Explanation of Israeli Flechette weapon which killed the Reuters Journalist
- Details
- Written by The Guardian The Guardian
- Published: 18 April 2008 18 April 2008
- Hits: 4331 4331
Israel to build 100 settler homes, violates Road Map again
- Details
- Written by BBC News BBC News
- Published: 18 April 2008 18 April 2008
- Hits: 4188 4188
The houses are to be built at Ariel and El Kana, in the northern West Bank, despite international calls for a freeze on settlement activity.
The 2003 roadmap that forms the basis of Palestinian-Israeli peace talks requires Israel to freeze settlements.
The US and Europe have pressed Israel to halt settlement activity.
The Israeli government argues that it is building new homes on existing settlements, not establishing new settlements.
Read more: Israel to build 100 settler homes, violates Road Map again
Jimmy Carter, Father of Israeli/Egyptian Peace
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- Written by Gush Shalom Ad published in Haaretz Gush Shalom Ad published in Haaretz
- Published: 18 April 2008 18 April 2008
- Hits: 4211 4211
Jimmy Carter,
Former President of the USA,
Father of our peace with Egypt,
Offered to help us
Break out of the
Vicious circle of bloodshed.
He was angrily rebuffed.
The next day,
Three IDF soldiers
Were killed in an ambush
In the Gaza Strip,
And 21 Palestinians,
Including many children,
Died in a revenge action.
Former President of the USA,
Father of our peace with Egypt,
Offered to help us
Break out of the
Vicious circle of bloodshed.
He was angrily rebuffed.
The next day,
Three IDF soldiers
Were killed in an ambush
In the Gaza Strip,
And 21 Palestinians,
Including many children,
Died in a revenge action.
GUSH SHALOM
Palestinian journalist killed by metal darts from Israeli shell
- Details
- Written by Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem, The Guardian Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem, The Guardian
- Published: 18 April 2008 18 April 2008
- Hits: 4480 4480
· Legal challenge to ban 'flechettes' was rejected
This article appeared in the Guardian on Friday April 18 2008 on p24 of the International section. It was last updated at 00:16 on April 18 2008.
A Palestinian journalist who died in Gaza on Wednesday was killed by metal darts from a shell fired by an Israeli tank, doctors said yesterday.
Thousands gathered for the funeral of Fadel Shana, 23, a Reuters cameraman. His body was carried through the streets of Gaza City, draped in a Palestinian flag. His camera and bloodied flak jacket were carried on a second stretcher. Reuters said x-rays showed several inch-long darts, known as flechettes, embedded in Shana's chest and legs as well as his flak jacket. His jacket was marked with a fluorescent "Press" sign and his car, which was not armoured, was marked Press and TV.
Flechettes are small metal darts contained in some tank shells which explode above the ground and can cover a wide area. They have been used in conflicts since the first world war and have been used by the Israeli military in the past. In 2003 the Israeli high court rejected a petition by two human rights groups asking for flechette shells to be banned in Gaza.
Read more: Palestinian journalist killed by metal darts from Israeli shell
Carter calls Gaza blockade a 'crime and atrocity'
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- Written by Reuters Reuters
- Published: 17 April 2008 17 April 2008
- Hits: 4108 4108
Speaking at the American University in Cairo after talks with Hamas leaders from Gaza, Carter said Palestinians in Gaza were being "starved to death", receiving fewer calories a day than people in the poorest parts of Africa.
"It's an atrocity what is being perpetrated as punishment on the people in Gaza.It's a crime... I think it is an abomination that this continues to go on," Carter said.
Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza after the Islamist group Hamas seized power over the impoverished coastal strip last June. Since then, Israel has allowed only basic staples to be transported through the border crossings it controls, into Gaza.
Israel has not accepted Hamas proposals for a truce including an end to Hamas rocket attacks on Israel and to Israeli attacks on Hamas personnel in Gaza and the West Bank. Israeli officials say a truce would enable Hamas to rearm.
Carter said Israel and its ally the United States were trying to make the quality of life in Gaza markedly worse than in the West Bank, where the rival moderate Fatah faction retains power.
"I think politically speaking this has worked even to strengthen the popularity of Hamas and to the detriment of the popularity of Fatah," Carter said, remarking that the U.S. had been trying to achieve the exact opposite.
Carter, who helped broker peace between Egypt and Israel while serving as U.S. president in the 1970s, said the Hamas leaders he has met so far told him they would accept a peace agreement with Israel negotiated by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas - the Fatah leader - if the Palestinian people approved it in a referendum.
Israel and the United States say they refuse to deal with Hamas as long as the Islamist movement does not recognize Israel's right to exist and renounce violence.
But Carter said Hamas, which won Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006, had to be involved in any arrangements that could lead to peace.
"One of the reasons I wanted to come and meet with the Syrians and Hamas was to set an example that might be emulated by others... I know that there are some officials in the Israeli government that are quite willing to meet with Hamas and maybe that will happen in the near future," he added.
Carter's talks in Cairo were with former Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar and former Interior Minister Saeed Seyam, who did not speak to reporters.
Zahar and Seyam came to Cairo on Wednesday after the Israeli authorities refused to let Carter into Gaza from the Israeli side. Carter has already met a West Bank leader from Hamas and is expected to meet the group's Damascus-based political leader Khaled Meshaal in Syria later this week.
Earlier on Thursday, Carter met Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. No details were available from either side.