Israel 01 (Jun 08 - Dec 09)

[winston]

Until and unless the UN have their own troops to enforce any UN Security Council resolutions, this will continue to be an impotent organization.

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UN chief demands immediate truce in Gaza

• Israeli tanks advance in Gaza as toll passes 900
• UN rights council condemns Israeli offensive in Gaza
• Obama vows Mideast peace effort from "day one"

UNITED NATIONS: UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Monday demanded an immediate end to the fighting in the Gaza Strip, as he prepared to travel to the Middle East in hopes of speeding a truce between Israel and Hamas.

"My message is simple, direct and to the point: the fighting must stop," Ban said in his first press conference of the year.

"Too many people have died," he added. "There has been too much civilian suffering."

"In Gaza, the very foundation of society is being destroyed: people's homes, civic infrastructure, public health facilities and schools," the Secretary General said.

Ban insisted that the call by the UN Security Council last week for an immediate Gaza ceasefire, which both Israel and Hamas have ignored so far "must be observed."

"We have a Security Council resolution demanding an immediate and enduring ceasefire. This resolution must be observed," he declared.

The UN chief was to leave on Tuesday for his Middle East tour that will also take him to Israel, the West Bank city of Ramallah, Jordan, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and Kuwait, where he was to attend an Arab League summit next Monday.

"The primary objective of the (Ban) visit is a ceasefire and the protection of the civilians in Gaza," UN spokeswoman Michele Montas earlier told a press briefing.

Egypt was holding separating separate meetings in Cairo with both Hamas and the Israelis, which Ban said he hoped would bear fruit.

Egypt has been trying to broker a ceasefire between Gaza's ruling Islamist Hamas group and Israel, which responded to Hamas rocket attacks with a military offensive in the besieged Palestinian territory on December 27 that has killed at least 918 people.

"I expect the parties now meeting in Cairo to do what is required. They must agree to the elements of an immediate ceasefire," said Ban, who was due in Cairo on Wednesday for talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit and Arab League chief Amr Mussa.

"At a minimum, that means a halt to rocket attacks by Hamas militants and a withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. It is time to stop the killing and the destruction."

Of the at least 918 Palestinians killed some 277 were children, while another 4,100 people have been wounded since the start of the Israeli onslaught, according to Gaza medics.

Ten Israeli soldiers and three civilians have been killed in combat or in rocket attacks since the operation began.

Ban said he was "deeply anguished" by the suffering of the people of Gaza but said he was unlikely to visit the strife-torn territory.

He added that as soon as a truce is declared, he planned to send an assessment team to Gaza "to determine the extent of damage and the humanitarian needs."

Also on Wednesday, Ban was to pay a brief visit to Amman for talks with King Abdullah II. On Thursday, the UN boss was to confer in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Ban was also to visit the West Bank city of Ramallah for talks with Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad and president Mahmud Abbas before making a brief stop in Turkey for talks with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

He was next to head for Beirut for talks with President Michel Sleiman, Prime Minister Fuad Siniora and Lebanon's parliament speaker Nabih Berri. Ban also planned a visit to the headquarters of the UN force deployed in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL).

A side trip was also planned to Damascus for talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad before the UN chief heads to Kuwait next Monday to attend a summit of the Arab League, Montas said.

Ban was due back here on January 20, the day US president-elect Barack Obama is to be inaugurated in Washington, and said he would ask the new US leader "to take over the Middle East issue as a priority."

Meanwhile, British ex-premier Tony Blair, now a peace envoy for the international community, said after meeting Mubarak that the elements for an immediate Gaza truce are in place and talks were "at a sensitive and delicate" stage.

Blair said details included an end to the smuggling of weapons into Gaza and the opening of border crossing into the Palestinian territory. - AFP/de

[winston]

Group accuses Israel of firing white phosphorus into Gaza
Researchers in Israel saw bursts of white phosphorus over Gaza, group says

White phosphorus can burn people, set structures on fire
Protocol allows use when "not specifically designed to cause burn injury to persons"
Group: Use in densely populated Gaza would violate international humanitarian law

By Ben Wedeman
CNN


JERUSALEM (CNN) -- The international group Human Rights Watch is accusing Israel of firing weapons containing white phosphorus into Gaza. The group demands that the alleged practice cease.

Israel is declining to say whether bursts like this over Gaza involve white phosphorus.

The group's researchers in Israel "observed multiple air-bursts of artillery-fired white phosphorus over what appeared to be the Gaza City/Jabaliya area" on Friday and Saturday, the organization said on its Web site.

"Israel appeared to be using white phosphorus as an 'obscurant' [a chemical used to hide military operations], a permissible use in principle" under the laws of war, the HRW posting said.

"However, white phosphorus has a significant, incidental, incendiary effect that can severely burn people and set structures, fields, and other civilian objects in the vicinity on fire," the posting said. "The potential for harm to civilians is magnified by Gaza's high population density, among the highest in the world."

HRW said the use of white phosphorus in Gaza would violate "the requirement under international humanitarian law to take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian injury and loss of life."

Last week, an Israel Defense Forces spokesman told CNN: "I can tell you with certainty that white phosphorus is absolutely not being used."

Now, however, Israeli officials have a different response to questions about the possible use of phosphorus: "Any munitions that Israel is using are in accordance with international law. Israel does not specify the types of munitions or the types of operations it is conducting."

Still, a doctor familiar with the material said it is not possible to tell, based on pictures of burns, whether white phosphorus was responsible.

"Dead tissue pretty much looks the same," said Dr. Peter Grossman, president of the Grossman Burn Center in Sherman Oaks, California.

The chemical "can burn down houses and cause horrific burns when it touches the skin," said Marc Garlasco, senior military analyst at Human Rights Watch.

Aid worker: Gaza blockade lacks all humanity
Since January 3, when Israel began its ground offensive in Gaza, news reports have circulated about the possible use of white phosphorus by the IDF.

HRW's assertion was supported by munitions experts and some Palestinian doctors, including Nafiz Abu Sha'aban, who said the burns it caused were unlike anything he has seen in 27 years of practice. Watch footage of burn patients in Gaza

Though most severely burned patients have been sent to Egypt, the ongoing fighting has made it impossible to evacuate all of them, including one man with deep burns over 47 percent of his body, the doctor said.

White phosphorus is known to burn flesh down to the bone.

It's intended to provide illumination or to create a smokescreen in battle. Under an international protocol ratified by Israel in 1995, the use of such incendiary weapons is allowed when "not specifically designed to cause burn injury to persons."

There is no prohibition per se against white phosphorus in conflict. But the timing and location of its use are restricted.

For example, it is illegal under the protocol to use white phosphorus against any personnel, civilian or military. It can be directed only against military targets. International law says incendiary weapons cannot be used where civilians are concentrated.

A house north of Gaza City was hit Sunday by something that observers contend may have been white phosphorus.

[winston]

Uncontrollable fire rages at U.N. relief agency's HQ in Gaza as compound hit by artillery, agency's local director says.

*Get more from CNN International*

5 more days to go ...

[winston]

Hamas announces one-week truce after Israel ceasefire

GAZA CITY (AFP) - - Palestinian militants announced a one-week ceasefire Sunday after Israel called a unilateral halt to its massive offensive on Gaza, as medics pulled dozens of bodies from the rubble of bombed-out homes.

After exchanges of gunfire and an air strike punctured what Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert acknowledged was a "fragile" ceasefire, Gaza's Islamist rulers Hamas and other armed groups said they would silence their guns for the next seven days to give Israeli troops a chance to withdraw from the territory.

"We in the Palestinian resistance movements announce a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and demand that enemy forces withdraw in a week and open all the border crossings to permit the entry of humanitarian aid and basic goods," Mussa Abu Marzuk, the deputy leader of Hamas's politburo, said in Damascus.

Dawud Shihab, a Gaza-based spokesman for Islamic Jihad, a smaller armed faction, said the truce would give an opportunity for Arab governments to put pressure on Israel to withdraw all its troops.

"During this period, the resistance is ready to respond to all efforts by the Egyptians, Turks, Syrians and Arabs that will allow for a total withdrawal of Israeli soldiers and the total opening of border crossings," he told AFP.

Meanwhile an international summit of European and Arab leaders aimed at shoring up the truce began in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh while officials in Cairo held talks with Hamas in a bid to consolidate the ceasefire.

Olmert announced late Saturday that he had ordered an end to offensive operations in Gaza after 22 days of combat but added that troops would remain in the territory and would fire back if they came under fresh attack.

After the ceasefire came into effect at 2:00 am (0000 GMT), Gaza enjoyed its first bomb-free night in over three weeks but there was soon signs that it was unravelling.

As militants fired rockets and Israel launched retaliatory air strikes, troops shot dead an eight-year-old girl in the northern town of Beit Hanun and a 20-year-old man near southern Khan Yunis, medics said.

"The government's decision allows Israel to respond and renew the fire if our enemy in the Gaza Strip continues its strikes," Olmert said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem.

"This morning they again proved that the ceasefire is fragile and it has to be reassessed on a minute by minute basis," he said. "We hope that the fire ends. If it continues, the IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) will respond."

Palestinian medics took advantage of the halt in Israel's deadliest offensive on Gaza to rush to areas which had been inaccessible due to furious fighting, pulling at least 95 bodies from the rubble, including those of several children.

The discoveries brought the overall death toll since Israel launched its Operation Cast Lead on December 27 to at least 1,300, the medics said.

On the ground, as Hamas congratulated the Palestinians on "victory" from mosque loudspeakers, Gaza residents cautiously ventured out into the streets to survey the rubble that was once their homes.

"We congratulate all the Palestinian people after the victory in the fight with the enemy," bellowed a voice from a Hamas mosque in central Gaza City.

Meanwhile Yahia Karin, 54, surveyed the damage in Zeitun, his neighbourhood in southern Gaza that was the scene of some of the most furious battles between Israeli ground troops and Hamas militants.

"Everything has been completely destroyed," he said looking at the charred pile of rubble on the spot where he once lived.

On the diplomatic front, Egypt was hosting an international summit on Sunday attended by several European leaders and UN chief Ban Ki-moon.

Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, said on Saturday his country "will continue its efforts as soon as there is a ceasefire to restore the truce and lift the blockade" imposed by Israel on crossing points into Gaza after Hamas seized power in the territory in June 2007.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas repeated his call for a complete withdrawal of all Israeli forces from Gaza and the re-opening of the enclave's border crossings, saying Israel's truce was "important and necessary but insufficient."

Reacting to the announcement from Damascus, government spokesman Mark Regev stressed that Israel was not a partner to any agreement with Hamas, a group which is sworn to the Jewish state's destruction.

"If Hamas does not attack Israel and does not provoke Israel, we will honour the ceasefire," he said.

[kennynah]

Obama pledges to work for "durable peace" in the Middle East
1/21/2009 11:38 AM ET

(RTTNews) - In his first phone call to a foreign leader after assuming office as the U.S. President, Barack Obama promised Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas to work towards a "durable peace" in the Middle East.

The Palestinian presidency spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeina said that President Obama also assured that his administration will be President Abbas' partner in establishing the Palestinian associations, achieving peace, and reconstruction.

Wednesday's call follows a promise by Obama to get involved in peacemaking in the region from "day one" of his presidency.
During his inauguration speech on Tuesday, Obama pledged a new approach to the Muslim world.

The moderate Islamic organization Fatah, led by Abbas, governs in the West Bank, while its rival militant group Hamas holds the control of Gaza. The Western world doesn't have diplomatic relations with the Hamas regime.

[kennynah]

Israeli forces complete pullout from Gaza
1/21/2009 11:53 AM ET

(RTTNews) - The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) completed its pullout from Gaza on Wednesday morning after destroying a mortar launcher in the coastal strip.

In a unilateral truce announced Sunday, Israel had vowed to withdraw its forces by Tuesday.

The last IDF contingent left Gaza and Israeli army is redeploying along the border with the coastal strip in order to provide quick response if necessary, a military statement said.
The ceasefires announced by both sides were broken slightly Tuesday, as Hamas gunmen fired mortar shells into Israel and opened fire on IDF troops who remained inside the Palestinian territory.

An Israeli aircraft bombed a mortar launcher in the Gaza Strip that had been used hours earlier to fire mortar shells into the Negev.

[winston]

Rival factions trade accusations of spying, violence in Gaza
Hamas says some Fatah supporters helped Israel find Hamas leaders

Fatah says Hamas has rounded up at least 175 members for torture

Medical officials say patients have gunshot injuries in kneecaps, elbows, hands

Security source says group didn't order shootings, blames renegade gunmen

GAZA CITY, Gaza (CNN) -- In the wake of an Israeli offensive aimed at crippling Hamas, Gaza's ruling party, Hamas is accusing rival Palestinian faction Fatah of spying for Israel.

Omar Hassan, neighbor of fallen Hamas Interior Minister Said Siam, says spies helped Israelis locate Siam's home.

In return, some are accusing Hamas of carrying out "punishment shootings" against suspects.

"In this war, we arrested many spies and collaborators, and we will stay continuing to catch these spies and put them in jail and in court," Ehad al-Ghossain, Hamas' Interior Ministry spokesman, told CNN.

"Some factions wanted to help Israel, to kill Hamas and Hamas leaders, and were giving information to the Israelis." Watch Ghossain talk about the enemy within »

Fatah's power base is in the West Bank. It is locked in a power struggle with Hamas, which won parliamentary elections in January 2006 and wrested Gaza from Fatah in violent clashes last year. Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian Authority president and leader of the Fatah party, is a United States ally but holds little sway in Gaza.

Fatah denies spying on Hamas for Israel, and party leaders said Thursday that at least 175 of their members had been rounded up and tortured in recent days.

The highest-ranking known casualty in the Israeli offensive may have been Hamas Interior Minister Said Siam, who was killed by an Israeli airstrike January 15.

Israeli troops complete Gaza withdrawal
U.N. chief: Gaza violence 'heartbreaking'
Siam's neighbors said Fatah supporters may have pinpointed his location for Israel.

"My brother and sister saw three or four spies, including a woman," neighbor Omar Hassan said. "The spies left, and then Said Siam's apartment was hit."

Meanwhile, at Gaza's Shifa Hospital, medical officials said injuries they have seen would be consistent with suspected spies being shot in the kneecaps, elbows, hands or feet as punishment.

"We have seen severe arterial lesions at the level of the knee and at the level of the femoral artery in the thigh, and also some lesions at the level of the arm," international doctor Carlos Trotta said.

He said he has treated at least six patients, including a woman, for gunshot wounds since the cease-fire with Israel was announced.

Another medical source said the shots were fired from close range, and the victims have claimed that the injuries stemmed from punishment or a factional vendetta.

Punishment shootings are a time-tested tactic used worldwide by guerrilla and militia groups, from Che Guevara in Cuba to the Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland. They are meant not only to take revenge but to send a message to others.

Two self-described Fatah loyalists were found heavily bandaged at a Gaza City safe house. One of their colleagues refused to say where or why they were injured but denied that they were spying.

"They shot him at close range with a pistol," he said of one man. "His bones are shattered. They shot him point-blank in the foot. ... This was done by Hamas people."

The other man, he said, was struck on his legs with a metal construction bar.

"Four people were beating him," he said.

A Hamas security source said the shootings occurred because renegade gunmen took the law into their own hands. And al-Ghossain said there was no official order within Hamas to carry out such shootings.

"That's not us," al-Ghossain said. "Maybe some families who had problems in the past just wanted to shoot these people."

[kennynah]

wo wo.....always got running dogs one...

[winston]

Hezbollah: Bush tried to change Gaza 'realities'

BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said the administration of former President George W. Bush worked with its Arab allies to try and change the "realities" in Gaza before Barack Obama took office.

Nasrallah says Bush administration worked with its Arab allies to "change the realities" in Gaza.

In a wide-ranging speech on Thursday marking "Freedom Day" -- a celebration of the release of Hezbollah prisoners from Israeli custody -- Nasrallah said the Bush administration worked with its Arab allies "in order to take advantage of the short time of Bush's term and before (Barack) Obama takes office in order to change the realities" in Gaza.

There were no U.S. forces involved in the 22-day Israeli military operation in Gaza; the United States is a key supporter of Israel.

Israel launched the operation on December 27 with the stated aim of ending rocket attacks on southern Israel. Last week, both Israel and Gaza's Hamas leadership agreed to a temporary cease-fire that took effect after Israeli forces withdrew from the Palestinian territory.

Hamas claimed victory, saying it was not weakened by the Israeli military operation. Nasrallah's speech seemed to build on that claim of victory by reminding Israel that Hezbollah -- which is based in Lebanon -- still has its own list of demands from the Jewish state.

"I would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that there are still Palestinian, Syrian, Jordanian and other Arab prisoners and especially the prisoners who were from Jerusalem and the Arabs of 1948 who are suffering under very tough conditions," Nasrallah said. "This issue should always be present in the hearts and minds and the responsibilities of this nation."

He also said that DNA tests have shown that four "martyrs" whose remains were requested in a prisoner swap with Israeli last July were not handed over.

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"Therefore we consider these DNA for other unknown martyrs and we can't determine who they are," Nasrallah said.

Further tests will be conducted in France, he said, but that will take "a long time."

Last July, Israel agreed to exchange the remains and release Samir Kuntar -- who is considered the perpetrator of one of the cruelest killings in Israeli history -- in exchange for the bodies of two soldiers who had been abducted by Hezbollah in 2006.

Hezbollah cast the swap as a victory for all Lebanese, with one official calling it "an official admission of defeat."

In his speech on Thursday, Nasrallah said Hezbollah had asked for the remains of Dalal Mughrabi -- a female militant -- Yahya Skaff and two of their companions. They allegedly took part in the March 1978 "Coastal Road massacre" in which Palestinian militants hijacked a bus near Tel Aviv, killing more than 30 Israelis and Americans.

It was not clear if Skaff was still alive, Nasrallah said. The Hezbollah leader said he holds Israel responsible for "hundreds" of missing Lebanese and Palestinians, believed to either have been killed or held by Israel.

Nasrallah also restated Hezbollah's accusation that Israel was responsible for the assassination of top Hezbollah military commander, Imad Mughniyeh, last August in Damascus, Syria. Israel has denied any role in the killing.

[winston]

Gaza militants fire rockets into Israel
Story Highlights
Militants launch four rockets into southern Israel on Sunday

It is not yet known whether rockets caused any damage, spokesman says
Israel launched offensive in Gaza in December to prevent future Hamas attacks
Israel, Hamas militants agreed to cease-fire in Jnauary after Israeli troops left Gaza


JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Palestinian militants fired four rockets that landed in southern Israel Sunday, the Israeli military said.

The attacks were another breach in a tentative cease-fire between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza, a city still smoldering in the aftermath of a three-week military operation.

A spokesman with the Israel Defense Forces said he did not know whether the rockets that landed in or near villages in southern Israel wounded anyone. He also did not say whether Israel was planning a retaliatory strike.

Israel launched a three-week military operation in Gaza on December 27 with the intent of ending rocket attacks on southern Israel.

More than 1,300 Palestinians died and about 5,400 others were wounded. Thirteen Israelis, including 10 soldiers, were also killed in the fighting.

On January 21, both Israel and Gaza's Hamas leadership agreed to a temporary cease-fire which took effect after Israeli forces withdrew from the Palestinian territory.

The IDF said last week it would respond to any terror attacks "in accordance with decisions made by the Israeli government."

Since the cease-fire began, militants have sporadically fired rockets into Israel. Israel has responded with airstrikes.