Hamas kills two Israeli soldiers

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

Hamas kills two Israeli soldiers

Sat, 17 Jan 2009 11:00:54 GMT

Israel is weighing a unilateral ceasefire three weeks into its onslaught against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.

The Hamas resistance movement has killed two Israeli soldiers in Biet Lahya, Al-Rayyis mountainous areas, Hamas Television reports.

Hamas maintains 34 Israeli soldiers have been killed and 96 others have been injured in clashes with the Palestinian fighters, but Tel Aviv officials deny the figures, putting the number of Israeli casualties at 12 killed and 85 injured.

Since the start of the US-backed Israeli offensive against Gazans on December 27, at least 1,188 Palestinians have been killed and more than 5,300 others wounded — a large number of whom are civilians.

Tel Aviv says it launched the aggression against Gaza to put an end to rocket attacks against the Israeli towns.

The deadly Israeli onslaught has so far failed to stop Palestinian rocket attacks.

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Hamas vows to fight on, ignoring Israeli declaration of ceasefire

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

Ma’an news

Jan 17, 2009 Bethlehem – Ma’an – Hamas said on Satruday that it will ignore any unilateral announcement of a ceasefire by Israel. Usama Hamdan, the Hamas representative in Lebanon said that the movement will fight on until its demands are met. Speaking during a televised interview in Beirut, Hamdan said Hamas has “nothing new” to say regarding a possible ceasefire. “Today the movement’s delegation arrives in Cairo. And clearly, we have nothing new to offer… Either we hear what we have demanded or the result will be the continuation of confrontation on the ground,” Hamdan said. The Israeli security cabinet is expected to endorse a unilateral halt in its attacks on Saturday night, exactly three weeks after it began its massive assault on the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile officials representing both Hamas and Israel are in Cairo where they are negotiating with Egypt an indirect bilateral ceasefire agreement. On Friday Israel reportedly rejected a Hamas proposal for a 12-month renewable ceasefire, demanding an indefinite truce. Analysis suggest that by declaring a one-way ceasefire, it may be attempting to compel Hamas to offer more concessions in the Cairo talks.

:: Article nr. 50953 sent on 17-jan-2008 15:36 ECT
www.uruknet.info?p=50953

Link: www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35050

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Fatah leader denounces his movement’s “silence” on Gaza

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

Ma’an news

Jan 17, 2009 Jerusalem – Ma’an – A Fatah senior leader, Hatem Abdul Qader, criticized on Saturday what he described as the silence of the Fatah leadership on the Israeli attack on Gaza and the Palestinian national project as a whole. “The leadership of the was supposed movement to play a greater and influential role in dealing with the massacres and conspiracies against the Palestinians,” he said, decrying attacks “aiming at ending Palestinians’ material and moral existence.” Abdul Qader is a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) from Jerusalem. In a statement, he held the Fatah’s leadership responsible for “this setback and the inability to play an influential role in the dangerous events that are taking place in Palestine.” He noted that “the divisions that inflicted the movement prevented it from taking clear and honest stances towards the recent events, an issue that made it losing its ability of clearing a political vision capable of dealing effectively with the up to date developments to stand firmly against the Israeli onslaught on the Palestinians.” He noted that “all the actions carried out by the movement in the West Bank and East Jerusalem were natural responses by the field leaders of the movement. There were no central actions led by the movement.” He criticized “the movement’s silence towards those who take stance on its behalf and they do not related to it, he explained that “they are trying to distort the movement and its stances towards the recent events.”

:: Article nr. 50954 sent on 17-jan-2008 15:40 ECT
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Link: www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35059

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The Palestinians say: ‘This is a war of extermination’

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

By: Ahdaf Soueif on: 17.01.2009 [21:01 ]

Ahdaf Soueif in Egypt

The Guardian,

Saturday 17 January 2009

Palestinian women react after seeing the body of a relative killed in an Israeli missile strike at Kamal Edwan hospital in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip. Photograph: Fadi Adwan/AP

Everyone says something new is going on here; something different. The residents of Egyptian Rafah are used to the sounds of rockets and shells exploding on the other side of their border, but they’ve never heard the sounds they’ve been hearing over the last 20 days. Twenty-five miles further into Egypt the general hospital at el-Arish is used to receiving the Palestinian wounded. The staff have never seen injuries like these before. The hospital forecourt is swarming with ambulances, paramedics, press. The wounded are raced into casualty.

Day 22 of Israeli War On Gaza : Death toll 1220, wounded 5350

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

Report direct from Gaza Day 22 of Israeli War On Gaza
Informative Report on Gaza War: Death toll 1220, wounded 5350

By Sameh A. Habeeb: A Photojournalist, Humanitarian & Peace Activist in Gaza Strip.

Palestinians mourn three children killed in the northern Gaza Strip on January 17

.Day 22 of Israeli War On Gaza Daily Feed About Gaza War: 1-Israeli air strike hit the eastern part of Gaza City. Many houses were harmed partially. 2-Israeli air forces raided on a United Nations’ school northern Gaza, town of Bait Lahia. A woman and two children were killed and many wounded. Tens of people came to take the school as a shelter but it was hit! 3- Two Palestinians killed in east of Rafah City. Invading tanks destroyed sevetal houses and arrested some residents. 4-Three Palestinians killed by Phosphorous bombs fall down in many places in north of Gaza. 5- Two Palestinians killed after being injured in Khan yonis and their father was wounded. Here is an email I got from the friends of the family before they know what has happened to them!

1000 tons of explosives and white phosphorus dropped on Gaza in 22 days

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

Palestinian Information Center

Jan 17, 2009 OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– The Israeli 10th TV channel has disclosed that the Israeli occupation forces had used half of the air force and launched at least 2500 air raids over the past three weeks of attacks on Gaza Strip. The TV military correspondent said on Saturday that the Israeli warplanes had dropped more than a thousand tons of explosives in that period. He reported that the shells fired by artillery, tanks, infantry and gunboats were not included in those fired by the air force. The intensive Israeli air, sea and land shelling had targeted civilian neighborhoods, mosques and security buildings other than UNRWA offices and warehouses and killed 1200 citizens so far other than 5400 wounded.

:: Article nr. 50957 sent on 17-jan-2008 19:41 ECT
www.uruknet.info?p=50957

Link: www.palestine-info.co.uk/en/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s
7Vv1%2fSreP1kDy%2fwupbsKCur3%2fBULmtJh5Qmi7XDOCe%2bLIeLbwd0o013hr
NUag8HCIzBfxlvJZw0nKYh0XBw0zlMT9COoY6LUmVq%2b5W3e75M8%3d

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Children of a lesser Allah

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

Vittorio Arrigoni

729 Saturday, 17 January 2009 13:49 The children of a lesser Allah, the ones for whom the shelter of their mother and father’s embrace has been forever shattered by a thunderbolt from the sky, continue to atone for the hatred passed on from one generation to the next, through no fault of their own. The soldiers with the Star of David are perfectly at ease in their roles as so many contemporary Herods, with 253 massacred Palestinian children so far. An endless horror, for which no soldier, no Israeli army officer, and the Israeli government have never been forced to face their responsibilities for these war crimes.

Punishing the Palestinians

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

Ralph Nader

Jan 17, 2009 In the long sixty-year tortured history of the Palestinian expulsion from their lands, Congress has maintained that it is always the Palestinians, the Palestinian Authority, and now Hamas who are to blame for all hostilities and their consequences with the Israeli government. The latest illustration of this Washington puppet show, backed by the most modern weapons and billions of taxpayer dollars annually sent to Israel, was the grotesquely one-sided Resolutions whisked through the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Zionist Control of US Policy

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

I was recently asked to answer the following question: In the original post there is mention of Israel controlling US policy. How exactly does that work?

The short answer is this: A highly influential and extremely well bankrolled collection of groups directs energy simultaneously in a number of directions: Political, media, academic, inter-faith, and other areas, in order to create consent for Israel’s policies and to sway politicians to support those policies. The rest of this article examines this process in greater detail, primarily through the words of academics who have studied it for years.

To my mind, Israel’s actions, and the extent to which they are enabled by the power of the Zionist lobby is — or at least should be — the central moral question confronting Jewish people worldwide, and especially in the US.

THE ISRAELI HUMAN SHIELD

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

By Abu al-Sous (Salah Mansour)*, via Desertpeace

A Palestine boy used as a human shield by Israeli Occupation Soldiers, click the image to enlarge it.January 16, 2009During the Israeli war on Gaza, Western media propagated Israeli propaganda that the Palestinian resistance have been using their family members as human shields. Sadly, Israeli propaganda is often presented in Western media as facts, and the Israeli version has been accepted with little verification. The goal is simple: dehumanise the Palestinian by showing that he does not care about his family members, and once that is done it becomes much easier to accept him as a legitimist target.

Turkish PM: Israel Should Be Barred from UN

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

By: almanar on: 16.01.2009 [14:37

16/01/2009

Turkey’s prime minister on Friday said Israel should be barred from the United Nations while it ignores the body’s calls to stop its Gaza war. “How is such a country, which does not implement resolutions of the UN Security Council, allowed to enter through the gates of the UN (headquarters)?” Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

Erdogan spoke before UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arrives in Ankara to discuss the conflict. His comments reflected a growing anger in Turkey, over Israel’s Gaza operation.

Erdogan accused Israel of attacking civilians under the pretext of targeting Hamas resistance movement.

Israel’s offensive in Gaza entered its 21 day Friday, as the Israel Air Force continues attacking the strip and killing civilians, while rockets fired from Gaza kept pounding Israeli settlements in the occupied territories.

President Abdullah Gul on Friday renewed calls for an immediate cease-fire and also urged U.S. President-elect Barack Obama to focus on a comprehensive, long-lasting and fair solution once in office.

http://www.almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=70490&language=en

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Qatar, Mauritania suspend ties with Israel

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

By: Press TV on: 16.01.2009 [17:00 ]

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 15:56:00 GMT

Qatar and Mauritania have decided to suspend their ties with Israel following a regional summit in Doha to discuss the war on Gaza.

“Mauritania and Qatar have decided during a meeting behind closed doors to suspend their ties with Israel,” a Mauritanian diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Qatar has hosted an Israeli trade bureau since 1996, while Mauritania has had diplomatic ties with the Israeli regime since 1999.

The Nouakchott government called back its ambassador to Tel Aviv after Israel refused to heed international calls to halt attacks on the Gaza Strip.

Tel Aviv launched Operation Cast Lead on December 27 to put an end to rocket attacks against southern Israeli towns. At least 1,133 Palestinians have died during the offensive, while some 5,150 others have been wounded.

Hamas, the democratically-elected ruler of the impoverished Gaza Strip, demands a cessation of an 18-month Israeli blockade on the coastal enclave — home to some 1.5 million Palestinians — before its fighters suspend retaliatory rocket attacks.

The UN Security Council adopted resolution 1860 which calls for an immediate end to the ongoing crisis. Both sides, however, have rejected the resolution.

The decision by Mauritania and Qatar to suspend ties with Israel comes after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad called on Arab countries at the Friday meeting to severe all ‘direct and indirect ties with Israel’ and close their embassies.

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also called for a boycott on all Israeli goods.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=82560&sectionid=351020202

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Journalists call Livni ‘terrorist’ during press conference on Gaza operation

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

By: Haaretz on: 17.01.2009 [00:03 ]

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni had a testy press conference Friday in Washington, D.C., moments after she signed an agreement with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice meant to combat arms smuggling to Gaza.

From the starting moments of the press conference, Livni was beset by a less-than friendly barrage of questions, with a number of journalists asserting that Israel’s military operations in Gaza will only make Middle East peace more distant.

Some journalists went so far as to compare the Israeli government to that of dictator Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe, due to Israel’s decision to bar journalists from Gaza.

One of the more tense moments came when one journalist began to quote at length a Human Rights report on the situation in Gaza, before asking Livni to comment on “the murder of innocent civilians in the Strip.”

When the man was asked to finish his question, he yelled “you are letting her speak for an hour, and you aren’t allowing us to ask questions. Since when have you hosted terrorists here?”

To her credit, Livni managed to keep her cool, and expressed her desire to answer the question. When he finished, she answered that Israel “did not want to get involved in the internal matters of the Palestinian Authority, that’s why we left the Gaza Strip unilaterally, but we got terror in return. We try all we can to avoid harming civilians, but it happens.”

A number of other journalists asked questions that included quotes from the human rights report, asking if Israel needs to be held responsible for the failure of the cease-fire due to the decision to enact a blockade on the Gaza Strip.

While she was speaking inside, a protest was being held outside the building by an anti-war group calling themselves “Women in Pink”, who repeatedly chanted “there is a war criminal in this building.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1056185.html

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Gazan Doctor’s children killed while he is speaking to Israeli TV

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

Mary Rizzo, Palestine Think Tank

Jan 16, 2009

A friend of mine sent something unusual, a link to a blog post talking about a Gazan doctor who normally works near Tel Aviv, who often reports to Channel 10. During one of his reports, the ultimate tragedy strikes.from Open Salon http://open.salon.com/content.php?cid=84825 Dr. Loses Kids to IDF Bomb During Interview to Israeli TV Israeli public opinion, while still fo the opinion that this operation was a good idea, is moving decidedly to the “OK, we’re done here” view, as my good friend and mentor Shai Golden put it in Haaretz’s “This Week” supplemnent’s main hed today. But as any student of history knows, there sometimes passes an awful long period (at least subjectively) between the realization that an armed conflict has run its course, and when the (now admittedly needless) slaughter of people actually stops. So, Israel’s channel 10 is interviewing its regular “good Palestinian”, Dr. Az A-Din  Abu al-Ayash, an OB-GYN who actually works at Israel’s Tel HaShomer hospital outside Tel Aviv. (In other words, he’s an OB_GYN able to practice his love with women across the country).