Israel and Hamas agree Gaza truce, Egypt claims
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- Written by James Sturcke and agencies, The Guardian James Sturcke and agencies, The Guardian
- Published: 17 June 2008 17 June 2008
- Hits: 3723 3723
Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas have agreed on a truce that will begin on Thursday, Egypt's state-owned news agency said today.
A senior Egyptian official told the Mena agency that both sides had "agreed on the first phase" of a package to end the violence on the Gaza Strip.
The apparent agreement comes despite Israeli aircraft targeting a car in southern Gaza today, killing all five militants inside.
Egypt has spent months attempting to broker a truce to end months of daily Palestinian rocket and mortar assaults on Israeli border towns.
Mena reported that the first phase of the agreement was a "mutual and simultaneous calm" in the coastal strip that will start 6am (4am BST) on Thursday.
A Hamas official in Gaza confirmed the truce. Israeli officials declined to confirm a deal, but said Israel's negotiator in the truce talks was rushing to Cairo and they were "cautiously optimistic".
An Israeli government spokesman, Mark Regev, said: "What is important is not only words but deeds. If there is a total absence of terror attacks from Gaza into Israel, and if there is an end to arms build-up in Gaza Strip and movement on the hostage Gilad Shalit, that will indeed be a new reality."
Israeli defence officials said they expected negotiations on Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured two years ago, to begin on Sunday, effectively confirming that a truce was in the works.
A Hamas spokesman, Ismail Ridwan, accused Israel of trying to derail the ceasefire efforts with today's bombing, but said the group remained open to a truce.
The smaller Islamic Jihad group was also leaving the door open to a halt in fighting, but said it would respond to the air strike.
Israel confirmed details of strike, saying it hit a car "carrying terror activists" in the southern town of Khan Younis. Two other Palestinians were wounded in a second air strike, Palestinian medical officials said.
The first stage of the deal would involve a 72-hour cessation of hostilities and an easing of the Israeli economic blockade that has deepened the poverty in already destitute Gaza, an Hamas official said.
Phase two would focus on Hamas returning Shalit and a deal to reopen Gaza's main gateway, the Rafah crossing with Egypt. The closure of Rafah has kept Gaza's 1.4 million people confined to the tiny seaside territory, and unable to bring in goods from Egypt.
"We are close to declaring an agreement on the calm, barring unforeseen developments," Sami Abu Zuhri, another Hamas spokesman, told the Associated Press before the air strike.
Khalil Abu Leila, a senior Hamas leader, told a Palestinian radio station today that "after the implementation of the calm, there will be non-stop meetings regarding the captured soldier".
The ceasefire would extend beyond Hamas and Israel to include other Palestinian militant groups.
Iranian-backed Gaza militants have been bombarding southern Israel with rockets and mortars for seven years. The rate of fire increased after Israel pulled its troops and settlers out of Gaza in 2005, and stepped up further last year after Hamas wrested power from forces loyal to the moderate Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.
Israel has responded with air and ground attacks that have killed hundreds of Palestinians, many of them civilians. It has also imposed a strict blockade on Gaza, letting in only limited amounts of humanitarian aid, restricting fuel supplies and widening already rampant unemployment.
Ending the economic sanctions by opening Gaza's crossings with Israel and Egypt has been a key Hamas demand in the ceasefire talks.
This article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Tuesday June 17 2008. It was last updated at 15:26 on June 17 2008.
Israel pressed to reveal why army killed cameraman
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- Written by Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem
- Published: 16 June 2008 16 June 2008
- Hits: 4012 4012
Reuters is pressing for immediate release of the military's internal inquiry findings after an independent report for the London-based news agency found that there had been was no militant activity in that area.
Fadel Shana, 24, was killed on 16 April by flechette darts that burst from a tank shell as he was filming about a mile away from the tanks and in clear view of them. Eight bystanders aged between 12 and 20 were also killed, involving two tank shells.
Mr Shana's car and body armour carried press markings, and none of the other casualties were armed.
The Israeli army has not yet produced a detailed account but has said its soldiers did nothing wrong. Mark Thompson, Reuters' Middle East managing editor, has written to the military to ask how the soldiers involved failed to identify Mr Shana as a cameraman or the other victims as children and other civilians.
The investigation carried out for the agency found that the Reuters crew had half an hour earlier driven past a point 700 metres from the tanks.
Rejecting a request that IDF officers relay information to field commanders from journalists about their movements in Gaza for their safety, the military said last month: "There will be no co-ordination of press movement and activity in the areas of IDF operations."
Major Avital Leibovich, an IDF spokeswoman, said: "We are in the process of checking a few more details in order to complete the picture. As soon as we have the conclusions we will share them."
Robert Fisk: The West's weapon of self-delusion
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- Written by Robert Fisk, The Independent Robert Fisk, The Independent
- Published: 16 June 2008 16 June 2008
- Hits: 3717 3717
There are gun battles in Beirut – and America thinks things are going fine
Saturday, 7 June 2008
So they are it again, the great and the good of American democracy, grovelling and fawning to the Israeli lobbyists of American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), repeatedly allying themselves to the cause of another country and one that is continuing to steal Arab land.
Will this ever end? Even Barack Obama – or "Mr Baracka" as an Irish friend of mine innocently and wonderfully described him – found time to tell his Jewish audience that Jerusalem is the one undivided capital of Israel, which is not the view of the rest of the world which continues to regard the annexation of Arab East Jerusalem as illegal. The security of Israel. Say it again a thousand times: the security of Israel – and threaten Iran, for good measure.
Yes, Israelis deserve security. But so do Palestinians. So do Iraqis and Lebanese and the people of the wider Muslim world. Now even Condoleezza Rice admits – and she was also talking to Aipac, of course – that there won't be a Palestinian state by the end of the year. That promise of George Bush – which no-one believed anyway – has gone. In Rice's pathetic words, "The goal itself will endure beyond the current US leadership."
Of course it will. And the siege of Gaza will endure beyond the current US leadership. And the Israeli wall. And the illegal Israeli settlement building. And deaths in Iraq will endure beyond "the current US leadership" – though "leadership" is pushing the definition of the word a bit when the gutless Bush is involved – and deaths in Afghanistan and, I fear, deaths in Lebanon too.
Live ammunication used against Palestinian protesters in Bil'in
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- Written by Jewish Voice for Peace Jewish Voice for Peace
- Published: 16 June 2008 16 June 2008
- Hits: 4043 4043
The West Bank village of Bil'in is one of very few instances where steadfast non-violent resistance, maintained jointly by Palestinians and Israelis, along with a petition to Israel's High Court of Justice, have achieved positive legal results. The High Court ruled in favor of the Palestinian petitioners, instructing the state and the military to re-route sections of the separation barrier appropriating much of the village land, on which private building companies have proceeded to construct an orthodox neighborhood. As reflected in earlier items selected and forwarded by Jewish Peace News, this court ruling remains unimplemented to date. (For more information see: http://www.bilin-village.org/).
Non-violent demonstrations therefore continue regularly in Bil'in, organized and attended by activists from Bil'in and its environs and from Israel.
As is the case throughout the Occupied Territories, Israeli forces regularly meet non-violent protesters with violent action. This systematic practice is clearly exemplified in the item below, issued by Jonathan Pollak, of "Anarchists against the Wall", one of the Israelis active in resisting the separation barrier and focusing on its forceful destruction of Bil'in.
The item below is an urgent call for blood donations needed for treatment of Ibrahim Bornat, a Palestinian activist from Bil'in, targeted by Israeli forces and wounded by live ammunition in last week's demonstration. It includes a link to video footage of Ibrahim's shooting.
Read more: Live ammunication used against Palestinian protesters in Bil'in
So Sad to See Obama Surrender to AIPAC
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- Written by Daoud Kuttab Daoud Kuttab
- Published: 13 June 2008 13 June 2008
- Hits: 3842 3842
Speaking at the pro Israel lobby, the first black presidential nominee, who is being seen world wide as a potentially global president, turned on every promise he made during the run up to the nomination.
It wasn't as if he needed the Jewish money or votes. This has been the first presidential run which succeeded in circumventing large donors and prided itself with the million donors who gave less than $100 was suddenly kowtowing to a sector of America whose major source of power has been their ability to raise large funds. On the day that he succeeded in getting the Democratic National Committee to announce that they will not accept lobbyist money, he was pandering to the most powerful of all lobbies. How can we believe that lobbyists will not run Obama's administration.
Content wise, Barack Obama contradicted himself and every foreign policy rule he has been espousing. Gone was the need to favor diplomacy over militarisms, as Obama promised to give Israel $30 billion in military funding. Gone was the need to talk to Iran, and instead the saber rattling was repeated in the form of declaring that the military option in defense of Israel. Gone was the need to talk to our enemies and replaced by the repetition of claims of Bush claim of Iran's nuclear military program a claim that have been disproved by 16 American intelligence agencies.
The pandering to Israel at the AIPAC conference even produced criticism from the Daily Show's John Stewart. An unashamedly Jewish comedian tore apart Obama's twin flag (Israel and US) pin, made fun of the gushing attempts to woe the pro Israeli audience and the lack of a single word of criticism by all three speakers. The pro Israeli love fest was so sad that Obama needed Hillary Clinton who had yet to concede the nomination, felt it necessary to vouch for the young Illinois senator's pro Israel credentials.