Israeli raids in Gaza kill seven including civilians
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- Written by BBC News BBC News
- Published: 03 January 2008 03 January 2008
- Hits: 4940 4940
At least seven Palestinians have been killed amid Israeli operations in Gaza, witnesses and medics say.
Several of the deaths occurred during raids by Israeli troops east of Khan Younis in the early hours of Thursday. Civilians were among those killed.
The fighting is some of the heaviest seen in recent weeks.
Israel says it is trying to stop rocket fire into Israel. A rocket launched on Thursday reached the city of Ashkelon, some 17km (10 miles) north of Gaza.
No-one was hurt, but the Israeli army said it was one of the furthest a rocket launched from Gaza has reached.
Israeli spokesmen said greater Palestinian rocket range was putting a far greater number of Israelis in the firing line.
Tank shell
Israeli tanks and troops moved into the area close to Khan Younis early on Thursday, sparking exchanges of fire with militants, reports said.
In the deadliest single attack, a tank shell struck a house, killing at least four people - two men, their sister and their mother. At least one of the men killed was reported to be a member of the radical Islamic Jihad militant group.
Israeli troops are later reported to have become trapped in one area, prompting air strikes to be launched in an attempt to rescue them.
At least two people died in those strikes, said medics. Subsequent tank fire injured at least three schoolchildren, said witnesses and doctors - one 14-year-old boy was left in critical condition, the Associated Press news agency said.
In a separate exchange of fire in Gaza City, Hamas reported one of its gunman dead.
Israeli troops have also made an incursion into Nablus in the West Bank, and there have been clashes in the centre of the city, reports the BBC's Aleem Maqbool.
At least 19 people have been injured, mostly young stone-throwers hit by rubber bullets, he says.
Gaza isolated
The Israeli incursion follows similar pre-dawn strikes in Gaza on Wednesday which killed at least six.
It comes days before US President George W Bush visits the region to try to promote a peace agreement in the last year of his administration.
Gaza is run by Hamas, which took over the territory last June after a violent struggle with its Fatah rivals.
Hamas is deemed a terrorist group by the US, and was not invited to the Annapolis conference organised by Washington in November, which kick-started the renewed attempt to agree a peace deal.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/7169365.stm
Published: 2008/01/03 16:12:45 GMT
© BBC MMVIII
Highway 443: Israel's forbidden road
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- Written by Donald Macintyre for The Independent Donald Macintyre for The Independent
- Published: 02 January 2008 02 January 2008
- Hits: 5668 5668
Ungenerous occupier: Israel's Camp David exposed
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- Written by Jonathan Cook, The Electronic Intifada Jonathan Cook, The Electronic Intifada
- Published: 02 January 2008 02 January 2008
- Hits: 5444 5444
The sum effect of these "generous" proposals was to offer the Palestinians far less than the remaining 22 percent of their historic homeland. They would have had to subtract from a state in Gaza and the West Bank large parts of the expanded municipality of Jerusalem, as well as the Latrun Salient, eight percent of the West Bank to accommodate the settlements, and a further 20 percent for a security zone in the Jordan Valley.
1. Israel's illegal settlement blocs would be kept, with 80 percent of the settlers remaining in the West Bank on land annexed to Israel.
2. A wide "security zone," supervised by the Israeli army, would be maintained along the Jordan Valley in the West Bank, from the Dead Sea to the northern Jewish settlement of Meholah
3. On East Jerusalem, Israel demanded massive territorial concessions in line with its illegal annexation of the part of the city occupied by Israel in 1967.
Israel: West Bank Roadblocks Will Remain
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- Written by MARK LAVIE, Associated Press Writer MARK LAVIE, Associated Press Writer
- Published: 01 January 2008 01 January 2008
- Hits: 5868 5868
Defense Minister Ehud Barak's comments soured an already tense atmosphere between Israel and the Palestinians just days before President Bush's first visit to the region as U.S. president. Israeli construction in east Jerusalem and the West Bank and violence between Israelis and Palestinians - and among Palestinians themselves - threaten to overwhelm Bush's peace efforts.
Greetings from the House of Fair Trade Email #1 (December 31, 2007)
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- Written by Andrew Pappone Andrew Pappone
- Published: 31 December 2007 31 December 2007
- Hits: 7523 7523
As many of you know, I spent five weeks last winter with the PFTA
(Palestine Fair Trade Association) conducting interviews and doing
research for my undergraduate thesis. Now, I am back in Jenin to
complete a two to three month internship with the PFTA. I will be
sending weekly emails to this list with anecdotes, experiences, and
news from the West Bank.
Read more: Greetings from the House of Fair Trade Email #1 (December 31, 2007)