Palestinians, Syria condemn Israel referendum law
by Sara Hussein – Tue Nov 23, 4:11 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Palestinian and Syrian officials on Tuesday condemned a new Israeli law mandating a national referendum ahead of any withdrawal from annexed east Jerusalem or the Golan Heights.Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said the bill, passed by Israel's parliament late on Monday night, makes a mockery of international law, which is not subject to the whims of Israeli public opinion.In Damascus, the foreign ministry said Syria totally rejects this Israeli measure which changes nothing to the fact that the Golan is Syrian territory and cannot be part of any negotiations.The legislation, which was backed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, passed with 65 Knesset members in favour and 33 against, and no abstentions.It requires any government signing a peace agreement that cedes territory in east Jerusalem or the Golan, or any other sovereign territory within Israel itself, to secure either approval of parliament or hold a national referendum.
It would not affect territorial concessions within the West Bank or the Gaza Strip, which Israel has not annexed.But Erakat said Israel had no right to put any future territorial concessions to a public vote.Ending the occupation of our land is not and cannot be dependent on any sort of referendum, he said.Under international law there is a clear and absolute obligation on Israel to withdraw not only from east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, but from all of the territories that it has occupied since 1967.For his part, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said in the West Bank city of Ramallah the move was a half measure aimed at blocking a political settlement and all roads leading to peace.Speaking after meeting visiting Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, he said the government should consult the Israeli people with a view to reaching a final settlement of the Palestinian question and all other pending issues.East Jerusalem was annexed shortly after the 1967 Six-Day war, while the Golan Heights plateau was formally annexed in 1981. Both were captured in the conflict.Any pullout from mainly Arab east Jerusalem would only occur as part of a peace deal, but talks between Israel and the Palestinians are currently suspended because of a dispute over Jewish settlement building.The Palestinians have said they could seek international recognition for a unilateral declaration of statehood if peace talks are not relaunched soon, and Erakat said the referendum law brought new urgency to the proposal.The international community's answer to this bill should be a worldwide recognition of the Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, with east Jerusalem as its capital.Syria and Israel remain technically at war, and there are no official peace talks between the two countries at present.This law is addressed to those who still have illusions concerning the current Israeli government and who believe that it seeks peace, the Syrian foreign ministry said.The legislation also drew condemnation within Israel, with Defence Minister Ehud Barak saying it could serve as propaganda fodder for Israel's foes.
I'm not sure this law was needed or urgent and could be made use of by Israel's enemies, letting them claim Israel is opposed to peace by shackling itself to avoid progressing on the peace process, Barak told a conference Tuesday. However, other domestic reaction to the legislation was largely focused on what it meant for the country's political system, with several observers arguing it weakened the Knesset and Israel's legislative process.Ariella Ringel-Hoffman, writing in Yediot Aharonot daily, warned that a referendum was not a process that enhances the decision-making process.This is a process that detracts and diminishes the responsibility of the political establishment, it diffuses it and decentralizes it in a bad way, she wrote.This is still a tool that undermines the status of the government, its right and its obligation to conduct negotiations, to make the best agreements possible and to make decisions.The Syrian media slammed the legislation, saying it was a sign that Israel had no interest in making peace.Al-Baas, the paper of Syria's ruling Baath party, called the law a new aggressive measure that reflects Israel' disdain for Arab rights and its rejection of international resolutions stipulating the withdrawal from Arab territory occupied in 1967.
Israeli parliament approves referendum-for-peace law
By Allyn Fisher-Ilan - Mon Nov 22, 7:39 pm ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel's parliament approved on Monday a measure backed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu which could require a referendum on potential land-for-peace deals concluded with Arab neighbors.Critics argued the bill, which was passed after a seven-hour debate by a vote of 65 to 33, could further complicate U.S.-backed talks with the Palestinians, stalled for weeks over the issue of Jewish settlement building.But some analysts saw the legislation as a way for Netanyahu to build a cogent legislative framework for approval of any future peace deal.Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, denounced the measure as a mockery of international law and urged nations to respond by recognizing Palestinian statehood on all West Bank land Israel occupied in a 1967 war.The Israeli law calls for putting any treaty involving a withdrawal from Israeli-annexed land to a public vote, in the event that Israel's parliament has not approved the deal in question by a two-thirds majority.It would cover any agreements involving a pullback from occupied land Israel has already annexed -- East Jerusalem, or the Golan Heights captured from Syria.Palestinians want East Jerusalem as capital of a future state in the West Bank, but Israel sees it as a part of its undivided capital, and it could prove difficult to win Israeli public backing to relinquish even parts of the holy city.Palestinian leaders have also said they would seek to hold a referendum on any deal with Israel. Trying to get an agreement with the Jewish state approved by a majority in Hamas-ruled Gaza or the Palestinian diaspora may also prove difficult.
While the Israeli measure would not apply to the West Bank, Netanyahu's political allies have said they would seek to apply it to accords over that territory as well.
NETANYAHU PLUGS BILL
Netanyahu's allies lobbied for votes among squabbling coalition partners, including the left-of-center Labour party, most of whose ministers were absent from the vote.
In a statement, Netanyahu praised the decision to hold a referendum within 90 days of a parliamentary vote on a treaty as destined to reduce controversies and tensions.
Netanyahu also said in his statement he thought Israelis would support any peace agreement that answers national interests and Israeli security needs.Erekat said Israel was obliged to withdraw from occupied land regardless of how its public voted, calling the parliamentary decision Israel's attempt to veil its oppression of the Palestinian people as an exercise of Israeli democracy.Despite Palestinian anger, some Israeli analysts saw a referendum as giving Netanyahu greater maneuverability to overcome far-right opponents of yielding West Bank land which they see as a biblical birthright.They noted how the Israeli public overwhelmingly rallied behind past prime ministers to support peace agreements in 1979 with Egypt and a 1994 deal with Jordan, despite the territorial concessions they entailed.
Orit Galili-Zucker, a political scientist at Bar-Ilan University near Tel Aviv, thought the advantages of a referendum may outweigh the disadvantages. Netanyahu could use it as a way to win wider support for a deal.Others thought it may help perpetuate diplomatic stalemate.Tamir Sheafer, a political scientist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said he thought right-wing Israeli politicians had orchestrated a tactical maneuver aimed at making it even more difficult to advance in the negotiations.(Additional reporting by Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah)(Editing by Douglas Hamilton and David Stamp)
Israel says Italy key in brokering Lebanon village pullout
– Mon Nov 22, 2:00 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Italian mediation had been key to Israel's acceptance of a plan to withdraw its forces from a disputed village on the Lebanese border.Netanyahu singled out the role of Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, who was in Israel on a four-day tour of the region aimed at pushing forward the stalled Middle East peace process.We would not have managed to reach a solution on the problem without the involvement of Italy and you personally overseeing the issue, Netanyahu's office quoted the premier as telling Frattini in a meeting.Israel's cabinet last week accepted a plan to withdraw Israeli soldiers from the northern part of the village of Ghajar and to hand over control to United Nations peacekeepers.If the plan goes ahead, the troops, who have been in Ghajar since the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, would redeploy south of the blue line unofficial frontier between Israel and Lebanon.Following the pullback decision, responsibility for the sector will be handed to UNIFIL (UN Interim Force in Lebanon), whose troops will redeploy around the village's northern perimeter but not inside it.Italy plays a leading role in UNIFIL, with the largest contingent of ground troops.
The UN ruled that north Ghajar lies in Lebanon and the rest lies in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, but Israel took over the Lebanese side too during its devastating 2006 war with Shiite militant group Hezbollah.Netanyahu said he was determined Hezbollah not take over the northern part of the village, but it was unclear with what means.It's my intention to withdraw from the northern part of the village and establish there a regime that will prevent a vacuum that would allow Hezbollah to take over, Netanyahu said.We still have not finished putting together a solution, he said.The village, with 2,200 residents, lies on the borders of Lebanon, Syria and the Golan Heights, which Israel seized from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in 1981 in a move not recognised by the international community.
Frattini, who arrived on Monday, met with Netanyahu and opposition leader Tzipi Livni. He was expected to meet Palestinian leaders, including president Mahmud Abbas, in the West Bank on Tuesday before travelling to the Gaza Strip.
Hezbollah members behind Hariri's killing: CBC News
– Mon Nov 22, 11:16 am ET
BEIRUT (Reuters) – U.N.-backed investigators have found that members of Hezbollah were behind the assassination in 2005 of Lebanese prime minister Rafik al-Hariri, Canadian public broadcaster CBC News has reported citing inquiry sources and documents.It said evidence gathered by Lebanese police and later by UN-backed investigators points overwhelmingly to the fact that the assassins were from Hezbollah.Hezbollah, which is part of a unity government led by Hariri's son Saad has repeatedly denied any involvement in the killing. Its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said this month he will not allow the arrest of any of the group's members.
Hezbollah said on Monday it had no comment on the CBC News report. U.N spokesman Farhan Haq said the U.N. was aware of the report but was not commenting for now.
Hezbollah and Western diplomats say that an expected indictment against members of the group could come late this year or early next. Lebanese politicians fear a crisis, and possible relapse into violence, if that proves to be the case.CBC News said on Sunday it had obtained mobile telephone and other telecommunications evidence which is at the core of the case.It said that in 2007 the investigators asked a British firm to analyze telephone calls made in Lebanon in 2005.What the British analyst showed them (the U.N. investigators) was nothing less than the hit squad that had carried out the murder, or at least the phones they had been carrying at the time, CBC News said.
TELECOM AGENTS
Lebanon had charged two employees at state-run mobile phone firm Alfa with spying for Israel in the past few months. They were arrested as part of a wider espionage investigation which lead to more than 50 arrests since April last year.The arrests prompted debate on how deeply Israel had infiltrated Lebanon's telecoms and security sectors.Hezbollah suggested Israel could have used telecom agents to manipulate evidence such as telephone records to implicate the group in Hariri's killing.
Hezbollah, which fought a war with Israel in 2006, has accused the tribunal of being an Israeli tool and said its investigators are sending information to Israel.The investigation had first implicated Syrian and Lebanese officials, although it later held back from giving details of its findings. Saad Hariri had blamed Syria for killing his father but later said he was wrong to accuse Syria and that the charge was politically motivated.Hariri's assassination plunged Lebanon into its worst crisis since the 1975-90 civil war. Sunni-Shi'ite tensions threatened to boil over into a civil war.The CBC News report is close to one published by German magazine Der Spiegel in 2009 in which it cited information it had obtained saying that investigators believed Hezbollah was behind Hariri's killing.The German magazine also said Lebanese investigators had found a link between eight cell phones used in the area at the time of the attack and a network of 20 other phones believed to belong to Hezbollah's operative arm.
Netanyahu: no promise to reach border deal during new freeze
by Gavin Rabinowitz – Sun Nov 21, 2:25 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, facing mounting opposition, said on Sunday that a planned new 90-day settlement freeze was not aimed at talks to define the borders of a Palestinian state.There is no agreement that we will reach an agreement on borders within 90 days. There is no such demand and no such commitment, Netanyahu's office quoted him as telling members of his hardline Likud party.Netanyahu was seeking to calm mounting opposition within his own party to the fresh three-month ban on West Bank settlement building on a day when thousands of settlers gathered in Jerusalem to protest the move.The deal with Washington, which has not been finalised, would see Israel granted a package of security and diplomatic incentives in return for implementing a new partial halt to building in the occupied West Bank.Many commentators believe the three-month freeze is designed to allow the Palestinians to return to peace talks that would specifically focus on the borders of a future Palestinian state.Israel aims to continue construction in large settlement blocs that would become part of the Jewish state after expected territorial swaps under any peace settlement.But Netanyahu said a resumption of talks would focus on all final-status issues.There will not be separate talks on borders but on all the core issues. We intend to enter serious discussions on all issues, he said, according to the statement.But his apparent willingness to enter a new moratorium has enraged settlers and their supporters.
Sunday's demonstration, which drew mostly teenage settlers, was timed to coincide with Israel's weekly cabinet meeting.A sea of banners and placards urged ministers to Vote against, while others addressed Netanyahu, saying: Yes you can! Say No,in a twist on US President Barack Obama's successful 2008 election campaign slogan.
Renewal of the freeze is the start of the uprooting, said another, alluding to fears that a peace deal with the Palestinians will see the removal of Jewish settlements.
Scores of schools in settlements across the West Bank observed a one-day protest strike on Sunday, freeing up thousands of students to attend the demonstration against the potential new moratorium.Organisers said several thousand demonstrators had showed up, while police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld told AFP the number was more than 5,000.Later on Sunday, several dozen protesters blocked the main road into Jerusalem, sitting on the ground and causing huge tailbacks, an AFP correspondent said.
However, a resumption of negotiations does not appear imminent.The deal with the Americans was worked out in talks with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton earlier this month, but has not yet been finalised with Israel demanding the agreements in writing.Washington has said it is willing to put the understandings in writing, but their failure to produce a document after more than two weeks indicates that disagreements remain.We have still not yet received the written understandings from the Americans,Netanyahu told party members who largely oppose the new moratorium. If we get a written commitment, I will bring it to the cabinet and I'm sure the ministers will approve it because it is what's good for Israel, the prime minister said.Another hitch was the insistence by the Palestinians that the new freeze on settlements include annexed east Jerusalem, which the previous moratorium did not and which Israel has refused to do.
If it does not encompass Jerusalem -- in other words, if there is not a complete freeze on settlement in all the Palestinian territories including Jerusalem -- we will not accept it, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas told reporters in Cairo after meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Sunday.US-sponsored direct peace negotiations resumed on September 2 but collapsed three weeks later with the expiry of a 10-month Israeli partial ban on West Bank settlement building.The Palestinians have refused to rejoin the peace talks until a new moratorium is imposed.
Israel to invest $23m in Western Wall plaza
– Sun Nov 21, 11:50 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel's cabinet on Sunday backed plans to invest millions of shekels in a five-year project to develop the Western Wall plaza, in a project branded by the Palestinians as illegal.The plans to improve access to both the Wall and to nearby archaeological sites were outlined in a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office, which said it would invest 85 million shekels (23 million dollars, 17 million euros) in the project.But the announcement drew an angry response from the office of Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad, which said Israel had no right to make changes on the ground in occupied east Jerusalem.
Construction work in the Old City, particularly around the Western Wall which backs onto the Al-Aqsa mosque compound housing Islam's third holiest site, is one of the most contentious issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and has a history of triggering unrest.The aim of the plan is to improve access for millions of visitors to the site and also to the archaeological sites, and to upgrade the infrastructure and the transport infrastructure in the area, the Israeli statement said.The goal of the plan is to preserve, and improve accessibility to, archaeological findings, it said, mentioning improved access for private cars, public transport and emergency vehicles, as well as improving disabled access.The 2011-2015 plan follows on from a project first approved in 2004, the results of which led to huge growth in the number of annual visitors to the Western Wall, rising from two million to eight million in 2009, the statement said.It was not immediately clear how the development project would change the appearance of the vast Western Wall plaza, which covers some 20,000 square metres (215,200 square feet).The Western Wall is the most important heritage site for the people of Israel, and we are committed to developing and preserve it so it will continue to be the focal point and a source of inspiration for millions of visitors and tourists, both old and young, from Israel and abroad,Netanyahu was quoted as saying in the statement.
But Ghassan Khatib, a spokesman for the Palestinian Authority, slammed the project as illegal,accusing Israel of trying to create facts on the ground in the city's eastern sector, which the Palestinians want as capital of their future state.It is illegal because what they want to do is in an occupied area and they have no right to make any change in occupied areas, especially in (east) Jerusalem,he said.Such a project would only block attempts to reach any peaceful solution because any solution with Israel must include (east) Jerusalem, Khatib said.The international community must put pressure on Israel to stop any project which aims to make any changes on the ground in (east) Jerusalem.Construction or renovation projects in and around the Old City are deeply controversial and have often sparked violence in the past.In 1996, more than 80 people were killed in three days of riots during Netanyahu's first term of office when he authorised the opening of a new entrance to an archaeological tunnel near the holy sites.Huge protests also erupted when Israel began repair work on a damaged stone ramp leading to the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, enraging Muslims around the world.Last month, planners revealed they were mulling the first new gate into the Old City in more than 100 years as part of a broader plan to improve access and intensify the tourist profile of the Western Wall.The gate would take the form of an underground tunnel under the Old City's southern walls and lead to a multi-storey car park in the Jewish quarter. Each year, more than eight million people visit the Western Wall, Israel's biggest tourist attraction which is revered by Jews as the last remnant of the Second Temple. Above the wall is the area known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif or Noble Sanctuary, which houses the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, the third holiest site in Islam.Israel considers Jerusalem to be its eternal and indivisible capital, a claim not recognised by the international community.
Abbas rejects settlement freeze that excludes Jerusalem
by Ines Bel Aiba – Sun Nov 21, 7:34 am ET
CAIRO (AFP) – Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said on Sunday that he will not return to the negotiating table with Israel without a settlement freeze that includes annexed Arab east Jerusalem.The Palestinian leader also hit out at US efforts to persuade Israel to agree to a more limited freeze applying only to the rest of the occupied West Bank in return for a raft of political and security benefits, saying he wanted to have nothing to do with such deal-making.If it does not encompass Jerusalem, in other words if there is not a complete freeze on settlement in all the Palestinian territories including Jerusalem, we will not accept it, Abbas told reporters after talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
If Israel wants to return to its settlement activities, then we can't go on. A settlement freeze must include all of the Palestinian territories and above all Jerusalem, Abbas said.Direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians resumed on September 2 but collapsed three weeks later with the expiry of a 10-month Israeli freeze on settlement building in the West Bank.Although that freeze did not apply directly to east Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quietly held off approving projects there for most of its duration to avoid the political fallout.
But faced with opposition from hardliners in his cabinet to any new settlement freeze, Netanyahu has said repeatedly that no restrictions will apply to construction in east Jerusalem.In talks last week, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton put together a package of incentives to get Netanyahu to accept a one-off 90-day freeze, including an additional 20 F-35 fighter jets, worth three billion dollars, and a pledge to block any international efforts to impose a peace deal on Israel.But Abbas spoke out against the US diplomatic efforts.We told the Americans that we wanted nothing to do with their deal-making. We reject the idea of linking these bargains to the resumption of negotiations, he said.If the issue is a matter of weapons for one side or another, then we don't accept it.Abbas said there were still no firm proposals from Washington.So far nothing official has come out of the US administration, either to us or to the Israelis, that we can comment on, he said.
After talks with Abbas on Saturday, Arab League chief Amr Mussa said that as soon as the Palestinians received the US response, the bloc's follow-up committee would hold an emergency meeting to discuss its next step.The League has given Washington until the end of this month to rescue the peace talks.Abbas also held talks on Saturday with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, who has been brokering reconciliation talks between the Western-backed Palestinian leader's Fatah faction and the Islamist Hamas movement which controls Gaza.So far we have not reached an agreement with Hamas, Abbas said, accusing the movement of going back on some of its earlier bargaining positions.Despite all that... we will continue to hold a dialogue with Hamas at all levels until we restore Palestinian national unity,he added. The two factions have been at loggerheads since Hamas seized Gaza in June 2007, ousting forces loyal to the Palestinian president and effectively restricting his authority to the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Hezbollah says its arms needed to resist Israel
– Sat Nov 20, 10:17 am ET
BEIRUT – Hezbollah's weapons are still necessary to defend the country despite Israel's decision to pull out of a disputed border village, a senior official with the group said Saturday.The comments of Hussein Khalil, the political adviser to Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, came three days after Israel announced its decision to withdraw from the northern half of Ghajar.When Israel ended its 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon in 2000, U.N. surveyors split the village between Lebanon and the Israeli-controlled Golan. Israel took back the village's northern half after its the 2006 war with Hezbollah.Khalil said that even if Israel pulled out the village, it is still occupying the disputed Chebaa Farms and Kfar Chouba Hills captured from Syria four decades ago.The resistance and its weapons are still a national need to liberate remaining occupied Lebanese territories especially Chebaa Farms and Kfar Chouba Hills, Khalil told reporters after meeting Christian leader Michel Aoun, a strong ally of Hezbollah.Israel seized Chebaa Farms and Kfar Chouba Hills from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war. Lebanon and Syria claim it is Lebanese territory. But a U.N.-drawn border between Israel and Lebanon marks it as Syrian land under Israeli occupation.Hezbollah cites the Israeli presence there as justification for its continuing armed resistance against Israel.Backed by Iran and Syria, the well equipped group is the strongest armed force in the country and fired some 4,000 rockets into Israel during the 34-day war in 2006.
Israel launches air raids in Gaza after rocket, mortar fire
by Mai Yaghi – Fri Nov 19, 5:57 pm ET
GAZA CITY (AFP) – Israeli warplanes struck targets in the Hamas-run Palestinian Gaza Strip on Friday, wounding six people after a rocket and mortar rounds were fired into Israel from the coastal enclave.The jets bombed three sites Friday afternoon and then later in the evening destroyed two smuggling tunnels from the southern Gaza town of Rafah to neighbouring Egypt, Palestinian officials and the Israeli army said.
The targeting of these terror-linked sites was in response to the firing of rockets at Israel's southern communities over the past two days, the military said.In a statement, it said 10 mortar rounds and a military-grade Grad-type rocket were fired into Israel from Gaza, causing no casualties.Adham Abu Selmiya, a spokesman for the Hamas-run medical services in Gaza, said four people were wounded in a strike that targeted a house east of the central town of Deir al-Balah.The injured, who included two women, were taken to Shuhada al-Aqsa hospital, he told AFP.A separate air strike on the southern town of Khan Yunis lightly wounded two people, one of them a child, Abu Selmiya added.There were no casualties reported in the night-time raid on Rafah.
The Israeli military said the strike near Deir al-Balah targeted two tunnels being dug towards the border with southern Israel, but had no details on the attack in Khan Yunis.Earlier on Friday, a Soviet-designed Grad rocket fired from Gaza damaged a tanker truck in an attack the Israeli military described as the first of its kind for several months.Grad-type rockets have a range of up to 40 kilometres (25 miles), about twice the distance of the home-made Qassam rockets normally used by Palestinian militants in Gaza.Israeli media reported that one of the mortar rounds fired at Israel was a white phosphorus bomb. Police could not immediately confirm the report, however Palestinian militants have fired such projectiles in the past.
Israel came under heavy criticism during the 22-day offensive it launched on Gaza in December 2008 for using these rounds and has since then changed its procedures for using phosphorus.Under international law, white phosphorus is banned for use near civilians, but is permitted for creating a smoke screen.Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman instructed Israel's ambassador at the United Nations to file a complaint over the use of phosphorus targeting Israeli civilians, media reports on Friday said.
This is another reminder to the international community that Israel's southern residents are forced to live in constant fear, the Haaretz daily quoted Lieberman as saying.An Islamist militant group, the Al-Nasser Brigades, claimed responsibility for Friday's mortar attack, saying it had fired six rounds in retaliation for the assassination by Israel.The statement was an apparent reference to an Israeli strike on Wednesday that killed Islam Yassin, 39, and his brother Mohammed, 20, both members of the Army of Islam, a radical group with an ideology similar to Al-Qaeda.
Separately on Friday, Israeli gunfire wounded a 22-year-old Palestinian near the border in northern Gaza as he collected gravel. About 70 Palestinians have been wounded and two killed while gathering building materials at the border since the end of the Gaza offensive in January 2009, emergency services spokesman Abu Selmiya said.The Israeli military confirmed it shot the man after he entered the border area and refused to withdraw when warning shots were fired.Israel cited persistent rocket fire from Gaza as its reason for launching Operation Cast Lead,the 2008 offensive that killed more than 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.Since the beginning of this year, more than 180 rockets and shells have been fired towards Israel from Gaza, according to the Israeli military.
