By Tomer Zarchin, Haaretz Correspondent

December 10, 2008

"The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel is demanding the attorney general order a criminal investigation to determine whether any crimes were committed in the planning and execution of past targeted assassinations........

Two weeks ago, Haaretz Magazine published an investigation by Uri Blau that revealed the Israel Defense Forces approved assassinations in the West Bank even when detention appeared to be a viable alternative. In addition, the most senior IDF echelons gave advance approval to assassinations that would kill innocent Palestinian bystanders...."

http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1045081.html

Maan News
December 9, 2008

"Bethlehem - Ma'an - Israel and the European Union (EU) voted to upgrade relations on Monday, despite opposition to the agreement by human rights advocates and Arab states. The motion to improve relations was approved by a unanimous vote of all 27 EU foreign ministers at a meeting in Brussels on Monday. Israel's new prime minister will greet the body at its headquarters in April, its Foreign Ministry announced." .....

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33824

Ma'an News

Dec 9, 2008

"International and Palestinian human rights advocates sailed to the Gaza Strip in defiance of an Israeli naval blockade on Tuesday, in the fourth such voyage since August.

The ship named "Dignity" carried one ton of medical supplies and high-protein baby formula, in addition to a delegation of 11 international academics, human rights workers and journalists, the Free Gaza movement, the trip's organizer, said.

Among them are two Jewish academics from the London School of Economics and a British surgeon planning to volunteer in Gaza...."

http://imeu.net/news/article0015035.shtml

December 9, 2008

"UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday called on Israel to lift its blockade on the Gaza Strip, Israel Radio reported. After two days of discussions, the council, which consists of 47 member states, passed a list of 99 'recommendations' of gestures for Israel to make to ease Palestinian suffering, including freeing all prisoners....."

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1228728129426&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Monday, December 8th, 2008

HEBRON (Reuters) - Jewish settlers torched a rooftop enclosure of a Palestinian man's home in the West Bank city of Hebron on Saturday, a Palestinian police spokesman said.

The United Nations as well as Palestinian and Israeli officials have condemned violence by settlers since tensions rose on Thursday in the occupied territory after Israel's eviction of settler families from a disputed Hebron building.

Nidal Awawi told Reuters a room he had built on his roof was blackened and destroyed by a fire set off before dawn. There were no casualties, he said. A spokesman for Palestinian police, Ramadan Awad, blamed the arson on Jewish settlers. He said settlers were spotted fleeing the scene as flames engulfed the building.  http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=12654

By Ben Lynfield in Jerusalem

Sunday, 7 December 2008

"Israel's leading civil rights organisation yesterday broke a taboo by describing Israeli policies in the occupied West Bank as being “reminiscent of apartheid” in South Africa.

Alleging an intensification of human rights abuses against Palestinians, the respected Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) made the comparison in an annual report that described the existence of separate legal, planning and transportation systems for Jewish settlers and Palestinians in the West Bank....."

"Outgoing Israeli PM Ehud Olmert has compared the violence used by Jewish settlers against Palestinians in Hebron to bygone anti-Semitism in Europe.

He told Cabinet he was ashamed by recent scenes in the West Bank city, which he said amounted to a pogrom. The settlers shot and wounded three Palestinians and set fire to property after Israeli security forces evicted a Jewish group from a disputed building.

Correspondents say Mr Olmert's use of "pogrom" has particular resonance. It is usually associated with the anti-Semitic violence Jewish people experienced in Europe and Russia in the 19th and 20th centuries.

"As a Jew, I was ashamed at the scenes of Jews opening fire at innocent Arabs in Hebron. There is no other definition than the term 'pogrom' to describe what I have seen," he told Cabinet members, according to public radio. "We are the sons of a nation who know what is meant by a pogrom, and I am using the word only after deep reflection." ......"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7770384.stm

by Daniel Levy
December 4, 2008

"A week of Israeli settler outrages against Palestinians and against Israel's own security forces reached a crescendo over the last 24 hours with settlers opening fire on Palestinian civilians and unleashing violent disturbances across the West Bank. Israel's Justice Minister, Daniel Friedman, has just called the events a "shocking pogrom", journalists have described how their presence saved Palestinian residents of a home near Kiryat Arba from a lynching, and IDF sources described how the right wing activists "want to spark a religious war that would inflame the entire region." The belated IDF action in upholding a court order to evict settlers from a home that they illegally occupied in Hebron, led by Defense Minister Barak, was at least effective, although the same cannot be said of the limp-wristed measures taken in the face of settler rampages against Palestinians, and of the general approach to settler lawlessness.

While the Israeli press is full of graphic descriptions of the settler outrages, there has been remarkably little coverage in the American mainstream media..... Settler extremism has become a strategic issue with implications for American policy, American private funding of settlements, and how to manage the security dynamic in the West Bank.

The litany of settler actions over this week makes for particularly bleak reading on a Friday night. On the walls of home and in mosques in the West Bank villages of Yatma, Sanjil, Turmus Ayya, and Isawiyya, graffiti has been scrawled reading "Mohammed the pig" and "Death to the Arabs", elsewhere cemeteries have been desecrated, Palestinian homes set on fire, olive trees uprooted, tires punctured, and yesterday two Palestinians were shot and seriously wounded by settler fire. Israeli security forces overseeing the evacuation of the Hebron house and sometimes trying to bring order were stoned and assaulted by settlers, along with the customary hurling of choice abuse, notably the word "Nazi". According to the Israeli Yedioth Ahronot newspaper, Ethiopian IDF soldiers "enjoyed" their own variation on the abuse theme, being told "niggers don't expel Jews"..... " http://www.prospectsforpeace.com/2008/12/israeli_settler_pogrom_against.html

Toni O'Loughlin in Jerusalem

The Guardian
Monday December 1 2008

"The food and soap manufacturing multinational Unilever has announced that it will divest from an Israeli factory in a Jewish settlement illegally built on land confiscated from Palestinians. Unilever, which makes household staples such as Sunsilk shampoo, Surf washing powder and Vaseline, said it would sell its 51% stake in the Beigel & Beigel factory in the West Bank settlement of Ariel.

The UK and Dutch-owned multinational has followed Harrods department store - which cleared its shelves of Beigel & Beigel products, such as pretzels, in August - and a campaign by Britain to crack down on Israeli settlement businesses that are allegedly dodging EU import taxes......"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/01/israel-palestine-unilever

By Reuters
December 1, 2008

"The Israel Navy on Monday turned away a Libyan ship heading to Gaza with 3,000 tons of humanitarian aid, ending the most high-profile effort yet to break a blockade of the Hamas-ruled territory.

The Al Marwa was approaching the Gaza coast when it was stopped by an Israel Navy vessel. The navy vessel ordered the Libyan ship via radio contact to turn back, said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor, adding that no force was used....." http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1042587.html

Dozens of Palestinian vehicles vandalized, Border Guard jeep also damaged.

by Efrat Weiss, YNet News
Nov. 30, 2008

"Already something of a routine, dozens of so-called 'Hilltop Youths' rioted in Hebron on Saturday night, vandalized Palestinian property and damaged a Border Guard patrol car. Under the cover of darkness some 50 extreme-right activists arrived at Erez Alley in Hebron. The youths pelted Palestinian homes with rocks, and damaged at least 40 cars. One youth was detained at the scene, and then taken for questioning at the Hebron police station......"

http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3630686,00.html

By Reuters

Nov. 30, 2008

"The cabinet on Sunday approved the release of 250 Palestinian prisoners as a goodwill gesture toward Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The prisoners will be released to the West Bank, where Abbas's government holds sway, before next week's Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, officials said of the decision.

Outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had promised to free the prisoners during a meeting earlier this month with Abbas, who launched peace talks with Israel a year ago after Gaza's violent takeover by Hamas....."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1042253.html

By Yanir Yagna, Haaretz Correspondent in southern Israel

November 30, 2008

"A Qassam rocket fired by militants in the Gaza Strip struck a square in the center of the southern town of Sderot on Sunday. No injuries or damage were reported in the attack.

Over the weekend, eight Israel Defense Forces soldiers were wounded, two of them seriously, when a barrage of mortar shells fired from Gaza hit an army base near the kibbutz Nahal Oz...."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1042232.html

Maan News
Nov. 29, 2008

"Bethlehem – Ma’an – European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid Louis Michel expressed his “increasing concern for the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza,” in a Saturday press release.

"I am extremely concerned by the deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza caused by the continued closure of the Gaza crossings,” Michel stated. His statement stressed the point that since 4 November only the Karem Shalom crossing has been open, and even then only for a total of four days. Michel noted that only a limited amount of food and supplies were allowed into Gaza on 17, 24, 26 and 27 November.

Though he stressed his earlier condemnation of Palestinian projectile attacks, he said called the continued closure of Gaza crossings “a form of collective punishment against Palestinian civilians, which is a violation of International Humanitarian Law...."

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33613

Ynetnews
11.26.08

"Session dedicated to economic inequality in Israel finds economy losing billions each year because Arab sector is not fully integrated into work market. Experts call on government to initiate strategy to battle this situation"

"Israel's failure to integrate its Arab population into its economy is costing the country billions, experts claimed during a session dedicated to the subject of economic equality on Tuesday as part of the Sderot-Israel Conference.

The session, presented by the Abraham Fund Initiatives, focused on the importance of integrating Arab citizens into the Israeli market and hosted various economic, academic, policy, and non-profit professionals. The session is part of a greater campaign launched by the fund to generate awareness regarding the problematic situation, together with a publication dealing with the “Economic Benefits of Arab Jewish Equality and Integration.”

"The Israeli market will lose NIS 40 billion ($10.2 billion) this year, which is six percent of the GNP, as a result of the failure to integrate Israeli Arabs into the market.” Aiman Seif, director of the Economic Development Department of the non-Jewish Sector (Prime Minister’s Office), said in his address...."

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3628836,00.html 

By Haaretz Service and News Agencies

November 24, 2008

"Israel partially its border crossings with the Gaza Strip on Monday to allow the transfer of humanitarian aid, following a reduction in rocket attacks from the strip over the past few days. The border crossings have been all but completely shut for 19 days amid a

deteriorating five-month-old truce, with only one convoy of 33 trucks with essential humanitarian supplies entering the strip one week ago.

The move came a day after Hamas was quoted by the Palestinian news agency Ma'an as saying militants groups had reached a deal with Israel to resume the cease-fire if the crossings were opened."

By Suleiman al-Khalidi, Reuters
Fri Nov 21, 2008

"AMMAN, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Gaza faces a humanitarian "catastrophe" if Israel continues to prevent aid reaching the territory by blocking crossing points, the head of the main U.N. aid agency for the Palestinians said on Friday.

Karen AbuZayd, commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), said the human toll of this month's sealing of Gaza's goods crossings was the gravest since the early days of a Palestinian uprising eight years ago. "It's been closed for so much longer than ever before... and we have nothing in our warehouses... It will be a catastrophe if this persists, a disaster," said AbuZayd, whose agency is the largest aid body providing services to Palestinian refugees.

Israel closed the crossings after Palestinian militants responded with daily rocket salvoes to an Israeli army incursion on Nov. 4 into the Hamas-run territory, where a five-month-old, Egyptian-brokered ceasefire had largely been holding...."

http://www.reuters.com/article/homepageCrisis/idUSLL414968._CH_.2400

By YAAKOV KATZ , The Jerusalem Post
November 20, 2008

"Less than a month after deploying in Hebron, a US-trained battalion of Palestinian policemen has arrested over 250 terror suspects affiliated with Hamas, defense officials revealed to The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday.

In addition to the terror suspects, the battalion has also arrested over 140 Palestinians defined as "criminal suspects" and wanted for a wide range of criminal activity.

The Palestinian policemen underwent US-directed military training in Jordan prior to deployment in Hebron in late October, which was approved by OC Central Command Maj.-Gen. Gadi Shamni following a request from the Palestinian Authority to allow the contingent into the city as part of an effort to crack down on Hamas terror infrastructure in the West Bank....."

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1226404781590&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

November 19, 2008

Ma'an News Agency

Bethlehem – Ma’an – "The United Nations’ highest-ranking human rights officer urged Israel to end its blockade of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday.

"By function of this blockade, 1.5 million Palestinian men, women and children have been forcibly deprived of their most basic human rights for months," said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay in a statement.

Pillay said the blockade is illegal under international human rights and humanitarian law, and 'must end now.'......"

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33325

BBC News
November 18, 2008

"The Israeli military has launched an incursion into the Gaza Strip and clashed with Palestinian gunmen there. Witnesses say the Israeli troops were accompanied by bulldozers which have been destroying agricultural land east of the town of Rafah, in southern Gaza. There was no immediate reports of any injuries or deaths.

Meanwhile, Israeli defence officials say they have re-imposed a total closure of the border crossings into the Gaza Strip. A convoy of 33 trucks of humanitarian aid was allowed in on Monday, but United Nations officials say the supplies will run out within days.

Israel says it has tightened its blockade of Gaza in response to recent rocket attacks by Palestinian militants, which have caused minor damage but no casualties.....At least 16 Palestinian militants have been killed in skirmishes with Israeli forces along the border in the past two weeks.......[Editor's note: these deaths took place inside the Gaza Strip.]

...in a separate incident, the Israeli navy detained a number of Palestinian fishermen and foreign peace activists who had been accompanying them in boats off the coast of Gaza. The International Solidarity Movement said 14 fishermen and three activists were detained. The Israeli military said the boats had deviated from the defined fishing zone, which the ISM denied."  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7735051.stm

 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC (International Middle East Media Center) & Agencies
Tuesday November 18, 2008 20:45

"Palestinian medical sources in Bethlehem reported on Tuesday at night that six Palestinians were mildly wounded by Israeli military fire during an evening Israeli military invasion to the city.

Israeli soldiers, supported by at least twenty armored military vehicles and jeeps, invaded Bethlehem from several directions while under-cover forces of the Israeli military invaded Al Saff Street in the center of the city. Soldiers then surrounded for four hours the house of Khalid Al Doury, and forced the residents out before violently searching the property causing damage.

Dozens of Palestinian youth hurled stones at the invading forces while the army fired live rounds, rubber-coated bullets and gas bombs. Six residents were mildly wounded and received the needed medical treatment. The army and the under-cover forces withdrew from the city later on without abducting any resident, local sources reported."  http://www.imemc.org/article/57711

November 18th, 2008
Posted in Press Releases, Gaza Region

18th November - "British politicians, MP Clare Short and Baronness Jenny Tonge, both issue statements regarding the arrests made by Israeli forces today

The fifteen Palestinian fishermen abducted from Palestinian waters this morning (10am 18th November) are still being held by Israeli authorities in Ashdod, while their boats have been confiscated. Legal proceedings were initiated today that petition for their immediate release.

The three international Human Rights Observers who were arrested while accompanying the fishermen have been taken to Ben Gurion detention facility as Israeli authorities starting deportation proceedings. Andrew Muncie, a British citizen who was one of the three internationals arrested has made it clear that he will non-violently resist any attempt to deport him and that he is engaging a hunger-strike until all fifteen of the Palestinian fishermen are released....."

http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2008/11/18/update-fifteen-palestinian-fishermen-still-being-held-by-israeli-authorities-three-internationals-fighting-deportation-with-at-least-one-engaging-in-hungerstrike/

Ma'an News

November 18, 2008

Hebron – Ma’an – "Israeli forces launched a wide-scale arrest campaign against Palestinian youth in the West Bank before sunrise on Tuesday. More than 30 individuals were taken, mostly from the Al-Fawwar refugee camp south of Hebron in the southern West Bank, and mostly men under thirty.

Dozens of Israeli military vehicles carried out the biggest invasion of the Al-Fawwar camp in six months. Several houses were inspected and ransacked, and families were forced at gunpoint to leave their homes to the street."

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33313

Ma'an News
November 18, 2008

Gaza - Ma'an – 'Palestinian fighters claimed to have fired six homemade projectiles at Israeli targets from the Gaza Strip on Tuesday evening. The Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the An-Nasser Brigades, the armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committees claimed responsibility for launching two projectiles at the Israeli border town of Sderot.

Separately the Al-Quds Brigades the military wing of Islamic Jihad claimed to have launched four projectiles at the town of Nahal Oz on Tuesday. The Al-Quds Brigades said the attack was “in response to Israeli crimes.”'  http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33335

Associated Press
November 16, 2008

JERUSALEM (AP) - "British Foreign Secretary David Miliband is expressing strong opposition to Jewish settlement in the West Bank, and officials are speaking of an economic offensive to try to force them to be taken down.....

Miliband is pressing European partners for tighter control of imports to the European Union from the Jewish settlements, some of which are admitted at European ports as the produce of Israel and therefore enjoy tariff benefits under an Israel-EU treaty, the officials said.....

European diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity as a fresh economic offensive on the West Bank settlements has not been officially approved, said Miliband has been trying to muster support in Brussels for tougher implementation of existing customs regulations in the hope that settlements, a core issue in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, could be placed under a siege that could help hasten their dismantlement...."  http://www.pr-inside.com/miliband-to-criticize-israel-on-settlements-r918839.htm

November 16, 2008

SHATI REFUGEE CAMP, Gaza Strip - 'Gazans seeking food aid walked away empty-handed from locked United Nations distribution centers yesterday after a strict Israeli border closure depleted UN food reserves there.

Israel sealed Gaza's borders nearly two weeks ago as part of a new round of fighting with Gaza's Hamas rulers. Hamas rocket fire on Israeli border towns and Israeli air strikes on Gaza militants have eroded a truce that had largely held for five months.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called on Israel to open the crossings to humanitarian aid and condemned the rocket fire on Israel. Measures that increase the suffering of Gaza's civilians "are unacceptable and should cease immediately," he said in a statement.

Two Palestinians were killed in disputed circumstances in northern Gaza.

Palestinian Health Ministry official Dr. Moawiya Hassanain, citing reports from local medics, said the two were killed by an Israeli air strike. However, the military said Israeli forces were not involved and in the past, militants have sometimes been killed by Gaza rockets that fell short or exploded early.

In the Shati refugee camp near Gaza City, hundreds of people walked away empty-handed from a UN food distribution center yesterday. A note taped to the center's blue gate said handouts were put off until Dec. 13 "because of a lack of food to distribute."' 

http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2008/11/16/un_shuts_gaza_food_distribution_centers/ 

November 16, 2008

Gaza – Ma’an – "The Gaza Strip will run out of basic supplies of food in the next few days if Israel or Egypt does not ease a strict eleven-day blockade of the territory, a senior Palestinian official warned on Sunday.

De facto Minister of National Economy Ziyad Thatha said, “There is a food and humanitarian crisis [in] the Gaza Strip where crossings have been closed for the eleventh day.

Israel invaded the Gaza Strip on 4 November, breaking a five-month –old ceasefire agreement and sparking renewed cross-border violence. Israel also sealed its borders with Gaza, blocking deliveries of basic good such as food and fuel.

The United Nation's relief agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, was forced to suspend its food program on Friday after its trucks were turned away at the border. UNRWA is responsible for feeding 750,000 Gazans."  http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33267

By Amos Harel, Barak Ravid and Yanir Yagna
Haaretz Correspondents and News Agencies
November 16, 2008

"A Qassam rocket fired by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip struck a residential yard in the southern town of Sderot on Sunday, leaving one person with light shrapnel wounds. Several other people were treated for shock.

This was the third rocket to hit the Negev on Sunday, as violence between Israel and the coastal territory continued for a second week. Some 17 rockets and mortar shells hit southern Israel over the weekend, including four advanced Grad-type missiles...."  http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1037540.html

15 November, 2008

Bethlehem – Ma’an –

'Settlers attacked Palestinian shepherds, killing one donkey and injuring two international activists who were accompanying the locals as their flocks grazed near the illegal Israeli settlement outpost Havot Ma'on in the southern West Bank on Saturday morning.

According to a report released by the Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), who live in Hebron and At-Tuwani to monitor the tense situation and report on Human Rights abuses, a group of masked settlers came running at the shepherds and threw rocks at them.

CPT workers said settlers grabbed hold of two donkeys, seriously wounding one, and slitting the throat of another. As they tried to put a stop to the scene, settlers attacked the international workers with stones causing minor injuries.

The group said they called Israeli police four times before any response to the incident was taken." http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33263

By Uri Blau, Haaretz Correspondent
November 14, 2008

 "Defense Minister Ehud Barak has approved dozens of construction projects in the West Bank in recent months, contradicting Israel's commitments to the Road Map, Haaretz has learned. Barak also approved the marketing of hundreds of housing units in settlements..."  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1037270.html

"British customs officials are "strongly concerned" that Israeli-produced goods made in settlements on the occupied West Bank may be circumventing import taxes en-route to British high streets, the BBC's Tim Franks learns.

The British Government believes that Israeli settlements on occupied territory are illegal. So does every other government in the world, except for Israel. For that reason goods produced on settlements in the West Bank are not supposed to benefit from a free trade agreement between the EU and Israel. They are supposed to be subject to import duty. But the BBC has discovered that HM Revenue and Customs is strongly concerned that the system is being abused and that these goods may be coming into Britain for free."  http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolpda/ukfs_news/hi/newsid_7708000/7708244.stm

Anshel Pfeffer

Barak Ravid

Haaretz

November 14, 2008

"Relations between Israel and Britain remained strained on Thursday over Downing Street's intention to label products manufactured in West Bank settlements, a week before the expected arrival of British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, David Miliband, to the Middle East."  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1037263.html

By The Associated Press
13/11/2008

"Switzerland accused Israel on Thursday of wantonly destroying Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem and near Ramallah in violation of the Geneva Conventions' rules on military occupation. The Swiss Foreign Ministry demanded that Israel immediately halt the demolitions, which Israel has said are aimed at removing illegally constructed shacks.

An Israeli Embassy spokeswoman in the Swiss capital of Bern said the decision to remove the structures was not an arbitrary decision, but was sanctioned by law. "This demolition of houses was done under a court order," embassy spokeswoman Shlomit Sufa said Thursday.

Switzerland - as the guardian of the Geneva Conventions - can call meetings of the treaty's signatories if it finds problems with its implementation, but does not have any special powers to enforce the document. Foreign Ministry spokesman Lars Knuchel said the demolitions violated the 1949 Geneva Conventions, regarded as the cornerstone of international law on the obligations of warring and occupying powers.

The Fourth Convention states that occupying powers must respect the property of civilian populations under their control....."  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1037210.html

By Yossi Melman
Haaretz Correspondent

"The Middle East is in danger of accumulating large stocks of nuclear material over the next decade that could be used to produce over 1,700 nuclear bombs, a U.S. research center has projected in a newly released report.

The Institute for Science and International Security, headed by David Albright, one the world's top experts on nuclear weapons and the prevention of nuclear proliferation, recently released its report urging president-elect Barack Obama to take a number of measures to avoid such an outcome, including convincing Israel to halt production of its nuclear weapons.... "  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1037539.html

By DPA in Ha'aretz

"International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) head Mohammed ElBaradei said the nuclear arsenal should go as part of a settlement with the Palestinians.

"This is not really sustainable that you have Israel sitting with nuclear weapons capability there while everyone else is part of the non-proliferation regime," ElBaradei told The Sydney Morning Herald...."  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=499424&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y

November 12, 2008

Ramallah - Ma'an - "Israeli forces demolished two houses in the West Bank village of Shaqba, west of the city of Ramallah, on Wednesday afternoon, citing a lack of building permits. A total of 18 people lived in the two homes.

The houses belonged to the family of Bassem Hassan Subhi Ibrahim. Israeli authorities delivered demolition orders for another five houses. Hard-to-obtain building permits are often used as a pretext to demolish Palestinian homes throughout the occupied territories.

In 2006 three houses were destroyed in the same village." http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33181 

November 10, 2008

Over the last six days, Israel has all but closed its crossings with the Gaza Strip. No fuel (paid for by foreign donors) has been allowed into Gaza for its power station, no food has been allowed in for the United Nations' aid distribution centres on which most Gazans rely.

No journalists are being allowed into Gaza to cover the story. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7719880.stm

By Tim Franks

BBC News, Jerusalem

"Ramiz Barham's day job is Second Lieutenant in the Palestinian police force.

Last week, though, it was he who was threatened with arrest, by the Israeli army.

It had happened while the 24-year-old Ramiz was taking time off to help his family with the olive harvest.

He had been stopped by Israeli soldiers, as he advanced, holding a stick in each hand, on a group of settlers.

Ramiz said he was tipped over the edge when he had heard the settlers yelling that the Prophet Muhammad was a pig.

The incident happened, just after Ramiz and his family had begun harvesting olives from their grove close to the Palestinian village of Kedum, and the Jewish settlement of Qedumim, in the West Bank. .."  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7688768.stm

Date: 27 / 10 / 2008 Time: 12:40

Bethlehem – Ma’an – "The Free Gaza movement sent a formal notice to Israel on Sunday informing them of the group’s second humanitarian mission into the Gaza Strip. The boat will depart from Cyprus on 28 October, weather permitting, and arrive approximately 30 hours later.

The group made history with its 22-23 August journey which saw two small ships land in the Gaza City port; it was the first time in 41 years that international vessels had docked in the area.

There was initial concern that the Israeli navy, which patrols Gaza waters despite Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from the area in 2005, would prevent the first ships from reaching their destination...."

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=32840
 

By Yuval Azoulay, Haaretz Correspondent

22/10/2008

A right-wing activist on Wednesday lightly wounded an Israel Defense Forces soldier protecting Palestinian olive harvesters near the West Bank settlement of Otniel.

The incident occurred as twelve masked rightists, armed with clubs, scuffled with IDF soldiers deployed to guard the Palestinians. The rightists subsequently fled the scene, after which police embarked on a search for them.

The current olive harvest has been marked with other violent incidents. On Saturday, witnesses and Reuters crew said that Israeli settlers clashed with Palestinians and others helping them pick olives in the West Bank town of Hebron. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1030476.html 

21 / 10 / 2008

Bethlehem – Ma’an – Israeli forces seized three Palestinian journalists who were attempting to document settler attacks on Palestinian farmers in the village of Kafr Qaddum in the northern West Bank on Tuesday.

Three employees of Watan TV arrived in the village early on Tuesday, and were followed by settlers as they set out for the olive fields. When they began filming the abuse of Palestinian farmers by Israeli settlers, Israeli troops seized them

Watan TV identified the arrested men as assistant Ibrahim Bidwan, photographer Ibrahim Hammad and Mohammad Mudeinah. They are being held in an unknown location.

Israeli settlers have been attacking Palestinian farmers daily since the beginning of the olive harvest this season. On Monday over 100 settlers assaulted farmers in Kafr Qaddum.

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=32683

22 / 10 / 2008

Qalqilia – Ma’an – The longest-serving female Palestinian prisoner, Suna Ar-Ra’i, will be released by Israel on Sunday after serving 12 years in her second term in prison.

Ar-Ra’i is from the West Bank city of Qalqilia. Her brother, Ibrahim Ar-Ra’i, was a leader in the Palestinian resistance who was killed by the Israeli intelligence services on 13 April 1988. He was killed during an interrogation session in which he refused to admit to the accusations of his captors.

Suna Ar-Ra’i joined Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation at the age of 16. She was a co-founder of Palestinian women’s committees. She joined the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). On the ninth anniversary of the killing of her brother, she carried out a military operation against Israeli soldiers and security guards at the Allenby Bridge border crossing, and was arrested after the shooting. She was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment.

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=32700

By Haaretz Service

14/09/2008

"Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declared before the cabinet on Sunday that Israel's government will not allow settlers to carry out "pogroms against non-Jews."

Speaking at the weekly cabinet meeting one day after West Bank settlers from the illegal settlement of Yitzhar went on a rampage in the nearby Palestinian village of Assira al-Kabaliya in retaliation for the stabbing of a 9-year-old boy, Olmert said "there will not be pogroms against non-Jews in the state of Israel."

The settler rampage in Assira al-Kabaliya left at least eight Palestinians hurt. The boy, stabbed in the back and the hand, sustained minor wounds.

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"The phenomenon of [settlers] taking the law into their own hands and lashing out with violence and brutality is unforgivable, and will be dealt with by the law enforcement authorities," Olmert said."...http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1020914.html

By Haaretz Service and The Associated Press

Tags: B'tselem, residence permits

"Two Israeli human rights groups said in a joint report Wednesday that a new Israeli policy is deepening the separation between the West Bank and Gaza and tearing Palestinian families apart, in violation of international law.

The policy, in effect since November 2007, is turning some Palestinians into illegal residents in their own homes, said the report by the groups B'Tselem and Hamoked. In one high-profile case, a Gaza man has been barred from joining his wife who has West Bank residency and gave birth to quadruplets last month.

Israeli officials say..."  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1019877.html

Britain seems reluctant to take a firm stand against the illegal colonisation activities by Jewish settlers

Abe Hayeem

guardian.co.uk,

Tuesday September 09 2008 10:30 BST

"When Britain's prime minister, Gordon Brown, visited Ramallah in mid-July, he told the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas: "We want to see a freeze on settlements. Settlement expansion has made peace harder to achieve. It erodes trust, it heightens Palestinian suffering, it makes the compromises Israel needs to make for peace more difficult."

In that case, the decision by the British government to rent space for our new embassy in Tel Aviv from the Africa-Israel Investments company chaired by businessman Lev Leviev sends precisely the wrong message.

Leviev, a Russian-Israeli real estate and diamond billionaire who recently became a UK resident, is also a major settlement builder. Danya Cebus, a subsidiary of Leviev's Africa-Israel group, has built homes in three West Bank settlements - Mattityahu East, Har Homa, and Ma'ale Adumim.

Additionally, Leviev is a major donor to the Land Redemption Fund (LRF), which is affiliated..."  http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/09/israelandthepalestinians.foreignpolicy

By Haaretz Service and News Agencies

July 24, 2008

"A key panel of lawmakers on Thursday approved 20 new housing units at Maskiot in the West Bank, Israel Radio reported, despite a 2007 pledge to the United States to halt construction at the site. Jerusalem agreed to hold off on plans to build 180 new homes in the settlement, as part of a general freeze on Israeli construction in the West Bank.

But the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee has now given approval for the construction of the housing units and Defense Minister Ehud Barak is slated to grant authorization soon."  http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1005127.html

In Bbc News (United Kingdom)

July 23, 2008

"An Israeli policeman has died 12 days after being shot in an apparent militant attack in Jerusalem. David Shriki was hit in the head when an unidentified gunman opened fire as he was on patrol in the Old City, in mainly Arab East Jerusalem. Israeli police said they were treating it as a "terrorist" attack. Another officer was wounded by the gunfire and is recovering....."  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7521592.stm

In The Associated Press

July 23, 2008

"Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told supporters on Tuesday that he will withdraw his forces from West Bank cities unless Israel halts its army operations there.

Parallel to negotiations with Israel, Abbas has been trying to exert more control in the West Bank and to rein in terrorists. At the same time, the international community is training Abbas's forces, with hopes they will one day take over from Israel.

In recent months, Abbas has deployed forces in two of the unruliest towns, Nablus and Jenin, and residents once harassed by vigilante gunmen say they feel more secure.

However, the IDF argues that the Palestinian forces often co-opt former gunmen, instead of jailing them. Despite the presence of the Palestinian forces, IDF troops have continued operating in Palestinian cities, prompting complaints by Abbas that this is undermining him....."  http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1215331055174

In Kuwait News Agency (kuna) (Kuwait)

July 23, 2008

"Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is serious about withdrawing Palestinian forces from Nablus if Israel does not stop executing incursions into the city, a Palestinian official said Wednesday.

Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat told the Voice of Palestine radio station that the Palestinians would not allow the continuation of incursions into Palestinian cities, especially Nablus, adding that that was to the disdain of the Palestinian authority.

Israel Army forces have executed incursions into Nablus many times over the past two weeks. On Monday, it arrested 26 people, including Member of the Legislative Council Mona Mansour. Israeli forces broke into and damaged mosques, schools, shops, charity and humanitarian organizations, and a large number of homes...."  http://www.kuna.net.kw/newsagenciespublicsite/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=1926776&Language=en

By Mel Frykberg

In Middle East Times (Pan Arab)

July 23, 2008

I"n an unusual display of frustration, moderate Hamas official Ahmed Yousef, the adviser on foreign affairs to de-facto Gaza prime minister and Hamas leader Ismail Haniya, has told the Middle East Times that Hamas' patience with Israel is wearing thin. "I don't know what game the Israelis are playing but quite frankly if the siege isn't lifted and Gaza's borders remain closed, the ceasefire can go to hell, Yousef said by phone.

Although Israel has opened Gaza's borders intermittently, following the announcement of the ceasefire and allowed a trickle of goods through, the territory remains virtually sealed. This has exacerbated the chronic humanitarian conditions on the ground due to shortages of fuel, food, medicines and construction material.

Furthermore, vital spare parts for machinery needed to keep the strip's infrastructure working, such as water and waste management plants, are not able to be replaced or repaired.

Israel said it had re-closed the crossings following a number of missile attacks from Gaza in violation of the painstakingly negotiated ceasefire that involved a lot of patience on behalf of Egypt, which acted as an arbitrator between the Jewish state and the Islamic resistance movement.

The Qassam rocket attacks were themselves in response to Israeli violations which included a number of shootings at Gazan farmers and other Palestinian civilians, according to the United Nations, whom Israel claimed got too close to the border fence. These shootings resulted in the serious injury of several civilians and the death of a militant..."  http://www.metimes.com/International/2008/07/22/to_hell_with_the_ceasefire_if_israel_doesnt_let_up_h

By JPOST.COM STAFF, Jerusalem Post

Jul 22, 2008

"Several hours after the terror attack in Jerusalem, ultra-orthodox Jews attempted to lynch two Palestinians, Army Radio reported. The incident occurred in the Makor Baruch neighborhood, known for its unlikely mix of religious study institutions and orthodox residents, and stores selling construction materials and power tools, carpentries, and other such outlets which draw many Arab shoppers and employees.

According to eye witnesses, two battered and bleeding Palestinians barged into the yard of a family sitting Shiva [the Jewish week of mourning], followed by a raging mob. The family in the house protected the Palestinians and repelled the mob, which was comprised of furious yeshiva students. A member of the family said yeshiva students yelled at him from the balcony of the yeshiva, overlooking the house, calling to "kill Jews who protect Arabs."

The two east Jerusalem residents were taken to Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem for treatment..." http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1215331061642&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

By Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff

Haaretz, July 22, 2008

"The United States security coordinator for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, retired general James Jones, is preparing an extremely critical report of Israel's policies in the territories and its attitude toward the Palestinian Authority's security services.....

According to both Israeli and American sources, the envoy's conclusions about Israel are scathing. Israelis who met with Jones on his most recent visit here a few weeks ago, including Israel Defense Forces officers, said their impression was that the report would be "very harsh, and make Israel look very bad."

Jones is apparently critical of Israel on two key issues. One is its fairly broad definition of its security interests in the West Bank under any final-status agreement. The other is its attitude toward the PA security services."  http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1004143.html

By Barak Ravid, Haaretz
July 22, 2008

"Senior officials in the U.S. State Department, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, have repeatedly complained to Israel recently over relatively minor Palestinian issues that it would have ignored until a few months ago, Israeli officials say.

Complaints about settlement construction or army operations that kill Palestinian civilians have always been the norm. But Israeli officials are worried by the State Department's new tendency to intervene in a much broader range of issues."  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1004189.html

By Haaretz Service and News Agencies

"A Palestinian bulldozer driver went on a rampage in downtown Jerusalem on Tuesday, wounding at least 16 people, just weeks after a similar attack in the capital left three dead.

One of the wounded was in serious condition and the rest sustained light wounds. They were taken to Shaare Zedek Hospital in Jerusalem for treatment. The driver of the tractor struck a bus and at least five cars before being shot dead by security forces, Jerusalem police said......

On July 2, a Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem plowed a bulldozer down Jaffa Road, Jerusalem's main thoroughfare, killing three people. He was not known to be affiliated with any Palestinian militant group." http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1004437.html

By Mohammed Daraghmeh

In The Associated Press

July 21, 2008

BETHLEHEM, West Bank - "British Prime Minister Gordon Brown demanded yesterday that Israel cease settlement construction and promised more money to jump-start the battered Palestinian economy.

In his first trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories as Britain's leader, Brown repeatedly stressed that economics are key to Mideast peace, and said Israel should ease travel restrictions in the West Bank that have hindered commerce.

But his strongest comments were reserved for the settlements: "I think the whole European Union is very clear on this matter: We want to see a freeze on settlements."

"Settlement expansion has made peace harder to achieve. It erodes trust, it heightens Palestinian suffering, it makes the compromises Israel needs to make for peace more difficult," Brown said at a news conference with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank town of Bethlehem." http://serv01.siteground202.com/~atfp/news/article.php?id=1437077902

In Kuwait News Agency (kuna) (Kuwait)

July 21, 2008

RAMALLAH, July 21 (KUNA) -- The Israeli Army arrested, Sunday, around twenty Palestinians in Nablus City and its refugee camps. Security sources in the city said Hamas movement MP Mona Mansour was arrested after her house was besieged in Balatah Camp, east Nablus. A number of businessmen, owners of currency exchange shops, and workers at commercial establishments were also arrested, along with 8 university students who were arrested after their dorms at Al Najah University were raided. This is the second week of Israeli military operations in Nablus, and the forces closed a number of commercial shops and charitable organizations claiming they are associated with Hamas.  http://www.kuna.net.kw/newsagenciespublicsite/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=1926334&Langauge=en

By Amoss Harel

In Haaretz (Israel)

July 21, 2008

"A Gulf newspaper reported Monday that Israel is willing to include jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti in a list of 300 Palestinian prisoners to be freed in exchange for abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Shalit was seized in a cross-border raid in June 2006 and has been held in captivity in the Gaza Strip ever since. Unlike the soldiers who were snatched several weeks later by Hezbollah, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, several signs of life from Shalit have been released. Barghouti is serving five life sentences in Israel for his role in a series of deadly terrorist attacks during the second intifada."  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1003802.html

By Shahar Ilan, Haaretz

July 21, 2008

MKs on Monday passed three votes of no-confidence in the government, dealing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert with apparently the first such parliamentary defeat suffered since he was elected premier in 2006. The votes were only, however, of symbolic significance since their initiators did not achieve the majority of 61 lawmakers needed in order to dissolve the Knesset.....

Likud whip Gideon Saar said after the three votes Monday: "Tonight's series of humiliating defeats proves that the faltering government has reached the end of its road." Saar added: "The government that had lost the public's confidence long ago has also lost the confidence of the Knesset."  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1003748.html

Maan News
Jul 12, 2008

"Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said on Friday evening that he sent a letter to the US security coordinator in the region William Frerz complaining about Israeli incursions in the West Bank, specifically in Nablus in the northern West Bank.

Fayyad explained in an interview with the Associated Press that Israeli activity impeded his government's efforts to keep law and order. He added that he was fed up with Israel's claims about easing restrictions on the movement of Palestinians in the West Bank, since it is clearly not true.

The number of Israeli military operations in the West Bank, said Fayyad, rose by 50% during the first half of July compared to the same period in June."  http://imeu.net/news/article0013612.shtml

By Donald Macintyre in Hebron

Friday, 11 July 2008

"Veterans of the anti-apartheid struggle said last night that the restrictions endured by Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territories was in some respects worse than that imposed on the black majority under white rule in South Africa.

Members of a 23-strong human-rights team of prominent South Africans cited the impact of the Israeli military's separation barrier, checkpoints, the permit system for Palestinian travel, and the extent to which Palestinians are barred from using roads in the West Bank."  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/this-is-like-apartheid-anc-veterans-visit-west-bank-865063.html

In Agence France Presse (AFP) (France)

July 9, 2008

"An Israeli commission has approved the building of 920 new homes in occupied east Jerusalem, the municipality said on Wednesday, in a new blow to shaky peace talks with the Palestinians. "The district commission has approved for construction 920 housing units in Har Homa," a statement said, referring to a neighbourhood in east Jerusalem, known in Arabic as Jabel Abu Ghneim, that has more than 10,000 residents.

The Har Homa project is part of a plan to build some 40,000 new homes over the next decade in neighbourhoods in both east and west Jerusalem, that the housing minister approved in June, a ministry official told AFP. Until now specific aspects of this project were unknown.

Israel occupied and annexed the eastern half of the city after the 1967 war in a move not recognised by the international community or the Palestinians, who wish to make the Holy City the capital of their future state. A total of 245,000 Palestinians live in east Jerusalem alongside more than 200,000 Jewish settlers.

Israel pledged to halt all settlement activity in the occupied West Bank when peace talks were revived at a conference in the United States last year...."  http://serv01.siteground202.com/~atfp/news/article.php?id=1407345044

By Reuters
June 3, 2008

"Militants in the Gaza Strip fired a Qassam rocket the western Negev on Thursday, putting further strain on a fragile ceasefire deal in the Hamas-controlled territory.

An Israel Defense Forces spokesman said the rocket hit an open field near the Gaza border town of Sderot and caused no casualties.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the rocket fire, the sixth such attack since an Egyptian-brokered truce took effect on June 19.

Israel will close its border crossings with Gaza on Friday in response to the attack, an Israeli official said."  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/998735.html

Maan News
July 3, 2008

Jerusalem – Ma'an - "Israeli soldiers demolished the home of Kameel As-Sa'u in the neighborhood of Beit Hanina north of East Jerusalem Thursday morning.

Clashes erupted between the Israeli special police forces in charge of demolishing the home and a large number of Biet Hanina residents. In an attempt to stay the demolition, dozens of individuals parked their cars around the home, while others formed a human barrier between the As-Sa'u home and the bulldozers of the Israeli municipality of Jerusalem. The structure was home to seven members of the As-Sa'u family."  http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=30290

In Kuwait News Agency (kuna) (Kuwait)

July 3, 2008

"European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana warned Wednesday that it will be extremely difficult to have negotiations on the final-status of Palestine if Israel does not stop its settlements in occupied Palestinian lands.

"Realities on the ground have to change. I want to say it very clearly that settlements have to stop. We cannot enter in a process which is part of the way to determine by the end of the year 2008 if there is no clear commitment on the settlements," Solana told a conference on Palestine in the European Parliament.

"I think it will be impossible, very difficult to have negotiations on final status while the final status is changing prior to the negotiations," he said...." 

In Kuwait News Agency (kuna) (Kuwait)

July 2, 2008

"Israeli settlers fired two rockets toward Boreen village near Nablus city north of the West Bank, Palestinian security sources said on Tuesday.

The source said two settlers from Baraka settlement near the village fired the two rockets targeting Palestinians, but caused no injuries.

The rockets dubbed (Sharon-1, Sharon-2) fell in a deserted area causing fire only, the sources said.

Couple of days ago, settlers fired a rocket without causing injuries, and Israeli military said an investigation into the incident was opened, noting that the rocket was locally made inside the Israeli settlement.

In response, a spokesman for the Palestinian authority blamed the rocket attacks on Israeli authority and military...." http://www.kuna.net.kw/NewsAgenciesPublicSite/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=1922257&Language=en

Ben-Eliezer sees additional nuclear plants as a last resort.

Lior Baron, Globes Online
July 2, 2008

" "I hope that the things we're doing to promote solar and wind energy will be enough so that we won't have to begin using nuclear power," said Minister of National Infrastructures Benjamin Ben-Eliezer at the Negev Conference yesterday.

Ben-Eliezer added, "In future, the world will primarily rely on renewable energy and nuclear energy. We already have two nuclear power stations in planning in the Negev, but this is the last resort, and I won't say any more." ..."  http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/

By STEVEN GUTKIN, AP

Posted: 2008-07-02 09:27:24

"JERUSALEM (July 2) -- A Palestinian man plowed an enormous construction vehicle into cars, buses and pedestrians on a busy street Wednesday, killing at least three people and wounding at least 45 before he was shot dead by security officers.

The violence, the first major attack in Jerusalem since March, wreaked havoc in the heart of downtown. Hundreds of people fled in panic through the streets as medics treated the wounded.

Three Palestinian militant groups took responsibility for the attack, but the claims could not be independently verified and Israeli police referred to the attacker as a "terrorist" acting on his own...."  http://news.aol.com/story/_a/bulldozer-rampage-kills-3-in-jerusalem/20080702063709990001

By Yossi Melman, Haaretz Correspondent

Haaretz, July 2, 2008

"Unofficial reports from Iran, supported by several Iranian legislators, suggest that Tehran is willing to suspend its nuclear program for at least six weeks as a goodwill gesture to the West.

According to the reports, released on various Iranian Web sites, Tehran would suspend the installation of new centrifuges at the Natanz nuclear facility in the first stage of the suspension, after which it would be willing to halt the enrichment of uranium for an undetermined amount of time.

The steps would be taken in exchange for the launching of new talks with the five representatives of the United Nations Security Council and Germany........."  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/998287.html

Agence France Presse
July 2, 2008

JERUSALEM (AFP) — "The Israeli parliament passed a law on Monday banning any citizen who has visited an "enemy" country in the previous seven years from standing for election to the legislature, triggering the anger of Israeli Arab MPs.

Fifty-two members of the 120-seat parliament approved the law at a third and last reading while 24 MPs voted against it, parliamentary sources said.

The legislation states that anyone who has visited "an enemy country" over the past seven years cannot stand for parliament.

It is aimed particularly at MPs from Arab-led parties, some of whom have travelled to Lebanon and Syria, neighbouring countries officially at war with Israel."  http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gSZuuHzlHqh6yZGzWK1z8HiBqB7Q

BBC News
June 1, 2008

"Israeli human rights group B'Tselem says the West Bank is facing grave water shortages largely because Israel's "discriminatory" policies.

The group criticises the distribution of joint water resources and limits placed by Israel on the Palestinian Authority's ability to drill new wells.

"It will have serious repercussions on the economy and health," B'Tselem said.

West Bank per capita water use is about 66 litres a day - just two-thirds of the recommended international minimum.

The accumulated effects of a series of dry years would make matters worse in the months to come, the group added.

Per capita water consumption by Israeli settlers in the West Bank is 3.5 times that of Palestinians, B'Tselem says....."

"The shortage will have serious repercussions on the economy and the health of tens of thousands of Palestinians."

B'Tselem  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7483172.stm

Maan News
July 1, 2008

 "Gaza – Ma'an – Israeli forces shot a Palestinian woman in the foot on Tuesday morning while she was tending her sheep south of the city Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip.

Medical sources at the European Hospital in the city of Rafah, also in the southern Gaza Strip, said that 36-year-old 'Aisha Abu 'Ataya was hit by a gunshot in her right foot. They said Israeli soldiers fired at Abu Ataya from a jeep near the town of Al-Fukhari.

The Israeli military has not yet commented on the shooting, which is an apparent violation of the ceasefire in place in the Gaza Strip."  http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=30220

Maan News

Maan News, June 29, 2008

"Residents of the northern West Bank town of Tubas buried 18-year-old Muhammad Nasser Sa’id Daraghmah on Sunday afternoon. Daraghmah was shot dead by Israeli troops 2am on Sunday morning.....

Israeli forces have now killed four Palestinians in the West Bank within a week. On Friday night, Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian teenager in the southern West Bank town of Beit Ummar, north of the city of Hebron. Last Tuesday, Israeli troops gunned down a Palestinian fighter and an unarmed student in the city of Nablus." http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=30172

BBC News
June 29, 2008

"Israel has reopened a key commercial crossing point to the Gaza Strip - one of two it closed last week - because of a lull in cross-border attacks.

The Sufa and Karni crossings were closed on Wednesday after Palestinian militants fired rockets into Israel. About 70 truckloads of goods would be allowed to enter Gaza on Sunday via the Sufa crossing, Israel's military said."  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7479783.stm

Source: Reuters

26 Jun 2008 14:29:53 GMT

{"JERUSALEM, June 26 (Reuters) - Israel's Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) group accused Israeli doctors on Thursday of ignoring what it described as the torture of Palestinian detainees during interrogations.....

Last year, two groups, B'Tselem and HaMoked, said they had found Israeli security interrogators routinely mistreat and sometimes physically torture Palestinian detainees.....

The rights group said doctors working for the Shin Bet risked losing their jobs if they reported torture and urged the Health Ministry to protect them. (Writing by Joseph Nasr, Editing by Ibon Villelabeitia)"

IMEU
June 27, 2008

"ImageJerusalem / Maisa Abu Ghazaleh - As Israeli settlements continue to expand across occupied East Jerusalem, a legal battle is underway to prevent the destruction of 450 Palestinian homes in the district of Khallat Al ‘Ein.

In preparation for the confiscation of Palestinian land, the Israeli-controlled Jerusalem Municipality has sought to argue that the residents of Khallat Al ‘Ein possess no permanent license for the housing....." http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2984&Itemid=1

White House Weighs Striking Iran's Nuclear Complex, Which Could Trigger 3rd War In Region

Israel has made it clear it intends to end Iran's nuclear program with or without U.S. support ? and before President Bush leaves office.

CBS News
June 24, 2008

"(CBS) Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen leaves Tuesday night on an overseas trip that will take him to Israel, reports CBS News national security correspondent David Martin. The trip has been scheduled for some time but U.S. officials say it comes just as the Israelis are mounting a full court press to get the Bush administration to strike Iran's nuclear complex.

CBS consultant Michael Oren says Israel doesn't want to wait for a new administration.

"The Israelis have been assured by the Bush administration that the Bush administration will not allow Iran to nuclearize," Oren said. "Israelis are uncertain about what would be the policies of the next administration vis-à-vis Iran."

Israel's message is simple: If you don't, we will. Israel held a dress rehearsal for a strike earlier this month, but military analysts say Israel can not do it alone....."  http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/06/24/eveningnews/main4206201.shtml

Sun Jun 22, 2008 6:03am EDT

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - "An Israeli anti-torture watchdog said in a report on Sunday Israeli soldiers routinely abuse bound Palestinian detainees and it accused the military of "absolute indifference" towards such mistreatment.

The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) said its findings were based on 90 detailed accounts from Palestinians as well as from soldiers who witnessed the abuse and were concerned over the army's failure to stop it.

Soldiers, the report said, were frequently violent towards Palestinian detainees, including minors, in many cases after they had been handcuffed and no longer posed a threat." http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL2258018920080622?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews

By Daniel Trotta, Reuters
June 20, 2008

"NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.N. children's fund UNICEF has severed ties with an Israeli billionaire and financial backer due to his suspected involvement in building settlements in the occupied West Bank, UNICEF said on Friday.

Lev Leviev, a real estate and diamond mogul who is one of the richest men in Israel, has supported UNICEF with direct contributions and indirectly by sponsoring at least one UNICEF fund-raiser.

He is chairman of Africa Israel Investments, a conglomerate whose units include Danya Cebus, which the Arab rights advocacy group Adalah-NY charges has carried out settlement construction, considered illegal by the United Nations.

UNICEF decided to review its relationship with Leviev after a campaign by Adalah-NY and found "at least a reasonable grounds for suspecting" that Leviev companies were building settlements in occupied territory, a UNICEF official said."  http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSN2047885820080620

by Sam Bahour
June 14, 2008

Israeli occupation caused doubling of poor families in country, negatively affected tourism industry.

"JERUSALEM - The occupation of the Palestinian territories is exacting a high price from Israel, a local think-tank said.

"The prolonged conflict with the Palestinians is a millstone around Israel's neck," Adva, a social justice NGO, said in a 4 June report, The cost of the occupation . Israel's poor carry much of the burden as inequality within the country grows. The percentage of families considered poor has doubled since the 1970s, the report said, noting this was due to the conflict and partially the result of immigrants from Ethiopia and the former Soviet Union being unable to integrate in Israeli society.

Government spending cuts in recent years have targeted social services. "[From] 2001 through 2005, child allowances were cut by 45 percent, unemployment compensation by 47 percent, and income maintenance by 25 percent," causing increased suffering for the poorest. .....More generally, the increases in the military budget amounted to 36 billion shekels (US$10.7 billion) between 1989 and 2008, Adva estimated, which is "more than the total spending for elementary, secondary and tertiary education in Israel in 2008". ..."  http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=26454

"A new German owner has purchased Haaretz and a "Putsch is being carried out among reporting staff," in the most important and liberal Zionist paper in Israel. According to inside sources, the new owner has carried out a rough, sittingroom survey that revealed that "the occupation doesn’t sell newspapers" and they are therefore concentrating on the business world (ie. The Marker). Twilight Zone, Gideon Levy’s regular Friday column, has been scrapped, Amira Hass has been degraded to freelance on half salary, Meron Rapaport has been fired and Akiva Eldar has lost at least one half page a week."  http://engforum.pravda.ru/showthread.php?t=217023

By Atef Saad

Tue Jun 24, 2008 5:23am EDT

"NABLUS, West Bank, June 24 (Reuters) - Israeli forces killed two Palestinians, including an Islamic Jihad commander, in the West Bank city of Nablus on Tuesday in the first fatal raid since a ceasefire took hold in the Gaza Strip last week.

Islamic Jihad threatened to launch attacks inside Israel to avenge the death of Tarek Juma Abu Ghali, whom the militant group described as one of its most senior commanders in the northern West Bank.

A second Palestinian, affiliated with the Islamist militant group Hamas, was also killed in the overnight raid, Palestinian security sources said.

The killings, which were confirmed by the Israeli army, could test the fragile ceasefire that took effect last Thursday between Israel and militants in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

"Calm in Gaza does not mean that we will sit in our seats waiting to be slaughtered one by one," Islamic Jihad said in a statement. "This crime will not pass without punishment and the coming days will be a witness to that."......."  http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USL24735034

Herb Keinon and Yaakov Katz , THE JERUSALEM POST

Jun. 24, 2008

"The sixth day of the Gaza truce saw the first violations when three Kassam rockets slammed into Israel in response to the IDF killing of top Islamic Jihad operative Tarek Abu Ghally in Nablus on Tuesday. There was no immediate military response from the IDF.

The rockets struck in the western Negev without causing any casualties or damage. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.

"We cannot keep our hands tied when this is happening to our brothers in the West Bank," the group said in a statement.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the rocket attack "came as result of Israeli provocation this morning." He added, however, that Hamas was "committed to the security calm." ....."  http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1214132667653&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter

By Kurt Bayer in Scotsman.com News

Sunday, 8th June 2008

"FOR 120 years, generations of Christian monks have peacefully cultivated the land surrounding the Cremisan monastery in the hills above Bethlehem – hewing terraces out of the rocky slopes to create Palestine's only vineyard. The monks have combined traditional Italian methods of wine-making with organic viticulture fitting the harsh conditions of the Holy Land, to create distinctive red and white wines and provide vital income for the families of those who labour in the vineyards. But this idyllic monastery will soon be swallowed up by Israel when the next phase of the controversial Israeli West Bank barrier is completed over the next three months.....

Bulldozers have already ripped out hundreds of pine trees surrounding the vineyards and, according to a spokesman for the Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem, which monitors Israeli settlement activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, foundations have already been dug and the infrastructure is in place so that the wall can be completed within "two to three months".

Amer Kardosh, general manager of the vineyard, stressed: "We do not want to be in Israel. We are Palestinians, but we have no choice. The wall will separate us from Palestine and our people." .." http://news.scotsman.com/world/Bad-year-for-winemaking-monks.4163473.jp

June 6, 2008

"A top Israeli official has said that if Iran continues with its alleged nuclear arms programme, Israel will attack it. Speaking to Yediot Ahronot newspaper, Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz said sanctions on Iran were ineffective. Mr Mofaz is one of three deputy prime ministers and the transport minister. Earlier this week, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Iran's nuclear programme must be stopped by what he termed all possible means...."  http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7440472.stm 

By Barak Ravid and Avi Issacharoff
 06/05/2008

lks, key issues still contested

"Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat has said that marked differences still remain over key issues in peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, despite reports of progress at a high-level meeting Monday.

"I cannot say that there was significant progress during the meeting. The issues are still contested," Erekat said, speaking after after Monday's peace talks between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. "  http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/981062.html

by Nicki Bennett and the Oxfam Gaza team
June 3, 2008

".....“Now that the fuel is being rationed it is far too expensive for most people who live here. So they’re driving on cooking oil instead.” .... It’s not good for the environment — but for many people, it’s the only choice these days.”

One logical consequence of the fuel cuts is smell number two: sweaty horses and donkeys. With the number of cars on the road having dwindled dramatically, horse- or donkey-drawn carts have taken their place. The streets are virtually crawling with them, particularly near one of the UN warehouses where food distribution — 80% of people here are dependent on food aid — is going on today. With each cart that passes comes a whiff of musty animal sweat.

The third smell I recognize instantly: raw sewage. ....“Every day, I have to pump 50 or 60 million liters of raw sewage into the Mediterranean Sea. We would like to treat it of course, but the wastewater-treatment plant we have can’t cope with that much at the best of times. And like everything else it depends on fuel. Last month — throughout the whole month of April — I did not receive a single liter of fuel from the authorities because of this conflict. So what choice do I have?”

“We’re planning to build a new plant, the money from the World Bank is already there — but because of the Israeli blockade against Gaza, construction has stalled. It’s the same for all of the development projects — nothing can go ahead without parts and materials, and we’ve been waiting for almost a year for most of our parts to come in.” ..."  http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/03/smells-of-gaza/index.html?ref=opinion

By Reuters

In The Jordan Times (Jordan)

June 2, 2008

"Hizbollah said on Sunday it had released the remains of Israeli soldiers killed in a 2006 war with Israel, which handed over a Lebanese man who had completed a jail term on charges of spying for the group. The exchange increased speculation of progress in indirect talks over a broader prisoner swap. Lebanese political sources said last Monday that the talks had made major progress."  http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=8313

In Kuwait News Agency (kuna) (Kuwait)

June 2, 2008

"Britain said Monday it considers that Israeli settlement building anywhere in the Occupied Palestinian Territories is illegal under international law. In a brief statement, the Foreign Office in London said "This includes settlements in both East Jerusalem and the West Bank". "The Roadmap was clear that Israel should freeze all settlement activity, including the so-called natural growth of existing settlements, and dismantle all outposts erected since March 2001", the statement pointed out. "This has been the UKs consistent position and it will continue to raise this with the Israeli government", it added.

The Foreign Office was commenting in the context of reports of plans for further Israeli settlement building in the West Bank, around Jerusalem....."  http://www.kuna.net.kw/NewsAgenciesPublicSite/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=1913392&Language=en

Ali Waked YNet News
May 5, 2008

Palestinians recount 'nightmarish' searches by troops during counterterrorism ops. 'The mental scars will remain for a long time. We have never experienced such brutality,' resident says

Gaza residents say they were subjected to inhuman treatment at the hands of IDF soldiers conducting searches in their homes as part of the army's recent efforts to combat Palestinian terror. http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3539931,00.html

Agence France Presse
June 1, 2008

"JERUSALEM (AFP) — Israel will build 884 more houses in east Jerusalem, the housing ministry said on Sunday, in a move that enraged the Palestinians who have demanded the area as the capital of their promised state. "We will invite tenders for the construction of 121 housing units in Har Homa and 763 others in Pisgat Zeev," ministry spokesman Eran Sidis told AFP, referring to two neighbourhoods in Arab east Jerusalem.

Israel occupied and annexed the eastern half of the city after the 1967 war in a move not recognised by the international community or the Palestinians, who have demanded it as their capital in recently revived peace talks...."  http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5h4zAakye_VlHeyANxTM68ZLKkvmQ

By Nadav Shragai, Haaretz Correspondent and News Agencies

Haaretz Daily News
June 1, 2008

"Israel announced plans on Sunday to build more than 800 hundred new homes in eastern parts of the Jerusalem municipality, despite U.S. and Palestinian calls to halt settlement expansion. The announcement was issued two days before Prime Minister Ehud Olmert embarks on a three-day visit to Washington.

The 2003 peace road map, reaffirmed by Israeli and Palestinian leaders at a conference hosted by U.S. President George W. Bush in November, requires a halt to all settlement activity on occupied land where Palestinians seek statehood...."  http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/989016.html

By Haaretz Service, June 1, 2008

"Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni served as a Paris agent for the Mossad overseas intelligence agency in the 1980s during a series of missions it ran to kill Palestinian terrorists across Europe, according to the Sunday Times. The report cites Livni's former colleagues as saying the Kadima frontrunner was on active duty in 1983, when senior Palestine Liberation Organization official Mamoun Meraish was shot dead by two Mossad agents in Athens......"  http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/989013.html

By Haaretz Service
June 1, 2008

"Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Saturday canceled a political-security cabinet meeting slated for Sunday, in which a vote was to be held on whether or not to agree to a cease-fire with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Olmert and Barak decided that due to the "vagueness" of Hamas' position in regard to the ceasefire, a cabinet vote on whether to accept it would be premature. The cabinet meeting will be postponed until the following Sunday...."  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/988778.html

By The Associated Press and News Agencie
June 1, 2008

"The U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem is working to get seven Gaza students out of the blockaded territory to pursue their Fulbright scholarship studies, the human rights group Gisha said Sunday.

Gisha gave the Associated Press a copy of a message sent to all seven students by the consulate on Sunday. It said U.S. officials are trying to get exit permits for them, bring them to east Jerusalem and get them visas for the U.S. Then they could continue their studies.

"We are working very closely with the Government of Israel in order to secure its cooperation in this matter," the message read. Consulate officials had no immediate comment.

Gisha director Sari Bashi welcomed the pledge of the consulate to help. "Gisha calls on Israel to allow all students with scholarships trapped in Gaza to leave and study abroad," she said. On Thursday the students were informed that their scholarships would be canceled because the students couldn't get out of Gaza....."  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/985362.html

By IBRAHIM BARZAK, Associated Press Writer

May 30, 2008

"GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Hadeel Abu Kawik was supposed to spend next year in the United States on the prestigious Fulbright scholarship program, but now it appears she will remain trapped in the Gaza Strip by an Israeli blockade. Word that the U.S. State Department was canceling her scholarship came after Abu Kawik, 23 and a computer engineering student, went through a lengthy process for the scholarship that included interviews, exams and an English test.

"I was building my hope on this scholarship," she said Friday.

Seven other Gaza students also lost their grants. The decision was made because they would not be able to get exit visas from Israel, according to State Department spokesman Tom Casey...." 

By Mazal Mualem, Haaretz Daily News
May 30, 2008

"General elections will be held by the end of the year, Labor leader and Defense Minister Ehud Barak said at a party meeting at Labor headquarters in Tel Aviv yesterday. "We are in favor of stability and are ready to help form a new government in the current Knesset, but I believe we are heading for elections by the end of the year," Barak said.

On Wednesday, Barak urged Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to step down and appoint a replacement, due to the suspicions of corruption surrounding him. However, Olmert publicly rejected the request...."  http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/988600.html

Ali Waked, YNet News
May 30, 2008

"Hamas would not be surprised to see Israel exploiting its domestic political crisis in order to evade Egyptian mediation efforts on a Gaza Strip truce, a senior Hamas figure told Ynet Friday. The group is still waiting for Egypt's response regarding clarifications it asked for, the source said.

"It's clear to us that Israel is not really interested in a lull, but rather, only wants to buy time," the source said. "Israel will attempt to divert attention away from the embarrassing affairs involving its leaders through escalation in the Gaza Strip. We are preparing for all scenarios, yet at this time we can say that the chances of lull efforts succeeding are slim because of Israel's evasive games...."  http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3549948,00.html

".....Dozens of boys arrived at the meeting place in the Pisgat Ze'ev shopping mall. They streamed in from all parts of the capital, some on foot, some by bus and some driven in by parents. Equipped with knives, sticks and clubs, they all had one purpose: to do harm to Arabs for being Arabs.

At the entrance, the gang encountered two boys from the Shuafat refugee camp, who had come to shop for clothes and didn't know the mall had closed early for Holocaust Day. The day's end saw the two battered, bleeding and stabbed, and at Hadassah University Hospital in Ein Karem....."  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/988477.html

By Haaretz Correspondent and Agencies , By Assaf Uni
May 29, 2008

"Members of the University and College Union in England (UCU) passed a motion at their annual conference yesterday to consider severing ties with Israeli universities.

Tom Hickey, who teaches philosophy at the University of Brighton, says the motion highlighting the "humanitarian catastrophe imposed on Gaza by Israel" is just shy of a full boycott, The Telegraph said."  http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/988162.html

Associated Press , THE JERUSALEM POST
May. 27, 2008

"In the past seven years, Israel has denied 94 percent of Palestinian requests for building permits in West Bank areas under its full control, a UN agency said in a report Tuesday. During the same period, Israel demolished more than 1,600 Palestinian-owned structures in those areas, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The report also stated that more than 3,000 Israeli demolition orders are pending against Palestinian-owned structures in those areas. Ten small communities are at risk of being almost entirely displaced by demolitions, the agency claimed...." http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1211872828552&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

By The Associated Press, May 20, 2008

"Orthodox Jews set fire to hundreds of copies of the New Testament in the latest act of violence against Christian missionaries in the Holy Land.

Or Yehuda Deputy Mayor Uzi Aharon said missionaries recently entered a neighborhood in the predominantly religious town of 34,000 in central Israel, distributing hundreds of New Testaments and missionary material.

After receiving complaints, Aharon said, he got into a loudspeaker car last Thursday and drove through the neighborhood, urging people to turn over the material to Jewish religious students who went door to door to collect it. "The books were dumped into a pile and set afire in a lot near a synagogue," he said......

Israeli authorities and Orthodox Jews frown on missionary activity aimed at Jews, though in most cases it is not illegal. Still, the concept of a Jew burning books is abhorrent to many in Israel because of the association with Nazis torching piles of Jewish books during the Holocaust of World War II.

Earlier this year, the teenage son of a prominent Christian missionary was seriously wounded when a package bomb delivered to the family's West Bank home went off in his hands. Last year, arsonists burst into a Jerusalem church used by Messianic Jews and set the building on fire, raising suspicions that Jewish extremists were behind the attack. No one claimed responsibility, but the same church was burned down 25 years ago by ultra-Orthodox Jewish extremists."   http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/985362.html

By Charles Levinson

In Usa Today

May 19, 2008

"President Bush wrapped up his five-day Mideast tour Sunday with little visible progress on either of the main issues he highlighted: rising oil prices and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Instead, Bush was subjected to a wave of criticism as he delivered a lecture to the Arab world on the benefits of democracy.

"This trip was an exclamation point on the fact that the mystique about American power is no longer there," said Steve Clemons, an analyst at the New America Foundation, a think tank in Washington. On the final leg of his trip, Bush came to the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheik, where Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak greeted him with a half-dozen soldiers and none of the pomp given Bush on other state visits. Instead, Egypt's state-controlled newspapers slammed the American president in stinging front-page editorials...."  http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-05-18-bush-mideast_N.htm?csp=34

By Haaretz Staff and Agencies, Haaretz Daily Newspaper
May 19 2008

"Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas warned yesterday that he would resign from his position if a peace settlement is not reached with Israel within six months....Earlier yesterday, Abbas said that the address given by U.S. President George W. Bush to the Knesset last week had angered the Palestinians...." http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/984654.html

Efrat Weiss, YNet News
May 19, 2008

"A new outpost has been built in the past few weeks on a hill near the community of Neguhot in South Mount Hebron, Ynet has learned, despite the recent cooperation between the settlers and the Defense Ministry in removing illegal caravans into communities. The outpost, which consists of a permanent structure where people are believed to be living, is located at the end of a vineyard.

There are three hills in the Neguhot area. The community itself is located on one of the hills, the Mitzpe Lachish outpost was built on a second hill, and the new building has now been located on the third one. Mitzpe Lachish and Neguhot were included in Attorney Talia Sasson's report on unauthorized outposts.....

The Peace Now movement said in a statement, "The settlers aren't wasting any time and continue to change reality. Every day which goes by distances Israel and the Palestinians from the possibility of implementing the two-state vision and makes reality impossible. "Instead of talking with the settlers' leadership, the defense minister must enforce the law and immediately evacuate the new outpost along with the dozens of additional outposts built in the territories illegally."  http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3545065,00.html

Ynet News
 05.16.08

"Palestinians bristle at terminology used by US president in support of Israel, say religious analogies hailing Israelis as 'chosen people' prove Washington bias. Meanwhile Bush's Knesset address causes furor among Democrats back home who view denunciation of appeasement as jibe against Obama "  http://www.ynetnews.com/home/0,7340,L-3089,00.html

In Agence France Presse (AFP) (France)

May 15, 2008

"Israel warned on Thursday that its forces were prepared to launch a major military operation in the Gaza Strip after a rocket attack that wounded at least 14 people while US President George W. Bush was in Israel. ‘The Israeli army has never been this ready to launch a large-scale operation in Gaza,’ said Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, a member of Israel's security cabinet. ‘It may be that we have no choice but to destroy all the nests of terror. Apparently we'll have no choice,’ he told public radio....."  http://www.unitedjerusalem.com/index2.asp?id=1067652

Maan News
May 15, 2008

"Two Palestinian activists, affiliated to Hamas' Al-Qassam Brigades, were killed on Wednesday at midnight and three others were injured when Israeli military tanks targeted a group of fighters in the Shuja'iyya neighborhood of Gaza City.

Palestinian medical sources named those killed as Ahmad Al-Malahi and Muhammad Harara, both in their thirties. The wounded activists were evacuated to Ash-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City and medics described their condition as serious. The dead bodies were also taken to the same hospital.

Israeli artillery fired another shell at an open agricultural area near the American school in the northern Gaza Strip. No casualties have been reported."  http://imeu.net/news/article008745.shtml

By The Associated Press
May 14, 2008

 "Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has promised to build about 600 housing units in contentious West Bank settlements, a political ally of the prime minister said Wednesday, adding new tensions to peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

The announcement came shortly before U.S. President George W. Bush arrived in Israel to take part in the Jewish state's 60th anniversary celebrations - and to try to nudge forward Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations....."  http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/983304.html

By Akiva Eldar, Haaretz Correspondent, Haaretz
May 14, 2008

"The Jerusalem municipality has begun the process of approving a plan for a new housing complex, including a synagogue, in the heart of the Arab neighborhood of Silwan south of the Old City. The plan, submitted by the right-wing Elad association, includes 10 apartments, kindergarten classrooms, a library and underground parking for 100 cars. Documents show the land the complex is to be built on belongs to the Israel Lands Administration (ILA); however, the ILA said it was unaware of the plan.

The municipal spokesman said Elad had leased the land, and therefore the plan does not require ILA approval. A municipal document dated January 21, 2008 notes that all necessary recommendations had been received in the planning file.

The area slated for the new project is located 200 meters from the Old City walls, in an area considered one of the most sensitive in the present negotiations with the Palestinians over the final-status agreement....."  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/983289.html

By The Associated Press, Haaretz Newspaper

May 14, 2008

"The approval rating of the Palestinian government in the West Bank has dropped 13 percentage points since January and President Mahmoud Abbas would have trouble winning if elections were held now, according to a poll published Wednesday.

The poll was conducted at a time of growing Palestinian frustration over

stalled peace talks with Israel and a stagnant economy. Negotiations on the so-called core issues - the borders of a Palestinian state, a division of Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees - resumed earlier this year.

Abbas and his prime minister, Salam Fayyad, are being hurt by the lack of progress, according to pollster Nader Said. "This goes to illustrate that

Palestinians will always come back to the core issues," he said. "Not to make progress on these issues will harm the stakeholders trying to achieve a solution." .......

The poll indicated that Marwan Barghouti, an imprisoned militant leader, is by far the most popular Palestinian politician....." http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/983420.html

By Fadi Eyadat, Mijal Grinberg and Yuval Azoulay, Haaretz
May 14, 2008

"Some 40 families from Kibbutz Kfar Aza, near the Gaza Strip, have decided to leave the area.

"We decided to leave the kibbutz until things quiet down, and unfortunately, it will be with white flags," Dudi Doron, a member of Kibbutz Kfar Aza, said Tuesday. "Neither I nor my children will be Israel's hostages. We will come back when there is a solution to life," Doron said. Last night, like every night since Friday, when kibbutz member Jimmy Kedoshim was killed by mortar fire while standing in his garden, a number of kibbutz members met to discuss plans to leave en masse....."  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/983206.html

By News Agencies, Haaretz
May 14, 2008

"The Israel Defense Forces killed two Hamas militants and two Palestinian civilians on Wednesday in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, medical workers said...."  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/983296.html

Rory McCarthy in Beit Hanoun, The Guardian
May 14, 2008

"In the third part of our series on Gaza, Rory McCarthy talks to Ahmad Abu Me'tiq, who lost his wife and four of his children in an Israeli air strike......

Their deaths add to the growing and striking toll of children killed in the conflict in Gaza. This year alone at least 44 Palestinian children have been killed, according to a count at the end of April by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights. The UN has put the figure at 53 children dead and 177 children injured so far this year.

Despite talks about a ceasefire the death toll on both sides continues to rise. At least 312 Palestinians, more than half civilians, have been killed this year, according to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights. On the Israeli side six soldiers and six civilians have died, the latest Shuli Katz, 70, who was killed on Monday by a rocket fired by Gazan militants into Yesha, a village in southern Israel....."  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/14/gaza 

By Mijal Grinberg and Yuval Azoulay, Haaretz Correspondents

"An Israeli civilian was killed Friday by a mortar fired by Palestinians in Gaza which landed in the western Negev town of Kfar Aza. A Magen David Adom rescue crew which was summoned to the scene pronounced the man dead following unsuccessful attempts to resuscitate him. One person was moderately hurt and two were lightly injured by shrapnel while three others were treated for shock.

The radio of Gaza's ruling Hamas movement said the group was responsible for the mortar fire. "Hamas is clearly in control of the Gaza Strip and responsible for all hostile fire into Israel. We hold it accountable for today's attack and the murder of our civilians," said David Baker, an Israeli government spokesman.

Abu Obeida, a spokesman for Hamas' military wing, said militants had targeted a military position."  http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/982041.html

By Avi Issacharoff, Mijal Grinberg, Haaretz Correspondents

12/05/2008

"A 70-year-old woman was killed Monday in a rocket attack from the Gaza Strip, the rescue service said. The rocket hit a house in Moshav Yesha, 15 kilometers (9 miles) east of Gaza, farther away than the usual targets of rockets fired by Gaza militants. No one else was hurt, the rescue service said.

The attack came as the Egyptian chief of intelligence wrapped up talks with Israel about a truce with Hamas to end rocket attacks and Israeli reprisals.

Earlier Monday, two Qassam rockets hit Ashkelon. One of the rockets struck an area crowded with many schools and kindergartens at 7 A.M., only minutes before children normally flood the area......"  http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/982609.html

By Haaretz Correspondents and Agencies
By Avi Issacharoff and Yuval Azoulay

May 11, 2008

"Tree Palestinians were killed and more than 20 wounded in clashes with Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday and Thursday.

On Wednesday, Israel Defense Forces soldiers and Palestinian gunmen clashed in Abassan, along the Gaza-Israel border, and Israeli aircraft carried out at least four missile strikes.

One missile struck Palestinians who were using abandoned houses as cover, killing a gunman from Islamic Jihad and wounding 14 people, Palestinian sources said. Palestinians identified the dead man as Mahmoud Abu Muslam, 21.

An earlier strike wounded six members of Hamas, and three of them were in critical condition, according to Dr. Moaiya Hassanain of the Palestinian Health Ministry. Palestinian witnesses said a total of 25 tanks and armored bulldozers entered Abassan, an area east of Khan Yunis, setting off battles with local militants.

Several hours after the Israeli forces withdrew from Abassan, medics also found the body of a Palestinian woman in her home. According to the Palestinian Human Rights Center, the woman was killed when the IDF blew up her front door. The woman, Wafa al-Durma, 33, was mother to seven children...."  http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/981936.html

by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC News

Friday May 09, 2008

"Acording to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR)'s Weekly Report, during the week of 30 April- 07 May 2008, 9 Palestinians, including a woman, were killed by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. 3 of the victims were extra-judicially executed by Israeli forces. 35 Palestinians, including 6 children and a woman, were injured by Israeli forces.

Israeli forces conducted 43 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank, and five into the Gaza Strip. Israeli forces confiscated the contents of a sewing workshop of the Islamic Charity in Hebron and ordered its closure for 3 years. Israeli forces issued notices to six Palestinian civilians in Beit ‘Awa village, south of Hebron, that their houses will be demolished.

During the reporting period, Israeli forces conducted at least 43 military incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank. Israeli forces abducted 100 Palestinian civilians, including 15 children. The number of Palestinian civilians abducted by Israeli forces in the West Bank since the beginning of 2008 stands at 1,151...."  http://imemc.org/article/54737?print_page=true

By Wafa Amr
Sun May 11, 2008

JERUSALEM, May 11 (Reuters) - "Eighty-year-old Beatrice Habesch sobbed when she caught sight of her father's house in Jerusalem on Sunday and remembered how it was taken over by Jews in 1948.

"This is our house! This is my house!" she shouted as fellow Palestinians held her back from running towards the building.

Some 300 Palestinians marked 60 years since Israel's founding in May 1948 with a protest walk through affluent Jewish parts of west Jerusalem that were once home to many Arabs. They wore black T-shirts with "This is my House" printed on the back.

The Palestinians said their families had owned houses in Talbiyeh, German Colony and other districts until Israelis drove them away or they fled in the Arab-Jewish fighting that accompanied the creation of the state of Israel ....."  http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL11222279

By The Associated Press
May 11, 2008

"VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI urged Israel on Monday to help the

dwindling Christian community in the Middle East by assuring them of a secure future in the region.

He has also asked that Israel resolve long-standing problems with the Holy See over church land and taxes and to ease visa restrictions for Catholic clergy.

Benedict raised the issues when he received Israel's new ambassador to the Holy See.

The problem of travel restrictions on Arab Christian clergy has been an irritant in relations. Israel has rescinded some travel privileges, citing security concerns."  http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/982671.html

By Yoav Stern and Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondents and Haaretz Service
May 11, 2008

 "Israel's defense establishment has raised its intelligence alert in case Hezbollah decides to exploit its hold on Lebanon to wage an armed conflict south of the Litani River, Army Radio reported on Monday.

Nevertheless, Israeli security officials are downplaying concerns of an imminent direct conflict with the Lebanon-based militant group, the radio said. Hezbollah guerillas seized west Beirut over the weekend and sectarian clashes have raged across Lebanon between the group and pro-government fighters for six consecutive days.

On Sunday, former IDF chief of staff Amnon Lipkin-Shahak said Hezbollah's persistent attempts to take over Lebanon could eventually benefit Israel in its struggle against the militant group. "If an armed conflict erupts it will be simpler to strike Lebanon when Hezbollah is the legitimate ruler," Shahak told the Army Radio......

Meanwhile Sunday, a Lebanese security official reported that Israel Air Force warplanes violated Lebanon's airspace and flew over the southern part of the country. "More than four Israeli jets flew over areas near the port city of Tyre," the official said. IAF jets regularly overfly Lebanon in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701. The United Nations has called on Israel to stop doing so. The organization says the overflights undermine the credibility of UN peacekeepers stationed in southern Lebanon to observe a fragile ceasefire in the area."  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/982346.html

By Reuters
11/05/2008

"A United Nations agency called on Israel on Sunday to investigate the death of a Palestinian teacher employed by the agency who was killed in her home during an Israeli raid last week in the Gaza Strip. "We're calling on the Israelis for an impartial investigation," said Christopher Gunness, spokesman for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), for which Wafa al-Daghma worked as a teacher at an elementary school for refugee children. "We want to see accountability."

A spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces said they were looking into the matter. Dozens of civilians have been killed in Gaza this year in air and ground attacks that Israel says are directed against militants who fire rockets into its territory....

Gunness said inquiries by UNRWA suggested Daghma was killed when troops blasted open the door of her home in order to take the building as an observation post. Daghma's 13-year-old daughter Samira told reporters last week that her mother had ordered her and a sister and brother aged under 5, into another room. The children then heard an explosion, she said. Soldiers then entered the house. Only some hours later, when the soldiers left, were the children able to leave the room where they had been held and neighbours and relatives were able to retrieve Daghma's body.

Human rights groups have called on Israel to mount independent investigations into several civilian deaths in the Gaza Strip recently. Among these was the killing of a mother and four of her children on April 28 and the killing of a Reuters television cameraman and several other civilians on April 16......" http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/982346.html

B'tselem (The Israeli Human Rights Organization)

April 28, 2008

“Despite its claims of removing physical obstructions to “ease” movement, Israel continues to impose sweeping restrictions on Palestinian movement in the West Bank

The government recently announced that at the end of March 2008, the army began removing 61 physical obstructions – dirt piles, boulders, and blocks – it had placed inside the West Bank. The obstructions were purportedly removed following Israel’s commitment, made in March to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, to reduce restrictions on Palestinian movement in the West Bank. However, B'Tselem’s investigation and investigations by other human rights organizations indicate that the government’s declaration was no more than sleight of hand.....”  http://www.btselem.org/english/Freedom_of_Movement/20080428_so_called_lifting_of_restritcions.asp

By Donald Macintyre in central Gaza, The Independent
Friday, 18 April 2008

 "..... two teenage boys from the Nusseirat refugee camp displayed half a dozen of the dull, black, inch-long darts which they said they had found among the cactus growing along the verge opposite where Mr Shana had parked his unarmoured SUV to film a tank on Wednesday afternoon.

According to doctors who examined the body of the 23 -year-old Palestinian Reuters cameraman at Gaza City's Shifa Hospital, it was controversial darts like those, flechettes, fired from an Israeli tank shell that explodes in the air, that caused his death. X-rays displayed to Reuters showed several of the flechettes embedded in the dead man's chest and legs, and more were found in his flak jacket, clearly emblazoned, like his vehicle, with "TV" and "Press" signs.

The military would only say that all its weapons "are legal under international law". Israel's Supreme Court rejected a 2003 petition arguing that the use of flechettes as an anti-personnel weapon contravened a 1980 UN convention, but the Israeli human rights group Btselem said last night that flechettes violated international law and demanded a criminal investigation.....

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/tank-shell-that-sprays-deadly-darts-killed-cameraman-in-gaza-say-doctors-811250.html

By The Associated Press
April 30, 2008

"An Israel Air Force aircraft attacked a metal workshop in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday, killing a militant and wounding three other people, Palestinian officials said.

The attack came as Palestinian militant groups agreed in principle to a cease-fire with Israel. Shortly before the air strike, Hamas' prime minister in the Gaza Strip, Ismail Haniyeh, had said the "ball is in the Israeli court" to keep to the terms of the truce.  The IDF confirmed the air strike in Rafah, a town located next to the Egyptian border."

http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/979472.html

By Amos Harel, Barak Ravid, and Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondents and Agencies

April 30, 2008

"The Islamic Jihad is willing to accept an Egyptian-mediated cease-fire in the Gaza Strip only if Israel agrees to end its siege on the coastal territory and reopen border crossings, the organization's deputy secretary-general said Wednesday.

All the Palestinian militant factions, in Egypt for talks on a cease-fire with Israel, agreed on Wednesday to the proposal put forth by Cairo, Egyptian sources told Al-Jazeera and the Egyptian state news agency MENA.

During surprise talks in Amman, Abdullah tells PM peace deal must be reached by year's end

By Reuters April 30, 2008

http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/979455.html

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert held talks in Jordan on Wednesday with Jordanian King Abdullah II on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. A palace statement said during the closed-door talks, Abdullah urged Olmert to work on improving the living conditions of Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip."  http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/979167.html

By Mijal Greenberg, Haaretz Correspondent, and Haaretz Service

April 30, 2008

"As the Qassam rocket barrage on Israel continued on Wednesday, a group of residents of the rocket-stricken town of Sderot called for a boycott of the Independence Day celebrations, scheduled for next week.

At least ten rockets and three mortar shells were fired on Wednesday at the western Negev from the Northern Gaza Strip.

There were no injuries reported in any of the incidents, but a woman and child were treated for shock when a rocket struck the Ashkelon regional council.

.... None of these rocket attacks caused casualties or property damage."  http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/979381.html

By Akiva Eldar, Haaretz
April 30, 2008

"Ten roadblocks that Israel set up in the West Bank have little security value and are needlessly disrupting trade in the Palestinian territories, according to a joint Israeli-Palestinian report recently submitted to security authorities.

The report, the first of its kind, was drawn up by a team that included U.S. experts, Palestinian officials and two Israel Defense Forces reserves officers serving in Civil Administration in the West Bank.

The team's recommendations, urging Israel to remove the roadblocks, were written under the auspices of the Peres Center for Peace, The Palestine Center for National Strategic Studies and the Danish government."  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=979136

IRIN
Apr 30, 2008

"Increased Israeli restrictions on the checkpoints around East Jerusalem have caused more delays and more lost man hours for UN staff in March 2008 than in all of 2007, the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has reported.

In the Humanitarian Monitor for March, released on 24 April, OCHA said "operations were significantly affected" and almost daily UN vehicles were delayed and even turned back by Israeli soldiers at checkpoints south of Jerusalem."  http://imeu.net/news/article008601.shtml

By Donald Macintyre, The Independent

30 April 2008

"Israel is coming under concerted international pressure to give swift agreement to specific measures to improve Palestinian life in the West Bank which senior diplomats believe could eventually make or break negotiations between the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, and the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas."  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-told-to-tackle-west-bank-plight-818066.html

Middle East Children's Alliance

April 29, 2008

"The Israeli military is about to close down schools and orphanages run by the Islamic Charitable Society (ICS) in the West Bank city of Hebron. More than 240 boys and girls, aged 5-18 live at the orphanages, while thousands of other children, many of whom have lost at least one parent, receive schooling, food and clothing from the charity. The Israeli military has already seized $157,000 worth of goods - including rice, oil, sugar, clothing and first aid kits - from the ICS warehouse.

Israeli soldiers entered the Rahma Bakery, owned by the society, on April 14, destroyed the oven, and confiscated more than $43,000 of equipment, including all the display cases, refrigerators, fixtures, and most of the inventory. Upstairs, the soldiers destroyed heating ducts. This bakery provided bread for the orphanages.

The charity has appealed to the Israeli High Court of Justice. The Israeli army claims that ICS is supporting the Hamas movement, which started in 1987. The society, founded in 1962, argues that ICS is a Palestinian charitable organization, with no political agenda, which is monitored regularly by the Palestinian Authority.....

If the Israeli army shuts down the ICS and its projects in the city of Hebron, nearly 300 orphans will have no place other than the street to sleep."   http://www.mecaforpeace.org/article.php?id=327

Khaled Amayreh, Al-Ahram Weekly
Apr 28, 2008

"As 1.5 million Gazans are crying out to the world to pressure Israel to lift its scandalously callous blockade of the coastal territory, another 2.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank are struggling to cope with an unprecedented economic crisis that is further impoverishing and exhausting them.

The crisis, the harshest in recent memory, stems from a host of local and global factors, including soaring food and energy prices, sagging currency value, rampant joblessness and draconian Israeli restrictions on the movement of people, goods and services."

This article was originally published by Al-Ahram Weekly and is republished with permission by IMEU. http://imeu.net/news/article008566.shtml

Agence France Presse
April 28, 2008

"BEIT HANUN, Gaza Strip (AFP) — Four children, aged one to five, and their mother were among seven people killed by Israeli forces in Gaza Monday as Palestinian factions headed to Egypt for talks on a possible truce.

The four siblings -- aged one, three, four and five -- were killed when a missile hit their home in the town of Beit Hanun, and their mother died later of her wounds, doctors at the Kamal Radwan hospital said...."

 http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jhoF2jPEow37yCcAq3c10xuG1XDg

By Joshua Holland, AlterNet
April 21, 2008

What separates Carter from the neocons is his genuine desire to negotiate a Middle East peace settlement, and that means talking to everyone.

Former President Jimmy Carter, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for what the prize committee described as his "untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts," is touring the Middle East, as a private citizen, in a bid to revive interest in a moribund peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. He's doing so at a time when their decades-long conflict is growing in intensity and distrust on both sides is running high.

As a result, Carter is once again under fire from conservatives. Last week, Republican Rep. Sue Myrick (NC) went so far as to call for the former president's passport to be revoked on Fox News.

Carter's crime was to sit-down with leaders of Hamas last week to explore the possibility of waging peace in the Middle East. For many Israel-hawks, it wasn't a first offense; Carter is guilty of viewing the Palestinians as human beings and for condemning human rights abuses on both sides of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. "Any side that kills innocent people is guilty of terrorism," he told an audience at Cairo's American University after his sit-down with members of Hamas.  http://www.alternet.org/audits/82936/

By Griff Witte

Washington Post Foreign Service

Saturday, April 19, 2008

"JERUSALEM, April 18 -- Former president Jimmy Carter followed through on a planned meeting with the exiled leader of Hamas on Friday, despite U.S. and Israeli protests that the session would give legitimacy to a group they consider a terrorist organization.

Khaled Meshal, who is accused of masterminding kidnappings and suicide bombings, met with Carter, a Nobel Peace laureate, in Damascus, Syria, where Meshal has lived for nearly a decade. The meeting was one of the most notable exchanges to date between Hamas, which won Palestinian elections in 2006, and a prominent Western political figure.

Israel and the United States have consistently opposed any direct contact with Hamas, an armed Islamist movement that has vowed to destroy the Jewish state. But a spokesman for Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Eli Yishai said Friday that Yishai had asked Carter to arrange for him to meet with Hamas to discuss a possible prisoner exchange. Yishai, a member of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, has said he believes it is his religious duty to try to win the release of Cpl. Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier who was kidnapped nearly two years ago and has been held in Gaza since.

Mark Regev, spokesman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said Yishai was speaking for himself. "It is not the position of the prime minister," Regev said. "The government is against any dialogue with Hamas."..." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/18/AR2008041801256.html?hpid=moreheadlines

By Jonathan Wright

Published on Friday, April 18, 2008 by Reuters

"CAIRO - Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter called the blockade of Gaza a crime and an atrocity on Thursday and said U.S. attempts to undermine the Islamist movement Hamas had been counterproductive.

Speaking at the American University in Cairo after talks with Hamas leaders from Gaza, Carter said Palestinians in Gaza were being “starved to death”, receiving fewer calories a day than people in the poorest parts of Africa.

“It’s an atrocity what is being perpetrated as punishment on the people in Gaza. it’s a crime… I think it is an abomination that this continues to go on,” Carter said.

Israel has been blockading Gaza most of the time since Hamas took control of the impoverished coastal strip in June last year, allowing only basic supplies to enter.

Israel has not accepted Hamas proposals for a truce including an end to Hamas rocket attacks on Israel and to Israeli attacks on Hamas personnel in Gaza and the West Bank. Israeli officials say a truce would enable Hamas to rearm.

Carter said Israel and its ally the United States were trying to make the quality of life in Gaza markedly worse than in the West Bank, where the rival Fatah group is in control."   http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2008-04-18T063931Z_01_L17436238_RTRUKOC_0_US-PALESTINIANS-CARTER.xml

WASHINGTON (Reuters)

(Writing by David Alexander, Editing by Howard Goller)

"Israel's fight with the Palestinians has reduced Gaza to the world's largest open-air prison and residents have no choice but to revolt, just as the Jews in Warsaw fought the Nazis in World War Two, a Hamas leader wrote in a U.S. newspaper article on Thursday.

Mahmoud al-Zahar, a founder of the Islamist militant group, wrote the opinion piece for The Washington Post before meeting former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, in Cairo on Thursday.

"Resistance remains our only option," Zahar wrote. "Sixty-five years ago, the courageous Jews of the Warsaw ghetto rose in defense of their people. We Gazans, living in the world's largest open-air prison, can do no less."

Israel and the United States brand Hamas a terrorist group. Carter counters that the exclusion of Hamas from peace negotiations is counterproductive and says he wants to hear the group's vision. .."   http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2008-04-17T190439Z_01_N17473093_RTRUKOT_0_TEXT0.xml&WTmodLoc=NewsArt-L1-RelatedNews-1

By Mahmoud al-Zahar
Washington Post

Thursday, April 17, 2008

"GAZA -- President Jimmy Carter's sensible plan to visit the Hamas leadership this week brings honesty and pragmatism to the Middle East while underscoring the fact that American policy has reached its dead end. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice acts as if a few alterations here and there would make the hideous straitjacket of apartheid fit better. While Rice persuades Israeli occupation forces to cut a few dozen meaningless roadblocks from among the more than 500 West Bank control points, these forces simultaneously choke off fuel supplies to Gaza; blockade its 1.5 million people; approve illegal housing projects on West Bank land; and attack Gaza City with F-16s, killing men, women and children. Sadly, this is "business as usual" for the Palestinians.

Last week's attack on the Nahal Oz fuel depot should not surprise critics in the West. Palestinians are fighting a total war waged on us by a nation that mobilizes against our people with every means at its disposal -- from its high-tech military to its economic stranglehold, from its falsified history to its judiciary that "legalizes" the infrastructure of apartheid. Resistance remains our only option. Sixty-five years ago, the courageous Jews of the Warsaw ghetto rose in defense of their people. We Gazans, living in the world's largest open-air prison, can do no less."  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/16/AR2008041602899.html

By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent and News Agencies

Haaretz Daily Newspaper
April 17, 2008

"Twenty Palestinians were killed Wednesday, including a Reuters cameraman, in Israel Defense Forces operations in the Gaza Strip, making Wednesday one of the bloodiest days in recent times in Gaza. Most of the clashes came in the afternoon in the center of the Strip, not far from the place where three Israeli soldiers were killed in a Hamas ambush earlier in the day."  http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/975647.html

By Haaretz Service and Reuters

Haaretz Daily Newspaper
April 17, 2008

"The Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv on Wednesday reported that Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu told an audience at Bar Ilan university that the September 11, 2001 terror attacks had been beneficial for Israel.

"We are benefiting from one thing, and that is the attack on the Twin Towers and Pentagon, and the American struggle in Iraq," Ma'ariv quoted the former prime minister as saying. He reportedly added that these events "swung American public opinion in our favor."  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/975574.html

By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent

Haaretz Daily Newspaper
April 17, 2008

"Three Israel Defense Forces soldiers from the elite Givati Brigade were killed on Wednesday in an exchange of heavy gunfire with Palestinian militants next to the Gaza Strip security fence.

A preliminary IDF investigation suggests that an operational error occurred during the soldiers' raid, a senior officer in the Southern Command told Haaretz.

The officer said that the army was investigating why reinforcements were not sent to back up the Givati troops and whether the soldiers were sent on the correct path.

Advertisement

The IDF said that the clashes occurred near Kibbutz Be'eri, in the western Negev, as troops entered the Strip to arrest a band of suspicious figures". http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/975546.htm

by Rory McCarthy
The Guardian
April 15, 2008

"....Research by the Israeli group Peace Now found that 94% of Palestinian permit applications for Area C building were refused between 2000 and September 2007. Only 91 permits were granted to Palestinians, but 18,472 housing units were built in Jewish settlements. As a result of demolition orders 1,663 Palestinian buildings were demolished, against only 199 in the settlements. "The denial of permits for Palestinians on such a large scale raises the fear that there is a specific policy by the authorities to encourage a 'silent transfer' of the Palestinian population from area C," Peace Now said.

This year there has been a marked increase in demolitions. There were 138 demolitions between January and March, most in area C, compared with 29 in the last three months of 2007, according to the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs. This year 400 Palestinians have been displaced as a result. At a time of a renewed peace process to create an independent Palestinian state, the reality in the West Bank is that Jewish settlements are growing and demolitions of Palestinian homes are on the increase..."  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/15/israelandthepalestinians

"Some of the country's most prominent Jewish liberals are forming a political action committee and lobbying group aimed at dislodging what they consider the excessive hold of neoconservatives and evangelical Christians on U.S. policy toward Israel.

By Akiva Eldar

14/04/2008

"Former United States president Jimmy Carter, who arrived in Israel Sunday, rejects the criticism he's been subjected to over his planned meeting with Hamas leader Khaled Meshal. According to Carter, peace cannot be achieved without talking to all the relevant people, and he will use the meeting to promote efforts to release Gilad Shalit and to uncover the fate of soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser. Carter told Haaretz Sunday in an exclusive interview that he intends to check Meshal's willingness to accept the Arab League peace initiative. Carter says that acceptance of this plan by Hamas would be a very positive step.

Carter said ignoring a large segment of the Palestinian people would make it impossible to achieve peace.

Carter also said no one from the U.S. State Department had tried to dissuade him from holding the meetings, and that they were aware of his schedule."  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/974464.html

By Haaretz Service

14/04/2008

"Israel has offered Hamas terms for a temporary cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, the London-based Al-Hayat daily quoted Palestinian sources as saying on Monday.

The sources said that through Egyptian mediation, Israel has proposed a limited cease-fire that would be effective in the Strip alone and would not include the West Bank.

According to the report, the offer has also been extended to the Islamic Jihad militant group. The terms of the truce would include greater Israeli flexibility on border crossings for six months in exchange for a halt in rocket fire, said the report.

The sources said that Hamas is likely to accept the proposal. Islamic Jihad and associates of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas were opposed to the offer, said the sources, because it does not include the West Bank.

Meanwhile, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Sunday that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has refused to commit to an Egyptian initiative for an unofficial cease-fire in the Gaza Strip."  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/974759.html

By Haaretz Service and News Agencies

12/04/2008

"U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice criticized former President Jimmy Carter on Friday for his reported plans to meet Hamas' political leader Khaled Meshal during a visit to Syria.

Carter has not confirmed the plans to meet Meshal but the Palestinian militant group has said the former Democratic president sent an envoy to Damascus, where the Hamas leader resides, requesting a meeting with the militant group's officials.

"I find it hard to understand what is going to be gained by having discussions with Hamas about peace when Hamas is, in fact, the impediment to peace," Rice said at a press event with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Rice was responding to a question about Carter's plans but did not mention him by name."  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/974071.html

"Israel Defense Forces troops killed five Palestinian militants in the West Bank on Wednesday, Palestinian medical and security officials said, hours after the Gaza Strip's Hamas rulers demanded a halt to all Israeli "aggression" as a condition for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas."  http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/963533.html 

"In a letter to Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Tuesday, Ahmed Qureia, who heads the Palestinian team in the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, expressed "shock and dismay" at Israel's planned expansion of West Bank settlements.

Qureia wrote that the construction in the settlements is a violation of the road map and of international law, which is being carried out despite numerous meetings between the two sides aiming to reach a final status agreement by the end of 2008.

Qureia's letter to Livni comes after Israel announced that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had authorized construction of 750 housing units in a Givat Ze'ev neighborhood, beyond the Green Line in Jerusalem, as well as reports of plans to build more housing in East Jerusalem areas....."  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/963267.html

By Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondent and News Agencies
March 12, 2008

"The fighting in southern Israel and the Gaza Strip could soon resume, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Wednesday after a short lull in rocket attacks from the Hamas controlled territory against Israel, as well as Israel Defense Forces raids in the area......

Earlier Wednesday, Hamas publicly set its terms for a cease fire with Israel, calling for an end to IDF raids in Palestinian territories and a reopening of Gaza border crossings.....

A deal being formulated between Israel, Egypt and Hamas involves deploying Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' troops at the crossings with the Gaza Strip, Palestinian sources told Haaretz Tuesday."  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/963474.html 

By Adam Entous
 Mar 11, 2008

 "JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The United States is not satisfied with the pace at which Israel is moving to implement a long-stalled peace "road map," U.S. and Western officials said ahead of a key meeting to assess compliance with the plan.

Officials said Washington also believed the Palestinians needed to do far more to meet their obligations to boost security and rein in militants in the West Bank, though U.S. officials have privately complained to Israel that its frequent raids were undermining those efforts.

U.S. and Western officials said Washington was particularly critical of Israel's decision to push ahead with Jewish settlement expansion on occupied land, a move they see as damaging to U.S.-backed peace talks with the Palestinians..."

Israel has also so far failed to uproot outposts built without government authorization   http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080311/ts_nm/palestinians_israel_usa_dc_4;_ylt=Ag997sAlKV9lzrJ5S.99bCkUvioA

By Jim Teeple

Jerusalem

06 March 2008

"A new report by a consortium of British aid agencies says the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is the worst in forty years. VOA's Jim Teeple reports the report blames Israel for the crisis, but Israeli officials say Hamas militants are to blame.

Eight British aid organizations say the humanitarian situation in Gaza has deteriorated to the worst point in 40 years and that it will likely get worse unless Israel eases its blockade of the territory.

According to the report, more than one million people or 80 percent of Gaza's population is now dependent on food aid and that Gaza's power, water and sewage systems have collapsed...."  http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-03-06-voa24.cfm

"United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday urged Israel to halt plans to build hundreds of new homes in Jewish settlements in the West Bank, Ban's spokeswoman said.

"The secretary-general calls on the government of Israel to halt settlement expansion and reiterates that the fulfillment of road map [peace plan] obligations by both parties is an important measure underpinning the political process between them," Ban's spokeswoman, Michel Montas, said in a statement.

"Any settlement expansion is contrary to Israel's obligations under the road map and to international law," Montas said.

The Bush administration said Monday that Israel's plan for expanded Jewish housing in East Jerusalem does not help the progress of U.S.-backed peace talks.....

On Sunday, the Housing Ministry said that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had approved the renewed construction an estimated 750 new homes in the West Bank settlement of Givat Ze'ev near Jerusalem."  http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/962716.html

'Israel approved plans yesterday to build 330 new homes in a suburban West Bank settlement north of Jerusalem. The move was denounced by the Palestinian Authority as "a slap in the face of the peace process" and called on the Quartet of the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia to "act to get Israel to revoke the decision".

Saeb Erakat, the Palestinians' chief negotiator, said: "This is a provocative action by Israel that demonstrates its intention of further strengthening illegal occupation and colonisation of Palestinian territory."'  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-defies-freeze-on-illegal-settlements-793685.html

"Medical sources in Gaza on Sunday night reported that another Palestinian patient joined those who have died waiting for medical treatment, barred from leaving the Strip to receive treatment by the Israeli authorities.

The death of Fatima al-Maqadima, an elderly woman from al Buriej refugee camp, raised the death toll to 107. She had been suffering from cancer and had been prevented from leaving the Strip to receive necessary medical treatment.

A long list of critically sick Gazans are threatened with death, as they are can receive no medical treatments, there is no available medicine and a tight Israeli closure. The border crossings of the Gaza Strip were closed several months ago, and they are remain closed.

According to medical sources, among the 107 deceased Palestinians were children, who are also barred from leaving the Strip to receive medical treatment."  http://imeu.net/news/article008117.shtml

Israel demolishes two Palestinian homes in Bethlehem
Maan News
Mar 8, 2008

"Israeli military forces invaded the West Bank city of Bethlehem overnight, demolishing two houses, seizing a Palestinian man and injuring another.

The forces withdrew on Friday morning." http://imeu.net/news/article008104.shtml

RAMALLAH, West Bank, March 8 (Reuters) - 'Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on Saturday for talks with Israel despite a surge of violence and said that a just peace was his people's goal.

"We condemn all the attacks, we demand peace and we are determined to make peace, and there is no other path but the path of peace based on international justice," Abbas told a rally at his headquarters.

A Palestinian gunman killed eight Jewish seminary students on Thursday, the bloodiest attack in Israel in two years. Hamas, which had vowed to avenge the more than 125 Palestinians killed in a recent Gaza offensive by Israel, claimed responsibility.' www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL08660078200...

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) — "The council of world leaders launched by former President Nelson Mandela is sending a three-person team to help ease tensions in the troubled Middle East, the organization known as The Elders said Friday.

Former President Jimmy Carter, former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and former Irish president Mary Robinson will visit Israel, the Palestinian territories, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Saudi Arabia from April 13-21." http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5in7S51RNeORdhpp5YvltsB2C4m7QD8V8OOQ00

"Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said on Sunday there was "no hope" for a Palestinian state that included the Gaza Strip as long as militants kept up rocket attacks from the Hamas-controlled territory."  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/952771.htm l

The night after a Kassam rocket attack wounded two young brothers, the IAF hit back with a series of air strikes across the Gaza Strip overnight Saturday. Palestinians reported that a Hamas operative was killed in one of the attacks.... 11 people were reported wounded.  http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1202625818556&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull 

February 10, 2008

"The Israel Air Force killed a Hamas militant in the Gaza Strip early Sunday, hours after two brothers, aged 8 and 19, were seriously wounded when a Qassam rocket struck the backyard of a house in the southern town of Sderot.

The IAF carried out four strikes in the Gaza Strip overnight, wounding three militants and killing Mohammed Matir, a commander in Hamas' military wing. The IAF targeted, among other sites, an arms storage facility in a refugee camp in Rafah. Defense officials said that the Israel Defense Forces were planning to step up its Gaza operations as well as targeted killings of specific militants in response to the ongoing Qassam rocket fire."  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/952771.html

Mohammed Mar’i & Hisham Abu Taha, Arab News

RAMALLAH/GAZA CITY — A day after International Quartet’s representative to the Middle East, Tony Blair, called on Israel to “remove all military checkpoints in order to establish a real peace,” Israeli forces increased the number of roadblocks in the northern West Bank, further restricting Palestinians’ freedom of movement....Around 2,000 children will be prevented from reaching their schools in East Jerusalem in addition to employees.  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/952556.html

"Witnesses said Israeli troops backed by tanks and aircraft launched an incursion near Jabaliya sparking clashes with gunmen. The teacher, 38, was killed when a surface-to-surface missile hit a school in Beit Hanoun in a separate raid. There are no reports of Israeli casualties in the engagements." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7232108.stm

 "Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired a fresh barrage of Qassam rockets at the western Negev town of Sderot on Friday evening, two of which hit houses in the town and left three people suffering from shock....

Late Thursday, Israel cut back around one percent of the power it supplies to Gaza, Defense Ministry spokesman Shlomo Dror said. Israel will continue gradually scaling back electricity until the territory's Hamas rulers end the rocket fire, he said Friday.

"It's their choice. They need to choose if they want to keep investing in rockets and in attacking Israel or if they want electricity from Israel," Dror said.  Hamas said Friday it would not be deterred by Israel's cutback of the power supply to the Gaza Strip, as militants continued to bombard southern Israel with Qassam rocket fire...."  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/952321.html

"Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said Thursday a lasting peace accord with Israel was unlikely in 2008 despite renewed diplomatic efforts to resolve the long-running conflict.

In an interview with Reuters in the Texas capital, Austin, where he is on a private visit, he highlighted the lack of progress on the issue of Israeli settlements and military incursions into the West Bank as among the chief obstacles in the "road map" to peace and Palestinian statehood."  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/952490.html 

During a meeting with US Undersecretary for Middle East Affairs David Walsh, Foreign Minister Salah Bashir called on Israel to stop its settlement activities, stressing the need to ease the humanitarian suffering of the Palestinian people through softening the restrictions on their movement."  http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=5515

The former British prime minister, now the envoy for the Quartet of Middle East peace mediators which include the European Union, the United States, Russia and the United Nations, urged Israel to respond by easing travel and trade restrictions imposed on the Palestinians in the West Bank."  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=952278&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1

"Jerusalem – Ma'an – At least three people have been killed and 16 injured after a Palestinian man blew himself up in a shopping mall in the city of Dimona in southern Israel.

Two bombers and an Israeli woman were killed in the attack. The second bomber was shot dead by Israeli security guards, Ha'aretz reported....."  http://www.maannews.net/en/ 

"Gaza – Ma'an – Israeli military forces assassinated the number one leader of the Popular Resistance Committees, 'Amir Qarmoot Abu As-Sa'id, in the Gaza Strip on Monday morning. An Israeli warplane fired a missile at Abu As-Sa'id's car in the town of Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip. Palestinian medical sources said that three other people have been injured in the attack."  http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=27589

February 4, 2008

"Israelis and Palestinians involved in interfaith contacts recently drafted a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas. The document, whose implementation includes the release of abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, was submitted to the cabinet and to the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip.

Rabbi Menachem Froman of the West Bank settlement of Tekoa has for years been involved in interfaith dialogue toward Israeli-Palestinians peace. For several months he has been working closely with Khaled Amayreh, a Hebron-area journalist who is close to Hamas.

'Our proposal was presented to the highest political echelon in the Hamas government in Gaza and gained 100-percent approval,' Amayreh told Haaretz Sunday, while refusing to name the government officials. Froman said the document was presented to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who has yet to respond to it...."  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/951003.html

Feb 3, 2008

"An organization campaigning for the commemoration of Arab villages destroyed in the 1948 War of Independence said that the Jewish National Fund has agreed to place signs in parks on which former villages once stood.

During the War of Independence in 1948, about 500 Palestinian villages were demolished. Some of their residents fled, fearing the approaching Jewish forces, and others were actively expelled. Most of the villages have been replaced with new settlements, parks and nature reserves......"  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/950689.html

"Gaza – Ma'an – Israel cut off part of the electricity supply to Gaza City on Friday evening, plunging thousands of people into darkness, according to Jamal Al-Dardasawi, the head of public relations and information at the electricity company in Gaza.

Israel cut off the vital electricity supply line, known as the 'Baghdad line', claiming there are problems with that particular line.

Al-Dardasawi pointed out that the Israeli electricity supply company have ben intermittently cutting off electricity since last Tuesday morning, leaving thousands of Gaza City residents battling bitter cold weather, without any means of heating....." http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=27543

"At least 18 Palestinians, including at least 13 militants, have died in an Israeli raid in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, reports say. Medical sources and witnesses said the deaths came after Israeli tanks pushed into eastern suburbs of Gaza City. A farm worker in southern Israel was also killed by sniper fire from Gaza.

It is one of the deadliest days of violence in Gaza in months. Israel launches frequent raids which it says are aimed at preventing rocket fire. The dead militants included a son of Mahmoud Zahar, senior leader of the militant Islamist Hamas group in Gaza, the group said. Reports say 48 people were also injured....." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7188807.stm

January 16, 2008

 "Parts of southern Israel were subjected to a barrage of 25 Qassam rockets and dozens of mortars Tuesday, the Israel Defense Forces said, in the wake of IDF raids in Gaza that killed 19 Palestinians. Of the dead, 15 were confirmed as armed militants.

Three militant Palestinian factions, including a group allied to Hamas, claimed responsibility for the rocket fire. Hamas claimed responsibility for 17 of the mortars.

In the months leading up to Tuesday's raids in Gaza, the Islamic militant group hadn't taken the lead on the assaults, but had allowed other militant factions to attack southern Israel with impunity.

Four residents of Sderot were lightly wounded..." http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/944957.html

"The Palestinian Authority threatened on Tuesday to suspend negotiations with Israel in response to an IDF operation in the Gaza Strip that left 19 Palestinians - most of them Hamas gunmen - dead.

The PA also called for deploying international forces in the Gaza Strip "to defend Palestinian civilians against recurring Israeli acts of aggression." The call was issued by the PA government in Ramallah and the ruling Fatah faction.

PA officials strongly condemned the IDF raid, dubbing it a "massacre." The officials expressed outrage at its timing, coming five days after US President George W. Bush's visit to Ramallah and his meeting with PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

"The attack looks as if it was the outcome of Bush's talks with President Abbas," said a senior PA official. "Israel is strengthening Hamas and undermining the credibility of the Palestinian Authority....." http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1200308089888&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

January 16, 2008

"The United States clarified to Israel during U.S. President George Bush's visit this week that it disapproves of all building in East Jerusalem and the West Bank - including in the large settlement blocs, a senior Western diplomat said Tuesday.....Meanwhile, construction has begun on another 60 housing units in the Jewish neighborhood of Maaleh Hazeitim, in East Jerusalem's Ras al-Amud section...... " http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/944647.html

"Security forces were bracing Tuesday night for a major escalation on the Gaza front out of concern that the deaths of 19 Palestinians, including the son of a top Hamas official, would spur the terror group to fire Kassam rockets into Israel." http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1200308091565&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

IMEMC
Jan 15, 2008

"A group of radical armed Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian house and set fire to it while the Israeli army kidnapped the owners of the house on Tuesday midday in the southern West Bank city of Hebron.

Palestinian sources reported that a group of settlers from Beit Hadasa located in the central part of Hebron attacked the nearby Palestinian home and set fire to it. When the owners of the house along with their neighbors tried to put out the fire Israeli troops attacked them, beat them up and forced them away from the house leaving it to burn.

Witnesses added that soldiers kidnapped the owners of the house, Shadi and Nabeil Sader, and took them to an unknown location....." http://imeu.net/news/article007597.shtml

Tuesday January 15, 2008

"Khalil Tafakji, an expert in maps and settlements, revealed that the Israeli Authorities revived a project which aims at establishing a settler-only road around Jerusalem, and will lead to the annexation of 1250 Dunams of Palestinian lands, in addition to demolishing dozens of Palestinian homes near Jerusalem..." http://www.imemc.org/article/52321

 "Israeli forces invaded the northern West Bank city of Nablus through Beit Iba checkpoint in the early hours of Tuesday morning and imposed a curfew on Sura town, near Nablus. Local sources reported that several military vehicles invaded the city center and several streets in the area and carried out an abductions campaign. The operation ended with the abduction of three Palestinians...

In Sura town the military imposed a curfew through loudspeakers and carried out a widespread abduction campaign kidnapping nine Palestinians....Earlier on Monday, the Israeli army attacked the villages of Awarta and Houwara located in city of Nablus and kidnapped three civilians there...." http://www.imemc.org/article/52310

January 15, 2008

"Construction has begun on another 60 housing units in the Jewish neighborhood of Maaleh Hazeitim, in East Jerusalem's Ras al-Amud section.

Fifty-one Jewish families already live in the small neighborhood, built on land purchased 15 years ago by the American millionaire Irwin Moskowitz, patron of the Ateret Cohanim organization.

The neighborhood's initial construction provoked an international storm in September 1997, and the United States pressured Israel not to go ahead with the plan. The pressure was rebuffed by former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and backed by Jerusalem's mayor at the time, Ehud Olmert..."  http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/944647.html

January 15, 2008

"Israeli security forces killed 810 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in 2006 and 2007, Shin Bet security service chief Yuval Diskin reported Sunday.... However, an examination by Haaretz reveals that the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli security forces stands at 816 during those two years, and that of them, 360 were civilians who were not affiliated with any armed organizations. Data from B'Tselem, the Israeli human rights organization, show that 152 of the casualties were under age 18, and 48 were under the age of 14....." http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/944263.html

January 14, 2008

"Defense Minister Ehud Barak has reached an agreement with leaders of the settlement movement for the peaceful evacuation of 18 outposts in the West Bank, sources close to the minister told Haaretz. The sources warned that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's "rash" intention to forcefully uproot an outpost near Ramallah may jeopardize the deal.... " http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/944305.html

January 14, 2008

GAZA CITY (AFP) — "Three Palestinian militants, including the local head of an armed group, were killed in an Israeli air strike on a refugee camp of Gaza City late Sunday, medics and security sources said...." http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hZ9sEbQhS2NLUURHx3CLMI6UURIw

BBC News
January 14, 2008

"Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have begun talks in Jerusalem on what are seen as the most intractable issues in the peace process.

These include the status of Jerusalem, the borders of a Palestinian state, Jewish settlements in the West Bank, refugees, security and water resources.

The talks are being led by Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and former Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7186232.stm

"GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - With winter deepening, Gazans will be forced to live without lights and electric heaters for eight hours a day because Israel has cut fuel supplies to the territory's only electric plant in half, Gaza's top energy official warned Sunday.

Israel said the purpose of the cutback was to nudge Palestinians to call on militants to stop their daily rocket attacks on southern Israel. But Gazans charged they have become the target of unfair punishment, and 10 human rights groups took that argument to the Israeli Supreme Court...."  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080106/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_palestinians

"The Housing Ministry is pushing forward with the construction of more than 1,000 residential units in East Jerusalem's Har Homa neighborhood on land held by "absentee" Palestinians from the Bethlehem area. The move is in violation of both an instruction from the attorney general to stop applying the absentee law in East Jerusalem and explicit promises to the U.S. not to apply that law in the capital's eastern quarters.... The new neighborhood is planned for east of the already-constructed Har Homa, in close proximity to Beit Sahur and Bethlehem. If built, it would isolate Bethlehem completely from the Palestinian neighborhoods south of Jerusalem.....The land is farmland owned by about 600 Beit Sahur families who worked the plots until the construction of the separation fence in the area." http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/941798.html

(Editor's note: Beit Sahur is a Palestinian town adjacent to Bethlehem.)

"Five Israel Defense Forces soldiers were wounded Sunday, one of them moderately, and five Palestinians killed in series of incidents in the Gaza Strip. The fighting, which ended when the IDF withdrew at nightfall, also wounded at least 34 Palestinians, including four women, seven children and 15 gunmen.

....The army said the operation was routine, adding that such raids are carried out on a near daily basis in order to distance militants from the security fence with southern Israel.

Prior to Sunday's operation, roughly 30 Palestinians had been killed in IDF operations in the Gaza Strip since last week, all but two of them militants. The two civilians, both women, were killed when an IDF tank fired on a house from which militants had directed heavy fire at the IDF soldiers...."  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/942023.html

"The prospects for a breakthrough in the peace process in the near future have dwindled following reports that Israel will demand that the future Palestinian state be demilitarized, Palestinian Authority officials in Ramallah said Thursday. The officials also strongly condemned Israel's security measures in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, saying the latest escalation posed an imminent threat to the PA's efforts to consolidate its power in these areas....

Nabil Shaath, a former minister and a top adviser to PA President Mahmoud Abbas, said Israel's recent actions and statements jeopardized the future of the peace process. "It's impossible for us to negotiate on the basis of land for peace while Israel is taking our lands and continuing to build more settlements," he said. "Israel is doing everything to sabotage the understandings reached at the Annapolis peace conference."  http://www.jpost.com//servlet/Satellite?cid=1198517290305&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Nablus – Ma'an – "Israeli forces stormed Rafedia Hospital and besieged other hospitals in Nablus on Thursday morning in a major incursion into the northern West Bank city, just 24 hours after Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak and his Chief of Staff, Gabi Ashkenazi, had visited the volatile city.

Ma'an's correspondent said that more than 70 Israeli military vehicles entered Nablus from all directions, declaring the old city of Nablus a closed military zone preventing citizens' and medical staff from entering the area. ....The number of Palestinians injured later rose to 24. ...Ma'an's reporter added that the invading Israeli troops attacked Palestinian medics and ambulances with live ammunition and rubber bullets...." http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=26992

"Israeli helicopters launched three missiles at a site belonging to Hamas' Al-Qassam Brigades killing 25-year-old Atallah Qishta, a Fatah' member detained by Hamas, and injuring four others, one seriously. This brings the death toll since Thursday morning to nine. The number of those injured also rose to 46..." http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=26993

"Tulkarem – Ma'an – A young Palestinian was shot and injured by Israeli soldiers in the village of Far'un, south of Tulkarem, as he walked near the separation wall west of the village, Ma'an's reporter said.

Our reporter quoted Palestinian security sources and eyewitnesses as saying that the Israeli soldiers raided the village and shot at 18-year-old Mu'ath Ata wounding him in his leg. The Israeli troops then detained the injured man at the Jbara military checkpoint south of Tulkarem refusing to turn him over to the Palestinian ambulance services.

In another incident, Israeli forces raided the area of Ar-Ras north of Shuwaika neighborhood in Tulkarem...." http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=27002

"....Israel would like the U.S. to agree to a number of limitations on the future Palestinian state's sovereignty. Israel wants Palestine to be completely demilitarized, and for Israel to be able to fly over Palestinian air space. Border crossings would be monitored by Israel in such a way that the symbols of Palestinian sovereignty would not be compromised, but Israel would know who was coming and going.

Israel would also demand Palestinian agreement that in the case of an emergency Israel could deploy in essential areas of the West Bank to thwart a threat of invasion from the East. Israel is to propose the deployment of an international force in the West Bank and along the Philadelphi Route in Rafah, and would ask that a permanent Israel Defense Forces presence remain for an extended period in the Jordan Valley..... Israel would also demand Palestinian agreement that in the case of an emergency Israel could deploy in essential areas of the West Bank to thwart a threat of invasion from the East...."

January 3, 2008

"U.S. President George W. Bush on Thursday called Israeli settlement expansion an "impediment" to the success of revived peace efforts and urged the Jerusalem to follow through on its pledge to dismantle unauthorized settler outposts....." http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/941494.html

By Yuval Azoulay, Avi Issacharoff, and Mijal Grinberg
Haaretz Correspondents, Haaretz Service and News Agencies
January 3, 2008

"A Katyusha rocket fired by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip on Thursday morning struck an open field in northern Ashkelon, the furthest distance a rocket has struck yet - traveling some 16.5 kilometers.

Also Thursday, at least eight Palestinians were killed by Israel Defense Forces fire in several separate incidents in the Gaza Strip, including at least four militants....." http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/941389.html

By MEL FRYKBERG (Middle East Times)

Published: January 02, 2008

"More than 1.4 million Gaza Palestinians are facing an impending health disaster from decaying sewage and water systems that lack vital spare parts, fuel, and maintenance work, due to an Israeli economic siege on the Gaza Strip.....

""We are a one-generator-failure away from disaster," Michael Bailey, an Oxfam spokesman, told the Middle East Times. The situation is verging on critical. There are 35 sewage pumping stations operational in Gaza. If one of the pumps breaks there is no way to replace it, because of a lack of spare parts," said Bailey, whose organization works with Gaza's Coastal Municipalities Water Utilities. "This would mean sewage backing into homes and onto the streets and the resulting health problems associated with it."

In March an earth embankment around a sewage reservoir in the northern Gaza Strip collapsed spewing a river of waste and mud that killed at least five people....The World Bank and UNICEF have reported that despite repeated requests Israel has forbidden the importation by any means -- sea, air, or by land across the Egyptian border -- of consignments of pumps, metal pipes, air and oil filters, and other goods that need to be obtained from outside Gaza; while allowing only a few basics to be trucked through the Erez crossing with Israel in the northern Gaza Strip...."  http://www.metimes.com/International/2008/01/02/gaza_sewage_water_disaster_looms/5312/

In Gulf News (United Arab Emirates)

December 31, 2007

"Some 2,000 Palestinians who performed their Haj duties at Makkah are now stranded on two boats off the Egyptian coast. The reason for this is a dispute that has arisen with the Israeli authorities, who demand the right to security control checks of all pilgrims, something the Palestinians are reluctant to do, fearing reprisals from the Israeli security forces.

In checking for security clearance, Israel also investigates whether any of the personnel are related to Palestinians already in Israeli jails, of known person wanted by Israel. If it is proven to Israel's satisfaction that a pilgrim has some connection with a captive or wanted person, then from past experience, it is likely the pilgrim will be arrested and incarcerated without trial - something that happens to Palestinians all to often...." http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/07/12/31/10178545.html

Haaretz.com/Channel 10 daily feature for December 31, 2007

"According to Physicians for Human Rights, the defense establishment is preventing critically ill Gazans from entering Israel for medical treatment. Since Israel labeled the Gaza Strip a hostile entity in September, there has been a steep decline in the number of permits issued to the ill. Of 551 requests for urgent medical treatment submitted, only 32 were approved. 314 requests were never answered."  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/940297.html

Agence France Presse
 December 30, 2007

GAZA CITY (AFP) — Israeli troops shot dead two Palestinians, one a civilian woman the other a militant, in separate incidents in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, the army and Palestinian medical sources said.

In the first incident soldiers opened fire on two Palestinian militants attempting to place explosives near the Gaza border fence on Sunday, killing one and wounding the other, the army said....

In a separate incident, Israeli soldiers opened fire later Sunday on a group of Palestinians awaiting returning Hajj pilgrims in the Gaza Strip, killing a 30-year-old woman, Palestinian medical sources said. http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hboSyPqZP68fiIfxXGSSSAcRBvvg

By Tobias Buck

In The Financial Times (United Kingdom)

December 30, 2007

"Israel said on Sunday it would not ease restrictions on movement and access for Palestinians in the West Bank unless the Palestinian leadership moved more forcefully against armed groups threatening violence against Israelis.

The announcement by Ehud Olmert, prime minister, followed the killing of two Israeli citizens near the West Bank town of Hebron on Friday. The victims – off-duty soldiers in their early twenties – were shot by Palestinian militants while hiking in the hills of their home town Kiryat Arba, a Jewish settlement on occupied Palestinian land near Hebron...."  http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/fc56c7f6-b72b-11dc-aa38-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1

By Haaretz Correspondent and AP
By Nadav Shragai

December 30, 2007

"The funeral procession for Ahikam Amihai and David Rubin, the two soldiers who were shot to death by terrorists while hiking near Hebron, set out yesterday from Kiryat Arba, where the men lived, to the cemetery on Jerusalem's Mt. Herzl. ...

Rubin and Ahikam Amihai, both in their 20s, were hiking with a woman from Kiryat Arba when four Palestinian terrorists opened fire on them from a Jeep.

Rubin and Amihai, who were soldiers on leave from the Israel Defense Forces, managed to return fire, killing one....."

Gideon Levy, Haaretz
Dec 25, 2007

"Don't let the quiet fool you: It is imaginary. While all eyes are on Gaza, the impression has been created, under the aegis of a media turning a blind eye, that the West Bank is quiet... Well, that is not the case. The lives of the Palestinians in the West Bank are also intolerable, blood is being shed there too. For the Israel Defense Forces it is business as usual, with a frighteningly quick finger on the trigger.... Every week, innocent people are killed in the West Bank, and nobody talks about them.....

The story of the recent killings in the West Bank is not on our agenda, because so far the Palestinians there have not responded with attacks in retaliation for these deaths. But it is not certain that this quiet will continue..... (Levy follows with a long list of Palestinians recently killed by Israelis.)

Firas Kaskas went for a nature hike near Ramallah, accompanied by his brother and his brother-in-law. When they noticed a herd of gazelles running down to the wadi, they stood to watch. The soldiers who suddenly appeared shot him from afar, without warning. The IDF Spokesman claimed that the soldiers thought that he was placing an explosive device in the heart of the nature reserve...."

By Barak Ravid
Haaretz Daily Newspapers
December 12, 2007

Construction proceeding last week in the disputed region of Har Homa, Jerusalem, as seen from the West Bank town of Bethlehem. (AP)

"There are hundreds, even thousands, of planned housing units in the West Bank that have building permits and do not need any further government approval before their construction can begin, Brigadier General Yoav Mordechai, the head of the Civil Administration, told the interministerial committee on illegal outposts Tuesday.

Their construction "could cause similar embarrassment to that created by the publication of the tender for building in Har Homa," he added...... "  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/933600.html

By TOVAH LAZAROFF AND REBECCA ANNA STOIL
Jerusalem Post
December 12, 2007

"Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal didn't wake up Wednesday determined to leave the job he has held for the last eight years. But when pressed in a live interview with Israel Radio midday for his response to the barrage of Gazan rockets that hit his city that morning, wounding three people, the tall, lanky mayor had a surprising response. "I am notifying people now that I am resigning. I am not continuing with my job," he said. Maybe, he added, this would push the government to act....."  http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1196847318306&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

12 / 12 / 2007
Maa News Agency

Bethlehem – Ma'an – "The Israeli military announced the end of its invasion of the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday morning. The incursion left 6 Palestinian activists dead and several others wounded.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak described the operation as ‘achieving significant gains’ against Palestinian groups launching of homemade projectiles at Israeli towns bordering Gaza Strip.

Barak's claims were refuted just this morning as a barrage of homemade projectiles was launched towards Sderot in western Negev by Palestinian factions.

Israeli medical sources announced that several residents in Sderot went into shock as more than 14 homemade projectiles landed in the town this morning.

Islamic Jihad's Al-Quds Brigades claimed responsibility for 12 of the projectiles"  http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=26742

The flag flew next to Israeli flags and orange ones symbolizing opposition to withdrawal from the territories, as the Beitar supporters joined hundreds of right-wing supporters who responded to a call by the Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful organization to establish nine outposts throughout the West Bank...." http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/932683.html

"Gaza – Ma'an – Hamas signaled its desire to be included in Western-backed peace negotiations in an open letter to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday.

America's efforts to isolate the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, on the other hand, will undermine any attempt at peace, wrote Ahmad Yousef, a senior aide to depose Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh....

Yousef reiterated Hamas' readiness for negotiations with the United States and Europe aiming to seriously address the issues discussed at the international conference in Annapolis last month...."  http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=26700

09/12/2007

"Racism against Israel's Arab citizens has dramatically increased in the past year, including a 26 percent rise in anti-Arab incidents, according to the Association for Civil Rights in Israel's annual report. Author Sami Michael, the association's president, said upon the release of the report that racism was so rife it was damaging civil liberty in Israel.

"Israeli society is reaching new heights of racism that damages freedom of

e

xpression and privacy," Michael said. The publication coincides with Human Rights Week, which begins Sunday.....The number of Jews expressing feelings of hatred toward Arabs has doubled, the report stated.

According to the June 2007 Democracy Index of the Israel Democracy Institute, for example, only half the public believes that Jews and Arabs must have full equal rights.

Among Jewish respondents, 55 percent support the idea that the state should encourage Arab emigration from Israel and 78 percent oppose the inclusion of Arab political parties in the government. According to a Haifa University study, 74 percent of Jewish youths in Israel think that Arabs are "unclean." ...." http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/932384.html

By Mark Lavie

In The Associated Press

December 5, 2007

"Israel announced plans Tuesday to build more than 300 new homes in a disputed east Jerusalem neighborhood, drawing quick Palestinian condemnation that the move will undermine newly revived peace talks.

The new housing would expand Har Homa, a Jewish neighborhood in an area Palestinians claim as capital of a future state. Palestinian officials appealed to the U.S. to block the project, but Israel says a pledge to halt settlement activity does not apply anywhere in the holy city. The plan focuses attention on one of the most difficult issues facing Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in peace talks that are supposed to resume this month _ the future of Jerusalem...."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/04/AR2007120400541_pf.html

By Yuval Azoulay

"The Israel Air Force attacked a Hamas military force position near Dir El Balah in the central Gaza Strip early yesterday morning, killing three Hamas members. The Israel Defense Forces said yesterday the attack was in response to the volley of mortar shells fired Sunday at Kibbutz Nahal Oz and a nearby army base....."

By Yuval Azoulay and Avi Issacharoff

Haaretz Correspondents

06/12/2007

"An undercover Border Police unit accidentally killed a Palestinian police officer during an arrest raid in Bethlehem Wednesday.

Mohammed Salah, 36, was killed after Border Police officers refused to stop at a Palestinian security forces roadblock near Al-Hadar, south of Bethlehem.

The Palestinians began following the Israeli officers' vehicle, when the Border Police officers opened fire.

Salah was taken to the hospital in Beit Jalla, where he died of his injuries."

By Nidal Al-mughrabi

In Reuters

December 5, 2007

"Born last week with a heart defect, Salem al-Masri needs life-saving surgery. But like hundreds in the Gaza Strip, he and his parents have no permit from Israel to exit the enclave to a suitably equipped hospital.Palestinians suffering serious illnesses have long traveled from Gaza to nearby Israeli hospitals for treatments unavailable at facilities in the territory, which is home to 1.5 million people and was occupied by Israel for 38 years until 2005. However Israel has tightened border restrictions since Hamas Islamists seized control of the coastal enclave in June. It also prevents access to Gaza by sea or air and has ensured a border crossing into Egypt is mostly shut -- so hundreds like baby Salem cannot get the care that could save lives..." 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/05/AR2007120500743.html

"JERUSALEM, Dec. 1 — Five members of the Hamas armed wing were killed Saturday by an Israeli rocket strike in southern Gaza, near the village of Abassan. An additional eight gunmen were wounded, one critically, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza, when helicopter gunship attacks followed the airstrikes.

Some of the wounded were affiliated with the Popular Resistance Committees, a militant group in Gaza.

Later on Saturday, a sixth Palestinian was killed and three more were wounded along Gaza’s northern border after a firefight with Israeli troops.

On Friday, the Supreme Court in Israel ruled that the government could continue scaling back diesel and gasoline shipments to Hamas-run Gaza, but ordered the postponement of gradual electricity cuts that were to begin Sunday. The delay was to allow the government to respond further to a legal challenge from a coalition of human rights groups. "  http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/world/middleeast/02mideast.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin

Two killed and four injured in Israeli air strike on Al-Aqsa Brigades in Beit Hanoun
Ma'an News Agency
November 16. 2007

Gaza – Ma'an – Two activists affiliated to Fatah's Al-Aqsa Brigades were killed and four others injured, one seriously when Israeli fighter jets targeted their group in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday....

The Al-Aqsa Brigades said in a statement that they had launched 10 homemade projectiles at Sderot in the Western Negev as part of the military operation they've dubbed "Autumn in Gaza" and also to commemorate the 19th anniversary of the announcement of Palestinian Independence Day. http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=2631407
 

Erekat: Palestinians will not accept Israel as 'Jewish state'
By Barak Ravid, Haaretz
Correspondent and Haaretz Service

Israelis Press Plan to Block the Division of Jerusalem
By ISABEL KERSHNER
November 15, 2007

Palestinian billionaire launches movement to rival Fatah, Hamas
Ha'aretz Daily Newspaper
November 15, 2007