Two US congressmen visiting Gaza

GAZA CITY: US congressmen Brian Baird and Keith Ellison, both Democrats, were in Gaza on Thursday, the first such visit since the Islamist Hamas seized power in the Palestinian territory in June 2007.

Rockets, airstrikes rock Gaza cease-fire

GAZA CITY: Palestinian rockets exploded in -Israel and Israeli jets bombed the Egypt-Gaza border Monday, as talks dragged on over a long-term truce that would bring quiet to the coastal territory.

Two rockets fired from Gaza landed in Israel, the Israeli military said, a near-daily occurrence even after the devastating three-week Israeli offensive that was meant to bring a halt to the fire. No one was injured, the military said.

Several hours later, Israeli jets bombed an area of smuggling tunnels in the frontier town of Rafah, according residents and Hamas security officials. Israel’s military said the strike targeted a tunnel used to smuggle weapons in from Egypt and was retaliation for the rocket fire.

source : jang.com.pk

Hamas accepts 18-month Gaza truce

CAIRO: Hamas has accepted an 18-month truce with Israel in the Gaza Strip, the Egyptian media reported on Friday.

“We agreed to the truce with the Israeli side for one year and a half,” Hamas politburo deputy chief Moussa Abu-Marzouk said in a statement, adding that Gaza’s six border crossings should be re-opened and the Jewish country must “stop military actions and aggressions in all forms”.

Marzouk also said Egypt will announce the result of the truce talks “within two days”, after contacting Israel and other Palestinian factions.

The breakthrough came Thursday after intensive talks between a Hamas delegation led by Marzouk and Egyptian intelligence chief and pointman for the truce talks, Omar Suleiman.

Egypt has been endeavoring to secure a lasting truce to replace the fragile ceasefire, declared Jan 18 separately by both Israel and Hamas movement, ending Israel’s 22-day massive assault in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

Over 1,300 Palestinians were killed and 5,500 others wounded during the war, while 14 Israelis have died since the launch of the deadly offensive in Gaza Dec 27.

source : jang.com.pk

UN chief to set up panel to probe Israel’s bombing in Gaza

UNITED NATIONS: Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has informed the Security Council of his intention to establish a commission to look into Israel’s bombing of UN facilities in Gaza, the Council’s president said Monday.

The UN chief made the announcement in a closed-door briefing to the Security Council about his recent overseas visit to Africa, Europe, the Middle East and South Asia, Council president for February, Japan’s UN Ambassador Yukio Takasu, told reporters in New York.

Ban said that he will inform the Council of the panel’s composition in the next few days and that a report will be presented to the Council on the its findings, Takasu said.

Palestine’s UN observer Riyad Mansour told reporters that the commission will be composed of four individuals and a member of the Secretariat and will be headed by Ian Martin, a former president of Amnesty International and the current special representative of the secretary-general in Nepal for the UN Mission there.

“The fact that the secretary-general will report back to the Council is another indication that the Council will remain engaged on this phase of investigation of the crimes committed by Israel against the Palestinian people and the properties of the United Nations, and the crimes against humanity,” Mansour said, adding that Ban’s move is “a step in the right direction of investigating crimes committed by Israel.”

When the commission submits its report to the Security Council, it will be the responsibility of the Council to decide what to do with it, he said. Mansour also said that the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), which had also decided to establish a commission, “may be in the final stages of putting that commission together to go and have a larger scope investigation.”

source : jang.com

Egypt hopes for Gaza truce deal ‘in few days’

CAIRO: Egypt is hopeful that a Gaza truce accord between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas can be reached in the next few days, foreign ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki told a foreign news agency on Sunday.

“There are positive signs that in the next few days we will reach an understanding on a truce and and a partial reopening of crossing points (into Gaza),” Zaki said.

Egypt has been mediating indirect talks for a lasting truce since the end of Israel’s massive 22-day onslaught on the Gaza Strip, which killed at least 1,330 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.

The fighting ended when both Israel and the Gaza Strip’s Islamist rulers called separate ceasefires on January 18.

However, the fragile calm has been tested by Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel and retaliatory air strikes.

On Saturday, a spokesman for Hamas said it expected an agreement with Israel on the the reopening of border crossings into the Gaza Strip “within the next few days.”

Israeli and Palestinian officials have been shuttling to Cairo for talks with Egypt’s intelligence chief and Middle East mediator Omar Suleiman, hoping for a truce deal with just two days until Israel’s election.

A Hamas delegation from Gaza led by firebrand Mahmud Zahar was in Syria on Sunday for consultations on the truce negotiations with Damascus-based members of the group’s powerful politburo, Hamas official Mohammed Nasr said.

The delegation is due to return to the Egyptian capital on Monday, the Egyptian foreign ministry spokesman said.

Israel, which controls all border crossings except Rafah, which is managed by Egypt, has kept the densely populated strip closed to all but essential supplies since June 2007 when Hamas violently seized power, ousting forces loyal to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

Egypt closed Rafah on Thursday, after opening it to aid and to Palestinians who were wounded during the war. Egypt has refused to permanently open the crossing in the absence of EU monitors and Abbas’s representatives.

Hamas officials have said they are seeking clarifications on an Israeli offer to allow between 70 and 80 percent of goods through its crossings into Gaza, barring those it says could be used to make weapons.

source : jang.com.pk

Gaza rocket strikes southern Israel

JERUSALEM: A rocket fired by militants in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip struck southern Israel on Saturday, causing no injuries, the Israeli military said.

The rocket, which landed near the Israeli city of Ashkelon, was one of a few to hit the Jewish state since a Jan. 18ceasefire with the Islamist group Hamas ended 22 days of fighting in the Gaza Strip.

source : jang.com.pk

Gaza farmers hit hard by war with Israel: UN

ROME: Palestinian farmers were severely affected by the Gaza war, posing a threat to food security, the UN food agency said Friday, appealing for 6.5 million dollars (five million euros) in immediate assistance.

“Almost all of Gaza’s 13,000 families who depend on farming, herding and fishing have suffered damage to their assets during the recent conflict, and many farms have been completely destroyed,” the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in a news release.

Israel’s 22-day war on Gaza to stop rocket attacks by Palestinian militants caused widespread destruction in the Palestinian territory and killed more than 1,300 Palestinians, a third of them children.

“Farmers already struggling to make a profit before the outbreak of the conflict are now facing the possible irreversible loss of their livelihoods,” said Luigi Damiani, senior project coordinator for the FAO in Jerusalem.

“Destruction caused to the agricultural sector has worsened ongoing problems of food production caused by 18 months of border closure,” the Rome-based agency said, predicting increased food insecurity.

Pre-existing problems include costly or unavailable agricultural inputs, restricted access to land and sea, and “severely curtailed” movement of goods, the FAO said.

“People in Gaza are facing an acute shortage of nutritious, locally produced and affordable food,” the agency said, adding that more and more Gazans are relying on food aid or turning to cheaper and less nutritious food.

“For many women whose husbands were killed or injured during the conflict it is becoming increasingly difficult to provide food for their families,” Damiani said.

The UN Relief and Works Agency has estimated financial needs of nearly 270 million euros to rebuild their own infrastructure and keep providing essential services to the Palestinians in Gaza.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon said Thursday that the United Nations was appealing for 470 million euros to provide food, water, shelter, health care and other assistance after the conflict.

source : jang.com.pk

Ehud Barak cancels US trip due to Gaza tensions

JERUSALEM: Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak canceled his planned departure on Wednesday for talks in Washington due to renewed tensions in Gaza, a senior ministry official said.

“Barak decided to cancel his trip to the United States during which he planned to meet his US counterpart Secretary of Defence Robert Gates and other senior officials in the administration due to the security events in the south,” he said.

Barak was due to leave for Washington after meeting US President Barack Obama’s new Mideast peace envoy George Mitchell in Jerusalem.

source : jang.com.pk

Deadly roadside bombing threatens Gaza truce

JERUSALEM – Palestinian militants detonated a bomb next to an Israeli army patrol along the border with Gaza on Tuesday, killing one soldier and wounding three others in the first serious clash since a cease-fire went into effect more than a week ago.

Israeli soldiers quickly crossed the border in search of the attackers and Israel’s defense minister, Ehud Barak, said Israel “cannot accept” the attack.

“We will respond, but there is no point in elaborating,” Barak said in comments released by his office.

There was no claim of responsibility for the attack.

The incident jolted the calm that has largely prevailed since Israel ended a devastating three-week offensive on Jan. 17. Since withdrawing its troops, Israel has threatened to strike hard at any violations of the truce.

Heavy gunfire was audible along the border in central Gaza and Israeli helicopters hovered in the air firing machine gun bursts, Palestinian witnesses said. An Israeli jet broke the sound barrier and set off a loud sonic boom over Gaza City not long afterward, possibly as a warning, but there were no further reports of Israeli retaliation.

The Israeli military said the bomb targeted an Israeli patrol near the border community of Kissufim.

It was not clear if the bomb had been planted after the cease-fire took hold or whether it was an older device.

Not long after the bombing, a 27-year-old Gaza farmer was killed by Israeli gunfire along the border several miles away, said Dr. Moaiya Hassanain of Gaza’s Health Ministry. Two other Palestinians were wounded. The military had no immediate comment and it was unclear if the two incidents were related.

Israel closed its crossings into Gaza to humanitarian aid traffic after briefly opening them Tuesday morning. Gaza border official Raed Fattouh said Israeli officials informed him the closure was due to the attack.

Israel and Gaza militants have been holding their fire since Israel ended its offensive, which was aimed at halting rocket fire from the territory. Israel announced a unilateral cease-fire on Jan. 17, and that was followed by a similar announcement from Gaza militants.

In the days immediately following the cease-fire there was shelling by Israeli gunboats and some gunfire along the border — including the killing of two men Palestinian officials identified as farmers — but there were no serious clashes until Tuesday.

Although there was no claim of responsibility, Mushir al-Masri, a Hamas leader, said Israel was to blame for continuing to fire into Gaza. Al-Masri said his group had not agreed to a full cease-fire but only to a “lull” in fighting.

“The Zionists are responsible for any aggression,” he said.

Egypt is currently trying to negotiate a longer-term arrangement to allow quiet in the coastal territory of 1.4 million people, which has been ruled by the Islamic militants of Hamas since June 2007.

Israel wants an end to Hamas rocket attacks and guarantees that Hamas will be prevented from smuggling weapons into Gaza from Egypt. Hamas has demanded that Israel and Egypt reopen Gaza’s border crossings, which have been largely closed since Hamas took power. The crossings are Gaza’s economic lifeline.

The Israeli offensive killed 1,285 Palestinians, more than half of them civilians, according to records kept by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights. Thirteen Israelis, including three civilians, were also killed during the fighting.

___

Associated Press writer Ibrahim Barzak in Gaza City contributed to this report

source : jang.com.pk

Could Israelis Face War Crimes Charges Over Gaza?

Israel likes to believe that its Defense Force is the world’s most “moral” army, and it insisted throughout the recent Gaza war that great care was always taken to avoid inflicting civilian casualties. It may surprise and rile many Israelis, then, that their government is trying to protect its citizens from war crimes charges that could be filed in foreign courts over the conduct of hostilities in Gaza. Fearful that Israeli commanders could be targeted for arrest while traveling abroad as private citizens on business or vacation, Attorney General Menachem Mazuz on Tuesday ordered the Israeli media to refrain from revealing the names of any military personnel who took part in the 22-day offensive. Officers involved in the operation who want to travel abroad are now required to first check in with the office of the Judge Advocate, which will determine if the soldier is on a foreign watch list that might lead to his arrest.

Israeli military experts insist that their forces are far more careful to avoid civilian casualties than, say, the U.S. military has been in Iraq and Afghanistan. Still, the high civilian casualty toll in Gaza has put the Israeli military’s conduct of operations there under scrutiny, and one senior U.N. official has suggested Israel may have committed “crimes against humanity” in the course of its campaign against Hamas militants hiding among Gaza’s civilian population. Palestinian medical sources claim that over 300 children and 100 women were among Gaza’s 1,200 fatalities. And the United Nations, Amnesty International, the International Committee for the Red Cross (I.C.R.C.), Human Right Watch, as well as Israeli and Palestinian human rights groups have all been investigating allegations of conduct that violates the laws of war. (See pictures of Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza)

Among the allegations being probed are claims that Israel targeted ambulances and medical crews, improperly used incendiary bombs such as white phosphorus in dense civilian areas (a claim also being internally investigated by the Israeli military), prevented the evacuation of wounded carrying white flags, and targeted schools, hospitals, supply convoys and a U.N. compound where over 1,000 civilians had taken shelter. Although Israel dropped thousands of leaflets and made phone calls to targeted buildings warning of impending bombardments, Palestinians argue that they had no safe places in which to take refuge amid Israel’s fierce bombardment.

Legal experts doubt that Israelis could be hauled before the International Court of Justice in the Hague, because Israel, like the U.S., is not party to the treaty that created it, and also because the U.S. and European governments would likely prevent such a course of action. What worries authorities in Jerusalem is that many European countries are signatories to a Geneva Convention that allows their courts to arrest and prosecute individuals accused of committing war crimes in other countries. Such legal options, Israel fears, may be used to bring politically motivated charges against its citizens. The daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported Wednesday that Israel’s Foreign and Justice ministries have begun drawing up lists of law firms in different European countries that could be enlisted to defend Israelis in any future cases.

Another influential newspaper, the leftist Haaretz, even urged Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to set up an independent inquiry into accusations of war crimes by the Israeli military in Gaza. “Has the IDF (the Israeli Defense Forces) crossed the line according to international law?” the paper wrote. “Was there no other way aside from such widespread killing and destruction?” The editorial argued that Israel needed its own inquiry because “We cannot wait until the world has its say, and perhaps takes legal steps of its own.”

Any international inquiry into Israel’s wartime behavior might be more palatable to Israelis if it also probed alleged violations of the Geneva Convention by Hamas. Before and during the conflict, Hamas had fired shot rockets into Israeli towns; inside Gaza, according to the Israeli army, the militants had used civilians as “human shields,” and had stored weapons in schools, hospitals and mosques – all illegal under Geneva.

But regardless of whether any legal action follows, the probes add to the pall of bitterness hanging over an operation whose ambiguous outcome has left many Israelis questioning just what was achieved by their war in Gaza.

source : news.yahoo.com

FOR FUNNY JOKES & SMS

Amnesty probes use of banned white phosphorus in Gaza

GAZA: For Amnesty International the evidence was all there: a hole in a burnt-out ceiling, fragments of a shell and a substance that bursts into flames at the slightest contact.

White phosphorus is an incendiary weapon, but in civilian areas it is banned under an international convention.

Amnesty is investigating its use by the Israeli military during a 22-day assault against the Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

On Monday, January 5, Israeli artillery bombarded the outskirts of Beit Lahiya town in the northern Gaza Strip. Sabah Abu Halima and her family rushed to the top floor of their house, to shelter in a corridor without windows and escape any flying glass.

Two weeks later in the same location, Chris Cobb-Smith, a British weapons expert, recounts what happened next: “Here the white phosphorus comes through the roof, detonates as it hits the wall and distributes the pieces of white phosphorus within the house, and that’s the explanation for the severe burning that you see around,” he says.

Since last weekend, Cobb-Smith has criss-crossed the Gaza Strip with an Amnesty delegation investigating the Israeli army’s use of phosphorous bombs, which burst into flames on contact with oxygen.

source : jang.com.pk

Israeli PM says war could speed soldier’s freedom

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Israel indicated Thursday that it wants to swap Palestinians held in Israeli jails for an Israeli soldier captured in 2006 as part of a longer-term truce after three weeks of fighting in Gaza.

Israeli media said some Cabinet ministers have softened their positions on releasing dangerous Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the soldier, Sgt. Gilad Schalit, signaling the government is trying to work out a deal with Hamas ahead of Israeli elections next month.

Hamas has demanded the release of hundreds of prisoners, including convicted murderers, in exchange for Schalit, who was seized by Hamas-linked militants in a cross-border raid.

“I believe the war created levers that could hasten Gilad Schalit’s return home,” Israeli Prime Minister Olmert told reporters while touring the rocket-scarred town of Sderot.

The Yediot Ahronot newspaper said Olmert sees freeing Schalit as his top priority before leaving office in a few weeks. Army Radio said the prime minister hoped for a deal by the end of his term. The media reports might be an effort by the government to prepare the public for an unpopular prisoner release.

There was no immediate comment from Hamas, which conducts its contacts with Israel through Egypt.

But the Popular Resistance Committees, one of the groups involved in Schalit’s capture in June 2006, called the reports of Israel’s new flexibility “a new victory.”

“Our demand is still the same, that all Palestinian prisoners which we have asked for be released and we emphasize the fact that releasing prisoners is at the top of our priorities,” said Abu Mujahid, a spokesman for the group in Gaza.

Many Palestinian families have relatives in Israeli prisons and prisoner releases are of supreme importance in Palestinian society. Israel holds some 10,000 Palestinian prisoners in all.

Israeli Cabinet Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, who takes part in security deliberations, told Army Radio on Thursday that Israel wouldn’t let border crossings with Gaza reopen without a deal to free Schalit.

The U.N.’s humanitarian chief, meanwhile, suggested Thursday that Israel should pay for the hundreds of tons of food and other supplies destroyed when Israeli shells struck the main United Nations compound in Gaza.

Touring Gaza to assess what is most urgently needed in the coastal strip, U.N. official John Holmes called the steep Palestinian casualty toll from Israel’s offensive “extremely shocking” and suggested the United Nations might seek Israeli compensation for wartime damage to U.N. compounds in Gaza. Hundreds of tons of humanitarian aid were destroyed by Israeli shelling that struck the main U.N. compound.

“We want to make sure it is properly investigated and that we get proper accountability for it and proper compensation if it is needed and I think it will be needed,” Holmes told reporters.

Israel waged a 22-day war meant to end rocket fire on southern Israel from Hamas-ruled Gaza. Cease-fires declared by both sides Sunday ended an offensive that killed some 1,300 Palestinians and wounded thousands, according to Gaza health officials, and inflicted widespread destruction in Gaza. Thirteen Israelis were also killed, according to the government.

Low-level violence on both sides has marred the cease-fire and on Thursday a Palestinian man and girl walking near the shore in Gaza City were wounded by a shell fired from an Israeli gunboat, a Gaza health official said.

Another shell landed 100 yards (meters) away in an empty area near a U.N. aid distribution center. And heavy-caliber bullet fire struck at least one house in the area, a witness said.

The Israeli military said it was firing to deter a Palestinian fishing vessel that had strayed off-limits.

On the first day of a five-day trip to the region, Holmes said he was looking at immediate humanitarian needs and thinking about longer-term reconstruction in Gaza. The biggest concerns, he said, are providing clean water, sanitation, electricity and shelter to people displaced by the fighting.

Gaza’s blockaded border crossings will have to be opened to allow reconstruction to begin, he said.

“Goods have to be able to get in freely and in the right quantities, including construction materials, so that reconstruction can start.”

Israel and Egypt have kept the crossings largely closed since Hamas militants seized power in Gaza in June 2007, choking off most supplies to the tiny seaside territory and trapping most of its 1.4 million people inside. Hamas says the borders must be opened as part of any cease-fire deal.

The international community is working with Israel to find ways to reopen the borders while guaranteeing that Hamas does not smuggle arms into Gaza that it can turn on Israel.

Halting the flow of arms through Egypt into Gaza was one of the main objectives of the war. Senior Israeli envoy Amos Gilad headed to Egypt on Thursday to discuss ways to prevent Gaza militants from replenishing its war-battered arsenal.

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, meanwhile, was in Brussels recruiting European Union support for the anti-smuggling effort.

Israel wants the EU to contribute forces, ships and technology to anti-smuggling operations. EU officials who met with Livni on Wednesday said it was too early to make that commitment. The United States last week signed an anti-smuggling deal with Israel calling for expanded intelligence cooperation between the two countries and other U.S. allies in the Middle East and Europe.

source : news.yahoo.com

Israel to allow journalists into Gaza

JERUSALEM: Israel will allow journalists free access to the war-battered Gaza Strip beginning on Friday, according to a statement from the defence ministry released on the fifth day of a ceasefire.

“From 23rd January, 2009, Erez crossing will resume to facilitate normal passage of journalists from Israel to the Gaza Strip,” said the statement, referring to a border crossing in the north of the Palestinian territory.

The crossing will be open all days except Saturday, it said.

Israel had barred journalists from Gaza during its 22-day war on the Hamas rulers of the enclave.

source : jang.com.pk

UN chief arrives in Gaza

EREZ BORDER CROSSING: UN chief Ban Ki-moon entered the war-battered Gaza Strip on Tuesday, AFP reporters at the scene said.

Ban’s convoy crossed the Erez border crossing into the Palestinian territory at around 1030 GMT, they said.

It was the first visit by an international leader to the coastal strip following Israel’s deadly 22-day offensive on the territory’s Hamas rulers and the first since the Islamists seized power in Gaza in June 2007.

source : jang.com.pk

Arab leaders focus on economy, aid after Gaza divide

KUWAIT: Arab leaders looking to bridge sharp divisions over Israel’s Gaza offensive will agree at a summit on Tuesday to launch a $2 billion reconstruction fund and call for greater economic cooperation.

Differences over how to deal with the three-week Israeli offensive that killed more than 1,300 people highlighted the divide between Egypt, Saudi Arabia and their allies on one side, and Syria, Qatar and their allies on the other. In a bid to restore unity, Saudi King Abdullah on Monday hosted a lunch attended by the leaders of Qatar, Jordan, Egypt, Syria and Kuwait at which they agreed to patch up their differences over Gaza. Leaders were expected to back a $2 billion fund to rebuild Gaza. Saudi Arabia has committed $1 billion to the fund. The final declaration would concentrate on increased economic cooperation, with the emphasis on energy.

source : jang.com.pk

No mortar attack from Gaza: Israeli army

JERUSALEM: The Israeli army said nomortar bombs were fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip on Tuesday and a police report of an attack was based on a false alarm.

“Nothing was fired,” an Israeli military spokeswoman said. “The alarm system went off by mistake.”

source :  jang.com.pk

Two mortar rounds fired from Gaza into Israel: army

JERUSALEM: Two mortar rounds were fired into Israel from the Gaza Strip on Tuesday amid a fragile ceasefire between the Jewish state and Palestinian militant groups, an army spokeswoman told.

source : jang.com.pk

Israeli troops to leave Gaza before Obama’s inauguration

JERUSALEM: Israeli officials said troops would leave the Gaza Strip before Tuesday’s inauguration of Barack Obama as the new U.S. President.

This is the first official indication that Israel plans a rapid withdrawal of its forces after announcing a unilateral cease-fire late on Saturday. The decision could be linked to Israel’s desire to get off to a smooth start with the new U.S. administration.

Thousands of Israeli troops started coming out of Gaza on Monday. Hamas declared a weeklong truce on Sunday.

Government spokesman Mark Regev didn’t confirm the timetable. He said only that if Gaza remains quiet Israel’s departure would be “almost immediate.”

source : jang.com.pk

Gaza truce takes hold; Israeli pullout begins

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Hamas offered Israel an immediate weeklong truce Sunday, hours after Israel silenced its guns and grounded its aircraft, but the Islamic militant group conditioned long-term quiet on a complete Israeli withdrawal from the territory.

Israeli tanks rolled out of Gaza Sunday, and infantry soldiers walked across the border to Israel, their guns and packs slung over their shoulders.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel would leave Gaza quickly if the cease-fire holds.

“We didn’t set out to conquer Gaza, we didn’t set out to control Gaza, we don’t want to remain in Gaza and we intend on leaving Gaza as fast as possible,” Olmert said at a dinner with the leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Spain.

He also expressed sorrow over the deaths of civilians in Gaza, calling them “hostages of the Hamas murders” and vowed to prevent a humanitarian crisis in the territory.

Militant rockets peppered southern Israel ahead of the Palestinian truce offer, threatening to re-ignite three weeks of violence that killed more than 1,200 Palestinians — more than half of them civilians, Gaza officials said — and turned the streets of Hamas-ruled Gaza into battlegrounds.

In Gaza, Palestinians loaded vans and donkey carts with mattresses and ventured out to see what was left of their homes after Israel’s punishing air and ground assault. Bulldozers shoved aside rubble in Gaza City to clear a path for cars. Medical workers sifting through mounds of concrete said they recovered 100 bodies amid the debris.

Israel mounted the offensive three weeks ago to halt years of rocket attacks, but despite the latest barrage, government spokesman Mark Regev said Israel’s cease-fire offer stood. Thirteen Israelis died during the offensive, including four killed by rocket fire.

At least a dozen tanks and armored personnel carriers rumbled back into Israel, with relieved crews waving “victory” signs with their fingers. Hundreds of soldiers, laden with equipment, walked through the rain. Some smiled, others looked weary, their faces smeared with war paint. Israeli flags poked out of their packs and were attached to the tops of radio antennas.

The Israeli army refused to say how many troops had withdrawn.

The Palestinian cease-fire was announced by military leaders in Gaza and in Damascus, Syria, the base of Gaza’s exiled Hamas leaders. They did not set a time, but it appeared to be effective immediately.

In Damascus, Moussa Abu Marzouk, Hamas’ deputy leader, told Syrian TV that the cease-fire would last a week to give Israel time to withdraw and open all Gaza border crossings to let humanitarian aid into the embattled seaside territory.

“We the Palestinian resistance factions declare a cease-fire from our side in Gaza and we confirm our stance that the enemy’s troops must withdraw from Gaza within a week,” Abu Marzouk said.

Hamas, which rejects Israel’s right to exist, violently seized control of Gaza in June 2007, provoking a harsh Israeli blockade that has deepened the destitution in the territory and confined 1.4 million Palestinians to the tiny coastal strip. Egypt has also kept its border with Gaza largely sealed.

Militants did not back down from their demand that Israel ultimately open blockaded crossings, which serve as economic lifelines for Gaza.

The Hamas offer raised hopes that the cease-fire would stick more than a few hours. Militants had fired 17 rockets into Israel on Sunday, slightly injuring three people, police said, even as foreign leaders tried cement an end to the war in Egypt. Israel briefly retaliated against the rocket assaults with air and artillery strikes.

In Gaza City, the Shahadeh family was loading mattresses into the trunk of a car in Gaza City, preparing to return home to the hard-hit northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya.

“I’ve been told that the devils have left,” said Riyadh Shahadeh, referring to the Israelis. “I’m going back to see how I’m going to start again. I don’t know what happened to my house. … I am going back there with a heart full of fear because I am not sure if the area is secure or not, but I have no other option.”

In southern Israel, residents who have endured rocket attacks for eight years accused the government of stopping the offensive too soon. Israel declared the cease-fire before reaching a long-term solution to the problem of arms smuggling into Gaza, one of the war’s declared aims.

Schools in southern Israel had remained closed in anticipation of the rocket fire that was swift to come. Shortly before the rocket fire resumed, the head of a parents association in the town of Sderot faulted the government for not reaching an agreement directly with Hamas, which Israel shuns.

“It’s an offensive that ended without achieving its aims,” Batya Katar said. “All the weapons went through Egypt. What’s happened there?”

“The weapons will continue to come in through the tunnels and by sea,” she said.

Before Hamas made its cease-fire offer, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned militants not to attack: “This cease-fire is fragile and we must examine it minute by minute, hour by hour.”

The Israeli operation outraged the Muslim world, sparking dozens of demonstrations. On Sunday, Qatar announced that it had closed Israel’s trade office in the small Gulf Arab state and ordered its staff to leave within seven days.

Qatar is the only Gulf Arab state that has ties with Israel.

Leaders of Germany, France, Spain, Britain, Italy, Turkey and the Czech Republic — which holds the rotating European Union presidency — headed for Egypt to lend international backing to the cease-fire. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon were also expected to attend.

Ban welcomed the Israeli move and called on Hamas to stop its rocket fire. “Urgent humanitarian access for the people of Gaza is the immediate priority,” he said.

Israel said it was not sending a representative to the meeting. But Sunday evening, leaders from Britain, Germany, Spain, Italy and France and the European Union were coming to Jerusalem for a working dinner with Olmert.

Hamas, shunned internationally as a terrorist organization, was not invited to the summit in Egypt. But the group has been mediating with Egypt, and any arrangement to open Gaza’s blockaded borders for trade would likely need Hamas’ acquiescence.

Abbas, too, echoed Hamas’ call for a total Israeli withdrawal and the lifting of bruising Israeli sanctions.

Israel’s cease-fire “is an important and necessary event but it’s insufficient,” said Abbas, Hamas’ bitter rival and the top leader in the West Bank, the larger of the two Palestinian territories. “There should be a comprehensive Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, a lifting of the siege and a reopening of crossings” to aid, he said, speaking from Egypt.

Under the truce plan, Hamas would not rearm, as militants did during a 6-month truce that preceded the war. In a step toward achieving those guarantees, Israel on Friday won a U.S. commitment to help crack down on weapons smuggling into Egypt and from there, to Gaza.

But Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said Saturday that his country would not be bound by the agreement. Egypt’s cooperation is essential if the smuggling is to be stopped.

_____

Ibrahim Barzak reported from Gaza and Amy Teibel reported from Jerusalem. Alfred de Montesquiou contributed to this report from Rafah, Gaza Strip.

source : news.yahoo.com

Israel unilaterally halts fire, rockets persist

JERUSALEM – Israel declared a unilateral cease-fire in the Gaza Strip on Sunday meant to end three devastating weeks of war against Hamas militants, but just hours later militants fired a volley of rockets into southern Israel, officials said, threatening to reignite the violence.

No one was injured in the assault in which five rockets were fired and four landed. But shortly afterward, security sources in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun reported an airstrike that wounded a woman and her child. The Israeli military had no comment.

In another incident after the truce took hold, militants fired small arms at an infantry patrol, which directed artillery and aircraft to strike back, the military said.

“Israel will only act in response to attacks by Hamas, either rockets into Israel or firing upon our forces,” government spokesman Mark Regev said. “If Hamas does deliberately torpedo this cease-fire, they are exposing themselves before the entire international community as a group of cynical extremists that have absolutely no interest in the well-being of the people of Gaza.”

Regev would not say what level of violence would provoke Israel to call off the truce.

The cease-fire went into effect at 2 a.m. Sunday local time after three weeks of fighting that killed some 1,200 Palestinians, about half of them civilians, according to Palestinian and U.N. officials. At least 13 Israelis also died, according to the government.

Israel stopped its offensive before reaching a long-term solution to the problem of arms smuggling into Gaza, one of the war’s declared aims. And Israel’s insistence on keeping soldiers in Gaza raised the prospect of a stalemate with the territory’s Hamas rulers, who have said they would not respect any truce until Israel pulls out.

The military warned in a statement early Sunday that Israeli forces would retaliate for attacks against soldiers or civilians and that “any such attack will be met with a harsh response.”

The cease-fire went into effect just days ahead of President-elect Barack Obama’s inauguration Tuesday. Outgoing Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the Bush administration welcomed Israel’s decision and a summit set for later Sunday in Egypt is meant to give international backing to the truce.

Leaders of Germany, France, Spain, Britain, Italy, Turkey and the Czech Republic — which holds the rotating European Union presidency — are expected to attend along with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon.

Ban welcomed the Israeli move and called on Hamas to stop its rocket fire. “Urgent humanitarian access for the people of Gaza is the immediate priority,” he said, declaring that “the United Nations is ready to act.”

It was not immediately clear whether Israel would send a representative to the meeting in Egypt, and Hamas, shunned widely as a terrorist organization, has not been invited.

In announcing the truce late Saturday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel would withhold fire after achieving its goals and more.

“Hamas was hit hard, in its military arms and in its government institutions. Its leaders are in hiding and many of its men have been killed,” Olmert said.

If Hamas holds its fire, the military “will weigh pulling out of Gaza at a time that befits us,” Olmert said. If not, Israel “will continue to act to defend our residents.”

Israel apparently reasons that the two-phase truce would give it ammunition against its international critics: Should Hamas continue to attack, then Israel would be able to resume its offensive after having tried to end it. It was not immediately clear how many rockets would have to fall to provoke an Israeli military response.

Hamas, which rejects Israel’s existence, violently seized control of Gaza in June 2007, provoking a harsh Israeli blockade that has deepened the destitution in the territory of 1.4 million Palestinians. The Israeli war did not loosen Hamas’ grip on Gaza, and the group vowed that a unilateral cease-fire was not enough to end the Islamic movement’s resistance.

“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 Fawzi Barhoum said.

Israel kept its schools in southern Israel closed in anticipation of possible rocket barrages.

More moderate Palestinians also reacted with skepticism to Israel’s two-phase truce and called on world leaders attending the Egypt summit to press Israel to pull out its troops immediately.

“We had hoped that the Israeli announcement would be matched by total cessation of hostilities and the immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza,” said Saeb Erekat, a top aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas is Hamas’ bitter rival and the top leader in the West Bank, the larger of the two Palestinian territories.

“I am afraid that the presence of the Israeli forces in Gaza means that the cease-fire will not stand,” he said.

____

Ibrahim Barzak reported from Gaza. Associated Press reporter Alfred de Montesquiou contributed to this report from Rafah, Gaza Strip, and Edith M. Lederer from the United Nations

source : news.yahoo.com

Gaza militants fire first rockets into Israel since truce: army

JERUSALEM: Militants in the Gaza Strip fired five rockets into Israel on Sunday, in the first such attack since the Jewish state began a unilateral ceasefire to its war on Hamas, the army said.

source : jang.com.pk

Singapore calls Israeli ceasefire ‘positive development’

SINGAPORE: Singapore on Sunday called the Israeli ceasefire in Gaza a “positive development” and urged all parties to address the humanitarian situation in the area.

It said it was still concerned about the humanitarian situation after Israel unilaterally halted its 22-day offensive, which has killed more than 1,200 Palestinians in the Hamas-run enclave. “This is a positive development and we urge all parties concerned to make every effort to respect the ceasefire and ensure the full cessation of hostilities in Gaza,” said a foreign ministry spokesman.

source : jang.com.pk

Israel unilaterally halts fire, troops stay in Gaza

JERUSALEM: Israel unilaterally ceased fire in the Gaza Strip on Sunday but kept its troops there, after a 22-day war meant to halt years of rocket fire on southern Israel, but whose vast scale of death and destruction provoked international outrage.

Israel stopped its offensive before reaching a long-term solution to the problem of arms smuggling into Gaza, one of the war’s declared aims. And Israel’s insistence on keeping soldiers in Gaza raised the prospect of a stalemate with the territory’s Hamas rulers, who have said they would not respect any truce until Israel pulls out.

source : jang.com.pk

Israel begins Gaza ceasefire: army

JERUSALEM: The Israeli military began observing a unilateral ceasefire in the Gaza Strip on Sunday after a 22-day offensive against the Hamas rulers of the Palestinian territory, an army spokesman said.

“Starting at 2:00 am (0000 GMT) we are holding our fire,” an Israeli army spokesman told media.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had earlier declared that Israel would call a halt to an offensive that has killed more than 1,200 Palestinians, although he ordered troops to remain in the enclave and return fire if they came under attack.

source : jang.com.pk

Israel ceasefire will cause ‘huge relief’: Britain

LONDON: British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Saturday that Israel’s ceasefire in the Gaza conflict would cause “huge relief”.

“There will be huge relief at the announcement by Prime Minister (Ehud) Olmert of the end of Israeli military operations in Gaza,” Miliband said in a statement released by the Foreign Office.

“As the Prime Minister (Gordon Brown) said today, too many lives have already been lost.”

Miliband went on to call for an immediate end to Hamas rocket attacks on Israel.

“The deaths of over 1,000 people stand testament to the scale and duration of the conflict,” he said. “It is now imperative that Hamas stops the rocket attacks against Israeli civilians.”

He added that the UN and aid agencies should be allowed immediate access to Gaza and their safety guaranteed “so they may do their vital work unhindered.”

Olmert said earlier that a ceasefire would come into effect at 0000 GMT Sunday after a 22-day onslaught against Gaza’s Islamist rulers Hamas which left more than 1,200 Palestinians dead.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and French President Nicolas Sarkozy will co-chair a summit on Gaza in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Sunday.

France says Brown will be among the European leaders attending although his Downing Street office has declined to confirm this.

source : jang.com.pk

Israelis must pull out troops after ceasefire: AbbasIsraelis must pull out troops after ceasefire: Abbas

RAMALLAH: Israel’s decision to call a unilateral ceasefire in Gaza should be followed by a truce agreement and troop withdrawal, a spokesman for Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said Saturday.

“This Israeli decision to stop the fire is a first step and should be followed by a truce, the end to the closure surrounding Gaza and the withdrawal of troops,” Abbas’s spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina told media.

source: jang.com.pk

Israel’s Olmert says Gaza war achieved all its goals

TEL AVIV: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Saturday that Israel’s war in Gaza had achieved all its goals, after the country’s powerful security cabinet approved a unilateral ceasefire.

“We have reached all the goals of the war, and beyond,” Olmert said in a speech after the vote, which could bring an end to a three-week-long war that has killed more than 1,200 Palestinians and devastated the Hamas-ruled enclave.

source : jang.com.pk

Israel bombards Hamas hours before cease-fire vote

JERUSALEM – Israel’s top leadership met Saturday to approve a unilateral cease-fire that would halt the devastating 22-day offensive against the Hamas rulers of Gaza.

The 12-member Security Cabinet is expected to back an Egyptian-brokered proposal for a 10-day cease-fire with no sign of a commitment by Hamas to stop the rocket fire on southern Israel that sparked the conflict.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak indicated Israel’s readiness for a cease-fire, saying the country “was very close to achieving its goals and securing them through diplomatic agreements.” He spoke during a trip to southern Israel, which has been the target of militant rocket fire.

In the hours leading up to the vote, Israel kept up its bombardment of dozens of Hamas targets in Gaza.

Gaza’s Hamas rulers have sent mixed signals on whether the group would reciprocate.

Hamas’ exiled leadership vowed to continue the fight against Israel. Osama Hamdan, a top Hamas official based in Lebanon, said the group would not halt its attacks until Israel withdraws its troops from Gaza and ends its blockade of the seaside strip.

“If any vision does not achieve these things, then we will continue in the battle on the ground,” he said.

But after weeks of heavy losses, leaders inside Gaza have signaled they are ready for a deal. A Hamas delegation was in Cairo for more truce negotiations.

Palestinian medics say the fighting has killed at least 1,140 Palestinians — roughly half of them civilians — and Israel’s bombing campaign caused massive destruction in the Gaza Strip. Thirteen Israelis have been killed, according to the government.

If the truce is approved, fighting would stop immediately for 10 days. Israeli forces would remain in Gaza during that time and the territory’s border crossing with Israel and Egypt would remain closed until security arrangements are made to prevent Hamas arms smuggling.

If the cease-fire is approved, it was not clear how Israel would respond to violations of a cease-fire.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni indicated that Israel would renew its offensive if Hamas militants continued to fire rockets at Israel after Israel declared a truce.

“This campaign is not a one-time event,” she said in an interview with the Israeli YNet news Web site. “The test will be the day after. That is the test of deterrence.”

Israel launched the offensive on Dec. 27 to try to halt near-daily Hamas rocket attacks against southern Israel. Its key demand is for guarantees that Hamas halt the smuggling of rockets, explosives and other weapons through the porous Egyptian border.

Under the deal, Egypt would shut down weapons smuggling routes with international help and discussions on opening Gaza’s blockaded border crossings — Hamas’ key demand — would take place at a later date.

Cabinet minister Shaul Mofaz, who will attend Saturday night’s Security Cabinet meeting, said any deal would also require a mechanism for negotiating the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit who was captured by Hamas more than two years ago.

The Israeli vote was set after Israel and the U.S. signed on Friday a “memorandum of understanding” in Washington that calls for expanded intelligence cooperation to prevent Hamas from rearming.

The agreement outlines a framework under which the United States commits detection and surveillance equipment, as well as logistical help and training to Israel, Egypt and other nations to be used in monitoring Gaza’s land and sea borders.

Livni, who signed the deal, called it “a vital complement for a cessation of hostility.”

The vote comes just days ahead of Barack Obama’s inauguration as president on Tuesday.

Egypt has been a key interlocutor in weeks of negotiations to end the assault on Gaza sparked by years of Hamas rocket fire at southern Israel.

“I demand Israel today stop its military operations immediately,” Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said. “I demand from its leaders an immediate and unconditional cease-fire and I demand from them a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Strip.”

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit dismissed the U.S.-Israel agreement Saturday, saying his country would not be bound by its terms.

The U.S. and Israel can “do what they wish with regard to the sea or any other country in Africa, but when it comes to Egyptian land, we are not bound by anything except the safety and national security of the Egyptian people and Egypt’s ability to protect its borders,” Aboul Gheit told reporters.

The comments by Egyptian officials could indicate frustration over Israeli and American efforts to broker their own deal to stem smuggling into Gaza after weeks of Egyptian mediation for an agreement. They could also be intended to tell the domestic audience that Egypt’s role will not be dictated by outside powers. Egypt’s cooperation will be critical to prevent arms being smuggled into Gaza for Hamas.

The comments by Egyptian officials could indicate frustration over Israeli and American efforts to broker their own deal to stem smuggling into Gaza after weeks of Egyptian mediation for an agreement. Egypt’s cooperation will be critical in efforts to prevent arms being smuggled into Gaza for Hamas.

Israel Radio reported that a truce summit could be held in Egypt as early as Sunday with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Israeli leaders in attendance.

Speaking to Lebanon’s parliament Saturday, Ban said Hamas must stop rocket attacks on Israel and the Jewish state must immediately end its offensive and withdraw its troops from Gaza.

“We cannot wait for all the details, the mechanisms, to be conclusively negotiated and agreed, while civilians continue to be traumatized, injured or killed,” he said. “We have no more time to lose. We demand an immediate cease-fire,” said Ban.

In the meantime, there was no slowdown in the offensive. A total of 13 Palestinians were killed in battles throughout Gaza Saturday, Palestinian medics said.

Israeli warplanes dropped bombs during the night on suspected smuggling tunnels in the southern border town of Rafah. The bombs could be heard whistling through the air, shook the ground upon impact and left a dusty haze in the air.

In the northern town of Beit Lahiya, Israeli shells struck a U.N. school where 1,600 people had sought shelter to flee the fighting. One shell scored a direct hit on the top floor of the three-story building, killing two boys, U.N. officials said. An adjacent room was turned into a blackened mess of charred concrete and twisted metal bed frames.

John Ging, the top U.N. official in Gaza, condemned the attack — the latest in a series of Israeli shellings that have struck U.N. installations.

“The question that has to be asked is for all those children and all those innocent people who have been killed in this conflict. Were they war crimes? Were they war crimes that resulted in the deaths of the innocents during this conflict? That question has to be answered,” he said.

The Israeli army said it was launching a high-level investigation into the shelling, as well as four other attacks that hit civilian targets, including the U.N. headquarters in Gaza. The army investigation also includes the shelling of a hospital, a media center and the home of a well-known doctor.

An Israeli military spokesman said the investigations would be handled at the command level. He spoke on condition of anonymity pending a formal announcement.

Previously, Israel has accused Hamas of using schools, mosques, hospitals and residential areas to stage attacks.

The military said its planes struck 50 Hamas locations overnight, including rocket-launching sites, smuggling tunnels, weapons storehouses, bunkers and minefields. Some five rockets were fired into Israel, causing minor damage but no injuries, the army said.

Israeli troops entered a small central Gaza town and nearby housing project, taking over houses and positioning on rooftops. Hamas militants fired assault rifles, mortars and rockets at the Israeli forces in tanks and military vehicles, the sound of clashes audible from Gaza City. Warplanes fired missiles at buildings and nearby farms, witnesses said.

“A shell landed in my bedroom and we are now sitting in the kitchen. We are 17 people here,” Jihan Sarsawi, a resident of the housing project, said by telephone. She said residents were trapped in their homes.

___

Ibrahim Barzak reported from Gaza. Associated Press reporter Alfred de Montesquiou contributed to this report from Rafah, Gaza Strip.

source : news.yahoo.com

UN demands probe after new Israeli strike on its school in Gaza

GAZA CITY: United Nations officials on Saturday demanded an investigation into a new Israeli strike on a UN-run school in Gaza, which killed a woman and a child in the fourth such attack during its war on Hamas.

More than one dozen people were wounded when Israeli shells hit the school compound in the northern town of Beit Lahiya where some 1,600 people had taken refuge to escape fierce clashes outside, officials said. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA condemned the attack and called for an investigation.

source : jang.com.pk

Hamas threatens to fight on if Israel ceases fire unilaterally

CAIRO: Hamas official Osama Hemdan said on Saturday that the Islamist group will fight on if Israel orders a unilateral ceasefire in Gaza.

“This unilateral ceasefire does not foresee a withdrawal” by the Israeli army, said Hemdan, the movement’s Lebanon representative.

“As long as it remains in Gaza, resistance and confrontation will continue,” he told foreign news agency by telephone.

He said that Israel’s proposal for a unilateral ceasefire, which was to be put to a vote of the security cabinet later on Saturday, was an “attempt to derail the Egyptian plan” for a reciprocal truce.

source : jang.com.pk

Israeli leaders will be tried in Iran over Gaza: Ahmadinejad

TEHRAN: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said Israeli leaders and their western allies will soon face trial in his country for their crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip, the official news agency reported.

“Iran’s judiciary system is now providing a bill in conformity with international law to bring to justice the Israeli leaders for crimes against humanity in Gaza,” Ahmadinejad told reporters here

source : jang.com.pk

Iranian president joins Gaza emergency summit

DOHA: Iran’s president and the top Hamas political leader are making a surprise appearance at an emergency summit of Arab leaders in the Qatari capital, aiming to show their weight in diplomatic efforts surrounding the Gaza crisis.

U.S. allies Egypt and Saudi Arabia are boycotting the Doha summit, fearing that Hamas and its allies Syria and Iran will use it as a platform for a hard-line position and hurt Egypt’s efforts to mediate a Hamas-Israel cease-fire.

The presidents of Syria and Lebanon are also in Doha, along with Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hamas’ Khaled Mashaal.

Qatar’s ruler Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani called the gathering in a bid to find a unified Arab position on Israel’s offensive in the coastal strip, now in its 21th day.

source : jang.com.pk

Iranian President accuses Arab states of complicity in ‘genocide’

TEHRAN: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday accused some Arab and Islamic states of complicity in “genocide” being carried out against Palestinians in Gaza.

“Unfortunately, some states in the Arab and Islamic region tolerate or support this rare genocide with silence or a smile of satisfaction,” Ahmadinejad said in a letter to Saudi King Abdullah, referring to the Israeli operation in Gaza.

“Your Excellency, the king of Saudi Arabia and the custodian of the two holy mosques, it is expected from you to break the silence over this obvious atrocity and killing of your own children,” Ahmadinejad said in the letter, carried on his website.

Israel’s 20-day old Gaza offensive has left more than 1,000 Palestinians dead and around 5,000 wounded, according to Gaza medics.

Ahmadinejad said he hopes that the Saudi king’s stance “will fully disappoint corrupt powers that hope to create division in the Islamic front.”

He was apparently referring to a rift between the so-called “moderate” Arab countries, led by Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and the more pro-Hamas states, led by Syria and Qatar, over how to respond to the Gaza assault.

Qatar has tried twice to organise an Arab summit on the Gaza conflict, an idea opposed by regional heavyweights Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

The letter to the Saudi king was released as Riyadh was set to host an emergency summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council on the situation in Gaza on Thursday. Besides Saudi Arabia, the GCC also comprises the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman.

source : jang.com.pk

Elements in place for Gaza war to end ‘now’: UN chief

TEL AVIV: UN chief Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday that elements were in place for Israel’s 20-day-old war in Gaza to end “now.”

“I believe that elements are in place for the violence to end now,” he said.

“The time has come for the violence to stop and for us to change fundamentally the dynamics in Gaza and to pursue again the peace talks for a two-state solution which is the only road for lasting security for Israel,” told reporters in Tel Aviv.

source : jang.com.pk

Gaza hospital on fire after Israeli strike

GAZA CITY: A wing of a hospital in Gaza City caught fire on Thursday after an Israeli strike, witnesses said.

Red Cross says Gaza humanitarian situation ’shocking’

JERUSALEM (AFP) – The humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is “shocking”, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross said after a visit to a hospital in the embattled territory.

“I saw this dramatic humanitarian situation. There’s an increasing number of women and children being wounded and going to hospitals,” Jakob Kellenberger told reporters in Jerusalem.

“It is shocking. It hurts when you see these wounded people and the types of wounds they have. And I think that in addition the number of people coming to these hospitals is increasing,” he said.

The Red Cross president called for improved access for ambulances inside Gaza seeking to recover the wounded and to rescue civilians sheltering from the fighting, saying Israel’s daily three-hour pause in operations is “not sufficient.”

“It is a positive step that you have a three-hour stop in the fighting, for doing humanitarian work, but it is not sufficient,” he said.

“Civilians who are being wounded, who are being trapped with problems of hunger, without water, you must be able to say that you can reach them.”

Kellenberger — who also visited the Israeli border town of Sderot, which has been hit by hundreds of Palestinian rockets since the war began — urged both sides in the conflict to differentiate between militants and civilians.

He said medical supplies are holding up in Gaza, where over 1,000 people have been killed in heavy fighting and aerial bombardments since the December 27 launch of the largest-ever Israeli offensive on the territory.

“In general (medics) did not complain about the lack of equipment or materials,” he said. “In fact there are a lot of goods coming in” although Israel has sealed Gaza off from all but humanitarian aid since the Hamas movement seized power in June 2007.

Kellenberger said he had seen “no evidence” of anyone wounded by phosphorous bombs, a weapon designed to deploy a smoke screen on the battlefield that Israel has been accused of using in civilian areas.

source : news.yahoo.com

50-member medical team to leave for Gaza next week

LAHORE: A 50-member team of doctors and para-medical staff will go to Palestine next week for the treatment of Palestinian people injured in Israel’s war on Gaza, Dr. Javed Ikram, Principal, Allama Iqbal Medical College said on Tuesday.

Addressing a press conference here, Dr. Ikram said that more than 11, 000 Palestinian men, women and children had sustained injuries. A team of Jinnah Hospital would fly to Palestine for their treatment, he said.

He said that doctors and nurses would bear the expenses themselves. “We need about Rs90 million for the treatment of injured persons. We have collected Rs6 million in just two days,” he said.
source : jang.com.pk

Israel stops Iran’s aid ship to Gaza

TEHRAN: An Iranian ship carrying aid to Gaza was stopped by Israel’s navy on its way towards the Palestinian territory, Iran’s state radio reported on Tuesday.

“An Iranian ship that was carrying foodstuff and medicine was stopped by the Zionist regime’s navy 20 miles off the coast of Gaza,” radio reported, adding that the ship had left the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas 13 days earlier.
source : jang.com.pk

Hamas nearing victory in Gaza conflict: PM Haniya

GAZA CITY: Hamas is nearing victory in its war against Israel, Ismail Haniya, the head of the Islamist movement’s government in the Gaza Strip, said on Monday.

“We are approaching victory,” he said in a televised address.

“The blood which has flowed will not have flowed in vain as it will bring us victory, thanks be to God,” Haniya added on the 17th day of Israel’s offensive which has so far killed more than 900 Palestinians.

source : jang.com.pk

Israel pounds new Hamas targets, enlists reserves

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Israeli warplanes pounded the homes of Hamas leaders and ground troops edged closer to the Gaza Strip’s densely-populated urban center Monday, as Israel stepped up the pressure ahead of deciding whether to escalate its devastating two-week offensive.

From downtown Gaza City black smoke could be seen rising over the eastern suburbs, where the two sides skirmished throughout the night. At least six Palestinians were killed in the new airstrikes or died from their wounds on Monday, Gaza health officials said. One of the dead was a militant killed in a northern Gaza battle.

Despite the tightening Israeli cordon, however, militants still managed to fire off at least four rockets Monday morning. There were no reports of injuries, though one rocket scored a direct hit on a house in the southern city of Ashkelon.

The army announced Sunday that it had begun sending reserve units into Gaza to assist thousands of ground forces already in the territory. The use of reserves is a strong signal that Israel is planning to move the offensive, which already has killed some 870 Palestinians, into a new, more punishing phase.

Israel launched the offensive on Dec. 27, bombarding Gaza with dozens of airstrikes before sending in ground forces a week later. The operation is meant to halt years of Palestinian rocket attacks on southern Israel. Fighting has persisted despite international calls for a cease-fire. Thirteen Israelis, including 10 soldiers, have died.

With Israeli troops already surrounding Gaza’s main population centers, Israeli leaders have given mixed signals on how much further the army is ready to push, saying the operation is close to achieving its goals but vowing to press forward with overwhelming force.

“Israel is a country that reacts vigorously when its citizens are fired upon, which is a good thing,” Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told Israel Radio on Monday. “That is something that Hamas now understands and that is how we are going to react in the future, if they so much as dare fire one missile at Israel.”

Israeli security officials believe they have struck a tough blow against Hamas, killing hundreds of the Islamic militant group’s fighters, including top commanders. The director of the Shin Bet security agency told the Cabinet on Sunday that Hamas leaders in Gaza are ready to surrender.

The army also says Hamas has been avoiding pitched battles against the advancing Israelis, resorting instead to guerrilla tactics as its fighters melt into crowded residential areas.

Maj. Avital Leibovich, an army spokeswoman, said residential neighborhoods in Gaza are riddled with booby traps and explosives, and in some cases dummies are placed at apartment entrances to simulate militants and rigged to explode if soldiers approach.

Hamas, at least publicly, has vowed to continue fighting.

Israeli ground forces made their deepest foray yet into Gaza City on Sunday, with tanks rolling into residential neighborhoods and infantry fighting urban warfare in streets in buildings with Hamas militants, Palestinian residents said.

The army “is advancing more into urban areas,” Leibovich said. “Since the majority of the Hamas militants are pretty much in hiding in those places, mainly urban places, then we operate in those areas.”

Israeli leaders are expected to decide in the next day or two on whether to push the offensive into a third phase — in which the army takes over larger areas of Gaza. This move would require the use of thousands of reserve units massed on the border with Gaza.

A push into densely crowded urban areas would threaten the lives of many more civilians. More than 20,000 Palestinians have already fled Gaza’s rural border areas and crowded into nearby towns, staying with relatives and at U.N. schools turned into makeshift shelters.

International aid groups have repeatedly said Israel must do more to protect Palestinian civilians, who are believed to make up about half of the dead.

Defense officials said several thousand reservists were already in Gaza as part of preparations for the new phase.

Israeli President Shimon Peres thanked hundreds of reservists and wished them luck while visiting a base in southern Israel on Monday.

“I don’t think Israel has ever had an army better trained, organized and sophisticated than you,” he said, according to a statement released by his office.

For the time being, the units have been taking over areas cleared out by the regular troops, allowing those forces to push forward toward new targets. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing classified operational strategy.

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said Israel is “very close” to achieving its three key goals: destroying Hamas‘ military capabilities, ending the rocket fire and preventing it from rearming.

He would not say whether the next phase of the offensive would take place, saying in any case that the reserve units could be used against “quality targets” such as bunkers and command posts.

Early Monday, Israeli navy gunboats fired more than 25 shells at Gaza City, setting fires and shaking office buildings, including the local bureau of The Associated Press. The military said that in general, the targets are Hamas installations but had no immediate information about the shelling that began just after midnight.

German and British envoys pressed efforts to negotiate an end to the war even though Israel and Hamas have ignored a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for an immediate and durable cease-fire.

Israel is demanding an end to years of rocket attacks, as well as international guarantees to prevent Hamas from smuggling weapons into Gaza through the porous Egyptian border. This complex goal would require Egyptian or international help in shutting off the smuggling routes.

Israel has been bombing tunnels that run under the Egypt-Gaza border.

In an e-mail message early Monday, Hamas leader Ismail Radwan said his group would not consider a cease-fire before Israel stops its attacks and pulls back from Gaza. He also demanded opening of all border crossings, emphasizing the Rafah crossing with Egypt.

That would relieve economic pressure on the destitute territory but also strengthen Hamas control of Gaza, an odious prospect for Israelis who fear a halt to the fighting will just give Hamas another opportunity to re-arm.

In Cairo, Egypt’s state-owned news agency reported progress in truce talks with Hamas but provided no specifics. The Middle East News Agency quoted an unnamed Egyptian official as saying talks between the nation’s intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman, and Hamas envoys were “positive.”

International Mideast envoy Tony Blair was in Cairo on Monday, telling reporters that “the elements of an agreement” for a cease-fire are in place.

In Paris, the French foreign minister said Monday that European military observers should be sent to Gaza to monitor any eventual cease-fire.

“There need to be European observers,” Bernard Kouchner said on Europe-1 radio, adding that the group could be expanded to include monitors from other regions. He said they should include military observers, “to testify to the maintained cease-fire.”

Germany’s foreign minister suggested Sunday that Egypt and Israel were favorable to having international experts deployed at the Gaza-Egyptian frontier to stop arms smuggling. Kouchner, however, said Monday that “neither the Egyptians nor the Israelis want international observers on their territory for the moment.”

___

Barzak reported from Gaza City and Federman from Jerusalem.

source : news.yahoo.com