ISRAEL REMOVES GUNFIRE BARRIER

In sign of calm, Israel removes gunfire barrier By KARIN LAUB, Associated Press Writer - 1:30PM AUG 15,10

RAMALLAH, West Bank – Israeli army cranes on Sunday began removing a concrete barrier that shielded a Jewish neighborhood bordering the West Bank from gunfire — a sign that calm is taking hold in the Palestinian territory.The Israeli military erected the 600-yard (meter) concrete barrier nine years ago on the outskirts of the Gilo neighborhood in southern Jerusalem because of repeated Palestinian shootings from the West Bank town of Beit Jalla.The barrier is being taken down over the next two weeks because of a reduced security threat and improved coordination between Israeli and West Bank security forces, the Israeli military said.Since the barrier is no longer needed for security, it can be dismantled, Jerusalem city hall said, adding it made the decision in consultation with the military.The removal of the barrier highlights the different trajectories of the Israeli-controlled West Bank, where pragmatic Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has limited authority over 40 percent of the land, and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.Poverty has deepened in Gaza since the Islamic militant Hamas seized the territory from Abbas' forces in 2007 and Israel and Egypt imposed a border blockade. In the West Bank, the economy has made a modest recovery after years of downturn, in part because Israel eased some restrictions on Palestinian movement. Some areas have seen a building boom, new businesses have opened and car imports are up.

Gilo, a neighborhood of about 40,000, was a convenient target of gunmen during the second Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation, which erupted in 2000. Palestinian militants frequently fired at Israelis, including West Bank motorists and soldiers. Gilo was hit because it was close to a West Bank town.Gilo sits on land Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed to Jerusalem, a step not recognized by the international community. The Palestinians want to set up a state in the lands occupied in 1967 — the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.The uprising gradually ended after Abbas became Palestinian president in January 2005. Israel remains in control of the West Bank, while Abbas has restored order in once chaotic areas there.In another sign that Abbas is trying to cement control over the West Bank and seeking to counter rival Hamas, his religious affairs minister told a news conference Sunday that the government has taken control of all the territory's mosques, including content of the main weekly sermon, to make sure houses of worship are not used for political recruitment.Mosques were once a Hamas stronghold. Since 2007, Abbas has been cracking down on the militants to make sure they don't attempt a West Bank takeover.Religious Affairs Minister Ibrahim Habash said only government-sanctioned preachers are allowed to deliver sermons or teach religion in mosques.

Habash also defended the government's recent decision to stop broadcasting readings from the Quran, the Muslim holy book, over mosque loudspeakers before the call to prayer.Rival Hamas has accused him of fighting Islam, but Habash said he was simply correcting an erroneous practice.The Quran should be listened to when recited, and we know that people are busy with their daily lives and won't pay attention when it comes from loudspeakers in the mosques, he said.Also Sunday, Abbas was to meet with a U.S. envoy, David Hale, to try to find a way to resume direct peace talks with Israel, which broke down in December 2008.Although the Obama administration has renewed pressure on the Palestinians to resume direct negotiations, Abbas is demanding a framework, agenda and timeline before they begin, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says there should be no preconditions to the talks.
Associated Press writer Mohammed Daraghmeh contributed to this report from Ramallah.

Israel's Barak approves U.S. F-35 fighters purchase
Sun Aug 15, 10:51 am ET

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak approved in principle on Sunday the purchase of 20 U.S.-built radar-evading stealth fighters in a deal worth $2.75 billion, defense ministry officials said.The F-35 warplanes are expected to be delivered between 2015 to 2017, an Israeli defense official said.Israeli leaders have spoken of arch-foe Iran potentially developing a nuclear weapon by mid-decade, suggesting that the F-35s would not be used for any preventive action, but rather to bolster the country's deterrence.A ministry statement said Barak approved in principle the recommendations of the Israel Defense Forces and the Defense Ministry to move ahead with the purchase.The stealth fighter, made by Lockheed Martin Corp, will afford Israel continued air superiority and maintain the technological edge in our region,the statement quoted Barak as saying.The defense official said Israel planned to buy initially 20 planes, estimating the total price tag at $2.75 billion, to be covered by an annual U.S. defense grant of $3 billion.Officials predicted final approval of the deal could be given by the end of September by a panel of Israeli government ministers.Israel would be the first foreign country to sign an agreement to buy the F-35, or Joint Strike Fighter, outside the eight international partners that have helped to develop the plane.

The deal has been in negotiations since September 2008, when the Pentagon first approved the sale of 25 fighters with an option for more in the coming years.The F-35 is designed to avoid detection by radar and could play a role in any Israeli effort to knock out what it regards as the threat to its existence posed by Iran's nuclear program. Tehran denies Western and Israeli allegations that it is trying to produce atomic weapons.Defense Ministry Director-General Udi Shani said incorporation of Israeli technologies into the F-35 had played a role in Barak's decision to buy the aircraft.Israel, widely assumed to have the Middle East's sole nuclear arsenal, also had considered a cheaper option -- the purchase of a modified version of Boeing's F-15 fighter, an aircraft it already deploys.(Additional reporting by Dan Williams, Writing by Ori Lewis)

Underneath Lebanon, Israel sees hidden battlefield By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press Writer - Sun Aug 15, 12:01 am ET

MOUNT ADIR, Israel – With tensions mounting along their shared border, Israel's military says Hezbollah is moving fighters and weapons into the villages of south Lebanon, building up a secret network of arms warehouses, bunkers and command posts in preparation for war.The Israeli military has begun releasing detailed information about what it calls Hezbollah's new border deployment, four years after a cross-border raid by its guerrillas triggered a 34-day war.A reminder of the volatility came on August 3, when Lebanese troops fired at Israeli soldiers clearing brush on their side of the border. One Israeli officer was killed, another badly wounded, and a retaliatory helicopter strike killed two Lebanese soldiers and a reporter.

Hezbollah, which is armed by Iran and Syria and is more powerful than the Lebanese military, stayed out of the Aug. 3 fight. But its leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, threatened that he would intervene next time. He has also said that if war breaks out again his forces will fire rockets into Tel Aviv.Neither side has signaled that another war is imminent, but the Israelis' unusual openness about what they claim to know of Hezbollah's preparations seems to have two goals: to show the reach of their intelligence, and to stake their claim that if another war breaks out and many civilians die, it will be because Hezbollah placed its armaments and fighters in their midst.Israel's military says Hezbollah has changed strategy since the last war, moving most of its fighters and weapons from wooded rural areas into villages. It says the aim is to avoid detection and use to civilians for cover if war erupts.

The military says all of this exists under the nose of 12,000 international peacekeepers who, by their own count, conduct up to 340 patrols a day in south Lebanon but are hobbled by a hostile population and rules preventing them from searching private property.In an interview with The Associated Press on Mount Adir, a hill overlooking the border, an officer from the military's Northern Command pointed through the summer haze at the village of Aita al-Shaab.One of its southernmost buildings, a white structure housing mentally handicapped children, is a Hezbollah lookout post, the officer said. Several guerrilla command posts are in civilian buildings in the center of Aita al-Shaab, she said, with several dozen fighters able to move among houses through underground tunnels. The military would not allow her name to be used because of the sensitivity of her job.The village also houses a network of warehouses holding arms trucked in from Iran via Syria, she said, some in stand-alone structures and some in smaller stashes in garages, basements and buried under backyards.The officer said the guerrillas now have 5,000 fighters operating in the buffer zone between the border and the Litani River — a strip ranging from 5 kilometers to 30 kilometers (3 miles to 18 miles) wide — which is supposed to be free of militant activity under the 2006 cease-fire. In late 2009, Nasrallah said Hezbollah's rocket arsenal stood at 30,000. Israel says it's now about 40,000.Israel's intelligence probably comes from surveillance flights over Lebanese territory, spy satellites and Lebanese agents. But the military provides no proof of its claims, saying that could compromise its sources, and the peacekeeping force says it sees no evidence of new military infrastructure. Hezbollah officials did not respond to requests for comment on Israel's accusations.It's difficult to independently confirm the allegations on the ground. The south Lebanese, mostly Shiite like Hezbollah, tend to support the movement and rarely criticize it publicly or volunteer information. Hezbollah members or supporters often attach themselves to journalists entering villages, shadowing them and discouraging photography.

South Lebanon is festooned with posters of the bearded, turbaned Nasrallah, but the only visible hint of Hezbollah fighters are the bearded men in civilian clothes who travel on motorbikes or in cars and occasionally approach reporters working in the area.In July, looking to build its case that Hezbollah is digging in among civilians, the military released maps, photographs and a 3-D simulation of the streets and houses of another Lebanese town, Khiam.The simulation shows one arms storeroom, a squat, freestanding building colored red, located 130 meters (150 yards) from a school, colored blue. A map on the military's Web site purports to pinpoint 12 arms storerooms and three command posts in the town.The Israeli implication is clear: If another war erupts, many civilians will die.In 2006, Israel responded to the Hezbollah border raid with a heavy bombardment of the south and then invaded, while Hezbollah fired thousands of rockets into northern Israel. The fighting killed 160 Israelis and around 1,200 Lebanese, according to official counts from each side. Israelis were dismayed to find their military suffering from organizational and supply problems, and were infuriated by international censure over the civilian death toll. That criticism was repeated even more forcefully over Israel's Gaza offensive two winters ago. But the Lebanon border has been largely quiet since 2006. Hezbollah has not fired a rocket in the past four years — though Palestinian militant groups have — and the Israeli officer killed in early August was the military's first fatality on the frontier since 2006. UNIFIL, the international peacekeeping force, has not found any evidence of new military infrastructure in its area of operations, said spokesman Neeraj Singh.Only on a few occasions, UNIFIL found armed elements in the area with personal weapons like AK-47s.

While saying UNIFIL had made significant progress in helping the Lebanese army secure the south, he acknowledged that the peacekeepers are barred from searching private property, where the Israelis say much of the evidence of the guerrillas' presence would be found. Some indications of Hezbollah activity in the south have surfaced unintentionally. When a building at Khirbet Silim exploded on July 15, 2009, peacekeepers identified it as an actively maintained Hezbollah arms warehouse. Another storehouse blew up in October, the Israelis say, and in December, according to Singh, peacekeepers caught a group of individuals with about 250 kilograms (550 pounds) of explosives. UNIFIL's performance has implications beyond south Lebanon. If the Israelis turn out to be right about the Hezbollah buildup, it will undermine their trust in international forces to police other volatile areas, such as Gaza and the West Bank, under a peace treaty.In preparation for a new round against Hezbollah, the Israeli military has simulated parts of south Lebanon at a training base called Elyakim, about an hour's drive south from the border. A second facility in central Israel is nearing completion. One day in late July, near a mock Lebanese village of gray concrete, a company of sweating Israeli infantry recruits staged a maneuver through thick Lebanese-style undergrowth, complete with rockets hidden in the bushes and bombs camouflaged as rocks.A square metal cover on the earth opened onto a concrete tunnel where Lt. Natan Mann stood in the dark, drilling his men for the real thing. The army has made tactical changes and changes in its mindset, said Mann, 23, one hand on the plastic grip of his rifle. We're either at war, or we're training for war.Associated Press Writers Elizabeth A. Kennedy and Zeina Karam reported from Beirut, Lebanon.

Abbas, US official to mull direct talks proposal
Sun Aug 15, 10:16 am ET

RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas was on Sunday to meet a senior US official to mull over a Middle East Quartet proposal for launching direct talks with Israel, a Palestinian official said.David Hale, the assistant US Middle East envoy, was to meet Abbas at the Palestinian leader's West Bank headquarters in the city of Ramallah at 8:30 pm (1830 GMT).He was expected to show Abbas a draft copy of an invitation to direct talks put together by the Quartet which groups top diplomats from the European Union, the United Nations, Russia and the United States.Abbas will meet David Hale to discuss the final statement of the Quartet, and Hale will hear the final offer from Abbas about the (direct) negotiations, the Palestinian official told AFP.Palestinian officials on Friday said they would make a final decision about moving to direct talks after the Quartet issues an official statement -- a move expected in coming days.It is expected that the Quartet's statement will reiterate the (details in the) March declaration and will invite the two sides to go to direct negotiations, he said.In that document, the so-called Moscow Declaration, the Quartet called on Israel to halt all settlement construction and for the two sides to resume final-status talks with the goal of reaching a peace deal in 24 months.

The official said Washington was looking to begin direct negotiations at the start of September, although the Palestinians were hoping to wait until the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan which ends in mid September.The direct talks were likely to be officially launched at a trilateral meeting, which would probably be held in Washington or Egypt, he added.Israel has repeatedly called for direct talks, but gave a frosty reception to the Moscow Declaration when it was issued.The international community has been putting increasing pressure on the Palestinians to move from US-brokered indirect talks to direct negotiations -- a move they have so far rejected without a clearly defined framework in which to operate.The last round of direct talks collapsed in December 2008 when Israel launched a blistering offensive on the Gaza Strip aimed at halting rocket attacks.

Al-Qaida leader slams Turkey government By MAAMOUN YOUSSEF, Associated Press Writer –Sun Aug 15, 8:16 am ET

CAIRO – Al-Qaida's No. 2 offered his condolences in an audio message issued Sunday for the nine Turkish pro-Palestinian activists killed in a confrontation with Israeli commandos, but slammed the Turkish government for its support of Israel.The 20-minute Arabic language recording from Ayman al-Zawahri, which was posted on a website frequently used by militants, is the latest effort by al-Qaida to expand its message to Muslims beyond the Arab world.The Egyptian-born al-Zawahri called on the Turkish people to pressure their government to cut its military and economic ties with Israel and pull its forces out of Afghanistan, where Turkish troops serve as part of the NATO mission.The Turkish government shows sympathy with the Palestinians through statements or sending some relief aid, but actually it recognizes Israel, engages in trade, carries out military training and shares information with it, he said.The change will come when the Turkish people urge their government to stop cooperating with Israel ... or taking part in killing Muslims in Afghanistan, he added.Turkey was once Israel's strongest ally in the Muslim world, with close military ties and a vigorous bilateral trade. In the wake of the 2009 Israeli assault on Gaza, however, ties between the two countries began to chill.They received another blow in May from Israel's raid on an aid flotilla seeking to break the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip that left nine pro-Palestinian Turkish activists dead. Ankara has demanded Israel apologize for the raid; the Jewish state so far has refused to do so.The Turkish government issues statements against Israel, but at the same time commits the same Jewish crimes but against the Muslim mujahedeen in Afghanistan, burning their houses, demolishing their villages and even assuming the leadership of NATO there,al-Zawahri said.In recent years, al-Qaida has started issuing statements addressing Muslims beyond the terror group's traditional areas of interest in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia and the Arab world.

Lebanon opens bank account to raise funds for army
Sat Aug 14, 12:04 pm ET

BEIRUT (AFP) – Lebanon has opened a bank account for donations to help modernise its poorly-equipped army, the defence minister said Saturday, two weeks after a deadly border clash between Lebanese and Israeli soldiers.I announce the launching of a fund to support and equip the army, the official news agency NNA quoted Elias Murr as saying.It said the minister and his father, former defence minister Michel Murr, had deposited one billion Lebanese pounds (670,000 dollars) into an account at the central bank.Murr added that there would be a plan to communicate with the Lebanese diaspora about supporting the fund.A week ago, following the August 3 border clash with Israel in which four people were killed, Lebanese President Michel Sleiman announced he had launched a national, Arab and international campaign to equip the army.His statement called on neighbouring and friendly states to supply all kinds of arms to allow him to defend the country.The Lebanese military has an ill-equipped 60,000-strong army, outdated weapons and no air power.On Wednesday, Murr lashed out at a US decision to halt aid to the Lebanese military in the wake of the border clash with Israel, protesting that aid was being made conditional.His comments came after a key US lawmaker said he had placed on hold 100 million dollars in aid to Lebanon's army and another legislator asked the Pentagon for assurances that Washington's aid was not indirectly helping Hezbollah.

The US has provided about 720 million dollars in military aid to Lebanon since 2006, and the State Department has said that military cooperation with Lebanon will continue.The exchange of fire on Lebanon's southern border killed two Lebanese soldiers and a journalist, as well as an Israeli officer.Southern Lebanon, which Israel withdrew its troops from in 2000 after a 22-year occupation, is regarded as a Hezbollah stronghold.Lebanese army forces deployed in the south after a 30-year hiatus, following the fierce 2006 war between Israel and the militant Shiite group.

Clinton prods Netanyahu on Mideast peace talks
By Andrew Quinn - Fri Aug 13, 2:04 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about issues blocking direct peace talks with the Palestinians as the Obama administration boosted pressure for talks to begin, the State Department said on Friday.Clinton telephoned Netanyahu on Thursday evening, and also discussed the issue with the foreign ministers of Jordan and Egypt, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said.We continued to discuss with the parties the basis for the launch of direct negotiations, he said.Clinton's calls followed a trip to the region by U.S. Mideast negotiator George Mitchell this week in which he sought to overcome final barriers to direct negotiations, which U.S. President Barack Obama hopes to see launched in coming weeks.Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas indicated on Monday he could go to direct talks, provided they were based on a March 19 statement by the Quartet of Mideast peace mediators -- the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations.But Israeli newspapers said Netanyahu told Mitchell on Wednesday he wanted talks to start immediately without any such precondition -- dimming hopes for an imminent breakthrough.We believe they are committed. It is just a matter of working through a few details. They are important, but we are very, very close, one senior U.S. administration official said, speaking on condition he was not named.U.S. officials have said they are working with other Quartet representatives on a possible statement, which EU High Representative Catherine Ashton said, in a letter seen by Reuters, would be issued early next week if both parties agree to move forward to direct talks.The Quartet says Israel should halt settlement building in the West Bank and reach a full peace agreement with the Palestinians within 24 months, creating a state on the basis of borders that existed before the 1967 Middle East war.

Indirect peace negotiations mediated by Mitchell have made little discernible progress.Obama wants the peace process to return to the level it broke off at nearly two years ago, when Israel went to war in the winter of 2008-09 to stop rockets being fired from the Gaza Strip by Hamas militants.The stepped-up diplomacy comes as a partial 10-month moratorium on Israeli settlement building in the occupied West Bank, ordered by Netanyahu last November, is due to end on September 26 -- raising a potential roadblock to further dialogue.Abbas refuses to engage in direct talks unless Netanyahu agrees to a clear agenda. Without one, say the Palestinians, Netanyahu may propose terms for a peace treaty that are completely unacceptable, and leave Abbas looking like a rejectionist when he turns them down.Abbas has credibility problems of his own, having lost control of the Gaza Strip -- an important part of the Palestinian polity -- to Hamas Islamists who refuse permanent accommodation with the Jewish state.(Reporting by Andrew Quinn; Editing by Eric Beech and Alan Elsner)

Palestinians to decide on talks after Quartet invite
Fri Aug 13, 10:38 am ET

RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – The Palestinians will decide whether to hold direct talks with Israel after the diplomatic Quartet issues a formal invitation, a senior Palestinian official said Friday.The Quartet, made up of the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia was expected to issue a statement in the coming days after months of US-led efforts to revive direct negotiations suspended in late 2008.We are waiting for a statement from the Quartet to take the appropriate decision on direct negotiations, Nimr Hamad, an aide to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, told AFP.The Quartet should meet or issue a statement to invite the two parties, Israelis and the Palestinians, to enter into direct negotiations, he said.We hope the statement will include some important points that were in the previous Quartet statement issued in March.In that statement the Quartet called on Israel to halt all settlement construction and for the two sides to resume final status talks with the goal of reaching a peace deal in 24 months.Israel has repeatedly called for direct talks, but gave a frosty reception to the March statement when it was issued, with Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman saying it hurt the chances for reaching an accord.The EU's top diplomat Catherine Ashton said Abbas was very close to reaching a decision on the direct talks and should give a definitive answer early next week, according to a letter to foreign ministers seen by AFP on Friday.

She said direct peace talks could begin later this month.

After months of US pressure the Palestinians reluctantly entered into indirect talks with Israel in May but have said they will not upgrade to direct negotiations without a complete settlement freeze, clear guidelines on final borders and a timeline for reaching an agreement.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he wants to meet with Abbas as soon as possible but has balked at the Palestinian demands.The last round of direct negotiations aimed at resolving the decades-old conflict collapsed in December 2008 when Israel launched a blistering offensive in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip aimed at halting rocket attacks.

Libya says Palestinians freed in deal for Israeli
Thu Aug 12, 4:31 pm ET

TRIPOLI, Libya – The son of Libya's leader said Thursday that part of a deal to free a jailed Israeli photographer involved the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.Seif al-Islam Gadhafi told reporters that the Israeli-Tunisian dual national was not a spy and corroborated the man's story that he was in the country to photograph heritage sites connected with Libya's vanished Jewish community.This person was naive ... he is not a spy and I made use of this issue in favor of our Palestinian brothers in Gaza, he said. Palestinian prisoners were released in exchange for releasing the Israeli.Gadhafi would not say how many Palestinians were released for Rafael Rafram Chaddad, who was freed Sunday after five months in jail.

Libya bans Israelis from entering the country, though Chaddad was traveling on his Tunisian passport at the time of his arrest.On Monday, Israeli officials said the deal involved delivery of 20 prefabricated homes from a Libyan charity to the Gaza Strip. They said the agreement was arranged by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and an Austrian-Jewish businessman, Martin Schlaff.Lieberman has refused to reveal what promises were made to Libya but has said Tripoli's demands were reasonable.

Mideast summer heat adds hardship to Ramadan fast By BEN HUBBARD, Associated Press Writer – Wed Aug 11, 1:33 pm ET

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Hundreds of millions of Muslims across the Middle East sweated their way through the start of Ramadan on Wednesday, beginning a monthlong daylight fast in sweltering summer heat.With temperatures over 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43 Celsius) in some countries, governments and religious authorities sought to lighten the holy month's burden by shortening work days, granting exemptions from the fast and even setting the clock back an hour.Frequent power outages in places like Egypt, Iraq and the Gaza Strip compounded the struggle to give up food, drink and cigarettes during the searing 15-hour day.But most — even those forced by work to be in the heat — said faith would get them through.I praise God, said 24-year-old Hamas police officer Mohammed Hassouna, directing traffic at a Gaza intersection in 90-degree heat while wearing black fatigues and boots. It's all about your intention, and when you fast with belief, you don't feel it.On the lunar calendar, the Islamic month of Ramadan begins around 11 days earlier each year, which now puts it in the long, hot days of summer.At midday Wednesday, highs around the Middle East ranged from the 90s Fahrenheit (30s Celsius) to over 115 degrees Fahrenheit (46 Celsius) in cities like Baghdad, where the devout found little refuge from the heat.Cobbler Soud Aziz, 39, sought to keep himself cool while fixing a sandal on a Baghdad sidewalk by frequently wiping his face with a wet cloth.

I'm really having a hard time fasting today, he said, adding that he had yet to earn enough to buy food to break the fast at sundown. I pray to God I'll have more customers.Electricity cuts are common in Iraq, Jordan and Egypt, where the government blamed the power shortages on too many people using air conditioning and staying up all night.In impoverished, Hamas-ruled Gaza, power is often off for 12 hours, on for four, then off again for 12 due to an overburdened grid, damage from Israeli military offensives and an internal Palestinian dispute about who should pay for power plant fuel.Gaza housewife Tharwa Suboh, 38, said her family can't afford a gas-powered generator. This means they can't run a fan, often eat by candlelight and must shop every day since they can't refrigerate food.In our prayers, we ask God for forgiveness, but also to take revenge against all the people behind our suffering due to the power cuts, she said.Governments across the region took steps to aid those fasting. Authorities in Egypt, the West Bank and Gaza moved the clock an hour back, allowing people to break their fast earlier in the evening.The start of the school year in Jordan and the Palestinian territories was postponed until after the Eid al-Fitr holiday, which concludes the holy month.Civil servants in Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and the Palestinian territories worked six-hour shifts, two hours shorter than normal, and construction workers in Lebanon struck deals with their employers to work a few hours of their shift at night.In the United Arab Emirates, officials ordered private companies to reduce workers' shifts, and the top religious authority issued an edict, or fatwa, allowing laborers to eat if conditions become too difficult for them to fast. The fatwa was issued in response to a question from an oil rig worker.God does not burden any soul beyond what it can bear, and God knows best, it said. Under Islamic law, travelers, the sick, children and the elderly are also exempted.

Some found the heat almost too much to bear.

Standing in line at a government office in Amman, Jordan, Ismail Abu-Hasweh, 28, said he wasn't sure he could continue. The temperature there reached 95 degrees (35 Celsius).I'm a chain smoker and I feel lightheaded because I didn't smoke or drink my coffee, he said, removing his sunglasses to show his red eyes. It's bad, I know, but I can't take it, especially in this heat.Elsewhere in the Muslim world, it wasn't only the heat that added to the hardship of fasting: Flooding in Pakistan has killed 1,500 people and affected nearly 14 million. Ramadan or no Ramadan we are already dying of hunger, we are fasting forcibly and mourning our losses,said Mai Hakeema, 50, living in a tent with her ailing husband in the southern Pakistani city of Sukkur.Associated Press Writers Jamal Halaby in Amman, Jordan; Sinan Salaheddin in Baghdad; Adam Schreck in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; and Ashraf Khan in Sukkur, Pakistan, contributed to this report.

Israel failed to use enough force in raid
by Hazel Ward – Wed Aug 11, 11:54 am ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Troops failed to use enough force when taking over a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, Israel's top general said on Wednesday, admitting the army had not factored in the deadly melee that would ensue.The chief of staff, Gabi Ashkenazi, also accused pro-Palestinian activists on board the Mavi Marmara ferry of firing the first shots in the confrontation with Israeli naval commandos trying to stop the six-ship fleet.We needed to have people alongside the ship with precise weapons to neutralise those who were preventing the soldiers rappelling down from the helicopter, he told an Israeli commission of inquiry looking into the legality of the raid that killed nine Turks.As the troops rappelled onto the vessel under cover of darkness, they were attacked by dozens of activists wielding clubs and knives.I thought there were about 15 people on the upper deck, so when you arrive with a helicopter and throw stun grenades, they will all move away, admitted Ashkenazi, admitting that the deck was never cleared of activists.We should have used targeted fire in order to neutralise the danger in order to create a sterile zone on the ship, he said. Our central mistake was that we didn't manage to create the conditions to achieve maximum strength in minimum time.The military, he said, had underestimated the intensity of the resistance we would encounter on board the ship trying to break Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip, which is ruled by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.

Ashkenazi, the only military officer scheduled to appear before the panel, said the second commando to reach the deck was shot in the stomach by one of the activists before he drew his firearm and shot the attacker.No guns were found aboard the Turkish ferry but the military has previously said that activists seized at least one firearm from the soldiers during the clashes.Ashkenazi said ballistics tests carried out on spent ammunition retrieved from the scene indicated the activists had at least one firearm of their own but had likely thrown it overboard.The general admitted troops had fired at the activists from close range but rejected accusations that some of the dead had been shot execution-style, saying the shots had been fired during a life or death struggle.I reject this with derision, he said. Was there shooting point blank? Yes indeed -- there was an instance where someone attacked a soldier with an axe from close range.

Somebody with an axe - that is life-threatening, Ashkenazi said.Israel has always insisted its commandos resorted to force after they were attacked on the deck of the Mavi Marmara, but activists on board say the soldiers opened fire as soon as they landed.The general's testimony on the May 31 operation followed that of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Ehud Barak earlier this week.The bloody raid sparked an international outcry and severely strained relations with Israel's once-close Muslim ally Turkey. It also led Israel to ease its four-year closure of Gaza to allow in purely civilian goods.The commission chaired by retired Israeli judge Yaakov Tirkel, which is joined by two international observers, has a narrow mandate and did not interview soldiers or quiz officials about the decision-making process.Barak told the commission that the flotilla was a planned provocation, while Netanyahu accused Ankara of looking to gain from a high-profile confrontation between Turkish activists and Israeli troops. All three defended Israel's naval blockade and border restrictions on Gaza, saying they were necessary to prevent Hamas -- which is sworn to the destruction of Israel -- from importing rockets and other weapons. After speaking for more than three hours, Ashkenazi gave the rest of his testimony behind closed doors. An internal army inquiry has already acknowledged errors in the planning and execution of the operation but did not find any culpable negligence.The UN secretary general, the UN Human Rights Council and Turkey are all carrying out separate investigations into the incident.

Troops arrest Jews who tried to pray at Jericho mosque
Tue Aug 10, 2:55 pm ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli troops arrested and evacuated some 30 Jewish rightwing militants who had illegally entered the West Bank town of Jericho on Tuesday to pray at an ancient synagogue, the army said.Our troops a arrested and evacuated around 30 Israelis who entered Jericho illegally to pray at the site of an ancient synagogue, the spokesman told AFP.The action happened in the evening and the troops fired teargas grenades to force the militants to retreat, the spokesman said.We had to use tear gas to remove them and there were two people who were slightly hurt, he said, adding that all the members of the group were handed over to the police.

The army considers what happened in Jericho serious, the spokesman said.An AFP correspondent said the Israeli troops arrived at the site aboard several military vehicles and for hours were chasing the militants through banana plantations around the synagogue.The troops finally rounded them up and forced them on to a bus that drove them out of the autonomous Palestinian enclave, the correspondent said.The synagogue, in the northern part of the town, contains a magnificent 6th century mosaic of a menorah, or seven-branch candelabra, and the words Shalom al Israel, or Peace to Israel.Israelis wishing to pray there are supposed to coordinate with the army and the Palestinian police.