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Two Hamas fighters killed in Gaza Saturday;
Israeli warplanes destroy a car but occupants escape
Two Palestinian activists affiliated to Hamas' Al-Qassam
Brigades were killed and three others injured in an Israeli air
raid on a group of fighters who attempted to stop the
infiltration of an Israeli force into Izbat Abed Rabbo in
Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, on Saturday morning.
Hassanain said that the Israeli forces fired at ambulances
as they tried to evacuate injured people. Separately, a
group of Palestinian activists survived an assassination
attempt on Saturday morning, as Israeli warplanes targeted
a car in the area of Sanafur east of Gaza City , completely
destroying the car.
Israeli jet fighters attack northern Gaza Saturday
morning; death toll stands at 37 this week
Palestinian sources reported that two Palestinians said
to be resistance fighters for Al Qassam Brigades, the
armed wing of Hamas, were killed on Saturday morning,
when Israeli jet fighters fired missiles at them in the
northern Gaza Strip town of Jabaliya. Witnesses said
that Israeli tanks and bulldozers invaded the farming
area near the town, undercover Israeli troops clashed
with Palestinian resistance fighters, during the clashes,
Israeli jet fighters fired missiles at the Palestinian fighters'
positions, killing two and injuring four. Also on Saturday
Israeli jet fighters attacked civilian cars east of Gaza City ,
damage was reported but no injuries.
VIDEO – Friday afternoon's Israeli
attack on Interior Ministry
casualties were celebrating wedding at nearby
structure during attack – "It felt like an earthquake,
" said Umm Fahmi, a woman who lives across from the
blast site. "My house did not only shake, it jumped
from its foundations and back down. How could they drop
such a bomb in a residential area on top of people's heads?"
she said, peering through the dust at the concrete and
steel remains of the security complex.
A week of funerals in Gaza as
Palestinians feel Gaza's wrath
Mariam Rahal, a 53-year-old grandmother and her two sons,
were in the wrong place at the wrong time as they drove their
donkey cart of oranges home through a mainly residential district
of Beit Lahiya. Mrs Rahal was buried yesterday with one
of the sons, Mohammed, 23. They were killed when their
cart was destroyed by a missile which targeted the car of
a rocket-launching crew on Thursday evening. A neighbour,
an Economic Ministry employee, Rafiq al Masri, 43, said:
"[Mrs Rahal] was a simple woman. She was one of her
husband's two wives, which wasn't easy. She worked from
four in the morning until after sunset to try and give her
family a better life. But she was a calm, lovable woman who
loved her neighbours."
US State Department: Israeli military
operations constitute legal self-defense
The US on Saturday described the Israeli attacks on the
Gaza Strip that have left more than 35 people dead and scores
injured this week, as "legal self-defence" against Palestinian
homemade projectiles launched against the Israeli town of
Sderot. Meanwhile, the spokesperson of the US State
Department Shaun McCormack called on the Israeli authorities
to avoid killing Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip "as much
as possible." "When Israel practices self-defence, we encourage
them to do their best to avoid harming civilians, the same as
our armed forces do," he added.
Israel urged not to punish
Palestinian people over militant attacks
The UN's humanitarian affairs chief, John Holmes, says Israel
should not collectively punish the people of the Gaza Strip for
rocket attacks carried out by Palestinian militants. The UN's
secretary-general Ban Ki-moon has also appealed to both the
Israelis and Palestinians to take urgent measures to try to end
the escalating violence in the Gaza Strip. While recognising
Israel's right to respond, Mr Holmes says retaliation that causes
the loss of innocent lives is not appropriate.
Al-Qassam Brigades vow to continue projectile attacks
They affirmed in a statement that they will continue launching
projectiles at Israeli towns in retaliation for the "ugly Israeli
criminal acts committed against the Palestinian people."
They mentioned in the statement that they have launched
159 projectiles since the Israeli massacre at Az-Zeitoun
neighborhood in Gaza City on January 15 left 17 dead,
including five civilians and the son of senior Hamas
leader Mahmoud Zahhar.
Gaza: Four gunmen turn themselves in to Israeli troops
The IDF on Saturday morning arrested four Palestinian
gunmen following exchanges of fire which took place in the
northern Gaza Strip. The four men are members of the Izz
al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing. The troops
confiscated the gunmen's weapons, and the four were taken in
for 'questioning' by security forces in Israel. Military sources
said that this was a great operational and intelligence
achievement. According to the sources, the arrests would
make it possible to learn important details on Hamas' activities
according to the different areas its members operate in.
Israel seals off Gaza; prevents UN aid from entering
After over six months of closure, the 1.5 million
Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip have come to depend heavily
on aid from the UN. Now, the Israeli forces that completely control
Gaza's borders have sealed the border even to the UN emergency
aid vehicles. The sealing of the border is just the latest stage in the
ongoing Israeli assault on Gaza. According to the United Nations
Refugee and Works Agency, fifteen trucks containing food aid
were prevented from entering on Friday. 80% of Gaza's population
depends on the food aid for survival.
Resistance strikes force Israeli army to
dismantle new military post in Gaza
Talal Abu Tharefa, member of the Central Committee of the
Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), stated
on Friday that the Israeli army was forced to dismantle a military
post in the Gaza Strip on Friday morning due to repeated shelling by different resistance groups, using homemade shells. The post was installed
several months ago.
Gaza gas distribution stations
run out of supplies
The head of the Palestinian union of gas distributors
in the Gaza Strip said on Saturday that fuel supplies in
the impoverished coastal region are completely depleted
and some distribution stations have shut as they have no
supplies. Mahmoud Al-Khizindar told Ma'an, "Gas supplies
to the Gaza Strip stopped two days ago."
PCHR concerned over detention of Munir Riziq,
director of Al-Hayyat newspaper in Gaza
Munir Abu Riziq has been detained by the Internal
Security Apparatus, and PCHR is concerned that his
detention is motivated by the fact he is a journalist
The police in Gaza made two previous recent attempts
to arrest and detain Abu Riziq. On 13 January, a contingent
of police arrived at his house, but did not find him there.
The following day, a large number of Internal Security
Apparatus members raided the office of Al-Hayat Newspaper in
the center of Gaza City. However, a crowd of journalists converged
in the area, and prevented them from arresting Abu Rizaq.
Hamas policy: Escalation to force
Israel into cease-fire in Gaza
Palestinian sources predicted that Hamas would continue
the rocket barrages, in an attempt to force Israel to agree to a
cease-fire. Hamas, they said, believes that its previous, lower
level of rocket and mortar fire allowed the IDF to operate freely
in Gaza without Israel paying a serious price. Moreover, Hamas
believes that Israel wants to avoid a major ground operation in
Gaza, and therefore, it will have no choice but to call a truce if
heavy rocket fire on southern Israel continues. Hamas is currently
refraining from firing rockets on Ashkelon lest that reverse Israel's
opposition to a major incursion, the sources added.
Fatah denies Hamas accusations
of plot to assassinate Haniyeh
A PA presidential spokesman called the accusations 'too naïve to
be responded to'. Earlier on Saturday the former Palestinian interior
minister in the deposed Hamas-led government, Sa'id Siyam, said
that 'Fatah-affiliated suicide bombers' were behind a plot to
assassinate Isma'il Haniyeh at a Jan 12 homecoming rally for
Hajj pilgrims. Siyam said that the alleged bomber had recorded
a message, explaining his actions. It was meant to have been
broadcast on Palestine TV after he completed his mission.
The group that planned the attack was in contact with exiled
Fatah leader Ahmad Dughmush in Egypt, according to Siyam.
PA blames Gaza violence on Hamas
"The party which staged a coup [!] against the Palestinian
Authority (PA) and now rules Gaza is responsible for the
condition of the Strip and the suffering of the Palestinian people
there," said Information Minister Riyadh al-Maliki, referring to
Hamas' takeover of Gaza by force in June. "Hamas is responsible
for the Israeli madness and the massacres the (Israeli) army carries
out everyday against our people in Gaza Strip," al-Maliki said, adding
that Israel also bear responsibility for the loss of life in the Strip.
Abbas denies reports of resignation
The Jerusalem-based daily newspaper Al-Quds on Friday
published an article, saying Abbas was threatening to resign
and end negotiations with Israel in protest at the continued
Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip. Abbas condemned
the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip, which he said is
indiscriminately killing women, children and the elderly.
PA PM Fayyad condemns killing
of Al-Aqsa Brigades leader
Ahmad Sanakra, who was assassinated in Nablus on Friday
by Israeli forces. He also denounced the continued Israeli
aggression against the cities of the West Bank and the Gaza
Strip. He was speaking at the inauguration ceremony of the
Salfit industrial zone for crafts, financed by the Arab Fund
for Economic and Social Development in collaboration with
the Ministry of National Economy.
Al-Aqsa Brigades announce end to three-month cease-fire
Abu Uday said in a statement that the ceasefire was now
over and that the Brigades will respond to the recent Israeli
assassinations in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Abu Uday
said that the ceasefire had been abandoned as the Israeli forces
"have not stopped killing our people and destroying our institutions
and our cities for a single day."
Palestinian woman gives birth in Israeli jail
Despite his wife's incarceration, Fatima Al-Zaq's husband,
Muhammed, was ecstatic when he heard the news of the birth
of his son, Yousef. Forty-four-year-old Muhammad, who lives
in the Ash-Shaja'iyeh neighbourhood of Beit Hanoun, in the
Gaza Strip, told Ma'an that he had been present at the birth of
his other eight children. Fatima was arrested on 20 May 2007,
as she her was taking her niece to Ramallah for medical treatment.
She was then detained in Hasharon Prison. Israeli forces allege
she was planning to commit a "terrorist act" against the Israeli
forces. Her court case is not due to be heard until 29 January 2008.
Israeli forces seize three 'wanted'
Palestinians in West Bank
Hebrew sources reported that the Israeli army arrested the
three in the West Bank, and that one of them had a knife in
his car when he was seized at a military checkpoint near
Ramallah in the central West Bank.
The cruelty of youths
As long as the vile behaviour of young settlers is allowed
to continue unimpeded by Israeli authorities, peace will not
be achieved – While there's no one around to take the settlers
down a peg or two and show them that they are not lords of all
they survey, their hatred and misanthropy flourishes
unchecked in the vacuum. At present, no one acts to stop
the rot - the army because they don't care enough, the
observers because they aren't confident enough and the
Palestinians because they're not suicidal enough to dare
stand up to the bullying settler thugs. And the longer it goes
on, the easier it is to see why nothing will break the deadlock
while the lunatics are running the asylum in Hebron.
Jenin, Jenin – by Gideon Levy
The pictures of death from Gaza reach Jenin on television,
but young people are killed here as well, almost every week.
The latest victim fell in the neighboring village of Al Yamun.
Fawaz Frihat was 17 and a half when he died. The IDF
invades the city's refugee camp every night, sowing panic
and sleeplessness. There are almost no wanted men left here,
but the IDF doesn't give up. The residents' bitterness toward
the PA is reaching new heights. Back at Zbeidi's house,
"Everyone who can, leaves," he says at supper, which is
served in the spirit of the times, without meat. "Everyone is
afraid of the PA. You can't say a word. Say a word and you'll
be arrested. But you think about Fatah and ask: What have they
done for us? And you think about Hamas and ask: What have
they done for us?
West Bank bantustan
Since the only Palestinian 'state' the current peace
process can deliver is another Gaza-style enclave, this upsurge of
violence is hardly encouraging – The IDF operations and rocket
attacks are indeed linked to the so-called peace process, but not in
the way that most have suggested. One cannot divorce events in
Gaza and Sderot from the Annapolis agenda since, in fact, far from
being a threatening interruption to Olmert-Abbas talks, the violence
is sadly a natural extension of Roadmap logic.
Leader and vassal – bringing
death and destruction to Muslims
By Paul Craig Roberts, former Ass't Sec. of the Treasury
in the Reagan administration – Every country in the world,
except America, knows by now that the US is the world's leading
state sponsor of terror and that the neoconservative drive for US
hegemony over the world threatens the security of nations
everywhere. Bush considers Iran to be the leading state sponsor of
terror, because Iran is believed to fund Hezbollah in Lebanon and
Hamas in the Palestinian ghetto. Hezbollah and Hamas are two
organizations that exist because of Israeli aggression agains
Palestine and Lebanon . The two organizations are branded
"terrorist" because they resist Israel's theft of Palestine and Israel's
designs on southern Lebanon. Both organizations are resistance organizations.
They resist Israel's territorial expansion and this makes them "terrorist."
Rami Khoury: Stalemate in Palestine after 60 years
The juxtaposition between military action on
the ground and the words and acts of politicians is dizzying in
its contradictions. Sixty years after the tensions between
Zionism and Arabism in Palestine erupted into a full war,
we continue to experience warfare as a routine mode of
interaction between Israelis and Arabs, mostly on the
Palestinian-Israeli front, and occasionally on the
Lebanese-Israeli front. Simultaneously, politicians
explore opportunities to end the conflict through a
negotiated peace agreement, but without any majo
r successes on the Palestinian-Israeli front. The most
important single development in recent weeks, I
suspect, was the Palestinians' firing of longer-range
missiles into southern Israel, some of them traveling
over 15 kilometers. One of the lessons of the past 60
years: Sustained Israeli attacks elicit greater Arab
technical proficiency and political will to resist and retaliate.
Israeli security forces thwart Islamic
Jihad plan to bomb Tel Aviv-Jerusalem railroad
The members of the cell were captured in a joint operation
by the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet security service
approximately one month ago near Bethlehem. The operation also
uncovered the cell's explosives lab. An Islamic Jihad leader in
Ramallah said the group was not aware of any such raid
targeting its members in the area. The militants admitted
under 'questioning' that they were planning terrorist attacks against
Israel, including placing a bomb on the tracks at their closest point
to Bethlehem, near the Palestinian village of Batir.
More Jerusalem 'Arabs'
seek Israeli citizenship
Like hundreds of thousands of other Jerusalem residents,
Salim Shabane considers himself a Palestinian. But his life
and work are intertwined with Israel , where he runs an auto
shop. So, despite his tacit support for a Palestinian state,
Shabane is part of a new surge of Jerusalem Arabs applying
for Israeli citizenship. "I live in Israel ," said Shabane,
"why shouldn't I be an Israeli citizen?" Shabane has
plenty of company
Rift between Israel, Druze growing
MK Said Naffaa (Balad) attributes this growing rift between
Israel and the Druze community to the marked discrimination
and prejudice that Druze resident perpetually faced, as
evidenced in the extreme by riots in the Druze village of
Peki'in in late October. " Israel had always viewed the Druze as
some type of domesticated beast, but now this previously docile
animal is fighting back," said Naffaa. Alluding to the historic alliance
between Israel and the Druze, who serve in the IDF and
contribute to the state in a wealth of other respects,
Naffa noted that "we (the Druze) had hoped that
serving in the military would afford us equal rights to those
of other Israelis. We soon, however, discovered that this is
mere illusion when we awoke to a very harsh reality."
Israel Education Ministry drops Arabic
studies from core curriculum
The Education Ministry has decided against including
Arabic in the compulsory core curriculum that was made
public several weeks ago for the first time. Previously,
secular and religious state schools had to teach three hours
a week of Arabic in Grades 7 and 8. Ministry officials said the
decision was motivated by an effort to create a curriculum
acceptable to ultra-Orthodox schools.
SPNI on Arava hothouses: Farming will
endanger rare animals
Environmentalists see the fight as one intended to maintain
one of Israel's last remaining natural large areas with
continuous open space. According to the petition, the
new agricultural land will bring with it "poisons, hunting
of wild animals by foreign workers, agricultural waste and
increased foreign species. Even now there is a drastic drop
in the number of animals in the area and even extinction of
a number of local species, such as the sand fox and the sand
cat." One of the animals unique to the region is a species of
spiny-tailed lizard which digs huge tunnels that are spread
all over the land designated for farming.
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