Today in Palestine!

IDF begins Gaza troop withdrawal, hours after ending 3-week offensive
The IDF would not say how many troops it is pulling out, but Channel 10 showed tanks rolling out and smiling infantry soldiers walking toward the border. Some ground forces remained at key points in Gaza amid the withdrawal. “I can confirm that a gradual withdrawal of our forces is under way,” a military source said, refusing to elaborate on when the pullback might be completed

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1056246.html

Hamas announces ceasefire after Israel declares truce

(Reuters) Hamas said today it would cease fire immediately along with other militant groups in the Gaza Strip and give Israel, which already declared a unilateral truce, a week to pull its troops out of the territory. A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said earlier that if a ceasefire held in the Hamas-ruled enclave, Israel could start the process of withdrawing its forces. Leaders from Britain, Egypt, France, Germany, Italy and Turkey and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon were to meet in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh within hours to coordinate policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/hamas-announces-ceasefire-after-israel-declares-truce-1419133.html

Hamas, Islamic Jihad set terms for mutual ceasefire, demand Israeli withdrawal from Gaza

Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip agreed to participate in the ceasefire declared by Israel, on the condition that Israeli troops are out of the Gaza Strip within one week. Factions announced that Israel had not “imposed its conditions” on the resistance, who have sought the removal of Israeli occupation and control over the area for years. The statement highlighted the factions’ readiness to respond to the Egyptian, Turkish, Syrian, and Qatari plans to for a permanent lifting of the siege, and opening of Gaza’s borders.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35089

Israel: Too early to determine withdrawal schedule

Israel will not put a “timetable” on the withdrawal of troops from the Gaza Strip until Hamas and other factions stop attacking them, said Israeli government spokesperson Mark Regev Sunday afternoon. The comments came shortly after a statement from Hamas saying it would agree to the ceasefire so long as Israeli troops leave Gaza within the week. The UN has also called for such a timetable. An Israeli security source said “the next few hours will be a test for the ceasefire” noting that the Israeli army is prepared to respond to any attacks or projectiles.
Another security source noted that troops will remain in Gaza for fear of an escalation in attacks.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35084

Ceasefire: One dead by Israeli fire - medics uncover reeking bodies - at least 1,246 dead - clashes reported

10:16 am 18 Jan - A Gazan farmer is dead and his son injured by Israeli fire less than ten hours after Israel declared a unilateral ceasefire in the Gaza Strip Sunday morning, medical sources confirmed. The farmer was identified as 24-year-old Abd As-Samad Abu Rejlieh, who was shot as he went out to his lands to inspect the damage from the 22-day Israeli incursion. Israeli fire also hit a mother and her daughter in their home in the northern Strip town of Beit Hanoun, both were injured. Medical crews continue to dig bodies out of Gaza rubble. Israeli reconnaissance planes buzzed overhead throughout the night Sunday, and explosions were heard in several parts of the Strip. Israeli shells fell on a group of Rafah residents in the south, and phosphorus bombs landed in the At-Tuffah neighborhood of eastern Gaza City.Gazans also reported that an Israeli helicopter shot at a group in line near a Bank of Palestine ATM in Jabaliya. Eyewitnesses say hundreds of families were seen moving in the streets, heading back to their homes in northern Gaza. One family, caught on film with Al-Jazeera, returned north to the Jabaliya district to find their family home demolished. They dug through the rubble and pulled out more than 25 bodies.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35072

Clashes erupt in northern Gaza; Brigades reported to fire on Israeli troops stationed near Jabaliya

9:45 am 18 Jan - Palestinian factions clashed with Israeli troops still stationed in Gaza Sunday morning, after Israel called a “unilateral ceasefire” to start at 2am the same day. Even before the ceasefire was called, Gaza factions made it clear that a stop to the violence without the total withdrawal of Israeli troops and the opening of Gaza borders would be unacceptable, and fighting would continue. Israeli troops have remained stationed around Gaza City, though they have pulled back from residential areas. They are stationed in the southern Strip between Rafah and Khan Younis, and continue to divide the Strip by forming a physical and military road block between the northern and central sectors at the former Israeli settlement of Netsarim. Militants clashed with troops in the northern Strip near Jabaliya, and others fired several projectiles and Grads into Israel. According to Israeli sources at least seven Grads were fired, and another six projectiles launched towards the western Negev.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35070

Military factions continue to launch projectiles at Israeli targets

12:38 18 Jan - Palestinian military factions continued to launch projectiles at Israeli targets Sunday, and Israeli troops responded to fire in the Strip despite the unilateral Israeli announcement of a ceasefire in the area. The Hizbullah Brigades in Palestine said they launched three projectiles towards Sderot and the western Negev. They are calling their projectile blitz the “Blaze of Gaza,” said a statement from the group Sunday.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35079

Al Jazeera Video: Destroyed homes greet returning Gazans
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tI7jXaO41M

Wounded Gaza girl found in abandoned home

Her relatives thought they had buried her, but Amira Kurim was found wounded and shell-shocked on Saturday in an abandoned Gaza City apartment. Relatives of 14-year-old Amira were convinced she had died in the same round of shelling that killed her father, sister and brother last Wednesday. Medics found their bodies, along with their father’s on Friday. Relatives believed that body parts found nearby were those of Amira. Amira was reunited Saturday with her mother from whom she’d been separated for years by her parents’ divorce.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3657812,00.html

Ma`an journalist finds young girl near death hiding from gunfire in his home

For two days 15-year-old Amira’s wound bled without medical treatment. She fled her home, and the dead bodies of her father and two brothers, to an abandoned apartment. She only had a bucket of water, no blankets or first aid equipment for two days as she hid in the building. It was the home of Ma`an journalist Emad Eid that she found. Emad had moved his family to a different, safer area of Gaza City... The medics told me what it means for a small girl to have only five units of blood left. They told me that she was between living and dead. “Forgive me, I entered your house without your permission,” she said to me when I found her on my mother’s bed....
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35083

Samouni family members found dead in Gaza rubble

International human rights activists have witnessed the recovery of dead members of the Samouni family. Several bodies of the Samouni family have finally been retrieved, 12 days after an attack by Israeli military forces that led to the death of an unknown number of family members. Red Crescent ambulance crews finally gained access to the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City on 18 January 2009. The family was killed in their home by an Israeli air-strike on January 6th, but their bodies could not be recovered until recently due to ongoing Israeli operations in the area. Seven family members including men, women and children, were retrieved from the rubble. At least 13 family members are still unaccounted for.
http://palsolidarity.org/2009/01/4463

95 more bodies uncovered in Gaza

With the Israeli ceasefire in effect, the dimensions of the death and devastation in Gaza are becoming more apparent. At least 95 bodies were found Sunday morning in different areas of the Gaza Strip, including the bodies of 17 members of the same family. Sunday’s discovery brings the Palestinian death toll since the start of Operation Cast Lead to 1,300 people, with over 5,400 people injured.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3658078,00.html

Nine-year-old girl, shot twice by Israeli snipers as her family sought refuge in Al-Quds Hospital, has died

(with videos) Haneen al-Batran, a nine year old girl who was shot in the face and abdomen by Israeli snipers as her family ran to the AL-Quds hospital in Tel al-Hawa, died at 5pm on January 16th.
http://palsolidarity.org/2009/01/4418

It was an otherwise beautiful day when Haitham watched his cousin burn to near death

Seventeen-year-old cousins Mohammad and Haitham were playing marbles outside of their home in the central Gaza Strip when a bomb was launched over their heads. The bomb landed next to the boys and set Mohammad aflame. His cousin watched as he burned. Mohammed is still unconscious in an Egyptian hospital. Their village, Al-Qarara, does not have any resistance factions or police stations nearby; it is four kilometers away from the Gaza-Israel border. It is slightly north of the Al-Quds Open University in Khan Younis. Mohammad took a direct hit from a white phosphorus bomb. He was knocked unconscious and sustained serious burns all over his body. He was taken to hospital where medical staff was unable to revive him. The boy was then transferred to Egypt for medical treatment. When he reached Egypt doctors asked what sort of weapon caused his burns....
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35066

Humanitarian situation

Gaza hospital appeals for nursing reinforcements
Nasser Medical Compound in Khan Younis issued an urgent appeal for nurses in the Gaza Strip, according to a statement. The hospital said it is calling on Arab nursing unions and international organizations working in healthcare to “urgently send nursing staff” to the Gaza Strip to fill a large void there. A number of nurses, specifically in surgery, intensive care and emergency services, are particularly in need due to fatigue brought on by three weeks of intense violence in Gaza. The appeal came as a Jordanian delegation of medical staff arrived to treat the injured in Israel’s war on Gaza.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35093

Israel opens field clinic at Gaza border to treat Palestinian wounded

Israel opened a small field clinic on the Gaza border Sunday to treat sick and wounded Gazans, but a human rights group said the move on the day a fragile truce took hold after a bloody three-month offensive was too little, too late. Welfare Minister Isaac Herzog, who attended the clinic opening in the Erez crossing pedestrian zone, said the clinic would treat as many people as possible. “I wish this place will serve as a place of humanity, friendship and support for the needy,” Herzog said. One Palestinian woman was already being treated in the eight-bed clinic that includes a pharmacy, an X-ray machine and five consultation rooms. The patient blessed the clinic from her hospital bed, although her ailment was unclear. Miri Weingarten of Physicians for Human Rights-Israel said the Israeli army has repeatedly refused her group’s requests to evacuate wounded Gazans during the war, and called the border clinic too little, too late. “We think that it demonstrates a cynical use of medical care for propaganda, meaning that when Israel wants to correct its public image, it can and will evacuate the wounded,” Weingarten said.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1056526.html

PA Health Ministry: Israel never built Gaza clinic
The Palestinian Authority (PA) on Sunday denied reports from Israel that it had set up an “emergency treatment center” on Saturday at the Erez crossing into Gaza. The PA Health Ministry said neither had the clinic been opened nor had Palestinians been transferred to hospitals inside Israel for treatment, according to a statement ... According to Israel, by 2:00 pm on Sunday a clinic would be opened as “part of the Israeli government’s humanitarian efforts to assist the civilian population of Gaza.” The statement adds that the clinic was established in coordination with the PA’s health and welfare ministers, as well as the Red Cross. But the PA’s Health Ministry says no such thing was established.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35082

’Better than yesterday’: a conversation with John Ging

John Ging, head of UNRWA operations in Gaza, spoke with IRIN by phone from Gaza City on 17 and 18 January. “Bringing in goods from Kerem Shalom [border crossing] is a day’s effort, at least 16 hours, then the supplies have to be unloaded and the goods prepared for distribution.

Today [17 January] 50 trucks entered via Kerem Shalom, but we need hundreds of trucks. The needs are growing exponentially and the pipeline for humanitarian supplies is very narrow. Even those, such as Palestinian Authority employees, who were not dependent [on UNRWA assistance], have become dependent. There is nothing on the market and there is no cash. Aid - emergency supplies, food and medical - is coming in through Rafah.”
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35088

Olmert: Crossings closed but more aid to flow into Strip

Israel will keep its borders with Gaza sealed, but has promised to allow more humanitarian aid convoys into the area, said Israeli Government spokesperson Mark Regev Sunday. Regev said borders would remain sealed until captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit is released. There has been no word on Shalilt’s condition, or whether he remained safe during the Israeli onslaught. Throughout the Israeli war on Gaza military spokespeople did not mention the safe release of Shalit as an aim in the operation.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35068

Israel stops aid convoy en route to Gaza from Hebron

Israeli authorities seized a UN aid convoy en route to the Gaza Strip in the southern West Bank on Sunday, Palestinian sources claimed. Witnesses said the UN trucks and two trailers, which belong to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, were all collected en route to Gaza on Sunday.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35090

Donations fall short of the need created by Israeli policy

The Director of the World Food Programme of the United Nations, Josette Sheeran, said that in light of the real humanitarian problem suffered by the Gaza Strip, at least 81 million USD is needed. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Economic Development Forum in Kuwait today, Sheeran said the aid is needed “fast.” She said, "What is needed urgently in Gaza is electricity, water and food. With the immediate need in the Gaza Strip estimated at at least 81 million, rebuilding plans suggest more than half a billion dollars. Although thousands of people are donating, Sheeran explained on Saturday that no more than seven and a half million dollars had been raised through voluntary contributions.
http://imemc.org/article/58519

Testimony/Eyewitnesses

’People still afraid’

As Gazans start to venture out on to the streets again after 22 days of bombardment by the Israeli military, residents share their firsthand experience with Al Jazeera —Taghreed El-Khodary, a resident of Gaza City: "This is the first time that we, in a week, slept and Al Jazeera tonight, today woke me up. I am hearing the drones still hovering in the skies of Gaza, continuously of course, to remind us that the Israelis are saying: ’We are still here.’
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/01/200911872210319480.html

’I waited for my fate,’ says Gaza father

A farmer’s attempt to flee to safety with his two sons fails when Israeli soldiers fire on their car. It takes 20 hours for an ambulance to get to them.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-gaza-sons18-2009jan18,0,2355988.story

Interview with Sharon Locke from Al-Quds Hospital
15th January 2009: Interview with Sharon Locke of the International Solidarity Movement from within Al Quds Hospital, Tel al Huwa neighbourhood.
http://palsolidarity.org/2009/01/4415

Surviving in the ’Palestinian wing’

By Dina Makram-Ebeid writing from Cairo. Seeing Hedaya slowly regain her smile and her strength is so comforting. At every visit, her beautiful facial features appear more visible and distinct. Um Nayef, her elder sister who accompanied her from Gaza to Cairo, in turn embraces me warmly when I come in and with the Palestinian dialect says ishtanalik, we miss you. I grin and hug her back. We sit down, share a few jokes about Hedaya’s health and exchange hellos with whoever is in the room. There are always visitors at Maahad Nasser Hospital coming to wish the injured well, ask about their families and provide assistance.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10207.shtml

Hani Almadhoun: Chronicles of my Gaza family

Being from Gaza these days is a burden. Everyone who knows me is asking about my family. And all I can answer is how they were four days ago when I could reach them last. They have no electricity now, and I can only hope they are alright. I can tell you how they were when I last checked on them. My cousin Rabah’s house was hit directly by an Israeli strike. This is tragic irony. Rabah opposes Hamas deeply. But missiles do not care about such things. His brother Yehia, also a critic of Hamas, is a local journalist. His office was hit.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hani-almadhoun/chronicles-of-my-gaza-fam_b_158793.html

No honeymoons in Gaza

By Eva Bartlett. Wael Selmi displayed a surprising kindness and welcome — you are welcome any time — given that his life’s work had just been leveled by the invading Israeli army. Even more surprising, given that the brothers’ furniture factory in northern Gaza was destroyed by the Israeli army four years ago, causing $300,000 in damage and losses. They’d had it just two years at the time. Along with that ruined factory, the family owns agricultural land which they cannot access near the Erez crossing. At 4am on 13 January, two Israeli F-16 warplane missiles destroyed the sea-side Jazeera hotel and the next door Shihab hotel, leaving the Jazeera, in particular, skeletal, with entrails of concrete and wiring dangling from ceiling to floor, and with other random survivors testifying what had been: matching, semi-intact chairs clustered in a corner, marbled stairs and tiled walls. Amer and Wael Selmi co-invested in the project two years ago, putting $2 million into construction and related costs. The Selmis aimed for the summer wedding season, and for conferences and conventions.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10203.shtml

War Crimes

’Tungsten bombs’ leave Israel’s victims with mystery wounds

Erik Fosse, a Norwegian doctor who worked in Gaza’s hospitals during the conflict, said that Israel was using so-called Dime (dense inert metal explosive) bombs designed to produce an intense explosion in a small space. “It was as if they had stepped on a mine, but there was no shrapnel in the wounds,” he said. “Some had lost their legs. It looked as though they had been sliced off. I have been to war zones for 30 years, but I have never seen such injuries before.” While the loudest controversy has been over accusations that white phosphorus was illegally used, other foreign doctors working in Gaza have reported injuries they cannot explain. Professor Mohammed Sayed Khalifa, a cardiac consultant from Sudan, said that two of his patients had had uncontrollable bleeding. “Something was interfering with the clotting process.” Dr Ahmed Almi, an Egyptian cardio-thoracic consultant at al-Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, said he had seen a number of patients with inexplicable injuries. A boy of 14 had a small puncture wound in his head, but extensive damage to his brain, making it impossible to save his life. “I don’t know the nature or type of these weapons that make a very small [entry wound] and go on and make massive destruction in the tissues,” he said. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/tungsten-bombs-leave-israels-victims-with-mystery-wounds-1418910.html

Al Jazeera video: Weapons expert talks on Israel ’phosphorus use’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPw-mqGkL9M

Israel accused of war crimes over 12-hour assault on Gaza village

White flags ignored and houses bulldozed with families inside, claim residents By Fida Qishta in Khuza’a and Peter Beaumont in London. Israel stands accused of perpetrating a series of war crimes during a sustained 12-hour assault on a village in southern Gaza last week in which 14 people died. In testimony collected from residents of the village of Khuza’a by the Observer, it is claimed that Israeli soldiers entering the village:• attempted to bulldoze houses with civilians inside; • killed civilians trying to escape under the protection of white flags;• opened fire on an ambulance attempting to reach the wounded;• used indiscriminate force in a civilian area and fired white phosphorus shells. If the allegations are upheld, all the incidents would constitute breaches of the Geneva conventions.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/18/israel-war-crimes-gaza-conflict

Resistance

Al Quds Brigades say 18 soldiers killed in 22 days

Islamic Jihad’s Al-Quds Brigades lost 34 fighters during the Israeli onslaught in Gaza and launched 262 projectiles at Israeli targets, according to their spokesperson on Sunday. Of the projectiles launched, said the spokesperson, 158 were at Ashkelon, Sderot, Kfar Azza, Nahal Oz, Nir Oz, Be’eri, Nirim, Niftahim and Eshkol. They claimed to have injured 16 Israeli “settlers” in the attacks and caused structural damage to homes and public properties. The Brigades said they fired 77 mortars at Megan, Kissufim and gatherings of armored vehicles in the north-central and southeast areas of Gaza, injuring a number of Israeli soldiers. There were 27 RPGs and 32 explosive charges detonated at armored vehicles and undercover units of the Israeli army, according to the Brigades. Seven Israeli soldiers were shot, and at least 18 killed and 56 injured as the Brigades detonated explosives in homes where troops were taking cover, the Brigades spokesperson said. There was no way to independently verify the claims The Israeli military insists just 10 soldiers were killed in the Gaza fighting.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35091

DFLP: Israeli ceasefire proves strength of Brigades; unity behind resisters essential

Olmert’s decision to call a unilateral ceasefire shows the endurance of the resistance factions against the Israeli invasion into Gaza, said a Sunday statement from the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP). The ceasefire is the result of the “legendary endurance of the Palestinian people in Gaza Strip and the worldwide reaction which has pressured the Israeli government,” said the statement. The document affirmed that without an Israeli withdrawal from the Strip than factions would never agree to a ceasefire, and further demand that the borders to the strip remain open for goods and citizens.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35075

Likud MP admits failure of Israeli military aggression on Gaza

NAZARETH, (PIC)— Israeli Likud lawmaker Yisrael Katz admitted the failure of the Israeli military aggression on the Gaza Strip, asserting that Israel did not achieve its goals in the war which resulted in hundreds of casualties in the ranks of its troops. Katz said that the military operation in Gaza did not succeed after Israeli premier Ehud Olmert announced a unilateral ceasefire, pointing out that Israel neither eliminated the strength of the Palestinian resistance factions, nor reached an agreement to stop arms supplies to Gaza or get Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit released
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7b%2f5s39vxxjnWTP8HpK9ZuoB5Y6n5ZKabAToDqt4vtEBGYsjabW6IFV%2bgSG2IfC2kxeS6zqupn%2byB5gv5LUzYxHY%2fC0uDQ6n1n31Iu8P0wK8%3d

West Bank and Israel

Israel to annex lands from Bethlehem villages in order to expand Gush Etzion settlement bloc
The Israeli army has decided to annex lands from the Palestinian villages of Husan and Nahhalin, near Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank. The decision, sighed by Noam Tibon, the general Israeli military commander in the occupied West Bank, states that Israel will annex more than 24 Dunams of Palestinian lands. The lands would be used for the expansion of Gush Atzion settlement bloc which was build on Palestinian lands annexed from its owners west of Bethlehem and north of Hebron. Khalid Al Azza stated that this land grab order is part of the “greater Jerusalem” Israeli plan which aims at illegally annexing more Palestinian lands, expand settlements on them and expand the Jerusalem boundaries in order to void any furture peace talks on Jerusalem. So far, the Greater Jerusalem Plan has annexed 72.000 Dunams, most of them agricultural lands, while Israel is still attempting to annex more lands while the international commmunity remains idle.
http://www.imemc.org/article/58513

Closures in Huwwara and Beita villages

At 3am on January 17th, Israeli Occupation Forces invaded the villages of Huwwara and Beita. In Huwwara, they closed off the main street and used rubble from nearby construction sites to block side streets while several jeeps took up positions at either end of the village. While no official curfew was announced, several village residents were prevented from walking the streets. The head of Huwwara’s municipality was also prevented from entering his home. Nearly 12 hours later, around 3pm, the IOF withdrew from the villages having made no arrests. The army claimed that they were punishing the villages for alleged rock throwing at settlers from the illegal Yitzhar settlement. The IOF originally threatened to maintain the closures for several days if the villages didn’t hand over those responsible for throwing rocks. This act of collective punishment was not only damaging for residents of these two villages. The main street in Huwwara is part of the major road connecting Ramallah and Nablus. By blocking this road, the IOF were disrupting travel for hundreds of Palestinians from these cities as well.
http://palsolidarity.org/2009/01/4449

Israeli army seizes Palestinian boy they say was carrying knife

Soldiers detained a boy near the Al-Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron’s Old City on Sunday, according to local sources. The boy, Mu’taz Abed Al-Mu’z, 15, was reportedly on his way home in the Abu Sneinah neighborhood when soldiers stopped him and after a search, arrested him for carrying a knife. Israeli authorities did not announce a pretense for the search but residents say soldiers often randomly search Palestinians of all ages, and that such behavior has gone on for years.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35095

Israel arrests more children in first two weeks of 2009 than in any month in 2008

Most of the arrests are of children participating in demonstrations against Israeli aggression in the Gaza Strip, though DCI said it was not able to get statements from all of the children to confirm the allegations. This is in conjunction with reports of hundreds of Palestinian adults being detained by Israeli forces both in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Israel.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35086

Israel’s largest-ever reserve of natural gas discovered off Haifa coast
(article on site damaged)...ceipt of further data from the drill site, the estimated reserves of natural gas are likely even to increase," the company said in a statement. Tamar is a joint venture between the U.S. company Noble Energy (36%), Isramco (28.9%), Delek Drilling and Avner Oil and Gas Exploration. It is named after the grand-daughter of geologist Yossi Langotsky. [now maybe they’ll let Gaza enjoy its own gas field?]
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1056469.html

Media, Propaganda

The violence network

It’s biased, gruesome, and totally compelling. How Al-Jazeera makes one American think differently about war — But in a larger sense, Al-Jazeera’s graphic response to CNN-style “bloodless war journalism” is a stinging rebuke to the way we now see and talk about war in the United States. It suggests that bloodless coverage of war is the privilege of a country far from conflict. Al-Jazeera’s brand of news - you could call it “blood journalism” - takes war for what it is: a brutal loss of human life....For an American, to watch Al-Jazeera’s coverage of Gaza is to realize that you’ve become alienated not just from war, but even from the representation of war as a real thing.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/01/18/the_violence_network/

The propaganda of a terrorist state

“The Jewish residents of Sderot, Netivot, Be’er Sheva and Ofakim are literally starving, afraid to risk their lives to go in search of food and, just as likely, not find it.” Israel tries to deny the Palestinians even the right to suffer from its terrorism and its sieges. Toward that end, they lie and cheat and fabricate. Here is an example: this mouthpice of Israeli terrorism is trying to mimic the suffering of the Palestinian people.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2009/01/propaganda-of-terrorist-state.html

Steven Erlanger: worried about the anguish of Israeli killers

I am not sure whether the top Israeli propaganda award should go to Steven Elranger or Ethan Bronner or Isabel Kershner of the Times. I mean all three did their best to explain and justifiy Israeli crimes against Palestinian civilians. Look at this article by Erlanger: “Whatever the military and political results of Israel’s 21-day war against Hamas in Gaza, Israel is again facing serious accusations and anguished questioning over the legality of its military conduct.” I always wait for the word “anguish” which is often used in Zionist propaganda to refer to “the suffering” of...the Israeli killers. So if the massacres of butchery by Israel reaches a certain point, some “liberal” Zionists express concern for the “anguish” of the Israeli killers.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2009/01/steven-erlanger-worried-about-anguish.html

Collaborators, Hamas-Fatah split

The plot against Gaza

Israel has justified its assault on Gaza as entirely defensive, intended only to stop Hamas firing rockets on Israel’s southern communities. Although that line has been repeated unwaveringly by officials since Israel launched its attack on 27 December, it bears no basis to reality. Rather, this is a war against the Palestinians of Gaza, and less directly those in the West Bank, designed primarily to crush their political rights and their hopes of statehood. Jonathan Cook comments.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10202.shtml

200+ sign document condemning PA inaction, calling for national struggle government

(17 Jan) More than 200 Palestinian political and civil society leaders and scholars signed a petition stating their position as with the Palestinian resistance and with the people of Gaza who are still under Israeli fire. The document went further and rejected the actions of the Palestinian Authority in repressing the demonstrations against the Israeli actions in Gaza. The PA has stationed police and Special Forces at gathering sites around the West Bank every Friday since the Gaza invasion began.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35063

Bardaweel: Abbas’ spies played essential role in killing Siyam

CAIRO, (PIC)— Palestinian lawmaker and Hamas’s political leader MP Dr. Salah Al-Bardaweel has plainly accused Mahmoud Abbas of direct involvement in the Israeli war on Gaza and in assassinating Hamas’s senior political leader Sa’eed Siyam. In a statement he made to the PIC, Bardaweel explained that Abbas was directly involved in the Israeli war on Gaza through his spies in the Gaza Strip who were informing on the whereabouts of the homes of Hamas’s leaders. “We had arrested a number of them [Abbas’s spies] prior to the Israeli assault, and we found with them plans showing homes of Hamas’s leaders, and places where Hamas stores its weapons. They [the spies] have admitted their guilt and told us names of their masters, who would, in turn, inform the Israeli intelligence apparatuses of that information in order to facilitate the Israeli mission”, he added.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7USFyJqI8BczM0K6RJbhBUMATZQViS%2bLzP%2fIUZqwDF7Xm8jGvn2KGY%2bnpXgTGaUSrT5lXn%2fPV66M2AL1rIjLKyjA%2fYYwy8qkafVis4ROL8c8%3d

Interview: Gaza reconstruction offer deepens split: Palestinian PM
RAMALLAH, West Bank, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said on Sunday that international donors keen to rebuild the Hamas-run Gaza Strip risk deepening a political rift by ignoring the Palestinian Authority’s role. Fayyad and senior Western diplomats said this week European leaders and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had proposed to the Palestinian Authority setting up an interim international committee that would fund and organise aid directed towards reconstruction of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. “I have a political difficulty with this mechanism. It assumes separation between Gaza and the West Bank will continue, and, in not addressing the issue of separation, it may indeed lead to reinforcing it,” Fayyad told Reuters in an interview.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LI211155.htm

Interview with House of Saud advocate

Saudi newspaper, Ukaz, published a really tough interview with the director of King Fahd’s brother-in-law’s TV station, Al-Arabiyya. It was surprisingly a tough interview and the interviewer shared with him Arab (including Saudi) criticisms and condemnation of the station. I read on it a Saudi sleaze website but could not find the text on the site of Ukaz. And then there was this question to `Abdur-Rahman Ar-Rashid (a former editor of Prince Salman’s mouthpiece): "If we tracked your interviews with guests, one notices that your guests are biased in favor of that point of view..There is for example Dahlan, who has a position biased in favor of Israel, and even the Fatah folks have denounced him, and he was ignored and you brought him in the first days of the Israeli attack....Ar-Rashid said that Dahlan appeared only once.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2009/01/interview-with-house-of-saud-advocate.html

Solidarity

Europeans keep up protests against Gaza war

(AFP) Thousands of protesters calling for Israel to stop its military campaign in Gaza rallied in European cities Saturday... “What we want is to remind the people of Israel of Jewish suffering and to call on them to show solidarity with the suffering of the civilians in Gaza,” said Bosnian film director Jasmila Zbanic, referring to the yellow armbands that Jews were forced to wear during the Holocaust. “We who have survived the (Sarajevo) siege know that aggression is a horrific act,” she added.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jcp_aHs21MvFEKwuvRGbu5Bq83mA

British Jews attacked for pro-Gaza solidarity

British Jews have been attacked for expressing support for Palestinians suffering under Israeli military strikes in Gaza. Police confirmed yesterday that they have provided protection to a number of people believed to be victims of UK-based Zionist extremists angered by expressions of solidarity with Palestinians.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/british-jews-attacked-for-progaza-solidarity-1418909.html

Society of French Millers donates 22 tons of flour to Gaza; aid arrives on French plane to Tel Aviv

The second French plane in a week arrived in Tel Aviv Saturday, delivering 55 tons of aid for the people of Gaza. The French have sent more than 91 tons in total, including food and medical supplies. The supplies, to be delivered to Gazans through the Israeli crossings Kerem Shalom and Nahal Oz, and will be distributed by the UN, WHO and UNRWA. The supplies include 27 tons of meat delivered from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 22 tons of flour from the French society of millers, six tons of medical supplies and clothes from the municipalities of southern France. [End]
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35064

Qatar closes Israeli trade office over Gaza op, expels staff from country

The Qatar News Agency says the head of the Israeli trade office was summoned Sunday morning and given a memorandum containing the decision to close the office, according to the Foreign Ministry. QNA said the office’s staff have seven days to leave the country. Qatar is the only Gulf Arab state to have ties with Israel.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1056487.html

Petition: Academics for Justice in Palestine

By UK Academics - London. ...We believe Israel should immediately and unconditionally end its assault on Gaza, end the occupation of the West Bank, and abandon all claims to possess or control territory beyond its 1967 borders. We call on the British government and the British people to take all feasible steps to oblige Israel to comply with these demands, starting with a programme of boycott, divestment and sanctions. [very long list of signatures follows]
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14685

Palestinian children hold a candle procession in Nablus

The Nablus Society for Social Development and its Darna Center for Youth Initiative, the Ansar Al Insan Charitable Society, and a rehabilitation committee for the physically challenged, held on Sunday a candle procession for children in Nablus, in the northern part of the West Bank, in solidarity with the children in Gaza.
http://www.imemc.org/article/58514

’Unity of Ni`lin to Gaza urgently’

On the 17th of January 2009, residents of Ni’lin began a collection of clothes and food to be sent to the besieged people of Gaza. Calls from the mosques announced that contributions of clothes, shoes and food could be brought to the village center.
http://palsolidarity.org/2009/01/4416