Aletho News

ΑΛΗΘΩΣ

Gaza truce declared as Israel hails new missile defense

Al Akhbar | March 13, 2012

Israel and Islamic Jihad have agreed to a ceasefire after Egypt brokered a “mutual truce” following four days of an Israeli assault on Gaza that left 25 Palestinians dead and at least 80 injured, mostly civilians.

Israeli officials and Islamic Jihad both confirmed that a deal was in place, although they were quick to warn that the agreement would be short lived if the other side stepped out of line.

“There is an understanding, and we are following what’s going on in the field,” Home Front Defense Minister Matan Vilnai told Israeli public radio.

“Apparently things are calming down and this round of confrontations appears to be behind us.”

And in Gaza, an Islamic Jihad spokesman said the resistance group was willing to respect the deal if Israel would end its targeted killings of fighters.

“We accept a ceasefire if Israel agrees to apply it by ending its aggressions and assassinations,” Daud Shihab told AFP.

News of the agreement emerged early on Tuesday after Egypt brokered what the Egyptian intelligence official said was a “comprehensive and mutual” truce.

“An agreement on ending the current operations between the two sides, including a halt to assassinations, entered into force at 1:00am,” he told AFP, saying the deal was reached after the Egyptians held “intensive contacts” with both sides.

But the Israel minister denied there was any agreement to halt the military’s campaign of assassinations.

There was no immediate comment from Gaza’s Hamas rulers, who have been relatively silent during the latest round of violence. Hamas did not deploy any of its forces to defend Gaza from attack, nor fire any rockets into Israel in response.

Two Palestinians were killed Monday evening in the latest Israeli attack on Gaza, bringing the death toll in the besieged strip to 25 since Friday, according to medics.

The two men, who were members of the Al-Quds Brigades, were killed in an airstrike on the Shujaiyeh neighborhood, medical officials said.

The latest attacks began Friday evening when Israel killed the head of the Popular Resistance Committees in an airstrike near Gaza City.

Israel routinely carries out airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, and has intensified its campaign in recent months, while Hamas insists on maintaining restraint.

Suspicions of a new war were raised after Israeli army chief Benny Gantz said in December that Israel should launch a “swift and painful” war against Gaza.

Israel’s previous war against Gaza in late 2008 killed at least 1,400 Palestinians and three Israeli non-combatants.

The Jewish state maintains a siege over Gaza and continues to build illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Testing Israel’s Iron Dome

The latest campaign tested Israel’s new Iron Dome short-range air defense system, designed to intercept rockets from Gaza and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

On Monday, 31 rockets headed for urban centers were targeted by Iron Dome, which scored 23 hits, the military said, a 75 percent success rate.

“The system is working very well,” Brigadier General Doron Gavish briefed reporters at one of the batteries in the vicinity of Ashdod, 25kms from the Gaza border.

“Rockets shot at the cities of Israel are being intercepted by the warriors who are operating the system,” said Gavish head of Israel’s national air defenses.

Visiting a battery on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke of the system’s “impressive achievements.”

The system, the first of its kind in the world, was developed by Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems with the help of US funding.

Each battery comprises detection and tracking radar, state-of-the-art fire control software, and three launchers, each with 20 interceptor missiles, military sources said.

The system is later to be deployed along the Lebanese border in the event of a future conflict with Hezbollah.

But a complete deployment is expected to take several years.

(Al-Akhbar, AFP, Reuters)

Related articles

March 13, 2012 Posted by | Militarism, Subjugation - Torture, War Crimes | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Idhna: A family without windows

12 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

After three years of marriage Amani and Hussein Batran wanted a house of their own, somewhere to raise their two children, 4 year old Khalil and 3 year old Layali. They took out two loans from the bank and construction began. Now, three years later, the house is still unfinished and no new work has been done for over a year. One year ago, shortly after the Batran family moved into their nearly finished house, they received an order from the Israeli military forbidding further construction, followed seven months later by a demolition order. The reason given is that their house blocks the view of a camera mounted on the illegal segregation wall Israel has constructed inside of the West Bank.

The sight of glass-less windows and wires protruding from half-sanded walls speaks of dreams put on hold, a family living in limbo. The Batrani family has endured the bitter cold of this Palestinian winter with only plastic sheets covering their windows. The Israeli government considers installing glass a violation of the order to halt construction. Violating the order means risking imminent demolition of their home, so the family must make do with the inadequate plastic sheets.

They know their fate will likely be the same as Ahmed Jeyowi and his family, whether or not they obey the order to halt construction. Jeyowi’s home was demolished last month when around 50 Israeli soldiers stormed the house at 6 AM whilst Ahmed was drinking tea and preparing to work his land. The soldiers forced Ahmed’s wife and six children from their beds and gave the family no time to salvage their possessions before they demolished their home.

Ahmed has since been forced to send his wife and children to live with other family members whilst he lives on the ruined site which once was his home, now replaced by a tent provided by the Red Cross. Ahmed is left with no heating or lighting, no gas, no toilet, and insufficient bedding.

Idna has suffered considerably since the Israeli occupation, particularly due to the construction of the segregation wall and the theft of some 3,000 dunums of land since the second Intifada. Idhna is surrounded by the Israeli settlements of Adora and Telem to the northeast, a bypass road that runs through the northern parts of the town, and the segregation wall that borders Idna to the north and the west. There are currently 40 homes in Idna with demolition orders.

Related articles

March 12, 2012 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture | , , | Leave a comment

5 killed, 46 injured in fourth day of Gaza airstrikes

Ma’an – 12/03/2012

GAZA CITY – Israeli airstrikes killed two Islamic Jihad militants and three civilians on Monday, bringing the death toll since Friday to 23 people, medics and Ma’an’s correspondent said.

An airstrike on Monday afternoon in Beit Lahiya killed Muhammad al-Hasoumi, 65, and his daughter, 30, medical spokesperson in Gaza Abu Salmiya said.

Earlier, hospital officials said a 15-year-old schoolboy was killed in a separate air strike during the day on Monday. Nayif Shaaban Qarmout was killed in Beit Lahiya, north Gaza, Ma’an’s correspondent said.

Witnesses said that the 15-year-old was playing with friends in a play ground near his school when an Israeli missile hit the area.

Five others were injured and taken to Shifa hospital in Gaza City.

Early Monday, two Islamic Jihad militants, Raafat Abu Eid, 24, and Hamadah Salman Abu Mutlaq, 24, were killed in Khan Younis, Ma’an’s correspondent said. Abu Eid was killed when an airstrike targeted a vehicle he was traveling in.

Two other militants sustained injuries and a female passerby was also injured in the attack.

Abu Mutlaq, 24, was killed near a mosque in a village east of Khan Younis after warplanes fired at him. Three others were injured and taken to hospital for treatment.

Earlier, Israeli airstrikes had hit two homes in the northern Gaza Strip, injuring 33 civilians, most of whom were women and children, Abu Salmiya said.

Most sustained moderate injuries, with one critically injured, and were transferred to hospital.

A 17-year-old girl and another man were also injured as Israeli missiles struck a home in Gaza City, Abu Salmiya said.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said aircraft had carried out six strikes on Monday. At least 20 rockets have been fired at Israel on Monday, she said.

The army targeted “a weapons storage facility and four rocket launching sites in the northern Gaza Strip, as well as a rocket launching site in the southern Gaza Strip,” a statement said.

Israel’s army denied, however, that there had been any military activity in the northern Gaza Strip at the time of 15-year-old Nayif Shaaban Qarmout’s death.

Gaza’s Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said late Sunday that neighboring Egypt was working to stop the violence and was consulting with militant factions but added that Israel would have to first stop its air strikes.

The latest round of violence flared on Friday when an Israeli airstrike killed two militant leaders in Gaza.

Israel accused them of planning a cross-border attack via Egypt, although an Egyptian official said Sunday that the Sinai is “fully under control.”

“This is an attempt by Israel to give justification for the offensive against Gaza,” he said.

On Sunday, PLO official Hanan Ashrawi strongly condemned Israel’s latest military escalation.

“The Israeli government has acted with impunity for its unilateral violations for far too long. The illegal, cruel siege of the Gaza Strip, along with all other violations of international law must come to an end.”

The PLO official called on the international community to take serious measures to halt Israel’s policy of extrajudicial executions and the continued killing of innocent civilians.

Reuters contributed to this report

Related articles

March 12, 2012 Posted by | Militarism, Subjugation - Torture, War Crimes | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Settlers Attack Two Towns Near Hebron

By Saed Bannoura | IMEMC & Agencies | March 11, 2012

A number of armed extremist Israeli settlers attacked, on Saturday, the outskirts of the towns of Yatta and Bani Neim, near the southern West Bank city of Hebron, while the residents were ordered by the army to stay home.

Local sources reported that the settlers, accompanied by Israeli soldiers, installed tents near a military post in the area, and held a barbeque party while paying loud music and dancing.

Resident Ibrahim Al-Jabareen told the Palestinian Information Center that a number of soldiers knocked on his door, and the doors of several nearby homes, and informed the residents that they are not allowed to leave their homes until 2:30 in the afternoon.

The soldiers said that any resident who leaves his home will be arrested, and prosecuted, under the pretext of harassing the feasting settlers.

He added that the settlers have recently stepped-up their attacks in the area, by attacking homes, cars and farmlands. “They attack us, and our lands, while the soldiers imprison us in our homes”, Al-Jabareen stated.

On Saturday at dawn, the army invaded Al-Reehieh village, south of Hebron, and fired rounds and live ammunition into the air, in addition to gas bombs and concussion grenades; no injuries or arrests were reported.

Soldiers were also deployed in Palestinian orchards in the area, and prevented the residents from entering their own lands.

On Friday, a group of extremist settlers of the Tal Romeida and Bet Hadassah illegal outposts in Hebron, attacked three international peace activists and stole some of their equipment while touring in Ash-Shuhada’ Street to monitor the ongoing violations carried out by the soldiers and the settlers in the city.

In related news, soldiers based at a roadblock between the northern West Bank cities of Jenin and Nablus, stopped on Saturday afternoon dozens of Palestinian vehicles and searched them while randomly interrogating several residents, and checking their ID cards.

Related articles

March 11, 2012 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture | , , , | Leave a comment

Israeli Forces Open Fire at Gaza Funeral, Injure Five

WAFA | March 10, 2012

GAZA – Israeli forces Saturday opened fire at a funeral held in Jabalia, north of Gaza City, for six Palestinians killed during the recent Israeli shelling injuring five, according to local sources.

They said Israeli tanks stationed at the eastern borders of Gaza opened fire at the funeral when mourners reached the cemetery to bury the six Palestinians.

One of the injured, who were transferred to hospital for treatment, was reported in serious condition.

March 10, 2012 Posted by | Subjugation - Torture, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

International activists assaulted by extreme settlers in Al Khalil

March 9, 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

2 international activists were assaulted late this morning by extreme Zionist setters in Al Khalil (Hebron). A female activist was assaulted by a male settler, after being punched in the face and having her camera stolen by this male settler.

Today’s attack comes following weeks of warning and aggression towards photojournalists and activists with cameras by Israeli military and police, which have stated to internationals that Israeli law forbids the photography of their operations, or rather, their breach of international law and human rights.

Activists have received these warnings for weeks now, and today’s attack comes parallel to the deliberate targeting by Israeli military of journalists and activists with cameras, by shooting tear gas canisters and bullets directly at them at most West Bank demonstrations.

About a month ago, Reporters without Borders published this statement regarding these warnings and threats.

While today’s attack is an escalation against internationals in the region, and while it is evident that the Israeli military and illegal settlers are collaborating in attacking Palestinians and internationals,  International Solidarity Movement will not desist from bringing proof of Israeli aggression through pictures, videos, and our continued reporting.

We thank the international solidarity community for its continued support in the face of Israeli Zionism, colonialism, discrimination, and militarization of Palestine.

Related articles

March 9, 2012 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture | , , , , | Leave a comment

Israeli Troops Kill a Palestinian Youth; Injure and Arrest Another

By Ghassan Bannoura | IMEMC News | March 08, 2012

Twenty-two year old Zakariay Abu Iram was killed while Mohamed Rashid, 18, was injured and arrested by Israeli troops as they attacked the southern West Bank village of Yatta on Thursday afternoon.

Residents told IMEMC that Israeli troops stormed the village and tried to arrest Khalied Makhamreh. He is a Palestinian political prisoner that got released from Israeli military detention last October as part of the Egyptian mediated swap deal between Palestinian groups and Israel.

“ Soldiers stormed the house of the released prisoner to arrest him. All the village rushed to stop the military.” Mohamed from Yatta who witnessed the attack told IMEMC.

The Israeli military said that one soldier was stabbed by youth before troops opened fire killing Abu Iram and injuring Rashid. “ I did not see anybody who even tried to stab the soldier” Mohamed told IMEMC.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society announced that Zakariay Abu Iram was shot in the head and died on location while Mohamed Rashid got hit with a bullet in his abdomen.

Medics added soldiers did not allow them to help Rashid at first but later troops allowed medics to give him first aid after leaving him to bleed on the ground for some time. Troops then arrested Rashid and took him to an Israeli military hospital.

Related articles

March 8, 2012 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation, Subjugation - Torture | , | Leave a comment

Israeli settlement waste ‘poisoning Palestinians’

Ma’an – 06/03/2012

NABLUS – Sewage from Israeli settlements near Salfit in the northern West Bank is flowing into nearby Palestinian communities and causing serious disease, a health ministry official said Tuesday.

Speaking at an environmental conference in Salfit, the head of Salfit’s ministry of health office said the situation had become “intolerable” for communities affected by disease from the sewage, including cases of cholera.

Waste from factories in an industrial zone inside an Israeli settlement is threatening Salfit’s agriculture, the Salfit governor said.

Barqan settlement, near Salfit’s Qana Valley, has the largest industrial complex of the Israeli settlements in the West Bank, Gov. Isam Abu Bakr said.

He warned that the dumping of waste in 11 sites surrounding Salfit had become a major cause of cancer in the area.

All Israeli settlements built in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem are illegal under international law.

Related articles

March 6, 2012 Posted by | Environmentalism, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture, Timeless or most popular | , , , , | Leave a comment

WAFA: Israeli Forces Commit 25 Violations Against Journalists in February

By Ghassan Bannoura | IMEMC & Agencies | March 05, 2012

The Palestinian News and Information Agency, WAFA, issued a report on Monday documenting the violations committed by Israeli forces against Palestinian journalists during February 2012.

The report stated 11 journalists were injured during the 25 violations. The majority of injuries were a direct result of the military firing tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets. 11 other cases of detention and arrests by Israeli troops against journalists were documented by WAFA.

WAFA noted in its report that the Israeli military attacked three Palestinian Media companies during the month of February. During the incident Israeli troops stormed the offices of WATAN TV,and AL Qudes Educational TV in Ramallah. On 29th February staff working there were detained, computers were taken along with broadcast equipment leaving the two stations off-air.

According to the Report most injuries journalists sustained happened while they were covering anti wall protests in West Bank villages. Soldiers used tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets against unarmed civilians. The report noted that Israeli soldiers deliberately opened fire during these protests at journalists, clearly violating international law.

Related articles

March 5, 2012 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance, Subjugation - Torture | , , , | Leave a comment

Palestinian badly injured after Israelis fire tear gas at head

Al Akhbar | March 5, 2012

A Palestinian student was in critical condition on Monday after being hit in the head by a tear gas canister when Israeli troops attacked a protest near Ramallah, medics said.

Medics at Ramallah’s main hospital confirmed that 20-year-old Mohammed Abu Awad was in intensive care after an Israeli soldier shot a tear gas canister at his head.

Palestinian security sources said the student had been injured as Israeli troops attacked a peaceful rally in support of a hunger-striking female prisoner near the Atara checkpoint, five kilometers north of Ramallah.

They initially said he had been hit in the head by a bullet during the protest, which was attended by about 40 people.

The Israeli military claimed the protest has been a “violent and illegal riot” near Birzeit.

“Palestinian demonstrators threw rocks at an IDF (army) post. Soldiers responded with riot dispersal means,” a spokeswoman said.

Israeli troops are regularly accused of deliberately firing tear gas canisters at close range, directed at the heads of protesters to cause maximum damage.

Mustafa Tamimi, 28, died of his wounds when an Israeli soldier shot a tear gas canister at his face at a peaceful rally in Nabi Saleh in December 2011.

An American Jewish student, Emily Henochowicz, 22, lost an eye at a similar West Bank protest in 2010, again after an Israeli soldier fired a tear gas canister at her face from close range.

No Israeli soldier or officer was reprimanded after either incident.

The students were demonstrating in solidarity with Hanaa al-Shalabi, a prisoner who has been on hunger strike since February 16 to protest against being held by Israel without charge, a procedure known as administrative detention. … Full article

Related articles

March 5, 2012 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Subjugation - Torture | , , | Leave a comment

UK Police shootings take another life

Press TV – March 4, 2012

The British police have shot a man dead during a “pre-planned” operation without any given reason, raising concerns that all the citizens facing officers in any potential operation could simply lose their lives.

The Greater Manchester Police said it can “confirm” that its officers were deployed on a pre-planned operation in Cheshire on March 3, which led to the death of an unidentified man.

The force did not clarify what prompted the shooting of the man whose car was stopped at around 7:20 pm by Cheshire police.

“As a result, one man was shot and suffered fatal injuries. This matter has been referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission who will be carrying out an independent investigation and Greater Manchester Police is unable to comment further at this stage,” the police added.

There were reports after the incident that the police were chasing a number of criminals at the scene.

The Cheshire Constabulary has tried to cling at the reports, pretending the victim has been a criminal.

The constabulary said the incident has been an “isolated incident” and that “there is no risk to the community as a whole”, yet the British police’s past record raises doubts that the community is indeed open to the threat of officers in shooting sprees.

East London police shot a member of the Ghanaian minority last month saying he has been involved in a car theft and that he had threatened the officers with a knife.

The police used exactly the same pretext for the shooting of the ethnic minority man as they used to justify the fatal shooting of Mark Duggan, which triggered some of the worst turbulence in the modern British history in August.

Officers shot dead the 29-year-old father of four in Tottenham area of London claiming he had fired at them.

However, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) had to admit three months later that Duggan was not even holding a gun when he faced the officers.

The chain of police shootings, in ‘unclear’ circumstances, raises fears that the top brass in the force have given their officers free rein to use their guns indiscriminately, especially against suspects from minority groups, who would have received worst-scenario jail terms in case they were found guilty.

The case is especially worrying as no officers have been convicted for over 300 deaths in police custody or after arrest, recorded for the period since 1998.

The British police are now facing annual demonstrations against the persistence of police brutality and corruption.

During the latest such event in London back in October demonstrators marked the 13th consecutive year of their protest rally, distributing posters with names of 3,180 individuals killed in British custody since 1969, which should now be revised to 3,181 after the Saturday incident.

Related articles

March 4, 2012 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Subjugation - Torture | | Leave a comment

Inside the TV channel raided by Israel

By Daoud Kuttab | Ma’an | March 4, 2012

In the summer of 1996, I was excited to hear the good news. The Palestinian Ministry of Information had agreed to a request to grant us a license for an educational television station to broadcast in Ramallah.

With little funding and tremendous passion we began building up the station with trained staff, equipment and production capacity.

Having grown up in the US, I tried to run the new Palestinian station as a hybrid between PBS and C-Span.

In April 1997 we launched the first season ever of Sharaa Simsim, the Palestinian version of Sesame Street. It was a humble production with twenty 15-minute episodes, but for us it was huge.

That summer I tried something that I thought was much more mundane: broadcasting live sessions of the newly elected Palestinian Legislative Council. This proved to be extremely dangerous to the Palestinian leadership.

After broadcasting a session of the newly elected legislature talking about corruption in the Palestinian Authority, I was called in and incarcerated by the Palestinian police. My arrest, reportedly on orders from senior Palestinian leaders, lasted a week, but brought significant publicity to our nascent station, Al Quds Educational Television.

In 2002 our station was once again in the news. As part of Israel’s reoccupation of Ramallah during the second intifada, the Israeli army’s engineering corps decided that the structure housing our station would make a convenient temporary headquarters.

Nineteen days later we were allowed back to our looted and destroyed building. Expensive camera and computer mother boards were stolen and several monitors had bullet holes in them.

This week Al Quds Educational Television and another local station, Wattan TV, were raided. Israeli troops sneaked into the city overnight, barged into the two stations and confiscated the stations’ transmitters.

Israeli officials defended their actions deep in areas supposedly under Palestinian sovereign control by asserting that the stations were “operating without a license on frequencies that could disrupt communications with planes taking off and landing at Ben-Gurion International Airport.”

Later, and under scrutiny of a reporter, officials dropped the interference with the airport justification and issued a statement by an army spokesman that “the raid followed numerous requests by the Communications Ministry that the stations cease broadcasting because of interference with Israeli broadcasting signals.”

Israel has made no claim about the content of what is broadcast on these two stations.

Palestinian Ministry of Communications officials vehemently denied that Israel ever complained about these two stations’ frequencies.

Suleiman Zuheiri, Undersecretary of Telecommunications, called the airport interference claim false. “Airport range is very different from the range used by TV stations.”

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad visited the stations and called the Israeli action a “clear aggression.”

The Oslo Accords signed in 1993 state that a joint committee of technical experts representing both Israelis and Palestinians should address such issues.

But Israel essentially vetoed its work by refusing to hold meetings. Palestinians were left with no choice but to issue licenses for local broadcasters. The two stations’ frequencies were officially submitted with the International Telecommunications Union in 2004 when the PA was invited as a member.

Some argue that the latest act against a Palestinian broadcaster was an attempt to appease Jewish settlers and right-wing Israelis. The international community (and the Israeli High Court) has been pressing the Israeli government to dismantle settler outposts built without licenses, though international law regards as illegal all settlements built in areas occupied in 1967.

Settlers, however, have demanded that the Israeli army first demolish Palestinian homes built without a license issued by the occupation authority.

Recently, Israeli military forces accompanied by bulldozers demolished seven Palestinian houses and five animal pens near the town of Zaheria, south of Hebron in the West Bank. More than 100 Palestinians lived in these houses, which Israel says were not licensed. The bulldozed units are close to the Jewish settlement of “Tina” which is located on the periphery of Zaheria.

The latest raid on two small television stations illustrates the arrogance of the Israeli occupiers and their inference in every aspect of Palestinian life.

The unilateral nature of the raid also highlights the absence of communication between Israelis and Palestinians. No attempt was even made through Israel’s American allies or the office of Tony Blair, the international community’s peace envoy.

As the US busies itself with elections, Israel is creating facts on the ground and in the air. Palestinian aspirations to be free of foreign military occupation and to live in peace and independence alongside the state of Israel are being severely challenged.

Diplomacy and nonviolent struggle remain the keys to advancing Palestinian freedom. But with the US focused elsewhere and the Israeli government plowing ahead with illegal activities, there is a very real possibility of a return to the violence of a decade ago.

Daoud Kuttab is a Palestinian journalist and former Ferris professor of journalism at Princeton University. He was the director of Al Quds Educational Television until 2007.

Related articles

March 4, 2012 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation, Subjugation - Torture | , | Leave a comment

« Previous Entries     Next Entries »