Hamas leader gives unity talks a strong chance Sun Mar 29, 6:17 pm ET
GAZA (Reuters) – There is a strong chance talks resuming this week can help heal a rift between the Islamist Hamas group and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement, a senior Hamas leader said on Sunday.We stress our interest in reaching an agreement to end the internal Palestinian division under Arab and Egyptian sponsorship,Ismail Haniyeh said on Hamas television in the Gaza Strip before an Arab summit convening in Qatar on Monday.Egyptian-sponsored talks aimed at forging a possible unity government that could end a Western blockade on aid to rebuild the battered Gaza Strip were expected to be an important item on the agenda at the two-day Arab League session.Talks between Western-backed Abbas's faction, which controls the West Bank, and Hamas, which seized Gaza in 2007, were expected to resume on Wednesday after adjourning on March 19 without a deal on how to share power or engage Israel.There is a strong chance for the Palestinian national dialogue to succeed for the Palestinian national reconciliation to be achieved, said Haniyeh, whose militant group and sponsor nation Iran won't be represented at Monday's summit.Haniyeh said differences with Abbas over policy toward Israel could be bridged by pledging to respect past agreements with the Jewish state, wording that has in the past fallen short of Western demands any Palestinian government recognize Israel.Hamas won a parliamentary election in 2006 but has been boycotted by the West for its charter calling for Israel's destruction and to supplant it with an Islamist Palestinian state. Hamas has also proposed a long-term truce, a bid that fell short of recognizing the Jewish state.Ahmed Qurie, head of the Fatah delegation to the talks, told Reuters last week he was exerting every possible effort... in order to reach agreement with Hamas.Prime Minister Salam Fayyad of Fatah has offered to step down this month so a unity government can be formed but Abbas has asked him to stay on until the talks have yielded results.(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Writing by Allyn Fisher-Ilan; Editing by Andrew Dobbie)
Israel: Militants smuggled tons of weapons to Gaza By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press Writer – Sun Mar 29, 12:08 pm ET
JERUSALEM – Palestinian militants have smuggled nearly 70 tons of explosives and bomb-making materials and other weapons into Gaza since Israel ended an offensive meant to choke off the arms flow, a senior Israeli defense official said Sunday.The assessment by the chief of Israel's internal security service, Yuval Diskin, reinforced a growing feeling among Israelis that the government ended the war too soon.Diskin told the Cabinet that since the three-week military operation ended Jan. 18, Gaza militants have smuggled into the territory 22 tons of explosives, 45 tons of raw materials for producing bombs, dozens of rockets, hundreds of mortar shells and dozens of anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.The weapons are coming in through Gaza's porous border with Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, despite improved Egyptian interdiction, Diskin said. His remarks were reported by meeting participants who spoke on condition of anonymity because the session was closed.There was no way to verify his assessment. Using sophisticated technology and human informants, Israel has kept close tabs on Gaza since it withdrew its forces from the area in 2005.
Israel launched its air and ground assault in late December in an effort to stop rocket and mortar attacks on Israel from Hamas-ruled Gaza and stanch the stream of arms reaching the territory through underground tunnels from Egypt. More than 1,400 Palestinians were killed, including 926 civilians, the Palestinians say. Thirteen Israelis also died.The attacks from Gaza have dropped off considerably but have not stopped: The military reported Sunday that a total of 185 rockets and mortars were fired since the military campaign ended. But the threat of escalation remains, as the reports of continued smuggling suggested.It is testimony that next time, we should go to something more complete in order to prevent the rearmament of Hamas, said Yuval Steinitz, a close associate of incoming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.In the long term, Israel cannot agree to the establishment of an Iranian military base 50 or 60 kilometers from Tel Aviv,said Steinitz, a lawmaker in Netanyahu's Likud party. Sooner or later, we shall have to put an end to it, he added, without elaborating.
Israel accuses Iran of funding and arming Hamas.
Netanyahu, who is expected to take office on Tuesday, has said the Gaza offensive did not go far enough and Hamas should be toppled. However, he stopped short of saying he would attack Gaza again to bring that about.During its Gaza offensive, Israeli warplanes destroyed dozens of smuggling tunnels, though many were quickly repaired. Egyptian-brokered negotiations on a long-term truce between Hamas and Israel centered in part on instituting measures to stop the smuggling.Last week, however, Israel came under suspicion of having dramatically escalated its attempts to cut off the flow of arms to Gaza militants with the emergence of reports that aircraft attacked weapons convoys in Sudan last month. Israeli officials have not commented publicly about the reports.However, outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has hinted that Israel did launch the strikes, saying the Israeli military would hit terror infrastructure wherever it may be.
Israel gets strict with Hamas prisoners Sun Mar 29, 9:47 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel has begun to impose stricter conditions on Hamas prisoners in its jails, the head of the prisons authority told the government on Sunday.
Prison officials have begun applying some of the findings of a commission established to study how Israel could impose harsher conditions on detained Islamists, a government official quoted Benny Kaniak as telling the cabinet.He did not outline what steps were being taken.Outgoing Justice Minister Daniel Friedman established the commission, which has yet to issue its findings, to study ways of making life harder for Hamas prisoners after the March 17 collapse of talks with the Islamists on a swap.
The indirect negotiations, which have since resumed in Egypt, centred on the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, seized by Gaza militants in June 2006, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.Angered by the collapse of the talks to free Shalit -- a 23-year-old who has not been seen in public or allowed Red Cross visits since his capture -- some Israeli officials called for a worsening of conditions for Hamas prisoners as a way of pressuring the Islamists.Among the steps reportedly being considered were limiting cash transfers to prisoners, restricting their access to television and radio, reducing visiting rights -- except for those from the International Committee of the Red Cross -- and opportunities for education as well as limiting contact between them.The human rights group Public Committee Against Torture in Israel called on the justice minister to avoid steps that would worsen prison conditions, branding any such move as unlawful collective punishment.The commission is due to present its findings to the new Israeli government next week.
More than 11,000 Palestinian prisoners are currently being held in Israeli jails, according to official figures.
Israeli drones attacked Iranian convoys in Sudan Sun Mar 29, 8:02 am ET
LONDON (AFP) – Israel used unmanned drones to attack clandestine Iranian convoys in Sudan that were attempting to smuggle rockets into Gaza, Britain's Sunday Times newspaper reported.The paper said that western diplomats confirmed that Israel attacked the Iranian truck convoys in late January and the first week of February in the remote Sudan desert, just outside the Red Sea town of Port Sudan.The convoys had been tracked by agents from Mossad, Israel's overseas intelligence agency, the report added.The Sudanese government said this week it was investigating the possibility that Israel was behind the deadly air strikes, but so far had found no proof.
Foreign ministry spokesman Ali Sadiq said there were two separate bombing raids against smugglers, killing about 40 people.The Sunday Times said that had the rockets been delivered to Hamas, the militant Islamic group that controls Gaza, they would have raised the stakes in the conflict with Israel.It quoted defence sources as saying the convoys were carrying Fajr-3 rockets, which have a range of more than 40 miles (65 kilometres), and were split into sections to be smuggled through tunnels into Gaza from Egypt.They built the Fajr in parts so it would be easy to smuggle them into Gaza, then reassemble them with Hamas experts who learnt the job in Syria and Iran,a source told the paper.The main reason for using drones instead of manned aircraft to attack was that a convoy forms a slippery target, a source said.When you attack a fixed target, especially a big one, you are better off using jet aircraft. But with a moving target with no definite time for the move UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) are best, as they can hover extremely high and remain unseen until the target is on the move,the source said.
Israel will continue peace process: Peres by Jean-Luc Renaudie – Sun Mar 29, 6:29 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – President Shimon Peres on Sunday gave assurances that Israel's new government will keep up peace talks, following EU warnings of consequences if it failed to commit to the creation of a Palestinian state.The new government is bound by the decisions of the preceding one, Peres told public radio. There will be a continuity and the continuation of peace negotiations.Israeli prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu is to present his government to parliament this week, although an exact date has not yet been named.Netanyahu's premiership has sparked concern, as the hawk opposes the creation of a Palestinian state and has picked as his foreign minister firebrand Avigdor Lieberman, whom critics brand a racist for his diatribes against Israeli Arabs.Outgoing premier Ehud Olmert echoed the sentiment, saying at the start of his final weekly cabinet meeting that there is no doubt that the new government will do all it can to reach Israel's political dream of living in peace and security.Peres -- Israel's veteran statesman and Nobel peace laureate -- spoke on the eve of his visit to the Czech Republic, which as current president of the European Union warned last week Israel of consequences if its new cabinet did not accept the principle of a two-state solution.In the face of concern by the EU and much of the Arab world about prospects for peace with Netanyahu at the helm, Peres plans to kick off a media campaign after the new government is confirmed, the Haaretz daily reported.To that end, he was to travel to the Czech Republic on Monday for a one-day visit, his spokeswoman told AFP.The government that will be formed will respect the engagements undertaken by the preceding cabinet, Peres said in Sunday's comments, adding that this also applied to ongoing talks over a prisoner swap with Hamas.The Czech Republic on Friday warned of consequences if the government of Netanyahu did not accept the principle of a two-state solution of the Middle East conflict.Relations would become very difficult indeed, said Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg.At one of our next ministerial meetings we would have to discuss what consequences the EU would draw from that, he told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting with his European Union counterparts at Hluboka castle in the southern Czech Republic.He did not elaborate what the consequences may be, but one thing that could be jeopardised would be an idea to formally upgrade EU-Israeli ties.Netanyahu opposes the creation of a Palestinian state for the moment, saying economic conditions in the occupied West Bank must be improved before negotiations take place on other issues.
Netanyahu put the brakes on the Oslo peace process during his first stint as prime minister in 1996-1999, but signed several agreements with the Palestinians under US pressure.Last week he said he would pursue peace talks with the Palestinians after US President Barack Obama -- who has vowed to pursue the peace process vigorously -- said peace prospects under him would not get any easier but that the process was just as necessary.Peace... is a common and enduring goal for all Israelis and Israeli governments, mine included. This means I will negotiate with the Palestinian Authority for peace, Netanyahu told a Jerusalem conference on Wednesday.I think that the Palestinians should understand that they have in our government a partner for peace, for security, for the rapid development of the Palestinian economy,he said.
Palestinians say Olmert offered land swap for peace Sat Mar 28, 4:16 pm ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) – The Palestinian Authority on Saturday said outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert verbally offered a land swap if a peace deal could be reached.Olmert proposed in talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas that Israel would withdraw from 90 percent of land it occupies in the West Bank, Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat told AFP.The outgoing premier offered to swap 6.5 percent of West Bank land for 5.8 percent territory in Israel as part of an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement, Erekat said.On top of that, Olmert suggested adding a corridor representing the difference, or 0.7 percent of these territories, to link the south of the West Bank with the Gaza Strip, Erekat said.The Israeli leader also proposed shared sovereignty of Jerusalem's holy places, though Jewish settlements in the eastern part of the city would remain under Israeli control, he added.In return, Arab neighbourhoods and Palestinian villages on the outskirts of Jerusalem would transfer to Palestinian control, he said.Olmert made the proposals in a meeting with Abbas on November 17, Erekat said, noting that questions posed by Abbas, chiefly about the allocation of water and the treatment of refugees, were never answered.The Palestinian negotiator unveiled Olmert's offer as Benjamin Netanyahu, who refuses to back plans for a Palestinian state, prepares to take over as prime minister.
Olmert said publicly in early March that there will be no peace without the division of Jerusalem, of which part should become the capital of a Palestinian state.He also urged an almost complete withdrawal from Judea and Samaria (the West Bank).Israel annexed east Jerusalem after occupying it in June 1967 but the Palestinians seek to make it the capital of their future state.And on March 15 Olmert said that his government had been ready to sign a peace deal with the Palestinians but that they had lacked the courage to do so.
EU urges new Israeli government to accept Palestinian state Fri Mar 27, 5:19 pm ET
HLUBOKA NAD VLTAVOU, Czech Republic (AFP) – The European Union on Friday told Israel's incoming new government that there would be consequences if it does not accept the principle of a Palestinian state.Relations would become very difficult indeed,said Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency.At one of our next ministerial meetings we would have to discuss what consequences the EU would draw from that, he told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting with his European Union counterparts at Hluboka castle in the southern Czech Republic.
Schwarzenberg did not elaborate.
One thing that could be jeopardised would be an idea to formally upgrade EU-Israeli ties.Israel's hawkish prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu, of the right-wing Likud party, plans to present his new government to parliament next week, following the Labour party's decision to join his coalition, which includes other right-wing and religious formations.The United States has warned that peace efforts, which have barely budged in recent years, will not be any easier under the hardline Netanyahu, who opposes the creation of a Palestinian state.Several other EU foreign ministers judged that an Israeli government which does not accept a two-sate solution would not be acceptable itself.We Europeans believe that the putting in place of a two-state solution remains the plan,said German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.The foreign ministers must send a clear message saying that if this is not the case, the EU cannot accept it,added Luxembourg's Jean Asselborn.Last year the EU decided to enhance ties with Israel but the idea has been a dead letter since the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip earlier this year.Earlier the European Commission pledged to support the new Israeli government as long as it accepts certain benchmarks, including the principle of an autonomous Palestinian state.The European Commission is looking forward to working with the new Israeli government in pursuit of a common agenda, the EU executive's head Jose Manuel Barroso said in a message to Netanyahu.
It stands ready to assist and support you in your search for peace, prosperity and security for the people in Israel and the region, based on the vision of two states living side by side in peace and prosperity,he said.The Europeans are the biggest donors of aid to the Palestinians but they hold little sway over Israel, which is backed firmly by the United States.Turkish President Abdullah Gul, on a visit to Brussels, said he hoped that the new government would tone down the rhetoric that its parties have used while they were in opposition.If those statements are carried on in the government and they become government policy, then I have to warn that things would turn for the worse and it would create more suffering,he told reporters.It is for that reason that I believe that the Israeli leaders, when they form the government, will act responsibly.
U.S. surveys flashpoint West Bank settlement By Adam Entous Adam Entous – Fri Mar 27, 10:16 am ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – U.S. diplomats assessed Jewish settlement activity at an Israeli-occupied district near Jerusalem on Friday, in a public signal of greater activism by the Obama administration in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.A spokeswoman for the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem, Micaela Schweitzer-Bluhm, confirmed the visit took place as part of our ongoing observation activities in the area, which Israel sees as a critical link between Jerusalem and the sprawling settlement of Maale Adumim.Palestinians say building in what Israel calls E1, an area of occupied land between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea, would deny them a viable state by cutting the West Bank in two and isolating Arab East Jerusalem, which they want as their capital.An assessment of Israeli activities, prepared by the diplomats, will be sent to Washington.The visit comes just days before Benjamin Netanyahu takes over as Israeli prime minister with a coalition government dominated by right-wing and Jewish Orthodox religious parties who advocate settlement building on occupied land.Avigdor Lieberman, an ultranationalist who is slated to become Netanyahu's foreign minister, lives in a small settlement near Maale Adumim and advocates a hard line on annexing parts of the West Bank to Israel if a Palestinian state is ever created.Western diplomats said Israeli building in E1 could become a major source of tension with Netanyahu, who has shied away from endorsing the U.S.-backed goal of creating a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, alongside Israel.
According to Israeli political sources, Netanyahu's hawkish Likud party agreed in coalition talks with Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu to the construction of some 3,000 housing units in E1.Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat urged U.S. President Barack Obama to intervene with Israel to prevent any construction from going forward, calling it the last nail in the coffin for peacemaking.The long-stalled peace road map,monitored by the United States, calls on Israel to halt all settlement activity, and for the Palestinians to rein in militants.Israel froze most of its activities in E1 under pressure from the administration of President George W. Bush.Hagit Ofran of the Israeli Peace Now organization, which tracks settlement growth, said the Obama administration was concerned about future building plans under Netanyahu.She said Friday's visit was a signal to say to the new Israeli government that the Americans are interested in what's going on the ground and that they don't want to see the Israelis constructing in E1.U.S. diplomats frequently visit East Jerusalem and the West Bank to monitor Israeli settlement building, but such visits are rarely public.
We keep track of all developments in the West Bank and Jerusalem on an ongoing basis and report regularly to Washington,Schweitzer-Bluhm said.In addition to Friday's visit to E1, the Obama administration has lobbied Israel to remove restrictions on aid shipments to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip and has criticized the demolition of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem.(Editing by Alastair Macdonald and Dominic Evans)
Israel successfully tests anti-rocket system By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press Writer – Fri Mar 27, 7:30 am ET
JERUSALEM – Israel has successfully tested a high-tech system designed to protect civilians from rocket attacks by militant groups in Gaza and south Lebanon, the Defense Ministry said.Defense officials said Friday in the wake of the test that the Iron Dome system's development is on schedule and will likely meet its target date of 2010, when it is due to begin shooting down incoming rockets fired by Gaza militants.
A ministry statement released Thursday evening said that in a series of tests this week the system faced rockets of the type fired by Palestinian and Lebanese militants, and operated successfully regarding the targets of the test.The statement termed the tests a milestone.It did not say specifically what the tests entailed and stopped short of saying the Iron Dome had actually shot rockets down with an interceptor missile, which it is designed to eventually do.The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with defense ministry regulations, said there has yet to be an intercept by the system.They have said in the past that the first intercept is expected at the end of 2009.Developed at a cost of over $200 million, the system is intended to eventually fire missiles that home in on incoming short and medium-range rockets of the type used by militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups have launched thousands of rockets into Israel from Gaza since 2001, sparking numerous Israeli military incursions, most recently the devastating three-week Gaza war that ended Jan. 18. Rocket fire has continued since the war, though it has dropped off in recent weeks.In 2006, Hezbollah and Israel fought a monthlong war that saw the Shiite militants launch thousands of medium-range rockets into northern Israel as Israeli forces pushed into south Lebanon.
Both militant groups have close ties to Iran.
Around one million Israelis live within range of Hamas rockets. Israel believes that Hezbollah possesses rockets that can reach the country's center in Tel Aviv, meaning that most Israelis are now in range of rockets from the north and the south. That makes the development of an anti-rocket system a priority for Israel.
Turkey willing to revive Israel-Syria talks: PM Fri Mar 27, 3:56 am ET
ANKARA (AFP) – Turkey is ready to mediate between Israel and Syria if the two agree to resume stalled indirect talks, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying Friday.Turkey mediated four rounds of indirect talks between Israel and Syria last year, but the process was suspended in December after the Jewish state launched a deadly offensive in the Gaza Strip.Erdogan said the negotiations could be revived if both countries wished, adding the prospect would depend also on the attitude of the new Israeli government, which is yet to take office after elections in February.
If they make such a request to Turkey, we will do our best, Anatolia news agency quoted Erdogan as saying in a television interview.We are determined to do whatever we can for peace in the Middle East... All issues should be resolved at the negotiating table,he said.The Gaza offensive also strained Israel's ties with Turkey, which has been the Jewish state's main regional ally since the two signed a military cooperation agreement in 1996.In January, Erdogan stormed out of a heated debate on Gaza at the World Economic Forum in Davos after clashing with Israeli President Shimon Peres and accusing the Jewish state of barbarian acts against the Palestinians.
Brown concerned about east Jerusalem demolitions Thu Mar 26, 1:56 pm ET
RABAT (AFP) – Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Thursday that he shared Moroccan King Mohammed VI's concern about the mooted demolition of 90 Palestinian houses in sensitive East Jerusalem.I share your Majesty's concerns about the threat of destroying about 90 homes in this district,Mr Brown said in a message reported by Morocco's MAP news agency.If the demolition goes ahead it could deprive more than 1,000 Palestinians of their homes and would be the largest operation destroying Palestinian property in the mainly Arab part of Jerusalem since 1967, MAP quoted Brown as saying.King Mohammed VI, who chairs the Al Qods (Jerusalem) Committee of the Organization of the Islamic Conference has urged the United Nations, the EU presidency and the Vatican to speak out against planned demolitions that have led Israeli authorities to issue eviction notices to families living in the Al Bustan district near the Great Mosque.Britain strongly supports the March 11 declaration by the Czech presidency of the European Union, calling on Israeli authorities to stop the demolition of Palestinian homes in a zone as sensitive as East Jerusalem, the statement quoted by the news agency said.UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also issued a statement of support to the Moroccan king, MAP said Thursday, in which he pledged to continue to exhort all parties to abstain from any unilateral action in this town.
Last week the Palestinian Authority accused Israel of ethnic cleansing after it delivered dozens of eviction orders to residents of annexed, mostly Arab east Jerusalem.In February, Palestinian officials and residents told AFP that Israel had ordered hundreds of Palestinians to leave their homes in the area, warning their houses were illegal.Israel, which considers the whole of Jerusalem its eternal, undivided capital, rarely grants building permits to Arab residents of east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want to make the capital of their promised state.
