Antiterrorism 2

The fight against the terrorist ultra-authoritarian fascist Hamas regime - for a free Palestine

Supplement to IJ@ 4 (31), http://www.anarchy.no/ija431.html , with anarchist point of view

17.06.2007: Hamas islamic fascists declare the "liberation" of Gaza .

Palestinians are alarmed at the deterioration of security in the region. Iranian backed Hamas fighters captured bastions of forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas across Gaza and the Islamists declared the "liberation" of the impoverished strip. Hamas loyalists then murdered many Fatah members in the street execution style. In the latest violence, gunmen of Hamas took over Fatah security offices in the southern town of Rafah, emptied its contents, and blew up the building. Hundreds of civilians gathered on site and took furniture and equipment from the building before masked gunmen fired in the air and dispersed the crowd. "This is a step in the wrong direction" a spokesperson for the AIE says. 

27.12.2008 and beyond: Stop killing innocent civilians! UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called for an immediate ceasefire.
There can be no ceasefire agreement before the criminal Hamas rulers are arrested, or if they do not surrender, but keep on killing - killed!
Since 2001 more than 10 000 rockets and mortar fire have been sent from Gaza to Israel...
Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak: ... Israel was not targeting the people of Gaza, rather its rulers, Hamas...
So far the Israeli soldiers don't hit the people of Gaza, but its rulers Hamas, proportionate in self defense, they have anarchist support.
Later the Anarchist International, with about 50 000 persons loosely associated to the network,
demands the civilian bloodshed must now stop,
and calls for a durable peace agreement and ceasefire, with simultaneously stop in the attacks from both Hamas and Israel.
19.01.2009. Gaza: End of fighting opens opportunity for real peace and justice!
01.02.2009. The ceasefire is dead. The anarchists again call for a new ceasefire, a durable ceasefire, "100 years and beyond", and a general solution to the Israel-Palestine problem as suggested by AI, AIE and ICOT.
06.02.2009. The anarchists support the people of Gaza, seen as a class as opposed to the superiors in rank and/or income, i.e. the Hamas rulers, and call for revolt against Hamas. There will probably be no durable ceasefire and peace agreement as long as Hamas rules Gaza.
09.02.2009. The ultra-fascists Hamas and Lieberman's party have common interests in instability in the region, and their influence should be minimized.
10.02.2009. Amnesty International has accused Hamas militants in Gaza of kidnapping, killing and torturing fellow Palestinians.
13.02.2009. The anarchists call for a durable peace deal. This may take some time to reach, but as long as the negotiations go on, there will probably be few terrorist attacks by Hamas and associates, and thus few responses from Israel. Thus, the anarchists call for continued peace talks, until a lasting peace agreement can be reached.
18.02.2009. Israeli officials say the country's Security Cabinet has decided to keep the Gaza Strip's border crossings closed until an Israeli soldier, Sgt. Gilad Schalit, is freed.
26.02.2009. The anarchists demand that Netanyahu continues with the peace negotiations and work for a two independent countries solution.
04.03.2009. The anarchists support a two independent countries' solution, but they should not be states, but anarchies. This may however take long time to achieve...
05.03.2009. The anarchists take a clear stand against the ultra-authoritarian fascist systems of both Iran and Hamas.
12.03.2009. Palestinian factions are trying to hammer out a power-sharing agreement. The anarchists support the efforts.
18.03.2009. Hamas is the bottleneck in the negotiations that will benefit the Palestinian and Israeli people, seen as class in contrast to the superiors in rank and/or income, the anarchists say: we support the Israeli and Palestinian people... we call on the Hamas-rulers to act with reason!
25.03.2009. The Anarchist International and ICOT mark that the new Netanyahu government will push for Israel-Palestinian peace and hold all agreements with the Palestinians.
02.04.2009. Israeli foreign minister Lieberman's "peace policy" cannot be taken seriously, the anarchists say: he will face the music from the anarchists, EU, USA, etc.
16.04.2009. The anarchists again reject Lieberman's policy and call for a general solution to the Israel-Palestine problem as suggested by AI, AIE and ICOT.
20.04.2009. The anarchists condemn Hamas for killing 32 Palestinians and hurting several more on Gaza, and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for calling Israel racist.
07.05.2009.Palestinians and anarchists give cool reception to Netanyahu plan.
14.05.2009. The whole international community, including ICOT, AIE and AI, puts pressure on Israel to accept Palestinian independence soon.
18.05.2009. The anarchists condemn the widespread Holocoust denial among Israeli Arabs.
27.05.2009: Netanyahu calls on Arab states to normalize ties.
31.05.2009: Fatah fights Hamas. Six Palestinians killed. The anarchists support the less authoritarian Fatah's fight against the more authoritarian Hamas.
04.06.2009. Hamas can 1. recognize Israel and join the peace process, or 2. continue with terrorism and lose in the long run. The anarchists urge Hamas to choose option 1.
10.06.2009. The anarchists push for prompt Mideast peace talks.
14.06.2009. Israeli prime minister says Israel would agree to a peace agreement with a "demilitarized Palestinian state." A small step in right direction but not enough, the anarchists say.
25.06.2009. Israel reduces control of 4 West Bank towns - Hamas leader welcomes Obama's new Mideast approach.
19.07.2009. Israel rejects US call to halt Jerusalem project. The anarchists call on Israel to halt the Jerusalem project and all new settlement building.
23.07.2009. Israel won: Hamas shifts from rockets to "culture war".
18.08.2009. Israel quietly halts permits for new settlement building.
31.08.2009. Top Hamas official says Holocaust "a lie".
04.11.2009. Clinton: US wants Israel settlement halt 'forever'.
11.11.2009. No peace talks unless Israel halts settlements, Abbas and the anarchists say.
15.11.2009. Palestinians aim to secure U.N. support for state.
17.11.2009. Anarchists, Palestinians, US, UK criticize Israeli Jerusalem plan.
19.11.2009. Israeli air strikes in response to continued recent rocket firing into Israel from the Gaza Strip.
21.11.2009. Gaza militants agree to halt rocket fire.
24.11.2009. Israeli air strikes in response to rocket firing into Israel from the Gaza Strip, despite the agreement to halt rocket fire.
25.11.2009. Israel proposes 10-month West Bank settlement halt.
27.11.2009. Abbas says Israeli settlement freeze not enough.
30.11.2009. The terrorist group Hezbollah to continue arming to fight Israel.
01.12.2009. Netanyahu: Settlement freeze only temporary.
06.12.2009. World Bank gives Palestinian Authority $64 million to help it prepare for independent country. Preferably a Palestinian anarchy - not state - the anarchists repeat.
14.12.2009. Obama and anarchists: UN resolutions in Lebanon must be enforced.
20.12.2009. Israel threatens to use force against settlers.
03.03.2010. Meeting in Cairo, foreign ministers from the Arab League have endorsed preliminary talks between Israelis and Palestinians.
08.03.2010. Indirect talks? The Anarchist International, ICOT and the Anarchist International Embassy once more call for real peace talks, and mean proximity talks can be a first step in this direction.
10.03.2010. AI, ICOT and AIE condemn the Israeli government's decision to build some 1,600 new settlement homes on Palestinian land next to Jerusalem. Biden attacks new Israeli settlement plan.
14.03.2010.Israel's Prime Minister has, for the first time publicly, voiced regret for the timing of the announcement of a Jewish settlement plan.
15.03.2010.Netanyahu: Jerusalem building doesn't hurt Arabs. The anarchists condemn the building plans, and call for 100% halt in Israeli settlements.
17.03.2010. Israel has lifted West Bank closure in force since March, 13.
18.03.2010. Palestinian rocket kills worker of kibbutz in Israel, first such death since Gaza war. Kibbutz is mentioned by Noam Chomsky and the Anarchists International as anarchistic. This is thus a direct attack
on anarchism. AI, ICOT and AIE condemn the terrorist attack, the murder of the Kibbutz worker, and the direct attack on anarchism.
28.03.2010. Arab leaders renew support for peace efforts. The anarchists, The AI, ICOT and AIE, back the Arab leaders' renewed support for peace efforts.
02.04.2010. Hamas signals it wants to keep Gaza quiet.
08.05.2010. Palestinian approval opens door to Mideast talks.
19.05.2010. Proximity talks. The anarchists, The AI, ICOT and AIE, back the talks.
31.05.2010. Hamas-supporters killed. Anarchist criticism. Netanyahu: Israel regrets the loss of life. Flotilla raid was self defense.
03.06.2010. Demonstration tomorrow supported by anarchists.
04-05.06.2010. Ochlarchist demonstrations Friday in Palestine, with youths throwing stones at security forces. The anarchists condemn the ochlarchy. No anarchists were involved in the ochlarchy.
09.06.2010. Obama calls for new approach on Gaza blockade.
13.06.2010. Israel's blockade of Gaza must end, says the Arab world's top diplomat. ICOT, AIE and AI call for an anarchist solution. Obama backs Israel's inquiry into flotilla raid.
17.06.2010. Israel loosens chokehold on Gaza after anarchist and other pressure.
24.06.2010. Jewish dance group stoned in Hanover, Germany. The anarchists condemn the anti-Semitic attack.
12.07.2010. Israeli report says flawed intelligence, planning led to botched raid on Gaza flotilla.
13.07.2010. Israel: Gaza aid ship diverts to Egypt. Aid provided by an organization named after the ultra-authoritarian ruler of Libya, Moammar Gadhafi.
14.07.2010. Gadhafi ship reaches Egypt.

29.12.2008: For a third day running, Israel has pursued what it is calling its "war to the bitter end" with the terrorist, ultra-authoritarian fascist Hamas-regime. As Gaza took a further pounding, sources in the territory said around 350 people have now died. According to the UN, at least 57 of the dead are civilians. Israel says the offensive, launched weeks before a national election, is aimed at halting Palestinian rocket attacks that intensified after a truce with Hamas expired. But even as Israeli ground forces gathered, heightening speculation about a possible invasion of Gaza, the Islamist group remained defiant. Against a backdrop of mounting international criticism and demonstrations with ochlarchy, Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak has attempted to justify what he called a "war without mercy" against Hamas. This afternoon he told a stormy session of the Knesset that Israel was not targeting the people of Gaza, rather its rulers, Hamas, which it blamed for the current situation. Meanwhile, one of the homemade Palestinian rockets regularly launched from Gaza killed an Israeli in the city of Ashkelon this morning. He and more than a dozen other Israeli Arabs had been working on a building site in the city centre. The man was the second Israeli to have been killed over recent days. Two rockets hit the city on Sunday and more than 20 landed in the surrounding area. So far the Israeli soldiers don't hit the people of Gaza, but its rulers Hamas, proportionate in self defense, they have anarchist support. Stop killing innocent civilians! UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called for an immediate ceasefire. There can be no ceasefire agreement before the criminal Hamas rulers are arrested, or if they do not surrender, but keep on killing - killed! The Israeli people probably need much more than about 7000 soldiers to make Hamas surrender. They need to outnumber Hamas about 3 to 1 to avoid a blood bath, even with the air support. Hamas has about 30 000 militants. But Israel has more fire power, tanks and air support helping to outnumber Hamas. Perhaps about 60 000 Israeli soldiers with tanks and air support will make Hamas surrender? The more outnumbering - the less blood shed...

30.12.2008: In the morning Israeli jets have attacked the Gaza Strip for a fourth day, with raids on a number of Hamas government buildings and security installations. An Israeli woman has died after Palestinian militants fired a rocket at the town of Ashdod, which lies thirty kilometres from the border with Gaza. Four other people were injured in the attack. Shortly beforehand, an Israeli man died from his injuries after being caught up in an earlier rocket attack in the town of Nahal Oz. The deaths bring to five the number of Israeli citizens who have died since Saturday, when Israel began its campaign of air strikes against Gaza. Israel says it is ready for "long weeks of action" as it continues its fiercest air assault on Gaza for decades to stamp out militant rocket attacks. Palestinian officials say 10 people died in the latest attacks, taking the death toll to over 360 since Saturday. Dozens of civilians have been killed. Israeli Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit rejected any ceasefire until the threat of rockets was removed completely. Israel is massing tanks on the border with Gaza and has declared the zone a "closed area" for journalists, stoking rumours that a ground offensive is being prepared. The bombings so far are only the "first stage out of a series of measures that the cabinet has approved" according to the Israeli Prime Minister. Ehud Olmert has vowed to strike Hamas with an "iron fist" while treating Gaza's civilian population with "kid gloves." Israel is trying to pinpoint militants. Hamas are committed to destruction of the people in Israel. They're firing missiles at the civilians. They're hiding behind their civilians. That's a double war crime right there.

Israel has announced that a convoy of 109 trucks carrying international humanitarian supplies had been authorised to enter Gaza today. The Egyptian-Gaza border was due to be opened to permit more trucks carrying aid to enter the territory, and for wounded Palestinians to be transported to Egyptian hospitals. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, under popular pressure to open the crossing fully, said that could not happen while Hamas, rather than the Palestinian Authority, led by its rival Fatah, controlled the border. Demonstrators in Yemen, angered by Egypt's co-operation with the blockade on Gaza, briefly stormed the country's consulate in Aden, where they burned an Egyptian flag and hoisted a Palestinian one. There have been angry, ochlarchical, protests against the Israeli offensive, mainly by fascists in many other cities across the Arab world, and in several European capitals, mainly by leftists, i.e. authoritarian marxists. Later on Tuesday Mr Olmert agreed to a  48-hour temporary truce, suggested by France, to let in humanitarian aid to Gaza, under the condition that Hamas should stop its attacks, but Hamas has so far rejected the offer. Late in the afternoon the death toll from the Israeli airstrike campaign in Gaza has surpassed 375, according to Palestinian medical sources. Israel has confirmed that a rocket fired by militants linked to Hamas landed in the town of Beersheba. Beersheba is 42 km (26 miles) inside Israel, the furthest a missile has ever reached. Militants in Gaza have fired more than 70 rockets and mortar shells into southern Israel since Monday. At least 180 rockets have been launched into Israel since the campaign began.

31.12.2008: International calls for a ceasefire, including a European Union statement calling for an "unconditional" halt to Hamas rocket attacks, were rejected by Hamas, and thus there will be no truce, but Israel has said that dialogue with the international community will continue, and that Israel will work with the international community to meet the humanitarian needs of Palestinians in Gaza. In the morning Palestinian officials said about 374 Palestinians have died in Israeli air strikes since Saturday. The rocket attacks from Hamas continue. A police spokesman said 860 000 Israelis were now in range of Palestinian rockets. The UN says at least 62 Palestinian civilians have died since Saturday. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh sounded a defiant tone in a televised address to Palestinians at night saying that the Islamist group would win the fight against Israel, and sooner than people thought. This is not realistic.

01.01.2009: The first day of 2009 dawned in Gaza with a sixth day of Israeli airstrikes, a bombardment Israel's prime minister vowed would not end until Hamas militants quit firing rockets into the Jewish state. An overnight attack on the Palestinian parliament building gutted the structure, and periodic strikes sent columns of smoke over Gaza City into Thursday morning. Palestinian medical sources said 400 people have been killed in Gaza since the Israeli raids began Saturday, with 42 children, 13 women and two medical workers among the dead. Another 2,000 have been wounded, 216 critically, they said.

Israel launched the bombing campaign in an effort to halt the firing of rockets into southern Israel from the Hamas-ruled territory. Four Israelis -- three of them civilians -- have been killed by Palestinian rocket fire, police and IDF officials have said. Another 56 have been wounded, four seriously, emergency medical services reported. A draft UN resolution for peace put forward by Egypt and Libya failed after the US and UK complained that it called on Israel to ends its air assaults but made no mention of Hamas rocket attacks against Israel, which they say started the latest hostilities. Despite the failure of the initial UN talks, diplomatic efforts continue to bring an end to the fighting. Israel says it has not ruled out a truce, but it remains poised to launch a ground offensive. A poll shows that most Israelis support tough military action to eliminate the threat of rocket attacks. The UN's relief agency, Unwra, says Gaza is facing a dire humanitarian situation and is on the brink of catastrophe. However, Capt Benjamin Rutland of the Israeli Defense Force  has said that enough food and medical supplies were getting through.

Israel continues air strikes on Gaza. Palestinian sources said targets south, west and north of Gaza City were hit early Thursday. In addition to the legislative building, the ministries of justice and education and civil defense headquarters, to the city's west, were targeted by Israeli airstrikes. The Israel Defense Forces, IDF, said its air force and navy hit 20 targets overnight. In addition to Palestinian government facilities, the IDF said it hit a weaponry workshop in central Gaza, five tunnels and police headquarters in the border town of Rafah and rocket-launching sites on the Mediterranean coast. At least two people were killed and 10 wounded in the Rafah airstrikes, Palestinian sources said. Meanwhile, five rockets were launched into Israel, including two medium-range rockets that fell near the city of Beer Sheva, nearly 19 miles outside Gaza, the IDF reported. A leading commander of Hamas' military wing in Gaza was among 10 people killed Thursday in an Israeli airstrike on a Palestinian refugee camp, a Hamas security source said. The source said Hamas military commander Nizar Rayyan was killed when the Israeli missile hit his house in the Jabalya refugee camp, north of Gaza City. Nizar Rayyan was a cleric widely regarded as one of Hamas's most hardline political leaders, and he had called for renewed suicide bombings inside Israel. The Israeli military said it bombed the home of a second senior Hamas military operative in Gaza,  Nabil Amrin, on Thursday, but did not know if he was there. Weapons and ammunition stored in Amrin's Gaza City house caused a large secondary explosion, the IDF said in a statement. There was no word on casualties. The air strikes on Gaza have not prevented further rocket attacks on Israel. The cities of Ashdod, Ashkelon and Beersheba were again hit, although there were no reports of casualties. By midday, at least 21 missiles had been fired into Israel.

The anarchists call the Palestinian people of Gaza, seen as a class as opposed to the superiors in rank and/or income, to revolt against the terrorist, ultra-authoritarian fascist Hamas rulers. The marxists' criticism of Israel is not fair. The anarchists remind the marxists that Gaza is not occupied territory, and "liberated" by Hamas. Israel's Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has said: "Israel is working with the pragmatic leadership in the Palestinian Authority in order to reach a peace treaty while simultaneously we need to address Hamas... The only way to see a change in the region is to help the moderates but simultaneously to attack and to keep the pressure on the extremists like Hamas." In the afternoon Palestinian medical sources say 402 people have been killed.

02.01.2009: Israel has allowed 443 foreigners to leave the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip as it continues its military assault on the territory. Many of those allowed out are spouses and children of Gaza Palestinians. Those leaving got on buses at dawn and headed for the Erez border crossing. According to the authorities they are US, Russian, Moldovan, Ukrainian, Turkish and Norwegian passport holders. Israeli authorities say seven rockets fired from northern Gaza hit Ashkelon and Sdot Negev Regional Council limits, which borders western Gaza. One of the rockets hit a house in Ashkelon. A woman was slightly injured by shrapnel and several people are being treated for shock. The morning barrage comes after a relatively quiet night in Israeli territory close to Gaza. That follows the 52 rockets fired into Israel on Thursday, according to security forces.

Yesterday's killing by Israel of Hamas leader Nizar Rayyan has escalated the conflict, with the militant group vowing to avenge his death. The islamist ochlarchs call for blood as Israel hammers on. A mosque was one of around 20 targets hit by Israeli overnight air strikes in which two people were killed. Israeli security officials said rockets had been stored there. About noon the death toll in Gaza rose to 421 as some badly wounded succumbed to their injures. A quarter of the dead were civilians, the United Nations estimates.

Thousands of Palestinian islamist fascists of the West Bank have joined demonstrations after a call from Hamas for a "day of wrath" against the Israeli attacks on them. Fascist demonstrations have also been held around the Muslim world after Friday prayers. Confused pacifists and marxists join in the protests. The anarchists remind the protesters about the Hamas terror war against Israel. Remember 1 212 rockets and 1 290 mortar bombs fired from the Gaza Strip have struck southern Israel only in Jan-Nov 2008. No need for the Israeli people to pay any attention to fascist, marxist and pacifist protests. The anarchists again call the Palestinian people of Gaza, seen as a class as opposed to the superiors in rank and/or income, to revolt against the terrorist, ultra-authoritarian fascist Hamas rulers with a.o.t. the aim of stopping the ochlarchical rocket attacks on the Israeli people.

About the humanitarian situation Israel has said Gazans were continuing to receive sufficient food and medicines. In a statement, the Israeli foreign ministry said that since the beginning of the campaign, 335 truckloads of humanitarian aid (7 800 tonnes) had been delivered into Gaza. It said it was working with international organisations in Gaza as well as various governments "in order to assess the humanitarian needs... and make the necessary response". All reports indicate that there are sufficient medicine and food in Gaza, the statement read. The UN's Maxwell Gaylard said: "It is true supplies have been going into the Strip, in fact possibly more than in previous weeks, but at the same time there are critical gaps." The anarchists demand that increased and sufficient food and medicines etc. are sent to Gaza.

Israel has, as mentioned, moved tanks to the outskirts of Gaza, and called up at least 2000 army reservists. A ground operation with such small troops will certainly flop, see the anarchists' advice above. Israel should take this seriously. Hamas leader-in-exile Khaled Meshaal said Israel faced a "black destiny" if it launched a ground offensive. In a pre-recorded statement broadcast on al-Jazeera television, he said Israelis would be making a "stupid mistake", adding that Hamas resistance and infrastructure were intact. "We will not break, we will not surrender or give in to your conditions," Mr Meshaal said in Syria. He was also playing on the islamist populist/fascist myth that this was not a battle against Hamas alone, but against the entire umma, or nation, and that Hamas are defending the muslim world against a modern form of crusades. He sounds like Saddam Hussein's "Comical Ali"... The number of rockets sent by militants from Gaza into Israel decreased Friday. The average of 70 a day was down to just over 30, according to the IDF.

03.01.2009: President George W. Bush has blamed the violence in Gaza and southern Israel firmly on Hamas, a hypothesis that is mainly correct. In his weekly radio address President George W Bush said Hamas was responsible for the latest violence and rejected any unilateral ceasefire that he said would allow Hamas to continue to fire on Israel. He added that no peace deal would be acceptable without tougher action to prevent Hamas and other groups from receiving weapons. "There must be monitoring mechanisms in place to help ensure the smuggling of weapons to terrorist groups in Gaza comes to an end," he said. "I urge all parties to pressure Hamas to turn away from terror and to support legitimate Palestinian leaders working for peace," Mr Bush added. Hamas said one of its military leaders, Abu Zakaria al-Jama, died in an overnight strike. Israeli air strikes on Gaza continued early on Saturday, with 35 reported. One person was killed as large parts of the American school, a private Palestinian college, in north-west Gaza, were destroyed. The Israeli military said the school was a hiding place for Hamas activists and a base for firing rockets. Naval vessels also shelled the area from the Mediterranean coast, witnesses said. Combining information from Palestinian medical sources and the Israeli military, about noon at least 435 Palestinians have been killed. About 2 200 people have been wounded.

The anarchists mean the time has not come for a ground offensive yet. There must be a lot more Israeli soldiers and tanks before this can be victorious. The Israeli military has stepped up its attacks on Gaza, as the offensive on Hamas enters its second week. Israeli artillery and tanks bombarded the territory for what is thought to be the first time during the offensive, and further air strikes were launched. Leaflets signed by the commander of the Israeli military were dropped over northern Gaza on Saturday morning, warning residents to "leave the area immediately" to ensure their safety. In one raid, at least 13 persons were killed, when a missile hit a mosque in Beit Lahiya, Palestinian medics said. The anarchists say that Israel must not forget that this is a fight by the Israeli people against the terrorist Hamas ochlarchs, not a war against Gaza's people. Israeli military has destroyed a number of mosques since it began its Gaza campaign a week ago. Israel says Hamas uses them to store weapons. Israel insists its military offensive will continue until the group's infrastructure is sufficiently weakened to stop all attacks on Israeli civilians. Palestinian militants in Gaza fired more rockets into southern Israel on Saturday. IDF Maj. Avital Leibovitch said Hamas militants had launched 20 rockets from Gaza into Israel by late afternoon Saturday. Rockets set a house on fire in Ashkelon, damaged a kibbutz dining hall and slightly wounded two people in an eight-story building in Ashdod, according to Israeli ambulance services. "We still see that Hamas is targeting Israeli civilians. Namely, we still did not reach the goal of crippling Hamas' launching capabilities," Leibovitch said. "We still have many more targets to go," she added. In the afternoon Israel has carried out more than 800 strikes on Gaza since launching the offensive a week ago, including 40 on Saturday. An airstrike killed two Hamas militants in Khan Yunis, in southern Gaza, Palestinian officials said. Palestinian medical sources said Saturday evening that at least 460 people have been killed..

In the evening Israel has launched a ground offensive. This is risky business. The anarchists hope they know what they are doing... Israeli ground troops have started to enter the Gaza Strip, Israeli military officials have confirmed, a week after the offensive against Hamas began. An Israeli military spokeswoman said the intention was to "take control" of areas from which Palestinian militants have been firing rockets into Israel. The first 10 vehicles have already been crossing the northern border. Earlier, Israel intensified air and artillery attacks on the territory. "We want to create a situation where the civilian population in southern Israel is no longer on the receiving end of those deadly Hamas rockets. When quiet can be achieved, this operation can be finished," Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev has said. The goal of Operation Cast Lead, OCL, is to halt what Israeli officials describe as a near-constant barrage of Hamas rockets into the southern part of the country from Gaza. "We haven't articulated regime change as the goal of this operation. Our goal is to protect our people," Regev said. Israeli officials say four people have been killed and 59 wounded in Hamas rocket attacks in the past week. Regev said Gaza's civilian population was not Israel's enemy. "In many ways, they are victims like us. Both the civilian population of southern Israel and the civilian population of the Gaza Strip have been victims of this terrible, extremist Hamas regime," Regev said.

Hamas' military wing, The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, has about 23 000 terrorists, associates and other terrorist organizations on Gaza have about 7 000 militants, all in all about 30 000 militants. Israel said it called up tens of thousands of reservists. But will it be enough? A Hamas spokesman, their "Comical Ali", said to the Israeli soldiers: "Gaza will be your cemetery". It will certainly not be so for most of them. Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the ground campaign against Hamas "will not be easy or short, but we are determined". "Our aim is to force Hamas to stop its hostile activities against Israel and Israelis from Gaza, and to bring about a significant change in the situation in the southern part of Israel," he told a news conference. "We have carefully weighed all our operations. We are not war-hungry, but we shall not allow a situation in which our towns, villages and civilians are constantly targeted by Hamas." Mr Barak also said Israel would "keep a sensitive eye" on its northern border with Lebanon, where it fought a short but bloody war with the Shia Hezbollah movement in 2006. "We hope the situation will remain calm. Nevertheless, we are ready and alert to face any unwanted development in that area," he added. The anarchists wish the Israeli soldiers good luck - they may need it...

04-05.01.2009: Israel has sent ground forces into the Gaza Strip after a week of air strikes to try to halt rocket attacks by Palestinian militants. Israeli troops were reported to be engaged in heavy clashes with Hamas fighters in northern Gaza. Earlier, Israel intensified air and artillery attacks on the territory. Witnesses say Israeli military convoys crossed into northern Gaza at four separate points. Wearing night-vision goggles on their helmets and camouflage paint on their faces, Israeli ground troops entered the Gaza Strip along with columns of tanks. They were supported by attack helicopters. Advancing Israeli tanks were reported to be in battles around Gaza City and the northern towns of Beit Lahiya and Jabaliya. Hamas fighters replied with mortars and rockets, witnesses said. The incursion began just hours after the European Union announced that a delegation is heading to the Middle East to meet with regional leaders and broker a ceasefire.

Israeli troops gained control of the eastern section of northern Gaza Sunday morning. Smoke filled the sky during clashes between Israeli and Palestinian forces at the border of Gaza City. In his first public comments since the ground offensive began, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says the operation was "unavoidable", but that he will not allow a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. At least 21 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza Sunday morning, Palestinian medical sources said. Eight of those deaths happened during heavy battles between Israeli soldiers and Hamas fighters in northern Gaza, the sources said. Four civilians were killed by Israeli shelling in Rafah in southern Gaza, one militant died in Khan Younis, five people were killed near the Jebalya refugee camp and three died in Gaza City, Palestinian medical sources also said.

An IDF statement said Sunday morning that dozens of Hamas fighters were "hit" in the fighting, although it did not say how many were killed. Israeli missiles targeted 45 Hamas locations overnight, including the Hamas intelligence headquarters, the IDF said. It also said soldiers engaged Hamas fighters in several firefights during the first hours of the ground incursion into Gaza. At least 30 rockets were launched from Gaza into southern Israel Sunday morning, although no injuries have been reported, the IDF said. Blasts of heavy machine-gun fire and explosions from airstrikes have filled the air in Gaza since Israel rolled thousands of troops into the Palestinian territory. Israel's ground assault followed a weeklong flurry of airstrikes. Israel has said the attacks are in response to recent rocket attacks from Hamas militants in Gaza. According to the Israeli military, 30 soldiers have been wounded during the incursion into Gaza in the morning. Two of the soldiers reportedly have serious injuries.

Israeli forces killed three senior members of Hamas' military wing on Sunday, Hamas sources said. In the evening Palestinian medical sources say Israeli forces have killed 37 Palestinians, both civilians and militants, since moving into the territory Saturday night. With those deaths, at least 507 Palestinians, including about 100 women and children, have been killed since Israeli airstrikes began December 27, "sources" told CNN.

How long to end Hamas-terrorism? 23 000 terrorists/30 killed terrorists per day = About 2 years. Worst case scenario: Not long after Israel's ground incursion began, Hamas vowed to "fight until the last breath", i.e. about 23 000 terrorists. At a killrate of about 30 terrorists per day, it will take 767 days, i.e. a bit more than two years, to end the terrorism...  An Israeli soldier was killed and another seriously wounded near Jabalya in northern Gaza, according to the Israeli military. It marks the first Israeli military death since the ground operation was launched Saturday night. Worst case scenario: 767 Israeli soldiers dead to end the terrorism. Of course this worse case scenario is a bit pessimistic, but what is realistic? Think it over... two years, one year, 6 months, 3 months, 1 month, 14 days, one week? The efficiency must up, up, up!!! Another estimate of Hamas militants is about 16 000. 16 000 terrorist/30 killed terrorists per day = 533 days, about one and a half year. A third estimate, suggested by CNN, is about 15 000 militants of Hamas. 15 000 terrorists/30 killed terrorist per day = 500 days, i.e. 1,37 years, about one year and 4 and a half month. These scenarios are not much better... A solution and peace agreement similar to in Lebanon 2006 seem to be reasonable.

The Israeli president Shimon Peres told American TV they do not want to occupy Gaza, nor crush Hamas, but to stamp out terror. How are the Israeli soldiers going achieve this aim by armed struggle without hitting the Hama-terrorists? Phones in Gaza homes rang repeatedly with recorded Israeli military messages Monday saying, "We are getting rid of Hamas." That goes beyond the stated goals of Israel's top leaders, who have emphasized that the operation is intended to stop Hamas from firing rockets into Israel. The Israeli foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, said after a meeting with officials from the Czech Republic, Sweden and France that Israel would "change the equation" in the region. She added that in other conflicts, "countries send in forces in order to battle terrorism, but we are not asking the world to take part in the battle and send their forces in — we are only asking them to allow us to carry it out until we reach a point in which we decide our goals have been reached for this point."

Many figures and claims cannot be verified. Israel is refusing to let international journalists into Gaza, despite a Supreme Court ruling to allow a limited number of reporters to enter the territory.

Israel have stepped up its psychological campaign Monday, trying to turn the citizens of Gaza against Hamas. "Urgent message, warning to the citizens of Gaza," said a recorded phone call to Gaza resident Moussa El-Hadad. "Hamas is using you as human shields. Do not listen to them. Hamas has abandoned you and are hiding in their shelters." The Israeli military said the current ground assault is the second phase of the operation to stop militants from firing rockets and mortars into southern Israel. The cat-and-mouse game continued into Monday as thousands of Israeli troops, backed by tanks, artillery and helicopters, pushed deep into Gaza, essentially splitting the territory in two, the north and the south. Palestinian sources reported seeing a column of Israeli tanks near the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis, in what could be an effort to further divide the territory. On Monday morning, at least 20 people died in Israeli attacks, "sources" told CNN. The dead included 13 members of a family in Gaza's Zeitoun neighborhood and seven members of another family in Gaza City. With those deaths, the sources said 530 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched its military operation on December 27. Hamas rocket fire into southern Israel persists despite 10-day campaign.

Senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahar said rocket attacks on Israel will continue. Neither Israel nor the Hamas leaders in Gaza showed any sign of considering a ceasefire in the face of continuing international pressure to do so. Israel on Monday continued its military assault on Gaza from the air and the ground. Heavy fighting erupted Monday night around Gaza City, the Israel Defense Forces said. Earlier in the day, Israeli forces took "tens of Hamas militants" into custody, the military said. IDF also said that fighting between Hamas militants and Israeli troops left several of the militants injured, but it did not say how many.  Eight Israeli soldiers were lightly wounded during battles with Hamas militants Monday afternoon, IDF said. The military campaign has not stopped militants in Gaza from firing on southern Israel: 47 rockets and mortars struck Israel on Sunday and at least another 40 on Monday, the Israeli military said. A delegation of EU foreign ministers is in Jerusalem to push for a truce, while Egypt is putting pressure on Hamas leaders in Gaza. Israel on Monday allowed 80 trucks filled with humanitarian supplies to pass into Gaza.

06.01.2008: As the Israeli military surrounded densely populated Gaza City on Tuesday, it said it has killed 130 Hamas fighters since beginning a ground offensive over the weekend. European diplomats swarmed the region, trying to pull together the elements for a ceasefire. But neither side showed any real interest in international calls for a truce. Israeli Prime Ministry Ehud Olmert, in a meeting with Nicholas Sarkozy Monday, told the French president that Israel wants a "full solution" to the conflict, not just a ceasefire that allows Hamas to fortify itself, said Mark Regev, Olmert's spokesman. "Before the last ceasefire with Hamas began, Hamas had missiles with a range of 20 kilometers," Regev said Tuesday. "By the end of the ceasefire, the range of the missiles grew to 40 kilometers. Israel does not want the next ceasefire to allow them to get missiles with a range of 60 kilometers." A Hamas rocket penetrated farther than ever before into Israel on Tuesday, landing in the town of Gadera, about 36 kilometers (23 miles) north of the Gaza border, and 28 km (17 miles) from Tel Aviv.. And Monday, a rocket hit a kindergarten in Ashdod, about 26 kilometers (16 miles) north of Gaza. Hamas had fired 10 rockets at Israel by midday Tuesday, the Israeli military said.

IDF: "We are getting rid of Hamas"! Yes, less than 1%! Still a long, long way to go... Three Israeli soldiers were killed in northern Gaza late Monday in a "friendly fire" incident involving an explosion from a tank shell that hit a building the troops were in, the military said. Two dozen troops were wounded in the explosion, one critical, three severely. Later an Israeli officer was killed in a separate incident, apparently also by Israeli fire, the army said, bringing the Israeli troop deaths from the Gaza operation to five. Meanwhile, the humanitarian situation grew worse as the wounded swarmed Gaza's largest hospital and scores of Gazans headed for the morgues, where two bodies are crammed into each drawer. Forty people in Gaza were killed on Monday alone, bringing the Palestinian death toll to more than 530, including at least 100 women and children, since Israel launched its operation on December 27, according to Palestinian medical sources. Another 2 750 Palestinians have been injured, most of them civilians, the sources said. Doctors at Gaza's Shifa Hospital feared that the casualties would mount quickly as Israeli troops closed in on Gaza City. There was intense fighting overnight on the outskirts of the city of Gaza, where residents huddled indoors in fear. Thousands of Gazans are reported to have fled their homes, despite the dangers of moving around outdoors in the territory. Deaths recorded by Palestinian medics reached 564 in the morning Tuesday. Most of the several dozen deaths reported by hospitals in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip in recent days have been civilians. The Israeli military said it killed 130 militants since Saturday, a figure that suggested the total Palestinian death toll since December 27 might be close to 700 and that bodies could still be on the battlefield. On Monday 05.01.2008 the Israeli military declared "We are getting rid of Hamas." Perhaps, but at best only about 130/15000 = 0,86%, less than 1 %, since Saturday. There is still a long, long way to go before "getting rid of Hamas" is achieved, if ever.

Israel's forces pushed into the Hamas stronghold of Khan Younis in the south of the territory and also battled militants on the outskirts of Gaza city. Three artillery shells believed to have been fired by Israeli forces struck near the perimeter of a U.N. school in northern Gaza, killing at least 30 people and wounding 55, a U.N. official said. The Israeli military said Hamas militants had fired mortar shells at Israeli forces, prompting return fire, according to its initial investigation. U.N. Relief and Works Agency Director John Ging said most of the casualties were outside the school in the Jabalya refugee camp. "It's a very built-up area, so of course it was entirely inevitable that if artillery shells landed in that area there would be a high number of casualties," he said at a U.N. briefing from Gaza City. Palestinian sources said 44 were killed in the attack. Other airstrikes hit the homes of people linked to Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules Gaza, including the Wadi family in Jabalya, Hamas security sources said. Eight people were killed in that strike. An overnight airstrike hit the Jabalya home of Imad Siam, one of the leaders of Hamas' military wing. An Israeli soldier was killed Tuesday morning in northern Gaza City, the Israeli military said, bringing to six the number of Israeli forces who have died in Gaza since Israel launched its ground incursion. As Israeli forces encircled Gaza City , which has a population of about 400 000, diplomats turned up the heat for a ceasefire. The humanitarian situation in Gaza has deteriorated. Hundreds of wounded people swarmed into Gaza's largest hospital. The Israeli military said 80 trucks with humanitarian aid would be allowed to pass into Gaza on Tuesday at the Kerem Shalom crossing. In the afternoon the Palestinian death toll is estimated to 555 since Israel commenced airstrikes December 27. In the evening Euronews is estimating the Palestinian death toll to at least 630. 35 rockets fell on Israeli territory on Tuesday, Israeli police said.

The anarchists mean the Israeli people's self defense is mainly proportionate. Proportionate does not mean Lex Talionis, "an eye for an eye", but what is just necessary to get rid of Hamas' rocket attacks, but no more use of force. This is mainly what is happening. The Israeli soldiers don't hit civilians deliberately, as opposed to Hamas rocket fire that is aimed at civilians. The many thousand rockets and mortar fire sent by Hamas to Israel since 2000 may also be taken into account. And also that Hamas is using civilians as human shields, which is proven on several videorecordings.

Israel has agreed to establish a "humanitarian corridor" to supply residents of Gaza with aid as international concerns about conditions among civilians mount. Ehud Olmert's Web site said Olmert decided to accept a proposal from security advisers to open the corridor. It said a path into Gaza "will be opened for a specific period of time, during which the population can receive the aid." The statement also said Olmert spoke Tuesday with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to "update her on political and military developments," including the humanitarian situation.

07.01.2009: Israel's strategy in Gaza? The joker in the game is of course the USA. Israel's decision to launch a land offensive seemed as unavoidable as it was risky: to not act would signal acceptance of Hamas' rule of Gaza, but moving in could result in stalemate. "Our aim is to force Hamas to stop its hostile activities against Israel and Israelis from Gaza and to bring about a significant change in the situation in the southern part of Israel," said Defense Minister Ehud Barak. The goal for Israel is to use its armed forces' superiority to achieve a number of long-term goals, starting with weakening Hamas and detering future attacks. It also wants to implement new security arrangements on the border between Egypt and Gaza, and ensure no formal ceasefire is put in place, giving it freedom to act if it judges necessary. However, the military operation against Hamas must be short-lived to avoid too many civilian casualties among the Palestinians. For now, the international community has held back, for several reasons, according to the head of the London-based think tank the Transatlantic Institute, " [In] the regional game being played in the Gaza Strip and the current conflict, of course, there is the hand of Iran and its allies," said Emanuele Ottolenghi. "And in this sense it is very telling that the Arab leadership of moderate countries like Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, has refrained from matching a rhetoric of condemnation of the current events and the loss of civilian life with political steps to thwart Israel's attempts."

In 2002, the Israeli army carried out a similar offensive in the West Bank camps of Jenin and Nablus, with relative success. However, this time round, the upcoming elections were an added motive according to the Palestinian envoy to the EU, who argues the offensive is crucial for the defense minister and his Labor Party: "I really think this illustrates Mister Barak's comeback," says Leila Shahid. "His first aim is to cleanse the Israeli army's honour following the 2006 war with Lebanon, especially after the Vinograd report, and second he wants to boost his ratings ahead of February's election, and sadly you can see that he has grown in popularity since the launch of the Gaza offensive." But for how long? The defense minister's plan is subject to one condition: not to leave the troops in the Gaza Strip for too long as heavy losses among soldiers would not be popular with voters. The joker in the game is of course the USA... Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has called for a "ceasefire that can endure and that can bring real security", not something else. So far this is not possible due to Hamas' terrorism that will not stop. This strategy note is mostly based on Euronews, and not Israel's official declarations.

Israel Wednesday expelled Venezuela's top diplomat from the country in a tit-for-tat gesture after the South American very authoritarian marxist president Hugo Chavez's government ordered the Israeli ambassador to leave over the increasingly bloody ground offensive in Gaza. No reason to pay attention to the authoritarian baboon babble of Hugo Chavez. - Israel has said it will halt its attacks on Gaza for three hours a day. The pause, the first of which is due to start at 11.00 GMT (13.00 local time) on Wednesday, will "allow residents to resupply, get aid and so on", an IDF spokesman said. Overnight, Israeli forces launched 40 fresh air strikes in Gaza. Israeli media reports say nine rockets were fired into southern Israel from Gaza early on Wednesday. So far Israel has lost seven soldiers on the ground. Four people within Israel have been killed by rockets. At least five hit southern Israel on Tuesday, one of them injuring a baby. In the morning Wednesday the Palestinian death toll stands at 642, according to local medical officials. The "humanitarian corridor" was open about three hours as planned, and similar openings are planned for the days to come.

U.N. officials are "99.9 percent certain" there were no Palestinian militants in or on the grounds of a school that was shelled by Israeli forces Tuesday, killing more than 40 people, a spokesman said Wednesday. Chris Gunness, a spokesman for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, disputed Israel's account of the bombardment of the northern Gaza school. But he said that if anyone could clear up the remaining uncertainty, "We would like them to come forward and be part of an impartial investigation." The deaths have stoked international concerns about the Israeli campaign in Gaza, which showed little sign of letting up Wednesday. The Israeli military said Hamas militants were firing mortars from the U.N. school in the northern Gaza town of Jabalya that was being used as a shelter by hundreds of civilians. It said a pair of prominent Hamas operatives, Imad Abu Askhar and Hassan Abu Askhar, were in the school. Those operatives, described as heads of Hamas mortar-firing operations, were killed in the strike, the Israel Defense Forces said. "We face a very delicate situation where the Hamas is using the citizens of Gaza as a protective vest," Brig. General Avi Benayahu, an IDF spokesman has said. UN piles pressure on Israel over truce plan, but so far nothing concrete has happened.

The anarchists mean an armed struggle against terrorism seems to be a necessary part of the general fight against terrorism, but will always, however not deliberately, also have some civilian losses. This is regrettable, but never the less defensible. Also, accidents happen. This is specially valid when Hamas is using civilians as human shields. As mentioned above, the Israeli people's self defense is also mainly proportionate. Thus, the anarchists mean the Israeli actions in Gaza are not war crimes, as some authoritarian groups, mainly supporters of Hamas, suggest... In the afternoon the Palestinian death toll is estimated to about 680, and another 3000 are wounded. In the evening the Palestinian death toll is estimated to more than 700. According to U.N. figures, more than a quarter of the Palestinian dead are civilians.

The anarchists support the French-Egyptian peace efforts. Israel said it viewed "positively" talks with Cairo over a wider ceasefire plan promoted by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and French leader Nicolas Sarkozy. Israel wants a.o.t. a ceasefire deal to include a specialized international force to search out and destroy tunnels along the border between Gaza and Egypt to prevent Hamas from rearming and firing more rockets at Israeli towns. Israeli sources said Egypt was seeking an initial 48-hour ceasefire, during which it would put the finishing touches to its plan. Israel, the sources said, opposed a preliminary truce and wanted all the details of a ceasefire agreement completed first. A Palestinian official said the Gaza Strip's Hamas rulers, who want an end to Israel's blockade of the enclave, had been briefed in Egypt by Mubarak and were debating the proposal. "Aggression must stop, the siege must be lifted and the Zionist forces must pull out, and then we can talk about others issues, including calm and rockets," said Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum. Thus it seems to be a long way to go before a truce can happen. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice endorsed the Mubarak proposal and said a "sustainable" ceasefire should involve both closing off Hamas's ability to rearm and easing the lives of the 1.5 million people of the Gaza Strip by reopening trade routes. The anarchists support the French-Egyptian peace efforts, but realistically seen it may take a long time to implement.

While it ordered the three-hour-long lull in "offensive" armed forces' operations to let in aid, Israel also considered entering a third stage of its air and ground offensive, a deep push into Gaza's cities and refugee camps. But an Israeli official, citing the Egyptian and French ceasefire efforts, said Olmert's security cabinet deferred voting on the urban armed struggle plan to an undisclosed date. Fierce combat in Gaza's narrow alleyways and streets, leading to heavy casualties on both sides, would hold political risks for Israel's leaders ahead of a February 10 national election. The Israeli air force bombed targets in Rafah, Gaza, on Wednesday shortly after warning residents of the town to leave, the Israel Defense Forces confirmed. Israel has said Hamas, the Palestinian movement which controls Gaza, smuggles weapons from Egypt into Rafah on the Gaza side through underground tunnels. Shutting down that supply route is one goal of Israel's nearly two-week armed operation against Hamas. The Israeli army says it attacked dozens of targets throughout the day and that more than 20 rockets were fired into Israel from Gaza.

08.01.2009: Israel has made 60 air strikes on the Gaza Strip in a single night after the first daily truce to allow in humanitarian aid expired. Targets included police sites, 10 Hamas tunnels, weapons storage facilities, launching pads "and a number of armed gunmen", the Israeli army said. In addition to the air strikes, Israel's army said that naval and artillery units had "continued to support the ground forces" overnight and reported one soldier lightly wounded. Reports also spoke of a tank advance with helicopter support towards Khan Younis, also in the south, shortly after midnight. 11 Israeli lives have been lost since the offensive began 12 days ago.

Peace talks continue. Israel said on Wednesday it accepted the principles of the French-Egyptian truce proposal, which was backed by Washington and the anarchists, but wanted to see the details. Israeli security sources have confirmed that senior Israeli defense official Amos Gilad will travel to Cairo on Thursday to discuss ceasefire options. A Hamas delegation is expected in Cairo at some stage for parallel "technical" talks, Egyptian diplomats said. Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas is expected in the Egyptian capital on Friday.  The UN Security Council seemed deadlocked over the crisis. Arab countries want the Council to vote on a resolution calling for a ceasefire while Britain, France and the US are pushing for a weaker statement welcoming the French-Egyptian initiative. The US could well veto any vote as it is a permanent member of the Security Council.

Rockets hit Israel from Lebanon. Four rockets have been fired into northern Israel from Lebanon, wounding two people and raising fears the Israeli offensive in Gaza may spread. Israel's army responded with artillery. No group has yet claimed responsibility.  The Lebanese Army issued a statement, saying the rockets were launched by "an unknown group" and that the Israeli retaliatory fire inflicted no casualties. Israeli media later reported a second rocket attack, but an army spokesman said this was a false alarm. The anarchists mean this is a dangerous moment in the current conflict. The rocket attacks from Lebanon have raised concerns about a wider armed struggle. It is is not clear if the rockets were fired by Hezbollah or by one of the armed Palestinian groups that operate in Lebanon. If Hezbollah mounted the attack there is a grave risk of a very strong Israeli reaction. The Palestinians in Lebanon do not have the capacity to fight a significant armed struggle with Israel, but Hezbollah does.

Later Lebanon's prime minister condemned the firing of rockets into northern Israel. "What happened in the south [of Lebanon] is a violation of Resolution 1701 and is rejected by Lebanon," Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said, referring to the U.N. resolution that ended the 2006 conflict between Israel and Lebanon's shiite muslim Hezbollah terrorist militia. In a statement issued by his office, Siniora said he has asked Lebanese authorities to investigate the attack alongside troops from the U.N. peacekeeping force deployed along the border. He also condemned the Israeli retaliatory strikes. Andrea Tenenti, a spokesman for UNIFIL, the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, said the rockets appear to have been fired from a point about 4.5 miles east of Naqoura, where the peacekeepers are headquartered. "We've been intensifying our patrols on the ground in order to prevent any further incident," Tenenti said. He said UNIFIL's commander, Maj. Gen. Claudio Graziano, is in "constant and close contact" with both sides "and has urged maximum restraint in order to prevent any escalation of the situation."

Mind your language! The armed struggle against the Hamas terrorist rulers is not war, and Gaza is not a concentration camp. The anarchist mean a more or less limited armed struggle against terrorists is not war. Terrorism is principally an order problem, and fight against terrorists is thus not  war. The so called "war on terror" world wide is in reality not a war, but just a.o.t. a limited armed struggle. There is no war in Gaza, just limited armed struggle by the Israeli people's defense forces against Hamas, a revolt against the ultra-authoritarian terrorist Hamas rulers. Furthermore: Gaza is not a concentration camp! The Pope's justice minister, Cardinal Renato Martino, has sharply criticized Israel's actions and likened the Gaza Strip to a "big concentration camp". His words mark the Vatican's toughest comments since Israel began its offensive with intensive air attacks. Martino said "Look at the conditions in Gaza: more and more, it resembles a big concentration camp." The relations between Israel and the Vatican have been strained recently, after the Pope made it clear that he favoured making Pope Pius XII a saint. The controversial wartime pope is accused by Jews and anarchists  of turning a blind eye to the holocaust. Cardinal Martino's comments were immediately criticized by Israel, who said the Vatican was repeating Hamas propaganda. The anarchists agree and say: No need to pay attention to the very authoritarian Vatican's baboon babble. The anarchists say clearly: Gaza is not a concentration camp! The anarchists call on the international newsmedia and mandated persons to mind their language and not escalate the conflict by using harsh words.

The Red Cross has accused Israel of failing to fulfil its obligation to help wounded civilians in Gaza. The Israeli military however said it worked closely with aid groups so that civilians could get assistance. Amnesty International has accused both sides of using civilians as human shields. Meanwhile the UN said it was suspending aid operations in Gaza, saying its staff were at risk from Israeli forces fighting Hamas militants, after drivers were attacked and one killed. Adnan Abu Hasna, a Gaza-based spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), did not say how long the suspension by the agency, which provides food and other aid to some 750,000 Gazans, would last. The suspension would continue "until the Israeli authorities can guarantee our safety and security", the UN said. Responding to the suspension of UN aid efforts, Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said Israel fully supported the work of the UN and other humanitarian agencies in Gaza. "We will do what needs to be done to facilitate this vital work," he said. "In these difficult days we must work together to meet the humanitarian needs of the population." The anarchists demand that Israel must take these accusations seriously, help wounded civilians, not attack aid workers and not use civilians as human shields. The same message goes to Hamas. - In the afternoon the Palestinian death toll is estimated to about 760. At least 11 Israelis have been killed, eight of them soldiers. More than a dozen rockets had hit southern Israel Thursday, in the afternoon. The "humanitarian corridor" was mainly open about three hours as planned, and Israel continued the offensive afterwards.

Peace talks at UN continue. The anarchists demand deeds, not words. The US, UK and France have dropped opposition to a UN resolution urging an immediate ceasefire, and Arab nations are studying a draft. The US, UK and France had earlier wanted a weaker statement from the UN Security Council. But Arab foreign ministers said anything less than a binding resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire would be an inadequate response to the crisis. If the Arab nations' response to the draft resolution is positive, a vote could happen later. The draft calls for an immediate ceasefire, action to stop the smuggling of arms by Hamas across the Egypt-Gaza border and the opening of border crossings into Gaza so aid can be delivered. The anarchists demand 1. deeds, not words in this connection, as soon as possible, and 2. that the [opening of] borders must be controlled to avoid import of weapons from Iran or other countries to Hamas.

Thursday evening the death toll from the Israeli incursion is estimated to765, with more than 3,200 injured. Three Israeli soldiers died in the fighting on Thursday, bringing to 10 the number of Israeli soldiers killed in the operation. Also three Israeli civilians have been killed in the operation, the IDF reported. Around 20 rockets hit Israel on Thursday, substantially fewer than at the start of the war. Israel is bent on halting Hamas rocket fire so that "quiet will reign supreme," as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said. That goal had not been achieved and a decision on further military action "is still ahead of us," he said. In Washington, the Senate adopted a bipartisan resolution "reaffirming Israel's inalienable right to defend against attacks from Gaza," majority leader Harry Reid said. The United States would do the same if "rockets and mortars coming from Toronto in Canada" hit Buffalo, New York, he said. The anarchists mainly agree... CNN estimates that the Israeli soldiers have done away with about 75% of the launching sites for Hamas rockets. There are still about 25% left, and this is anyway a false measure of success. Hamas can easily regroup and make new rockets and launching sites!

Non-binding U.N. Security Council resolution. The U.N. Security Council late Thursday overwhelmingly approved a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Fourteen of the council's 15 members voted in favor of the resolution, with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice abstaining from the vote on behalf of the United States. The resolution expresses "grave concern" about the growing humanitarian crisis and heavy civilian casualties in Gaza, as well as civilian deaths in Israel from Hamas rocket fire. The resolution "stresses the urgency of, and calls for, an immediate, durable, and fully respected ceasefire which will lead to the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza." A resolution from the council, particularly one that passes with such large support, can put international pressure on parties involved in a conflict. But they are in no way binding, and many in the past have been ignored  by factions in conflict. The anarchists mean there is probably still a long way to go in Gaza before a durable ceasefire can be achieved. "We are all very conscious that peace is made on the ground while resolutions are written in the U.N.," said British Foreign Secretary David Miliband. "Our job here is to support the efforts for peace on the ground and turn the good words on paper into changes on the ground that are so desperately needed."

Rice applauded the resolution's goals, but said the United States prefers to wait for results of ongoing, Egyptian-brokered talks in Cairo, Egypt, with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.  She said the United States supported the text, goals and objectives of the resolution, but that the United States feels it's important to see the terms of any ceasefire hammered out in Egypt. The resolution welcomes efforts by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to broker a ceasefire. It calls for opening corridors to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, where food, water, electricity and medicine shortages have worsened already poor conditions since Israel's offensive in Gaza began. Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Gabriela Shalev, told the Security Council that Hamas rocket attacks "left us with no choice." "The responsibility for the current hostilities lies squarely on Hamas," she said. "The international community must focus its efforts on the Hamas activity and make sure that the terrorist activity can never be legitimate." The IDF says its operation is aimed at halting the firing of rockets into southern Israel by Hamas, which has controlled Gaza since 2007. There was wrangling over the resolution centered on wording. Arab countries generally pushed for language demanding Israel cease its attacks, while Western diplomats wanted more neutral language. "Security for the people of Gaza, too. Not security for Israel alone," Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa, of Egypt, said before the vote as reporters were asking diplomats about the resolution. The 15-member Security Council is tasked by the United Nations with establishing and maintaining peace around the globe. It has the power to create peacekeeping operations, impose sanctions and authorize armed action. The United States, Russia, China, France and Great Britain are the five permanent members, with the other 10 elected by the U.N. assembly to two-year terms. Any one of the permanent members can veto a resolution.

09.01.2009: The Israeli offensive continues, and Hamas fires rockets... UN peace resolution rejected by Hamas. Israel is considering it. Overnight, at least 50 air strikes hit Gaza, one attack reportedly killing five Palestinians. Hamas terrorists fired several rockets into southern Israel in despite of the UN resolution. In the morning it is estimated that 770 Palestinians and 14 Israelis have been killed. Meanwhile, witnesses have told the UN that about 30 Palestinians died earlier this week as Israeli forces shelled a house in Gaza City into which Israeli soldiers had previously moved more than 100 people, half of them children. Israel said the allegations into the shelling of the house in the Zeitoun district were being investigated. After the Security Council vote, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Israel would continue to act bearing the security of its citizens in mind. Yigal Palmor, an Israeli foreign ministry spokesman, told the BBC that Hamas must not be able to rearm itself, and that the UN resolution "does not provide practical means to create a sustainable ceasefire". The Israeli security cabinet is meeting to consider its reaction and next steps. There is certainly no  guarantee that the UN's call for an immediate end to hostilities will be met. Hamas officials dismissed the UN resolution as not being "in the best interest" of Palestinians. Ayman Taha, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said: "Even though we are the main actors on the ground in Gaza, we were not consulted about this resolution and they have not taken into account our vision and the interests of our people."

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert later rejected the U.N. resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza as "unworkable". "The firing of rockets this morning only goes to show that the U.N. decision is unworkable and will not be adhered to by the murderous Palestinian organizations," he said in a statement. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert also said the firing of rockets by Hamas into Israel showed the U.N. resolution "cannot work" and that the army "would go on defending citizens." As bombs blasted the coastal enclave for a 14th day, senior Israeli ministers met to consider the next move. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni gave an indication the guns were unlikely to fall silent: "Israel has acted, is acting and will act only according to its considerations, the security needs of its citizens and its right to self defense," she said. Israel says it wants to stop rockets landing on its towns. At least 14 had been fired on Friday about noon, fewer than the dozens Hamas was able to launch in the early days of the struggle. Israeli warplanes dropped bombs on the outskirts of the city of Gaza, residents said. Elsewhere, Palestinian medics said tanks shelled a house in Beit Lahiya in the north of the Gaza Strip, killing six Palestinians from the same family. The armed struggle in Gaza, where many civilians including children have been killed, has solid support among Israeli voters. A poll on Friday showed over 90 % support among Israel's Jewish majority. The U.N. resolution spoke of a ceasefire that was not only "immediate" but also "durable and fully respected". language that chimes with Israeli and US demands in those negotiations that Israel secure guarantees that its Hamas Islamist enemies will be unable to rearm by halting smuggling from Egypt. France, which brokered a ceasefire proposal put forward by Egypt on Tuesday, said the resolution complemented negotiations being mediated by Cairo, but made clear it did not expect Israel to act immediately: "It's not the end of the story," foreign ministry spokesman Eric Chevalier has said.

In the morning the Israeli air force hit at least 50 targets across the enclave, including launching pads for rockets and facilities used to manufacture rockets, an army spokesman said. IDF commanders appeared keen to pursue what was termed a third stage of the operation with additional ground troops being sent into the heart of Gaza's built-up areas to flush out more gunmen and to try to secure more gains. Israel ceased fire for three hours from 1 p.m. local time on Friday to transfer humanitarian aid into the coastal enclave and allow its residents to stock up on food and other supplies. Hamas spokesman Ayman Taha said the group did not recognize the resolution as it had not been consulted. However another spokesman said Hamas was "studying" the resolution.  But the militants say they will never accept Israel, whose establishment amid conflict 60 years ago dispossessed and uprooted Palestinian people. The resolution also said there should be "unimpeded provision" and distribution of aid to the territory, home to 1.5 million people, many of whom are dependent on food assistance. Thus, both Hamas and Israel sent somewhat mixed signals about the UN resolution. The anarchists urge both parties to adopt and implement the resolution as soon as possible.

The U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which distributes the vast majority of aid in Gaza, kept its operations suspended on Friday after the death of one of its drivers in Israel's offensive. It was not clear when aid distribution would resume. Hamas officials said the Palestinian death toll had risen to 783, about noon. Israel says it is doing what it can to avoid civilian casualties but again accuses Hamas of deliberately placing its fighters close to homes and mosques.  About 800 people in Gaza are now reported to have died, perhaps as much as half of them civilians. Israel continued its offensive in Gaza on Friday, hitting more than 70 targets. Thirteen Israelis, including 10 soldiers, have also have so far been killed, IDF said. One soldier was moderately wounded and two others were lightly wounded during the day, but no deaths were reported Friday. Meanwhile, an Hamas delegation has left for Cairo for talks on a truce proposal, while UN aid workers who stopped activities in Gaza over security concerns have now decided to resume their work.

There have been support actions for Hamas with riots and ochlarchy many places, after Hamas called for a day of rage. Right and left-wing politicians in Rome have come out in support of the city's Jewish community in the wake of a proposed boycott of Israeli products because of the Gaza offensive. Flaica CUB , the small left-wing union that came up with the idea, denies its initiative is anti-semitic. However banners signed by a neo-fascist group were hung up in the Italian capital denouncing Mayor Gianni Alemanno for condemning the boycott. Italy's European Affairs Minister, Andrea Ronchi, says the Flaica CUB should be ashamed. "This news has scared everyone. I think all Romans and Italians condemn this group," he added. Those sentiments are shared by one of the leader's of the leftist opposition, Piero Fassino. He described the proposal as a stupid provocation: "To boycott means to negate. It's a form of negation of Israel and its rights. But the peace in the Middle East can not be achieved by negation but by recognizing the rights of Israel and of the Palestinian people," he said. Piero Marrazzo, governor of the Lazio region of which Rome is the capital, has called the idea of boycotting Jewish shops blood-curdling and has been meeting leaders of Rome's Jewish neighborhood to express his solidarity. The anarchists agree, in this case boycott is anti-semitic.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said on Friday some incidents reported during the fighting in Gaza might warrant prosecutions for war crimes. "The vicious cycle of provocation and retribution must be brought to an end," she told the human rights council. As mentioned both sides on Friday ignored a UN Security Council call for an immediate ceasefire to the conflict, which began on 27 December. Hamas rejected the move first. Late on Friday, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon telephoned Mr Olmert to express his disappointment that violence was continuing on the ground in disregard of the ceasefire call. The United States, which abstained in the UN vote, offered further public support for Israel's goals in Gaza. "This situation will not improve until Hamas stops lobbing rockets into Israel," White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said. The anarchists declare that the accusations of war crimes must be investigated. So far no sound evidence is brought forward.

10.01.2009: Gaza conflict enters third week. Israel said it launched 40 overnight air strikes, while Hamas militants fired two rockets at Israeli towns. Senior Palestinian officials are in Egypt for talks on how to end the Gaza conflict.The fresh wave of air strikes into Saturday morning had targeted weapons storage facilities and smuggling tunnels, according to Israel. It also said there had been exchanges of fire between its defense forces and militants on the ground in Gaza. This situation will not improve until Hamas stops lobbing rockets into Israel. Reports from inside Gaza suggest Israeli troops are still not entering the most densely populated areas. Gaza residents said Israeli airplanes had attacked unoccupied buildings and sites in Khan Younis, in Beit Lahiya and around Gaza City in the early hours. Hamas fired another couple of rockets at Israel on Saturday, a day after launching more than 30 of the missiles from Gaza, the Israeli military said. No damage or injuries were reported. Aid agencies say Gaza's 1.5 million residents are in urgent need of food and medical aid.

Diplomats are looking for progress from Saturday's talks in Egypt between Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. But Mr Abbas - who heads the secular Fatah movement, bitter rivals of Hamas - does not control Gaza, and analysts say he has little impact on the course of the conflict. Hamas, which took control of Gaza in June 2007, has also sent delegates to Cairo. Egypt negotiated the last ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, but this conflict has strained an already difficult relationship between Cairo and Hamas. Abbas and the Egyptians discussed the possible deployment of international forces along the Gaza-Egypt border under any ceasefire deal, but Abbas said they should be in Gaza itself, not along the border. Hamas is opposed to international forces. "There is a growing sense that the Egyptian-French plan is not going to work," a senior European diplomat said. European and Israeli diplomats said Egypt was objecting to proposals that foreign troops and technicians be stationed on its 15-km (9-mile) border with Gaza to prevent arms smuggling. Instead, diplomats said, Egypt was ready to accept technical assistance for its own forces on the border. Israel says the Egyptians have failed in the past to prevent Hamas building up an arsenal of hundreds of Soviet-designed Katyusha missiles.

About noon, on the ground, Israeli troops are reported to have moved closer to the edge of Gaza City, though they have yet to go into the most densely populated areas. Hamas has fired more rockets, around a dozen, at Israel the IDF said. Two Israelis were injured by the rockets in the Israeli town of Ashkelon. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas urged all sides to accept an Egyptian-brokered truce, after meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo. "If any party does not accept it [the truce], regrettably it will be the one bearing the responsibility, and if Israel doesn't want to accept, it will take the responsibility of perpetuating a waterfall of blood," Mr Abbas was quoted as saying. Hamas, meeting the Egyptians, said it needed more "details" regarding the peace plan. The anarchists suggest a simultaneous stop in the attacks, as neither Hamas nor Israel will take the first step.

Continuing a policy of recent days, Israel was due to cease operations between 13.00 and 16.00 local time to allow humanitarian aid to be distributed throughout Gaza. However responding to Hamas rocket fire, at least two tank shells hit northern Gaza immediately after the truce window opened. U.N. sources said Israel was also stepping up operations in the West Bank, detaining Palestinian suspects in rising numbers.

Phase three is coming. Israel has dropped leaflets on the Gaza Strip warning residents that it is to escalate its military action. The leaflets indicate Israel will adopt new tactics in its battle with the Palestinian terrorists. Israel has attacked dozens of Hamas targets, including what it says were rocket-launching sites, weapons stores, and smuggling tunnels. Meanwhile, Hamas continued to fire rockets at Israeli towns. Medical staff in Gaza say more than 800 Palestinians have died during the two-week offensive. Leaflets and  phone messages in Arabic urged Gaza residents to keep away from sites linked to Hamas, saying that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) were not targeting Gazans but "Hamas and the terrorists only". One phone message said "the third stage" of the operation would start soon. It is two weeks since air strikes on Gaza began, phase one. The ground attacks started a week ago, phase two. Phase three could see Israeli forces moving deeper into cities and refugee camps - that will involve new risks for Israeli soldiers and civilians in the Gaza Strip. The UN has continued aid deliveries in Gaza after suspending operations on Thursday when it said the driver of one of its lorries was killed by Israeli fire. The IDF said it was "100% certain" it did not attack the vehicle. If Hamas had about 15 000 terrorists initially, and 3/4 of the wounded (about 3 400), killed (about 820) and arrested (about 100?) Palestinians are terrorists, about 3240 are taken out, and Hamas still has about 12 000 (11760) terrorists to attack the Israelis.

Hamas militants fired 20 Grad long-range rockets into Israel on Saturday, injuring four civilians, according to an IDF spokesman. And the Hamas commander in charge of launching rockets into Israel from the Gaza City area was killed Saturday by Israeli ground fire, the IDF said in a statement. Amir Mansi was spotted firing a rocket Saturday from the Jabel Rise area, east of Gaza City, during a ground force operation, the IDF said. Israeli forces opened fire, killing Mansi and wounding two other Hamas operatives, who were captured, the Israelis said. Mansi was the leading Hamas authority on the Grad long-range missile-launching system, the IDF said. Grad rockets have allowed Hamas to reach farther into Israel than in previous attacks. The rockets carry more explosives than the more primitive Qassam rockets typically used by Hamas, and some can travel as far as 25 miles. The Israeli military said Mansi directed and actively fired dozens of rockets at Israel, killing and wounding Israeli civilians.

Israelis say their Gaza military operation, which started December 27, is targeting rocket-launching sites, Hamas infrastructure and the movement's leaders in an effort to stop militants from sending rockets into southern Israel. Thousands of leaflets dropped by Israeli planes fluttered over Gaza City while the three-hour lull -- the third this week -- was in place. Leaflets dropped along the Egyptian border warned residents to leave their houses because the Israeli military planned attacks in the area, Palestinian security forces said. According to a spokesman for the IDF, the leaflets say: "Two days ago, the IDF distributed leaflets in Rafah in which the residents were warned to evacuate their homes for their own safety. As they heeded the IDF instructions, the harming of residents in combat was avoided. Over the coming period, the IDF will continue to target tunnels, weapon caches and terrorist operatives with growing intensity. For your safety and that of your family, stay away from terrorist elements or places where weapons are stored or places where terrorist elements operate." Exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal said during a televised news conference Saturday night that his followers will consider any proposals to stop the violence if conditions are met: the Israelis stop their "aggression" and all crossings between Israel and Gaza are opened. "These are our just demands, and with an open mind we will interact with any initiative," Mashaal said.

The diplomacy appears to be moving slowly. Diplomats have suggested an international force to police Gaza's border with Egypt, and stop weapons being smuggled, but Cairo rejected this on Saturday. A senior Israeli official raised doubts about the proposal, saying Egypt's security forces might be better able to secure its boundary with Gaza and stop Hamas rearming. And speaking from exile in the Syrian capital Damascus, Hamas' leader said "any foreign troops would be considered as occupiers".  On Saturday, Hamas militants reportedly fired more than 30 rockets across the border, while Israel launched more than 70 attacks by air, land and sea. Tens of thousands of people attended rallies held across the US, Europe and the Middle East against the Israeli offensive on Saturday, many with severe ochlarchy: Hamas is also very ochlarchist...

11.01.2009: Heavy clashes on Gaza City's outskirts. Israel says it carried out more than 60 air strikes overnight on the Gaza Strip, as its cabinet prepares to discuss stepping up the offensive. The home of the head of Hamas' military wing was among the targets, Israel said. There are now reports of heavy clashes on Gaza City's outskirts. Gaza militants fired several rockets into Israel overnight, reports said. Israel's security cabinet is meeting to decide whether to push forces further into Gaza's densely populated areas. Israeli commanders are said to be getting impatient as the government ponders its next move. On Saturday night, Palestinian medics accused Israeli forces of firing white phosphorus shells at a village, a claim Israel strongly denied. The IDF said its air strikes into Sunday morning had targeted tunnels, weapons stores and a mosque that was allegedly used to store weapons. Its ground forces were involved in a "number of incidents", the IDF said. The strikes came hours after Israel dropped leaflets and left phone messages warning Gazans to stay away from areas used by Hamas and saying its operation would soon enter "phase three".  Hamas launched a barrage of rockets early on on Sunday, two of which struck 42 km (26 miles) inside southern Israel at the city of Beersheba, the IDF said. There were no reported casualties or damage.

Dozens of Palestinians were reportedly injured in southern Gaza, near the village of Khouza to the east of Khan Younis. Palestinian medics said many of the casualties were suffering from burns and gas inhalations - symptoms they said indicate exposure to white phosphorus. But IDF categorically denied the claims, saying all weapons used by Israel were legal. Although white phosphorus is legal in munitions, its use against civilians is banned under international law. New York-based rights group Human Rights Watch has accused Israel of using white phosphorus in its current Gaza operations. IDF spokesman Capt Guy Spigelman said that Israel "categorically denied" using white phosphorus in Gaza, saying other "smoke bombs and flares" were being deployed. On Sunday Israel dropped new leaflets into Gaza and left phone messages warning Gazans to stay away from areas used by Hamas. In Cairo, talks between Hamas and Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman were described by an unnamed intelligence official as "positive", the state news agency reported, without providing details

Israel is "nearing Gaza goals". Diplomacy is dead? "Israel is getting close to achieving the goals it set for itself," Olmert told his cabinet in Jerusalem, giving no timeframe for an end to a campaign launched with the declared aim of ending Hamas rocket attacks. "But patience, determination and effort are still needed to realize these goals in a manner that will change the security situation in the south," Olmert said, referring to Israeli towns where life has been seriously disrupted by rocket salvoes. On the usually quiet Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, shots were fired from Syria at Israeli army engineers working on the frontier fence, but no one was hurt and it was not immediately clear who was responsible, an IDF spokesman said. The Israeli army said reserve units were in place in Gaza, but this did not signal a "new push" against militants. In the evening Palestinian medics said 879 people have been killed during the 16-day conflict, and the death toll is increasing. Palestinian sources said 29 people were killed across Gaza on Sunday - 17 in Gaza City. Hamas fired more than 20 rockets on Sunday, slightly injuring three people. Referring to last week's UN Security Council call for an immediate ceasefire, Mr Olmert said "nobody should be allowed to decide for us if we are allowed to strike". After some forum shopping, both Hamas and Israel have rejected the UN resolution. Late on Sunday, an IDF spokesman said: "More and more have been incorporated into the operations. This is not to suggest that there is a big new push." Israel unleashed its Operation Cast Lead as a six-month truce between it and Hamas unravelled. Israel hopes the armed struggle will greatly reduce the number of missiles fired from Gaza onto Israeli towns, and also erode support for Hamas. The anarchists forecast that Hamas will capitulate in less than 14 days... If IDF follows the anarchists' strategic advice!

Hamas military wing begins to crack? A last chance for a ceasefire? Israeli troops pushed into a heavily populated area of Gaza City from the south on Sunday in fierce fighting, and senior Israeli officials said for the first time in the two-week-old war that they believed that the Hamas military wing was beginning to crack and that Hamas leaders inside Gaza were looking for a ceasefire. On Monday Egypt plans to convene negotiations aimed at a cease fire in Gaza, where the Israeli military assault to silence rocket fire and tunneling by Hamas and other militants opposed to Israel's existence has wrought extensive death and destruction. Nearly 900 people have been killed, according to Palestinian Health Ministry officials, by midnight. Thirteen Israelis have been killed, Israel has said. European diplomats involved in the Egypt negotiations said Sunday that the next 48 hours would be crucial for Israel to decide if a durable ceasefire can be achieved. The Israeli cabinet secretary, Oved Yehezkel, told reporters that in the cabinet meeting the heads of army intelligence, Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin, and of the Shin Bet security service, Yuval Diskin, said, "It is the inclination within Hamas to agree to a ceasefire, given the harsh blow it received and given the absence of accomplishment on the ground." The Israelis said this view inside Gaza was a contrast to the "unyielding stands" of the exiled Hamas leadership in Damascus, Syria, in particular Khaled Meshal, the political director. But Hamas "is not expected to wave a white flag" and is reserving rockets and weaponry to fire at the end of the conflict, the intelligence chiefs said.

Another senior Israeli security official said that Israeli soldiers had "confirmed through their sights" the killing of 300 Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters on the ground in Gaza, and that Hamas units were making mistakes and fighting without clear direction."I can say with a high level of confidence that for two days, what we have been hearing repeatedly is that Hamas inside Gaza is eager — eager — to achieve a ceasefire," said the senior official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the issue's delicate nature. "This is as opposed to the leadership in Damascus that is willing to fight to the last Palestinian." The Israelis were clearly all pushing a concerted message, but no official provided details on how Israel supported its assertion. It was impossible to get a response from Hamas leaders in Gaza, because they were in hiding from Israeli military strikes. On Saturday, the Hamas political director in exile, Mr. Meshal, said in Damascus that Hamas would not consider a ceasefire until Israel ended the assault and opened all crossings into Gaza. He said that the ferocity of the Israeli campaign had crossed the line and called it a "holocaust," adding, "You have destroyed the last chance for negotiations."

Israel and the United States are trying to secure agreement on a deal brokered by Egypt that would mean a Hamas commitment to stop all rocket firing into Israel and an Egyptian commitment to block smuggling tunnels into Gaza, to stop the resupplying of Hamas with weaponry and cash. In return, Israel would agree to a ceasefire and the opening of its crossings into Gaza for goods and fuel and the opening of the Rafah crossing into Egypt, with European Union supervision. Tony Blair, the former British prime minister and now an international envoy to the Palestinians, said in an interview that "the only way this is going to stop is if there is a genuine plan to end the smuggling into Gaza and a genuine plan to open the crossings." Mr. Blair will be in Cairo on Monday, as will a senior Israeli Defense Ministry official, Amos Gilad. A Hamas delegation is already in Cairo talking to the Egyptians through the intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman. If the Egyptian effort fails, Israeli officials said, the military is likely to go to a "third stage" of the war against Hamas in Gaza, with the reserve troops thrown into the battle. An expansion of the war would most likely mean Israeli troops moving into southern Gaza, to take a strip of land at least 500 yards wide inside Gaza at the Egyptian border. Israel has been bombing the area to try to destroy smuggling tunnels between Gaza and Egypt. The anarchists still hope for a durable ceasefire....

In response to growing criticism against its operation, Israel released footage on Sunday allegedly demonstrating its efforts to avoid harming Palestinian civilians. The IDF claims it shows an Israeli plane apparently tracking a Hamas vehicle and diverting a missile at the last moment to avoid a group of civilians.

12.01.2008: Israeli raids as reserves move in. Israel says its military pressure on Hamas is proving effective. Israeli planes have carried out fewer air strikes on the Gaza Strip overnight, as reserve units went into action on the ground. There were 12 air raids - compared with as many as 60 on previous nights. At least nine rockets or mortars were fired on Israel from Gaza on Monday morning. One on the town of Ashkelon, striking a house, and one on Kiryat Gat, but none of them caused casualties. The IDF denied stepping up a ground offensive against Hamas, despite renewed fierce fighting. Reports suggest diplomatic efforts between Egypt and Hamas in Cairo are progressing. After meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Middle East Quartet envoy Tony Blair said elements were in place for a ceasefire agreement. "I am hopeful we can put an agreement together but it's going to have to be worked on very hard and it's got to be credible," he told journalists. At least five Palestinians including one militant were killed on Monday, bringing the total Palestinian death toll during the conflict to about 900, Palestinian medics said. Israel says 13 Israelis have died. There were reports of fierce fighting around Gaza City. Reservists were reported to be securing areas gained in the fighting, as regular troops continued their advance. Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said Israel's goals were "very minimalistic" and "purely defensive". "We refuse, we refuse to return to a reality in which the Israeli civilian population has to live in that constant fear of an incoming Hamas rocket," he said. Confirming the deployment of reserve soldiers, Mr Regev said reservists had been called up "a few days back" to augment Israeli forces. The IDF said some reservists were being used to refresh troops currently in action in Gaza, but that this did not yet constitute an escalation of the campaign. Brig Gen Avi Benayahu, ÌDF's chief spokesman, said thousands more - who are to comprise a new, expanded phase in the ground operation - were still in training and had not been deployed.

Israelis edge into urban Gaza. Israel says its military pressure on Hamas is proving effective. Israeli forces are moving slowly into Gaza's most densely populated areas as they continue air and ground attacks on Hamas terrorists. Some reservists are in action on the ground, but the army denied escalating the war to a "third phase" - an all-out push on Gaza City and other towns. Israeli spokesman Mark Regev said Hamas's military machine was taking "serious punishment" and Israel was "advancing towards the end game". There were reports of fierce fighting around Gaza City about noon, although a daily three-hour truce to allow aid deliveries to Gaza was in place. 

About 160 trucks of humanitarian aid were let into the Palestinian territory through the Kerem Shalom and Karni crossings. IDF spokeswoman Maj Avital Leibovich said troops were continuing their advance into urban areas. "Since the majority of the Hamas militants are pretty much in hiding in those places, mainly urban places, then we operate in those areas," she said. Reservists continued to secure areas gained in the fighting. Air strikes also continued through the day against 25 targets across the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military said. In the afternoon nearly 30 rockets or mortars were fired on Israel from Gaza. Figures from Gaza for the number of people killed in fighting range from nine to 20. Palestinian medical sources said 908 people have been killed so far - of whom 277 are children. The UN secretary general hasonce more implored Israel and Palestinian militants to halt the fighting in Gaza immediately. Nearly 30 rockets or mortars were fired on Israel from Gaza on Monday. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Palestinian militants will keep on feeling Israel's "iron fist" as long as Hamas fires rockets at Israel. But a senior Hamas leader, Ismail Haniya, said the group was "approaching victory". One of Hamas' "Comical Alis"... Palestinian medical sources say 910 people have been killed in Gaza so far, of whom 292 were children and 75 were women. Israeli officials say 13 Israelis, including three civilians, have been killed, same number as earlier. Meanwhile reports suggest diplomatic efforts between Egypt and Hamas in Cairo are progressing.

13.01.2009: Early on Tuesday, the 18th day of the conflict, Israeli troops advanced in the southern and eastern suburbs of Gaza City, backed by artillery and helicopters. The western areas of the city came under shellfire from Israeli gunboats. IDF has denied a Hamas claim that it had destroyed two Israeli tanks. An army spokesman said that "more than 60 targets were targeted by IAF during the night". IAF is the Israeli Air Force. But the Israeli military announced a three-hour ceasefire starting at 0900 local time (0700 GMT) to allow aid lorries into Gaza. The head of the Red Cross accompanied a convoy of aid into Gaza during the three-hour ceasefire, during which witnesses said there was increased shelling. The truce also coincides with visits to the territory by UN officials. Also on Tuesday, an Israeli army patrol in the West Bank came under fire from inside Jordan, the army said. No-one was hurt in the incident and the patrol returned fire. Israeli forces tightened their hold on the outskirts of the city of Gaza and Israel's top general said "there is still work" ahead against Hamas in an 18-day-old offensive that has killed more than 910 Palestinians. The sounds of explosions and heavy machinegun fire echoed through the city of 500,000 after Israeli tanks drew nearer but did not enter its densely populated center, local residents said. Medical workers said 12 Palestinian gunmen, some of them members of the Islamist Hamas group that rules the Gaza Strip, were killed in morning fighting.

In the afternoon Palestinian medical officials said at least 937 people in the Gaza Strip have been killed and nearly 4,000 wounded since the offensive began. The health minister in Gaza's Hamas-run government said close to 400 of those were women and children. Israel is still preventing international journalists from entering Gaza, making it impossible independently to confirm casualty figures. Israel admits 13 deaths, ten of them soldiers, none today. Human rights group al-Mizan in Gaza said more than 90 000 people had fled their houses during the violence. About 31 000 of them were staying at UN-run schools in Gaza City, which are full, in Jabaliyah camp and Shati camp. The other 60 000 were staying with neighbors and relatives. Hamas, however, have kept up rocket attacks on Israel. About twenty rocket or mortar attacks have been launched from Gaza. No-one was hurt. Both Hamas and Israel are engaged in peace negotiations in Egypt, where also Turkey has joined in, but both Hamas and IDF are continuing the fighting.

In the evening Israeli troops have entered the suburbs of Gaza City and are engaged in street fighting with militants, reports say. Witnesses said Israeli special forces had advanced several hundred metres into several neighborhoods and that intense gunfire could be heard. Palestinian medical officials say that since the offensive began on 27 December, 971 people have been killed in Gaza - of whom 311 were children and 76 were women - and more than 4 400 people have been injured. According to IDF 7 mortars and 18 rockets were fired out of Gaza Tuesday, but no one was injured, and that Israeli air planes had carried out more than 50 air strikes since the morning. Israel's stated purpose for the offensive in Gaza is to stop the rocket attacks. Since 2001 more than 10 000 rockets and mortar fire have been sent from Gaza to Israel, according to a Norwegian pro Israeli group, in an article published in Aftenposten, one of the main Norwegian newspapers.

Israeli warplanes have continued pounding the southern Gaza town of Rafah as part of their offensive against Hamas. Israel admits 13 deaths, ten of them soldiers. On the diplomatic front, Egyptian-led efforts to reach a ceasefire continue in Cairo, where the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon is expected on Wednesday. But Hamas seems determined to reject calls for any truce until Israel ends its offensive and pulls out of Gaza. As for Israel, it will not consider a ceasefire until Hamas ends its rocket attacks over the border, and the flow of weapons into Gaza is stopped. France, the EU, Norway and the Middle East envoy Tony Blair are planning a meeting in Paris on Thursday to discuss further assistance to Palestinian civilians caught up in the conflict.

The Anarchist International, with about 50 000 persons loosely associated to the network, demands the bloodshed must now stop, and calls for a durable peace agreement and ceasefire, with simultaneously stop in the attacks from both Hamas and Israel.

14.01.2009: In the morning: UN Secretary General  set for talks on Gaza. 50 000 anarchists support his peace efforts. Israel is continuing its military drive into Gaza as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon heads to Cairo in an effort to secure an end to 19 days of fighting. Mr Ban is scheduled to meet Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak as part of the most intensive diplomatic effort yet to end Israel's battle with Hamas. He will then visit Israel and the West Bank as well as other regional powers. There has been heavy fighting overnight, and rocket fire from Lebanon."Three rockets fired into Israel landed outside the city of Kiryat Shmona," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said about Wednesday's incident in the Galilee. Security sources in Lebanon said five rockets were fired and two fell in Lebanon. Witnesses in south Lebanon said Israel responded with artillery fire. There were no immediate reports of casualties or further Israeli military action. Four rockets were fired on northern Israel from Lebanon last week, prompting fears of a widening of the conflict.

Israel's air force says it carried out 60 air strikes overnight, concentrating on smuggling tunnels along the border with Egypt. Israeli troops have been engaging Hamas fighters on the streets in the suburbs of Gaza City, and there have been reports of heavy machine-gun fire. Mr Ban comes with a simple message: the fighting must stop, too many people have died. In his meetings with Palestinian and Israeli leaders, as well as senior politicians in Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Turkey, Mr Ban has said he will be encouraging initiatives to open border crossings and provide humanitarian aid to Gaza. But the UN chief is not scheduled to meet representatives of Hamas - which controls the Gaza Strip - and it is not clear whether he will go to Gaza itself during his week-long trip. Mr Mubarak has already held talks with Saudi King Abdullah amid reports Cairo is putting increasing pressure on Hamas leaders to accept a truce proposal. One idea being floated is for Turkish troops to be deployed along Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip to prevent the smuggling of weapons. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri has said any ceasefire agreement would have to entail a halt to Israeli attacks, a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces and the opening of border crossings to end the blockade of Gaza.

The Israeli foreign ministry has said there is no guarantee Hamas would respect any ceasefire agreement. Analysts say Israel may be holding back from all-out urban warfare in Gaza City, where intense street fighting could cause heavy casualties on both sides, which would be politically risky less than a month before Israel holds elections. However, Israeli media also reports a division within the government. Defense Minister Ehud Barak is said to favour a week-long ceasefire in Gaza to allow for the delivery of much needed supplies and to give politicians the breathing space to hammer out a long term truce. But Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says he wants to press on with the military campaign for however long it takes. Nearly 1 000 Gazans have been killed and 4,400 have been injured, an since Israel's offensive on Gaza began on 27 December, according to Palestinian figures. Thirteen Israelis have died since 27 December, three of them civilians, Israel says, same number as before. A UN watchdog has accused Israel of showing a "manifest disrespect" for the protection of children in Gaza. More than 40% of those killed in Gaza were women or children, said the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, even though Israel had signed a UN protocol condemning attacks on places where children were likely to be present. It is impossible to independently confirm casualty figures as Israel still  refuses to allow international journalists to enter Gaza. Israel said it launched 60 air strikes on Gaza overnight.

About noon local time: Mr Ban has hold peace talks in Egypt. Israel however pursues its Gaza offensive. Fighting has intensified in the Gaza Strip between Israeli troops and Palestinian terrorists. Gaza residents have spoken of heavy machine-gun fire as Israeli troops clashed with Hamas gunmen near Gaza City. Israel had planned to send its chief negotiator, Amos Gilad, to Cairo, to meet with Mr Ban, but the trip was cancelled. Al-Qaeda and Osama bin-Laden have called for Jihad against Israel, in support of Hamas. The anarchists allied with the anti-terrorist coalition already in 2001...

In the evening the Ministry of Health in Gaza said 1 013 people have died in the conflict.More than 300 of the dead are said to be children, 76 are women and more than 4,500 people have been injured, of whom 1 600 are children and 678 are women. Thirteen Israelis have been killed, including three civilians and one soldier from rockets fired from Gaza and nine soldiers killed in fighting in Gaza. It is still impossible to independently confirm casualty figures as Israel has refused to allow international journalists to enter Gaza. Egypt has been leading efforts to broker a ceasefire, that could include a new force of peacekeepers to prevent smuggling on its border with Gaza. After talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he hoped the Egyptian initiative would show results as soon as possible. "Soon as possible" may be a week or two realistically seen.

The UN secretary general is in Jordan on the next leg of a Middle East tour before visiting Israel, the West Bank and Syria. "The movement has presented a detailed vision to the Egyptian leadership so that it [Egypt] can continue its pursuit to end the aggression and lift the injustice on our people in the Gaza Strip," Hamas official Salah al-Bardawil said. These details concerned how to ensure that border crossings into Gaza could be re-opened under international supervision, he said, and would be presented to Israeli envoys visiting Cairo on Thursday. A senior Israeli defense official, Amos Gilad, is to travel to Cairo on Thursday, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said. Earlier on Wednesday, other Hamas officials had said the Egyptian initiative had been positively received, but that more time was needed to discuss it. Hamas has said any ceasefire agreement would have to entail a halt to Israeli attacks, a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces and the opening of border crossings to end the blockade of Gaza.

Israel will not agree to a deal that does not guarantee an end to Hamas's smuggling of weapons across the Egyptian border and the cessation of rocket attacks into southern Israel. For its part, Hamas refuses to accept an agreement that could in effect spell the beginning of the end for its military wing. Egypt and other key Arab states can put pressure on Hamas but the US remains unwilling to press Israel to make any concessions. As mentioned both Hamas and Israel rejected last week's UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire. The Israeli offensive has provoked widespread international condemnation at the cost in civilian casualties.

On Wednesday, Israel continued to bombard the Gaza Strip and residents spoke of heavy machine-gun fire as Israeli troops fought Hamas gunmen near Gaza City. Humanitarian concerns have increased amid the fighting, although some aid is getting through to Gaza during daily three-hour lulls Israel has allowed to let in supplies. Confusion surrounds information that Hamas has accepted an Egyptian proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza. Initial reports that the armed group had given its backing to the truce have now been denied. It comes after 19 days of fighting in the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli army continues to pound Hamas targets with the aim of destroying the militant group. As the bloodshed continues, efforts continue in Cairo to try to reach an agreement. So far, both sides have rejected proposals for a truce. As indicated above while Israel is demanding an end to rockets attacks on its territory and the flow of weapons to Hamas fighters, Hamas says there will be no ceasefire until Israel pulls out of Gaza.

The Anarchist International, with about 50 000 persons loosely associated to the network, agrees with Mr Ban that the fighting must stop, too many people have died, supports his peace efforts, and calls for a durable peace agreement and ceasefire, with simultaneously stop in the attacks from both Hamas and Israel.

15.01.2009: Gaza pounded amid push for truce. Israeli tanks have pushed deep into Gaza City, prompting fierce exchanges of  gunfire with fighters of the Palestinian militant group Hamas. The UN's relief agency, Unrwa, says part of its HQ in the city is on fire after being shelled by the Israelis. Speaking to reporters on the Israel-Gaza border, Unrwa spokesman Christopher Gunness said three of the agency's employees were hurt in the attack. He said the compound was hit by what Unrwa believed to be three white phosphorus shells, which are incendiary weapons used as a smoke screen. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon expressed outrage at the attack, and said Israel had told him it was a grave mistake. United Nations has suspended its relief operations in Gaza after its headquarters came under Israeli fire.

After meeting the Israeli Foreign Minister in Tel Aviv, the UN Secretary General had this reaction to the strike on the UN offices in Gaza. "Today the UN compound in Gaza has been shelled again," he said. "I conveyed my strong protest and outrage to the defense minister and the foreign minister and demanded a full explanation. Defense Minister Barak said to me it was a grave mistake and he took it very seriously. He assured me that extra attention will be paid to the UN facilities and staff and that this should not be repeated." The Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni did not mention the UN shelling, but gave a general defense of Israel's offensive. "Israel, a member state of the UN, is doing what a state needs to do in order to defend its citizens," she said. "This is an effective, successful military operation against terror. And Gaza is being controlled by a terrorist organisation that doesn't fight for the aspirations of the Palestinian people. It is not part of the peace process that Israel launched in Annapolis with the pragmatic leadership of the Palestinian authority." Mr Olmert met UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and apologised for the attack, but said Palestinian fighters had been firing from the UN site. "It is absolutely true that we were attacked from that place, but the consequences are very sad and we apologise for it," he said. "I don't think it should have happened and I'm very sorry."

Efforts to reach a truce continue, with Israel's head negotiator in Cairo to discuss an Egyptian ceasefire plan. Hamas said the talks had made progress. There is growing speculation that Egypt and Hamas are close to agreeing a deal for a 10-day ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian militant group which governs Gaza. Long term, key uncertainties remain over a deal under which Gaza's borders would be opened and Israel's troops withdrawn from the coastal enclave. But in the short term, there is optimism: "The Egyptian initiative is the only initiative made available to us. We are working on all the points presented and made our remarks after negotiating with the Egyptians and we hope that it will end successfully," said a spokesman for Hamas after talks in Cairo.

IDF officials say they attacked 70 military targets overnight, including a mosque they say was being used to store weapons. The coastal enclave came under extremely heavy artillery fire from the east in the early hours, and that the skies were full of thick smoke. Israeli tanks seemed to be pushing closer to the heart of Gaza City, close to the Unrwa headquarters, and that there were reports of 21 people killed in fighting since the early hours. Witnesses said they saw soldiers on foot marching behind bulldozers and tanks. There have been reports of the troops meeting some resistance, but the army has clearly come in great strength and pushed quite quickly and easily into the city.

Reports say at least 15 rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel since the early morning.  Speaking to the press after meeting Israeli leaders in Tel Aviv, Mr Ban repeated previous calls for an immediate ceasefire, and said the suffering in Gaza was a "dire humanitarian crisis" that had reached an "unbearable point". The UK Foreign Office minister Lord Malloch-Brown says the British government "utterly" condemns the attack on the UN headquarters in Gaza. Fierce criticism also came from the French foreign ministry. The Shurouq tower block in Gaza City, which houses the offices of the Reuters news agency and several other organisations, is hit by an explosion, injuring a journalist for the Abu Dhabi television channel.

Leaders of the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council are to meet in Saudi Arabia to discuss the crisis. The Saudi monarch, King Abdullah, said the meeting was convened because of what he called Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people. A boat carrying medical supplies to Gaza is surrounded by Israeli warships in international waters off Lebanon's southern coast and forced to return to Cyprus, according to charity Free Gaza.

Israel's chief negotiator, Amos Gilad, has arrived in Cairo to discuss an Egyptian ceasefire plan that could end the 20-day-old conflict. Egypt has been leading efforts to broker a ceasefire that could include a peacekeeping force being deployed along its border with Gaza to prevent the smuggling of weapons. Hamas official Salah al-Bardawil said his movement had presented Egyptian negotiators with a "detailed vision" of how to bring about a ceasefire. These details concerned how to ensure border crossings into Gaza could be re-opened under international supervision, he said, and would be presented to Israeli envoys visiting Cairo.

Hamas has said any ceasefire agreement would have to include a halt to Israeli attacks, the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces and the opening of border crossings to end the blockade of Gaza. Israel has said it will not agree to a deal that does not guarantee an end to Hamas's smuggling of weapons across the Egyptian border and the cessation of rocket attacks into southern Israel. However, Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said there was "momentum" to the talks. "Ultimately we want to see a long-term sustainable quiet in the south, a quiet that's going to be based on the total absence of all hostile fire from Gaza into Israel, and an internationally supported mechanism that will prevent Hamas from rearming," Mr Regev said.

Egypt and other key Arab players can do some coaxing and arm-twisting with Hamas, but there is little pressure they can bring to bear upon Israel: only the US has that sort of influence. There have been mixed messages from Israel about whether the assault on Gaza could soon end or be stepped up. Some analysts believe the deadline could be next Tuesday's inauguration of Barack Obama, after which Israel may be reluctant to test the new US President's support for their increasingly criticised campaign. One Israeli soldier in Gaza said: "I'm against a ceasefire. We have to finish the job." Another said: "All of us are hoping for a true ceasefire so we don't have to return here in a few months. We want to finish this and return home safe and sound, and then to be sure this is finished for a good few years." Some more Palestinian rockets have today hit the southern Israeli town of Sderot, close to the border with Gaza, causing no injuries. Israeli troops and tanks moved closer into the heart of Gaza City, prompting fierce gun battles with fighters from Hamas.

One of the top Hamas leaders in Gaza has been killed in an air strike, Hamas and Israeli officials have said. Said Siyam, the Hamas interior minister, was killed in an air raid on his brother's home near Gaza City. As interior minister, Mr Siyam controlled thousands of Hamas security troops in Gaza and was said to be widely feared. His son and brother were also killed in the strike, along with two other Hamas officials - the interior ministry's security director Saleh Abu Sharkh and the local leader of the Hamas militia, Mahmoud Abu Watfah. Mr Siyam is one of the most senior Hamas leaders killed in the 20-day Israeli operation in the Gaza Strip. He became a member of the "collective leadership" of the terrorist group in 2004 after Sheikh Yassin and Abdel-Aziz Rantissi were assassinated by Israel.

On the diplomatic front, intensive efforts continue to try to reach a ceasefire agreement. Hamas has told Egypt it will only agree to a year-long renewable ceasefire if Israel pulls out its forces within a week and immediately reopens border crossings. Senior Israeli politicians were meeting on Thursday night to decide on their response to a plan being proposed by Egypt. An Israeli defense official earlier held talks in Cairo with mediators who have already met Hamas. The US Secretary of State has also reportedly told Israel that Washington could help prevent Hamas from rearming after a ceasefire. Israel has been demanding a halt of rocket attacks and an end to the smuggling of weapons into Gaza from Egypt. Meanwhile, Israeli police say two rockets struck the southern Israeli town of Beersheva today. The Israeli death toll stands as before at 13. A total of 1 083 people in Gaza have now been killed since the Israeli operation began, Gaza's Ministry of Health said on Thursday - 70 higher than the previous day's figure. Nearly a third of the dead are children, Gaza medics said.

Israel has still refused to allow international journalists to enter Gaza, making it impossible to independently confirm casualty figures. The offensive has provoked widespread international condemnation at the cost in civilian casualties and the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the coastal enclave. The anarchists demand a durable ceasefire as soon as possible! 'Durable' means at least 100 years. A one year ceasefire as suggested by Hamas must be rejected.

16.01.2009: In the morning: After three weeks of tank-shells and air strikes, as mentioned the Palestinian faction Hamas has said it is willing to agree to a year-long renewable truce if Israel withdraws its troops within a week and Gaza border crossings are opened immediately. After a day and a night of intense diplomatic effort, both sides appear to be edging closer to a ceasefire. Israel is to send its chief negotiator back to Cairo later today with what is thought to be its response to the proposal. Although Israel refuses to deal directly with Hamas, Egyptian mediators have been talking to both sides. Political analysts believe Israel has possibly set its own private deadline for a truce, that of Tuesday's installation of Barack Obama as US president. Israel is reluctant to test support from the new administration too soon. After meeting UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Israel's Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is to travel to New York to finalise an accord designed to prevent Hamas re-arming. International opinion has been angered over Israel's actions with renewed calls for it to respect a UN resolution to implement a truce and to allow in humanitarian aid.

IDF officials said Israel attacked about 40 targets across Gaza overnight. IDF said the overnight attacks targeted smuggling tunnels, launching points, weaponry storages, two Hamas stations and a militants' training camp. Casualties at a hospital in Gaza City had to flee because of fire.An Israeli spokesman said he hoped the conflict was in its "final act". "The diplomacy now is in high gear... we want this to be over as soon as possible," Mark Regev said. "The minute we can be sure that the solution will not be a band aid, that after a few days of quiet we won't have more rockets on Israeli civilians, the minute we can understand that that situation will be a sustained peace, then we're going to go for it." Health officials in Hamas-controlled Gaza say at least 1 105 Palestinians have been killed and 5 100 wounded since Israel launched an operation on 27 December to end rocket attacks on its territory. Thirteen Israelis - three of them civilians - have died, no new, while 233 soldiers have been wounded, the IDF says. IDF has closed all access to the West Bank for the next two days following a call by Hamas for Palestinians to observe what it called a day of wrath, by staging anti-Israeli protests at Friday prayers. There has been a similar call by the Palestinian Authority to the followers of the rival Palestinian faction, Fatah. The anarchists call for 14 days of wrath against the Hamas terrorists...

About noon Hamas rejects a ceasefire and says it will continue the fight until the Israeli offensive ends... The anarchists say that Hamas is a tough nut, but call for further peace negotiations... In the afternoon the Palestinian death toll has reaced 1 105, according to Palestinian medics... Later on also Israel rejects a ceasefire...

In the evening USA and Israel have signed a deal to stop the smuggling of weapons into Gaza from Egypt. The US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, said the agreement ultimately would contribute towards a "durable ceasefire." Israel has indicated that its military offensive is its final act and this so-called "memorandum of understanding" is thought to be a crucial step towards it agreeing to the terms of the Egyptian peace plan. Under the deal, Israeli officials say, the United States will lead a campaign with its NATO allies to intercept weapons shipments bound for Gaza from Iran and elsewhere. The UN says tunnels between Gaza and Egypt have become a vital lifeline because of Israel's tight blockade. Israeli ministers are set to vote on a unilateral ceasefire proposal at the weekend, Israeli officials say. The meeting, said to be scheduled for Saturday, comes amid increasing signs of progress on the diplomatic front. Hamas is said to have fired 15 rockets into Israel Friday. Meanwhile, talks have continued in Cairo between Israeli and Egyptian officials on reaching a ceasefire agreement. Hamas was also invited back to Cairo on Friday for more talks, an official told the al-Jazeera network. Health officials in Hamas-controlled Gaza say at least 1 155 Palestinians have been killed and 5 015 wounded since Israel launched an operation on 27 December to end rocket attacks against its people.

17.01.2009: Israel's military has carried out 50 air strikes in Gaza overnight. In the morning it seems that Olmert, Barak and Livni are at last able to agree to put an end to the armed struggle in Gaza, with a lot of civilian losses, etc. A decision will be taken in the evening. They speak of a "unilateral" ceasefire. However unequal the parties, the fighting has to stop from two sides. And, it is not with the United States that Israel must come to an agreement. The anarchists say enough is enough, Israel and Hamas were parties in armed struggle and have to be parties to the ceasefire. One can not choose one's neighbors. The peace negotiations should continue.

Hamas said it would ignore any truce if its conditions were not met. A spokesman for the militant group, Osama Abu Hemdan, told AFP news agency: "As long as it [the IDF] remains in Gaza, resistance and confrontation will continue." Egypt has been mediating between Israel and Hamas in a bid to secure a truce. Ahead of the Israeli cabinet meeting, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak called for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in Gaza and the withdrawal of Israeli troops. Under the Egyptian proposal, fighting would stop immediately for 10 days and Israeli forces would remain in Gaza while the border crossings into the territory would remain closed. For its part, Egypt would, with international help, try to shut down weapons smuggling routes on its boundary with Gaza and discussions on opening the crossings would take place at a later date. Hamas insists any ceasefire must involve Israeli troops withdrawing from Gaza and an immediate lifting of the Israeli blockade. Hamas officials are expected to attend further talks on Saturday in Cairo. Israel's main objective in Operation Cast Lead is to end Gaza militants' ability to fire rockets at Israel and stop them smuggling through tunnels from Egypt.

In the evening Israel declares ceasefire in Gaza. Israel is to halt its three-week military offensive against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said. He said Israel had achieved its aims and the unilateral ceasefire would start at 02.00 (24.00 GMT). But he said troops would remain in Gaza for now. A Hamas spokesman said it would not accept one Israeli soldier in Gaza. Nearly 1 200 Palestinians have been killed since the violence began on 27 December. Thirteen Israelis have died. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed relief at the ceasefire. "This should be the first step leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza," he said. This should happen "as soon as possible", he added. The US said it expected all parties to cease hostilities immediately. The Israeli prime minister's announcement came in a televised address following a late-night cabinet meeting. Israel's "goals have been achieved, and even more", Mr Olmert said. Hamas was badly damaged both militarily and in terms of government infrastructure; rocket factories and dozens of smuggling tunnels had been destroyed, he said. But the success of the ceasefire depended on Hamas, he said. Troops would remain in Gaza for the time being and if Hamas held fire, the IDF would "consider pulling out of Gaza at a time that befits us". If militant rocket fire into Israel continued, Israel would respond with force, the Israeli leader added.

A Hamas spokesman, Fawzi Barhum, condemned the move. Hamas could not "accept the presence of a single [Israeli] soldier in Gaza", he said. If Hamas is not involved then the ceasefire is agreed with whom? Israel must withdraw completely, lift its economic blockade of Gaza and open border crossings, the spokesman said. Hamas representatives have been taking part in talks in Cairo, brokered by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, aimed at reaching a bilateral deal. Egypt will on Sunday host a summit, attended by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, the UN chief as well as several EU leaders, aimed at securing a permanent truce. Minutes before Mr Olmert spoke, a rocket was fired from Gaza. The Israeli announcement came on the 22nd day of violence in Gaza. Overnight Israel carried out more than 50 air strikes on Gaza, as Hamas rocket fire from the territory continued. United Nations officials said two children, aged five and seven, were killed when Israeli tank fire hit a UN school where hundreds had taken shelter in the northern town of Beit Lahiya. Chris Gunness, a spokesman for the UN Relief and Works Agency (Unrwa), said an investigation was needed "to determine whether a war crime has been committed". An Israeli foreign ministry spokesman, Yigal Palmor, said that Israel was waiting for more information on what happened.

18.01.2009: Hamas rockets threaten Gaza ceasefire. A volley of rockets, at least 18, has been fired into southern Israel from Gaza, hours after a unilateral Israeli ceasefire began. At least four rockets landed near the town of Sderot, with no reports of injuries. Israel launched an air strike on Gaza in response. The exchange puts an immediate strain on the ceasefire, which followed three weeks of fighting. Palestinian medics say at least 50 bodies have been pulled from the rubble since Israel halted its offensive. Israel says it will not set a timetable for withdrawing its troops, but Hamas said it would not accept any Israeli presence in Gaza. "We can't talk about a timetable for withdrawal until we know the ceasefire is holding," said the Israeli prime minister's spokesman, Mark Regev. "If there is a danger Hamas is going to deliberately torpedo the ceasefire, and we will have to reinitiate offensive actions against Hamas, for that reason we have to be reticent about withdrawing our forces," he said. The stopping of rocket-fire had been a chief aim of the armed struggle. Israeli troops killed a Palestinian near the southern Gazan town of Khan Younis on Sunday morning, reports from Gaza said. If confirmed, the death would be the first fatality since the ceasefire began. At least 1 300 Palestinians, according to Palestinian sources, and 13 Israelis have been killed since Israel launched its offensive on 27 December. Shortly before the rockets fell, Israeli troops briefly traded fire with Hamas militants in the north of the Gaza Strip after coming under attack, IDF officials said. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the latest attacks "again proved that the ceasefire is fragile and it has to be reassessed on a minute-by-minute basis".

International leaders are due in Egypt on today for a summit aimed at shoring up the ceasefire. Heads of state from across Europe will join Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas and UN chief Ban Ki-moon at Sharm El-Sheikh to give their backing to a permanent peace. Olmert warning:  The rockets were fired at about 09.00 (07.00 GMT), Israeli police said. Israeli aircraft struck the terrorists who launched the rockets from the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, the IDF said. Hours earlier, Prime Minister Olmert told the nation that Israel was halting its offensive whose goals "have been more than fully achieved". In a televised address, Mr Olmert warned militants in Gaza that if they "decide the blows they've been dealt are not sufficient and they are interested in continuing the fight, Israel will be prepared for such and feel free to continue to react with force". The ceasefire came into effect at 02.00 local time. Hamas has rejected the move, saying any continued Israeli presence in Gaza would be regarded as an act of war. "The occupier must halt his fire immediately and withdraw from our land and lift his blockade and open all crossings and we will not accept any one Zionist soldier on our land, regardless of the price that it costs," Hamas spokesman Farzi Barhoum said, shortly before the ceasefire began. Mr Abbas said the ceasefire was "important and necessary but insufficient", and called for a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. Israel has begun pulling some of its troops out of the territory. But it says others will remain for now and strike back if Israel continues to come under attack. The US has welcomed the ceasefire, saying it "expects that all parties will cease attacks and hostile actions immediately". Secretary General Ban expressed relief, saying the ceasefire should be "the first step leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza". Aid organisations have expressed concern that crossings into Gaza will not reopen fully unless Hamas is committed to a ceasefire. The anarchists say the question now is whether Hamas decides to lick its wounds and regroup - or whether it gambles on dragging Israel into a war of attrition, and call on Hamas to join the ceasefire.

Soon after Hamas announces ceasefire in Gaza. The Palestinian terrorist group Hamas has announced an immediate ceasefire with Israel in Gaza, according to Hamas officials. The group said it would hold fire for one week so long as Israel withdrew all its forces from the Gaza Strip. The move comes hours after a unilateral Israeli ceasefire came into effect. The cessation of hostilities was put under strain by fresh rocket fire into Israel and an Israeli air strike on militants in Gaza. Hamas official Ayman Taha said that the ceasefire also applied to other militant groups. "Hamas and the factions announce a ceasefire in Gaza starting immediately and give Israel a week to withdraw," he was reported as saying. The group said the ceasefire would be temporary unless Israel met its long-standing demands. These include an end to military action, lifting its 19-month blockade of the Gaza Strip and opening border crossings between Gaza and Israel. Hamas' leader in exile, Khaled Meshaal, will make an "important" announcement in Syria on Sunday afternoon regarding Israel's ceasefire.

Meanwhile, heads of state from across Europe are in Egypt in Sharm El Sheikh for a summit with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas and UN chief Ban Ki-moon to try to shore up the ceasefire. They will discuss how to make the ceasefire durable and respected by Hamas, how to get aid to Gaza and beginning the process of rebuilding there. The anarchists say with neither Israel or Hamas attending, there are questions about how much can be achieved and whether this will amount to more than a gigantic photo opportunity by those who want to help resolve the conflict. The anarchists demand that Hamas must agree to a durable ceasefire, "100 years and beyond", not only a short term contract.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said he wants Israeli troops to leave Gaza "as quickly as possible". Mr Olmert was speaking at a news conference with European leaders after first Israel, then Hamas declared unilateral ceasefires in Gaza. Some Israeli troops have already begun pulling out of the Gaza Strip, following a three-week offensive. Meanwhile, Ismail Haniya, the top Hamas leader in Gaza, said the Palestinians had won a great victory over Israel. "The enemy has failed to achieve its goals," he said in a speech broadcast on Hamas' Al-Aqsa TV. The ceasefire in Gaza remains fragile. Palestinian militants fired about 20 rockets over the border after the Israeli ceasefire announcement, and Israel responded with an air attack. Surrounded by an array of European political leaders, some of whom were highly critical of Israel's tactics in the conflict with Hamas, the Israeli prime minister said his country was not interested in staying in the Gaza Strip. "We didn't set out to control Gaza, we don't want to remain in Gaza and we intend on leaving Gaza as quickly as possible," he said. The European leaders travelled to Israel to lend their support to the ceasefires. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the opening of the crossings into Gaza was important to "make possible a resumption of the talks that are necessary for a permanent peace". Earlier, Hamas said it would hold fire for a week to give Israel time to withdraw its forces from the Gaza Strip. "Our demand is the withdrawal of the enemy forces from the Gaza Strip within a week, along with the opening of all the crossings for the entry of humanitarian aid, food and other necessities for our people in the Gaza Strip," said Hamas' deputy chief in Syria, Moussa Abou Marzouk. The move came hours after a unilateral Israeli ceasefire came into effect.

Meanwhile journalists entered northern Gaza via the Erez crossing to gain independent access to the Strip from Israel. On the Israeli side of the border with Gaza Israeli helicopters and drones had been flying overhead and Israeli troops were on high alert. Many people are hoping that a ceasefire will last, but no-one on either side of the border will be surprised if the fighting starts up again. Palestinian medical sources say at least 95 bodies have been pulled from the rubble since Israel halted its offensive. Many of the 40 000 people who fled the town during the conflict, were returning to pick through the ruins of their homes. People are salvaging whatever they can,  even the broken bricks and corrugated iron are taken away on donkeys. Hamas is still very much in control of the town. They say their determination and ability to fight is undiminished.  Earlier on Sunday, heads of state from across Europe travelled to Egypt for a summit with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas and UN chief Ban Ki-moon to try to shore up the ceasefire. Speaking after the talks, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he would be sending a team to assess the immediate humanitarian needs of the people in Gaza. "Within 10 days, I think we'll be able to make an assessment report and we will issue a humanitarian urgent, a humanitarian flash appeal." The anarchists say there are no winners in this conflict, but as mentioned demand a durable ceasefire.

19.01.2008: Scale of Gaza destruction emerges... The full scale of devastation in Gaza following Israel's three-week offensive is becoming clear, after both Israel and Hamas declared ceasefires. UN official John Ging said half a million people had been without water since the conflict began, and huge numbers of people were without power. Many people face shortages of food, medicine and fuel. Four thousand homes are ruined and tens of thousands of people are homeless. Israeli spokesman Mark Regev said he expected border crossings to open for aid later on Monday. "We are going to see a massive volume of aid entering the Gaza Strip," he said. "Medicines, foodstuffs, energy, all will be reaching the Gaza Strip in the volume that is required and in an expeditious manner." Traffic jams are building up, as people try to get to Gaza City to reunite with friends and relatives, he says, while Hamas fighters stride confidently down the road with rifles slung across their shoulders.

Speaking at an Arab League summit in Kuwait, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called for the formation of a national unity government in the Palestinian territories, along with simultaneous parliamentary and presidential elections. The league is expected to discuss a proposal for a $2bn fund for reconstruction in Gaza. Saudi King Abdullah said his country would donate $1bn. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he wanted troops to leave as quickly as possible, and some have already left. The troops are pulling out fast. Anonymous Israeli officials, quoted by AP news agency, said the withdrawal would be completed before US President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration on Tuesday. Correspondents say Israeli leaders want to get off to a smooth start with the new administration in Washington.

Israel tried to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza, a senior Israel Defense Forces officer said in a posting on the IDF Web site. "This was not a war against the Palestinians," he said. "It was an operation of self-defense against Hamas and related terror organizations. Unfortunately, this task was made extremely difficult by Hamas, as they made the choice to use civilians as human shields." "Israel began the offensive in response to rocket fire by Hamas militants after showing eight years of restraint" the officer said. The operation's goal, he said, "was to improve the security situation in southern Israel, and to facilitate peaceful living for the Israeli civilians living there. We asked ourselves how to accomplish this, and the answer was to hit Hamas hard, to strike the tunnels, the terrorists themselves, and all of their assets, in order to prevent them from committing war crimes by firing rockets that target our civilian population," the officer said. He said seven rockets have been fired from Gaza into Israel since Sunday's ceasefire declaration. "We want to give this ceasefire a chance, but if Hamas chooses not to, we will utilize all of our means," he said.

Mr Ging, director of operations for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), said most important was how to get basic supplies into Gaza. "We have a big recovery operation ahead of us, reconstruction - none of it will be possible of course, on any scale, until we get crossing points open," he said. Unrwa was keen to reopen its schools, Mr Ging said, where 50000 people were sheltering. Tens of thousands have been made homeless by the bombardment. Big questions remain, such as who will police Gaza's southern border and how much power Hamas still has. More than 1 300 Palestinians died and about 5 400 others were wounded during Israel's three-week offensive in Gaza, the Web site of the Palestinian Authority's Central Bureau of Statistics said. Louay Shabana, head of the agency, said more than 22000 buildings were damaged or destroyed. Shabana put the economic destruction at more than $1.9 billion. Israel has said 13 of its citizens, including 10 soldiers, were killed during the offensive, which started December 27. Palestinian medical sources say at least 95 bodies have been pulled from the rubble since Israel halted its offensive. The ceasefire in Gaza remains fragile, although no air strikes, rocket attacks or major clashes were reported overnight. The anarchists once more demand that Hamas must agree to a durable ceasefire, "100 years and beyond", not only a short term contract.

Arab leaders have been meeting in Kuwait over the Gaza crisis. They agree a reconstruction fund of 2 billion US dollars is needed, but they are divided over the political reponse. There are regimes like Syria which support Palestinian militancy, i.e. terrorism. But there are more or less pro Western Arab governments who blamed Hamas for provoking Israel. The anarchists agree. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has as mentioned called for a national unity government of Palestinians which could pave the way for presidential and parliamentary elections. Abbas said once unified Palestinians can effectively call for the lifting of the Israeli blockade and the opening of crossings for supplies. But many observers believe a unified Palestinian regime is an elusive dream. Gaza has been run by Hamas, which has done its best to stamp out the influence of Fatah there through arrests, violence and terror. The West Bank has been run by Abbas's Fatah, movement which, in turn, has used force in an attempt to crush Hamas there. But the split between Gaza and the West Bank is not just about politics. There's a geographical divide between the West Bank and Gaza. There may be some sense of unity now – among the public, if not the politicians. But when the killing stops, some fear Gaza's trauma could ultimately push the people of the two territories further apart.

The AI, AIE and ICOT have today decided the following resolution! Gaza: End of fighting opens opportunity for real peace and justice!

"The cessation of fighting in Gaza opens a vital opportunity to build a just and lasting peace, which both Israel and Palestine must seize, in order to end the cycle of conflict and ensure justice for the Palestinian people. The international community must do its utmost to help ensure that this happens, and needs to mobilize a massive humanitarian and reconstruction effort for Gaza. Nothing can bring back the hundreds of completely innocent victims whose lives were taken from them. There is not a moment to lose in re-starting negotiations to achieve a just settlement to the conflict, to make sure that no more innocent lives are lost in the future. 

Urgent and large-scale humanitarian relief must be a priority for the international community, to help medical services cope with the thousands of wounded and enable people to begin to rebuild their shattered lives. Reconstruction of the thousands of destroyed and damaged buildings and other infrastructure needs to take place without delay, and the blockade of Gaza has to be lifted to allow its economy, already on its knees before the fighting, to develop.

United Nations Resolutions set out the principles for achieving a just and durable peace, with two sovereign and democratic countries living side by side. These Resolutions must now be implemented in full and with urgency. Guarantees of long-denied justice for Palestinians, and security for all in the region, will be critically important if real progress is to be made, and if the horrendous events of these last weeks of fighting are never to be repeated. The anarchists call on all libertarians, labor confederations, aid organizations and governments world wide, to send urgently needed help in solidarity with the Palestinian people, as opposed to the superiors."

20.01.2009: Rebuilding the Gaza Strip after Israel's three-week offensive will cost billions of dollars, the UN has warned. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been left homeless and 400,000 people still have no running water, it says. Reports say UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is travelling to Gaza on Tuesday to inspect the damage. A fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas militants is holding, allowing many Palestinians to return home to assess the damage. Parts of Gaza look as if they have been hit by a massive earthquake as Palestinians try to piece together the shattered fragments of their lives after three-weeks under Israeli assault. Thousands of homes have been destroyed, the infrastructure is in tatters and bodies, inaccessible during the fighting, are being recovered pushing the death toll even higher. Palestinians are still trying to come to terms with the scale of the devastation. Israel claims it has allowed trucks into the Gaza Strip carrying humanitarian aid and the Red Cross says 10 ambulances loaded with medical supplies crossed at the Kerem Shalom border. Mohammed Ishtayah, Director of Palestinian Council for Development and Construction says help is required urgently:"We need immediate money to accommodate the homeless people, one, and second important thing is: this money has to be fast. And third important issue: Israel has to lift the closure on Gaza." Arab governments, much criticized for their response to the plight of the Palestinians, are to discuss plans to set up a two billion euro package to help reconstruct the battered strip. Along with Arab governments Western donors are to send aid, but Israel, Hamas and the Palestinian Authority are already bickering over who should control the reconstruction.

Israel says it hopes to pull all its troops out of Gaza by the time Barack Obama is sworn in as US President. Thousands of Israeli troops have already left Gaza but large contingents remain close to the border on the Israeli side, ready to re-enter if violence reignites. EU Foreign Ministers plan to meet in Brussels to discuss humanitarian aid and Israel's demand for the prevention of weapons smuggling to Gaza.

Later the U.N. chief has visited the burned-out shell of a U.N. compound in Gaza and urged both Israeli and Palestinian leaders to achieve political reconciliation after what he said was the "heartbreaking" violence of the last three weeks. "The repeated violence felt by Palestinians and Israelis is a mark of collective political failure," Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said. Speaking less than three days after Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas each agreed to a ceas-fire to end three-weeks of intense fighting, Ban had strong words for both sides. "I have condemned from the outbreak of this conflict the excessive use of force by Israeli forces in Gaza. I view the rocket attacks into Israel as completely unacceptable. We need to restore basic respect for civilians," he said. He also called on Palestinian factions to unify under the framework of the Palestinian Authority. He described seeing "heartbreaking scenes" and said he was "deeply grieved by what I have seen today." Ban planned to travel next to Sderot, a city in southern Israel where civilians have been targeted by Hamas rocket attacks from Gaza for years.

While his trip through the region is aimed largely at pushing all players to avoid a resumption of the violence, it is also to push for an investigation into Israel's shelling of the U.N. compound. "I'm just appalled. I'm not able to describe how I am feeling having seen this site," he said, adding that he could smell the facility still burning. "It is an outrageous and totally unacceptable attack against the United Nations." Earlier, Ban met Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and expressed his relief that Israel had declared a ceasefire, according to the U.N. chief's spokesperson. Ban also stressed the importance of the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. Ban also told Olmert that the U.N. would continue to play a pivotal role in providing humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza, as well as in long-term recovery and reconstruction, the spokesperson said. He told Olmert he was visiting Gaza in solidarity with U.N. staff who had worked heroically, and to demonstrate his respect and concern for all Gazans who lost friends and families. Gaza's gross domestic product was slashed by 85 percent during the 22 days of war, and it could take a year for the economy to recover, it is said in a preliminary report. Ban later visited the southern Israeli town of Sderot, which has been one of the main targets of Palestinian rocket attacks in recent years. Mr Ban described the rockets as indiscriminate weapons and said the attacks by Hamas were violations of basic humanitarian law.

Who won the conflict? Israel as mentioned called a ceasefire on Saturday, and said it had met its aims. This is only partly true. Hamas, as mentioned, later declared its own truce with one of its leaders claiming a "great victory" over Israel and saying its ability to fire rockets had not been affected by the Israeli strikes. This is only partly true. The top Hamas leader in Gaza, Ismail Haniya, said Israel had "failed to achieve its goals". In a speech broadcast on Hamas TV station, he said: "God has granted us a great victory, not for one faction, or party, or area, but for our entire people." Hamas said it would hold fire for a week to give Israel time to withdraw its forces from the Gaza Strip. A spokesman for Hamas' military wing, Abu Ubaida, said its rocket capabilities had not been affected by the conflict. "We hereby stress that our rockets are being developed and are piling up, and that the enemy will receive more rockets and God willing, our rockets will hit more targets," he said in a news conference broadcast live on Hamas' al-Aqsa TV. Repeating the same half lie does not make it a truth. The loosers were the Palestinian civil population, and the winner was Egyptian diplomacy, supported by international pressure, the anarchists' included, i.e. if the fragile ceasefire holds. An Israeli government spokesman dismissed claims by Hamas that the group had emerged victorious after the three week offensive: "Our intelligence information is crystal clear, the Hamas military machine has sustained significant blows. Their leadership is in a state of shock and that probably explains some of their delusional language." said spokesperson Mark Regev. Repeating the same half lie does not make it a truth. Hamas' military wing is claiming fewer than 50 of its fighters were killed — hundreds fewer than Israel claims...

21.01.2009: Early on Wednesday, Israel said it had completed its troop pull-out from Gaza."The last soldier left the Gaza Strip this morning," an IDF spokesman told journalists: "However the army remains deployed all around the Gaza Strip to meet any eventuality."

The Israeli army is to investigate claims it used white phosphorus illegally during its three-week offensive in Gaza. White phosphorus is legal for making smokescreens on a battlefield. According to the international convention on the use of incendiary weapons, the substance should not be used where civilians are concentrated. In a statement, the Israeli army confirmed it would look into the allegations that it had misused the substance but said it "only uses weapons permitted by law". "In response to the claims of NGOs and claims in the foreign press relating to the use of phosphorus weapons, and in order to remove any ambiguity, an investigative team has been established in the Southern Command to look into the issue," the IDF said. In addition IDF is accused of usimg to so-called DIME bombs. DIME bombs are experimental weapons which produce small but massively-powerful explosions. In a third high-profile accusation, the International Atomic Energy Agency is investigating Arab claims that Israel used uranium-tipped shells during the assault. They are popular with the military because they easily penetrate tanks or armour, but critics say their residue is highly-toxic.

The anarchists urge Israel to fully open all crossings with Gaza to allow a free flow of goods, under international control to stop smuggling of weapons to Hamas. UN humanitarian chief John Holmes has also urged Israel to fully open all crossings with Gaza to allow a free flow of goods. The recent truce between Israel and Hamas terrorists does not include any deal on the opening of the crossings, which are tightly controlled by Israel. So far Israel has been allowing only basic humanitarian supplies - like food and medicine - into Gaza. At a news conference in New York on Tuesday, Mr Holmes said it was "absolutely critical" that building materials - like cement and pipes - were allowed into Gaza. "Otherwise, the reconstruction effort won't get off first base," he said. Mr Holmes, who is expected to visit Israel on Wednesday, also stressed that he would be pushing Israel to allow international aid organisation into Gaza. "In theory, they have permission. In practice, it's proving very difficult to get into Gaza."

After the withdrawal of Israeli tanks and soldiers, the people of Gaza have returned to find what's left of their homes. According to Palestinian figures, some 14 percent of Gaza's buildings and homes were destroyed or damaged during Israel's three-week assault. One man said: "We are looking for a place to live. This used to be our home. We have no one helping us; not the UN, not the government. Nobody is standing by us, and we are begging the UN, the Red Cross, anybody to give us a tent. But there is no-one." Many people had no choice but to flee when the fighting began, a conflict the UN says claimed the lives of some 1 300 Palestinians, half of them civilians. One woman said: "After 20 days we came back and found our house in ruins. We could not find matresses, flour, our sheep. Nothing. The whole house in ruins. Where should we go now? We ask them to build us a house." The cost of rebuilding is going to run into the hundreds of millions of euros, and Saudi Arabia and European countries have promised to help. However, the process is likely to be complicated, with Israel imposing conditions: it says it will only allow reconstruction managed by international organisations in cooperation with the UN, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority, but not Hamas. Meanwhile, smuggling into Gaza from Egypt appears to be underway again. Israel said it destroyed most of the hundreds of tunnels it says were used to ship weapons into Gaza. But some Palestinians have been seen repairing some tunnels, and filling up from a fuel tanker with petrol said to have been brought in from Egypt.

22.01.2009: The political leader of Hamas has claimed that Israel failed to achieve its goals with its three week bombardment of Gaza. Khaled Meshaal, who lives in exile in Damascus, said Hamas had withstood the onslaught, despite Israel's military superiority and determination. Speaking during a televised address, Meshaal also called on Western diplomats to open a dialogue with Hamas, which is on an international blacklist of terrorist groups. Western and Palestinian officials have said Israel is blocking cash transfers to Gaza by the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank – undermining the ability of Mahmoud Abbas' administration to reassert its presence in the territory. The majority of Israeli troops pulled out of Gaza on Tuesday. Hamas officials and an Israeli envoy are set to meet for further talks in Cairo later today.

Rival factions trade accusations of spying, violence in Gaza. Hamas rules Gaza with an iron fist. In the wake of an Israeli offensive aimed at crippling Hamas, Gaza's ruling party, Hamas is accusing rival Palestinian faction Fatah of spying for Israel. Omar Hassan, neighbor of fallen Hamas Interior Minister Said Siam, says spies helped Israelis locate Siam's home. In return, some are accusing Hamas of carrying out "punishment shootings" against suspects. "In this war, we arrested many spies and collaborators, and we will stay continuing to catch these spies and put them in jail and in court," Ehad al-Ghossain, Hamas' Interior Ministry spokesman has said. "Some factions wanted to help Israel, to kill Hamas and Hamas leaders, and were giving information to the Israelis." Fatah's power base is in the West Bank. It is locked in a power struggle with Hamas, which won parliamentary elections in January 2006 and wrested Gaza from Fatah in violent clashes in 2007. Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian Authority president and leader of the Fatah party, is a United States ally but holds little sway in Gaza. Fatah denies spying on Hamas for Israel, and party leaders said Thursday that at least 175 of their members had been rounded up and tortured in recent days. The highest-ranking known casualty in the Israeli offensive may have been Hamas Interior Minister Said Siam, who was killed by an Israeli airstrike January 15. Siam's neighbors said Fatah supporters may have pinpointed his location for Israel. "My brother and sister saw three or four spies, including a woman," neighbor Omar Hassan said. "The spies left, and then Said Siam's apartment was hit."

Meanwhile, at Gaza's Shifa Hospital, medical officials said injuries they have seen would be consistent with suspected spies being shot in the kneecaps, elbows, hands or feet as punishment. "We have seen severe arterial lesions at the level of the knee and at the level of the femoral artery in the thigh, and also some lesions at the level of the arm," international doctor Carlos Trotta said. He said he has treated at least six patients, including a woman, for gunshot wounds since the ceasefire with Israel was announced. Another medical source said the shots were fired from close range, and the victims have claimed that the injuries stemmed from punishment or a factional vendetta.Punishment shootings are a time-tested tactic used worldwide by guerrilla and militia groups, from Che Guevara in Cuba to the Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland. They are meant not only to take revenge but to send a message to others. Two self-described Fatah loyalists were found heavily bandaged at a Gaza City safe house. One of their colleagues refused to say where or why they were injured but denied that they were spying. "They shot him at close range with a pistol," he said of one man. "His bones are shattered. They shot him point-blank in the foot. ... This was done by Hamas people." The other man, he said, was struck on his legs with a metal construction bar. "Four people were beating him," he said. A Hamas security source said the shootings occurred because renegade gunmen took the law into their own hands. And al-Ghossain said there was no official order within Hamas to carry out such shootings. "That's not us," al-Ghossain said. "Maybe some families who had problems in the past just wanted to shoot these people." This is probably a lie. The anarchists say no opposition to Hamas can speek freely in Gaza, and there is no freedom of association. But an underground opposition can be created. With international support and support from PLO etc., the Hamas rule may de done away with.

Cairo talks on ceasefire in Gaza. An Israeli envoy is due to hold talks in Egypt on how to achieve a lasting ceasefire in Gaza, following Israel's three-week offensive there. Amos Gilad will seek reassurances of tough action against Palestinian militants smuggling arms into Gaza. Egypt has acted as a mediator between Israel and Palestinian terrorists, including Hamas, during the three-week conflict in Gaza. Representatives from Hamas are expected for talks in Cairo on Sunday. As mentioned Israel unilaterally announced its ceasefire last Saturday and later withdrew its troops from Gaza. Hamas also declared its own week-long ceasefire which ends on Sunday. Now Cairo's challenge is to translate the current fragile truce into a mutual longer-term deal. Cairo's control of the Egypt-Gaza border means it may have something to offer to both Israel and Hamas. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Wednesday asked the European Union to held end the smuggling of weapons into Gaza, and got some positive response. At a meeting in Brussels, Ms Livni said this was essential to the creation of a lasting ceasefire. Hamas is demanding an immediate re-opening of Gaza's border crossings and lifting of an Israeli blockade. Israel intensified its blockade of the Palestinian enclave when Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip by force in June 2007. It has refused to fully open border crossings to allow desperately needed aid, goods and construction materials into Gaza. The United Nations and anarchists have urged Israel to fully open all crossings with Gaza to allow a free flow of goods to the Palestinian territory.

EU foreign ministers pressed Israel to lift its blockade on humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. Following talks in Brussels with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni the union urged Israel to work towards a sustainable ceasefire and begin comprehensive talks with the Palestinians. The Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg said: "We achieved the assurance from the Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni that everything will be done from the Israeli side to have an effective humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip." Israel wants help to stop the flow of weapons to Hamas as Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni explains: ""We achieved an understanding about the need to give an answer to the smuggling of weapons to the Gaza Strip – talking about durable and sustainable ceasefire means also a full cessation of smuggling of weapons and rearmament of Hamas in the future." An anti-Israeli demonstration greeted Livni, one of the architects of the three-week assault that left more than 1,300 Palestinians dead. Meanwhile, Israel denied it had used depleted uranium during its offensive and said that could be verified by any future UN investigation.

Israeli warning on Gaza tunnels. Israel has warned of renewed military  strikes on Gaza if tunnels used for smuggling in goods from Egypt are reopened by Palestinians. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said the situation could not return to how it was before Israel's 22-day offensive in Gaza, which ended last Sunday. But media reports say that some of the tunnels are already back in operation, with fuel being smuggled in. Destroying the network of tunnels between the Gaza Strip and Egypt was one of Israel's main aims when its offensive began in late December. The Israelis say the tunnels are used to smuggle weapons in to militants from Hamas, but the Palestinians argue that Israel's tight control of their borders means the tunnels are the only way they can get enough fuel and basic goods to survive. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Wednesday that 150 tunnels had been destroyed during the Gaza assault. Before their offensive in Gaza was over, Israeli officials had said they had destroyed 60% to 70% of the tunnels. TV images on Wednesday showed a truck being filled with petrol, apparently smuggled in through a tunnel.

And on Thursday, one tunnel owner told Reuters: "Soon it will be operational, I will not bring drugs or weapons, I plan to use it to bring in what people need most - food and fuel, and that is very profitable." Israel bombed the tunnels heavily during its offensive, and Ms Livni was clear that Israel would not tolerate the resumption of smuggling. "Things must be clear - Israel reserves the right to react militarily against the tunnels once and for all," the AFP news agency quoted her as saying. "If we have to act, we will do so, we will exercise our right to legitimate defense, we will not leave our fate... to the Egyptians, nor to the Europeans nor to the Americans." Meanwhile, Palestinian medical workers in Gaza City said at least two people had been wounded in shelling by an Israeli gunboat. And diplomats gathered in Cairo were continuing their efforts to find a lasting ceasefire agreement for Gaza, with the issue of smuggling at the top of their agenda. Israel is expected to urge Egypt to put an end to the practice, while Hamas is likely to demand that Israel relaxes its control over Gaza's borders.

Five Palestinians, including two children, have been wounded by shots from an Israeli gunboat patrolling off the coast of Gaza. The IDF said the gunners fired at a fishing boat which had strayed off course. Other boats were hit, as was a house on the beach. Israel retains complete control of Gaza's land and sea borders, and its airspace. The IDF remains on full alert on the frontier with Gaza. The tanks and soldiers completed their withdrawal yesterday, but commanders say they are ready to go back in to Gaza if needed. Israel has, however, relaxed its blockade on humanitarian aid. Several trucks carrying food and medicine crossed into Gaza via the Karni checkpoint. The cost of the damage in Gaza is as mentioned put at about a billion euros. The EU and Saudi Arabia have pledged funds, and diplomatic efforts are underway to find a lasting peace. However, Israel repeated it will attack again if Hamas uses smugglers' tunnels to re-arm. And Israel is ready for a prisonner swap to liberate soldier Gilad Shalit, seized in Gaza in 2006. Israel believes Hamas was weakened enough by the fighting to allow such an exchange.

23.01.2009: UN shocked by Gaza destruction. The UN's humanitarian chief has said that the situation in Gaza after the three-week Israeli offensive against Hamas was worse than he anticipated. Sir John Holmes, who visited Gaza on Thursday, said he was shocked by "the systematic nature of the destruction". He said that the territory's economic activity had been set back by years, and that the scale of destruction would have "disturbing" repercussions for the people of Gaza. He described an industrial area where every building within a square kilometre had been levelled, by bulldozers and shells. He told of broken pipes pumping out raw sewage onto the streets. "I'm sure the Israelis would say that's because there were people there firing shells and rockets from there, or perhaps manufacturing them. But the nature of that destruction means that any kind of private economic activity in Gaza is set back by years or decades," he said. "That's very disturbing for the future of Gaza, for the future of the people of Gaza, who are forced to fall back on the public sector and indeed on Hamas, who control the public sector."

Meanwhile, Israeli PM Ehud Olmert is reported to have placed his justice minister in charge of defending Israel against any accusations of war crimes. Daniel Friedman will lead an inter-ministerial team to co-ordinate a legal defense for Israeli civilians and the IDF. Richard Falk - the UN special rapporteur for human rights in the Palestinian territories - has said there was "a prima facie case" that Israel gravely breached the Geneva Conventions during its 22-day campaign. Israel responded by saying that Mr Falk's "bias against Israel was well known".

New US Middle East envoy to visit region soon. Middle East special envoy George Mitchell could be traveling to the region as early as next week, two Obama administration officials said. Former Sen. George Mitchell says that "there is no such thing as a conflict that can't be ended." The schedule is still being planned, but initial stops include Jerusalem; Ramallah, West Bank; Cairo, Egypt; Amman, Jordan; and possibly Saudi Arabia as well as Europe. President Barack Obama on Thursday named Mitchell as his special envoy to the region. Obama said Mitchell will help implement a ceasefire between Israelis and Hamas and support anti-smuggling efforts to prevent the latter from rearming. But he added, "Lasting peace requires more than a long ceasefire, and that's why I will sustain an active commitment to seek two states living side by side in peace and security." After he was officially named an envoy at a State Department ceremony Thursday, Mitchell said, "I don't underestimate the difficulty of this assignment." "The situation in the Middle East is volatile, complex and dangerous. But the president and the secretary of state have made it clear that danger and difficulty cannot cause the United States to turn away," he said.

Mitchell said that he believed Jewish and Palestinian states could live side by side and the conflict, even if centuries old, could end,  a lesson he learned during his negotiations in Northern Ireland as a peace broker for former President Clinton. "From my experience there, I formed the conviction that there is no such thing as a conflict that can't be ended," Mitchell said. "Conflicts are created, conducted and sustained by human beings. They can be ended by human beings." The challenges of working in the volatile region would not be new to the 75-year-old former Democratic senator from Maine. In 2000, Mitchell served on a commission that examined the escalating violence between Israelis and Palestinians. In 2001, he wrote a report that called for a halt to Israeli settlements and greater Palestinian efforts to crack down on terror. The Mitchell Report was praised for its impartiality and became the basis of a so-called road map for later peace initiatives. By naming Mitchell as his personal envoy, Obama is sending a diplomatic heavyweight to the region. "He's neither pro-Israeli nor pro-Palestinian," Martin S. Indyk, a former US ambassador to Israel, told The New York Times. "He's, in a sense, neutral."
In recent days, Obama officials talked to Israeli, Palestinian and Arab diplomats about the choice, sources close to the administration and diplomats said.

24.01.2009: UN schools reopening. Schools in the Gaza Strip operated by the United Nations have reopened for the first time since the Israeli offensive against Hamas militants. About 200,000 Palestinian children were expected to return to class. In the later stages of the three-week conflict, many of the schools were used to shelter Palestinians whose homes were damaged or destroyed. It follows a decision by Israel on Friday to lift a ban on UN and foreign aid workers entering the Gaza Strip. The ban had been in place since early November, when tensions mounted between Israel and Hamas as the end of a six-month ceasefire approached. Aid agencies welcomed the lifting of the restrictions, but said the task ahead was "enormous", with vast amounts of building materials alone needed to help rebuild schools, hospitals, mosques, and homes. However, a group of 25 South African medical staff who arrived in Egypt with 84 tonnes of relief supplies for Gaza have complained that they are being held up by Egyptian security officers at the Rafah border crossing. The mission, which is supported by the South African government and the Council of Churches, is bringing medical equipment, generators and food. The leader of the group, Dr Imtiaz Sooliman, told the BBC that one of the accompanying doctors had been detained at Rafah because he had once been arrested in Pakistan at the house of an al-Qaeda suspect. South Africa is seeking consular access to the doctor, Feroz Ganchi.

When the UN-run schools re-opened on Saturday morning, children were swapping stories of what they had seen and heard during the past month. Many had lost relatives, some had lost their homes, and in many classrooms there were empty desks.The Palestinian ministry of health estimates that more than 400 children were killed by the fighting and 1,800 wounded. It also says tens of thousands more may need urgent treatment for the psychological trauma they suffered during the conflict. Thirty of the UN's 200 schools were damaged during the conflict, and many more were used to house tens of thousands of Palestinians displaced from their homes. In one of the deadliest incidents, about 40 civilians were killed while sheltering at the al-Fakhura school in the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza. Initially, Israel accused Hamas of firing from the school and using civilians as "human shields", but later blamed a stray Israeli mortar instead. The UN has called for an independent investigation. A humanitarian appeal was launched by a number of UK charities on Thursday to raise money for humanitarian aid in Gaza. 

Smuggling tunnels. Meanwhile the new US President, Barack Obama, has asked King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia for his country's support in halting the smuggling of weapons into Gaza. Israel, which ended its 22-day offensive last Sunday, has warned of renewed military strikes on the Strip if smuggling tunnels along the Gaza-Egypt border are reopened. Palestinians argue that Israel's tight control of their borders means the tunnels are the only way they can get enough basic supplies - food and fuel - to survive. Earlier, France announced that one of its warships had joined an international mission aimed at preventing arms smuggling, and was conducting surveillance from international waters in full co-operation with Egypt and Israel.

25.01.2009: Hamas set for Gaza truce talks. Members of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas are due to meet Egyptian officials to discuss ways to shore up a fragile ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. As mentioned Hamas, which controls Gaza, declared a temporary halt to fighting a week ago, shortly after Israel announced a unilateral ceasefire. Representatives from the rival Fatah faction are also due in Egypt to restart reconciliation talks. Egypt has long acted as a go-between for Israel and the Palestinians. Israel refuses to negotiate directly with Hamas, which it sees as a terrorist organisation. Egypt's state news agency says the Egyptian intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman, will meet a delegation from Hamas, following his talks with an Israeli envoy in Cairo last Thursday. The aim is to stabilise the ceasefire by reaching a truce agreement. To satisfy Hamas, this would have to include plans to reopen Gaza's border crossings. Israel and Egypt enforced a border blockade after Hamas took over the territory by force in mid-2007. They have said they will only open the gates if Hamas accepts the deployment of border monitors as a way of halting weapons smuggling. The anarchists support this point of view.

Meanwhile in Brussels, European Union foreign ministers are to meet their Palestinian, Egyptian, Jordanian and Turkish counterparts to study ways to get wider Arab support for new Middle East peace moves. The ministers will also assess the state of the ceasefire in Gaza and look at ways to improve the flow of aid. President Obama's special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, will travel to the region on Wednesday, officials said. Mr Mitchell plans to meet leaders in Egypt, Israel, the West Bank and Jordan, but diplomats ruled out direct contacts with Hamas officials. A Palestinian official who is close to the truce talks taking place in Cairo, said both Israel and Hamas would hold their fire as long as Egyptian mediation continued. Meanwhile in Gaza, schools and government ministries not destroyed in the bombing reopened on Saturday and international aid agencies jointly appealed for unhindered access to the Gaza Strip. "All of us here today call for unhindered and open access to Gaza, for people, for goods and for commerce," Tom Taurus of Save the Children told a news conference at Gaza's Shifa hospital. The anarchists support this point of view.

Any Israeli soldiers accused of war crimes in the Gaza Strip will be given state protection from prosecution overseas, the country's PM has said. Ehud Olmert said troops should know Israel would keep them safe after they acted to protect their country. Palestinians say 1 300 people died during the offensive, and UN officials want independent probes into whether war crimes were committed. Meanwhile, a Hamas delegation is in Egypt for talks on cementing a truce. Israel ended its military operation in Gaza on 18 January, and Hamas declared a ceasefire hours later. No formal framework for a lasting ceasefire has yet been agreed. As mentiond while Israel says it requires Hamas to end weapons smuggling into Gaza and rocket attacks on Israel, Hamas has demanded that Israel lift its economic blockade of the territory. In Israel, Prime Minister Olmert told a weekly cabinet meeting that soldiers who had put their lives on the line for their country need not fear prosecution for war crimes overseas. "The commanders and soldiers that were sent on the task in Gaza should know that they are safe from any tribunal and that the State of Israel will assist them in this issue and protect them as they protected us with their bodies during the military operation in Gaza," he said. Israel's military tactics have come under intense scrutiny as evidence has emerged of the high numbers of Palestinian civilians killed in Gaza. Among complaints made by human rights groups are accusations of indiscriminate firing and the use of white phosphorus shells in civilian areas. Israel has admitted using white phosphorus in Gaza but says it did not break international law in doing so. White phosphorus is legal for creating smokescreens in open battleground. But rights groups and journalists say it was used in crowded civilian areas. The weapon sticks to human skin and will burn through to the bone.

Truce talks. In Cairo, delegates from Hamas met Egyptian intelligence officials on Sunday as they sought to bolster the week-long calm in Gaza. Representatives from Fatah, the main rival Palestinian faction, were also due to attend the talks. The talks came as Hamas said it was beginning a programme of cash handouts to Palestinians in Gaza whose homes were damaged by the three weeks of Israeli bombardments. There was no word of the substance of discussions in Egypt with Omar Suleiman, the Egyptian intelligence chief who brokered a previous six-month truce between Israel and Hamas. Mr Suleiman held talks with an Israeli envoy on Thursday. In a statement, Egyptian state media said Hamas and Mr Suleiman discussed "Egyptian efforts to consolidate the ceasefire, reach a [permanent] truce, reopen Gaza crossings and resume Palestinian national dialogue". As mentioned Israel and Egypt closed their borders with Gaza when Hamas seized control of the territory in mid-2007.

26.01.2009: The EU has urged divided Palestinian groups to unite so that vital humanitarian aid can reach the people of Gaza. The bloc's 27 foreign ministers called on Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas to forge a unity government and pursue reconciliation in order find a lasting peace. Meeting in Brussels with Arab counterparts, EU ministers also demanded more be done to prevent Hamas smuggling weapons into the Gaza strip. "We have been seeking reassurance that the ceasefire will be maintained, that efforts to stop arms smuggling will be stepped up, crossings to Gaza should be open on a regular and predictable basis, and that a speedy return to negotiations will follow. We all agree too that a two-state solution remains the ultimate aim of all our efforts," said Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg. Israel, which ended its 22 day offensive on Gaza last week, refuses to open borders until Hamas stops smuggling. The anarchists support this point of view.

EU envoy lays Gaza blame on Hamas. A senior European Union official touring Gaza has blamed the ruling militant movement Hamas for the humanitarian crisis there. Humanitarian aid chief Louis Michel called the destruction left by Israel's offensive "abominable", but said Hamas bore "overwhelming responsibility". He said there would be no dialogue with the terrorist movement until it gave up violence and recognized Israel. He also announced emergency aid for Gaza worth more than US $70m. "It is abominable, indescribable," Mr Michel told reporters after touring some of the worst-hit places of Israel's 22-day assault. "At this time we have to also recall the overwhelming responsibility of Hamas," he said. "I intentionally say this here - Hamas is a terrorist movement and it has to be denounced as such." Mr Michel later visited the Israel town of Sderot, which has been target of Palestinian militant rocket fire, where he called on Israel to lift its blockade of Gaza and he accused both sides of failing to respect  international humanitarian law. "Please open the crossings, you have to broaden the range of products that you let in," he said. "We, the EU, condemn Qassam attacks and military options which target the civilian population. The former Belgian foreign minister insisted there would be no dialogue with Hamas, and its use of terrorism against Israeli civilians meant it was not a legitimate resistance movement.

Some aid agencies have expressed doubts about how effective a reconstruction drive in Gaza can be, without the involvement of Hamas, the people in charge there. Announcing the extra aid package, Mr Michel said people in the EU were sick of paying for the same infrastructure being destroyed over and over again in Israeli military action. The body is the main donor to the Palestinians, having given three billion euros since 2000, Mr Michel said. "Every year, we spend 600 to 700 million euros. Today we decided on a supplementary payment of 60 million euros." Separately, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said he was heading to the Middle East to join international efforts to cement a permanent ceasefire between Hamas and Israel. He said he would spend a week in the region starting with meetings with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo on Tuesday. Hamas wants an end of Israel's punishing blockade of Gaza. Israel, which will hold a general elections on 10 February, wants a long-term ceasefire and curbs on Hamas rearming. US envoy George Mitchell will leave on Monday for the region to bolster a truce in Gaza, respond to humanitarian problems and "reinvigorate the peace process," a spokesman said Monday. Mr Mitchell will "meet with senior officials to discuss the peace process and the situation in Gaza", a State Department spokesman said. In his first trip to the region in his new role, Mr Mitchell will visit Israel and the West Bank, Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia, with European stops including Paris and London.

27.01.2009: Gaza ceasefire is breached. Israel soldier killed near Gaza. Palestinians activated an explosive device that detonated against an Israeli army patrol along the border just north of the Kissufim border crossing into Gaza about 8 a.m. Tuesday. An Israeli soldier is reported to have been killed and several others injured in the explosion. Palestinian residents reported the sound of gunfire and Israeli helicopters in the area. It is the first reported Israeli fatality since Israel and Hamas declared ceasefires on 18 January after a three-week Israeli offensive. Arab news channels said one Israeli soldier was killed and three injured in the incident. The IDF would not confirm the casualties until next of kin had been informed. One Palestinian was killed in the fighting, Palestinian medical officials said. The Palestinian was killed by Israeli helicopter fire east of Khan Yunis, near the border fence with Israel, about 90 minutes later.

Ceasefire negotiations. The clash is the most serious outbreak of violence since the Israeli operation against Gaza ended with independent declarations of ceasefire from Israel and Hamas more than a week ago. Egyptian mediators have been meeting separately with Israel and Hamas to negotiate a more permanent ceasefire between the two sides. US President Barack Obama has sent his newly-appointed Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, to the region to discuss the ceasefire efforts. As mentioned Hamas wants the border crossings into Gaza re-opened, including the Rafah crossing into Egypt, to end the Israeli blockade which has strangled the territory's economy, and Israel wants to stop the rocket fire and prevent the Hamas terrorists from re-arming via smuggling tunnels under the border with Egypt.

Later Israel launches attacks in Gaza. Israel has carried out an air attack in the Gaza Strip and launched an incursion with tanks and bulldozers across the border. Palestinian sources say there has been fighting near Khan Younis in southern Gaza, with people fleeing their homes. It is the worst violence since Israel's offensive against Hamas in Gaza ended with both sides declaring ceasefires. In the afternoon there is heavy fighting going on in Khan Younis, south of the Kissufim crossing. Palestinian sources say 20 Israeli tanks and seven army bulldozers have made an incursion. Two people were also wounded in an Israeli air strike in Khan Younis. Hospital sources say one was a member of Hamas' Popular Resistance Committee who was on a motorbike at the time, and the other was a passer-by. Israel has closed border crossings into Gaza because of the attack on the patrol, Israeli officials said, stopping the flow of aid supplies to Gaza's 1.5 million residents. Aid agencies have been struggling to meet the urgent needs of tens of thousands of displaced, homeless and injured people in Gaza.

US visit. The fresh violence comes as US President Barack Obama's Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, arrives in the region to seek a more permanent truce. As mentioned he will hold talks with Egyptian officials, who have been mediating between Israel and Hamas, before travelling on to Jerusalem and Ramallah. In Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the US supported "Israel's right to self-defense". "The rocket barrages which are getting closer and closer to populated areas [in Israel] cannot go unanswered," she said in her first news conference at the State Department. As mentioned Israel and Hamas declared separate ceasefires on 17 and 18 January. As mentioned when Hamas called its ceasefire, it said Israel had one week to fully open all the crossings into Gaza, in order to end an 18-month blockade of the territory that has crippled its economy. Israel wants guarantees that Hamas militants will not re-arm via smuggling tunnels under the border with Egypt. The anarchists call for a new ceasefire, a durable ceasefire, "100 years and beyond"...

28.01.2009: Israel hits Gaza tunnels as US envoy due. Israeli aircraft struck at tunnels used for smuggling goods and weapons on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt on Wednesday, hours before a US peace envoy was due to arrive in the Jewish state. Residents of the Gaza town of Rafah and Hamas security officials said some people began to flee their homes in panic as the aircraft struck three times before dawn. There was no initial word of casualties. An IDF spokesman confirmed that Israel had carried out air strikes on smuggling tunnels in the town of Rafah. The strike came as a response to Tuesday's attack by Gaza militants on an Israeli military vehicle that was hit by a roadside bomb while patrolling the Gaza border, killing one soldier and wounding three others, the IDF spokesman said. An air strike shortly afterwards killed one Palestinian on a motorcycle whom the spokesman identified as the planner of the roadside bomb attack. The exchanges were the first major military developments since Hamas and Israel declared separate ceasefires earlier this month after Israel's offensive against the Gaza Strip. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said late on Tuesday that the killing of the man on the motorcycle was only an initial reaction and that Israel's full response was still to come, Israeli media websites reported.

Israel and Hamas are negotiating through Egyptian mediators on a longer-term truce. Hamas as mentioned wants Israel to lift its blockade of the Gaza Strip. Israel wants guarantees that Hamas will not again fire rockets at Israeli towns. Later on Wednesday, US Middle East envoy George Mitchell arrives in Israel to take the first steps toward reviving the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. A former US senator and experienced mediator who helped end the Northern Ireland conflict, Mitchell began his regional tour in Cairo on Tuesday bearing a message from US President Barack Obama that the "moment is ripe" for peace talks. He will meet Israeli leaders on Wednesday afternoon and visit the West Bank on Thursday to talk to Palestinian leaders, but Western diplomats said he would not meet Hamas officials.

Obama has made clear the Middle East conflict is a high priority he wants to tackle early in his presidency and, in an interview with Al Arabiya satellite channel, said he had told Mitchell to "start by listening" and report back. "The moment is ripe for both sides to realize that the path that they are on is one that is not going to result in prosperity and security for their people. And that instead, it's time to return to the negotiating table," he said. Obama assured Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert he would maintain Washington's commitment to Israel, but also praised King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia for a Saudi-sponsored peace initiative offering Israel peace with the Arabs in exchange for withdrawal from Arab land occupied since 1967 and a just solution for Palestinian refugees. Israeli and Palestinian leaders set out their positions on Tuesday before Mitchell's arrival. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, a candidate to succeed Olmert in a February 10 election, told Jewish leaders: "We need ... to achieve a peace treaty with the pragmatic Palestinians, with a legitimate Palestinian government which expresses the vision of two nation states ..."

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, speaking in the West Bank city of Ramallah, said he would toughen his stance following Israel's 22-day offensive in the Gaza Strip. He said he would tell Mitchell that Israel's Gaza offensive proved it was not intent on peacemaking. "Israel does not want peace, otherwise it would not have done this. We need to understand this and tell it to those coming from Europe and America. Israel wants to waste time to strengthen facts on the ground with settlements and the wall." Speaking after his meeting with Mr Mubarak, on his way to Israel, Mr Mitchell said it was of "critical importance that the ceasefire be extended and consolidated". Mr Obama's decision to send him to the Middle East less than a week after his inauguration was "clear and tangible evidence" of his commitment to building a lasting peace in the region, he said.

Hamas fires rocket into Israel - US urges stronger Gaza ceasefire. The new US envoy for the Middle East has said it is "critically" important to extend the Israeli-Hamas ceasefire. George Mitchell's first official visit to the region came a day after Israeli forces clashed with Palestinian militants in Gaza. He met Israeli PM Ehud Olmert on Wednesday. "The prime minister and I discussed the critical importance to consolidate the ceasefire including a cessation of hostilities, an end to smuggling and reopening of the crossings based on 2005 agreements," Mr Mitchell said. Hours afterwards, a rocket was fired from Gaza into southern Israel, the first since the ceasefire 10 days ago. The rocket hit the Eshkol region in the western Negev, Israeli officials said. There were no injuries or damage. Mr Mitchell said his visit less than a week into a new US presidency showed the US commitment to peace. He began his trip with meetings on Wednesday in Egypt with President Hosni Mubarak, who has been mediating between Israel and Hamas. "It is of critical importance that the ceasefire be extended and consolidated and we support Egypt's continuing efforts in that regard," said Mr Mitchell."The United States is committed to vigorously pursuing lasting peace and stability in the region." He is due to meet Mr Abbas, leader of the Palestinian faction Fatah, on Thursday as part of discussions on how to achieve a permanent peace between the two sides, but not meeting Hamas. He also touched on Israel's key concern, that weapons smuggling into Gaza be stopped, and underlined Hamas's demand - that Israel's crossings into Gaza be fully opened for trade as well as aid. But on the ground the situation remains tense. Israeli politicians are in bullish pre-election mood, threatening swift reprisals for attacks on their soldiers or citizens.

In a separate development, France summoned Israel's ambassador to complain after Israeli troops fired two warning shots at a convoy carrying French diplomats, as it was held for more than six hours at a Gaza border crossing. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told Israel's ambassador to Paris that the incident was "unacceptable" and demanded explanations, a foreign ministry spokesman said. The anarchists again call for a new ceasefire, a durable ceasefire, "100 years and beyond"...

29.01.2009: The ceasefire is dead. Palestinian terrorists have fired two rockets at Israel from Gaza. George Mitchell, the new US president's envoy to the Middle East, is to hold talks with Palestinian leaders amid continuing violence in the Gaza Strip. He is due to meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, but as mentioned not members of Hamas which controls Gaza. The US envoy has stressed Washington's commitment to pursuing a two-state solution in Israel and the Palestinian Territories. But Palestinians are impatient to see talk translated into action after so many years of negotiations. They want to see the building of Israeli settlements in the West Bank halted, and an end to Israeli incursions in Gaza. With the deep divisions among the Palestinian factions, Hamas and Fatah, still unresolved, and with an Israeli election looming, few in the region believe that change will come soon. Mr Mitchell's arrival in Israel came a day after Israeli forces clashed with Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.

As mentioned late on Wednesday a rocket was fired from Gaza into southern Israel - the first since the ceasefire 10 days ago - hitting the Eshkol region in the western Negev without causing any reported injuries or structural damage. Shortly afterwards, an Israeli jet pounded targets along Gaza's southern frontier with Egypt, hitting a metal factory in an area containing tunnels through which Israel says militants smuggle arms. Another rocket was fired by militants early on Thursday, prompting correspondents to warn of a spiral of violence that could nullify each side's unilateral ceasefires that were announced on 17 and 18 January. On Tuesday and Wednesday nights, Israel launched air strikes on southern Gaza and briefly sent in troops backed by tanks after a bomb attack on one of its patrols killed one soldier and wounded three. The violence was the most serious since both ceasefires were announced. Israel wants a long-term ceasefire and curbs on Hamas rearming; Hamas wants an end to Israel's punishing blockade of Gaza. As metioned more than 1,300 Palestinians, including 400 children, have been killed since Israel began its land, sea and air operations against Hamas terrorists on 27 December. Fourteen Israelis have died. The UN has launched an appeal for $613m to help people affected by Israel's offensive in Gaza. The ceasefire is dead. The anarchists again call for a new ceasefire, a durable ceasefire, "100 years and beyond", and a general solution to the Israel-Palestine problem as suggested by AI, AIE and ICOT outlined in B. An overview, below.

30.01.2009: US 'actively seeks' Mid-East deal. The US envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, has said Washington is committed to "actively and aggressively" seeking lasting peace. Mr Mitchell is as mentioned on a regional tour aimed at consolidating ceasefires declared by Israel and Palestinian groups in Gaza. Earlier, Mr Mitchell met Israeli politicians and intelligence officials. These included Isaac Herzog, Israel's current welfare minister, and the leader of the opposition Likud party, Binyamin Netanyahu. Mr Netanyahu is the leading candidate to be Israel's next prime minister. Mr Mitchell has held previous talks with Egyptian, Israeli and Palestinian leaders. Later on Friday he is due to travel to the Jordanian capital, Amman. Mr Mitchell spoke at an United Nations Relief and Works Agency (Unrwa) warehouse in front of pallets loaded with aid bound for Gaza. He announced that Mr Obama had earmarked the $20.3m for aid to Gaza on top of $40m allocated to humanitarian programmes there since hostilities broke out in late December.

"The United States remains committed to actively and aggressively seeking a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians as well as between Israel and its Arab neighbours," he said. "The tragic violence in Gaza and in south Israel offers a sobering reminder of the very serious and difficult challenges and, unfortunately, the setbacks that will come. It is important to consolidate a sustainable and durable ceasefire while addressing immediately humanitarian needs," he said. On Thursday Mr Mitchell met Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Following the meeting he called for Israel to open the crossing points into Gaza and for the Palestinian Authority to participate in a border regime in Gaza that prevents, Hamas, the militant group that controls the territory, from rearming. Many see Mr Mitchell's presence as a sign that the US is re-engaging - but few expect to see much progress soon, as Israel is in an election campaign with the right-wing Likud ahead in the polls.

Hamas wants a new, islamist ultra-authoritarian fascist terrorist rule over all Palestinians. The Islamist Hamas group is calling for new leadership for Palestinians to replace the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) dominated by its arch-rival President Mahmoud Abbas and the factions loyal to him. Falsely claiming victory in the devastating 22-day armed struggle with Israel in which 100 Palestinians were killed for every Israeli who died, the militant group is reasserting control over the enclave and resuming its central political challenge to the moderate Abbas. Several thousand Hamas supporters rallied in Gaza on Friday in support of the call to abolish the PLO, made two days ago by the group's exiled leader, Khaled Meshaal. Meshaal advocates a new umbrella body to represent Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and in the diaspora. His proposal was echoed in similar statements to cheering crowds on Friday by a senior Hamas political leader, Khalil al-Hayya. In the first public appearance by a prominent Gaza Hamas leader since Israel's attacked on Dec 27, Hayya said the PLO was "dead," and sent to the "morgue" by those who founded it. "It is high time the Palestinian people have a new leadership. We are moving forward to shoulder the causes of refugees and Jerusalem. We will not cede our rights," he said. "It is high time our people see a new, wise leadership that upholds resistance and the rifle." Hamas, which rules 1.5 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip, is pledged to continue fighting the state of Israel, which it does not recognize.

Western-backed Abbas, seeking to create a Palestinian state at peace with Israel, runs the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which is home to 2.5 million Palestinians and also heads the PLO. He accused Meshaal of trying to "knock down a structure that was built 44 years ago." "If he wanted to bring down the temple he would not be able to do it because not one of the Palestinian people or others would stand with him," Abbas told reporters in Ramallah where his dominant Fatah faction is seated.  Fatah is the largest of the 11 factions which make up the PLO, which has signed a series of peace accords with Israel since 1993 aimed at establishing a Palestinian state. Abbas was leaving on Friday for visits to European capitals, seeking diplomatic help in securing a durable ceasefire in Gaza and post-war reconstruction for the enclave, as well as support for Egyptian mediators seeking to reconcile Fatah and Hamas."If Israel wants peace, it has to withdraw from the Arab and the Palestinian land which it occupied in 1967," Abbas said. "Then it will be recognized by 57 Arab and Islamic countries which offer their hands for a historic opportunity for peace. I think Israel should not miss this opportunity."

Hamas, by contrast, does not propose to recognize Israel at any point and is shunned by major powers engaged in the Middle East peace process for its refusal to renounce violence, i.e. terrorism. Meshaal, the group's top leader, lives in exile in Damascus. He and other leaders of the group had said Hamas could accept a Palestinian state within the pre-1967 borders, in return for a long-term truce with Israel. Meshaal now says factions allied to his group have already begun discussions over the formation of a "national steering committee" to represent Palestinians everywhere. "The PLO, in its current form, has become incapable of serving the Palestinian people and has become a tool to deepen divisions," he said in a speech in Qatar this week.
Hamas is the most powerful of the "rejectionist" front of Palestinian factions, which are based in Syria, and could aspire to dominate a new umbrella grouping. Failure to resolve differences over the PLO in 2007 was a major cause of the brief civil war that ended in Hamas's seizure of Gaza from the hands of security forces loyal to Abbas. Hamas, which is not a PLO faction, had in the past demanded that the highest Palestinian decision-making body be restructured in a way that allows its participation as well as that of Islamic Jihad, another militant group allied to Hamas which also advocates the elimination of the state of Israel. The anarchists declare that the Hamas' islamist ultra-authoritarian fascist terrorist rule in Gaza should be done away with, and of course not expanded, and call on  the Palestinian people to revolt against the Hamas rulers.

31.01.2009: Gaza rocket hits southern Israel. A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip has hit southern Israel, exploding near the city of Ashkelon, the IDF has said. No casualties were reported from the rocket, which landed in a field. It is one of several rocket attacks from the territory since Israel and Hamas, which controls Gaza, declared ceasefires. The ceasefires ended Israel's three-week offensive in Gaza, which was aimed at stopping rocket attacks on Israel. The ceasefires, independently declared by each side, have been violated several times. As mentioned an Israeli soldier was killed in a bomb attack on the Gaza border on Tuesday. Israel responded with air raids and a brief ground incursion by soldiers and tanks. Israel as mentioned wants the rocket attacks to end and wants to prevent militants in Gaza from being able to rearm. Hamas wants the border crossings into Gaza to be fully opened to end a 18-month blockade of Gaza which has wrecked its economy. US President Barack Obama has sent his Middle East envoy George Mitchell to the region to "vigorously" pursue Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. He has arrived in Jordan after talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert etc., Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. He has no plans to meet leaders of Hamas, which the anarchists, Israel, the US and the European Union consider a terrorist group. The Egyptians have been leading efforts to broker a permanent ceasefire by holding separate talks with officials from Israel and Hamas.

Egypt to monitor Gaza smuggling tunnels. Egypt says it has begun to install cameras and motion sensors along the border with Gaza to try to stop weapons smuggling by Palestinian militants. Tighter surveillance of the tunnels is one of Israel's key conditions for a ceasefire. The tunnels were used to smuggle food and medicine, as well as arms. Israel bombed them, but when the fighting stopped some were still usable and others have been repaired. Egyptian security sources said the authorities had begun installing the equipment in the last few days along the 14km (8-mile) border with the help of American, French and German expertise. Sources said they hoped the equipment would detect any new tunnel-building activity in the area. The United States has pledged $32m in detention equipment and army engineers are providing technical assistance on the ground. The tunnels were one of Israel's main targets during its offensive. Hamas and many Palestinians say the tunnels are a vital source of basic necessities so long as Gaza's borders with Israel and Egypt remain blocked.

01.02.2009: More rockets from Gaza. Israeli PM vows 'strong reaction' to latest Gaza attack. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert promised a "strong Israeli reaction" after Palestinian terrorists fired four rockets into southern Israel on Sunday. Olmert says his country will "act by new rules" if fighting resumes in southern Israel. "We will not go back to the rules of the game that the terror organizations tried to dictate in the past ... we will act by new rules that will ensure that we won't get dragged into a never-ending shooting along the southern border." Amid fresh rocket attacks by militants in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, Israel's Prime Minister has threatened a "disproportionate" reponse. There were no casualties from today's rocket fire into Israel. Speaking at his weekly cabinet meeting, Ehud Olmert took a tough stance. He warned that Israeli response would be "harsh" and "disproportionate." The tense situation is also reflected at Gaza's Rafah crossing with Egypt where security has been tightened in an apparent bid to prevent smuggling to Hamas. The group was sending a delegation to mediator Egypt to discuss permanent ceasefire proposals.

The attacks were another breach in a tentative ceasefire which Israel and Hamas militants each declared unilaterally after a three-week Israeli military operation in Gaza which has left the territory still tense. The IDF said last week it would respond to any terror attacks "in accordance with decisions made by the Israeli government." Since the ceasefire began, militants have sporadically fired rockets into Israel. Israel has responded with airstrikes.

Israel hits Hamas Gaza target. The terrorists fired mortars at an Israeli village near the Gaza border, injuring two soldiers and a civilian. "We will not agree to return to the old rules of the game and we will act according to new rules that will guarantee that we are not dragged into an incessant tit-for-tat war that will not allow normal life in the south of the country," Mr Olmert said. "The situation... in recent days has increased in a manner that does not allow Israel not to retaliate in order to make sure that our position... is understood by those involved in the fire. "The response will come at the time, the place and the manner that we choose." His strong stance was echoed by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defence Minister Ehud Barak. In the evening Israeli aircrafts have bombed a Hamas security target in the central Gaza Strip, the terrorist group and Palestinian witnesses say. There were no reports of casualties after the strike late on Sunday. 

Palestinian Authority and Hamas officials are gathering in Cairo for talks aimed at reaching a new ceasefire. An adviser to Ismail Haniya, who heads the Hamas government in Gaza, said the group was waiting for Israel's response to a truce offer, transmitted by Egypt, adding that things were "moving in a positive direction". The Egyptians have been leading efforts to broker a new ceasefire by holding separate talks with officials from Israel and Hamas. But Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas told journalists in Cairo that talks were impossible with anyone who rejected the supremacy of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, PLO, in an apparent reference to Hamas's leadership. He also accused Hamas of putting Palestinian lives at risk. "They... have taken risks with the blood of Palestinians, with their fate, and dreams and aspirations for an independent Palestinian state," he said. Israel as mentioned wants the rocket attacks to end and wants to prevent militants in Gaza from being able to rearm. Hamas wants the border crossings into Gaza to be fully opened to end a 18-month blockade of Gaza which has wrecked its economy. The ceasefire is dead. The anarchists again call for a new ceasefire, a durable ceasefire, "100 years and beyond", and a general solution to the Israel-Palestine problem as suggested by AI, AIE and ICOT outlined in B. An overview, below.

02.02.2009: The negotiations for a durable ceasefire continues. Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas is meeting Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo, as part of efforts to bring about a long term ceasefire in Gaza. Egypt has as mentioned been mediating between Israel and Hamas, which controls Gaza, during the conflict in the coastal enclave. But Mr Abbas has accused Hamas of risking Palestinian lives and said its leaders must respect his authority. The latest talks follow an upsurge in violence, with Israel carrying out air strikes in response to rocket attacks. Cairo has been holding separate talks with Israeli officials and Palestinians from both Mr Abbas' Fatah party, which runs West Bank, and Hamas. Mr Mubarak wants to negotiate a permanent ceasefire which would bring an end to the smuggling of weapons under its borders into Gaza. This could lead to Gaza's borders being reopened after an 18-month Israeli blockade which has prevented all but the most basic humanitarian supplies from entering. Representatives from Hamas are also in Cairo, but Mr Abbas has as mentioned said talks were impossible with anyone who rejected the supremacy of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, PLO, in an apparent reference to Hamas's leadership. There has been a rift between Fatah and Hamas since Hamas took control of Gaza by force in mid-2007. The talks come after Israeli aircraft bombed a Hamas security target in Gaza City and tunnels used by the terrorist group along the border with Egypt. There were as mentioned no reports of casualties in Gaza following the attacks late on Sunday.

One killed in Israeli air strike. An Israeli air strike on a car in the southern Gaza Strip has killed a Palestinian and wounded at least three others, reports from Gaza say. The Israeli army said the raid, in the town of Rafah, had targeted gunmen who had fired two mortar bombs that landed in Israel. Reports say the militants were from the Popular Resistance Committee, a small terrorist organization in Gaza. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has said Israel does not intend to launch another broad operation in Gaza Strip. "It is not our intention to have an Operation Cast Lead 2," Mr Barak said in an interview with YNet news website. His comments appeared to clash with statements by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. Mr Olmert will step down after Israeli elections on 10 February, while Ms Livni of Kadima is one of the Labor leaders, Mr Barak's main rivals in the polls. Opinion polls forecast victory for right-winger Benjamin Netanyahu of Likud. On Sunday Palestinian terrorists fired about a dozen rockets and mortars into southern Israel, wounding two Israeli soldiers and a civilian. Mr Barak conceded that the attacks had not been launched by members of the Hamas movement which controls Gaza, but said it was incumbent on Hamas to stop attacks. Critics of Mr Barak, Mr Olmert and Ms Livni said the rocket fire is a blow to their stated aim to "change the rules" in the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas is as mentioned meeting Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo, as part of efforts to bring about a long term ceasefire in Gaza. Representatives from Hamas are also in Cairo, but Mr Abbas has as mentioned said talks were impossible with anyone who rejected the supremacy of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, PLO, which he leads. This follows a statement last week by the exiled leader of Hamas, Khaled Meshal, who said the PLO "expresses a state of impotence, abuse and is a tool to deepen divisions". Hamas has never been a member of the PLO. Mr Meshal is in Tehran, where Iranian state TV reported him thanking President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for Iran's support in what he falsely called the "victory of Gaza's people" in the conflict with Israel. Separately, on Monday the UN relief agency Unrwa said Israel had stopped a convoy of 10 trucks carrying paper and educational materials for its schools in Gaza from entering the Strip. Israel said Unrwa had not coordinated its attempt to bring in the supplies properly with the Israeli authorities.

A Hamas delegation will meet Egyptian mediators Tuesday for talks aimed at reaching a long-term ceasefire with Israel, a spokesman for the terrorist group said. The spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said this will be the final round of talks and Hamas, which wants a one-year ceasefire in Gaza, will base its final decision on the outcome. Egypt, a key mediator between Israel and Hamas, is hoping to forge a truce by Thursday. The Hamas delegation, which includes officials from its exiled leadership in Syria, will be briefed by the Egyptians about their separate meetings with the Israelis. Hamas and Israel do not negotiate directly. Abu Zuhri, who spoke from Damascus in an interview on Al-Jazeera television, again said the group would not negotiate the release of a captured Israeli soldier held in Gaza as part of a ceasefire deal. Sgt. Gilad Schalit was captured in 2006 by Hamas-allied militants. He also said talk of Hamas ending efforts to arm itself was out of the question. "We are a resistance movement and an occupied people and it is our right to possess weapons," Abu Zuhri said. The anarchists declare: "Hamas is a terrorist organization, not a legitimate resistance force, and Gaza is occupied by Hamas, not Israel".

Israel does not want any deal that gives Hamas a role in controlling Gaza border crossings out of concern that that would permit continued weapons smuggling. But putting the borders in the hands of Hamas' rivals in the Palestinian Authority will require a reconciliation deal between the divided Palestinian factions. The president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, was in Cairo on Monday for talks with Egyptian mediators trying to reconcile the two sides. He then went on to Paris for talks with French leaders. On Sunday as mentioned, Abbas told reporters in Cairo that he would not hold reconciliation talks with Hamas unless it accepts his authority. Since Hamas' 2007 takeover of Gaza, Abbas and his government have been in control only of the West Bank. In Paris, Abbas met with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who helped broker the Gaza ceasefire. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Abbas called for a "solution with Hamas in the framework of a government of national unity," but he rejected the militant group's call to create a new political structure to replace the PLO. Sarkozy also met Monday with Qatar's prime minister, whose Persian Gulf country has emerged as a regional mediator. Sheik Hamad bin Jassem Al Thani insisted Hamas should not be sidelined from peace efforts and Arab countries should not play favorites. Also on Tuesday, the foreign ministers of Abbas' top 10 Arab allies, including Egypt and Saudi Arabia, are set to meet in Abu Dhabi to discuss Palestinian reconciliation and reducing Iranian influence in the region.

The ceasefire is dead. The anarchists again call for a new ceasefire, a durable ceasefire, "100 years and beyond", and a general solution to the Israel-Palestine problem as suggested by AI, AIE and ICOT outlined in B. An overview, below.

03.02.2009: Palestinian terrorists fired a long-range rocket from Gaza into southwestern Israel on Tuesday morning. It was the first such attack into the city of Ashkelon since the two sides declared a ceasefire, the IDF said. The missile fired from a Grad rocket launcher did not cause any injuries or damage in the coastal city, said a spokesman for the IDF. Rockets fired from a Grad have a longer range than the crude, home-made Qassams that Palestinian militants in Gaza fire more frequently. Terrorists have used Grads to strike farther into Israel. Ashkelon lies 12 miles (19 km) north of Gaza.

Israeli planes hit Gaza tunnels. Israeli planes have bombed smuggling tunnels on Gaza's border with Egypt, the IDF said. The raid came after the rocket fired from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip hit the Israeli city of Ashkelon. Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton promised a sustained effort to create a Palestinian state. Israel had warned of a harsh response to any further rocket fire from Gaza after the long-range Grad rocket hit Ashkelon on Tuesday. Other rockets and mortars have been launched from Gaza, however, and Israel has bombed targets in the narrow coastal territory. No casualties have been reported in either of the latest attacks. "I suggest Hamas doesn't fool around with us," said Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak. "The air force is operating in Gaza as we speak. We promised calm in the south and we will keep our promise." Residents of Rafah, on the border with Egypt, said they received telephone calls from the IDF warning them to leave their homes ahead of the air raid. The town is the location of many of the tunnels used to smuggle goods, including weapons, into the Gaza Strip.

There has been no word on which group was behind Tuesday's rocket attack, but the Israeli prime minister's spokesman, Mark Regev, accused Hamas of trying to undermine the ceasefire. Ashkelon, a city of 122,000 people, is as mentioned12 km (7 miles) from northern Gaza. The city is out of range of the standard rockets and mortars fired by Palestinian terrorists. Factory-produced Grad rockets, which are smuggled into Gaza from neighboring Egypt, have a longer reach. Both Hillary Clinton and George Mitchell promised a long-term effort to negotiate an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "This is the first of what will be an ongoing, high level of engagement," Mrs Clinton said of Mr Mitchell's trip."We want to send a clear message... that the United States is committed to this path and we are going to work as hard as we can over what period of time is required to try to help the parties make progress together."

04.02.2009: Hamas police seize aid for Gaza.. Hamas policemen have seized thousands of blankets and food parcels that were meant to be distributed to Palestinian civilians in Gaza, UN officials say. A UN spokesman said policemen raided a UN warehouse on Tuesday after officials refused to hand over the aid to a Hamas-controlled ministry. The UN said it was the first time its aid had been confiscated by Hamas. It condemned the action and demanded the goods be immediately returned. Hamas denied its men had taken any aid. UN spokesman Christopher Gunness said Hamas police took 3 500 blankets and over 400 food parcels. The Hamas Social Affairs Minister in Gaza, Ahmed al-Kurd, denied that members of the Islamist movement had removed aid from a UN building. However, he said his ministry was in dispute with the UN relief agency about how aid should be distributed. He accused the UN of giving aid to local groups with ties to Hamas opponents. "So what", the anarchists say.

About half the population in the Gaza Strip are dependent on UN food aid, since Israel imposed a blockade on the territory 19 months ago. Aid delivery became increasingly difficult during Israel's offensive against Hamas which began in late December. The UN said it has increased its food distribution to cover 900 000 of Gaza's population of 1.5 million. However, the UN, along with most of the Western world, does not deal directly with Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has announced $600m (£417m) for reconstruction in the Gaza Strip. PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said the programme would cover all Palestinian houses destroyed or damaged during Israel's 22-day offensive in December and January. "The amount of the project is $600 million. Most of it will come from donors," Mr Fayyad said in a speech in the West Bank city of Ramallah. The Palestinian Authority would contribute $50m of its own money to the to assist Gazans, he said. Further details would be announced later, he added. Initial Palestinian estimates said rebuilding would cost $2bn (£1.4bn) and take three to five years. Meanwhile Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, speaking to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday, said he would push for a war-crimes investigation into Israel's attacks. "People who committed those crimes have to be held responsible so that these crimes cannot be repeated," he told reporters after a speech which garnered a standing ovation. "We are stretching out our hand for peace with Israel. But what was done is regretfully crimes of war."  He denounced Hamas' rocket attacks into Israel, but said "our doors are still open" for a unity government with the militant group. The ceasefire is dead. The anarchists again call for a new ceasefire, a durable ceasefire, "100 years and beyond", and a general solution to the Israel-Palestine problem as suggested by AI, AIE and ICOT outlined in B. An overview, below.

05.02.2009: Israel still dealing with international fallout.  More than two weeks after halting its main Gaza offensive, Israel is still dealing with the international fallout, including a very public spat with the leader of Turkey, a slew of war crimes allegations and broken ties with Venezuela, Bolivia and Qatar. It's not quite a major diplomatic crisis, but it is a serious public relations problem for Israel,  which once again finds itself on the defensive against an avalanche of accusations. Israel's defenders say the country was acting in self defense and charge that no other country would be singled out for the kind of criticism that has been slung in its direction since the beginning of the Gaza offensive on Dec. 27. The Foreign Ministry says Israel's important relationships are unharmed and predicts the international mood will pass. The three-week offensive, aimed at halting years of rocket fire at Israeli towns from Gaza, killed some 1,300 Palestinians, at least half of them civilians, according to Gaza health officials. The numbers are disputed, and probably a bit overestimated. Thirteen Israelis were killed, including three civilians.

Perhaps the most noteworthy outburst was Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's spat with Israeli President Shimon Peres at the Davos meeting of the World Economic Forum, usually a refined get-together for the world's most powerful. "You kill people," Erdogan snapped at Peres, shortly after Peres offered an impassioned defense of the Israeli operation and shortly before Erdogan stormed off the stage. Despite hurried attempts at damage control from both sides, the flap has further disrupted the close alliance between the two countries. The hordes of Israeli package tourists who vacation in Turkey are reportedly staying home. The Davos incident came as a Spanish judge decided to open a war crimes investigation into a 2002 incident in which an Israeli F-16 killed a top Hamas mastermind in Gaza along with 14 other people, including nine children. Though it dealt with an earlier incident, the timing was clearly linked to the current violence. Hugo Chavez's Venezuela expelled the Israeli ambassador at the height of the fighting and Israel expelled the Venezuelan envoy in response. Bolivia couldn't expel the Israeli ambassador because it doesn't have one, but followed Chavez's lead by announcing it was cutting off ties.

The small Persian Gulf state of Qatar said it was freezing ties and closed Israel's representative office - a key Israeli foothold in the Arab world - while Qatar's fellow Arab League member Mauritania suspended relations, but let the Israeli ambassador stay. Syria called off the indirect peace talks it was holding with Israel through Turkish mediators. Those incidents followed weeks of protests in European capitals and across the Muslim world. The United Nations has called for investigations of Israel's shelling of several of the organization's compounds in Gaza, several rights groups have suggested Israel might be guilty of violating the rules of war and a group of US professors is trying to organize an academic boycott. The Palestinian Authority has now recognized the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, a move aimed at paving the way for a war crimes investigation, though Israel has not ratified the treaty that established the court and thus cannot be prosecuted. On the other hand, Israel's most important ally, the US, gave its backing, with both the outgoing president and his successor stressing Israel's right to defend itself. Street protests aside, most world governments made do with only careful criticism.

Yigal Palmor, a spokesman for Israel's Foreign Ministry, said Israel's key international alliances were unaffected and called the outpouring of anger "a temporary phenomenon." "We have come under some criticism from some countries more than from others, but basically everything can be handled within the normal framework of normal relations," he said. Yaacov Bar-Siman-Tov, a professor of international relations at Jerusalem's Hebrew University, called the current climate a "crisis situation" attributable largely to an international double standard. "People are expecting from us to be more moral, more just, more nice in this kind of conflict and sometimes it's indeed very difficult," he said. He mentioned Russia's war in Chechnya and Turkey's war against Kurdish rebels as examples of conflicts that caused far higher civilian casualties but received less attention and criticism. Many Israelis were especially rankled by Erdogan's comments, both because Israelis generally regard Turkey as friendly and because of Turkey's own spotty human rights record. "It's a shame to look at how this prime minister behaves. He doesn't mention what he does to the Kurds," the Turkish-born Bar-Siman-Tov said.

The conflict between Turkey and Kurdish armed groups has claimed tens of thousands of lives since the 1980s, including thousands of civilians. Israel has been in this position before, most recently after its 2006 war against Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon. That war ended inconclusively, with some 1,000 Lebanese and 159 Israelis dead, and drew similar condemnations of Israel's tactics and weaponry. Then, as now, Israel responded that it was attacked by guerrillas hiding among civilians and had no choice. The criticism this time resembles that of 2006  Israel receives vastly disproportionate attention worldwide even in normal times and in times of conflict it becomes accentuated. There has been a slight change in tone,  because this time, unlike in the Lebanon conflict, Israel is not seen to have failed.This time Israel is being portrayed as the nasty neighborhood bully, rather than as an incompetent monster. The Israeli navy intercepted a ship delivering 60 tons of supplies to the Gaza Strip from Lebanon on Thursday in the latest bid to defy Israel's blockade of the militant-held territory. This will probably increase the public relations problem for Israel a bit.

Hamas negotiators left Egypt without a long-term ceasefire with Israel on Thursday - but not before some members of the militant group's delegation were stopped at the Gaza border carrying millions in cash. The Hamas delegation walked away from the ceasefire talks because of disagreements over the blockage on Gaza and border security. Talks will continue at a later date. The money was later deposited in an account in Egypt by a Hamas member who stayed behind while the rest of the delegation was allowed to return to Gaza, the second security official said. He later returned to Gaza, the second official said. It was not clear what would happen to the money.

06.02.2009. The anarchists support the people of Gaza, seen as a class as opposed to the superiors in rank and/or income, i.e. the Hamas rulers, and call for revolt against Hamas. There will probably be no durable ceasefire and peace agreement as long as Hamas rules Gaza.

Hamas fires two rockets. Israeli aircraft fired several missiles in the Gaza Strip on Friday after two rockets fired from the Hamas-controlled territory landed in Israel, none of the attacks causing any injuries.

UN halts Gaza aid over thefts by Hamas. The UN aid agency in Gaza says it has suspended all aid shipments, accusing the Hamas government of seizing hundreds of tonnes of food supplies. Ten lorries carrying flour and rice were taken from the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing, the UN's Relief and Works Agency (Unrwa) said. Hamas admitted a "mistake" had been made and says it will return the goods. But Unrwa says deliveries will not restart until it has assurances that such seizures will not happen again. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Hamas must immediately release the seized aid shipments. He also called on Hamas "to refrain from interference with the provision and distribution of humanitarian assistance in Gaza". The anarchists support mr Ban's demand. Gaza is facing a humanitarian crisis after Israel's recent three-week offensive. About half the population is dependent on UN food aid. Israel intensified a blockade on the territory 19 months ago when Hamas took over the territory. The lifting of the blockade is among Hamas' demands for agreeing a long-term truce with Israel. On Friday, the group's exiled leader, Khaled Meshaal, told a rally in Syria that Israel still had not given the necessary undertakings for such a truce.  Unrwa said the food had been imported from Egypt, and had been due to be collected by its staff at the Kerem Shalom crossing in southern Gaza on Friday. "The food was taken away by trucks contracted by the ministry of social affairs," the agency said in a statement. It said aid deliveries would only be resumed if Hamas returned all the aid and provided "credible assurances" that it would not happen again.

It was the second incident in three days. On Tuesday, as mentioned, 3 500 blankets and more than 400 food parcels were seized at gunpoint from a distribution centre in Gaza, the UN said. The Hamas government's social affairs minister, Ahmed al Kurd, ordered "the aid to be returned to the agency if it turns out it is indeed its property", Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum said. He said no Hamas or Unrwa representatives had been present at the crossing when drivers loaded up the aid supplies, and the drivers had assumed they belonged to the Hamas government. Although the UN, as an organization, does not negotiate with Hamas, its relief agency in Gaza has to have some contact with the faction for practical reasons. Earlier in the week, Mr Kurd warned Unrwa not to "become a political player in Gaza". He said all aid should be distributed through Hamas. But Hamas's rapid attempt to rectify the situation - at least once Unrwa announced its suspension of imports publicly - suggests it does understand how crucial the UN's aid work is. Hamas itself has given very limited financial assistance to some of the thousands of Gazans whose homes were destroyed in the Israeli offensive. The perception of many in the territory is that Hamas is only helping its own supporters. The UN has increased its food distribution in recent weeks to cover 900 000 of Gaza's population of 1.5 million following Israel's offensive against Hamas that began in December. The thefts by Hamas only confirm that its regime in Gaza is ochlarchical, ultra-authoritarian fascist, the anarchists say.

07.02.2009. Top Hamas strongman emerges from hiding.  Gaza's top strongman emerged Saturday from six weeks in hiding, leading a Hamas delegation to Egypt for ceasefire talks and reiterating the Islamic terrorrist group is "flexible" over who should lead reconstruction in the devastated territory. Hamas initially insisted it should supervise the spending. Mahmoud Zahar, who is one of Gaza's top two leaders, and three other Hamas officials crossed from Gaza into Egypt on Saturday, set for Cairo. Egypt is mediating indirect talks between Israel and Hamas to reach a durable truce. Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh still has not appeared in public. The U.N. is putting together a detailed report on the damage. The report is to be presented to donor countries in Egypt on March 2. The conference is expected to raise hundreds of millions of dollars for rebuilding Gaza. One of Israel's top goals in the Egypt-mediated contacts with Hamas is to win the return of Gilad Schalit, a tank crewman held by Hamas in Gaza since he was captured in a cross-border raid in June, 2006. Hamas is demanding the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in return. In a television interview Saturday, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak answered "yes" when asked if Schalit's release had grown closer. "A supreme effort is being made to speed up the process," he told Channel 10 TV.

In Turkey, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called for urgent humanitarian aid for Palestinians, saying Saturday that aid shipments so far met only one-fifth of the actual need. Abbas, who leads Fatah and runs a rival Palestinian administration in the West Bank, acknowledged the need to iron out differences between Palestinian political factions and go to elections to set up a consensus government that will hopefully be on peaceful terms with Israel. As mentioned in 2007, Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in fighting that drove out Fatah supporters. Israel's  armed struggle against Hamas in Gaza heightened tensions between the Islamic terrorist group and Fatah, even as Egypt and other Arab countries try to push them into reconciliation. "We don't want a government that will allow Israel to continue its siege," Abbas said in the Ankara during his European tour to seek support for a unity government."We're not asking Hamas to recognize Israel," said Abbas. "We expect this from the new government." The anarchists mainly support Abbas' efforts in this case.

08.02.2009: Two rockets fired by Palestinian terrorists struck southern Israel on Sunday, IDF said, even as Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers appeared to be moving closer to cementing a long-term ceasefire. The Gaza Strip's strongman was in Syria, consulting with his Hamas bosses about the truce talks, while Israel's defense minister warned Israelis they would have to pay a painful price as part of any deal. The flurry of activity came just two days before Israelis elect a new government expected to take a harder line in talks with Hamas. While Egypt has been trying to broker a long-term ceasefire, sporadic violence has persisted. No injuries were reported from the rocket attacks, but one of the rockets landed on the Nir Am communal farm, and one car was set ablaze and several others were damaged by shrapnel, the IDF said. No group has so far taken responsibility for the attack. With Israeli elections approaching Tuesday, both sides appeared to be racing to reach some sort of arrangement. Polls show that Israel's next government would be much more hawkish than the current coalition, lending added urgency to seal a deal. Israel as mentioned wants militants to halt their attacks, end arms smuggling into Gaza and release an Israeli soldier Hamas has held captive for more than 2 1/2 years.

Hamas as mentioned wants an end to Israel's economic blockade of Gaza, which has severely restricted the movement of goods in and out of Gaza since Hamas seized power in June 2007. It also has demanded the release of more than 1 000 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel in return for the soldier, Sgt. Gilad Schalit. Hundreds of the prisoners have been involved in deadly attacks on Israel and their release would likely generate unease if not outright controversy. Mahmoud Zahar, Hamas' Gaza strongman, was in the Syrian capital, Damascus, on Sunday to discuss truce prospects with the group's exiled leadership. Israel allowed Zahar, who had been in hiding since the Israeli offensive, to leave Gaza on Saturday. Speaking to reporters in Israel, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said he was doing his utmost to bring Schalit home and warned that Israel would have to pay a "heavy" price. "We're not talking about hocus-pocus in which we roll the dice and get Gilad Schalit in return for a nice smile or a gesture," he said. "In the end, attached to it is a heavy and painful price that we'll have to decide on." In a separate radio interview, Barak said he did not think Schalit would be home in time for Israel's parliamentary election on Tuesday, but hoped he would be freed by the time the current government's tenure ends in several weeks. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert tried to lower expectations, saying media reports in recent days of an impending release were "overblown and damaging."

Torture by Hamas. In Gaza, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights demanded an investigation into the death of a man who appeared to have been tortured by Hamas. The man, 51-year-old Jamil Shakoura, was not believed to be affiliated with any opposition group. Rights groups frequently charge that Gaza's Hamas rulers use detentions and beatings to intimidate opponents. A Hamas official said the matter is under investigation.

The ceasefire is dead. The anarchists again call for a new ceasefire, a durable ceasefire, "100 years and beyond", and a general solution to the Israel-Palestine problem as suggested by AI, AIE and ICOT outlined in B. An overview, below. Also the anarchists urge the Israeli people to boycott the ultra fascist party of the racist and nationalist Avigdor Lieberman in the elections Tuesday.

09.02.2009: A Palestinian terrorist died in a clash with Israeli troops and Israeli aircraft attacked two targets in Gaza on Monday as mediators tried to broker a long-term ceasefire a day before Israel holds national elections. The militant group Islamic Jihad said in a statement that one of its fighters was killed overnight in an Israeli airstrike. The IDF said troops spotted an armed militant trying to cross the Gaza-Israel border late Sunday and opened fire, after which a bomb belt he was wearing detonated. Israeli aircraft struck two militant positions in the territory early Monday, in what the military said was retaliation for rocket fire from Gaza on Sunday. No injuries were reported in the aerial attacks.

Riad Malki, foreign minister in the Palestinian government based in the West Bank, charged Monday that Hamas was trying to influence the outcome of Tuesday's Israeli elections by continuing to fire rockets into southern Israel. Hamas doesn't want to see a pro-peace government elected because it would pursue a political deal with Abbas, and the Islamic militant group "wants instability in the region," Malki said during a visit to Poland. Abbas' government is "very much worried" that the rocket attacks might "really push Israeli public opinion and the voters to vote for an anti-peace government," he told reporters in Warsaw. The anarchists mainly agree with Riad Malky in this case. The ultra-fascists Hamas and Lieberman's party have common interests in instability in the region, and their influence should be minimized.

10.02.2009: UN official slams Israeli block of paper shipments. The top U.N. official in the Gaza Strip, John Ging, has criticized Israel for blocking shipments of paper to the Palestinian territory to print textbooks for a new human rights curriculum that will be taught to children there. "We're working together with the U.N., and we've suggested that the books ... be made in the West Bank and shipped to Gaza," IDF spokesman Peter Lerner said. "We will not faciliate what Hamas wants to do," Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said. "We will not give Hamas the opportunity to steal the materials." The U.N. as mentioned halted aid shipments last week after Hamas officials, who control Gaza, took thousands of U.N. blankets, food parcels and tons of rice and flour. Ging announced Monday that Hamas officials had returned the stolen cargo, and U.N. officials had lifted their freeze. "The return of every sack of flour and every blanket that was taken is now evidence in my mind of their realization and their seriousness in terms of the assurances that we have received from them that there will be no recurrence," he said. Ging said all Gaza crossing points were to be closed Tuesday because of elections in Israel, so shipments aren't expected to resume until Wednesday.

Amnesty International has accused Hamas militants in Gaza of kidnapping, killing and torturing fellow Palestinians they accuse of spying for Israel, the organization announced Tuesday.

Close race in Israel's election. The two front-runners in the race to govern Israel made last-minute appeals to voters as polls opened Tuesday in the general election whose outcome could determine the course of Mideast peace negotiations. Opinion polls for months have predicted a decisive victory for the hard-line Likud Party, headed by former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But new polls released over the weekend showed the Kadima Party, led by moderate Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, is closing the gap. The anarchists mainly advocate the Israeli people to "hold their noses" and vote for Kadima. If necessary, "take some medicine against nausea". All of the parties are more or less bad, but look for the best among the bad lot!

11.02.2009: Israeli election results so far. With all of the civilian votes counted, Kadima won 28 seats, Likud 27 and Yisrael Beiteinu, Lieberman's party, 15. Labor, for decades Israel's ruling party, won just 13 seats. Overall, right-wing and religious parties won a total of 65 seats, compared to 55 for center-left and Arab parties. The tally did not include thousands of votes by soldiers, to be counted by Thursday evening. They could shift the final results by a seat or two. The inconclusive election results put Israel and the peace negotiations in limbo. It's up to Israeli President Shimon Peres to decide whether Livni or Netanyahu should have the first shot at forming a government. Peres will meet next week with party leaders to hear their recommendations and he expects to assign the task around Feb. 20, presidential spokeswoman Ayelet Frisch said. Whatever government is forged, it is unlikely to move quickly toward peace talks with the Palestinians and instead could find itself on a collision course with President Barack Obama, who has said he's making a Mideast peace deal a priority.

12.02.2009: Egypt cracks down on smugglers near Gaza. Egyptian police arrested 40 suspected smugglers and seized goods in a new crackdown on smuggling into the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, an Egyptian security official said. Hundreds of security forces have been deployed in and around the town of Rafah, located along Egypt's sensitive border with Gaza, the official said. Around $1 million in goods was seized, including food, television sets and kitchen appliances, but no weapons. Halting smuggling into Gaza is a key issue in negotiations for a long-term truce between Israel and Hamas that Egypt is trying to mediate. The crackdown started last weekend, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to the press. New checkpoints have also been set up along Rafah's entrances and exits, while about 1,000 police are patrolling narrow alleys and hillsides near Rafah, questioning residents and conducting searches. The smuggling of weapons and goods spiked after Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007, routing their Fatah rivals from the area, and Egypt and Israel imposed an economic blockade on the strip. Israel destroyed many underground tunnels during its Gaza offensive, launched in reprisal for Hamas rocket attacks on south Israel. However, some tunnels appeared to have been revived after the Israeli offensive ended in mid-January. Egypt's official news agency says officials from the militant Hamas group are talking with an Egyptian mediator about a long-term truce deal with Israel over the Gaza Strip. The MENA news agency says Hamas' strongman from Gaza, Mahmoud Zahar, and deputy chief Moussa Abu Marzouk from the group's Damascus branch are taking part in the negotiations in the Egyptian capital. Israel temporarily eased its blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip Thursday to allow Palestinian flower growers to export 25,000 blooms to Europe.

The deputy leader of Hamas said Thursday night that the Islamic militant group agreed to an 18-month truce with Israel for the Gaza Strip, the official Egyptian news agency reported. Moussa Abu Marzouk told MENA that Egypt's government, which has been mediating between Hamas and Israel, would announce the truce in two days after consulting with other Palestinian factions. In Jerusalem, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office said the Israeli government had no comment on the report. The anarchists say 18-month truce is not enough, and should be rejected by Israel.

13.02.2009: Gaza militants fire rockets into Israel. Early the IDF says Gaza militants have launched two rockets into Israel. The military says Friday's rockets hit near a communal farm and the town of Sderot. No one was injured. Sporadic violence has continued as Egyptian mediators try to hammer out a long-term arrangement between the sides. The military says more than 40 rockets have been launched since the offensive's end. Egypt's MENA news agency reported Thursday that the deputy leader of Hamas says the Islamic militant group has agreed to an 18-month truce with Israel. Moussa Abu Marzouk said the deal calls for Israel to reopen its border crossings into Gaza. Israeli officials as mentioned refused to comment. Later Israeli airplanes bombed a target in the Gaza Strip, critically wounding two Palestinian militants, according to medical workers and officials of the Hamas. Hours earlier, Gaza militants fired three rockets at Israel, causing no damage or injury. There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the rockets, which struck near the Israeli town of Sderot.

The anarchists call for a durable peace deal. This may take some time to reach, but as long as the negotiations go on, there will probably be few terrorist attacks by Hamas and associates, and thus few responses from Israel. Thus, the anarchists call for continued peace talks, until a lasting peace agreement can be reached.

14.02.2009: Human rights groups question Hamas on extra-judicial killings. The day after Israeli tanks entered Gaza last month, masked Palestinians opened fire on the al-Najar family outside their home, killing the father and wounding 10 others, including two teenage girls and a 78-year-old grandmother. Ammar al-Najar, 25, a son of the victim, didn't know who the gunmen were but he said the family supports the Fatah movement and had trouble previously with Gaza's ruling Hamas group. "My father ... tried to talk to them, but they didn't talk. They just started shooting," he said. The men wore no identifying symbols, he said. International and Palestinian human rights organizations say there was a rash of shootings and beatings across Gaza during Israel's offensive, voicing suspicions the Islamic militants of Hamas used wartime chaos to target enemies, including activists from the rival Fatah. Among examples reported by the rights groups, gunmen dragged a man from a hospital bed and another from his grandfather's house, then shot them dead. A third died in a hospital from beating and gunshot wounds after men who said they were from Gaza security forces pulled him from his home. Two Gaza-based groups, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights and the Independent Commission on Human Rights, interviewed survivors and witnesses who said some attacks were carried out by members of Hamas' internal security service. Amnesty International went further, saying Hamas militiamen engaged in a "campaign of abductions, deliberate and unlawful killings, torture and death threats against those they accuse of 'collaborating' with Israel, as well as opponents and critics."

All three rights groups are urging Hamas leaders to investigate the allegations and prosecute those responsible. Hamas and Fatah engaged in months of clashes in Gaza before Hamas gunmen seized control of the territory after five days of street battles in June 2007. During the conflict, both sides committed killings and kidnappings, including throwing some victims off high-rise buildings. In the latest accusations of score-settling by Hamas during Israel's three-week offensive, Fatah says some of its members were slain, others shot in the arms or legs, and many placed under house arrest that prevented them from fleeing areas under Israeli attack. Hamas has denied any involvement by members of its security services but acknowledges that Hamas fighters targeted suspected informers for Israel."The government distinguishes between any violation of the law and actions taken by the resistance to protect itself from the danger of spies during wartime," said Taher al-Nunu, a spokesman for Gaza's Hamas administration. "The government confirms that it will show no mercy for collaborators who stab our people in the back, and they will be judged under the law."

A report from the Palestinian Center for Human Rights details 32 "extra-judicial" killings from the Dec. 27 start of the Israeli campaign to the end of January. It said 17 of the dead were among prisoners who fled Gaza's central prison after it was damaged by an Israeli airstrike Dec. 28. As inmates ran through the bombed-out walls, gunmen were seen grabbing some and their corpses were found later, the report said. Most of the 17 had been held as suspected collaborators and two for raping and murdering a child. The group said some of the 15 other people killed during that period were snatched from their homes by gunmen, some of whom claimed to be members of Hamas' internal security service. Some turned up dead soon after, while others were found injured and later died of wounds, it said.

Similar attacks have been reported since Israel halted its offensive Jan. 18. On Feb. 6, 51-year-old Jamil Shaqqura died in a hospital of wounds from beating and torture, a week after he was picked for interrogation by Hamas' internal security, the group said. Speaking at Shaqqura's funeral, Hamas parliament member Yunis al-Astal said internal security needed to be given stricter instructions. Hamas officials said they were investigating the case. Hamas also accepted responsibility for the killing of Hasan al-Hijazi, who was shot by three masked men Jan. 7. Hamas later issued a statement calling the killing a "mistake," the rights groups said. "What happened was that there was chaos, armed chaos," said Subhia Juma at the Independent Commission for Human Rights. Juma's group said gunmen - some masked, others in official uniforms - severely beat or shot at the legs of at least 116 people. The report by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights mentioned "dozens" of such attacks. Fahmi Zaarir, a Fatah spokesman in the West Bank, said that 14 Fatah members in Gaza were killed by Hamas during the Israeli offensive and that more than 160 were shot in the arms or legs or beaten. He said hundreds of Fatah members were put under house arrest, preventing some from fleeing from the Israeli advance to safer places. Some who tried to leave their homes were shot at, he said.

Mahmoud Qanan, 25, a Fatah youth leader, said armed men came to his house in the town of Khan Yunis on Jan. 3, confiscated his cell phone and told him he was under house arrest. "I could have gone to a place safer than my house, but I was scared to go out, that I'd get shot or kidnapped or punished," he said. Hamdi Shaqqura of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights said his group could not conclusively determine who carried out the attacks, although some testimony pointed to Hamas gunmen. Amnesty International, however, said there was "no doubt" the wave of attacks was carried out by "Hamas forces and militias as they are the only ones who are allowed to operate with such a degree of freedom throughout Gaza."

Israel links truce with Hamas to soldier's release. Israel's outgoing prime minister on Saturday ruled out a long-term truce in Gaza without the release of an Israeli soldier held in the Hamas-ruled territory - a sign that a month of negotiations may have stalled. Egypt has as mentioned been mediating indirect ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas since Israel unilaterally halted its fierce three-week offensive in Gaza. Under an emerging truce deal, Israel would gradually ease its border blockade of Gaza, in exchange for a halt to weapons smuggling and attacks by Gaza militants. In parallel, Egypt also brokered talks on a prisoner swap - hundreds of Palestinians held by Israel in exchange for Gilad Schalit, the Israeli soldier seized by Hamas-allied militants in June 2006. Progress has been reported in those negotiations, with the remaining dispute apparently focusing on several prisoners involved in particularly bloody attacks on Israelis.

Hamas has sought to separate the truce deal from the prisoner swap. However, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Saturday said the two were inextricably linked. "The position of the prime minister is that Israel will not reach any understandings regarding the calm (ceasefire) before the release of Gilad Schalit," said a statement by Olmert's office. In Gaza, Hamas officials also reported new snags. Hamas wants a ceasefire for 18 months, with the possibility of extending it. Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum and Hamas legislator Salah Bardawil said Israel has renewed demands for an open-ended ceasefire. Barhoum said Hamas drafted its final version of a truce deal and presented it to Egypt. "Israel returned (it) to ask for an open-ended calm without a ceiling," he said, adding that Egypt is trying to bridge the gap. Egypt is also key to a third set of complex negotiations. Starting Feb. 22, it will host reconciliation talks between Hamas and the rival Fatah movement of moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Hamas wrested control of Gaza from forces loyal to Abbas in June 2007. In response, Abbas fired the Hamas-led government and set up a rival administration in the West Bank.

Hamas and Fatah officials held preparatory talks in Cairo in recent days. Both sides reported a positive atmosphere and said they talked about the fate of political activists held by Hamas in Gaza and by Fatah in the West Bank. Fatah negotiator Nabil Shaath said the two sides agreed to solve the prisoner issue. Asked if prisoners would be released, Shaath said: "Yes, I think we will start before the 22nd (of February)." Barhoum said Hamas prisoners held in the West Bank must be freed in coming days. Relations between Hamas and Abbas have deteriorated steadily since Hamas won parliamentary elections in January 2006. Repeated reconciliation attempts have failed, and it was not clear whether the upcoming round will be successful.

15.02.2009: Israeli brinkmanship puts Gaza truce in peril. Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is mounting a last-ditch effort to free a captured Israeli soldier by blocking an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire in the Gaza Strip until Hamas agrees to release him. Western diplomats remain skeptical Olmert's brinkmanship can produce a breakthrough on a truce in the few weeks he has left in office. Hamas has no faith that Israel, which is about to change governments, will abide by commitments under the proposed ceasefire, mainly to keep Gaza's border crossings open, if captured soldier Gilad Shalit is freed. Wary of taking steps it believes would bestow legitimacy on Hamas, Israel has rebuffed a proposal under which the United Nations would monitor commitments on both sides, according to diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity.

16.02.200: Israeli jets have bombed tunnels on Gaza's border with Egypt, after two rockets were fired at southern Israel. The IDF said the air attack targeted a tunnel used for smuggling arms into Gaza. A little-known militant group called Hezbollah Brigades Palestine claimed responsibility for the rocket attacks, which caused no casualties.

17.02.2009: Israel's Security Cabinet will consider a possible prisoner exchange with Hamas, freeing hundreds of Palestinian prisoners for a soldier captured in June 2007, an Israeli official said Tuesday. The top-level meeting is set for Wednesday, said government spokesman Mark Regev. He said a decision also was expected on terms of a long-term truce in Gaza after Israel's bruising offensive there last month. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert repeated his new condition that the soldier, Sgt. Gilad Schalit, must be freed. "We will negotiate his release first, and only then will we be willing to discuss things like the Gaza crossings and rebuilding the [Gaza] Strip," Olmert said during a tour of Jerusalem. Israel and Egypt as mentioned clamped a blockade on Gaza after Hamas overran the crowded sliver of territory in 2007, allowing in only humanitarian supplies. In Damascus, exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal complained about Olmert's new condition. "There can be no truce unless the [Gaza] blockade is lifted and the crossings are opened. The truce issue should not be linked to the issue of prisoner Schalit," Mashaal told reporters in Damascus after meeting with Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa. Olmert indicated that negotiations might take weeks. His term will end soon, when a new prime minister takes over. "Even if Schalit's case cannot be resolved while I am in office, the foundations we built will facilitate in his release," he said.

18.02.2009: Israel hits back. Palestinian officials in the Gaza Strip says Israeli planes have attacked smuggling tunnels around the Gaza-Egypt border and a disused Hamas security base near the town of Khan Younis. The Hamas base had already been largely reduced to rubble in previous attacks since the Jan. 18 end of Israel's land campaign in the strip, but this time a mosque left standing inside the compound was destroyed. Israel has launched sporadic attacks on smuggling tunnels and Hamas outposts since the offensive ended and Israel independently declared a truce. The IDF confirmed that aircraft carried out attacks early Wednesday. The IDF said aircraft hit seven tunnels and the Khan Younis base in response to the Palestinians firing 45 rockets and mortar shells since the Jan.18 ceasefire. Later in the morning a rocket fired from Gaza fell in open ground in southern Israel, police said. There were no reported casualties.

Israeli officials say the country's Security Cabinet has decided to keep the Gaza Strip's border crossings closed until an Israeli soldier, Sgt. Gilad Schalit, is freed. The decision is likely to set back Egyptian efforts to broker a ceasefire between Israel and the Hamas militants who control Gaza. The talks come in the wake of the harsh Israeli military offensive in Gaza that ended last month. Hamas has as mentioned been demanding that Israel end its blockade of Gaza as part of a ceasefire. It says the case of the soldier should be settled separately. But in Wednesday's meeting, the Israeli Cabinet ministers said they will not ease the economic pressure on Gaza until Sgt. Gilad Schalit comes home. The soldier was captured by Hamas militants nearly three years ago.

19.02.2009: US lawmakers traveled to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Thursday, the first congressional delegation to enter the area since the Islamic militant group took power nearly two years ago. Democratic Reps. Brian Baird of Washington and Keith Ellison of Minnesota were in Gaza early Thursday, the US consulate said. Consulate spokeswoman Micaela Schweitzer-Bluhm said the lawmakers would meet with U.N. officials. There were no plans for them to meet with Hamas, which the US shuns as a terrorist group. Israeli warplanes bombed smuggling tunnels along Gaza's southern border on Thursday, the IDF said. The airstrikes took place some 20 miles from where the lawmakers were visiting, and there were no reports of injuries. Visits by US officials to Gaza have been rare since Palestinian militants blew up an American diplomatic convoy in October 2003, killing three people, and no American representatives have gone since Hamas won Palestinian elections in 2006. Since taking office last month, President Barack Obama has said he hopes to improve US relations with the Muslim world. As the first Muslim member of Congress, Ellison could play a key role in that mission.

Hamas official Ahmed Yousef welcomed the arrival of the Americans. "We highly appreciate the visit of any delegation that wants to find out the facts and see what has happened on the ground in Gaza," he said. Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said he had no knowledge of the lawmakers' Gaza visit. The former presidential candidate, Senator John Kerry, was also visiting Gaza with US congressmen Brian Baird and Keith Ellison in the first such visit to the Hamas-run Strip since 2007. Hamas has sent a letter addressed to the US president via a US politician visiting Gaza, a senior UN official has said. UN relief agency chief Karen Abu Zayd told the letter had been received by the UN and passed on. She did not say if Senator John Kerry had accepted it, and there were no details about the letter's contents. As the head of the Senate Foreign Committee, Mr Kerry is a senior Democrat, but all three men are visiting Gaza in their capacity as lawmakers, not representatives of the administration of President Barack Obama.

Mr Kerry also visited the Israeli town of Sderot, a target of Palestinian rocket attacks, before entering Gaza. Standing in front of a pile of used rockets, Mr Kerry said that both he and President Obama believed that nobody should have to spend their lives in fear of attack. "I know that our president, President Obama, whom I support strongly, stood right here," he said, referring to a visit before the 2008 US election. "He was right here in front of these rockets. He came to Sderot as I have because we feel very deeply that no-one should live under this kind of threat, no children should be raised in that kind of fear. "We are sympathetic with the crisis that people face on a daily basis here in Israel, from those who choose no other path other than to use instruments of terror." Earlier he said: "[The visit] does not indicate any shift whatsoever with respect to Hamas... what it indicates is our effort to listen and to learn." Like Israel, the EU, the UN and the AI, the US government officials refuse to deal with the terrorist group.

20.01.2009: Netanyahu picked to form Israeli government. Benjamin Netanyahu, the head of the conservative Likud Party, has been chosen to form Israel's next government, Israeli President Shimon Peres announced.  At a joint news conference with Peres, Netanyahu said he accepted the task and he is willing to work with the moderate parties of Labor, led by Ehud Barak, and Kadima, headed by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. "We have different approaches in different areas, but we are all together in our desire to act for the good of the state," Netanyahu said. "We will be able to find the common ground to lead the state toward security, prosperity and peace." He said Israeli leaders need to unite as the country faces "great challenges," particularly from Iran, which he said "is developing nuclear weapons and poses the biggest threat to Israel since the war of independence." A U.N. report released this week found that Iran has enough uranium for a single nuclear weapon, but the uranium has not been enriched to make it weapons-grade. Iran consistently has denied the weapons allegations, calling them "baseless," and said that data that indicated otherwise was "fabricated." To become Israel's next prime minister, Netanyahu must form a coalition within six weeks, or the process will start all over. The decision comes after Avigdor Lieberman, head of the right-wing Yisrael Beytenu party, said he would recommend Netanyahu for the post, but only if he promises to form a "broad-based" coalition government.

In last week's parliamentary elections, no single party won the minimum 61 seats needed to form a government. That means a government of two or more parties, or coalition government,  is inevitable.  The ruling Kadima Party won the most seats in the Knesset, Israel's parliament. But Kadima received just one more seat than Netanyahu's Likud Party. The strong showing of other right-wing parties,  including Yisrael Beytenu and the Orthodox Shas movement,  could give Netanyahu a better chance of forming a coalition government. Speaking to fellow Likud members Monday, Netanyahu expressed confidence that he has enough support to emerge as Israel's next prime minister. "I plan to form a government as soon as possible with our natural partners," the former Israeli prime minister said. "We have a government in our hands, but we want a broader one." He added that he will negotiate with other parties, including Kadima, "to form a broad national unity government." Livni took over as Kadima leader after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert stepped down from the post amid corruption investigations. Livni's failure to assemble a ruling coalition at that time triggered last week's elections. Netanyahu, 59, is a former Israeli soldier who served in the elite commando unit Sayeret Matkal. He was one of a dozen Israeli commandos who stormed a Belgian aircraft hijacked by Palestinian terrorists in 1972 and helped rescue 140 hostages.

After his stint as prime minister from 1996 to 1999, he served in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, then Likud Party leader, but resigned in 2005, saying he disagreed with Sharon's plan to remove Israeli troops and settlements from Gaza. Sharon left Likud and formed Kadima as a more centrist party. Netanyahu has supported the expansion of Israeli settlements on the West Bank and has opposed making further territorial concessions in hope of ending the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He has been reminding the public that he warned that Palestinian militants in Gaza could launch rockets at Israeli cities such as Ashkelon and Ashdod -- which has happened and led to Israel's recent military operation in Gaza. His Likud Party had a strong showing in last week's election, more than doubling the number of seats it holds in the Knesset. Netanhayu said that showing proves that voters have rejected Kadima's leadership, and he predicted right-leaning parties will be able to form a majority."With god's help, I shall head the coming government," he said. "I am sure that I can manage to put together a good, broad-based and stable government that will be able to deal with the security crisis and the economic crisis." The anarchists do not at all believe in god's help, but welcome a broad based government in Israel, that can work according to the anarchists' aim for the Middle East. Netanyahu has despite the right wing rethorics earlier showed a pragmatic, negotiation policy, and that will probably happen again.

21.02.2009: Rocket fire from Lebanon into Israel. A rocket fired from Lebanon has lightly wounded three people in northern Israel, the IDF says.
Lebanese security sources said that three rockets had been fired from southern Lebanon but two had landed inside Lebanese territory. Lebanese sources say that Israel then fired at least six artillery shells. Fouad Siniora, the Lebanese Prime Minister, denounced both attacks. No-one has claimed responsibility for the rocket firing.

22.02.2009: Three day opening of Gaza's Egyptian border. Egyptian authorities on Sunday started letting stranded students, third-country residents and medical patients leave Gaza through the usually closed border, a spokesman for Palestinian officials at the crossing said. Egypt has agreed to allow 500 students studying abroad and 500 other people with valid residency permits for Egypt or other countries to pass through the border crossing Sunday, Palestinian border spokesman Adel Zourab said. Another 800 medical cases were scheduled to cross on Monday, he said. Egypt as mentioned sealed the border after Islamic Hamas militants seized control of Gaza in June 2007. It has occasionally opened the passage for limited periods. Israel has also blockaded its border crossings with Gaza, allowing in only a limited amount of humanitarian aid. Zourab, who represents the Hamas administration, said about 200 of the sick people might not be able to travel due to a delay in issuing them Palestinian passports by Hamas' rival, the West Bank-based government of President Mahmoud Abbas. The moderate Abbas government is backed by the West and recognized internationally, while Hamas is shunned as a terrorist organization by the US, European Union and Israel. Representatives of Hamas and Abbas' Fatah movement are expected to hold reconciliation talks in Egypt on Wednesday.

Israeli coalition bargaining continues, as Gaza militants fire rocket. Israel's outgoing prime minister called on hard-line Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu to form a new government quickly as coalition bargaining shifted into high gear Sunday. Opening the weekly meeting of his soon-to-be-dissolved Cabinet, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel needed a new government soon. Negotiators should "conduct things in an effective and fast way in order to establish, as quickly as possible, a government that will enjoy full authority and will be able to rule effectively," Olmert said. Olmert is a caretaker prime minister until Netanyahu can form a new ruling coalition. After having been entrusted with the task of forming a new government by President Shimon Peres on Friday, Netanyahu now has six weeks to do so. The question is whether he will form a narrow coalition with his hard-line allies or a broad centrist coalition with his rival, Kadima Party leader Tzipi Livni. The two were slated to meet later Sunday. Netanyahu could form a narrow coalition with relative ease, giving him 65 seats in the 120-seat parliament. But that narrow margin would give his smaller coalition partners effective veto power over any decision, as they could bring down the government in a dispute. Such an alliance would also likely freeze peace talks and could clash with the US administration. Bringing in Livni would reduce international pressure on Israel and provide more stability but she has said she will enter the government only if Netanyahu agrees to a "rotation" arrangement whereby each would serve as prime minister for half of the government's four-year term. Netanyahu rejects that condition. And Livni supports the formation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, while Netanyahu does not.

One of Livni's party colleagues, Cabinet minister Meir Sheetrit, said Kadima would not join a government that would call off peace talks with the Palestinians. "We cannot be in a government that will not go for peace, because if we do so, Kadima could be deleted from the political map," Sheetrit said. Responding to the demands, Netanyahu called on Livni to enter talks without preconditions and said he planned to ask both Kadima and the centrist Labor Party to join him in the government. "Unity can be achieved by dialogue, not by dictates, not by arm-wrestling. That's what we will do today - we'll begin the effort to join hands, first with Kadima, and tomorrow with the Labor Party," Netanyahu said. Netanyahu spoke ahead of a meeting with visiting US Sen. Joe Lieberman, who said he believed that a Netanyahu-led government would enjoy good relations with Washington."Our enemies, unfortunately, are as common as the values and the interests that have united us for all these years," Lieberman told reporters. "I have no doubt that with Netanyahu's government here we will have good and positive relations."

Sen. Joe Lieberman also met with Avigdor Lieberman, whose Yisrael Beiteinu party saw its support surge in the recent elections and is now the third-largest grouping in parliament. Lieberman's party ran on an anti-Arab platform and has drawn charges of racism, but is all but assured of an important role in the new Israeli government because of its newfound clout. With Israel between governments, sporadic violence is continuing along the Gaza border in the absence of a long-term truce with the radical Islamic Hamas, which rules there. Israel halted a military offensive in the territory on Jan. 18. Gaza militants fired a rocket into Israel early Sunday, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. There were no injuries.

23.02.2009: Rocket fired from Gaza into Israel. Israel launched an air strike on central Gaza on Monday after one of its patrols came under fire near the Kissufim border crossing, but there were no immediate reports of casualties on either side. A single rocket launched from Gaza also hit Israeli territory without causing injuries or damage, IDF said. The outgoing Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, is reportedly suspending his main negotiator at the talks mediated by Egypt on a lasting truce with Hamas in Gaza. Amos Gilad criticized Mr Olmert last week for what he called an inconsistent approach to the talks, which he described as insulting to the Egyptians.

The United States plans to offer more than $900 million to help rebuild Gaza after Israel's invasion and to strengthen the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, US officials said. The money, which needs US congressional approval, will be distributed through U.N. and other bodies and not via the militant group Hamas, which rules Gaza, said one official. The anarchists are warning about the corruption in the Palestinian Authority...

Amnesty International has called for a freeze on arms sales to Israel and Palestinian groups such as Hamas following the recent Gaza conflict. The human rights group said it had evidence both Israel and Hamas had used weapons sourced from overseas to carry out attacks on civilians. It called for the UN Security Council to impose an embargo on all parties. Both Israel and Hamas have rejected the conclusions of the report, in which Amnesty accuses each of war crimes. In the report, Israel is accused of illegal use of white phosphorus and other armaments supplied by the US in Gaza, while Hamas is condemned for launching unguided rockets into Israel. "Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups fired hundreds of rockets that had been smuggled in or made of components from abroad at civilian areas in Israel... In southern Israel ... the remains of rockets fired indiscriminately at civilian areas by Hamas and other armed Palestinian groups were also recovered, the report said.  "Though far less lethal than the weaponry used by Israel, such rocket firing also constitutes a war crime and caused several civilian deaths."  

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev told the BBC that Israel had used white phosphorus but not as an anti-personnel weapon. As mentioned the substance, which is used to lay smokescreens, is legal for use on open ground but its use in built-up areas where civilians are found is banned under international conventions. Mr Regev also accused Amnesty of basing its report on unsound data supplied by Hamas. Mr Regev defended Israeli military tactics in an interview for the BBC's Today programme. "We tried to be as surgical as humanly possible in a difficult combat situation," he said. The anarchists mean the evidence for Hamas' war crimes is clear, however traces of weapons used by the IDF are no evidence of war crimes, and interviews of the people of Gaza are no sound evidence, because they cannot speak freely because of likely repression and violent attacks by Hamas, if they speak the truth about Hamas' use of civilians as human shields, etc. Thus, there exists no sound evidence of Israeli war crimes so far. The anarchists however support an independent investigation of possible warcrimes by the IDF, but it must be based on sound evidence, which Amnesty International's report is not. A weapens embargo on Hamas is supported by the anarchists, but so far not a weapons embargo on Israel, because of lack of sound evidence of war crimes.

24.02.2009: Gunmen shot and wounded an Egyptian policeman guarding a warehouse of goods seized en route to tunnels near the Gaza border, security sources said on Tuesday. The 21-year-old policeman, named as Fathi Salman Mohamed, was taken to hospital in the border town of Rafah on Monday night with a wound in his right shoulder and is in a stable condition, they said. The gunmen escaped but police assume they are smugglers, who have attacked similar warehouses in the past, they said. The hundreds of tunnels under the Egypt-Gaza border were as mentioned among the targets in Israel's recent offensive against Gaza. Palestinians in the coastal enclave use them to smuggle in weapons and commercial goods, circumventing the Israeli-Egyptian blockade.

25.02.2009: More rocket attacks from Gaza. Terrorists in Gaza launched two rockets at southern Israel on Wednesday and Israeli planes attacked smuggling tunnels as a stable truce between the two sides remained elusive. Israeli aircraft struck tunnels in the southern Gaza town of Rafah several hours later, the IDF said. There were no injuries reported in either the rocket attacks or the airstrike. Palestinians working in the tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border evacuated before the strike after they saw Egyptian troops across the border pull back, presumably when they were warned by Israel, according to Hamas security officials. The rocket attacks and retaliatory airstrikes have become routine in the aftermath of Israel's three-week Gaza offensive. The rocket attacks have been claimed by smaller militant groups, not by Gaza's Hamas rulers, but Israel holds Hamas responsible as the ruling power in Gaza. A small faction calling itself Hezbollah Palestine took responsibility for Wednesday's attack in a statement sent to reporters in Gaza.

Donor meeting on Monday. Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad says he is seeking $2.8 billion in foreign aid for rebuilding Gaza Strip. The damage resulted from Israel's three-week offensive against Gaza's Hamas rulers that ended in mid-January. Representatives from dozens of donor countries are meeting in Egypt on Monday for a Gaza pledging conference. The United States is mentioned expected to give about $900 million. Initial assessments put the physical and economic damage at $2 billion. The reconstruction of Gaza is complicated by the Israeli-Egyptian blockade of the territory following Hamas' 2007 takeover. Aid officials say rebuilding is impossible without open borders. US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will attend the international donors conference in Egypt on Monday. Clinton is preparing to plunge into one of the toughest foreign policy issues facing the Obama administration - the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with personal diplomacy aimed at blunting what Washington sees as malign Iranian influence in the region.

Rival Palestinian sides agree to release detainees.The rival Palestinian groups Hamas and Fatah agreed Wednesday to release each other's loyalists from detention, seeking to lower tensions during reconciliation talks, officials said. A deal between the Islamic militants of Hamas who rule Gaza and the more moderate Fatah movement in charge of the West Bank is seen as key to moving ahead with Gaza's reconstruction.

26.02.2009: US envoy, Netanyahu to huddle on peace efforts. The special US envoy, George Mitchell, tasked with jump-starting flagging peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians will huddle Thursday with Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu, a vocal opponent of the negotiations. The meeting will be the first between Netanyahu and Mitchell since Netanyahu was designated to lead Israel's next government. The Obama administration has dispatched Mitchell to the region for the second time in its first month, an indication of the new US president's determination to press a resolution of the decades-old conflict. Mitchell hopes to re-energize stalled talks, over the objections of Netanyahu, who thinks the latest round of US-backed negotiations was a waste of time and wants to promote Palestinian prosperity instead of Palestinian statehood. The anarchists demand that Netanyahu continues with the peace negotiations and work for a two independent countries solution.

27.02.2009: Benjamin Netanyahu failed to persuade his centrist rival, Tzipi Livni, to join him in a broad coalition Friday, increasing the likelihood that Israel's next government will be an alliance of hawks and hard-line religious parties opposed to substantial concessions for peace. However, Livni did not shut the door on any possibility of an agreement, and Netanyahu still has five weeks to cobble together a government.

Palestinians pledge era of unity. Leaders of the rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah have said they are entering a new era of reconciliation, after talks in Cairo. Delegations from each side, and other Palestinian groups, have agreed to set up committees to look at forming a unity government and holding elections. The committees are to finish their work by the end of March, said senior Fatah official Ahmed Qurei. On Wednesday both groups agreed to release detainees from the other side. In another confidence-building measure, they pledged to stop attacking each other in the media to foster goodwill between the two sides. Committees will also look at reforming the security services and merging Hamas into the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Liberation Organisation, PLO. The talks were held at the office in Cairo of the powerful Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman. He said there was no option but for the reconciliation process to succeed. "We have no choice but to succeed and to move forward dramatically on the road to end division... You are responsible for your people," he told the delegates.

The Palestinian negotiating committees will next meet on 8 March to continue their work. About a dozen Palestinian groups are taking part in the national dialogue. Egypt is hosting an international reconstruction conference on 2 March at which as mentioned the Palestinians hope to raise US $ 2.8bn . Inter-factional fighting in Gaza came to a head in the summer of 2007 when Hamas fighters as mentioned ousted the pro-Fatah security forces and overthrew the Palestinian Authority control. As well as continued tension, both sides have been accused of conducting politically motivated arrests and the torture of rival faction members. Egypt revived the call for Palestinian reconciliation talks in November. However, Hamas withdrew from the talks, complaining that Fatah continued to arrest Hamas members in the West Bank. Efforts to secure a reconciliation have gained strength since Israel's three-week military offensive in Gaza which ended on 18 January. The Fatah and Hamas sides have fundamental differences over how to deal with Israel. While Fatah has renounced violence, Hamas refuses to recognize Israel. Hamas is prepared to accept a short-term truce but it reserves the right to fight Israel. The idea is to form an interim unity government that would prepare for new presidential and legislative elections and co-ordinate the rebuilding of Gaza. A previous unity agreement fell apart after Israel and its international backers refused to deal with Hamas, which as mentioned refuses to recognize Israel. Solving Fatah-Hamas differences is seen as an essential step if an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal is to happen - although with Israel also at a political crossroads analysts say that could be a long way off. The US, Britain, the EU and the Anarchist International have made clear that they would rather see non-partisan technocrats in control of the Palestinian territories than a coalition which includes Hamas.

28.02.2009: More rockets fired from Gaza. Two rockets were fired Saturday morning from Gaza and landed in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon, one of them hitting an educational institution and the other landing in an open area. Five rockets have landed in Israel since Friday, a spokesman for the IDF said. There have been no reports of casualties, the IDF continued. More than 100 rockets have been fired at Israel by Palestinian terrorists in Gaza since the two sides declared separate, tentative ceasefires in late January, the IDF said. 

01.03.2009: The ceasefire is dead. Israel will respond if rocket attacks from Gaza don't stop. Israel will hit back at Palestinian-controlled Gaza with a "sharp, painful and strong response" if rocket attacks do not stop, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday.Rocket fire from Gaza, which is run by the militant Hamas movement, was the main reason cited for Israel's three-week assault on the territory in December and January. But rocket attacks into Israel continue. Over the weekend Palestinians fired nine rockets into southern Israel. One of them as mentioned slammed into an empty school in the city of Ashkelon, causing extensive damage. Since the end of the military operation in Gaza, over 110 rockets have been fired into Israel, a spokeswoman for IDF said. "If the firing of rockets continues from Gaza, it will be answered with a sharp, painful and strong response," Olmert said Sunday at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting. The anarchists call on Hamas to stop all rocket attacks!

02.03.2009: International donors pledge $4.481 billion to Palestine, but shun Hamas. International donors pledged $4.481 billion on Monday to help the Palestinian economy and rebuild Gaza after Israel's three-week offensive, insisting their funds bypass the territory's Hamas rulers. Gulf Arab states, the United States and the European Commission made significant pledges. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit told a news conference the pledges were new and would be paid over the next two years. The United Nations and aid agencies said rebuilding the coastal enclave was a daunting task so long as border crossings with battered Gaza remained closed. "The situation at the border crossings is intolerable. Aid workers do not have access. Essential commodities cannot get in," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told donors at a one-day conference on Gaza in the Egyptian resort of Sharm El-Sheikh. "Our first and indispensable goal, therefore, is open crossings. By the same token, however, it is therefore essential to ensure that illegal weapons do not enter Gaza," he said. Israel and Hamas were not invited to the conference which Egypt had called for after the end of Israel's military offensive in Gaza in January. The Jewish state says it supports efforts to help Palestinians in the strip, but wants assurances the aid money would not reach Hamas militants. "We definitely don't want to see the goodwill of the international community exploited by Hamas and serve Hamas's extremist purposes," said Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

The West shuns Hamas because it refuses to recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept peace deals with the Jewish state. The islamist fascist Hamas, which is holding talks to form a unity government with the rival Fatah group of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, said the boycott would undercut reconstruction efforts. "To bypass the legitimate Palestinian authorities in the Gaza Strip is a move in the wrong direction, and it deliberately undermines the reconstruction," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said in Gaza.

The Palestinian Authority had hoped to raise $2.78 billion at the event, including $1.33 billion for Gaza. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged $300 million for Gaza reconstruction and $600 million to support the authority's budget shortfalls, economic reforms and security and private sector projects run by the PA. She was adamant that none of the money, which has to be agreed by the US Congress, would go to Hamas. "We have worked with the Palestinian Authority to install safeguards that will ensure our funding is only used where and for whom it is intended and does not end up in the wrong hands," she said.  The European Commission pledged 440 million euros ($554.1 million) for Gaza and Palestinian Authority reforms, compared to 487 million euros in 2008. Gulf Arab states pledged about $1.65 billion and said their donations will go through a special mechanism launched on Sunday in the Saudi capital. Western diplomats said donors in 2007 had pledged $7.7 billion in aid over three years, but the Palestinians complained that only a fraction of that money was paid out on time. It also remains unclear whether Israel would open Gaza's border crossings to large quantities of supplies like cement and steel needed to rebuild. Israel refuses the entry of materials it says could be also used by militants to build rockets.

"Gaza should not actually be a prison with open skies," French President Nicolas Sarkozy said through an interpreter. Israel tightened its grip on Gaza's border crossings after Hamas took control in June 2007, and says it will closely manage Gaza reconstruction by requiring project-by-project approval and guarantees that projects will not benefit Hamas. Egypt, which also borders Gaza, refuses to open its Rafah crossing for normal traffic, rather than for limited access. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said aid needed to reach Gaza, be well spent and sustained. "Otherwise the saga of reconstruction and destruction will go on and on," he added. The anarchists mainly agree with Miliband.

03.03.2009: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton promised Tuesday to work with the incoming Israeli government, but delivered a clear message that could put her at odds with the country's next leader: Movement toward the establishment of a Palestinian state is "inescapable." The anarchists agree!

04.03.2009: Israeli aircraft fire on Gaza smuggling tunnels. The IDF says its aircraft have fired upon three smuggling tunnels along the Gaza-Egypt border. Wednesday's airstrikes were in response to rocket attacks on Israel the day before. Palestinian officials in Gaza say no one was injured. The IDF says Palestinians have fired more than 130 rockets and mortar shells at southern Israel since Israel ended a three-week offensive against Gaza militants on Jan. 18.

Clinton reassures Abbas on Palestinian state. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has met Palestinian President Mahmound Abbas amid concerns in the West Bank that Israel is backing away from a peace process intended to the creation of a Palestianian state. In their talks in Ramallah Clinton reassured Abbas that Washington remains committed to the so-called "two state" solution. But Israel may soon have a right-wing government opposed to such an outcome. The reconstruction of Gaza was also high on the agenda. Abbas wants the US to put more pressure on Israel to lift its blockade of the Strip. They say the clampdown is hampering efforts to rebuild in the aftermath of Israel's offensive there. Seperately, new criticism of US Middle East policy by the Iranian leadership is likely in dismay the White House. Tehran has said President Obama is following what it called the same "wrong path" as his predecessor in supporting Israel, refering to the country as a "cancerous state". The new US administration has signalled it wants to engage in diplomacy with Iran.

Hillary Clinton has criticized Israel over plans to demolish Palestinian homes in Arab East Jerusalem. After meeting Palestinian leaders in the West Bank, the US Secretary of State said a plan to tear down 80 properties was "unhelpful". She said Washington would take up the issue with Israel. Clinton said: "President Abbas is offering the Palestinian people the chance finally to fulfill the aspirations to be free, independent, prosperous and peaceful, flourishing in a state of your own. And the only way to achieve that goal is through negotiations. So all who believe in this comprehensive peace, we urge you to work with the Palestinian Authority, and with us, because we are determined to move forward." Clinton's visit comes as the Hamas group in Gaza tries to recover from Israel's 22-day offensive in December. The anarchists support a two independent countries' solution, but they should not be states, but anarchies. This may however take long time to achieve...

05.03.2009: Iran, Hamas and their supporters from 30 countries spent two days probing ways to provide assistance to the terrorist Palestinian group and promote "resistance against Israel" at an international gathering in Tehran, an Iranian lawmaker said Thursday. The anarchists take a clear stand against the ultra-authoritarian fascist systems of both Iran and Hamas.

06.03.2009: Hamas supports war crimes. Senior leaders of Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah offered international support Friday to Sudan's president after he was charged with war crimes in Darfur, a sign that the bid to prosecute him could sharply radicalize his regime. For a third straight day, President Omar al-Bashir's supporters marched and vowed to defend him against what his government called a "colonial" conspiracy to overthrow him. Hundreds emerged from mosques after Friday prayers, chanting "jihad," or holy war, and shouting, "With our souls and blood, we will sacrifice ourselves for you, al-Bashir." After the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant Wednesday for al-Bashir, Sudan's government responded by expelling 13 of the largest aid organizations in Darfur. The U.N. human rights office said in Geneva that it was examining whether the expulsion could itself constitute a war crime. Khartoum's government is dominated by Islamic fundamentalists, it provided a base for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in the 1990s, and it has long been close to Iran, Syria and Palestinian terrorist groups such as Hamas.

07.03.2009: Palestinian PM Fayyad submits resignation. The Palestinian prime minister submitted his resignation Saturday, a move that could help pave the way for an elusive power-sharing deal between Palestinian moderates and militants. Salam Fayyad was appointed prime minister by Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in June 2007, in response to the violent takeover of Gaza by the Islamic terrorists. Fayyad's decision was meant as a confidence-building measure, ahead of the resumption of Palestinian reconciliation talks on Tuesday in Cairo. Negotiators from Hamas and Abbas' Fatah movement are trying to form a transition government that is to prepare for presidential and legislative elections by January 2010. Abbas said Saturday that he hoped a transition government could be formed by the end of March, suggesting that power-sharing talks have moved into high gear, following failed attempts in the past. Fayyad's resignation "comes to enhance and support the national dialogue to reach a national unity government," Abbas said. Fayyad, 57, said he would step down after the formation of a new government, but no later than the end of March. However, Abbas aide Nabil Abu Rdeneh suggested that Abbas could reappoint Fayyad if power-sharing talks fail.

Hamas seemed dismissive Saturday, arguing that the Fayyad government had been unconstitutional from the start. "This government did not work for the sake of the Palestinians, it worked for its own agenda. This end was expected for a government that was illegal and unconstitutional," said Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza. Fayyad, a respected economist and a political independent, had won widespread international support as prime minister. He carried out government reforms, including making government spending more transparent and deploying Palestinian security forces in former militant strongholds in the West Bank. The support for the US-educated Fayyad translated into massive amounts of foreign aid for the Palestinians. In 2007, donor countries pledged $7.7 billion over three years for the Fayyad government. Last week, another pledging conference, convened in the wake of Israel's Gaza offensive, yielded $5.2 billion over two years.

It was not immediately clear whether the pledges would be affected by a change in the Palestinian government. Donors had said at the pledging conference that much of the aid would be funneled through the Fayyad government. Fayyad said in a statement on Saturday that he was hoping to pave the way for a unity government. "This step comes in the efforts to form a national conciliation government," Fayyad said. Hamas officials, meanwhile, suggested that in the event of a power-sharing deal, elections could be put off for several months, beyond January 2010, as the two sides try to improve their standing with voters. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the proposal is informal and hasn't been raised in unity talks yes. The political split between Abbas and Hamas broke out into the open in January 2006 when Hamas won parliament elections, defeating Fatah which had dominated Palestinian politics for decades. Arab mediators repeatedly attempted to bridge the gaps, but failed, and Hamas as mentioned seized power by force in Gaza in 2007. In response, Abbas fired Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas and replaced him with Fayyad, while Israel and Egypt responded by closing Gaza's borders. In 2008, Abbas conducted peace talks with Israel, but the negotiations ended without progress. The rival camps appear to have stronger reasons now than in the past to reach a power-sharing deal. A negotiated deal with Israel seems out of reach, particularly now that a right-wing government is about to be formed in Israel. Hamas, meanwhile, survived Israel's Gaza offensive, but has failed to get the border blockade lifted.

In other developments Saturday, a member of an Islamic Jihad rocket squad was killed and two others were wounded in northern Gaza in what a Palestinian medic said was an Israeli airstrike. However, the IDF said it did not carry out any operations in Gaza on Saturday. The Islamic Jihad squad was targeted as it fired rockets toward Israel, according to Palestinian health official Dr. Moawiya Hassanain and Islamic Jihad spokesman Abu Ahmed. The Israeli military confirmed that at least five rockets were fired from Gaza toward Israel on Saturday, causing no injuries or damage. Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers as mentioned separately declared a ceasefire, after the Israeli offensive. However, talks on a durable truce have hit a snag, and rocket fire and airstrikes continue. Islamic Jihad, far smaller than Hamas, is most involved in rocket fire.

Protesters clash with police at Israel match in Sweden. Dozens of anti-Israel activists, clashed with police Saturday as they tried to storm a closed arena where Sweden and Israel were playing a Davis Cup tennis match. The activists hurled rocks and firecrackers at police vans as they tried to break through the barricades set up to keep protesters from the arena. Hundreds of riot police pushed them back using truncheons. There were no immediate reports of injuries. About twenty people were arrested. The clashes erupted after about 7 000 people gathered at a square in downtown Malmö to hear speeches condemning Israel's offensive in Gaza and urging support for Palestinians. Organizers of the "stop the match" protest had said the demonstration would be peaceful, but extreme-left activists had vowed to disrupt the match, which is being played without fans in Malmö. Sweden's Left Party (with main tendency communism) leader Lars Ohly told the crowd that the European Union and the rest of the world should "boycott the racist regime in Israel." Also nazis, the so called "Blekinges autonoma nationalister", wearing black clothes, joined the protests. The protesters marched toward the Baltic Hall arena, where some of them attacked the police line with eggs, rocks and firecrackers. The doubles match between Sweden and Israel started as planned before about 300 special guests invited by the two countries' tennis federations. About 1 000 police from southern Sweden were deployed in Malmö to keep the protesters from entering the arena. The anarchists take a clear stand against such pro Hamas demonstrations, boycott of Israel and the ochlarchy.

08.03.2009: More rocket attacks from Gaza and Israeli response. Hamas security officials say Israeli aircraft targeted a Gaza City warehouse in a nighttime airstrike. The officials say the warehouse was empty and no one was injured. The IDF confirms the strike, saying the target was used by militants as a weapons warehouse. The IDF says aircraft also struck two smuggling tunnels under the Egypt-Gaza border. Palestinian militants launched a rocket and a mortar shell into Israel on Sunday, causing no injuries. Rocket fire by Gaza militants and Israeli retaliatory airstrikes have become nearly daily occurrences. Israel as mentioned halted a military offensive aimed at ending the rocket fire on Jan. 18, but sporadic violence persists as Egypt-mediated talks on a long-term truce have failed to yield results.

Palestinian leader seeks reconciliation with Hamas. Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas says he's determined to form a power-sharing government with his Hamas rivals, despite their deep differences. Abbas' comments come a day after Prime Minister Salam Fayyad submitted his resignation. The move is meant to ease the formation of a new caretaker government to oversee new elections. In the West Bank city of Ramallah on Sunday, Abbas said any new government must accept previous Palestinian obligations. That includes recognizing Israel, which Hamas refuses to do. Reconciliation talks are taking place in Egypt between Abbas' Fatah Party and Hamas.

09.03.2009: Shalit campaign. The parents of captured soldier Gilad Shalit have spent a first full night in a tent outside the Israeli PM's house to raise pressure on his government. They are escalating the campaign after Ehud Olmert said demonstrations calling for Mr Shalit's release by Palestinian militants in Gaza were unhelpful. Noam and Aviva Shalit are urging the outgoing PM to agree a prisoner swap. The Shalits fear a harder line cabinet led by PM-designate Benjamin Netanyahu might be less likely to do a deal. The couple began their protest in the early hours of Sunday. "We will stay as long as Gilad, who has been held for nearly 1,000 days, is not freed," Noam Shalit told Israeli army radio. Gilad Shalit was seized in June 2006 by Palestinian militants, including members of the Hamas group, in an raid into Israel that also left two Israeli soldiers dead. Egypt has been brokering talks to secure his release. Hamas are demanding the release of more than 400 of the thousands of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. In February, the Israeli security cabinet stipulated the soldier must be released before Israel eased its comprehensive blockade of Gaza. Last week, the Israeli outgoing prime minister criticized public demonstrations calling for Gilad Shalit's release, claiming they encouraged Hamas to harden its position. Campaigners have accused the government of dragging its feet in the negotiations. "We will sit outside Olmert's house so that he sees us when he wakes up in the morning," Noam Shalit said on arriving at the tent on Sunday. Nothing has been heard from the Israeli conscript since June 2008, when a letter in his handwriting was delivered to the Carter Centre in Ramallah in the West Bank.

10.03.2009: Palestinian unity talks face low expectations. Divided over policy toward Israel and control of Gaza reconstruction aid, rival Palestinian factions face tough obstacles in unity talks due to open in Cairo on Tuesday. On the eve of the negotiations, slated to last 10 days, officials loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction and the Hamas Islamist movement that rules the Gaza Strip were united in a singular message: chances for success are slim. Five committees were set to tackle issues at the heart of Palestinian reconciliation: formation of a unity government and restructuring the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to include Hamas, now a political and military powerhouse. Palestinian political analysts said Monday that Hamas agreed to the talks to try to overcome its isolation by the West over the group's refusal to recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept existing interim peace deals. Western-backed Abbas, the analysts said, was seeking to minimize inter-factional friction, aware Fatah could be weakened if peace talks with Israel went nowhere under what appears likely to be a new right-wing government led by Benjamin Netanyahu.

"We must reach an agreement to form a government of reconciliation that will abide by the obligations of the PLO," Abbas told reporters on Sunday. He was referring to the organization's interim peace agreements that envisage the creation of a Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel, a blueprint that Netanyahu has not accepted publicly. Hamas opposes the US-backed peace process, offering instead a long-term truce with Israel that falls short of recognition of the Jewish state. Izaat al-Rishq, who heads the Hamas negotiating team, said agreement on the government had to be accompanied by progress on all other tracks. "We will start discussions tomorrow about if the government would be one of national unity composed of technocrats, and the names of possible prime ministers, but all the other committees have to finish their work as well," Rishq said. A delegation of Hamas officials arrived in Cairo from Damascus on Saturday and was waiting for the rest of the team to cross into Egypt from Gaza, Rishq said.

Israel-Lebanon borders stable despite attacks. Southern Lebanon and northern Israel have experienced their longest period of stability in many years despite the violations of a 2006 cease-fire during the recent war in Gaza, the U.N.'s special coordinator for Lebanon said Tuesday. The ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah militants "continues to hold" but much remains to be done to fully implement Security Council resolution 1701 that ended their 34-day conflict, including disarming Hezbollah and all other militias, Michael Williams told reporters after a closed-door briefing to the U.N. Security Council. In a report to the council, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the firing of rockets from southern Lebanon toward Israel during the Gaza conflict as "serious violations" of the cease-fire resolution. The fact that Israel returned fire without prior warning to U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon is also "a cause of serious concern," he said. "On the positive side, the resolution has continued to ensure a cessation of hostilities between the parties and the longest period of stability that south Lebanon has known in decades," he said. "There is a stability on Israel's northern border which it has not known since the 1980s."

In other positive developments, Williams said the internal political situation in Lebanon in the run-up to June 7 general elections "remains good." He also cited the establishment of diplomatic relations between Lebanon and Syria, and moves toward reconciliation in the Arab world "which I think have an enormously positive effect on the situation on the ground in Lebanon." But Williams said "there are many other issues in 1701 where very little progress has been achieved." The resolution reiterates a call for the disarming of all militias in Lebanon, bans arms transfers to any group except the Lebanese armed forces, and urges the Lebanese government to secure its borders to prevent arms smuggling. Williams said the national dialogue in Lebanon under President Michel Suleiman "has had enormously beneficial effect on the country in enhancing national stability, but where the question of the disarmament of armed groups is making only slow process." He expressed hope that the government elected in June can move the issue forward. "It's difficult to take the weapons out of politics. it needs to be done. it needs to be a Lebanese-led process," Williams said.

Palestinian factions are trying to hammer out a power-sharing agreement. The anarchists support the efforts. Palestinian factions trying to hammer out a power-sharing agreement are struggling to reconcile their differences toward peace talks with Israel, a Hamas spokesman said Thursday. Fawzi Barhoum, the militant group's spokesman, said the disagreement is one of the key hurdles holding up the formation of a new unity government between Hamas and the more moderate Fatah faction. Egypt, which is mediating between rival Palestinian factions in the talks that began this week in Cairo, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah have repeatedly said that any new Palestinian government should accept previous peace agreements with Israel and Arabs' peace overtures to the Jewish state.

That would include recognizing Israel's right to exist - which Hamas rejects."We were not part of these agreements, and therefore, no one should expect us to endorse them," Barhoum told The Associated Press in Cairo. Egypt has set a Saturday deadline for the factions to produce an agreement and hopes to host a signing ceremony by the end of March. Several negotiators at the talks said Egypt's powerful intelligence chief Omar Suleiman will meet the delegates Thursday to try to reconcile their differences. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. They also said that Hamas and Fatah still disagree on other issues, such as setting a date for new presidential and legislative elections for all Palestinians.

"Time is not a sword hanging over our necks. What is important is what we achieve," Barhoum said. The Palestinian divide was as mentioned made worse after Hamas violent takeover of Gaza in 2007 that split Palestinian territory between the West Bank, controlled by the internationally backed Fatah, and the Gaza Strip, ruled by the widely shunned Hamas. Overcoming the distrust between them is key to moving ahead with reconstruction in Gaza after Israel's recent offensive there. Previous unity accords have collapsed in mistrust and infighting, but this time both sides appear to have a strong incentive to reach an accord.

Hamas is under pressure to mend fences with Fatah to help end the devastating blockade of Gaza imposed by Egypt and Israel and obtain foreign funding to rebuild Gaza. Fatah and Abbas, whose popularity took a beating due to his perceived lack of decisiveness during the Gaza war, need to find a way to blunt the challenges from Hamas. The delegates in Cairo are as mentioned working in five committees, deliberating specific issues - from forming a unity government, holding new elections, reforming the security services, carrying out confidence-building measures and finding a role for Hamas in the Palestine Liberation Organization. Other Palestinian factions are also present. The anarchists support the efforts to reach a power-sharing agreement.

13.03.2009: Israelis support the captured soldier's family. A protest tent set up outside the prime minister's home by the family of the captive Israeli soldier Sgt. Gilad Schalit has become an unofficial pilgrimage site this week, attracting Cabinet ministers, Holocaust survivors and schoolchildren from across Israel. Posters and bumper stickers of Gilad Schalit decorate the tent, with a growing number of handwritten cards. The outpouring has drawn new attention to the soldier, who marks his 1,000th day in captivity next week and is at the center of efforts for a long-term ceasefire with Gaza's Hamas rulers.

14.02.2009: Bin Laden: Gaza offensive was a holocaust. Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden called Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip a "holocaust" and lashed out at Arab governments that he said failed to stop the bloodshed in an audio recording broadcast Saturday. Bin Laden, whose message was released in excerpts on Al-Jazeera TV, called Arab leaders hypocrites and accused them of sacrificing the Palestinians in Gaza and collaborating with Israel. The three-week offensive, which ended on Jan. 18, killed about 1,300 Palestinians, according to Palestinian human rights groups. "It was clear that some of the Arab leaders have collaborated with the Crusader-Zionist alliance against our people, those whom America calls the moderate leaders," said bin Laden. "We must disown ourselves from all those" governments. He did not mention any governments by name in the brief excerpts, but Egypt, in particular, drew criticism during the offensive for not opening its border with Gaza to more aid shipments and humanitarian cases. Both Israel and Egypt have closed their borders with Gaza since the Islamic militant group Hamas violently seized control of the Palestinian territory in June 2007. The closure deepened economic hardship in the already impoverished strip, home to 1.4 million Palestinians.

It was bin Laden's second audio message on the Gaza offensive since January, when he urged Muslims to launch a jihad against Israel. It was not possible to verify the message's authenticity. A spokesman for Al-Jazeera refused to say how the network obtained the recording. The terror leader again urged Muslims to fight Israel. "The Gaza holocaust, amid this prolonged embargo, is an important historic event and a catastrophe that shows the necessity of distinguishing Muslims from hypocrites," he said. "It is not right that our situation after Gaza will be as it used to be before. There should be serious work and preparation for jihad to fulfill righteousness and defeat evil." Bin Laden called on faithful Muslims to support militants in Iraq and said that country should be used as a departure point for attacks on Israel. He suggested fighters use a route from Iraq through Jordan and into the West Bank. He said supporting fighters in Iraq was a "rare and precious chance" for ultimately taking control of Jerusalem. After taking control of Iraq, he said, fighters should then head to neighboring Jordan. "Jordan ... is the best and widest front, and from Jordan the second launching will be toward the West Bank and the borders will be forcibly opened," he said.

15.03.2009: Palestinian groups deadlocked over unity government. Rival Palestinian groups are bogged down in talks over the shape and agenda of a national unity government that is supposed to prepare for parliamentary and presidential elections, delegates said on Sunday. Diplomats and analysts see the success of the Egyptian-sponsored talks as key to reuniting Palestinians after 21 months of schism between Hamas-ruled Gaza and the West Bank, where the Fatah group of President Mahmoud Abbas holds sway. Fatah and Hamas, the largest two Palestinian groups, differ fundamentally on how to deal with Israel. Hamas believes in armed struggle, though it is willing to consider a truce, while Abbas says negotiations with the Jewish state are the way to go. Participants said differences remained between Fatah and Hamas on whether the unity cabinet that would emerge from the talks be composed of political groups or non-partisan technocrats, as demanded by Western powers and Egypt. "It is a standstill on the issue of the government," said Walid al-Awad of the communist People's Party. He said there were also differences on the electoral law and the timing of the legislative and presidential elections.

The groups agreed on Feb. 26 to form five committees to also tackle issues such as the composition of security agencies in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The committees began their work on March 10. Awad said two committees discussing national reconciliation and the reform of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) concluded their work on Saturday. The PLO, dominated by Abbas and the groups loyal to him, have represented the Palestinians since 1964 but the more recently created Islamist movements, such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, have never been part of it despite a 2005 agreement to bring them under its umbrella. In Gaza, Hamas official Taher al-Nono told Reuters: "There was progress in some issues last night. There is an optimism, a cautious optimism." "Still the issues of the government and elections remained (unresolved)," he said.

Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman last week urged the groups to reach an agreement on forming a technocratic government within a few days. The West had shunned a previous unity government headed by Hamas after the Islamist group won parliamentary elections in 2006. Many Arabs and Palestinians said Western powers were punishing the Palestinians for their democratic choice. Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said this month he intended to resign by the end of March to pave the way for the formation of a unity cabinet. Abbas, who appointed Fayyad after Hamas routed Fatah in Gaza in June 2007, asked him to remain in office until results emerged from the talks in Cairo. Wasil Abou Youssef, secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Front, said a committee comprised of the heads of each delegation and Egyptian officials would meet on Sunday to discuss the unresolved issues of the government and elections. The new government is also expected to lead efforts to reconstruct the Gaza Strip after Israel's three-week military offensive, which ended in January. Awad said his party has put forward a suggestion that the prime minister and six cabinet ministers - foreign affairs, interior, reconstruction, education, information and finance - be held by independent ministers. The remaining seats would be decided on political basis, he added.

16.03.2009: Israel's Olmert in last-ditch bid to free soldier. Envoys dispatched to Cairo by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ended two days of last-ditch talks on Monday to try to win freedom for a captured Israeli soldier, but it was unclear if a deal was in reach with Hamas. Olmert's spokesman, Mark Regev, said the two high-level envoys were returning to Israel on Monday night to brief the prime minister on their indirect talks through Egyptian mediation with the Islamists who rule Gaza. Regev said Israel's cabinet will meet on Tuesday to consider how to proceed. Olmert has made freedom for Gilad Shalit, held by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip since 2006, a precondition for a wider truce with Hamas Islamists and the reopening of the enclave's borders to crucial reconstruction aid after Israel's recent offensive. Hamas has demanded, in exchange for Shalit, the release of some 450 Palestinian prisoners, including some convicted of attacks that killed Israelis, a prospect opponents of such an exchange have said would only encourage the group to try to seize more soldiers.

Olmert had initially scheduled a cabinet meeting for Monday to sum up the negotiations and weigh a possible agreement, but he postponed the session until Tuesday to give the two envoys, Yuval Diskin, head of Israel's Shin Bet security service, and negotiator Ofer Dekel more time to try to seal a deal."The government will be meeting tomorrow morning and the ministers will be briefed on the negotiations," Regev said. "If there is a need to take decisions, decisions can be taken." Olmert, who has come under mounting public pressure to bring Shalit home, is in the final days of a three-year term marked by a 2006 Lebanon war that many Israelis see as a failure and a 22-day Gaza campaign that ended in January without achieving a complete halt to cross-border rocket fire. Members of Olmert's outgoing administration have cautioned Hamas publicly that it might find a new government being formed by right-winger Benjamin Netanyahu less willing to deal on prisoners. Shalit, now 22, wasas mentioned captured in June 2006 by militants who tunnelled into Israel from the Gaza Strip and took him into the Hamas-ruled territory. Abu Ubaida, spokesman of Hamas's armed wing, the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, said on Sunday that Israel wanted to exile some of the prisoners it has offered to release."We reject expulsion," he said. "There is no room for more flexibility in our position." Israel has carried out lopsided exchanges in the past, trading large numbers of Arab prisoners for its captured soldiers or their remains.

Israel hunts West Bank attackers. Israeli security forces are searching for the attackers believed to be behind the fatal shooting of two Israeli traffic policemen in the West Bank. The dying officers were found in their car in the Massua district of the Jordan Valley on Sunday evening. They are the first Israelis to die in a shooting attack in the West Bank since April of last year. A previously unknown group, named after a dead Lebanese Hezbollah leader, has claimed responsibility for the attack. The Imad Mughniyeh Group, named after the man killed by a bomb in Damascus just over a year ago, made its claim in messages to foreign media. Israel denied any role in the Hezbollah commander's assassination. Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the two policemen, David Rabinovitch, 42, and Yehezkel Remzarker, 50, had been shot at point blank range. One of the "main possibilities" was that the attackers staged a break down or mechanical problem with their car, and then opened fire as the police stopped to offer help, he said. He said it seems likely there were at least two attackers, because of the way both officers were shot at such close range.

The Yesha Council, which represents Israeli settlers living in the West Bank, blamed the attack on the policy of removal of some of the checkpoints that restrict Palestinian movements around the West Bank. A major checkpoint north-west of Nablus, in place since 2001, had been opened earlier in the day in response to a decrease in attacks originating from the town, the IDF said. Mr Rosenfeld said there seemed to be a "large possibility" that the attackers fled to one of the villages in the Nablus area, using a route which they previously would have been unable to use. He said a "nationalistic motive" appeared to have been behind Sunday's attack. The West Bank had become relatively peaceful before Sunday's attack as Palestinian police, trained and funded by the West, have become increasingly effective in clamping down on militants. Massua is located in the Jordan Valley, just south-east of the town of Nablus. The area is close to the Jordanian border and under Israeli security control. Anger has been running high among Palestinians since Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip. The shooting also comes at a particularly sensitive time as Israel's government agonises over how many Palestinian militants it could release from prison in exchange for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, he adds. The Israeli intelligence services had also issued an alert saying there could be retaliation on the anniversary of the death of Imad Mughniyeh, on 12 February. However, it was thought that this would target Israeli businessmen or holidaymakers abroad.

The Haaretz newspaper says that a driver from the West Bank settlement of Kochav Hashahar was seriously wounded when a gunman opened fire on his car on the highway near Ariel in January. Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967. It has settled more than 430,000 Jews in the occupied territories. All settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are considered illegal under international law, though Israel and many anarchists and the ICOT dispute this. The Palestinian areas on the West Bank and Gaza should not be ethnically clean Arab land.

17.03.2009: Hamas members stopped from smuggling cash to Gaza. Two Hamas officials returning from Egypt were caught trying to cross the Gaza border Tuesday with nearly $850,000 stuffed into candy tins, an Egyptian security official said. Gaza's Hamas rulers are dependent on the smuggling of cash and goods to keep their government afloat because the coastal territory has been subject to an embargo since the Islamic militant group took control there in June 2007. The two Hamas members were in Egypt with a delegation taking part in reconciliation talks with rival Palestinian factions. The Egypt-mediated talks have so far failed to produce an agreement on the formation of a unity government that would include Hamas and the more moderate Fatah movement that it ousted from Gaza. In response to the Hamas takeover of Gaza, Israel and Egypt have as mentiond kept the territory's borders sealed to all but a trickle of aid and supplies. The Hamas officials stopped Tuesday were traveling in a bus carrying members of different Palestinian factions involved in the talks. A search of the bus at the border turned up tins of sweets stuffed with euro 454,000 and $260,000 in cash instead of candy, said an Egyptian security official. Under Egyptian law, it is illegal to leave the country with more than $10,000 in cash. Authorities also confiscated two generators, a night vision scope and mobile phones, the official said. Hamas will be allowed to deposit the money into an account in Egypt, but likely won't be able to access the funds from Gaza. Arab banks have generally refused to transfer money to Gaza for fear of running afoul of the United States, which considers Hamas a terrorist organization. The two men stopped Tuesday were not arrested and denied knowing what was in the candy tins, saying they were just told to carry the goods into Gaza by Hamas leaders in Egypt, the official said. There was no immediate comment from Hamas. In February, Hamas members were caught with suitcases containing $9 million and euro2 million in cash.

Israel rejects Hamas demands for soldier. A somber Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Tuesday blamed Hamas for deadlocked talks that failed to win freedom for the soldier held nearly three years in Gaza, declaring that Israel would not free all the prisoners demanded by the Islamic militants in exchange. In a statement broadcast live on Israeli TV and radio stations, Olmert said efforts would continue, but his tone indicated that there was no chance for a deal while he is premier. Benjamin Netanyahu is putting together Israel's next government, which is expected to be a hard-line team less sympathetic to Hamas demands. The failure of the prisoner swap talks could set off a chain reaction of negative developments. Israeli officials repeated Tuesday that a blockade on Gaza will not be lifted until the soldier is returned home. That would seriously impede reconstruction after Israel's bruising January offensive in Gaza and it could hamper efforts to cement a truce between Israel and Hamas, leaving the danger of another sudden escalation. The soldier, Sgt. Gilad Schalit, 22, was as mentioned captured in a June 2006 cross-border raid by Hamas-linked militants who killed two other soldiers. His case has become an emotional touchstone for many Israelis. "Israel presented generous far reaching proposals to the other side that were supposed to bring about the release of Gilad," Olmert said. "These proposals were rejected. Others will not be handed over to the Hamas." "There are red lines," he declared. "We will not cross them." Hamas and Israel do not talk to each other directly - Hamas does not recognize the Jewish state and Israel considers Hamas a terror group - so the contacts were mediated by Egyptian officials. After Olmert spoke, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said Hamas had never changed its demands and was not concerned about the incoming Israeli government. "It is going to be no different, and no change and no compromise on our demands," he said. Israel is holding an estimated 8,000 Palestinian prisoners, and Hamas wants some 1,200 freed, including 450 who masterminded or were otherwise involved in suicide bombings and other deadly assaults.

Israel balked at approving the entire list and wanted to deport some of the more notorious prisoners, fearing they would resume their militant activity if they returned home, Israeli officials said. An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said Israel agreed to free 320 of the 450 prisoners. He said a deal could still be struck if Hamas presented a new list of 450. That would be most unlikely after a year of contacts, with Hamas saying it would not compromise. A message on a Hamas Web site Tuesday threatened abduction of more Israeli soldiers "to release our prisoners." Before Olmert spoke, Israel released two lists, giving examples of prisoners it was willing to free and of prisoners it refused to let go. Israel rejected a Hamas demand to free Abdallah Barghouti, 36, considered the Hamas master bombmaker. He was sentenced to 67 life terms for a string of attacks that killed 66 people and wounded more than 250, according to the government list. His wife, Saeda Barghouti, 36, confirmed that he joined Hamas as a bombmaker in 2000. She said she has been allowed to visit him only twice since he was arrested in 2003. Among the prisoners Israel was prepared to free, on condition that they be deported, was Walid Anjes, 28. He was convicted of delivering bombs to attackers who hit major targets, like the Hebrew University and a cafe across from the Jerusalem residence of the prime minister in 2002, killing dozens. Israeli critics of such a deal have warned that hardcore militants could return to violence, as has happened in the past. A disappointed Noam Schalit, father of the soldier, said after a briefing from Olmert, that he hoped the contacts would provide "a basis for the next government to continue the efforts." Israel TV broadcast Olmert's statement on a split screen with Olmert on one side and the soldier's parents watching on the other from their protest tent outside Olmert's residence.

18.03.2009: Israeli army uses PIs to spy on suspect dodgers. With more 18-year-old females claiming religious modesty as grounds for exemption from male-dominated military life, Israel's army is hiring investigators to spy on suspected draft evaders, catching them doing decidedly unreligious things."We need those girls," Lt. Col. Gil Ben Shaoul, deputy commander of Israel's military recruitment center, said. The army says the surveillance program began last year and has caught 520 young women, many who admitted they did not deserve the religious exemption and signed up for military service.

Hamas clings to their demands. An opening of Gaza's blockaded borders, access to billions of dollars in foreign aid, a popularity boost - Hamas would have much to gain by working out a prisoner swap with Israel and a power-sharing arrangement with its West Bank rivals. Instead, Gaza's Islamic terrorist rulers have been clinging to their demands and displaying a stubbornness that would seem irrational considering the enormous stakes. But Hamas apparently believes that time is on its side and that its adversaries - Israel, moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the West - will eventually fold. The deadlock complicates the international community's plans for Gaza reconstruction. "We are not able to bring anything in for rebuilding Gaza until the case of the Israeli soldier Schalit is resolved, and that's what the Israelis are telling us," Karen Abu Zayd, who runs the major U.N. aid agency in Gaza, said Tuesday. Donor countries are ready to give billions of dollars to fix the war damage, including repairing or rebuilding 15,000 homes, but can't do so without open borders and won't give the money to Hamas. The purpose of the Palestinian unity talks is to form an interim government made up of both rival factions until new elections are held by January 2010. Such an arrangement would let funds start flowing, but would force Hamas to soften its opposition to Israel. And Hamas can't afford to compromise on its principles, especially with the possibility of elections in less than a year. Hamas is committed to Israel's destruction, in contrast to Fatah, which seeks a Palestinian state alongside Israel. An implicit recognition of Israel would also undercut Hamas' main argument in any election campaign that Fatah's 16 years of peace talks with Israel have been a waste of time. Hamas has shown that its stubbornness is not a negotiating tactic. If they wanted to compromise, they would have done it last year or the year before. It is a waiting game... Hamas is the bottleneck in the negotiations that will benefit the Palestinian and Israeli people, seen as class in contrast to the superiors in rank and/or income, the anarchists say: we support the Israeli and Palestinian people... we call on the Hamas-rulers to act with reason!

Egypt has opened its border crossing with the Gaza Strip for the second time in two months to allow medical aid and Palestinians to enter the coastal territory. Border official Ghazi Hamad says more than 40 trucks carrying medicine and mineral water have crossed into Gaza so far. He says 120 Palestinians who were stranded in Egypt were also able to cross. The border will remain open until Thursday. Egypt has largely kept the crossing closed since the Islamic militant group Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in June 2007. Egypt, which has waged its own battle with Islamic militants at home, is wary of Hamas' rule in the neighboring territory. About 350 Palestinian patients were also to cross from Gaza into Egypt Wednesday for treatment.

19.03.2009: Dispute over number of killed in the Gaza offensive. The final tally of Palestinians killed in Israel's recent war on Gaza's Hamas rulers is 1,417, including 926 civilians, according to a Palestinian human rights groups that published the names, ages and other information about the dead on its Web site Thursday. Israel disputed the findings by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), saying it believes the majority of the dead were combatants or legitimate targets, but offered no evidence. An Israeli think tank said its analysis of the PCHR's data suggests the number of civilians is lower than the rights group claims. The PCHR said in a statement that the large number of civilians among the dead is proof that Israeli troops "used excessive and random force through the entire period of aggression, violating the principle of distinction (between combatants and civilians)."

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev rejected the allegation. "Israel, during the military campaign, made every possible effort to target enemy combatants only," he said. The PCHR said its list, including determining the number of civilians, is based on thorough research. It said among the dead were 926 civilians, including 313 minors under the age of 18 and 116 women. The group counted 236 combatants and 255 members of the Hamas security forces. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said after the war that more than 700 Hamas members were among the dead and Israel had their names. However, Israel has not released its own list of Palestinians killed, and hasn't said when it would do so. It remains unclear how the military, without access to Gaza, would compile a thorough list. Still, Regev said that "the overwhelming majority of casualties were Hamas operatives and others who were, under international law, legitimate targets."

Also Thursday, the International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism, an Israeli think tank, presented its own analysis of the PCHR data, based on preliminary lists, not the final one published Thursday. Researchers Yael Shahar and Don Radlauer said they did not dispute the final tally, since they have no access to Gaza, but they believe the number of dead combatants is higher. They said they found 314 confirmed combatants - 78 more than PCHR listed. Their figure is based on checking the PCHR's list against those claimed as dead fighters on Web sites of militant groups. The researchers also classified 518 of the dead as unknown, arguing that not enough information is available to put them in either category. They noted that about 80 percent in the group of unknowns were men, including many in their 20s. This gender and age distribution refutes allegations that Israeli forces targeted Palestinians randomly, the researchers said. "We are being accused of not aiming, of indiscriminate attacks, and the demographics clearly contradict that," said Radlauer.

Israel to probe reported abuse by soldiers in Gaza. Israel's military on Thursday ordered a criminal inquiry into its own soldiers' reports that some troops killed Palestinian civilians, including children, during the Gaza war by hastily opening fire, confident that relaxed rules of engagement would protect them. Speaking to Israel Radio, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Israel "has the most ethical army in the world" and reports of exceptions would be "checked carefully."

Palestinian reconciliation talks break up, no deal.  Egyptian-mediated talks between rival Palestinian factions broke down Thursday without a deal on a national unity government, in a major setback to Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts. The failure of talks between rivals Hamas and Fatah also could deepen the divisions among Arab countries ahead of a crucial summit later this month in Qatar that US-allied Mideast heavyweights including Saudi Arabia had hoped would unite the fractured region. Thursday's failure to form a unity government came just two days after negotiations in Cairo between the Gaza Strip's Hamas rulers and Israel over a prisoner swap ran aground. The deadlock in both negotiating tracks raised questions about plans by the international community to rebuild parts of Gaza, devastated in Israel's recent military offensive against Hamas. Gaza's borders have been virtually sealed since Hamas seized the territory by force in June 2007, and international aid groups have said reconstruction of the war damage is impossible without open borders. Israeli officials repeatedly have said the Gaza blockade would not be lifted until Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit is freed. Gaza militants captured Schalit in a cross-border raid in 2006, and Egypt had been negotiating a prisoner swap deal - Schalit in exchange for 1,200 Palestinian prisoners in Israel. But no deal was reached by Tuesday's deadline. Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said efforts would continue, but there appeared to be no chance for a deal before he leaves office by the end of the month. Olmert's designated successor, hardline leader Benjamin Netanyahu, is unlikely to go further than Olmert in making concessions to Hamas, particularly if he brings hawkish parties into his coalition, as expected.

This week's failures in both negotiating tracks will hamper efforts to reach a durable truce between Israel and Hamas, instead raising the likelihood of escalation along the Israel-Gaza border. The breakdown also comes less than two weeks before the Arab League summit in Qatar that is expected to be overshadowed by inter-Arab conflicts, including a sharp division on how to deal the Palestinian feud. Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki blamed the failure of the talks on Arab's disunity. "It's very difficult for the Palestinian reconciliation to succeed with the ongoing Arab conflicts, he said. Zaki was apparently referring to Syria's and Iran's support for Hamas. Palestinian rivals were trying to agree on the terms of a joint coalition for an interim unity government that would set the stage for elections by January. The key sticking point was the program of the new government which should have outlined to what extent Hamas would abide by past accords with Israel. Negotiators for Fatah, which rules the West Bank, said the new government must commit to the program of the PLO, which recognized Israel in 1993. Hamas refuses to recognize Israel, and only wants the new government to "respect" the PLO commitments. Earlier this week, Egyptian envoys sounded out US and European diplomats about whether they would be willing to accept something less than a commitment to the PLO agreements. Other hurdles were an agreement on rebuilding the Palestinian forces and enacting a new election law. After the break-up Thursday, Hamas official Fawzi Barhoum reiterated that his group will not agree to "commit" to the accords or recognize Israel. Samir Ghosheh, a negotiator for a tiny PLO faction, said Egyptian mediators told the Palestinian representatives on Thursday to pack their bags. The Egyptian hosts did not set a date for a new round, he said. Negotiations had begun last week. "I don't think there will be a resumption of talks unless there are clear indications that the problems will be solved," said Ghosheh. However, Fatah's Azzam al-Ahmed said the talks will continue after the Arab summit on March 30.

20.03.2009: Netanyahu gets more time to form government. Israeli prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu has got two more weeks to form a new government, as he tries to broaden his support by persuading moderates to join. With a month of coalition talks already behind him, Netanyahu can form a narrow alliance of hard-line parties. But he says he is hoping for a wider "unity" government that includes his more moderate rivals. Netanyahu met President Shimon Peres to request more time. Peres granted the request, giving Netanyahu until April 3. "I could have presented a government to you and the people of Israel by Sunday, a good government, but I chose to ask for the extension to make every effort to form a unity government," Netanyahu told Peres. He said a broad government was necessary to deal with the security and economic problems facing Israel.Since being tapped by Peres to form Israel's next government a month ago, Netanyahu has tried to persuade the centrist Kadima and Labor parties to join him in a broad coalition. etanyahu's Likud Party captured 27 seats, meaning it needs to bring in other partners to control a majority in the 120-seat parliament.

If no moderates join him, Netanyahu will be left with a slim coalition of hard-line and ultra-Orthodox parties. Such a coalition, with either 61 or 65 seats, would likely be unstable because junior partners would be able to bring down the government in any dispute. It would also be dominated by opponents to any significant concessions for a peace deal with the Palestinians, which could bring Israel into conflict with the international community and the Obama administration. Kadima's leader, Tzipi Livni, has refused to join because Netanyahu won't express support for the creation of a Palestinian state and because he rejected her demand to serve as prime minister for half of the government's term. But Netanyahu is still holding talks with the Labor Party, led by Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and Labor is slated to hold a meeting on Tuesday to vote on joining the government. Labor, which served as the country's ruling party for much of its history and was the movement behind the Oslo peace accords with the Palestinians, lost support in the recent elections. In the Feb. 10 vote it was left with only 13 lawmakers. Barak favors joining the government, in which he would likely continue to serve as defense minister and other Labor lawmakers would be given ministerial positions. But many Labor lawmakers oppose the move, saying it would be a betrayal of the party's traditionally dovish values and could drive away more supporters. They charge Labor would serve as a fig leaf for a hard-line government and would have little impact on its policies. The anarchists prefer a wider "unity" government.

Peres sends greeting to Iran. The Israeli president Simon Peres sent a rare greeting to the people of Iran on Friday, praising what he called a great and ancient culture and saying they would be better off without their hard-line leadership. The greeting coincided with a video message sent by President Obama to Iran in which he said the US is prepared to end years of strained relations if Tehran tones down its bellicose rhetoric. Peres, a Nobel peace laureate, talked of the warm ties that once existed between the two countries under the pro-US shah, who was overthrown in 1979, and voiced hope that they could once again live in peace. "I turn to the noble Iranian nation in the name of the ancient Jewish nation and wish that it return to its rightful place among developed nations," he said.But in an interview accompanying the greeting, Peres took a tougher tone toward Iran's leaders, branding the leaders who came to power in the 1979 Islamic revolution "religious fanatics" and predicting that Iranians would eventually overthrow them. "I think the Iranian nation will topple these leaders. Leaders that do not serve the people will, in the end, the nation will get rid of them," Peres said in the interview.
"It's such a rich country with such a rich culture," he added. "On the one hand I look at Iran with admiration because of its history and on the other hand with sorrow because of what's happened to it."

Peres' blessing for the Persian Nowruz holiday was broadcast on the Farsi-language service of the Voice of Israel radio station. The station said the interview would air on Monday. The station claims to have several million listeners in Iran, though it was not immediately clear how many people had heard the message. Israel and Iran enjoyed close ties before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which toppled the US-backed shah and brought to power a clerical leadership hostile to the Jewish state. Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has repeatedly called for the destruction of Israel and questioned whether the Holocaust occurred. Israel also accuses Iran of supporting hostile Arab militant groups, including Hamas and Hezbollah, and says Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons.

Peres took aim at Ahmadinejad's Holocaust denial. "Since when is he an expert on the Jewish Holocaust? Was he at Auschwitz? What does he know? All day he makes speeches and speeches, but they are destroying the nation. They won't so quickly destroy us." In his aired greeting, Peres turned his focus to the Iranian people and offered a Nowruz blessing. "Our relations with the Iranian nation knew days of prosperity, even in modern times as we shared with you our experience in agriculture, industry, development of science and medicine and we developed with you the best relations possible," he said. "To our dismay, our diplomatic relations are at a low point flowing from the desires leading the current leaders of your land to act in every way possible against the state of Israel and its people, but I am confident that the day we are hoping for is not far, when the good neighborly relations and the cooperation will flourish in all fields for the welfare of our nations and for the betterment of our common future."

Peres spoke in Hebrew for most of the blessing, but then ended his address with a traditional Persian holiday greeting in Farsi: "May your Nowruz be a victory, and every day be Nowruz!" Meir Javedanfar, an independent Iranian-born analyst living in Israel, called Peres' statements "very significant." He said both Peres and Obama were aware that Iran is preparing to hold a presidential election and are hopeful that they can encourage voters to choose a new moderate leadership. "Iranian right-wingers thrive on demonizing the US and Israel," he said. "This is basically to counter that, with the hope that the people of Iran will vote against extremism." He said Peres also might be trying to encourage the people of Iran to embrace Obama's diplomatic overture. "We should try not to allow the provocative messages of Ahmadinejad to destroy the rapprochement," he said. Farnoush Ram, a broadcaster at the Israeli radio station, said Peres' predecessor, Iranian-born Moshe Katsav, had also sent Nowruz messages to Iran in the past, but this was the first blessing since Ahmadinejad took office.

A disturbing picture of the Israeli army's conduct in the Gaza war emerged Friday, as new witness accounts from Israeli troops described vandalism to Palestinian homes, humiliation of civilians and loose rules of engagement that resulted in unnecessary civilian deaths. The Israeli government has insisted it did all it could to prevent civilian casualties, but on Thursday, the army ordered a criminal inquiry into its own soldiers' reports that some troops killed civilians, including children, by hastily opening fire, confident that the relaxed rules of engagement would protect them. The heavy Palestinian civilian casualties and widespread destruction during the three-week war provoked international, including anarchist, outcry against Israel, which halted its fire on Jan. 18. The anarchists welcome the inquiry.

21.03.2009: Israel breaks up "Arab capital" events in Jerusalem. Israeli police dispersed crowds of Palestinians on Saturday as they held celebrations in East Jerusalem marking the Arab League's designation of the disputed city as the "capital of Arab culture" for 2009.

22.03.2009: Israel says car bomb defused at shopping mall. Israeli police said on Sunday they had defused a car bomb left at a shopping mall by suspected Palestinian militants. A small blast, possibly caused by a botched detonation, drew the attention of police to the parking area of the mall in the northern city of Haifa on Saturday night, said police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld. They found a "large explosive" in the car and called in bomb disposal experts, said Rosenfeld, adding: "We believe it was an attempt to carry out a terrorist attack." Israeli media reported a little-known Palestinian armed faction called Liberators of the Galilee had claimed responsibility for planting the bomb. The group was quoted as saying it wanted to avenge Israel's demolition of Palestinian homes in Jerusalem and the recent Israeli military offensive in Gaza. The anarchists as mentioned take a clear stand against terrorism!

Israel, Hamas say talks on prisoner swap not over. Both Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers said Sunday that talks aimed at freeing an Israeli soldier held nearly three years by Palestinian militants are not over, despite last week's public breakdown of Egyptian-mediated contacts. Also, the exiled leader of Hamas said it's a "matter of time" before the Obama administration establishes contact with his group, according to an interview published Sunday.
Olmert spokesman Mark Regev said the government was trying to reach a deal with Hamas."The government of Israel is committed to achieving the release of Gilad Schalit. The work is ongoing," he said. He provided no further details. The head of Hamas' government in the Gaza Strip, Ismail Haniyeh, also indicated a deal was still possible in an article published Sunday in the Hamas newspaper Al-Ray. Haniyeh blamed Israel for the breakdown in talks, but wrote, "Our people are still trying to renew the Egyptian-sponsored negotiations in order to reach a respectable prisoner exchange." Exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal was quoted by the Italian newspaper La Repubblica as saying that Olmert was trying to threaten Hamas with the specter of Netanyahu, who takes a harder line toward the Palestinians. "We know that he's putting on a little show," Mashaal said of Olmert. "But it makes no difference to us. He's the one who is in a hurry to bring home a success, without paying a price for it." Israel agreed to release hundreds of Hamas prisoners but balked at releasing some of the masterminds of suicide bombings that killed dozens of Israeli civilians. Also in the interview, Mashaal said President Barack Obama was using a "new language" toward the Mideast conflict, and it was only a "matter of time" before Washington opens contacts with Hamas, as it plans to do with the main Hamas sponsor, Iran. The US, along with the EU, Israel and the anarchists, list Hamas as a terror organization. A Hamas spokesman praised Saturday's failed attempt to explode a huge car bomb in a mall parking lot in the Israeli port city of Haifa, an attack that police say could have killed hundreds. Speaking before his Cabinet's weekly meeting Sunday, Olmert said preliminary information showed the Haifa car bomb was dispatched by "a serious terror infrastructure that worked in sophisticated ways to carry out a terror attack with mass casualties."

23.03.2009. Israel military condemns anti-Palestinian T-shirts. IDF condemned on Monday T-shirts worn by soldiers that depict scenes of violence against Palestinians as the army faces increasing domestic criticism over its conduct during the recent Gaza war.

Ultra-Orthodox party joins Netanyahu's coalition. Incoming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brought a nationalist religious party into what is shaping up to be a narrow, hawkish coalition, taking a major step Monday toward securing the parliament majority he needs to form the government.As Netanyahu wrapped up the deal with the ultra-Orthodox Shas Party, he also launched formal talks with the centrist Labor Party in hopes of moderating his emerging government. Adding Labor could provide stability and international credibility, but many Labor lawmakers oppose joining forces with Netanyahu. Netanyahu has been trying to put together a coalition since last month's parliamentary election. His Likud Party captured 27 seats, forcing him to bring in partners to control a majority in the 120-seat parliament. He has as mentioned until April 3 to put together a government.

With Shas on board, a total of 53 of legislators have agreed to enter the government's fold. Netanyahu, who hopes to build a broad coalition, is still negotiating with four other parties. Last week, Netanyahu initialed his first coalition agreement with the ultranationalist Yisrael Beiteinu. The deal tentatively gave the foreign minister's job to party leader Avigdor Lieberman, who has drawn accusations of racism for a plan that could require Arab citizens of Israel to sign loyalty oaths or lose their citizenship. Lieberman has also said there is no hope for peace with the Palestinians. Lieberman also favors redrawing Israel's borders to exclude Arab citizens. Shas' presence would help cement the coalition's tilt the right.

The party, which represents Jews of Middle Eastern descent, opposes giving up any part of Jerusalem as part of a future peace deal and doesn't even want the matter discussed in future peace talks. But Palestinians demand sovereignty over Arab parts of Jerusalem, where around 270,000 Palestinians live, and a peace treaty would be impossible without this demand being met. Israel captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war and immediately annexed it. Shas will join the government in exchange for four Cabinet ministries and added social services allowances that are important to the party's lower-income constituency. The ministries include the all-important Housing Ministry, which is involved in West Bank settlement construction, and the Interior Ministry, which decides questions of Israeli citizenship.

Shas' spiritual leader is an octogenarian rabbi, Ovadiah Yosef, known as much for his sunglasses, turban and gold-embroidered robes as his sometimes outrageous statements. Hurricane Katrina, Yosef once claimed, was divine punishment for godlessness in New Orleans and US support for Israel's 2005 pullout from the Gaza Strip. Although Netanyahu takes a tough stand against territorial concessions to the Palestinians and Syria, he has been wooing moderate parties as well to give his government more stability and make it more palatable to the international community. A narrow government could hold him hostage to unrealistic demands. That is a lesson he learned during his first tenure as prime minister a decade ago, when his coalition fell apart over concessions he made to the Palestinians under US pressure. A hawkish government could also put him at loggerheads with the US, which is eager to promote an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal that would entail the establishment of a Palestinian state. Netanyahu says the Palestinians are not ready for independence.

Because of that position, his most sought-after potential partner has spurned his overtures. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, head of the centrist Kadima Party, says she will only serve in a government committed to seeking a final peace agreement with the Palestinians. Netanyahu appears to be making more headway with Defense Minister Ehud Barak's Labor Party. After initially insisting he would go into the opposition, Barak planned to ask his party on Tuesday to team up with Netanyahu. Under a coalition agreement, Barak would be expected to retain his job and several other veteran party officials would be expected to receive other Cabinet jobs. But Barak, who authorized Labor negotiators to meet with the Likud on Monday, could face a mutiny when he puts a coalition agreement to a party vote on Tuesday. A significant bloc of party rebels objects to joining a Netanyahu-led government.

Bomb kills Lebanon PLO official. A roadside bomb in Lebanon has killed a senior Palestinian official and three others, said to be bodyguards, close to Mieh Mieh refugee camp near Sidon. Kamal Medhat, a member of the Fatah faction, was the deputy representative of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) in Lebanon. The bomb blew one car off the road and badly damaged another, scattering burning debris. There was no immediate indication of who may have been behind the attack. "It is not possible to speculate on who committed this crime," Osama Hamdan, a representative in Lebanon of the Palestinian group Hamas, told al-Manar television, which is backed by Lebanon's Hezbollah movement. Mr Hamdan added that Mr Medhat had played a role in helping to ease tensions among Palestinian groups. Lebanon's crowded and poorly developed camps, housing families expelled from what became Israel in 1948, are prone to violent unrest and insecurity. Two people were killed in a gun battle in Mieh Mieh camp on Saturday.

Unconfirmed reports say the PLO's chief representative in Lebanon, Abbas Zaki, had also been due to visit the camp but was not hit by the blast. "The bomb was apparently hidden in a little shed on the side of the road and was detonated as Medhat's convoy drove by," a Lebanese army spokesman said. The force of the blast tore through the Mercedes in which Mr Medhat was travelling and threw the car into a nearby field, witnesses said. The bomb was planted under a manhole cover. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the killing as an act of terrorism. "President Abbas condemns the terrorist crime that targeted Maj Gen Kamal Medhat," a statement issued by his office said. "He dedicated his life to serve his people and his cause." Initial reports of the attack said four people were killed along with the PLO official.

UN criticizes Israelis over Gaza. A UN human rights investigator, Richard Falk, has questioned the legality of Israel's Gaza incursion in a new report to the UN Human Rights Council. Many international organisations have raised concerns of war crimes during Israel's recent Gaza operation. Mr Falk has been highly critical of Israel in the past and Israel has repeated accusations that he is biased. It comes as an Israeli rights group criticized Israel for hitting medics and impeding medical evacuations. The IDF says it is investigating specific claims of abuses and did its utmost to protect civilians during a conflict in which militants operated from populated civilian areas. Israeli authorities denied entry to Mr Falk, a former Princeton University international law professor, last December, when he attempted to conduct his regular investigative mission to the Palestinian territories. Israel was angered by a series of comments he had made accusing it of war crimes and comparing its actions in Gaza to Nazi Germany in WWII. Because Mr Falk was unable to enter the Palestinian territories, his latest report focuses on the legality of Israel's January operation in Gaza in general, rather than in specific cases or claims that disproportionate force was used. Mr Falk said in order to determine if the war was legal, it was necessary to assess whether Israeli forces could differentiate between civilian and military targets in Gaza.

"If it is not possible to do so, then launching the attacks is inherently unlawful, and would seem to constitute a war crime of the greatest magnitude under international law," Mr Falk's report says. He also points to the fact that Gaza's borders were closed, so civilians were unable to flee the fighting. Mr Falk, who will present his findings at a news conference at 17:15 GMT, is calling for an independent inquiry to examine possible war crimes committed by both Israel and Hamas. Further, he suggests that the Israeli blockade of Gaza is in violation of the Geneva Conventions and must be lifted. The report is certain to anger Israel, which has long complained of bias by Mr Falk. The UN Human Rights Council was formed by the UN General Assembly, as a successor to the UN Commission on Human Rights, which was widely criticised for the inclusion of countries such as Zimbabwe, Saudi Arabia and China with poor records on human rights.

Mr Falk's report comes amid mounting concerns that Israel may have committed war crimes in Gaza. On Monday, the Israeli organisation Physicians for Human Rights released a report saying Israel had violated international law and ethics codes during the Gaza operation. It accused Israeli forces of "attacks on medical personnel; damage to medical facilities and indiscriminate attacks on civilians not involved in the fighting". "Israel placed numerous obstacles in the course of the operation that impeded emergency medical evacuation of the sick and wounded and also caused families to be trapped for days without food, water and medications," the report said. The International Committee of the Red Cross has also said Israel failed to honour its obligation to treat civilians wounded in the conflict. Last week Amnesty International, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and prominent investigators who had worked in Kosovo, Darfur, Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia, called for a UN commission of inquiry into the actions of Israel and Hamas during the conflict. They said they had been "shocked to the core" by events in Gaza. Also last week, testimonies emerged from Israel soldiers describing cases where civilians were knowingly killed and questioning the rules of engagement during the conflict. Defense Minister Ehud Barak told Israel Radio that the findings would be examined seriously, but said "I still say we have the most moral army in the world". The anarchists welcome an independent, unbiased, inquiry to examine possible war crimes committed by both Israel and Hamas. Mr Falk seems to be biased...

24.03.2009: Netanyahu, Barak draft Israel coalition pact. Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu won Labor chief Ehud Barak's agreement on Tuesday to a political partnership that could help Israel's next government avoid friction with Washington on Middle East peace. Under the coalition deal with Barak, an administration led by Netanyahu's right-wing Likud would respect all of Israel's international agreements, a Labor Party negotiator said, a formula that includes accords envisaging Palestinian statehood. "We are talking about there being a peace process," said the negotiator, Shalom Simchon, giving details of the agreement. Netanyahu, who wants to shift the focus of stalled peace talks from territorial to economic issues, has shied away from declaring support for a two-state solution, the principle at the heart of US efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The coalition agreement awaited ratification later in the day by the Labor Party's executive. Barak, who is likely to retain his post as defense minister, faces strong opposition in the forum to joining forces with the hawkish Netanyahu. A harder line on Palestinian statehood and the formation of a narrow right-wing government without center-left Labor could put Netanyahu on a collision course with US President Barack Obama, who has pledged swift pursuit of a land-for-peace deal. "Netanyahu is trying in every way possible to demonstrate that he is changing direction," Isaac Herzog, a Labor cabinet minister, said about his courtship of Barak, who backs creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

With center-left Labor in his corner, Netanyahu would have a ruling majority of 66 seats in the 120-member parliament, a margin he could still widen before an April 3 deadline to form a government following Israel's February 10 election. A statement issued by Netanyahu's office said the agreement with Labor including understandings on economic and diplomatic issues, but it gave no further details. Herzog said the coalition pact represented a commitment to the Annapolis declaration and a US-backed peace "road map" charting a path to Palestinian statehood. At a conference in Annapolis, Maryland in 2007, Israel agreed to negotiate a peace treaty to further "the goal of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security."

The Likud-Labor deal, Herzog said, also included a pledge to dismantle Jewish settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank built without government approval. The current Israeli government largely ignored its commitment to Washington to evacuate dozens of unauthorized outposts. It also continued to expand Jewish settlements in violation of the US-backed road map. On Monday, Netanyahu sealed a coalition deal with the Orthodox Jewish Shas party. He had already signed up the Yisrael Beitenu party led by ultranationalist Avigdor Lieberman. But while enlisting those partners, Netanyahu made clear he preferred a broad-based coalition.

A sharp turn to the right within Israel's government could raise international concern already heightened by Netanyahu's promise to appoint Lieberman foreign minister. Netanyahu could significantly widen his parliamentary majority if the centrist Kadima party, led by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, changes its mind about going into opposition. Netanyahu has not met her demand for a commitment to Palestinian statehood and a rotation agreement that would make her prime minister for part of the next government's term. Labor, once the dominant force in Israeli politics, won only 13 seats in last month's election to 27 for Likud, 28 for Kadima, 15 for Yisrael Beitenu and 11 for Shas. The anarchists as mentioned prefer a broad based "unity" government in Israel, not a hawkish rightist government.

Later Tuesday Israel's Labor Party voted to join the incoming government of Benjamin Netanyahu, giving a centrist tone to the coalition that has looked hard-line up to now. Party secretary Eitan Cabel announced the results of the voting after a heated debate - 680 in favor and 507 against. "I'm happy that party delegates have decided to enter the government," Ofer Eini, head of the Histadrut labor union and a senior Labor Party operative, told Israel's Army Radio. But others chanted slogans like "Disgrace" after the announcement. The anarchists welcome the result.

Israeli police say Palestinian militants have fired a rocket into Israel from Gaza after several days of quiet. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld says the rocket landed near the city of Ashkelon, causing no casualties. No Palestinian group took responsibility for Tuesday's attack.

March of Israeli rightwing extremists through Arab town sets of clashes with police. Jewish rightwing extremists marched Tuesday through an Israeli-Arab town to demand residents show loyalty to Israel, setting off stone-throwing protests by Arab youths that police dispersed with stun grenades and tear gas. The clashes in the northern Israeli town of Umm el-Fahm came at a time of increasing tensions between Israel's Jewish majority and its Arab minority, and residents said the march was a provocation. The leader of the Israeli demonstrators, settler activist Baruch Marzel, has been involved in violent attacks against Palestinians. The anarchists condemn the rightwing extremists' march as well as the ochlarchy.

Palestinian unity talks to resume in April. Leaders of the Fatah movement say Egypt has invited rival Palestinian factions to Cairo for a new round of reconciliation talks starting April 1. Fatah official Azzam al-Ahmed says power-sharing talks designed to produce a unity government will restart between his movement and the Islamic militant group Hamas. He says smaller factions will join the next day. The last round of Egyt-mediated talks broke down earlier this month amid disagreement on the unity government and Hamas' refusal to recognized Israel's right to exist. Hamas could not be immediately reached for comment.

25.03.2009: Netanyahu: Will push for Israel-Palestinian peace. Israel's incoming prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, says his government will seek a peace agreement with the Palestinians. The comments appeared to be aimed at easing concerns that the hardline Netanyahu will try to freeze past peace efforts once he takes office. Netanyahu told a conference in Jerusalem on Wednesday that peace is an "enduring goal" for all Israeli governments, including his own. He says he will negotiate with the Palestinian Authority and work to develop their economy. He says the Palestinians must understand that his government will be a "partner for peace." As mentioned late Tuesday, the centrist Labor Party joined Netanyahu's emerging coalition, saying it would help moderate what would otherwise have been a narrow, hardline government. Facing the prospect of a clash with the Obama administration, Netanyahu has been trying to soften his hard-line image in recent days. Netanyahu says he will present his new government to parliament for approval next week. The parliamentary vote is expected to pass, clearing the way for Netanyahu to take office. He did not give an exact date for the vote. The Anarchist International and ICOT mark that the new Netanyahu government will push for Israel-Palestinian peace and hold all agreements with the Palestinians.

26.03.2009: Israel challenges Palestinian propaganda figures on Gaza dead. The IDF on Thursday disputed Palestinian claims that most of the people killed in the recent Gaza Strip war were civilians, claiming the "vast majority" of the dead were Hamas militants. Israel says the three-week offensive was aimed solely at Hamas militants, while Palestinians say hundreds of people were killed by an overwhelming show of force that showed little regard for civilians. Maj. Avital Leibovich, an army spokeswoman, said Thursday that the military had completed an investigation and determined that a total of 1,166 Palestinians were killed in the operation. It found that 709 were Hamas militants, while 295 were civilians, including 89 minors and 49 women. It was unclear whether another 162 men who died were militants or civilians. The figures clashed with numbers released last week by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, which said 1,417 people were killed, including more than 900 civilians. Its toll included the names and ages of all of the dead.

The Israeli military said it also had a list of names, but the army did not provide it to reporters. The Palestinian center Thursday called the Israeli report "a deliberately manipulative attempt to distort the reality of the offensive and to disguise Israel's illegal actions." It said, for instance, that Israel wrongly classified 255 "noncombatant" police officers killed at the outset of the war as militants. The heavy civilian death toll caused an international outcry, a.o. from the Anarchist International and ICOT, and fueled calls from human rights groups, and AI and ICOT, for a war crimes investigation against Israel, but also Hamas. An Israeli military school's publication last week of soldiers' accounts of wanton destruction and slack rules of engagement that may have caused unnecessary civilian deaths, has added to the uproar. The military's report was unlikely to resolve the debate over the death toll, although Leibovich said the army's information was "checked, crisscrossed and double-checked with the different intelligence bodies in Israel." When asked to explain the discrepancy, she said "you have to ask your Palestinian sources" and acknowledged it was not a precise science."We are receiving different information from different sources, the majority of which is not based on hard evidence," she said. "I can tell you for a fact that our information is checked according to different intelligence organizations and Palestinian authorities and these are the right figures."

Israel as mentioned waged the war in Gaza in an attempt to weaken Hamas, which it considers a terrorist group, and halt persistent rocket fire from Gaza on Israeli border towns. Israel blames Hamas for the heavy civilian casualties, saying the group launches attacks from schools and residential areas and uses civilians as "human shields" to deter Israeli attacks. President Barack Obama's administration has as mentioned promised to become "vigorously engaged" in the search to end the Israeli-Arab conflict and has pledged $900 million to help rebuild homes and infrastructure destroyed in the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip. Incoming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who harshly criticized his predecessor's' peace efforts and said the Palestinians were not ready for independence said Thursday he does not expect to face pressure from Obama due to the "deep and strong" ties between Israel and the United States. Netanyahu is as mentioned expected to present his center-right coalition to parliament next week. After signing a coalition pact with the center-left Labor Party Wednesday Netanyahu appeared to soften his previous stance, as mentioned pledging that his government would be a "partner for peace with the Palestinians."

At a White House press conference the day before, Obama described the current deadlock between Israel and the Palestinians as unsustainable. "It is critical for us to advance a two-state solution," he added. Asked by a reporter Thursday about Palestinian statehood, Netanyahu fielded the question by referring to the coalition agreement with Labor under which the new government would resume peace talks and commit itself to existing peace accords. It was not clear if that included the US-backed "road map" peace plan for an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. Both sides recommitted to the road map at a 2007 peace conference hosted by the United States. Egypt is still mediating talks between Israel and Hamas on a prisoner swap that would include the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit, an Egyptian government official said Thursday. The Anarchist International, the Anarchist International Embassy and the ICOT declare the current deadlock between Israel and the Palestinians as unsustainable and demand that the peace negotiations must continue.

27.03.2009: Israel successfully tests anti-rocket system. Israel has successfully tested a high-tech system designed to protect civilians from rocket attacks by militant groups in Gaza and south Lebanon, the Defense Ministry said. Defense officials said Friday in the wake of the test that the Iron Dome system's development is on schedule and will likely meet its target date of 2010, when it is due to begin shooting down incoming rockets fired by Gaza militants.

28.03.2009: Israel disputes soldiers' accounts of Gaza abuses. Israel is pushing back against accusations of civilian abuse in the Gaza offensive, asserting that an overwhelming majority of its soldiers acted honorably and that the account of a killing of a woman and her two children appears to be an urban myth spread by troops who did not witness it. Officers are stepping forward, some at the urging of the top command, others on their own, offering numerous accounts of having held their fire out of concern for civilians, helping Palestinians in need and punishing improper soldier behavior.

29.03.2009: Israel: Militants have smuggled tons of weapons to Gaza. Palestinian militants have smuggled nearly 70 tons of explosives and bomb-making materials and other weapons into Gaza since Israel ended the offensive meant to choke off the arms flow, a senior Israeli defense official said Sunday. The weapons are coming in through Gaza's porous border with Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, despite improved Egyptian interdiction. The attacks from Gaza have dropped off considerably but have not stopped. A total of 185 rockets and mortars were fired since the Israeli offensive ended. But the threat of escalation remains, as the reports of continued smuggling suggest.

30.03.2009: Israeli president expresses optimism that Netanyahu government can achieve Middle East peace. Israeli President Shimon Peres expressed optimism Monday that his country's next government can achieve Mideast peace, even though the coalition will contain parties traditionally opposed to making concessions to the Palestinians. His comments appeared aimed a soothing both US and EU concern that the new government under Benjamin Netanyahu may abandon the concept of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel as the primary goal of a Western-backed "road map" to peace in the Middle East. Peres spoke on the eve of the swearing in of a new Israeli coalition government, including hawkish parties opposed to major concessions to the Palestinians, and after meeting with Vaclav Klaus, president of the Czech Republic, which holds the rotating EU presidency.

Netanyahu has been a critic of past peace efforts that require Israeli concessions. But he recently pledged that his government - which includes the centrist Labor Party - will pursue peace with the Palestinians. Peres seized on that promise by expressing optimism that the new government will be fully committed to seeking a Middle East settlement. "They say, 'We shall continue the negotiations with the Palestinians,'" he told reporters. "They say, 'We shall negotiate with each one of our neighbors.' They say, 'Yes, we would like to develop the regional economic opportunities, and they say also, `We are going to see what can be done in terms of peace on regional level.' "And then they are saying also they are going to respect the previous government commitments. So I would think this is a very reasonable and promising beginning." An Israeli government statement on the visit quoted Peres as saying "the Israeli people want true peace between Israel and its neighbors, and the new government ... will be for peace." The Anarchist International, the Anarchist International Embassy and the ICOT demand that the peace negotiations must continue and soon give positive results.

31.03.2009: Israelis, Palestinians clash on Gaza border. Israeli forces attacked a group of Palestinian terrorists along the Gaza-Israel border early Tuesday, killing two gunmen and wounding three others. Troops spotted four terrorists planting explosive devices along the fence, and an Israeli soldier was wounded in an ensuing gunbattle, the IDF said. The troops called in an airstrike and struck the armed men, the military said, and later uncovered weapons that included grenades and an anti-tank missile. No Palestinian group claimed involvement in the clash. But Hamas sent a text message to reporters saying the group's fighters fired 18 mortar shells at Israeli troops in the vicinity of the clash. Palestinian militants also fired two rockets into Israel, both landing in open areas, the army said. Israel's defense minister, Ehud Barak, praised the army's quick response Tuesday. "Israeli soldiers are very alert," he said. "The soldiers responded quickly (and) there are two dead terrorists there."

Abbas' moderate Palestinian PM to remain in office. A Palestinian official says the prime minister appointed by President Mahmoud Abbas will remain in office despite an earlier announcement that he would step down. Salam Fayyad had resigned to pave the way for unity talks and set March 31 as his last day. But Azzam al-Ahmed of Abbas' Fatah Party says Fayyad and his government will only step down once a new Cabinet is formed. Power-sharing talks are expected to resume this week in Egypt between the Islamic militant Hamas and Abbas' Fatah. If the talks fail, officials say Fayyad will be asked to form a new government for the West Bank.

Olmert leaves office after unfulfilled promises. Ehud Olmert took office with bold promises of a broad withdrawal from the West Bank and a push for peace with the Palestinians. He goes home empty-handed, tainted by corruption scandals, remembered as the mastermind of two inconclusive wars, and with peace prospects as elusive as ever.

01.04.2009: Rival Palestinian factions resume unity talks. Rival Palestinian groups Hamas and Fatah have resumed reconciliation talks aimed at producing a power-sharing government. The official MENA news agency says Egypt's intelligence chief Omar Suleiman is leading the talks Wednesday in Cairo. Fatah's delegation is led by Ahmed Qurei and Nabil Shaath. The top Hamas negotiator is the militant group's deputy leader Moussa Abu Marzouk.

Obama telephones Israeli prime minister Netanyahu. President Barack Obama says the US remains committed to Israel and its security. That's the message Obama delivered during a telephone call Wednesday to Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's new prime minister. The White House says Obama told Netanyahu that he looks forward to working closely with him and the Israeli government on issues of mutual concern, including a peace agreement between the Arabs and Israelis. The president telephoned Netanyahu from London, where he traveled for the G-20 economic summit on Thursday. The new hard-line Israeli foreign minister delivered a scathing critique of Mideast peace efforts Wednesday, rejecting the past year of US-led negotiations and telling a room crowded with cringing diplomats that concessions to the Palestinians only invite war. Avigdor Lieberman's first speech since taking office, along with accusations by the moderate Palestinian president that the new Israeli government opposes peace, signaled tough times ahead for the Obama administration's regional diplomacy. "Whoever thinks that concessions ... will achieve something is wrong. He will bring pressures and more wars," Lieberman said. "What we have to explain to the world is that the list of priorities must change."

02.04.2009: An ax-wielding Palestinian militant went on a rampage Thursday in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, killing an Israeli 13-year-old and wounding a 7-year-old boy before fleeing the area. A murky militant group calling itself the Martyrs of Imad Mughniyeh claimed responsibility for the attack. The ultranationalist Lieberman has angered Palestinians and raised international concerns because of his hard-line positions on peace and an election campaign that was widely seen as racist. His comments on Wednesday signaled a difficult road ahead for President Barack Obama's Mideast policy, especially its push for a Palestinian state. US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called Lieberman early Thursday, according to Lieberman spokeswoman Irena Etinger. The conversation was conducted in a "good atmosphere," and the two agreed to meet as soon as possible, Etinger said. She would not say what issues were discussed. Israeli foreign minister Lieberman's "peace policy" cannot be taken seriously, the anarchists say: he will face the music from the anarchists, EU, USA, etc.

Fatah-Hamas unity talks suspended. The two biggest Palestinian factions say they have suspended reconciliation talks for three weeks. The talks in Cairo between rivals Fatah and Hamas, mediated by Egypt, were adjourned two weeks ago after they failed to agree on a unity government. Fatah and Hamas, which control the West Bank and the Gaza Strip respectively, had hoped to reach an agreement by the end of March. Policy, security and electoral arrangements remain areas of dispute. "There are new creative proposals and each movement needs to consult its leadership," senior Fatah official Nabil Shaath was quoted as saying by AFP news agency. Mr Shaath said the talks would resume between 21-26 April, without giving any further details. The largely secular Fatah runs Palestinian affairs in the West Bank while Hamas, an Islamist organisation, seized Gaza nearly two years ago. The US, EU and UN say they will not deal with Hamas unless it rejects violence and recognizes Israel.

Lieberman questioned over fraud. A day after he assumed his new job, controversial Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Thursday endured more than seven hours of questioning by police in a long-standing probe over business dealings. Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said National Fraud Investigation Unit officers queried Lieberman "under warning" on suspicion of bribery, money laundering, fraud, and breach of trust. "Under warning" means that anything he disclosed in the interview may be used as evidence if he is charged. The allegations include receiving a bribe via his daughter Michal's consulting firm. Lieberman denies the allegations and says they are motivated by politics. His daughter and lawyer also have been questioned by authorities. "This investigation is going on for 13 years. In today's investigation Lieberman cooperated and answered investigators' questions," Lieberman's spokeswoman Irena Etinger said.

03.04.2009: Israeli FM questioned again in bribery probe. For the second day in a row, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman was questioned Friday by the Israeli National Fraud Investigation Unit. A police spokesman said Lieberman was questioned for five hours and faces more questioning...

UN appoints Gaza war-crimes team. The UN has appointed South African judge and former war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone to lead a fact-finding mission to the Gaza Strip. Mr Goldstone will investigate alleged violations of international law during the recent conflict between Israel and Palestinian militants. Martin Uhomoibhi, president of the UN Human Rights Council, said the mission would be independent and impartial. Israel calls the council biased and has previously refused to co-operate. Mr Goldstone will lead a four-member team, which also includes experts from Pakistan, Britain, and Ireland, in investigating "all violations of international humanitarian law" before, during and after the Israeli campaign in Gaza that ended on 18 January. "It's in the interest of the victims. It brings acknowledgment of what happened to them. It can assist the healing process," Mr Goldstone said. "I would hope it's in the interests of all the political actors, too."

The fact-finding mission, which will aim to provide clarity on the legality of the deaths and destruction, is due to start work in the region within weeks, the UN said. The council voted to set up the investigation into at a special meeting in January, after widespread allegations of war crimes committed by Israeli forces in Gaza. However, the IDF says its operations in the Gaza Strip "were carried out in compliance with the rules of warfare under international law". It says it took "numerous measures to avoid causing harm to the civilian population". The Palestinian terrorist group Hamas is widely accused of basing its forces within heavily populated areas, allegations it denies. The Israeli government has in the past refused to co-operate with UN human rights council investigations, including one led by archbishop Desmond Tutu. It is not clear whether Israel will co-operate with the new investigation."This committee is instructed not to seek out the truth but to single out Israel for alleged crimes," said Yigal Palmor, spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry. He said the council was a discredited body.

Mr Goldstone is a former UN chief prosecutor for war crimes in Yugoslavia and Rwanda. He is also a former judge at the South African constitutional court. He is also on the board of governors at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Mr Goldstone said he was "shocked, as a Jew", to be invited to head the mission. "I've taken a deep interest in what happens in Israel. I'm associated with organisations that have worked in Israel. "And I believe I can approach the daunting task that I have accepted in an even-handed and impartial manner." Impartial? Pakistan and human rights?... the anarchists ask.

04.04.2009: Woman fires on police station in southern Israel. A woman opened fire on a police station in southern Israel Saturday before officers shot back and killed her, in an apparent Palestinian militant attack. The shooting took place near the desert town of Beersheba, police spokesman Moshe Fintzy said. The woman fired at a paramilitary police post but did not hit anyone before she was gunned down, he said. Authorities have not yet identified the woman, but police said the shooting appeared to be a militant attack. If so it would mark the second attack of the week and pose an early test for the new, hard-line government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu has promised a firm hand against Palestinian militants and lowered expectations on prospects for peace. Elsewhere in Gaza, terrorists fired at least two mortar shells toward Israel, the army and militants said. There were no reports of damage. Violence has been sporadic since Israel halted its assault on Gaza in late January that was meant to stop rocket attacks from the coastal territory at nearby Israeli communities. There are fears, however, that occasional attacks could develop into larger clashes between Israel and Palestinian militants.

05.04.2009: The anarchists again call for a new ceasefire, a durable ceasefire, "100 years and beyond", and a general solution to the Israel-Palestine problem as suggested by AI, AIE and ICOT.

06.04.2009: Israel pledges to work with US for Mideast peace.  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's administration pledged on Monday to work with the United States for Mideast peace, but pointedly avoided any reference to Israeli-Palestinian peace talks or President Barak Obama's goal of a Palestinian state. On Monday in Turkey, Obama said his administration would push for Palestinian state, underlining that Israel and the Palestinians agreed on that goal under the US-backed "road map" peace plan and during a 2007 conference in Annapolis, Maryland, that were supposed to revive the plan. "The United States strongly supports the goal of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security," Obama told the Turkish parliament. "That is a goal shared by Palestinians, Israelis, and people of good will around the world. That is a goal that that the parties agreed to in the road map and at Annapolis. And that is a goal that I will actively pursue as president."

At the Annapolis conference, Israel and the Palestinians jointly endorsed Palestinian statehood, but that appears to have changed with the entry of Netanyahu's new, hawkish government last week. Netanyahu's foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, has ridiculed the conference and said its conclusions are not binding on Israel. Netanyahu has not endorsed creation of a Palestinian state."Israel appreciates President Obama's commitment to Israel's security and to the pursuit of peace," said a brief statement released by Netanyahu's office after Obama's comments. "The government of Israel is committed to both of these goals and will formulate its policies in the near future so as to work closely with the United States," the statement said, without mentioning Annapolis or Palestinian statehood.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat welcomed Obama's endorsement of a Palestinian state. "We hope that the Israeli government will understand that this is the only path to peace," he said. After meeting Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Monday, international peace envoy Tony Blair was uncharacteristically pessimistic. "There is a great deal of skepticism out there at the present time that we can make progress," Blair told reporters. "There's a lot of worry, hesitation and concern." Even so, Blair thought Netanyahu would come around to agreeing to a Palestinian state "if the right context can be created for peace."

Also Monday, Israeli and Palestinian human rights groups said they had evidence that Israeli troops attacked Palestinian medics and delayed the evacuation of wounded people during the January offensive in Gaza. Tel Aviv-based Physicians for Human Rights and the Palestinian Medical Relief Society said they had testimonies from 44 people in Gaza, gathered by five international medical experts, and they called for an independent investigation. It was the latest in a string of allegations by rights groups of Israeli violations during the Gaza operation meant to end Palestinian rocket attacks by Hamas and other militant groups from Gaza. Palestinians as mentioned say more than 1,400 people were killed during the operation, including more than 900 civilians. The Israeli military says the death toll was lower and that most of the dead were militants. No testimonies from Gaza given under Hamas' repression are sound evidence, the anarchists say. 

07.04.2009. Israeli police kill Palestinian at demolition site. Israeli police on Tuesday shot and killed a Palestinian who tried to run them over with his car as tractors nearby demolished a militant's home - sparking clashes between angry Arabs and heavily armed riot troops. It was the latest in a string of attacks by Palestinian drivers on Israeli targets in Jerusalem, feeding tensions between Jews and Arabs in the disputed city. The issue of sharing Jerusalem, with its holy sites, has stymied Israeli-Palestinian peace talks for years. In Washington, State Department spokesman Robert Wood criticized Israel's action. "Demolitions, evictions aren't helpful," he said, calling on both Israel and the Palestinians to avoid "taking steps (that are) divisive and that are going to increase tensions in the region." The anarchists agree with the USA in this case.

Israel tests system to shoot down Iranian missiles. Israel successfully tested an anti-missile system designed to protect the country against Iranian attack, the Defense Ministry said, perfecting technology developed in response to failures of similar systems during the 1991 Gulf War. The intercept of a dummy missile was the 17th test of the Arrow system, a US-Israeli joint venture. Israeli defense officials said the interceptor was an upgraded Arrow II, designed to counter Iran's Shahab ballistic missile.

Obama speech draws praise in Mideast. Syria's foreign minister Walid al-Moallem praised President Barack Obama's address to the Arab and Islamic world in Turkey, and many Arabs were cheered by the American leader's promises to push for a Palestinian state. A spokesman for the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, Taher Nunu, said in a statement Tuesday in Gaza that any change that would lead to justice for the Palestinian people would be welcome. However, Nunu said the real test of Obama's remarks and statements will be ending the "unfair bias in favor of the Zionist occupation." The Obama administration has said it seeks a dialogue with Syria - as well as with Syria's ally and Washington's biggest regional rival, Iran. Lebanese columnist Rajeh Khoury said Obama's visit to Turkey draws a "road map for the relationship between the West and Islam." Tareq Masarwah, a columnist in Jordan's Al-Rai newspaper, pointed to the significance of Obama's choosing Turkey - a mainly Muslim nation but with a strong secular tradition - as a nod to "moderate Islam." "Moderation is what we need to confront the extremism and the violence which has dominated Muslims the past three decades," Masarwah said. But, he said, "the sole bridge toward reconciliation is a Palestinian state." Though many Arabs were angered by the US invasion of Iraq and other American policies in the region, the biggest dispute they most often cite is the Palestinian issue, and what they see as Washington's bias toward Israel. Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat welcomed Obama's endorsement of a Palestinian state. "We hope that the Israeli government will understand that this is the only path to peace," he told The Associated Press. But Yehia Moussa, a lawmaker with the Hamas terrorist group, said "What's important is not that he talks nicely, but what he does on the ground." "Until now we haven't seen any positive actions on the Palestinian issue. He is repeating the same positions as Bush," Moussa said.

08.04.2209: Obama wins more praise from many Muslims. A "turning point," a "fresh breeze" - even a "light in the darkness." Arabs and Muslims have been charmed by President Barack Obama's first venture into the Islamic world. Obama's visit to Turkey this week was full of gestures calculated at showing he is a friend to Muslims, like his headliner sound bite that the U.S will never be "at war with Islam" and his mention of the Muslims in his family. Even throwaway lines like a comment that he had to wrap up a town-hall meeting with Turkish students "before the call to prayer" showed he was no stranger to Muslims' way of life. To many, the town-hall format for a meeting with students in Istanbul on Tuesday sent a significant message. The sight of a US president being questioned by Muslims was dramatically different from the perception many had of Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush. Bush was seen by many Arabs and Muslims as domineering and dictating US policy on the Islamic world.

"Obama is much better than Bush," Abed Taqoush, a 74-year-old flower shop owner in the Lebanese capital of Beirut said Wednesday. "Bush was a war criminal. Obama seems to be a man of peace." "I believe him," he said of Obama - a phrase echoed by many Wednesday. But Obama's charm also heightened expectations for a change in US policy in the Middle East, and many remain deeply skeptical that will happen. Nearly everyone across the region interviewed by The Associated Press said they wanted to see Washington push for the creation of a Palestinian state to resolve the Israeli-Arab conflict. It was a reminder that while the "clash of civilizations" may exacerbate tensions, the heart of Arab and Muslim anger at the West is over policies, particularly the 2003 invasion of Iraq and what is seen as US favoritism toward Israel.

Many focused on Obama's promise that the US would work for the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. But there is also widespread concern Obama will not press the hard-line government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who so far has not expressed his support for a two-state solution. "I will believe him only when I see his troops leave Iraq and when I see him telling the Israelis that it's time for you to leave the Palestinian territories," said Tariq Hussein, 25, who was selling shoes and watching TV at his shop in Ramallah. "Other than that it's all a political maneuver." Arabs and Muslims have also been encouraged by Obama's plans for a US withdrawal from Iraq and the closure of the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, plus his calls for dialogue with top Mideast rivals Syria and Iran. Despite worries over policy, the Turkey trip did suggest that style and tone can at least open doors.

In mainly Muslim Malaysia, Sheema Abdul-Aziz said Obama seemed to be making a "sincere effort." "He understands the issues better, he has more familiarity with Islamic culture and society." said Abdul-Aziz, a 31-year-old environmental conservationist. Added Ikana Mardiastuti, who works at a research institute in Jakarta, Indonesia, and is the mother of a young boy: "For the Islamic world, these words are like a fresh breeze. I believe him." Libya's leader Moammer Gadhafi had a sort of backdoor praise. He described Obama as "light in the imperialist darkness," saying he was "not arrogant like most former American presidents." Even religious conservatives came away impressed. "The Islamic world should avail of this positive opportunity," said Sheik Nimaa Al-Abadi, a cleric at the influential Shiite seminary in the Iraqi holy city of Najaf. "The opening chapter of Obama in the Islamic world might be a real turning point."

In Saudi Arabia, a cleric who sits on a government committee for rehabilitating militants away from extremist ideology said Obama's outreach "will make it more difficult to recruit young Muslim men to carry out terrorist acts. They (militants) no longer have the argument to do so." "Obama has a charisma that is acceptable in the Muslim world and on top of it he is proving that he translates his words into deeds," said the sheik, Mohammed al-Nujaimi. In part, Obama's warm welcome reflected the almost rabid bitterness toward Bush, who on his final visit to Baghdad was pelted with shoes by an angry journalist. The journalist then became a hero across the Mideast. Bush had often emphasized outreach to Muslims and Arabs, and he was, after all, the first US president to openly endorse the idea of a Palestinian state.

But nothing dented the image of an arrogant, bellicose United States created by Guantanamo, images of prison abuse at Abu Ghraib and the bloodshed that reigned in Iraq after the US-led invasion. Bush was also seen as unquestioningly supportive of Israel. While Washington blamed Iran and militants for turmoil in Lebanon and Gaza, many in the region equally blamed Bush's stances. Still, even those calling Obama sincere are skeptical he can resolve the Mideast's many intractable problems. "It's nice to see and hear. But this region is a mess, and there are a lot of hardline adversaries still out there," said Riad Kahwaji, director of the Dubai-based Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis. "The Middle East is like a long rope, with lots of knots to untie."

Meanwhile: Stone-throwing Israeli settlers and Palestinian villagers clashed near the site of an ax attack last week that killed a Jewish teenager, leaving at least eight Palestinians wounded.

09.04.2009: Sinn Fein head meets Hamas leader in Gaza. The leader of Irish Republican Army-linked Sinn Fein party met with the head of the internationally shunned Hamas government during a two-day visit to Gaza and said he plans to brief President Obama's special Mideast envoy about his contacts. Gerry Adams, a key player in Northern Ireland's peace process, met with Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh late Wednesday and planned more talks with officials of the Islamic militant group Thursday. Haniyeh's meeting with Adams, at an undisclosed location in Gaza City, was not announced ahead of time. TV footage from a local news outlet showed Adams sitting in an armchair next to Haniyeh. "We want to help. We support the Palestinian people," Adams said. Adams said Wednesday he met Obama's special Mideast envoy George Mitchell in Washington last month and told him of his plan to visit Gaza. He said he plans to "brief the Irish government, friends in the US, others I deal with internationally, and that would include Sen. Mitchell." Mitchell did not meet with Hamas officials during a visit to the region several months ago. Mitchell and Adams have known each other since the former US senator helped broker a Northern Ireland peace deal in the 1990s.

Sinn Fein is a political party linked to the Irish Republican Army - a group that, like Hamas, was labeled terrorist because of violent tactics used to battle Britain. But unlike Hamas, Sinn Fein engaged in negotiations that transformed it into a legitimate political player, recognized by Britain and local foes. Haniyeh welcomed Adams as "a man of rich political experience who faced circumstances in Ireland similar to what we face in Gaza." Hamas is widely shunned by the West. Some European politicians have called for dialogue with Hamas, but few Western politicians have met with Hamas officials. Hamas is considered a terrorist group by Israel, the US, the European Union and the anarchists. The United States has said it will not deal with Hamas until it recognizes Israel, renounces violence and accepts previous agreements between Israel and the Palestinian Authority - which Hamas has refused to do.

Adams called on all sides to the conflict to renounce violence and called for dialogue between all parties. A willingness to talk and compromise produced success in the case of Northern Ireland. Following the IRA's cease-fire in 1997, Sinn Fein joined in negotiations with other parties and the British and Irish governments, and is now the second-largest political party in Northern Ireland. Adams also visited the Israeli town of Sderot - a frequent target of Hamas rockets - before traveling to Gaza and said he found it "deeply saddening" to realize "the depth of the human tragedy" on both sides. He also said Gaza's border crossings - kept tightly closed by Israel and Egypt since the Hamas takeover - should be opened.

Meanwhile IDF's ethics chief says Israel fought fair in Gaza. Shermeister serves as the Israeli army's ethics watchdog at a time when the military is under international scrutiny for its behavior during its Gaza invasion. That puts him in the front line of a war of words that extend into the white-hot realm of "war crimes," "anti-Semitism," "atrocities" and "blood libel." But his job is made easier by the fact that most Israelis support his contention that they have nothing to be ashamed of. "I didn't see in the Gaza operation anything that can teach us or show us that something in the moral attitude of the IDF was ... changed or spoiled," Shermeister said at an officers' school in Netanya, north of Tel Aviv. The three-week Gaza war has widened the gap between Israel's self-image and how it is perceived abroad. The wave of international criticism, and an imminent U.N. investigation, have deepened a sense here that Israel is being treated unfairly and held to impossible standards.

In Israel, debate about the Gaza offensive came late and quickly fizzled. Even as the full scope of destruction emerged, the military's conduct was not questioned in Israel. Most Israelis felt the war was a justified response to the missile campaign that has disrupted life in southern Israel and killed more than 20 people. While acknowledging that the crude, homemade Hamas missiles have nothing like the menace of an air-to-ground rocket, schoolchildren rushing to bomb shelters is something no government can tolerate on a long-term basis, they argue. The consensus has become that Hamas provoked the war by firing rockets, and then hid behind civilians when the counterattack came.

10.04.2009: Hezbollah confirms Egypt arrest. The leader of Lebanon's islamist terrorist Hezbollah movement has confirmed one of the group's members is among 49 men accused of planning attacks in Egypt. The Hezbollah member, Sami Shihab, had been trying to get military equipment into Gaza, Hassan Nasrallah said. But he denied his organization was seeking to destabilize Egypt and called the allegations "lies". Hezbollah supports Hamas. It has strongly criticized Egypt for failing to open its border with Gaza to relieve the Israeli-led blockade.

11.04.2009: Palestinians: Israel must back 2-state solution. The chief Palestinian negotiator says that Israel must declare its support for a two-state solution for peace talks to resume. Saeb Erekat says the international community must pressure Israel to abide by its previous commitments to a two-state solution, halt settlement activity and recognize past agreements signed with the Palestine Liberation Organization. The newly formed center-right Israeli government has so far sent mixed messages about how far it will commit to previous agreements and the two-state solution. Erekat said on Saturday that just as the international community boycotts militant group Hamas, because it doesn't recognize Israel, pressure must be put on the Jewish state to abide by its own commitments. The anarchists agree with Erekat in this case.

12.04.2009: Israeli, Palestinian leaders make first phone call. Israel's new prime minister spoke to the Palestinian president on Sunday for the first time since taking office, telling him that he seeks close cooperation to drive peace efforts forward. Talk of cooperation alone, however, is unlikely to satisfy the Palestinian leadership, which wants Israel's new government to make an unambiguous endorsement of the idea of an independent Palestinian state. While repeatedly saying he wants peace with the Palestinians, Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to support the internationally backed idea of a Palestinian state alongside Israel since taking office as premier on March 31.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said there is no reason to negotiate if Netanyahu doesn't support a "two-state solution." Netanyahu's office said Sunday's conversation was initiated by Abbas, who called the Israeli leader to send him greetings for the Jewish Passover holiday. It added that Abbas said both sides must work for peace. Describing the conversation as "warm and friendly," Netanyahu's office said the Israeli leader recalled past talks and cooperation with Abbas and said he intended to maintain a similar relationship in the future. Netanyahu was also prime minister from 1996-99 and served as foreign minister from 2002-2003. Abbas' office said Sunday's call was a gesture of courtesy to the new Israeli prime minister and it lasted a few minutes. It said it was the first time the two men have spoken since Netanyahu took office.

During his campaign, Netanyahu said it was premature to talk of an independent Palestinian state. Instead, he offered the Palestinians "economic peace," a plan to build up their economy. Netanyahu's foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, has dismissed peace efforts by the previous US administration and says the previous Israeli government's endorsement of Palestinian statehood is not binding. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Saturday that for peace talks to resume, Israel must declare its support for the eventual establishment of a Palestinian state. Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki said Abbas is expected to visit Washington at the end of the month to discuss the stalled peace talks with President Barack Obama. This would be the first meeting between the two leaders since Obama's inauguration. Abbas' office said he was flying to Saudi Arabia Sunday for a brief meeting with Saudi King Abdullah, but officials would not divulge the subject of the talks. Obama's Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, is to travel to the region starting Monday with stops in Israel, the Palestinian territories, Egypt and other countries.

13.04.2009: Gaza boat explodes in apparent attack, no injuries. An Palestinian fishing boat laden with hundreds of pounds of explosives blew up off the coast of Gaza Monday in what the IDF said was an attempt to attack a naval patrol in the area. Israeli tourist stabbed in Egyptian Red Sea resort. An Israeli tourist vacationing at an Egyptian Red Sea resort was stabbed in the face on Monday, authorities said. Israeli police said the attack was criminal and was not terrorism-related Last week, Israel issued a stern travel warning telling its citizens to stay out of the Sinai, citing new intelligence about plans to attack Israeli tourists.

14.04.2009: Palestinian police say they've uncovered explosives lab in West Bank mosque, arrested 8. Palestinian police say they have uncovered an explosives lab in a West Bank mosque. Police spokesman Adnan Damiri says eight suspects have been arrested since the discovery several days ago. West Bank police loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have been going after the Islamic militant Hamas group for two years. Hamas as mentioned seized control of Gaza in 2007, and Abbas fears a repeat in the West Bank. Damiri said Tuesday that the lab had two bombs and was hidden under a mosque in the town of Qalqiliya. He wouldn't say which militant group ran the lab, but claimed it was part of attempts to topple Abbas' government. He provided no evidence. In Gaza, a Hamas spokesman denounced what he called political arrests in the West Bank.

15.04.2009: Israel balks at UN war crimes probe of Gaza conflict. Israel is unlikely to cooperate with a Gaza war crimes probe because it distrusts the U.N. agency sponsoring the investigation, an Israeli government official said Wednesday. Israel has long complained that the UN council is biased against Israel.

16.04.2009: Israel's Lieberman says new peace approach needed. Israel's foreign minister told the US Mideast envoy Thursday that wide-ranging concessions offered to Palestinians in the past resulted in wars and his country needs to find a new approach, the latest sign that the hard-line government and Washington are diverging on how to reach a settlement. "US policy favors - in respect to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - a two-state solution which will have a Palestinian state living in peace alongside the Jewish state of Israel," Mitchell told reporters at the end of his meeting with Lieberman in Jerusalem. The anarchists again reject Lieberman's policy and call for a general solution to the Israel-Palestine problem as suggested by AI, AIE and ICOT.

17.04.2009: USA for two-state solution. A Palestinian state alongside Israel is the only way to end the Mideast conflict, President Barack Obama's Mideast point man said Friday, sending a stern message to Israel's hardline leaders, who have expressed misgivings about a two-state solution. Envoy George Mitchell, in the region on his third trip since Obama took office in late January, suggested the US was eager to see quick progress after years of failed peace efforts.

18.04.2009: Clashes on the West Bank, Gaza border opening. A 16-year-old Palestinian was fatally shot by Israeli troops after throwing firebombs at the gate of a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, Israeli officials said Saturday. The IDF said soldiers had fired warning shots before opening fire on a group of Palestinians hurling firebombs at the Beit El settlement. In other West Bank violence, a Palestinian man drove his Mercedes into two Israeli policemen checking motorists at a checkpoint outside Jerusalem on Saturday, Israeli police said. The driver was arrested after he told police he targeted the officers, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. Rosenfeld said the attack was politically motivated, but did not elaborate. One officer was moderately hurt and the other was slightly injured, police said. The two attacks were the latest in a series of violent incidents in the West Bank. On Friday, a Palestinian man was killed after he was struck in the chest by a tear gas canister fired by Israeli troops dispersing a protest against Israel's West Bank separation barrier. A Palestinian man wielding a knife was also shot and killed Friday by Jewish settlers after he entered their West Bank settlement, the Israeli military said.

Meanwhile, in the Gaza Strip, officials announced that the border crossing between Gaza and Egypt would be open Saturday and Sunday to let medical patients leave the blockaded territory. Gazans began lining up at the border Saturday morning, and by midday the first passengers started crossing.

19.04.2009: Report: Hamas killed, maimed dozens of opponents. Hamas directed gunmen to eliminate political opponents and suspected collaborators under the cover of Israel's military offensive in Gaza, killing 32 people and wounding dozens in such attacks since December, an international human rights group said Monday. The New York-based Human Rights Watch urged Gaza's Hamas rulers to halt what it described as a pattern of arbitrary arrests, torture and summary executions by the Islamic militant group. Human Rights Watch portrayed the attacks as the worst outbreak of internal violence since Hamas violently seized control of Gaza in June 2007 and expelled rivals in the more moderate Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who now controls only the West Bank. Such practices are aimed, in part, at quashing dissent in Gaza and make a mockery of Hamas' claim it upholds the law, the group said.

During the war, "Hamas authorities ... took extraordinary steps to control, intimidate, punish and at times eliminate their internal political rivals as well as persons suspected of collaborating with Israel," the report said. Eighteen Palestinians were killed by Hamas-linked gunmen during the three-week war, which ended Jan. 18, and 14 others were killed afterward, the report said. In addition, 49 Gazans were shot in the legs by masked gunmen between Dec. 28 and Jan. 31, and 73 had their arms or legs broken, the report said, citing a rights group linked to Abbas. Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum dismissed the Human Rights Watch report as unbalanced. He said Hamas was willing to investigate any complaints, and denied the group is going after political opponents.

He said suspected collaborators with Israel who fled Gaza's central prison after it was destroyed in Israeli bombing raids in December were killed by relatives of people they had harmed, not by security forces. Other international and Palestinian human rights organizations have provided similar accounts of shootings and beatings. Fatah has also said 14 of its members in Gaza were killed by Hamas during the Israeli offensive and that more than 160 were shot in the arms or legs or beaten. Human Rights Watch said repressive measures are also on the rise in the Abbas-controlled West Bank.

Abbas' security forces have been cracking down on Hamas in the West Bank since the militants seized Gaza. Hamas detainees in West Bank prisons have complained of mistreatment, including beatings and being tied up in painful positions. In January and February, one detainee died in custody, and 31 complained of mistreatment, Human Rights Watch said. The report about the Gaza abuses is based on interviews with witnesses and victims, as well as reports by Palestinian human rights groups, Human Rights Watch said. It reviewed killings and shootings since Dec. 27, when Israel launched its Gaza offensive, meant to weaken Hamas and halt rocket attacks from Gaza on Israel.

Many of the assailants were members of Hamas' security forces, while others were masked men with suspected ties to Hamas or other militant groups, said Fred Abrahams, a researcher for Human Rights Watch. "Hamas is the undisputed political and security leader of Gaza, so even if there were gunmen from other groups (involved in attacks), they are operating with the approval of Hamas," he said. Hamas has begun investigations into four deaths, dismissing and detaining members of the security forces involved in two killings, said Bill Van Esveld, another Human Rights Watch researcher. "What we have not seen is accountability for (the killing of) collaborators and Fatah guys getting shot in the legs," he said. In a recent case under investigation, gunmen wearing headbands of Hamas' military wing, Izzedine al-Qassam, reportedly opened fire Thursday on three cousins loyal to Abbas' Fatah movement in the Gaza town of Jebaliya. The three men were each hit by several bullets in the legs and remain hospitalized, the Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights said.

Excerpts from Iranian president's speech at UN. Excerpts from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech at the U.N. racism conference: "Following World War II, they resorted to military aggression to make an entire nation homeless under the pretext of Jewish suffering. They sent migrants from Europe, the United States and other parts of the world in order to establish a totally racist government in the occupied Palestine. In fact, in compensation for the dire consequences of racism in Europe, they helped bring to power the most cruel and repressive racist regime in Palestine." "It is all the more regrettable that a number of Western governments and the United States have committed themselves to defend those racist perpetrators of genocide, while the awakened, conscious and free-minded people of the world condemn aggression, brutalities and bombardments of civilians of Gaza."

"Ladies and gentlemen: What are the root causes of US attacks against Iraq, or invasion of Afghanistan? Was the motive behind the invasion of Iraq anything other than the arrogance of the then-US administration and the mounting pressures ... to expand their sphere of influence, seeking the interest of giant arms manufacturing companies, affecting another culture with thousands of years of historical background, eliminating potential and practical threats of Muslim countries against the Zionist regime? Or, to control and plunder energy resources of the Iraqi people. Why indeed were almost a million people killed and injured, and a few more millions were displaced and became homeless? Why indeed have the Iraqi people suffered enormous losses amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars? ... Wasn't the military action against Iraq planned by the Zionists and their allies in the then-US administration, in complicity with the arms manufacturing companies, and the owner of the world?"

"The United States and its allies not only have failed to contain the production of drugs in Afghanistan, but also the illicit cultivation of narcotics multiplied in the course of their presence. The basic question is what was the responsibility of the then-US administration and its allies? Did they represent countries of the world? Have they been mandated by them? Have they been authorized on behalf of the people of the world to interfere in all parts of the globe, and of course mostly in our region? Aren't these measures a clear example of egocentrism, racism, discrimination, or infringement on the dignity and independence of nations?"

Ladies and gentlemen: Who is responsible for the current global economic crisis? Where did the crisis start from? From Africa? From Asia? Or was it first from the United States?"

"Dear friends, today, the human community is facing a kind of racism that has tarnished the image of humanity. In the beginning of the third millennium, the world Zionism personifies racism that falsely resorts to religion, and abuses religious sentiment to hide their hatred and ugly faces. However, it is of great importance to bring into focus the political goals of some of the world's powers and those who control huge economic resources and interests in the world, and mobilize all their resources, economic and political influence, and world media to render support in vain to the Zionist regime, and maliciously to diminish to indignity and disgrace this regime."

20.04.2009: The anarchists condemn Hamas for killing 32 Palestinians and hurting several more on Gaza, and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for calling Israel racist.

21.04.2009: Obama invites Mideast leaders for separate talks, but not Hamas.

22.04.2009: Human rights activists demanded an independent war crimes probe after IDF on Wednesday cleared itself of wrongdoing over civilian deaths in the Gaza war. Army commanders acknowledged "rare mishaps" during the three-week offensive against Gaza's Hamas rulers, including an airstrike that killed a family of 21. However, they said Israel did not violate international humanitarian law and that Hamas is to blame for civilian deaths, because it used Gazans as human shields. At least 1,100 people in Gaza were killed, according to counts by both sides. The IDF insisted that a majority of the war dead were militants, while the Palestinians said most were civilians. Israel launched the offensive Dec. 27 as mentioned to halt years of rocket fire on Israeli border towns. It unleashed unprecedented force in the small seaside strip, including more than 2,000 bombing raids and barrages of artillery and mortar shells, against Palestinian terrorists, who operated inside residential areas. Human rights groups say there is grave suspicion that both Israel and Hamas carelessly put civilians in harm's way - Hamas by using them as cover and Israel by using disproportionate force in densely populated Gaza. Since the war ended Jan. 18, calls have been mounting for a war crimes probe of both sides. A U.N. agency has appointed a widely respected former war crimes prosecutor, Richard Goldstone, to lead an investigation. However the proposed investigation team also includes a representative from Pakistan, that has a bad record regarding human rights, so team is probably biased. Israeli officials say it's very unlikely Israel will cooperate, alleging the U.N. agency is biased. Hamas, Gaza's sole ruler, said it would work with the investigator. If Israel has nothing to hide, it should cooperate with Goldstone, a coalition of Israeli human rights groups and the New York-based Human Rights Watch said Wednesday. They also questioned the military's ability to investigate itself.

The military's findings "seem to be a cover-up for serious violations of international law," Human Rights Watch said, calling the findings an "insult to civilians" killed in the war. "It does not pass the smell-test," the group charged. However the so called "evidence" of Human Rights Watch regarding Israel is very likely manipulated by Hamas. No one speaking against Hamas in Gaza is safe from intimidation and Hamas has also killed several of its opponents, Palestinians, in Gaza. The IDF assigned five colonels to lead separate investigations into its most controversial actions, including attacks on and near U.N. and international facilities, shooting at medical workers and facilities, as well as the use of white phosphorous shells, a chemical agent that can cause horrific burns. The IDF said Israeli forces operated in line with international law throughout the fighting. It said the killing of civilians was unintentional - either a result of combat in crowded areas, with Hamas using civilians as human shields, or in rare cases because of human error. In one such case, an airstrike killed 21 members of the Daya family in Gaza City on Jan. 5, including 12 children, according to a Palestinian list of the war dead. The IDF said the target was a weapons factory next door. The IDF said what it described as unfortunate incidents, such as the shelling of the U.N. headquarters in Gaza City, were a result of urban combat, "particularly of the type that Hamas forced on the (Israeli) military, by choosing to fight from within the civilian population." It said U.N. facilities were not struck intentionally. The IDF alleged Hamas militants often took cover in ambulances or hospitals. Investigators noted that Gaza's prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, spent the war at Gaza City's Shifa Hospital. Haniyeh did not appear in public during the war, and remained in hiding for weeks after the fighting ended, apparently fearing assassination.

Israel has promised legal and financial support for officers facing trial. In Norway, a group of  lawyers, with a marxist leftist bias, filed a war crimes complaint against 10 Israelis on Wednesday, including the former prime minister . In a statement, the lawyers claim that Olmert, Livni, Barak and seven Israel military officers shared responsibility for "massive terror attacks primarily directed at Gaza's population." Since the Gaza war, the political deadlock in the region has only hardened, as Hamas has tightened its grip on Gaza, and a hawkish government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was elected in Israel. The U.N.'s Mideast envoy, Robert Serry, said Wednesday that the international community wants a Palestinian state established alongside Israel. "The problem is that the parties seem to be less ready and in a position to do what it takes to make peace," he said during a tour of Palestinian neighborhoods in Jerusalem. Also Wednesday, Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, the powerful official handling indirect Israel-Hamas contacts over a ceasefire and prisoner exchange, met with leaders of Israel's new government for the first time. Relations between the two nations have been tense since Netanyahu took office March 31 because of his hard-line views toward the Palestinians. But Netanyahu's office said Suleiman invited the Israeli leader to visit Egypt.

23.04.2009: Obama: World's people must resist hatred, racism. President Barack Obama stood Thursday with Jewish leaders at a solemn Holocaust remembrance in a cavernous Capitol hall, proclaiming: "Never again." Obama warned against what he called the dangers of silence, saying that every day, somewhere in the world people must resist the urge to turn away from scenes of horror, hate, injustice and intolerance. Without naming names, he noted that some still deny the Holocaust. At the same time, Obama said that apathy in the face of such a mind-set must be fought at all times. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recently caused a stir at a U.N. conference by accusing Israel of being a racist nation. Earlier in the ceremony, Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel noted his disgust with Ahmadinejad's comments and thanked the Obama administration for boycotting the conference. The annual Holocaust Day of Remembrance event is organized by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

24.04.2009: Jordan's king says US leadership essential to Mideast peace, asks for quick movement. The United States will be the key to peace between Israel and the Palestinians, and both sides are already testing President Barack Obama's resolve, Jordan's King Abdullah II said Friday. Abdullah, who talked Mideast peace with Obama at the White House earlier in the week, said the United States should have a peace plan "for 2009 and beyond," in which negotiations produce clear and quick results. "Now is the time for the United States to lead," Abdullah said. He warned that time is running out to establish a viable independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. That is the goal all sides have embraced and the outline of a deal is clear, but it will take determination and a push from Washington to make it happen, Abdullah said. "The status quo is simply untenable," Abdullah said in an address at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The anarchists also mean the status quo is untenable.

25.04.2009: 5 Palestinians hospitalized after West Bank clash with masked Jewish settlers, Israeli army. Jewish settlers, Israeli troops and Palestinian villagers clashed with guns, rocks and tear gas, leaving five Palestinians hospitalized Saturday, hospital officials said. Israeli media said five settlers were lightly hurt, but gave no details. The confrontation erupted Friday evening near the Jewish settlement of Yitzhar, one of the more militant in the West Bank, raising the prospect of further friction in the area. The incident began after Yitzhar residents saw several Palestinians walking toward the settlement and suspected they were trying to attack the settlement, the military said. Last year, an Israeli boy was stabbed and wounded in such an attack. Later, about two dozen settlers, some masked and armed, walked from Yitzhar toward the Palestinian village of Orif, firing bullets and throwing rocks, villagers said. Orif's mayor, Fawzi Shehadeh, said Palestinians threw rocks at the settlers. Shehadeh said Israeli army forces entered the village to try separate Palestinians from the Jewish settlers. He said Palestinians hurled rocks at Israeli soldiers who fired tear gas and rubber-coated steel pellets. In all, five Palestinians remained hospitalized Saturday - three with gunshot wounds and two who were hit by rubber bullets, said Palestinian health official Khaled Saleh.

26.04.2009: Israel detains suspect in West Bank pickax attack. Israeli forces have detained a Palestinian man suspected of killing an Israeli child and wounded another during a rampage in a West Bank settlement early this month, authorities said Sunday. Authorities said the suspect, from a village next to the settlement, confessed to the killing and handed over a knife used in the attack. The assailant attacked a group of children in the Bat Ayin settlement with the knife and a pickax on April 2. A 13-year-old boy was killed, a 7-year-old was seriously wounded and a third boy escaped. The attacker fled the scene, leaving behind the small, red pickax. At the time of the attack, a murky Palestinian group claimed responsibility. But authorities discounted the claim and said Sunday that the suspect, Moussa Tayet, had no links to any organized militant groups.

Israeli military and police officials said, however, that Tayet, 26, meticulously planned the attack for weeks, picking up the weapons from a hiding place as he entered the settlement. They said he told investigators that the attack was religiously motivated. The attacker entered Bat Ayin, located between Jerusalem and the southern West Bank city of Hebron, unhindered. The religious settlers have refused to build a security fence around their community - standard practice in most settlements - saying it would be a sign of weakness. The Israeli army said Tayet was caught on April 14, but the arrest was only announced on Sunday because he was being interrogated.

The attack occurred a day after Israel's new prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, took office. The leader of the hawkish Likud party has promised a firm hand against militants and lowered expectations on the prospects for peace. On Sunday, Netanyahu's foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, said there is no reason to begin negotiations on a final peace accord with the Palestinians, saying they "shouldn't be freed from their obligations" to rein in militants. Under the internationally backed "road map" peace plan of June 2002, Israel and the Palestinians were to embark on a three-phase process toward a final deal.

But the talks broke down because neither side met their obligations under the first stage: Israel did not halt settlement construction and the Palestinians did not clamp down on militants. When the talks resumed in 2007, in Annapolis, Maryland, the road map was the basis for negotiations, but the phased approach was jettisoned and the two sides went directly to negotiations on a final accord. Lieberman has rejected the Annapolis process. "I don't think it's right to immediately agree to negotiations on a final accord," Lieberman told Army Radio. "The political process must begin at the beginning, not the end." Netanyahu has resisted pressure to declare support for the creation of a Palestinian state, and Lieberman has said Israeli concessions have only brought more violence. The anarchists again demand a two independent countries' solution, Israel and Palestine, and preferably anarchies, not states.

27.04.2009: Abbas: Palestinians won't be pressured into peace talks if Israel keeps building settlements. Palestinians won't be pressured into resuming peace talks with Israel as long as construction in Jewish settlements continues, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Monday. Abbas said a complete construction freeze is a prerequisite for resuming talks. Israel's new prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, supports settlement construction and has not committed to the idea of Palestinian statehood. In his speech Monday, Abbas said he would not give in to possible Israeli or international pressure on the Palestinians to resume negotiations even if settlement construction continues.

"For sure, we won't submit to pressures. For example, if they say `come and then we'll see, come.' No, we won't accept. Regarding the peace talks, this is our position, even if someone, if anyone in the world, says `you're wrong,'" he said. Abbas also rejected previous Israeli demands that Palestinians not only recognize the state of Israel - as Abbas and others have - but recognize Israel as a Jewish state. He said it's not his job to define the state of Israel. "Name yourself, it's not my business," he said. "All I know is that there is the state of Israel, in the borders of 1967, not one centimeter more, not one centimeter less. Anything else, I don't accept."

In 1967, Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem - territories the Palestinians seek for their state. In previous talks, Israel has said it would like to keep some West Bank land. Abbas' comments drew an angry response from Israel. "This is more evidence that the Palestinians are not interested in true peace with Israel," said Ofer Akunis, a lawmaker in Netanyahu's Likud Party. Also Monday, Israeli activists said that a housing complex for Jews is under construction in the Palestinian neighborhood of Zawahra in east Jerusalem. The complex will eventually have at least 62 apartments in three buildings, each up to eight stories tall, said Daniel Seidemann, head of Ir Amim, a group campaigning for Israeli-Palestinian coexistence in the city.

Jerusalem municipal officials declined comment. The Palestinians seek east Jerusalem as their future capital, and the fate of the city is a key issue in any peace deal. Palestinians make up about one-third of Jerusalem's population of more than 750,000. Israel has systematically settled Israelis in east Jerusalem since the 1967 Mideast war. Palestinians complain that Israeli housing policies are generally discriminatory, making it difficult for them to obtain building permits. Netanyahu says he opposes any division of the city. The anarchists are against an ethnic clean Arab Palestine.

Palestinian officials established formal ties on Monday with Venezuela and opened a diplomatic mission in the South American country. Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki thanked President Hugo Chavez's national socialist right fascist government for its support during the recent Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip, which prompted the Venezuelan leader to break off relations with Israel. Venezuelan-Palestinian relations have warmed as tensions have grown between Chavez's government and Israel. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said the Palestinian cause is "like our own," while al-Malki praised Chavez as "the most popular leader in the Arab world," in part for his staunch support of Palestinians. The two officials signed a document formally establishing diplomatic relations, and a Palestinian Embassy in Caracas was inaugurated on Monday afternoon.

28.04.2009: Sick Gazans victims of Hamas-Fatah power struggle. Hundreds of Palestinian patients have been trapped in the Gaza Strip, unable to travel abroad for crucial treatment for cancer and other diseases, because of political infighting between Gaza's militant Hamas rulers and their Palestinian rivals. On March 22, Hamas officials took control of the Fatah-run medical committee, which referred about 1,000 patients a month with life-threatening illnesses to Israel and Egypt. Hamas officials said the committee was rife with corruption and needed reform. In response, the West Bank government, which funds medical treatment for Palestinians abroad, froze most patient transfers. Gaza patients cannot travel abroad without committee coordination because of a border blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt since the Hamas takeover. The two countries only recognize the West Bank administration as the legitimate Palestinian government. Rights activists say the political differences are jeopardizing people's lives. "They are playing with the lives of people and their pain. There's a complete absence of responsibility," said Khalil Shaheen of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights. The Israeli branch of Physicians for Human Rights, working with the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, has managed to get 35 patients out of Gaza for treatment since the committee collapsed, said Ran Yarom of PHR. But the groups say they don't have the resources to do the committee's job.

Israel marks Memorial Day as peace remains elusive. Israelis put aside their many divisions Tuesday to remember more than 22,000 fallen soldiers and terror victims, mournfully aware that the strife that led to those deaths is far from over.

Barak: Netanyahu will bend on Palestinian state. Israel's defense minister said in an interview published Tuesday that he expects Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to the principle of Palestinian statehood - something the Israeli leader has balked at doing since taking office a month ago. Netanyahu is coming under increasing pressure from Washington to resume peacemaking with the Palestinians, a process designed ultimately to create a Palestinian state that would live alongside Israel peacefully within fixed borders. He has stepped back from his original plan to hold off on political negotiations while working with the Palestinians to improve their economy. But Netanyahu, who plans to visit the White House next month, has stopped short of endorsing a separate Palestinian state.

In an interview with the Haaretz daily, Defense Minister Ehud Barak suggested that Netanyahu could relent. "I believe that during Netanyahu's visit to Washington, Israel must formulate how it intends to move forward, and that formula will not propose three states for eight peoples," Barak said. The prime minister's office would not comment. But an aide to the prime minister said a policy review was under way and should be completed around the time Netanyahu goes to Washington. The same official said there was "excellent coordination" between Netanyahu and his defense minister. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to publicly discuss emerging policy.

The Palestinians hope to set up a state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, territories Israel captured in the 1967 war. Israel has annexed east Jerusalem, and some 230,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank. Israel withdrew its troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005. But the coastal territory is now controlled by the Islamic militant group Hamas, complicating potential peace efforts. Israel considers Hamas, which rejects Israel's right to exist, a terrorist group. In a reflection of the sensitivity of the situation, a Palestinian military court convicted a man of treason and sentenced him to death for selling West Bank land to an Israeli company.

Abbas routinely witholds the required approval of such sentences, however. Barak's centrist Labor Party, which supports Palestinian statehood, is the lone moderate voice in Netanyahu's government. But during his two years as defense minister in the preceding government of Ehud Olmert, Barak rebuffed Palestinian demands to halt settlement expansion or remove a significant number of Israeli roadblocks that encumber Palestinian movement in the West Bank. In a separate interview published Tuesday, Netanyahu's other top policy-making partner, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, denied that Jewish settlements in the West Bank were an obstacle to peacemaking, as Palestinians and the international community claim.

Lieberman also said Israel can't negotiate peace with the Palestinians until they dismantle militant groups and set up a proper justice system. The Palestinians committed to do so under the US-backed "road map" peace plan of June 2002 - which obliged Israel to halt all settlement construction. "To jump straight to the last paragraph and to concede on all of the Palestinian commitments to fight terror - it's a very strange approach," Lieberman told The Jerusalem Post daily. The official in the prime minister's office also said there was "excellent coordination" between Netanyahu and Lieberman. The anarchists again demand a two independent countries' solution, Israel and Palestine, and preferably anarchies, not states.

29.04.2009: Muslims are cool to pope's Holy Land pilgrimage. Nazareth - Israel - A banner across the main square in Jesus' boyhood town condemns those who insult Islam's Prophet Muhammad - a message by Muslim hard-liners for Pope Benedict XVI during his pilgrimage to the Holy Land next month. The pontiff may have to tread carefully with his visit to Nazareth. Many Muslims are still angry over a 2006 speech in which Benedict quoted a medieval text depicting the prophet as violent.

30.04.2009: Israel warns European Union to tone down its criticism of the new Israeli government. Israel warned the European Union on Thursday to tone down its criticism of the new Israeli government or risk forfeiting the bloc's role as broker in Mideast peace efforts. The warning came after EU's commissioner for external relations, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, this week criticized Israel's refusal to endorse a Palestinian state. She said an upgrade in Israeli-EU relations would depend on Israel's commitment to the "two-state solution." The Haaretz daily reported Thursday that Foreign Ministry official Rafi Barak has been calling European ambassadors in the country to tell them that public criticism of Israel could undermine Europe's influence here. The EU is one of four members of the so-called Quartet - the international body charged with promoting an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. The other members are the US, Russia and the United Nations.

01.05.2009: U.N. seeks end to razing of homes in East Jerusalem. The United Nations is calling on Israel to freeze all pending demolition orders against Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem in a new report that reflects growing international concern over developments in the contested city. The report also urges Israel to provide solutions to the housing crisis there. Scores of Palestinian-owned structures are demolished every year by the Israeli authorities on the grounds that they were built without the required permits. But many Palestinians say Israel limits construction to push them out of East Jerusalem, which they claim as the capital of a future Palestinian state. The report states that only 13 percent of East Jerusalem land is currently zoned by the Israeli authorities for Palestinian construction, and much of that is already built up, severely restricting the possibility of obtaining a permit. More than a third of East Jerusalem, meanwhile, has been expropriated for Israeli construction since 1967, according to the report, while 22 percent is zoned for green areas and public infrastructure and 30 percent remains "unplanned."

Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 war and then annexed it, after expanding the boundaries of the city into the West Bank. Israel claims sovereignty over all of Jerusalem, but the annexation has never been recognized by the United Nations or its member states. The report, by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the occupied Palestinian territories, was to be published Friday. An advance copy was made available to The New York Times. Although the report was critical of Israeli policies, its tone was explanatory and it avoided defining political motivations on either side. During a recent tour of East Jerusalem, Robert H. Serry, the United Nations special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, called for an immediate end to the demolitions, which he described as "not helpful," fueling tensions at a time when "the international community is trying to relaunch a results-oriented peace process."

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton also spoke out against threatened demolitions and evictions in East Jerusalem during her visit to the region in March. Such activities, she said, are "not in keeping with the obligations entered into under the ‘road map,' " the United States-backed peace plan of 2003. A spokesman for Jerusalem's mayor, Nir Barkat, said Thursday that City Hall could not comment on the United Nations report without seeing it, but that Mr. Barkat was "committed to addressing the issue of affordable housing throughout the entirety of Jerusalem." In the coming weeks, the spokesman, Stephan Miller, said, Mr. Barkat will present his master plan for the city of Jerusalem "which will, of course, include plans to provide more affordable housing in eastern Jerusalem." Mr. Miller added that the mayor "will continue to uphold the rule of law and, as such, there will continue to be building demolitions if there is illegal construction." The United Nations report, in exploring the reasons for the demolitions, noted that the process of applying for a building permit in East Jerusalem was lengthy and costly and that there was no guarantee that one would be issued in the end. Even for building on land zoned for Palestinian construction, applicants must submit a detailed area plan.

Coming up with a detailed area plan — including allocating land for public use, like roads — is particularly difficult because of the unresolved land ownership disputes among Palestinian neighbors. The Palestinian population of East Jerusalem, which stood at about 66,000 in 1967, is now about 250,000. In addition, more than 195,000 Israelis live in Jewish developments — referred to as "neighborhoods" by the Israelis and as "settlements" by the United Nations — in East Jerusalem. The Palestinian population growth, coupled with the difficulty in obtaining building permits, has led to a situation in which at least 28 percent of all Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem have been built in violation of Israeli zoning requirements, according to the United Nations report. At least 60,000 Palestinians are at risk of having their homes demolished as a result. One case highlighted in the report was that of Mahmoud Alayyan and his family, who live between the Palestinian neighborhood of Sur Baher and the Israeli development of East Talpiot. The house was built in 1963. An extension was added, without a permit, in 1999. Mr. Alayyan said he was told by the Israeli municipal authorities in 2000 that he could not get retroactive approval for the extension because his home was in a designated green area.

This year, he was told that the entire house was slated for demolition to make way for the expansion of East Talpiot. His case is pending in court.
Another case that received attention during Mr. Serry's tour of East Jerusalem on April 22 was that of the Hdaidun family, whose home was demolished that day. By the United Nations' count, it was the 19th such demolition this year. (In 2008 there were some 93; demolitions reached an annual peak of 133 in 2004.) When Mr. Serry's party arrived at the site, Amar Salameh al-Hdaidun, 39; his wife, Samia; and their five young children, some in school uniforms, were gathered by the heap of rubble that was their home. Mr. Hdaidun said he and several neighbors had been going through a planning process for five years to try to change the zoning of their land from a designated green area to a residential area. He said they had spent some $45,000 on the plans, which were to be submitted by this July. A court order postponing demolition of the house expired in January, however, and Mr. Hdaidun did not apply for an extension. Mr. Serry, a Dutch diplomat, was visibly moved and expressed his sympathy to the family, whose furniture and other belongings were piled up nearby."I know how much Jerusalem is dear to many Israelis," Mr. Serry said. "But it is also dear to Palestinians."

02.05.2009: Israeli airstrike against Gaza tunnels kills 2. An Israeli airstrike against smuggling tunnels on the Gaza-Egypt border killed two people Saturday, a Palestinian medical official said. Two bodies were pulled from the collapsed tunnels after the Israeli attack, said Dr. Moaiya Hassanain. The identity of the two men is unclear. The airstrikes came hours after Gaza militants fired two mortar shells at southern Israel, causing no damage. Israel-Gaza border violence dropped sharply after Israel conducted a three-week war on Gaza's Hamas rulers more than three months ago. However, the offensive only partially met the objectives of halting rocket fire and weapons smuggling. The Gaza-Egypt border tunnels are used to bring weapons as well as commercial goods into the blockaded territory. Israel routinely targets them to prevent smuggling.

03.05.2009: Israeli-run zones shield West Bank criminals. The international community considers the Palestinians' ability to handle internal security a prerequisite for independence. European countries gave $5.3 million last year to bolster Palestinian security forces, and the United States has given more than $160 million for that purpose since 2007. The European and US emphasis is on bolstering the strength of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas against the militant Islamic movement Hamas and similar groups. Israel is constantly demanding Abbas' Palestinian Authority crack down on militants.
But Palestinian police also must fight common crime, and they say the jigsaw puzzle of security zones that cover the West Bank, dividing it between Israeli- and Palestinian-controlled areas, hampers their work. Israel occupied the territory in the 1967 Mideast war and maintains overall control, although international agreements have given the Palestinian Authority limited autonomy in some areas.

Palestinian police can only enter Israeli-controlled areas of the West Bank with permission, which they say is often difficult or impossible to obtain, making these virtual black holes ideal hideouts for criminals. This can have dangerous - and sometimes deadly - consequences. Officers can't wear uniforms, carry guns or chase criminals on main roads that enter Israeli-controlled zones, making it easy for car thieves and drug dealers to escape, police said. Outlaws are also known to seek refuge in villages close to Israeli military installations or Jewish settlements, knowing Palestinians police won't be allowed in to arrest them."Lawbreakers know they can flee to places where there are settlers and we will not be allowed to go after them," said police spokesman Adnan Damiri.Last year, a gunbattle that grew out of a family feud next to an Israeli army base near Hebron lasted three days because police couldn't enter the area, said Hebron Police Chief Ramadan Awad. Seven people were killed in the fighting.

In the last two years, Palestinian police have deployed in towns like Jenin, Nablus and Hebron, reducing crime in areas they patrol, Palestinian and Western officials said. But this has pushed crime into areas where police are forbidden to enter, the officials said. Borders between the two are often unmarked, meaning that civilians - and criminals - can pass freely, while police cannot. No place better illustrates this than Hebron, where a heavily guarded, Israeli-controlled island, home to some 400 Jewish settlers, sits at the center of the West Bank's largest city, with a population of about 170,000.
Israeli army checkpoints block entry to the Jewish settlements, but 40,000 Palestinians live in the surrounding Israeli-controlled zone and can move freely in and out of it. Most of the border around the Israeli zone is unmarked, but police know where it is and don't cross it. Awad said he gets calls daily about rampant petty crime that he can do nothing about in the Palestinian part of the Israeli-controlled area.

More dangerous, however, are two armed gangs that operate inside the Israeli zone, he said. The larger one rustles livestock, deals drugs and steals cars, charging ransoms as high as $3,500 to return them, said Hassan Jabarin, Hebron's chief investigator. The police have reports of 22 such thefts last year, but Jabarin suspects many more were not reported. The gang's leader is wanted on four counts of armed robbery and four of attempted murder, one against a police officer, Jabarin said. He has also personally threatened the lives of Jabarin and Awad by phone, Jabarin said. He said police have been requesting permission for more than a year to enter the area where the gangs operate, which abuts a large Jewish settlement - to no avail. Police say the difficulty they have obtaining permission shows a lack of interest by Israel in catching criminals who prey on Palestinians. "Those who shoot at the settlers, they pick them up in half a minute," Jabarin said. "If they shoot at Palestinians, they never even ask about them or pursue them."

Israeli police declined to respond to several requests for information on specific cases. But spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said coordination with Palestinian police is strong and that authorities go after all criminals, regardless of ethnicity. "The law is the law," he said. Israeli security expert Shlomo Brom said Israel restricts Palestinian police in certain areas for fear of friction with Jewish settlers or Israeli soldiers, an apprehension that arose during the second Palestinian uprising."The same people who were on one hand in the Palestinian police, on the other hand were members of armed groups who were fighting Israel," he said. Residents of the Israeli-controlled zone of Hebron said they feel helpless since police can't come to their aid. One shopkeeper, who declined to give his name for fear of reprisal, said crime is common but few people even bother calling police. When asked if he was worried about his shop, he pulled a knife and an ax from under the counter."You feel alone," he said. "You just live here and take care of your family in any way you can."

04.05.2009: Israel dispatches envoys to soften hawkish image. Israel dispatched top officials to the US and Europe on Monday in a diplomatic offensive aimed at softening the hawkish image of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's new government. The country's contentious foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, told his Italian hosts that Netanyahu's government is committed to peace, while President Shimon Peres delivered the same message to Jewish leaders gathered in Washington. The two also emphasized Iran in an apparent attempt to downgrade the Palestinian issue. Both stressed that Iran is the main regional threat, dismissing Tehran's contention that its nuclear program is peaceful and not aimed at making weapons. Netanyahu was expected to follow that lead in an address later Monday. Lieberman's goal is to show that he is not the anti-Arab racist often described in Arab and European media, a result of his harsh statements in the past.

05.05.2009: Netanyahu moots 'fresh' approach. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has said he is willing to resume peace talks with the Palestinians without any delay or preconditions. Speaking to supporters in the US, he said political talks should be part of a "fresh" triple-track approach also covering economic and security issues. Netanyahu was addressing the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) by a satellite link-up."The political track means that we're prepared to resume peace negotiations without any delay and without any preconditions, the sooner the better," Mr Netanyahu told Aipac delegates. "The security track means that we want to... strengthen the security apparatus of the Palestinians. This is something we believe in and something that I think we can advance in a joint effort. "The economic track means that we are prepared to work together to remove as many obstacles as we can to the advancement of the Palestinian economy." Until now, correspondents say Mr Netanyahu has remained tight-lipped about his plan for peace negotiations with the Palestinians. Palestinian presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said Mr Netanyahu must accept a two-state solution and stop Jewish settlement activity in the West Bank if Israel wanted peace.

Iran and Syria back Palestinian terrorists. The leaders of Iran and Syria reaffirmed their support for "Palestinian resistance" on Tuesday, a defiant message to the US and its Mideast allies who are uneasy over Washington's efforts to forge closer ties with the hard-line government in Tehran. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was expected to meet with the chiefs of Hamas and other Damascus-based Palestinian radical groups during his visit to Syria, said Khaled Abdul-Majid of the Popular Struggle Front said. Iran is a strong supporter of militant Islamic groups in the region, including Hamas and Lebanon's Hezbollah.

Ahmadinejad's visit to Syria comes as the US is trying to improve strained ties with the two longtime adversaries. But it could turn out to be another reminder of what a divisive role he plays on the world stage. In the past, Ahmadinejad has called for Israel to be wiped off the map and questioned the Holocaust. Sitting alongside Syrian President Bashar Assad at a news conference, Ahmadinejad said his alliance with Iran's closest Arab friend was achieving "victories" in preventing "the big powers' offensive to dominate the region." "Syria and Iran have been from the very beginning united and in agreement to stand on the side of the Palestinian resistance," Ahmadinejad said. "They will continue to do so. We see that the resistance will continue until all occupied territories are liberated."

Ahmadinejad and other Iranian officials have been sending mixed messages in response to President Barack Obama's calls for dialogue with Iran - at times taking a moderate tone, only to fall back on a tough line. US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who is visiting the Middle East, said Tuesday the US is still waiting to see how the Iranians respond to Obama's outreach, but so far the rhetoric from Ahmadinejad has been "not very encouraging." Gates sought to reassure US Arab allies, who are worried that their rival Iran will be boosted by a US dialogue. He also said a "grand bargain" between Tehran and Washington was unlikely. There has been widespread speculation in the Middle East that the Obama administration would try to forge a "grand bargain" with Iran, in which Washington would press Israel for concessions in the peace process with the Palestinians in exchange for Tehran rolling back its nuclear program.

"The United States will be very open and transparent about these contacts, and we will keep our friends informed of what is going on so nobody gets surprised," Gates said at a news conference in Egypt before heading to the Saudi capital. The US overtures to Iran are raising concerns among Washington's Arab allies and Israel. Arab diplomats who met in Cairo Tuesday with Dennis Ross, the State Department's new special envoy who deals with Iran, said they voiced those concerns. "Some of what he heard was more than just grievances. They warned that Washington should be careful not to be so mild to Iran," said one diplomat who attended. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul-Gheit expressed similar concerns on Monday. "Iran's behavior in the region is negative in many aspects and does not help in advancing security, stability and peace," the state-run Middle East News Agency quoted Aboul Gheit as telling Ross. Moderate Arab countries and strong US allies Egypt and Saudi Arabia are growing increasingly concerned that Iran is trying to spread its influence across the Middle East, with its support of Hamas, Hezbollah and other militant groups. That is creating tensions with other Arab states, such as Syria, who are allied with Iran.

Abdul-Majid said the meeting with the Palestinian factions is a message to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government and what he called the "racist" steps it is taking, such as settlement expansion in areas where Palestinians want a future state. "It is a message to strengthen the coalition of resistance forces in the region," he said.

06.05.2009: Israel says it won't apologize for Gaza war. Israeli President Shimon Peres on Wednesday called a U.N. investigation accusing Israel of recklessness during the war in Gaza "outrageous" and said the Jewish state will not apologize for defending its citizens against Hamas missile attacks. He conceded that the Israeli military made some mistakes - as all armies do during war. Nonetheless, Peres said he thinks chances for Mideast peace "were improved" following his meeting in Washington on Tuesday with President Barack Obama. "We're outraged because they didn't mention Hamas," he said. "If Hamas didn't shoot, there wouldn't be a single problem." Peres said the country didn't overstep in its use of white phosphorous, an incendiary substance whose use was criticized by the inquiry. He added that Israel never targeted civilians and made 250,000 phone calls to warn people he said were being used as "human shields" to leave their houses before Israeli attacks. Security Council diplomats said the U.N. report would be discussed by members during closed consultations on Thursday, when Libya was expected to circulate a draft resolution on its findings.

07.05.2009: Palestinians and anarchists give cool reception to Netanyahu plan. Palestinian officials on Thursday gave a cool reception to a new Israeli plan to develop the West Bank economy, saying the initiative "will make things worse" if it is not accompanied by negotiations aimed at reaching a final peace accord. The skepticism from the Palestinians came just over a week before the new Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, heads to Washington for talks. Netanyahu, who took office in late March, is still formulating his foreign policy and is expected to present his vision for Mideast peace when he meets President Barack Obama. Netanyahu has resisted international calls to endorse the goal of forming a Palestinian state on lands currently controlled by Israel. The "two-state solution" is a centerpiece of American policy in the region. Netanyahu has argued that the Palestinians are not ready for independence. Instead, he has called for "economic peace," a vaguely defined plan to boost the Palestinians' moribund economy to lay the groundwork for future peace talks. The anarchists, as the Palestinians, give a cool reception to Netanyahu's plan.

08.05.2009: Obama renewing sanctions on Syria to mark concerns. The Obama administration said Friday it is renewing economic and diplomatic sanctions on Syria, even as two US envoys are in the Syrian capital exploring prospects for improved relations. In a letter to Congress, President Barack Obama said he was compelled to renew the penalties, which were first imposed by George W. Bush's administration four years ago as diplomatic contact dwindled. Washington has not had an ambassador in Damascus since Margaret Scobey was recalled in 2005. "The actions of the government of Syria in supporting terrorism, pursuing weapons of mass destruction and missile programs, and undermining US and international efforts with respect to the stabilization and reconstruction of Iraq pose a continuing unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy and economy of the United States," Obama said in the letter dated Thursday.

09.05.2009: Jordan: Official thanks pope for expressing regret. The top religious adviser to Jordan's king thanked Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday for expressing regret after a speech three years ago that many Muslims deemed insulting to Islam's Prophet Muhammad. Prince Ghazi bin Mohammed spoke after giving Benedict a tour of the biggest mosque in Amman, his second visit to a Muslim place of worship since becoming pope in 2005. Benedict is in Jordan on his first Middle East tour in which he hopes to improve strained ties with both Muslims and Jews. The pope angered many in the Muslim world in 2006 when he quoted a Medieval text that characterized some of Muhammad's teachings as "evil and inhuman," particularly "his command to spread by the sword the faith." Shortly after giving the speech, Benedict said he regretted the comments offended Muslims.

10.05.2009: Netanyahu on collision course with Obama and the anarchists over Jerusalem. The Obama administration promotes a Palestinian state with parts of Jerusalem as its capital. The anarchists promotes a Palestininan country with parts of Jerusalem as its capital. An official in prime minister Netanyahu's office has expressed: "Jerusalem has been the eternal capital of the Jewish people for some 3,000 years and will remain the united capital of the State of Israel. Under Israeli sovereignty, for the first time in the history of Jerusalem, the different religious communities have enjoyed freedom of worship and the holy sites of all faiths have been protected." He continued: "The government will continue to develop Jerusalem, development that will benefit all of Jerusalem's diverse population and respect the different faiths and communities that together make Jerusalem such a special city." This policy seems to be on collision course with Obama and the anarchists.

11.05.2009: Israel seeks Egypt's support against extremists. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought Egypt's help Monday in building a coalition of Arab nations against Iran, framing the broader Middle East conflict as one in which moderates must band together to confront extremists. The Israeli leader spoke at a news conference beside Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak after they met in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik. Mubarak avoided any mention of specific regional threats and said peace with the Palestinians would bring stability and reinforce cooperation in the region.

The catholic pope's speech at Israel's national Holocaust memorial attracted attention in Israel, with the parliament speaker accusing Benedict of glossing over the Nazi genocide. Critics, including anarchists, said the pope referred to the millions of victims, but would have liked him to say the six million Jews. They also wanted him to mention Germans or Nazis, specifically, as opposed to his more general reference to the perpetrators. Newspapers lambasted him for failing to apologize for what many in Israel see as Catholic indifference during World War II and the pope's own wartime actions - he served in the Hitler Youth corps and Nazi army - have also cast a shadow. "The pope spoke like a historian, as somebody observing from the sidelines, about things that shouldn't happen. But what can you do? He was part of them," said parliament speaker Reuven Rivlin. "Jews cannot ignore the fact that as a young German he served in Hitler's army that was an instrument of the extermination."

12.05.2009: Israel army questions two soldiers about Gaza looting. Israeli military police arrested two soldiers as part of an investigation of alleged looting during Israel's invasion of Gaza in January, the military said in a statement Tuesday. A newspaper said the two soldiers were suspected of stealing and using a stolen credit card. The statement said the military prosecution is investigating complaints from human rights groups and lawyers about behavior of Israeli forces during the operation, which was aimed at stopping daily rocket fire at Israel by Palestinian militants. The Vatican defended Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday as a man of strong anti-Nazi credentials.

13.05.2009: Israel's anxieties about Iran have intensified because of its nuclear enrichment programs under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who talks of erasing Israel from the map. Even as Israel deals with rocket fire from Palestinian areas, the idea that Iran could pulverize Israel with nuclear weapons is taking priority in strategic planning. And it could take priority when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sees President Barack Obama at the White House next week.

14.05.2009: Jordan king: Israel must accept Palestinian state. Jordan's king pressed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday to immediately commit to the establishment of a Palestinian state, as he pursues a sweeping resolution of the Muslim world's conflicts with Israel. Netanyahu made an unannounced, lightning visit to neighboring Jordan, as King Abdullah II and other regional leaders seek to lay the groundwork for restarting Israel-Arab peace efforts. Abdullah's lobbying has been in step with the Obama administration's efforts to link progress on Israel-Arab peacemaking to progress on curbing Iran's nuclear ambitions. The US says moderate Arab states will not join a united front against Tehran unless Israel moves vigorously on peacemaking.

Netanyahu, however, argues that the threat from Iran and its regional proxies - Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip - must be confronted first, before any progress can be made in peacemaking. And while he has been trying to forge cooperation with moderate Arab nations to pursue that agenda, he has pointedly refused to endorse Palestinian statehood. Abdullah pressed Netanyahu in their meeting Thursday to "immediately declare his commitment to a two-state solution, acceptance of the Arab peace initiative and to take necessary steps to move forward toward a solution," according to a royal palace statement. It did not give Netanyahu's response, and a spokesman for the Israeli leader was not immediately available for comment.

The Arab peace initiative would offer Israel relations with the 23 Arab League members in exchange for its withdrawal from land it occupied in the 1967 war, a just solution for Palestinian refugees and the establishment of a Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital. Abdullah said there "is consensus in the international community that there is no alternative to the two-state solution." Netanyahu will likely hear a similar message when he meets President Barack Obama in Washington on Monday. Pope Benedict XVI, on his first visit to the Holy Land, has also delivered a powerful plea for an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. He will meet the Israeli leader later Thursday in the biblical town of Nazareth.

Netanyahu's election this year has been ill-received in the Arab world because of his hard-line positions against yielding land captured in Middle East wars and his refusal to support Palestinian independence. On a visit to Egypt on Monday, Netanyahu sought help in building a coalition of Arab nations against Iran and said he hoped to renew peace talks with the Palestinians in the coming weeks. But he made no endorsement of Palestinian statehood. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said he would not meet with Netanyahu until he agrees to pursue Palestinian independence and freeze construction in Jewish West Bank settlements, something Netanyahu has said he would not do. On Thursday, Abbas met with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus to discuss Abdullah's new Mideast peace push. Abdullah traveled to Damascus earlier this week to promote his ideas to Assad.

Netanyahu says Iran's nuclear program is Israel's greatest threat and has hinted Israel might be willing to attack if international diplomatic pressure fails to stop Iran from enriching uranium - a process needed to produce bombs, but which is also used to produce fuel for power plants. Iran says its nuclear program is designed to produce energy, but Israel, the US and many other countries think Tehran is trying to develop atomic weapons. Israeli media have reported that Netanyahu has met with military commanders and is pleased with their preparations for a military strike. Vice President Joe Biden recently said Israeli military action in Iran would be "ill-advised" and US Defense Secretary Robert Gates has reasoned it would not set back the Iranian program more than three years. An attack certainly would risk an Iranian reprisal against Israel - or American troops in the Middle East. Israeli aircraft destroyed Iraq's unfinished nuclear reactor in 1981, but a strike against Iran's program would be more complicated because Iranian facilities are scatted across a vast country and some are buried underground. Thus, the whole international community, including ICOT, AIE and AI, puts pressure on Israel to accept Palestinian independence soon.

15.05.2009: Syria: Israeli government not a good peace partner. Syria's president said Friday that his country is interested in resuming indirect peace talks with Israel but does not believe the new Israeli government makes a good negotiating partner. Syria has said it is willing to resume the talks mediated by Turkey as long as they focus on a complete Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights. But Israel's new prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said he would not be willing to cede the territory Syria wants.

16.05.2009: Rival criticizes Ahmadinejad's Holocaust denial. A reformist challenger to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad criticized the hard-liner's denial of the Holocaust, saying it has served Israel's interests and pushed the country deeper into international isolation, a newspaper reported Saturday. Moderate cleric Mahdi Karroubi is one of two reformist candidates hoping to unseat Ahmadinejad in the June 12 presidential election. The former parliament speaker has said he would pursue a foreign policy of detente with the West and wouldn't mind meeting President Barack Obama if it would help Iran's national interests. "Ahmadinejad offered the greatest service to Israel by raising the Holocaust issue because the whole world stood to support Israel," Karroubi was quoted as saying by Etemad-e-Melli newspaper, which he controls. The Iranian president has repeatedly claimed the Holocaust is a myth and even sponsored an international conference in 2006 to debate whether the World War II genocide of Jews took place.

Ahmadinejad has also called for Israel's elimination, although his exact remarks have been disputed. Some translators say he has called for Israel to be "wiped off the map." Others say a better translation would be "vanish from the pages of time" - implying Israel would disappear on its own rather than be destroyed. The leading reformist candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi, has similarly slammed Ahmadinejad for waging a fierce rhetorical battle with the international community, leaving Iran with few friends to help protect its interests. "Today, excluding a few friends we've had for a long time, we have no appropriate interaction with the international community and are subject to threats," Mousavi was quoted as saying by Aftab-e-Yazd newspaper.

Netanyahu may endorse Palestinian state on US trip. On the eve of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's crucial visit to Washington, his defense minister suggested Saturday the Israeli leader might endorse a Palestinian state when he meets with President Barack Obama. That would be a significant shift for Netanyahu, who has made clear in the past that he does not think the Palestinians are ready to rule themselves. But that position has put him at odds with long-standing US policy that supports Palestinian statehood as the cornerstone of Mideast peace efforts. Senior White House officials said Obama's meeting with Netanyahu Monday is "part of his commitment that he's made since day one of the administration to pursue comprehensive peace in the Middle East, including a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians." Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said he thought an agreement with the Palestinians could be achieved within three years. "I think and believe that Netanyahu will tell Obama this government is prepared to go for a political process that will result in two peoples living side by side in peace and mutual respect," Barak told Channel 2 TV. However, he did not use the word state, leaving open other options for Netanyahu.

17.05.2009: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu heads into his first visit with President Barack Obama worried by US overtures to Iran and Syria and under pressure to support a Palestinian state. The two leaders, set to meet Monday at the White House, bring diverging policies on how to approach the Mideast conflict. Israel's president urged Syria Sunday to open direct peace talks, saying any gesture by the Damascus government would help clear the air between the two arch enemies. President Shimon Peres, a Nobel Peace Prize winner whose office is largely ceremonial, also told reporters in Jordan that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would abide by a past Israeli government's commitment to a US-backed Mideast peace plan calling for a two-state solution to the conflict with Palestinians. Peres said some had suggested Syrian President Bashar Assad and Netanyahu meet and start talking directly.

18.05.2009:. Holocaust denial widespread among Israeli Arabs. More than 40 percent of Israel's Arab citizens say the Holocaust never happened, and barely one half think Israel has a right to exist, according to a survey published Monday. But the academic who directed it said the results were likely more statements of protest than belief. Sammy Smooha believes the numbers, which have shown a significant shift in the past few years, signal a rising frustration among minority Arabs in the Jewish state. He said the growing Holocaust denial is fueled by a belief that recognizing the World War II genocide, in which German Nazis and their collaborators murdered 6 million Jews, gives justification to Israeli policies. "When they say 'there was no Holocaust,' they are protesting. They are saying 'I am not giving legitimacy to the Jewish state,'" said Smooha, a Haifa University sociologist. "It's an index of despair, frustration and protest." The survey found that 41 percent of respondents say the Holocaust never happened, up from 28 percent who said so in 2006 when the question was first asked. Holocaust denial is rampant among Palestinians and in Arab countries neighboring Israel. But Arabs in Israel have frequent contact with Jews and learn about the Holocaust in school. Smooha said the growing radicalization among Israeli Arabs is a result of the 2006 Lebanon War, the stalemate in peace negotiations with the Palestinians and the continued divide between Israel's Jewish and Arab populations. This has made it hard for Arabs to view Israeli Jews as victims. The anarchists condemn the widespread Holocoust denial among Israeli Arabs.

19.05.2009: Abbas swears in new Hamas-free government. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday swore in a new government comprised mainly of members of his Fatah Party, but without representation of his bitter rivals from the militant Islamic Hamas group. The move underlines the failure of attempts to bridge differences between the two movements, which have been negotiating to form a joint government that would reunite the West Bank and Gaza and open the way for renewed foreign aid. The government sworn in Tuesday will effectively only rule the West Bank. Nations and aid organizations have been dealing with Abbas, but Hamas and Gaza have been largely left out because the EU, US, AI and others plus Israel list Hamas as a terror organization. In Gaza, Hamas official Mushir al-Masri rejected the new Cabinet.

US officials press Israeli leader on Mideast peace. US officials and lawmakers pressed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday to make peace with the Palestinians and halt construction of Jewish settlements, echoing President Barack Obama's blunt demands. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told reporters Tuesday that she reiterated the US government's commitment to a two-state solution and its demand that Israel halt construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank. After a morning meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Netanyahu glossed over differences between his stance and Obama's, saying that the US and Israel were working together to resume Mideast peacemaking and "bring other elements in the Arab world into the process." Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who visits the White House next week, has said he would not resume negotiations unless Israel committed to a two-state solution and agreed to freeze settlements. His aides offered praise for Obama but were disappointed with Netanyahu's response. A key Palestinian official demanded Tuesday that President Barack Obama follow up his tough talk with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and force Israel to stop West Bank settlement construction and accept creation of a Palestinian state. Without action to reinforce Obama's words, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat warned the whole region could deteriorate into extremism and instability. That message was echoed by Netanyahu's political rivals in Israel, who stressed that peace was impossible without establishing a Palestinian state.

Tensions escalated late Tuesday when Israeli planes carried out at least seven airstrikes in Gaza, Palestinian security officials said. A hospital official said one person was wounded in the most intensive air operation in weeks. The officials said Israeli planes carried out four bombing runs on the Gaza-Egypt border, targeting smuggling tunnels that Israel says militants use to bring weapons, rockets and ammunition into the seaside territory. Later, the planes hit a metal workshop and a police post in Gaza City and a workshop in central Gaza, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. The Israeli military had no immediate comment. The airstrikes came several hours after militants in Gaza fired a rocket at a house in the Israeli town of Sderot, causing extensive damage but no causalities, said police. The violence was a concrete reminder of the instability in the region and the importance of the meeting between the US and Israeli leaders.

Israeli government officials downplayed the differences between Obama and Netanyahu, but the two disagreed publicly about the key issues in Mideast diplomacy - how to deal with Iran, how to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the relationship between the two. Though the two professed friendship, the substance added up to the harshest public confrontation between an Israeli and American leader in nearly a decade, prompting Israeli commentators to warn of storm clouds on the horizon for the important relationship between the two countries. Despite US pressure, Netanyahu avoided committing to the idea of creating a Palestinian state and instead said the key to solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was to halt Iran's nuclear program - a sequencing disputed by Obama. The US president said progress toward Israeli-Palestinian peace would undercut extremists and help control Iran. He also said Israel must live up to its commitment under the internationally backed "road map" peace plan to freeze West Bank settlement construction. Erekat, who has been involved in various negotiation with Israel since 1991, welcomed Obama's remarks but said he must force Israel to act to "turn a new page for this region." Failing to follow through "would mean closing the peace chapter and pushing the region into the hands of extremists," Erekat said. Israel's deputy foreign minister, Danny Ayalon, called the disagreements between Obama and Netanyahu "legitimate differences" and said he did not expect a crisis in relations with the US, Israel's closest and most important ally.

20.05.2009: Iran tests missile with range that can hit Israel. Iran test-fired a missile capable of striking Israel, US Mideast bases and Europe on Wednesday - a show of strength touted by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as he battles for re-election next month against more moderate opponents.The US responded by saying Iran must choose between destabilizing the Middle East or accepting the dialogue offered by President Barack Obama. The US leader threatened earlier this week that Iran could face further international sanctions if it does not respond positively by year-end to US attempts to open negotiations on its nuclear program. Israel said the test appeared to be Iran's response to a positive meeting on Monday between Obama and new Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. US officials confirmed the launch and Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said in Washington that Iran is at a crossroads and must choose its course. "They can either continue on this path of continued destabilization in the region or they can decide that they want to pursue relationships with the counties in the region and the United States that are more normalized," said Whitman. "Our concerns are obviously based on nuclear ambitions and the implications that long- and medium-range missiles have with respect to that," he added.

Alex Vatanka, a senior Middle East analyst at Jane's Information Group, said the test "does not change the strategic equation" in the region because Iran has had the ballistic missile capability to hit Israel and much of the Middle East for more than a decade with its Shahab missiles. It was likely intended to send a message to the Obama administration that Iran cannot be bullied into talks and also to show the country's strength in hopes that would boost Ahmadinejad's popularity among voters in the June 12 election, Vatanka said. Iran says its missile program is merely for defense and its space program is for scientific and surveillance purposes. It maintains that its nuclear program is for civilian energy uses only. Tehran said the solid-fuel Sajjil-2 surface-to-surface missile has a range of about 1,200 miles. It is a new version of the Sajjil missile, which the country said it successfully tested late last year and has a similar range. Many analysts said the launch of the solid-fuel Sajjil was significant because such missiles are more accurate than liquid fuel missiles of similar range, such as Iran's Shahab-3.

"Defense Minister (Mostafa Mohammad Najjar) has informed me that the Sajjil-2 missile, which has very advanced technology, was launched from Semnan and it landed precisely on the target," state radio quoted Ahmadinejad as saying. He did not name any targets for the missile when he spoke during a visit to the city of Semnan, 125 miles east of the capital Tehran, where Iran's space program is centered. Italy said its foreign minister, Franco Frattini, canceled a planned trip to Iran on Wednesday because Ahmadinejad wanted to meet in Semnan rather than in Tehran. Najjar said the Sajjil-2 differs from the Sajjil missile because it "is equipped with a new navigation system as well as precise and sophisticated sensors," according to Iran's official news agency. Sajjil means "baked clay." It is a reference to a story in the Quran, Islam's holy book, in which birds sent by God drive off an enemy army attacking the holy city of Mecca by pelting them with stones of baked clay.

Two US officials confirmed the missile launch, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record. "It appears the test was a success," one official said. "It appears they launched a medium-range missile." After the test, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned that if Iran manages to produce nuclear weapons, it would "spark an arms race" in the Middle East. Iran's nuclear and missile programs have alarmed Israel. Prime Minister Netanyahu pressed Obama to step up pressure on Tehran when the two met in Washington on Monday. Moshe Arens, a former Israeli defense minister who trained in the US as an aerospace engineer, said Wednesday's test was apparently part of Iran's broader quest to develop more advanced missiles and nuclear capability. "They're increasing their abilities to launch rockets of longer and longer range that go beyond Israel and into Europe and eventually will carry nuclear weapons," he said. "They're troublemakers and you have to deal with troublemakers."

Ahmadinejad has repeatedly called for Israel's elimination, and the Jewish state has not ruled out a military strike to deal with the Iranian nuclear threat. The Israeli government has been skeptical of US overtures to Iran, which have received a mixed response from Ahmadinejad. Many Western experts have expressed skepticism about Iran's professed military achievements, saying the country provides no transparency to verify its claims. Most believe Iran does not yet have the technology to produce nuclear weapons, including warheads for long-range missiles. The US released an intelligence report about 18 months ago that said Iran abandoned a secret nuclear weapons program in 2003 under international pressure and has not restarted it. Israel and several other countries have disputed the finding. But many in the West at least agree that Iran is seeking to develop the capability to develop weapons at some point. A group of US and Russian scientists said in a report issued Tuesday that Iran could produce a simple nuclear device in one to three years and a nuclear warhead in another five years after that.

The study published by the nonpartisan EastWest Institute also said Iran is making advances in rocket technology and could develop a ballistic missile capable of firing a 2,200-pound nuclear warhead up to 1,200 miles "in perhaps six to eight years." After the testing of the Sajjil in November, a senior US military official said Washington believed Iran was testing the first stage of what would be a two-stage rocket. Multiple stages allow long-range missiles to use less fuel. The launch came just weeks before the vote that could influence Iran's response to the US outreach. Two of the three candidates approved by Iran's constitutional watchdog to run in the June election are reformists who favor improving ties with the West. The hard-line president has been criticized by his opponents and others for antagonizing the US and mismanaging the country's faltering economy. On Wednesday, the constitutional watchdog approved three candidates to challenge Ahmadinejad, setting up a showdown between reformists and hard-liners.

Charles Vick, a senior technical analyst for GlobalSecurity.org, analyzed photos and videotape of the launch released by Iran. "I'm not all that impressed," Vick said. "It's just another test that confirms they've got the system that was operational last summer."

21.05.2009: Israel removes West Bank settler outpost. Israeli police broke up an unauthorized settler outpost in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, bulldozing makeshift cabins, police said. About 40 members of paramilitary border police evacuated five settler families from a hilltop camp called Maoz Esther where they were living in wooden huts with sheet metal roofs. The camp was about 300 meters from the Jewish settlement of Kokhav Hashahar, northeast of the West Bank city of Ramallah. About three dozen settler adults and children were in the middle of a Torah lesson when the police arrived, they said. They were allowed to finish and then left as ordered. The evacuation was carried out a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned from talks with US President Obama, who urged a halt to construction of settlements in order to revive stalled peace talks.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Wednesday told Jewish settler leaders that illegal outposts had to go. A statement quoted him as saying Israel "cannot compromise over enforcing the law." But Yariv Oppenheimer of the Peace Now movement said the evacuation was "just a public relations stunt" and added that "if they really want to deal with the problem of illegal outposts they should deal with the significant outposts." Half a million Jews live in the 100 "authorized" settlements built on West Bank land Israel seized in the 1967 Middle East war, including Arab East Jerusalem. The World Court says they are illegal. The United States and Europe Union agree and regard them as obstacles to peace. Israel disputes this but acknowledges at least two dozen enclaves were built in recent years without approval. Israeli leaders have pledged for years to remove them, as promised under a US-backed peace "road map" that sets the goal of an Arab peace with Israel and a Palestinian state alongside it. Netanyahu's spokesman Mark Regev said the government wanted the outposts "taken down through a process of dialogue." He could not say how long the process might take.

22.05.2009: Israeli troops crossed into Gaza and killed two Palestinian terrorists who were planting a bomb along the border fence before dawn Friday, the Israeli military said. Violence has largely abated along the tense frontier since Israel's devastating offensive against Gaza's Hamas rulers early this year, but sporadic border violence and rocket fire have continued. Soldiers posted along the border spotted the two men planting a bomb near the fence and crossed into Gaza to engage them, the military said. The gunmen were killed in the ensuing firefight. The military says the men were carrying rifles, grenades and an improvised explosive device. Militants have often used such devices to target Israeli military patrols along the border, planting bombs under cover of darkness and detonating them later by remote control. Palestinian medics retrieved the bodies of the two men, who were in military uniform, according to Dr. Moaiya Hassanain of the Gaza Health Ministry. He gave their ages as 22 and 28. They belonged to the militant group Islamic Jihad, according to an announcement on the group's Web site. Hours later, militants detonated a bomb near an Israeli patrol jeep in a different section of the fence. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed responsibility in an e-mail sent to reporters. The military said there were no Israeli casualties in either incident. Most violent incidents in recent months have been claimed by small militant factions and not by Hamas, which might be trying to avoid provoking further Israeli retaliation.

23.205.2009: 7 arrested in connection to Cairo blast. Egyptian authorities have arrested seven people for being part of an al-Qaeda linked group accused of carrying out an attack on a famed Cairo bazaar that killed a French teenager, said the Interior Ministry Saturday. The ministry said the suspects were part of a group called the Palestinian Islamic Army, which is led by two Egyptian nationals, who remain at large outside the country. The arrested include two Palestinians, two Egyptians, a British-Egyptian, a Belgian-Tunisian and a French-Albanian woman, some of whom had entered Egypt as students. An Egyptian security official said members of the group would sneak into Gaza through tunnels under the Egyptian border to receive special training and instructions in the Palestinian territory. One of the seven arrested confessed to performing the bombing last February at Cairo's Khan el-Khalili bazaar, but the official wouldn't identify him or her. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press, said the group wanted to target other tourist sites in the country and oil installations in the western desert.

He said the organization was able to create weapons and explosive materials from leftover munitions recovered from the Sinai desert. Two women - one of whom was arrested - were responsible for transporting money to fund the organization's activities. The blast last February went off in the main square of the sprawling market, which was packed with tourists and Egyptians - including more than 40 high school students from the Paris suburb of Levallois-Perret. A government spokesman said the bomb was placed under a stone bench in a cafe where the French students were sitting in the square, next to one of Cairo's most revered shrines, the Hussein mosque. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing, which was the first against tourists in Egypt in three years. Islamic extremists have in the past attacked tourists in an attempt to hurt Egypt's biggest source of income.

Khan el-Khalili - a 650-year-old bazaar of narrow, winding alleys - is one of the top tourist attractions in Cairo, often crowded with foreigners shopping for souvenirs, hanging out in its cafes or visiting its numerous mosques and Islamic monuments. In April 2005, a suicide bomber in the market killed himself, two French citizens and an American. Several experts on Islamic militancy in Egypt said the attack in February may have been carried out in anger over Egypt's response to Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip against Hamas in January and early February. During Israel's onslaught, Egypt came under heavy criticism around the Arab world for what some saw as its failure to help the Palestinians in Gaza. Egypt fought a long war with Islamist militants in the 1990s, culminating in a massacre of more than 50 tourists in Luxor in 1997. The militants were largely defeated, and there have been few attacks since in the Nile valley. But from 2004 to 2006, a string of bombings in Sharm el-Sheik and other resorts in the Sinai Peninsula killed 120 people.

24.05.2009: This article will no longer be updated daily, but only when something important happens.

27.05.2009: Netanyahu calls on Arab states to normalize ties. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday urged Arab countries to make immediate moves toward normalizing ties with Israel and said he would offer "concrete" steps toward peace with the Palestinians. Netanyahu made the plea during a debate in parliament that came as he tries to balance international pressure to make concessions to the Palestinians with internal calls from within his hardline coalition not to budge. "We are prepared to make, and we will make, concrete steps for peace with the Palestinians," he said. "We expect the Palestinians to make such concrete steps as well. And it would be good if Arab countries joined the peace effort and made concrete and symbolic steps toward normalization with Israel, not later, but now," Netanyahu said.

He mentioned cooperation in economic projects and agriculture but insisted any progress would depend on positive Palestinian actions. President Barack Obama supports the normalization idea, Netanyahu said, calling it a "new and refreshing" approach that "totally matches our views." Netanyahu, who was at the White House last week, also said that he and Obama agree the Iranian threat could create an opportunity to bring Arab countries together in a coalition of moderates, Netanyahu said. Israel considers Iran a serious danger because of its nuclear program, development of long-range missiles and frequent references by its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to Israel's destruction. Israel dismisses Iran's insistence that its nuclear program is peaceful, charging that the Iranians are building nuclear weapons.

Obama has made clear that his administration supports the creation of a Palestinian state, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has called for a complete halt to construction in West Bank settlements. The US considers Israel's 121 settlements obstacles to peace, since they are built on territory claimed by the Palestinians. Netanyahu's policies clash with those of the US on both of those points, raising concerns of a looming rift with Washington. Netanyahu says he is willing to resume peace talks immediately, but has not said he supports the creation of a Palestinian state, a cornerstone of international Mideast peace efforts. Netanyahu also says existing settlements should continue to expand to accommodate "natural growth" in their populations. He also has ruled out ceding sovereignty in east Jerusalem, which Palestinians want as the capital of a future state. Israel captured the area in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it.

Senator Robert Casey, a Democrat from Pennsylvania heading a Congressional delegation visiting Israel, said Wednesday that the administration's policy over the settlements is still being formulated. Though Obama called for a total construction freeze, Casey said, "I think there is a way to meet in the middle, and obviously the articulations and definitions are going to be important. It is too early to prejudge."

31.05.2009: Fatah fights Hamas. Six Palestinians killed. Six people have been killed in a West Bank clash between Hamas fighters and Palestinian policemen, officials say. Three policemen, two members of Hamas and another man were killed in a gun battle when police went to arrest the Hamas men in a dawn raid in Qalqilya. Officials said the police were loyal to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, of rival group Fatah. It is one of the worst clashes in the West Bank since Hamas seized control in the Gaza Strip in 2007. The owner of a home in which gunmen had been hiding was also killed, Palestinian security officials said, according to Reuters news agency. Fighting erupted when police went to arrest Mohammed al-Samman, the commander of Hamas's armed wing in the northern West Bank, reports said. Mr Samman and another Hamas man, had ignored calls to surrender, witnesses told Reuters. For nearly two years, Hamas has been in charge of the Gaza Strip, and Fatah, the West Bank. During that time both sides have been accused by human rights groups and anarchists of abuses of power against rival supporters - including arbitrary arrests and even torture. But Fatah says this incident was simply a case of trying to enforce the law. That hasn't stopped it raising tensions. The