U.N. supports Israeli claim on Lebanon clash By Yara Bayoumy 1:50PM AUG 4,10
BEIRUT (Reuters) – The U.N. peacekeeping force in south Lebanon said on Wednesday Israeli soldiers were operating inside Israel when a deadly firefight broke out with Lebanese troops in the most serious border violence since a 2006 war.A day after a senior Israeli officer, two Lebanese soldiers and a Lebanese journalist were killed in a rare skirmish that raised fears of wider conflict, Israel's military seemed keen to show it would not be deterred from activity in the area.There was no repeat of Tuesday's clash when the Israeli army moved a crane back into the tense frontier zone to complete a tree-pruning mission that had drawn Lebanese army fire.Iranian-backed Hezbollah, which stayed out of the fighting, vowed to "cut off the hand" of Israel if it attacked the army again. But its leader doubted the incident would spark a war.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Lebanon was responsible for the cross-border flare-up and threatened a forceful response to further attacks.
Our policy is clear, Israel responds and will continue to respond with force, to any attack against its citizens and soldiers,Netanyahu said in a televised speech.In a diplomatic boost for Israel, the U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL) said Israeli soldiers were inside Israeli territory when the border clashes erupted.UNIFIL established ... that the trees being cut by the Israeli army are located south of the Blue Line on the Israeli side, said UNIFIL military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Naresh Bhatt, referring to a border line drawn by the United Nations after Israeli troops withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000.A three-way meeting between the Lebanese and Israeli armies and UNIFIL was due to take place on Wednesday night.
LEBANON BLAMES TREACHEROUS ENEMY
Tuesday's violence began after Israel soldiers used a crane to reach over a frontier fence to trim a tree whose branches, the Israeli military said, were tripping the fence's electronic anti-infiltration devices. It said its soldiers had stayed within Israel and the tree was south of the Blue Line.Lebanese Information Minister Tareq Mitri acknowledged that the area was south of the line, but said it was still Lebanese territory. Israel and Lebanon dispute parts of the Blue Line.A Lebanese army official said the military had had prior notice of Israel's planned activity but it had been agreed on condition that it took place under UNIFIL's supervision, adding that the Israelis had gone ahead without this.The UNIFIL statement did not say whether the Israeli army had coordinated with the peacekeepers.On Wednesday Lebanese troops deployed at a distance from the site where an Israeli crane again tore into trees and UNIFIL troops patrolled the adjacent border village of Adaisseh.
Lebanese army commander Jean Kahwaji also visited the area and said Israeli troops had ignored the objections of UNIFIL and of the Lebanese army as their patrol moved toward the border.Your brave stand in the face of the treacherous enemy ... proved to this enemy that any aggression on our people and land will not pass without a price,he told soldiers in the south.An Israeli colonel said the incident was premeditated. He told reporters in northern Israel that Lebanese sniper fire had immediately hit the battalion and company commanders who were looking on from a hill. Mark Regev, a spokesman for Netanyahu, said UNIFIL's findings bore out Israel's view that the Lebanese attack on our forces was both unprovoked and unjustified.In Lebanon's southern Christian village of Darb es-Sim, relatives of 31-year-old Sergeant Robert el-Ashi, one of the two soldiers killed on Tuesday, fainted from grief as family members gathered around his flag-draped coffin.
In Jerusalem, Netanyahu convened his security cabinet. Tuesday's deaths were the first on either side since the 2006 war in which 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in Lebanon, along with 158 Israelis, mostly soldiers.A new war could be more devastating than the last. Tension has risen since April, when Israel accused Syria of transferring long-range Scud missiles to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon -- an allegation Damascus has denied.Disturbances between UNIFIL troops and villagers, who have branded French U.N. peacekeeping patrols provocative and intrusive, have added to unease in the south.Israel has threatened all-out attack on Lebanon in any new conflict, including strikes on Lebanese infrastructure. In 2006 it bombed bridges, fuel tanks, radar stations and Beirut airport, while Hezbollah fired 4,000 rockets into Israel.(Writing by Jeffrey Heller and Yara Bayoumy; Additional reporting by Douglas Hamilton in Misgav Am, Karamallah Daher in Adaisseh and Dan Williams in Jerusalem, editing by Tim Pearce)
Israel threatens harsh response to any attacks
AUG 4,10
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel holds Lebanon and Hamas responsible for separate attacks on its territory this week and will continue to respond forcefully to violence, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday.I want to make clear to Hamas and the Lebanese government, that we see them responsible for the violent provocation against our soldiers, Netanyahu said in a televised speech.Our policy is clear, Israel responds and will continue to respond with force, to any attack against its citizens and soldiers, he added.Four people, including a senior Israeli officer, died in a rare firefight on the Israeli-Lebanese border on Tuesday.On Monday, a suspected short-range rocket salvo from the Egyptian Sinai, struck Israel's and Jordan's Red Sea ports, killing a man in Jordan. Netanyahu said the attack had been carried out by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.I want to make clear that the use of a territory belonging to a third, peace-seeking state in order to fire rockets at Israel will not help Hamas to evade responsibility, he said.Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, has denied any involvement in Monday's rocket strike.(Writing by Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Crispian Balmer)
New Gaza aid flotilla planned before year-end By MALIN RISING, Associated Press Writer AUG 4,10
STOCKHOLM – Pro-Palestinian activists behind the Gaza aid convoy stopped by a deadly Israeli commando raid in May said Wednesday they are planning another, bigger flotilla before the end of the year.The network of organizations involved in the effort is growing and now has support groups around the world, including in the U.S., Venezuela, Chile, and Malaysia, said Dror Feiler, a spokesman for the Swedish group Ship to Gaza.He said European representatives of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, an umbrella group, met in Stockholm on Wednesday to plan a new flotilla with up to 12 ships.They are hoping to include celebrity activists including lawmakers, musicians, artists and sports stars from around world, Feiler said, but didn't give any names.Israeli commandos on May 31 raided a six-ship aid flotilla, killing eight Turks and one Turkish-American. Although Israel claimed the soldiers acted in self defense, the bloodshed provoked an international outcry that forced it to ease its Gaza blockade — imposed when Hamas seized control of the area in 2007.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition said Israel's steps have not been enough.Israel's alleged easing of the closure on Gaza has been purely cosmetic, intended only to deflect criticism from its illegal policies, the organization said in a statement released at the Stockholm meeting.Expanding the list of items permitted into Gaza does not address the most fundamental concern of the people there — freedom of movement, it said.Israel imposed its blockade of the Gaza Strip after Hamas militants seized power there three years ago. Israel has said the measures were needed to prevent Hamas from arming, but the blockade has brought Gaza's economy to a virtual standstill.The Stockholm meeting included activists from Greece, France and Sweden and the Turkish Islamic aid group IHH, which has been outlawed by Israel amid accusations of ties with Palestinian militant group Hamas.Feiler said flotilla organizers are in the process of buying and licensing ships for the new operation and getting them flagged in European countries.They also plan to travel to Israel at the end of August or early September to reclaim ships seized by Israel in the first flotilla, he said.Israel has vowed to stop all future foreign flotillas.
Canada warns against non-essential travel to Lebanon
Wed Aug 4, 8:54 am ET
MONTREAL (AFP) – Canada has warned its nationals to avoid non-essential travel to Lebanon following a deadly exchange of fire between Lebanese and Israeli troops along the two countries' common border.Without mentioning the clash, which left four dead, the foreign ministry warned Tuesday that the situation in Lebanon remains fragile.Heightened tensions throughout the region, together with increased threats globally from terrorism, put Canadians at greater risk, it said.It advised Canadians not to travel south of the Litani River, particularly to areas near the border with Israel, because tensions remain high despite a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah in August 2006.Canadians also were urged to avoid certain areas of the southern Lebanese city of Tripoli prone to intercommunity violence and Palestinian refugee camps as the security situation in these areas remains very tense.It told Canadians to expect their government's aid in leaving the country only as a last resort,if commercial travel options have been exhausted.
Situations vary from one location to another, and there may be constraints on government resources, which can limit the ability of the government of Canada to provide assistance, particularly in countries or regions where the potential for violent conflict or political instability are high,it said.Ottawa had to evacuate 15,000 Canadians from Lebanon in 2006 when war broke out between Israel and the Shiite Hezbollah militia.More than 165,000 Canadians are of Lebanese origin, according to Canada's 2006 census.
US sanctions Iranians said to support terrorism By ROBERT BURNS, AP National Security Writer – Tue Aug 3, 3:59 pm ET
WASHINGTON – The United States announced new Iran sanctions Tuesday, targeting senior officials of three organizations for alleged support of terrorist groups, including the Taliban in Afghanistan.The Treasury Department, which announced the sanctions, also named 21 companies that it said are, in effect, front companies for Iran in its pursuit of illicit weaponry, including nuclear arms.By publicly naming the companies, the government said it was making it easier for U.S. companies to comply with their legal obligation not to do business with the Iranian government.
Taken together, the actions reflect an Obama administration strategy of ratcheting up economic and political pressure on Iran to limit its support for Islamic extremism in the Mideast. A parallel goal is to coax Iran into international negotiations over its nuclear program.Robert Einhorn, the State Department official who oversees the enforcement of sanctions against Iran and North Korea, told reporters in Seoul on Tuesday that the U.S. has no choice but to pressure Iran because earlier offers to negotiate were rebuffed.Pressure is not an end in itself, Einhorn said.Instead, sanctions are intended to bring Iran's leaders to the conclusion that their country would be better served by ending its non-compliance with its international obligations and starting to address serious concerns about Iran's nuclear intentions.Iran its nuclear program is designed to generate electricity, not build weapons.Stuart Levey, the Treasury Department's under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said sanctions against some Iranian organizations and senior officials are meant to complicate the groups' efforts to support extremists movements in the Mideast.Asked about the Treasury actions, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the moves are in line with a strategy that is beginning to have some effect on Iran's strategic thinking.It is getting increasingly difficult to do business in Iran, Crowley said. The cost of doing business for Iran is going up. And we are encouraged by what we're seeing.
The new sanctions expand the list of individuals and groups with whom Americans are not permitted to do business. The sanctions also freeze any assets of the organizations and officials that are under U.S. jurisdiction.Treasury targeted two officers in the Qods force, an elite arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, for providing money and weapons to militant groups the U.S. has designated as terrorist organizations: Hezbollah, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. It also targeted two other officers alleged to have provided money and material support to the Taliban in Afghanistan.The administration asserts that the Qods force provides select members of the Taliban with weapons, money, logistical support and training.
Treasury also imposed sanctions on the director of the Iranian Committee for the Reconstruction of Lebanon, for what it called financial, material and logistical support to Hezbollah.It also sanctioned the Lebanon branch of the Imam Khomeini Relief Committee, and its director, for being owned or controlled by Hezbollah and for providing Hezbollah with money and other support.Treasury also imposed sanctions on Razi Musavi, an Iranian official based in Syria, for supporting Hezbollah.
Gunfire erupts on Israeli-Lebanon border: source
Tue Aug 3, 6:47 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Clashes erupted briefly along Israel's northern border with Lebanon on Tuesday, an Israeli military source said, as police denied reports rockets had landed in the north.The army said troops had been fired upon in Israeli territory along the border with Lebanon but refused to confirm reports of clashes and would not give any further details.The military source said there was an exchange of fire between Israeli troops and Lebanese forces near kibbutz Misgav Am which lies along the northernmost stretch of the Israel-Lebanon border.Earlier reports on Israel public radio said two rockets had been fired across the border, but Israel police denied any projectiles had landed in the north.Nothing was fired into the north, spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld told AFP.The Lebanese army confirmed the clashes, saying two people had been injured on their side of the border near the village of Adaysseh, which lies just across the border from Misgav Am.
Jordan has proof Aqaba rocket fired from Egypt
Tue Aug 3, 4:14 am ET
AMMAN (AFP) – Jordan has proof a Grad-type rocket that struck its port city of Aqaba killing a taxi driver and wounding five other people was fired from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, a senior official told AFP on Tuesday.We can now say without hesitation that the Grad rocket was launched from Sinai, said the official close to the investigation of Monday's rocket attack, speaking on condition of anonymity.We have strong suspicions about the identity of the group behind this attack, he added without elaborating.The rocket that fell in a busy Aqaba street near a major hotel on Monday was one of several apparently fired at the nearby Israeli tourist resort of Eilat, in an attack condemned by Israel, Russia and the United States.At least five blasts were heard, with one rocket exploding in open ground outside Eilat, two crashing into the Red Sea and the rest hitting Jordan, Israeli police said.The fact that Aqaba was not the target and that the rocket fell there by mistake does not change the fact that it's still a terrorist act, which killed and wounded innocent people, the senior Jordanian official said.This is the second such incident in three months and Jordan will not tolerate that its territory becomes a target of rocket attacks, he added.An Egyptian security official has denied the attack was launched from the Sinai peninsula, a mountainous desert region that flanks the Gulf of Aqaba.
The rockets did not come from Sinai,which would need a great deal of logistics and equipment, and that is impossible considering the heavy security presence in the Sinai Peninsula, the official told AFP.We have a heavy security presence in Sinai, particularly along the Egyptian Israeli border. No suspicious activity has been reported anywhere in Sinai.On April 22, two military-grade rockets struck in and near Aqaba, one slamming into a warehouse and the other splashing into the Red Sea.
Aqaba and Eilat are the neighbouring Red Sea ports of Jordan and Israel, who signed a peace agreement in October 1994 after decades of strained ties and conflict.The two ports are nestled in the Gulf of Aqaba, a narrow stretch of water bordered on one side by Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and the other by Saudi Arabia.In August 2005, three Katyusha rockets were fired in Aqaba, missing two US warships docked in the port. One of the projectiles hit a warehouse, killing a Jordanian soldier, while another landed across the border in Israel.
US insists now is the right time for direct Mideast talks
Mon Aug 2, 3:16 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States said Monday now is the right time for Palestinians and Israelis to resume direct negotiations, warning there would be consequences if they failed to do so.State Department spokesman Philip Crowley declined to confirm that President Barack Obama had warned Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas that a failure could undermine US-Palestinian ties, but also failed to deny reports to that effect.We strongly believe that this is the time where the parties need to move from proximity talks into direct negotiations, Crowley told reporters.
Our message is this is the right time and it's an opportunity that both sides should not forsake,he added.The Palestinians and Israelis have since May been holding indirect proximity talks -- with former US senator George Mitchell acting as a go-between -- but they have not held direct negotiations since Israel launched a military offensive against Hamas militants in December 2008.Abbas has conditioned the resumption of direct negotiations on a complete Israeli halt to settlement building in the Palestinian West Bank.Crowley said he was encouraged that Arab nations agreed to green light direct talks when they met in Cairo late last month.We have a strong sense of urgency as to where we are, Crowley said when reporters repeatedly asked whether Obama had warned Abbas that a Palestinian failure to join talks would hurt US-Palestinian relations.There are consequences to... failing to take advantage of this opportunity,Crowley said.There are consequences just in terms of the Middle East itself and how... the Israeli citizens, Palestinians, how other countries evaluate this and will draw their own conclusions if these leaders at this time... fail to take advantage of this opportunity,Crowley said.
In the West Bank at the weekend, a Palestinian official told AFP on the condition of anonymity that Obama had warned the Palestinians there would be consequences for ties with Washington if they declined to join new talks.The officials said the warning came in a letter to Abbas that also pledged to rally Arab, European and Russian support for the Palestinians if direct did negotiations resume.The 16-point letter had a carrot-and-stick approach, he added.Obama stressed it is high time to resume direct negotiations with Israel and told Abbas that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is ready to resume direct negotiations.The letter warned that Obama will absolutely not accept the rejection of his recommendation to move to direct negotiations and that there will be consequences for such a rejection in the form of a lack of trust in president Abbas and the Palestinian side,the official said.
East Jerusalem settlement construction okayed
Mon Aug 2, 2:29 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Jerusalem gave the green light on Monday to the controversial construction of 40 new homes in the Israeli-occupied eastern part of the city, a municipal official said.The commission in charge of planning and construction in the municipality has authorised the construction of 40 homes in Pisgat Zeev, councillor Elisha Peleg told AFP.The settlement was founded in 1984 and is home to 41,000 residents. The go-ahead to build 40 new homes is part of an overall project to built 220 apartments, Deputy Mayor Kobi Khalon said earlier.Pisgat Zeev must be treated like any other Jerusalem neighbourhood," Khalon told the popular news website Ynet.
The settlement is located in mostly Arab east Jerusalem which Israel captured in the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed in a move not recognised by the international community.
Israel considers the whole of Jerusalem as its eternal and indivisible capital, while the Palestinians see east Jerusalem as the capital of their promised state.Ynet quoted other city councilmen criticising the project.Everything is done in the dark, like thieves,said Meir Turgeman.We can't keep lying to the entire world like this.Councilman Yossef Alalo criticised the timing of the decision, which he said comes as efforts are underway to resume direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.We are now at the most critical moment for the negotiations, and such an approval is harmful,Alalo said.Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas is facing US and EU pressure to resume direct talks with Israel, which have been frozen since December 2008.Abbas, who is holding US-brokered indirect talks with Israel, has conditioned face-to-face talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on a raft of demands rejected by Israel.He wants a complete end to settlement construction in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, and has said negotiations on a Palestinian state's borders must be based on the pre-1967 borders.
Peres, Mubarak discuss Israeli-Palestinian talks
Sun Aug 1, 11:16 am ET
CAIRO (AFP) – Israeli President Shimon Peres and his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak discussed on Sunday efforts to relaunch direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians, the Egyptian presidency said.The two men discussed the peace process in the Middle East and means to move from indirect negotiations to serious direct negotiations, Egyptian presidential spokesman Suleiman Awad told reporters after the meeting in Cairo.Israel and the Palestinians are currently locked in a round of US-brokered proximity negotiations, although the international community is trying to encourage both parties to move to face-to-face talks.Last week, foreign ministers from the Arab League agreed in principle to the resumption of direct peace talks, but left the timing of when they should start in the hands of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.Abbas has so far refused to engage in direct talks without first a freeze of Jewish settlements and guarantees over the borders of a future Palestinian state.During the meeting with Peres, Mubarak stressed that any direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians must be serious, with a defined time frame and with clear reference points, Awad said, refusing to speculate on when such talks would start.The meeting was initiated by the Egyptian leader, who invited Peres for talks followed by a working lunch, Peres's office said in a statement. They last met in November.
Israeli warplanes hit Gaza after new rocket attack
by Sakher Abu El Oun – Sun Aug 1, 7:25 am ET
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers rattled sabres on Sunday after militants fired rockets into southern Israel, prompting a series of retaliatory air raids.Israeli warplanes launched two pre-dawn raids on tunnels in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday after a Palestinian rocket struck the southern town of Sderot, damaging a university building without causing casualties.
Also over the weekend, Gaza militants fired a rare military-grade rocket into the southern Israeli port city of Ashkelon, damaging parked cars and shattering the windows of an apartment block without wounding anyone.That incident also prompted several Israeli air strikes late on Friday, one of which killed a senior Hamas military commander and wounded another eight people, drawing threats of revenge from the Islamists.Hamas on Sunday linked the flare-up of violence to Arab foreign ministers' support for the principle of direct talks with Israel, saying Palestinians were paying the price for (their) great error.A spokesman for the Israeli military said Sunday's strikes targeted two tunnels used to smuggle arms into the Islamist Hamas-run enclave.Palestinian medics said one person had been lightly injured in the raids.Israeli cabinet minister Benjamin Ben Eliezer told army radio that the military was not going to sit there with its arms crossed in the face of these attacks, but that its response would be measured.We do not want to set off an escalation because that is exactly what Hamas wants, which is why our response is hard but limited, he said.Speaking at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he held the Islamist movement directly responsible for the attacks.Israel reserves the right to defend its citizens, and we shall continue to take all steps necessary to defend the state of Israel, he said.
Hamas, meanwhile, condemned the Israeli aggression and reiterated its opposition to the relaunch of direct peace talks between the Western-backed Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas and Israel.Arab foreign ministers meeting in Cairo last week said they would support direct negotiations if and when Abbas agreed to them, as international pressure mounted on the Palestinians to return to face-to-face talks.Israeli President Shimon Peres meanwhile was in Egypt on Sunday to discuss peace efforts with President Hosni Mubarak.Our people in Gaza are paying the price for the great error and political mistake committed by the Arab Peace Initiative follow-up committee against the Palestinian people, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum said.He also criticised a letter from US President Barack Obama warning that Abbas's failure to return to direct talks could harm US-Palestinian relations. Palestinian officials had revealed the contents of the letter on Saturday.The letter from Obama to Abbas revealed the falsehood of Obama's policies and disappointed the Palestinian people. It deliberately harms the interests of our people in favour of those of the Zionist enemy and America.Hamas, which is blacklisted as a terrorist group by Israel, the United States and the European Union, is pledged to Israel's destruction and has adamantly opposed peace talks since they began in the early 1990s. The Islamist movement has ruled Gaza since it drove out forces loyal to Abbas in June 2007, splitting the Palestinians into hostile rival camps.
