, "except where such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations" (Article 53). The Convention requires all states party to it to search for and ensure the prosecution of perpetrators of the war crime of "causing extensive destruction ... not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly." "Intentionally directing attacks against civilian objects" is also a war crime under Article 8 (b) (ii) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

[Rasputin]

Marjorie Cohn, a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law; president-elect of the National Lawyers Guild; and the US representative to the American Association of Jurists, writes on the liberal news site AlterNet that it is not just international groups, but also Israeli peace groups who are upset with the military's actions in Gaza. She also writes that the US is deliberately ignoring what Israel is doing, which is especially important in light of the US Supreme Court ruling last week in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld which found that the Geneva Conventions are "indisputably part of the customary international law."

If the United States really wished to act on its human rights rhetoric, it should apply political and economic pressure that Israel could not resist. Under the Arms Export Control Act of 1976, military hardware sold by the United States can only be used for defensive purposes or to maintain internal security. Israel has used F-16 fighter jets, Apache and Cobra attack helicopters, 15mm howitzers, M-16 automatic rifles, M50 machine guns, and many other weapons and ammunition supplied by the United States. Retired US Army Gen. James J. David, in a letter to Colin Powell in January 2002, wrote: "If you're going to deny the Palestinians weapons to defend themselves, then you must stop all military and economic aid to Israel."

On Monday, Switzerland also said that Israel had been violating international law, and called for the release of Hamas leaders. But Israel's ambassador to Bern said the criticism was unjustified. He noted that that Israel was supplying Gaza's people with electricity, water, fresh food, and medicine even though the ruling Palestinian group Hamas is sworn to the Jewish state's destruction.

"They have criticized us even though we are showing restraint," Aviv Shir-On told The Associated Press. "We are disappointed that the Swiss government did not issue such statements when Israel's civilian population was constantly under attack from the Gaza Strip."


While one of the few Western nations to openly criticize Israel's actions, Switzerland abstained Thursday on a UN Human Right Council resolution condemning Israel's actions. Switzerland said that "armed Palestinian groups should be called to account" and should have been included in the resolution.

But not even all Arab commentators believe that Israel is to blame for what has been happening in Gaza. The London-based ash-Sharq al-Awsat writes in a commentary (reported on by United Press International) that "those who ask where the Arab regimes are in helping the Palestinians in their crisis should ask themselves who consulted with the Arab governments when they kidnapped an Israeli soldier."

"Did the Palestinian government seek the opinion or advise of the Arab leaders about their operations for them to seek their help?" the Saudi-owned daily asked. It criticized Hamas for not taking into consideration any other views from Arab leaders, saying the repercussions of the abduction of the Israeli soldier "are exactly what the Arab government reject and exactly what the Israeli government wants to justify" in its "uneven" military campaign against the Palestinians. The paper, distributed in many Arab capitals, said that no Arab or any other country can do anything except condemn because not a single Arab country wants to be pulled into a "losing battle." It opined that no one has the right to ask Arab governments for help when they were not consulted, accusing the Hamas government of "turning its back to Arab decisions and advice." It said that those who pulled the Palestinians into this fierce battle are alone to be blamed and to ask themselves whether the kidnapping of the soldier was worth all the damage inflicted on the Palestinians.

Anne Bayefsky, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute; professor at Touro Law Center; and editor of the website EYE on the UN, writes in The Jerusalem Post that the charges of human rights violations are just more of "that same old bash-Israel agenda." This is particularly true of the reconstituted UN Human Rights Council, she writes, which showed itself to be no different from its predecessor, the discredited UN Human Rights Commission, in the first two weeks of its existence.

But it wasn't genocide in Sudan that interested the Human Rights Council. Nor was it a billion Chinese without civil and political rights. Not 13 million women in Saudi Arabia whose lives depend on hiding from sight in public places and never being caught behind the wheel of an automobile. Not the dire human rights conditions of 23 million people in North Korea. Not Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's incitement to genocide or his country's legal system, which includes crucifixion, stoning and amputation.

No, there was only one country singled out by the UN Human Rights Council, and that was Israel. ... The Council placed criticism of Israel permanently on the agenda of all future sessions. It gave only the special investigator on Israel what amounted to a permanent mandate. On its final day, the Council passed just one resolution condemning human rights violations by any of the 192 UN members, and directed it at Israel. When it was all over, the Council decided to hold its first special (emergency) session within the next few days - on Israel.

But not all Israeli writers felt that Israel was blameless and only acting to protect itself. Commentator Gideon Levy wrote last week in Ha'aretz that when a state undertakes the kind of actions that Israel has in Gaza, "it is no longer distinguishable from a terror organization."

Everything must be done to win [kidnapped Israeli soldier] Gilad Shalit's release. What we are doing now in Gaza has nothing to do with freeing him. It is a widescale act of vengeance, the kind that the IDF and Shin Bet have wanted to conduct for some time, mostly motivated by the deep frustration that the army commanders feel about their impotence against the Qassams and the daring Palestinian guerilla raid. There's a huge gap between the army unleashing its frustration and a clever and legitimate operation to free the kidnapped soldier.

Reuters reports that the captors of Cpl Gilad Shalit say he is healthy, and that he will not be harmed. But they also said he would not be released until Israel agrees to release 1,000 jailed Palestinians, including top leaders of militant factions.

The Jerusalem Post reports that Corporal Shalit's position is an unusual one in that he is "not a prisoner of war and is therefore not entitled to the full protection that international law affords POWs, according to Hebrew University international-law expert Yuval Shani."

Prof. Shani says that Shalit would still be protected by several provisions in the Geneva Conventions dealing with non-international armed conflict.

Shani said he thought the reason for the distinction between the two types of captured fighters was that states were better organized and could more easily implement the court's directive. But guerrilla groups or other forces could not provide such a high standard of conditions for POW as states could, and therefore the demands made of such groups were left more general and vague.

By the same token, however, Israel was also not obliged to treat captured Palestinian terrorists as POWs, continued Shani, because the Geneva Accords regarding POWs only apply when two states fight each other. He added that Israel indeed did not observe all of the provisions of international law when it captured and held terrorists.

[Rasputin]

Twenty-two Palestinians and an Israeli have reportedly been killed in the bloodiest day of violence since Israel pushed into the Gaza Strip.
Many of those killed in the air strikes and heavy fighting are militants but there are also civilian victims.

Israel's operations, the biggest since it withdrew from Gaza last summer, began largely in the south in a bid to free a soldier captured by militants.

But troops moved deeper into the north after rocket attacks on a city.

Israeli officials deny any plans to reoccupy Gaza.

The interior minister in the Hamas-led Palestinian government, Said Siyam, has called on the security forces to fight Israeli troops.

But correspondents say the minister has limited influence with the security forces, who are mostly loyal to Hamas's rival movement, Fatah.

Veteran Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Israel's operations were undermining diplomatic efforts to free the soldier, Cpl Gilad Shalit.

Urban fighting

Palestinian medical sources said 22 Palestinians had been killed and dozens injured in Gaza in the last 24 hours.


Israeli troops have suffered their first fatality in the operation

Militants armed with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades have been fighting Israeli soldiers backed by tanks and helicopter gunships in street battles.

The fighting has focused on the towns of Beit Lahiya, Abassan and Khan Younis as Israeli tanks approach their outs***ts.

An Israeli soldier was shot dead near Beit Lahiya, the army confirmed, marking the first military death of the offensive.

The army is trying to drive back Palestinian militants who fire crudely made rockets into towns in Israel just beyond Gaza's northern border, the BBC's Bethany Bell reports.

While the Israeli army says it is keen to avoid civilian casualties, Thursday's death highlights the dangers of fighting in urban areas, our correspondent adds.




Palestinian rocket threat
Focus on the Gaza Strip
In pictures: Gaza offensive

In other developments:


Israel closed the main goods crossing point with Gaza following what it said were alerts received about a planned attack

Israeli police reportedly detained five senior members of Hamas in Jerusalem - police say they had been helping Hamas MPs conduct party activity in the city

The UN human rights watchdog deplored Israel's campaign in Gaza as a breach of international law in an emergency resolution passed in Geneva.
'Buffer zone'

Hamas's military wing has fired two Qassam rockets at Ashkelon in the last 48 hours, the first time Palestinian militants have hit a major Israeli city with their crudely made rockets.

Why do thousands of Palestinians have to suffer death, destruction, lack of water, and electricity for the fate of ONE Israeli soldier?

Omar, Washington DC


Send us your comments
UN urges Israeli halt

The rockets did not cause serious damage or injury.

Ashkelon - more than 10km (seven miles) north of Gaza - was thought to be out of range of Palestinian rockets.

Israeli minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer has insisted there is no wish to stay in Gaza.

For their part, groups like Hamas often say that their attacks are a response to Israeli military action - not just attacks on militants in Gaza, but raids, arrests and killings over in the occupied West Bank as well.

Every night since the militants captured Cpl Gilad Shalit, the Israeli air force has struck at sites in Gaza, including bridges and a power station.

Little is known about the fate of Cpl Shalit, captured in a cross-border raid by a joint militant force including fighters from Hamas, but Israeli officials believe he is still alive.

[Rasputin]

The Man Who Could End the Palestinian Deadlock

The Palestinian Authority is likely to nominate Mohammed Shabair as the new prime minister, replacing Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas member who is expected to voluntarily step down as a way to end the devastating aid boycott that has crippled the already weakened Palestinian economy.

Since the Hamas-led Palestinian government took power in March, it has been isolated from much of the international community for refusing to recognize the state of Israel and failing to renounce violence.

Israeli authorities have been withholding tax revenues that it collects on behalf of the Palestinian territories, and the international community has cut off much-needed aid. Behind the scenes, Palestinian politicians have been desperate to figure out a way to end this boycott while Hamas refuses to meet the demands of the international community.

Several weeks ago, both the Hamas-led government and the moderate Fatah party agreed on a unity government, a power-sharing scheme to break the deadlock. Both parties decided to agree on new leaders to fill roles in government, who would be less militant than members of the Hamas government.

Hamas was asked to come up with candidates for prime minister. Shabair was the only candidate among those suggested by Hamas who was acceptable to Palestinian President Abbas. It is also likely that Shabair will be welcomed by Israel and the United States.

Shabair is not directly affiliated with Hamas, but his father was active in the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas' umbrella group. His appointment is believed to be part of a larger deal that is intended to ease tensions between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

If Shabair does take the post, it would likely lead to a lifting of the aid boycott and hundreds of millions of dollars will flow back into the Palestinian economy, something all Palestinians are eager to see happen. .

Shabair will come to this job with no prior political experience. He has never held a government job and he does not have the charisma of a political leader.

Shabair is best known for is his success as president of the Islamic University.



He raised tens of millions of dollars from Japan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United States, and many hope the American-educated Shabair can bring the same type of leadership to the Palestinian government.



Khaled al Halek, who taught with Shabair at the Islamic University, is somewhat skeptical about his chances, though.



"Solving the political situation for Palestinians is completely different from running a university," al Halek said.



He said he expects that Shabair's success will depend not on himself but on those around him.



Among the many challenges Shabair would face is trying to stop the Palestinian interfactional fighting, halting the rockets being fired into Israel by militants and trying to open up the borders to trade, which the Israeli Army has shut down.



Shabair's nephew, Bilal Shabair, seems to think that he has a good shot at success.



"He always tries to have good relations with everyone he tries to remove borders between people," Bilal Shabair said.



The official nomination will likely be announced on Friday. But so far, no one from the Palestinian government has formally asked Shabair if he would like the job. Until then, he refuses to talk about what he may do as the next Palestinian prime minister.

[Rasputin]

The Palestinian prime minister said Friday that militants were prepared to stop firing rockets at Israel if it would halt all military action in Palestinian territories. Israel rejected the offer, saying it would respond positively only to a total truce.

Similar proposals in the past have failed to curb fighting, and a spokesman for the ruling Hamas group quickly stepped back from the cease-fire talk, which came as fighting between militants and Israeli troops in Gaza claimed the lives of a 10-year-old Palestinian boy and a militant filming the clashes.

A third Palestinian died Friday of wounds sustained in earlier violence. It wasn't immediately known whether he was a militant or civilian.

Israeli launched a military campaign in Gaza five months ago, in an unsuccessful attempt to curb militant rocket fire on Israeli border communities.

Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas said armed factions had agreed Thursday to halt rocket fire in exchange for a complete cessation of Israeli military operations in Gaza and the West Bank.

"The ball now is in the Israeli court," Haniyeh said. "It (Israel) must stop its aggression and escalation against the Palestinian people, then there will be no problem according to what the factions agreed in their last meeting."

After meeting with faction leaders again Friday night, Haniyeh urged the Israelis "to respect this positive readiness expressed by the Palestinian resistance factions." And government spokesman Ghazi Hamad suggested that a broader cease-fire was possible if Israel were to take up the militants' offer.

"After that, we (the Palestinians) will talk about a comprehensive truce," Hamad said.

Miri Eisin, a spokeswoman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said the offer to trade a partial cease-fire for a suspension of all Israeli military operations in Palestinian territories was "ludicrous" and "a media stunt."

"Israel would respond very positively to the idea of a complete cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, which is what we hoped for in September 2005 when we left every inch of the Gaza Strip," Eisin said. "If the Palestinian factions have a proposal which is supposed to bring about the complete stopping of fire from the Gaza Strip, Israel would be very happy to stop all, all -and I'm going to say it again all fire from the Gaza Strip."

A Hamas spokesman in Gaza, Ismail Radwan, watered down Haniyeh's talk of a cease-fire, saying the Palestinian factions had agreed to "alter their strategies of resistance" if Israel halted fire.

The Palestinian rocket fire, which over the years has generated more panic and anxiety than casualties, grew deadlier over the past week, claiming the lives of two Israeli civilians.

Eisin said Israel regarded recent efforts by moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, to achieve a "complete stop of all violence" as a "very positive development."

Abbas has been trying to work out a package deal with Haniyeh that would include a total cease-fire and a more moderate government of professionals to replace the one led by Hamas, which doesn't recognize the Jewish state.

The two men met twice on Thursday, and aides to Abbas said the key sticking point in coalition talks was who would control the Interior Ministry, which is in charge of powerful Palestinian security branches.

Abbas hopes a more moderate government would encourage the West to restore vitally needed aid, cut off after Hamas took power in March. Western leaders have said the flow would not resume until the Palestinian government recognizes Israel and renounces violence.

Hamas' political chief, Khaled Mashaal, was in Cairo on Friday for talks with Egyptian mediators on the so-called national unity government, but no breakthrough was reported.

In northern Gaza, hundreds gathered to bury a 64-year-old grandmother who blew herself up a day earlier as Israeli forces moved through the Jebaliya refugee camp.

Mourners shouting "God is great" draped her simple wooden coffin with a green Hamas flag on Friday before driving it off to a nearby cemetery.

"I knew she wanted martyrdom. She was brave. But I'm still surprised that she did it," said one of her 38 grandchildren, 13-year-old Leila.

Fatma An-Najar was by far the oldest of more than 100 Palestinian suicide bombers who have attacked Israelis over the past six years, killing hundreds.

[mike435]

the middle east runs on a politics of if shot the first shot, i will be the one who shoots the lasts shot.

sad part is it is a never ending chain of who shot when

[Rasputin]

the middle east runs on a politics of if shot the first shot, i will be the one who shoots the lasts shot.

sad part is it is a never ending chain of who shot when

In this part,Israel is more guilty than Palestine !

[mike435]

CAIRO, Egypt (CNN) -- A Hamas political leader warned Saturday of a new uprising if no progress is made to establish a Palestinian state based on borders before the 1967 war with Israel.

"We give the international community six months for real political horizons. ... There is a historic opportunity for a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders," Khaled Meshaal told reporters in Cairo, Egypt.

"If our demands are not met, the Palestinian people will close all political files and launch a third intifada."

Meshaal, who lives in Syria, was in Egypt for discussions on forming a national unity government with the rival Palestinian movement, Fatah.

The talks coincide with fighting between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants in the Palestinian territory of Gaza, which borders Israel.

Israel took over the West Bank, eastern Jerusalem, and Gaza during the Six-Day War against Israel's Arab neighbors in 1967. Although Palestinians had inhabited the lands, Jewish towns and makeshift settlements emerged there after the war, and it wasn't until last year that Israel withdrew its troops from Gaza and handed internal control to the Palestinian Authority.

Israeli military operations continue in Gaza, however, to combat what the Israelis say is steady rocket fire into Israel.

The Palestinians -- whose political authority covers the West Bank and Gaza -- believe Jerusalem is their capital, as does Israel.

The first intifada began in 1987 and ended in the early '90s during the Oslo accords and the establishment of the Palestinian Authority. The second erupted in 2000.

Palestinians: Israeli troops kill two
Israeli forces killed an Islamic Jihad militant Saturday morning south of Beit Hanoun, according to Palestinian security sources. The Israel Defense Forces said troops shot at two Palestinian gunmen, including an Islamic Jihad militant.

Militants had planted explosives near IDF forces south of the area, IDF said.

A second Palestinian was killed near Karni Crossing late Friday, Palestinian security sources said. The IDF said troops shot three Palestinians as they were moving toward IDF forces near the crossing, only to find out later they were not armed.

In addition, an Israeli airstrike wounded three Palestinians Saturday east of Jabalya. The IDF said it was checking the report. Tanks also shelled two houses in Beit Lahya, also in northern Gaza, but it was unclear whether there were any casualties, the Palestinian security sources said. An IDF spokesman denied any shelling.

[Rasputin]

Neo Culpa

As Iraq slips further into chaos, the war's neoconservative boosters have turned sharply on the Bush administration, charging that their grand designs have been undermined by White House incompetence. In a series of exclusive interviews, Richard Perle, Kenneth Adelman, David Frum, and others play the blame game with shocking frankness. Target No. 1: the president himself.

I remember sitting with Richard Perle in his suite at London's Grosvenor House hotel and receiving a private lecture on the importance of securing victory in Iraq. "Iraq is a very good candidate for democratic reform," he said. "It won't be Westminster overnight, but the great democracies of the world didn't achieve the full, rich structure of democratic governance overnight. The Iraqis have a decent chance of succeeding." Perle seemed to exude the scent of liberation, as well as a whiff of gunpowder. It was February 2003, and Operation Iraqi Freedom, the culmination of his long campaign on behalf of regime change in Iraq, was less than a month away.

Three years later, Perle and I meet again at his home outside Washington, D.C. It is October, the worst month for U.S. casualties in Iraq in almost two years, and Republicans are bracing for losses in the upcoming midterm elections. As he looks into my eyes, speaking slowly and with obvious deliberation, Perle is unrecognizable as the confident hawk who, as chairman of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee, had invited the exiled Iraqi dissident Ahmad Chalabi to its first meeting after 9/11. "The levels of brutality that we've seen are truly horrifying, and I have to say, I underestimated the depravity," Perle says now, adding that total defeat—an American withdrawal that leaves Iraq as an anarchic "failed state"—is not yet inevitable but is becoming more likely. "And then," says Perle, "you'll get all the mayhem that the world is capable of creating."

According to Perle, who left the Defense Policy Board in 2004, this unfolding catastrophe has a central cause: devastating dysfunction within the administration of President George W. Bush. Perle says, "The decisions did not get made that should have been. They didn't get made in a timely fashion, and the differences were argued out endlessly.… At the end of the day, you have to hold the president responsible.… I don't think he realized the extent of the opposition within his own administration, and the disloyalty."

Perle goes so far as to say that, if he had his time over, he would not have advocated an invasion of Iraq: "I think if I had been delphic, and had seen where we are today, and people had said, 'Should we go into Iraq?,' I think now I probably would have said, 'No, let's consider other strategies for dealing with the thing that concerns us most, which is Saddam supplying weapons of mass destruction to terrorists.' … I don't say that because I no longer believe that Saddam had the capability to produce weapons of mass destruction, or that he was not in contact with terrorists. I believe those two premises were both correct. Could we have managed that threat by means other than a direct military intervention? Well, maybe we could have."

Having spoken with Perle, I wonder: What do the rest of the pro-war neoconservatives think? If the much caricatured "Prince of Darkness" is now plagued with doubt, how do his comrades-in-arms feel? I am particularly interested in finding out because I interviewed many neocons before the invasion and, like many people, found much to admire in their vision of spreading democracy in the Middle East.

I expect to encounter disappointment. What I find instead is despair, and fury at the incompetence of the Bush administration the neoconservatives once saw as their brightest hope.

To David Frum, the former White House speechwriter who co-wrote Bush's 2002 State of the Union address that accused Iraq of being part of an "axis of evil," it now looks as if defeat may be inescapable, because "the insurgency has proven it can kill anyone who cooperates, and the United States and its friends have failed to prove that it can protect them." This situation, he says, must ultimately be blamed on "failure at the center"—starting with President Bush.

Kenneth Adelman, a lifelong neocon activist and Pentagon insider who served on the Defense Policy Board until 2005, wrote a famous op-ed article in The Washington Post in February 2002, arguing: "I believe demolishing Hussein's military power and liberating Iraq would be a cakewalk." Now he says, "I just presumed that what I considered to be the most competent national-security team since Truman was indeed going to be competent. They turned out to be among the most incompetent teams in the post-war era. Not only did each of them, individually, have enormous flaws, but together they were deadly, dysfunctional."