Israel ready to react with great force: Netanyahu
by Dan de Luce - MAR 25,11 12:00PM
CAESAREA, Israel (AFP) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Friday that Israel is ready to act with great force in response to a spate of rocket fire by Gaza militants and a deadly bus bombing in Jerusalem.Israel had been subjected to bouts of terror and rocket attacks, Netanyahu told reporters before going into a meeting with Gates.We stand ready to act with great force and great determination to put a stop to it, he added, with officials saying Israel had not been hit by any projectiles Friday morning.Any civilised society will not tolerate such wanton attacks on its civilians, he said.However, as Netanyahu spoke, Defence Minister Ehud Barak toured the Gaza border with army chief Lieutenant General Benny Gantz, saying that the situation seemed to be calming down.In the last 24 hours there has been no fire into our territory, but we continue to monitor the situation, Barak said, according to a statement from his office.And Barak indicated that if the rocket attacks stopped, Israel would also halt its strikes into Gaza.
We don't intend to let the terror organizations again disturb the order but we will do all we need to to return the (military) activity to the border line itself, he said.Gates, a former CIA director with years of experience in Washington, said US-Israel security ties were as strong as they had ever been at a time when the region was in turmoil.On Thursday, he said in Tel Aviv that Washington firmly backed Israel's right to respond both to the rocket fire and the Jerusalem bombing, which he described as repugnant acts.But he suggested Israel should tread carefully or risk derailing the course of popular unrest sweeping Arab and Muslim countries in the Middle East.The US defence chief is pressing Israeli and Palestinian leaders to take bold action for peace despite soaring tensions, saying political upheaval in the region offered an opportunity.After his meeting with Netanyahu, Gates travelled amid heavy security to the West Bank city of Ramallah to meet Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, the first such visit by a US defence chief.Before their meeting, Fayyad told Gates it was a time of great challenge throughout the region but also a time of opportunity, requiring a redoubling of the effort in pursuing the cause of peace, and justice and security.Gates said he looked forward to discussing prospects for a two-state solution.Neither man made any statement following their roughly 45-minute meeting.Israel's leaders have appeared reluctant to be dragged into another bloody war with Hamas, especially as they lacked international support for any new offensive on Gaza.
Several regional powers have already urged Israel to show restraint amid fears in some quarters that Netanyahu would order another ground invasion of Gaza. And speaking to reporters Thursday night, a senior Israeli official said: We have already given Hamas some heavy blows in recent days but there will not be a hasty response. We will not proceed without carefully considering our options.Barak had said earlier that Israel had no choice but to respond a day after the bombing in Jerusalem and as Gaza militants rained rockets on southern Israel. Hours later, Israeli aircraft attacked four targets in the Gaza Strip, lightly wounding three people, Palestinian security sources and witnesses said.No one was wounded in the Grad attacks, which came a day after a bomb ripped through a crowded bus stop in Jerusalem, killing a British tourist and wounding more than 30 people, in the first such attack in the Holy City since 2004.Since the weekend, dozens of rockets have hit southern Israel. The vast majority of them were fired by Islamic Jihad's military wing, the Al-Quds Brigade.Thursday's rocket fire on Ashdod came a day after the Al-Quds Brigades vowed to fire more at cities deep inside Israel as it entered a new phase of resistance.And despite Hamas's pledge to rein in militants firing on Israel, Islamic Jihad's leadership insisted it would not stop its resistance unless Israel did the same.
Bahrain forces quash small protests in Day of Rage
By Lin Noueihed and Frederik Richter - MAR 25,11
MANAMA (Reuters) – Small protests broke out in Bahrain's capital for a planned Day of Rage on Friday despite a ban under martial law imposed last week, but were quickly crushed by security forces fanned out across Manama.Helicopters buzzing overhead, extra checkpoints erected on major highways and a large troop presence prevented any major demonstration from kicking off in the small Gulf Arab island kingdom, where a security crackdown last week quelled a month of protests by the mostly Shi'ite Muslim demonstrators.Bahrain has great strategic importance because it hosts the U.S. 5th Fleet, facing non-Arab Shi'ite power Iran across the Gulf, and is situated off-shore from Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter.Confronted by mass protests demanding constitutional reform, Bahrain's ruling Al Khalifa family, from the minority Sunni population, declared security their priority, called in troops from neighboring Sunni-led Gulf states and imposed martial law.But a few hundred protesters managed a short rally in the Shi'ite village of Diraz on Friday, shouting down with the regime as women swathed in black waved Bahraini flags and held up copies of the Quran. But they fled when around 100 riot police fired tear gas and tried to chase them down.
In the village of al-Dair, police fired rounds of tear gas to disperse around 100 protesters who had marched toward a main road next to a runway at Bahrain International Airport.Residents in nearby streets rushed women and children into their house as police continued to loose tear gas. They said police had also fired birdshot ammunition at protesters.After so many deaths, so many sacrifices, we will continue to protest. We just want a new constitution but they're not prepared for democracy, one resident said anonymously.More than 60 percent of Bahrainis are Shi'ites and most are demanding a constitutional monarchy. But calls by hardliners for the overthrow of the monarchy have alarmed Sunnis, who fear the unrest helps Iran on the other side of the Gulf.
TENSIONS HIGH
In signs of rising tensions in the oil-producing region, Bahrain's government has responded sharply to any signs of what it considers to be interference over its crackdown.Bahrain expelled diplomats from Iran, just across Gulf waters, when it criticized the clampdown last week. Its foreign minister has formally complained to the Lebanese government over expressions of support from the Shi'ite movement Hezbollah.Bahrain's social development minister accused demonstrators on Friday of harboring a foreign agenda, but stopped short of blaming Iran. We found out that those people who were doing it were instigated by a foreign country and by Hezbollah, Fatima al Beloushi told a news conference in Geneva.We have direct proof. Hezbollah has provided training for their people. They were serving a foreign agenda and that is why it was not something for having a better livelihood,she said.
Internet activists and Shi'ite villages tried to organize marches in different parts of Bahrain on Friday, dubbed the Day of Rage. But Wefaq, the mainstream Shi'ite opposition movement which draws tens of thousands when it calls protests, distanced itself from the demonstrations.Wefaq affirms the need to protect safety and lives and not to give the killers the opportunity to shed blood, it said.So far the largest crowds on Friday were at the sermon of a top Shi'ite cleric Sheikh Issa Qassim. Thousands gathered but did not seek to protest after prayers.A funeral in the Shi'ite suburb Balad al-Qadim also drew thousands, with crowds carrying Bahraini flags and pumping their fists. They shouted: Down, down (King) Hamad and the people want the fall of the regime.Bahrain has banned all marches. But security forces have not broken up the funeral processions of civilians killed in the crackdown -- most of which turn into anti-government rallies. Hani Abdulaziz, 33, died after being hit by rounds of bird shot fired by police near his home. His neighbors said he was left to bleed for an hour after he took shelter in a building.People have gotten to the stage where they don't want dialogue, they want these people out,said Zahra, a woman from Abdulaziz's village.(Additional reporting by Rania El Gamal; editing by Mark Heinrich)
Gates first U.S. defense chief to visit Palestinians
By Phil Stewart – Fri Mar 25, 8:47 am ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Robert Gates on Friday became the first U.S. Defense Secretary to visit the West Bank, meeting Palestinian leaders keenly aware of every little nod to their hopes of achieving statehood.Children in Ramallah stared as the long motorcade of U.S. cars wound through the streets of the city north of Jerusalem.
With U.S. diplomacy fully stretched over revolts in the Arab world and the air war with Libya, Gates was looking to revive stalled peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, before another war fills the vacuum they have left for six months.It is a great pleasure for me to welcome Secretary Gates to Palestine, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said.This is a time of great challenge throughout the region. But also a time of opportunity, requiring a redoubling of the effort aimed at pursuing the cause of peace, justice and security Gates noted that he was the first American secretary of defense to visit Ramallah,the Palestinians' de facto capital and seat of Palestinian Authority ministries and the presidency of Mahmoud Abbas.I look forward to our talks ... obviously the political developments around the region, but also the prospects for a two-state solution, he said, referring to the elusive treaty that would end the 62-year-old conflict and create a Palestinian state living in peace alongside Israel.
US-ISRAEL TIES STRONGEST
The visit to Ramallah was another milestone for Gates, a holdover from the Bush administration who is expected to step down later this year. The former CIA director marked the end of U.S. combat operations in Iraq last year and oversaw a buildup in the war effort in Afghanistan.Following the route often used by his Obama administration colleague and peace envoy Senator George Mitchell, Gates first had talks in Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of America's closest ally in the turbulent region.Netanyahu said Gates, who later went to the Jordanian capital Amman, had been a champion of peace and security and our partner seeking to bolster our common security and defense interests in this area.These days, security challenges were legion, the Israeli leader said, referring to armed threats from Iran, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, and the political uncertainties over much of the Arab world.Referring to a week of rocket attacks from Gaza and a deadly bomb planted near Jerusalem's central bus terminal, Netanyahu noted expressions of support from President Barack Obama, President Dmitry Medvedev of Russia and other leaders.I think this says that civilized countries have a common stake in fighting terrorism and we want to make sure that we make it clear to the terrorists that any civilized society will not tolerate such wanton attack on its civilians, he said.
Gates said he believed that at no time in the history of our two countries has our defense and security relationship been stronger than it is today.Relations between Netanyahu and Obama were strained by the diplomatic frustrations U.S. envoy Mitchell has encountered in getting peace talks re-started.They remain stalled by a bitter dispute over Israeli settlement building in east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank, on land where Palestinians hope to build their state.Mitchell succeeded last September and Netanyahu and Abbas met face to face. But the process collapsed when Netanyahu's 10-month moratorium on settlement building ended. The Israeli leader refused to extend it and Abbas said he would not continue the talks unless and until the construction ceased totally.(Writing by Douglas Hamilton)
UAE commits 12 planes to Libya despite Bahrain
by Haro Chakmakjian – Fri Mar 25, 7:45 am ET
DUBAI (AFP) – The United Arab Emirates, a key US ally, said it has committed six F-16 and six Mirage fighters to help enforce the no-fly zone over Libya, despite reservations linked to unrest in Bahrain.UAE participation in the patrols will commence in the coming days, Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahayan announced, quoted by state news agency WAM late on Thursday.In support of UN Resolution 1973, the UAE is fully engaged with humanitarian operations in Libya, he said.As an extension of those humanitarian operations, the UAE air force has committed six F-16 and six Mirage aircraft to participate in the patrols that will enforce the no-fly zone now established over Libya.A former UAE air force commander said earlier this week that his country had delayed its military deployment because of disagreements with the West over the unrest in Bahrain.Major General Khaled al-Buainnain, quoted in Abu Dhabi's The National newspaper, said the disagreement stemmed from the conviction of Arab states in the Gulf that Iran had stirred the troubles in Bahrain.The Arab monarchies in the oil-rich region, traditional allies of Washington and the West, have been supporting Bahrain, and they were not happy at all with the European and American attitude,he told the English-language daily.
They (the West) think it?s a matter of a civil movement, a matter of democracy, he said. What?s going on in Bahrain is much beyond our Western allies to understand it. It is a complete conspiracy of the Iranians.The general said the main reason for the UAE?s reluctance over Libya was because the Europeans and Americans in particular don?t realise the amount of the threat available in Bahrain.He pointed to what he called Washington's unsteady and shifting response to the fast-moving Arab revolts.Go and see the European, and especially the American attitude, toward Tunisia. How many positions in a few days? Buainnain asked.On Egypt, how many official statements in three, four weeks.A Shiite-led revolt against the Sunni royal family which has ruled Bahrain for more than two centuries has set off alarm bells in the oil-rich monarchies of the Gulf that have sent in a joint Gulf contingent.
Bahraini security forces last week demolished a demonstrators' camp set up in central Manama's Pearl Square, since when an uneasy calm has returned to the capital and its financial district.Clashes between security forces and protesters since February 14 have killed at least 15 people, most of them demonstrators.In Washington, a US official said on Thursday that his country was deeply appreciative of the contribution of its UAE ally to the international campaign in Libya.With Arab states appearing slow to contribute, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said this week that Washington expected more announcements of Arab participation in the days ahead.On Wednesday, five days after the United States, Britain and France launched air strikes to protect Libyans from Moamer Kadhafi's security forces, Qatar was the only Arab state to have offered warplanes for the no-fly zone.The 22-member Arab League endorsed the no-fly zone before Western warplanes under Security Council Resolution 1973 launched attacks on the air defences of Kadhafi's forces fighting an armed revolt.
Gaza rockets strike deeper inside Israel
By Nidal al-Mughrabi – Thu Mar 24, 5:08 pm ET
GAZA (Reuters) – Palestinian rockets struck deep inside Israel Thursday close to the urban sprawl south of Tel Aviv, and Israel pounded targets in Gaza in a surging conflict that has raised fears of a new war.Israeli police said long-range Grad rockets fired from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip hit Ashdod and an area north of the Mediterranean port. There were no reports of casualties.Violence along the Gaza border has worsened in recent days and a bomb attack Wednesday in Jerusalem that Israeli police blamed on Palestinian militants killed one woman and injured 30 people. It was the first such bombing in the city since 2004.Britain identified the dead woman as a British national, Mary-Jane Gardner, and Israeli police said she was a tourist.The Israeli military said five rockets and a mortar bomb from Gaza exploded in Israel, causing no casualties. Schools remained closed in Ashdod and in Beersheba, a city in the Negev desert struck several times in the past week.
Israel carried out a series of strikes on Gaza throughout the day and there were no initial reports of casualties.An Israeli army spokeswoman said terror targets were hit from the air in the latest attack. Hamas officials said a Hamas internal security compound in Gaza City, an adjacent training camp and a rocket launcher further north were hit.In earlier air strikes, missiles hit smuggling tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border, a Hamas training camp, a rocket crew and a power transformer, causing blackouts in the enclave, Gaza residents said.The responsibility lies entirely on Hamas ... we know how to act and have proven this in the past, we will strike proportionately when needed,Israeli Civil Defense Minister Matan Vilnai told Israel Radio.
CONFLICT ACCELERATES
Israel says the air strikes have been a response to rocket barrages. Hamas says its attacks in the past week have been in reaction to Israeli strikes. Five Palestinian militants and four civilians, three of them children, were killed by Israeli fire in Gaza Tuesday.The upswing of violence in the past few days has led to fears of a new war between Israel and Hamas Islamists, who have ruled the small Mediterranean coastal territory since 2007, after months of relative quiet.Wednesday, militants in Gaza fired more than a dozen rockets and mortar bombs across the border.In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the Islamic Jihad militant group said two of its leaders were detained by security forces of the Western-backed Palestinian Authority for questioning about the Jerusalem bombing.No group claimed responsibility for planting the bomb, which exploded near a bus stop.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned militant groups in the Gaza Strip Wednesday that the Jewish state would act decisively to defend itself.He threatened a lengthy exchange of blows with Palestinian militants, though officials from both sides have said they want to prevent a repeat of Israel's 2009 three-week war on the mainly desert enclave.Calm will be met with calm, an Islamic Jihad leader said. Israel launched the Gaza war with the declared aim of ending cross-border rocket fire, and killed around 1,400 Palestinians in the conflict, drawing heavy international censure.Hamas had mostly held its fire since then.
Israel's Barak meets with US Defense Secretary
by Dan De Luce – Thu Mar 24, 3:35 pm ET
TEL AVIV (AFP) – Popular uprisings sweeping through Arab states will bring positive change in the long run, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said on Thursday, despite his country's fears of instability.Accustomed to working with entrenched regimes for decades, Israel has looked on with dismay as mass protests toppled the leaders of Egypt and Tunisia and threatened the assumptions underpinning its foreign policy.But Barak struck a mostly optimistic tone, describing a stunning political earthquake that could deliver democracy and freedom to a younger generation in the Middle East.Historically speaking, it's a moving and inspiring phenomena, (which is) clearly promising for the future of the Arab people, for the young generation in the Arab world, he said at a joint news conference with US Defence Secretary Robert Gates.He said the Jewish state would have to stay on guard for militants trying to exploit the unrest and that the country had to bear in mind the experience of other revolutions, in which idealism gives way to violent radicals ready to kill to take power.
I feel that we have to be careful and open-eyed in the short term to minimize negative developments and minimise risks for stability, but in the long-run it is an extremely positive phenomena, Barak said.Not since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire or the end of French colonial rule had the region seen such a dramatic upheaval, said Barak, a former prime minister and top ranking military officer.He said it was crucial that outside countries work to promote a stable transition as change sweeps the region and to minimize chances of extremist groups from coming to power.Barak spoke as tensions spiked a day after a bombing in Jerusalem left one dead and as Gaza rockets pounded Israel which responded late Thursday with air raids the Palestinians say wounded three people.Barak vowed to respond to the attacks, but Gates suggested Israel had to avoid taking action that could derail the course of the uprisings, which he said have been focused solely on calls for democracy and economic opportunity.In virtually every case the theme of those demonstrations has been directed inward at problems in those countries, he said.Israel should try to avoid anything that allows extremists or others to divert the narrative of reform, Gates said.The US defence secretary also said mounting turmoil in Syria and other countries was the result of the unmet political and economic grievances of their people.Gates, who flew to Israel after a visit to Cairo, held up Egypt as a positive example in which the military chose not to fire on protesters -- who eventually succeeded in forcing Hosni Mubarak to step down as president last month.
Some of these countries are dealing with it better than others, he said.By standing on the sidelines, the Egyptian military empowered a revolution, he said.Gates pointedly contrasted Egypt's approach with Syria, where activists say 100 protesters were shot dead on Wednesday.The Syrians might take a lesson from that, he said.
Barak suggested that turmoil in Syria and elsewhere carried risks but also potential openings for peace. And we have to be alert to be able to seize those opportunities the moment they emerge, rather let them slip out of our fingers and face the uncertainties of a deeper chaos in the Middle East,he said.Amid concerns in Israel that Islamist political groups could prevail in elections expected later this year in Egypt, Gates said he came away from his talks in Cairo reassured of Egypt's commitment to its peace agreement with Israel.He said the ruling military council and interim government take the relationship with Israel seriously.
Latest developments in Arab world's unrest
By The Associated Press – Thu Mar 24, 2:31 pm ET
Here is a look at the latest developments in Mideast political unrest on Wednesday:
LIBYA Fighter jets from a U.N.-backed alliance destroy one of ruler Moammar Gadhafi's planes and hit sites across Libya including an air base, artillery installations, arms depots and parked helicopters. NATO ships patrol the coast to block the flow of arms and mercenaries. Confusion remains about the international operation's future leadership, while the rebels who control much of the country's eastern coast remain outgunned and disorganized.
YEMEN The youth groups who kicked off a monthlong uprising calling for the president's ouster say they also want a new constitution and the dissolution of parliament, local councils and Yemen's notorious security agencies. The new demands appear to reflect the perception that President Ali Abdullah Saleh's regime is staggering after unrelenting protests and the defection of powerful political, military and tribal leaders.
SYRIA Following a week of demonstrations in which security forces killed dozens of protesters, the Syrian government says it will consider lifting draconian restrictions on political liberties while raising government salaries and fighting corruption. The pledges likely won't placate the southern city of Daraa, where thousands have faced deadly police gunfire during anti-government rallies and protester funerals.
BAHRAIN About a thousand Shiite protesters defied a ban on public gatherings to hold an anti-government march in a village outside the capital Manama. At least 20 people have been killed in recent weeks as Bahrain's Sunni rulers, backed by a Saudi-led military force, attempt to crush a monthlong uprising by the tiny island kingdom's Shiite majority.
JORDAN Hundreds of Jordanians — mostly university students and unemployed graduates responding to calls on Facebook — set up a protest camp in the capital Amman's main square to press for the ouster of the prime minister and wider public freedoms. Jordan's protests, and the government's responses, have been tamer than elsewhere in the region. King Abdullah II has proposed political reforms and criticized the prime minister for not pushing them through quickly enough.
Netanyahu plays up Iran threat in Russia
by Gavin Rabinowitz – Thu Mar 24, 4:21 pm ET
MOSCOW (AFP) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday played up the global danger of Iran as he sought to persuade Russia to scale down its cooperation with Israel's foes in the increasingly volatile region.The Israeli leader held separate talks with President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin a day after a bus bombing killed a British woman and injured 39 people in Jerusalem.Netanyahu went into the meetings vowing to show Israel's iron will to those who attack his country and he underscored the risk of Islamic regimes rising to power amid the turbulence now wracking North Africa and the Middle East.There is a danger to Israel, Russia and the modern world that radical regimes, possibly radical Islamic regimes, will emerge that threaten us, Netanyahu told Medvedev at his suburban Moscow residence.
One regime is already doing so. That is Iran, which threatens to torpedo all attempts at peace and to return us all to the ninth century, he said.We have an interest in stopping this evil and promoting good.Russia has been keen to repair its post-Soviet relations with Israel and was one of the first countries strongly to condemn Wednesday's attack -- the first such bombing in Jerusalem since September 2004.Medvedev repeated his personal condolences on Thursday and said Russia faced many of the same problems after being hit by two devastating suicide bombings in a little more than a year.Our meeting today shows terrorists that they will not achieve their evil goals, Medvedev said in comments that were echoed by Putin later in the day.But the united front presented against attacks was unlikely to ease all tensions in a relationship that has been frustrated by Russia's nuclear cooperation with Iran and continued arms sales to nations such as Syria.One Israeli official said the controversial deliveries were a central point of the journey and that Moscow had expressed its understanding of the Israeli position.Netanyahu mainly argued that ending these ties was in Russia's self-interest.If the Tehran regime manages to create nuclear weapons, it will never fall, he told Russian reporters.
If this happens, no one -- neither you (Russia) nor anyone else -- will be safe from threats, blackmail and attacks, Netanyahu added.Russia remains a key supplier of arms to the Arab world and has recently confirmed its intention to send a large shipment of anti-ship Yakhont cruise missiles to Syria -- a country still technically at war with Israel.Israeli officials fear the shipment will ultimately land in the hands of the Syrian-supported Hezbollah movement in Lebanon.Moscow officials had also hoped to use the talks to reassert Russia's place in the Middle East peace process after ceding its role as a power broker in the post-Soviet era to the United States.But the Jerusalem bombing appeared to shatter any hopes of the long-stalled talks resuming and Israeli officials said they were now investigating whether the Gaza-based Hamas movement was behind the attack. Israeli officials said they would view confirmation of such a link as a real escalation of the current violence in the Gaza Strip.Israel is not interested in an escalation and if there is one it will be the work of Hamas, said a senior Israeli official speaking on condition of anonymity.Several regional powers have already urged Israel to show restraint amid fears that Netanyahu would order another ground invasion of Gaza.
Netanyahu told reporters before boarding his flight for Moscow that those trying to test our will and our determination ... will discover that this government and the army and the Israeli people have an iron will to defend the country.
Two Palestinian rockets hit Israeli city of Ashdod
– Thu Mar 24, 10:53 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – At least two Grad rockets fired by Palestinian militants in Gaza on Thursday slammed into the port city of Ashdod and just north of it, police and the Israeli army said.Medics said no one was injured in the strikes, which came a day after Gaza's Hamas rulers vowed to rein in recalcitrant militant groups who had vowed to hit ever-deeper into Israel.Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld confirmed that two Grad rockets had landed in Israel, saying: One landed in the city and the other landed north of the city.An army spokeswoman confirmed two Grads had hit Ashdod.
Earlier, security sources had told AFP one of the rockets landed in an area just south of Rishon-le-Tzion -- which is significantly further north, in an area around 15 kilometres (nine miles) from Tel Aviv.Officials in the area had heard a loud blast but it later transpired the blast was not caused by the second rocket, which had landed just north of Ashdod.The rocket fire came a day after Islamic Jihad's military wing, the Al Quds Brigades, fired three Grads at Beersheva and Ashdod and vowed to fire more at cities deep inside the Jewish state as it entered a new phase of resistance.
The Al Quds Brigade has entered a new phase of bombing targets which are further away, where thousands of Israelis live, group spokesman Abu Ahmad told AFP.Ashdod lies about 30 kilometres (18 miles) up the coast from Gaza, while Rishon-Le-Tzion is located another 25 kilometres (15 miles) further north.Grad rockets are understood to have a range of up to 50 kilometres (30 miles).
Bombing near Jerusalem bus stop kills woman, 30 hurt
By Crispian Balmer – Wed Mar 23, 3:39 pm ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – A bomb planted in a bag exploded near a bus stop in a Jewish district of Jerusalem on Wednesday, killing a woman and injuring at least 30 people, in an attack police blamed on Palestinian militants.No one claimed responsibility for the blast, which coincided with an upsurge of violence on the Gaza border that has led to fears of a new war between Israel and the Islamist group Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, after months of relative quiet.Medics said three people were seriously hurt by the explosion, which hit one of the main routes into central Jerusalem in the afternoon, shattering the windows of a nearby bus. A woman in her 60s died in hospital.Police said it was a terrorist attack -- Israel's term for a Palestinian strike. It was the first time Jerusalem had been hit by such a bomb since 2004.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Israel would take action against those groups who he said are testing the Jewish state's will to defend itself.Israel will act aggressively, responsibly and wisely to preserve the quiet and security that prevailed here over the past two years, Netanyahu said.
In the Gaza, a Hamas spokesman said the group, which does not recognize Israel's right to exist, was seeking to reverse the recent rise in violence and to protect stability and to work in order to restore the conditions on ground.World leaders condemned the bombing, as well as a flurry of rockets and mortars fired from Gaza into Israel in recent days.The United States calls on the groups responsible to end these attacks at once and we underscore that Israel, like all nations, has a right to self-defense, U.S. President Barack Obama said in a statement released in Washington.Palestinian Authority leaders in the West Bank, who are opposed to Hamas, also denounced the attack.I condemn this terrorist operation in the strongest possible terms, regardless of who was behind it, Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said in a statement.At the height of a Palestinian uprising that began in 2000, but which died out in recent years, militants carried out dozens of often deadly bombings in Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem.
Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch said the bomb weighed about one or two kilos (2 or 4 pounds). It exploded in a small suitcase on the sidewalk next to the bus stop,he told Israel's Channel Two television.Blood stained the pavement and many people had to be treated for shock. Israeli television broke into normal programing to show scores of ambulances converging on the scene, taking the injured to nearby hospitals.I saw two women lying on the ground, unconscious and covered in blood,medic Motti Bukchi, who arrived swiftly on the scene, told Channel Two.
PEACE IMPASSE
Peace talks aimed at ending the decades-old conflict between Israel and the Palestinians broke down last year after Netanyahu refused to extend a partial freeze on Jewish settlement building in the occupied West Bank.Israeli security officials have cautioned that the absence of any peace initiative could spark a new Palestinian revolt. Over 500 Israeli civilians died in 140 Palestinian suicide bomb attacks from 2000 to 2007. More than 4,500 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in the same period. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, on a visit to Cairo, denounced what he called a horrific terrorist attack but said he did not think the situation in Israel was deteriorating.Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Elaraby urged Israel to show restraint and said no one should give it an excuse to use violence -- an apparent reference to Palestinian militants.Netanyahu delayed his departure on a trip to Russia by several hours on Wednesday to consult with security officials, but declined to cancel the trip altogether.Earlier, the prime minister had warned Hamas over rising violence in Gaza. Hamas says its attacks this past week have been in response to recent Israeli bombings and killings.On Tuesday, Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip killed four Palestinian civilians, including three children playing football, and five militants, medical officials said.Netanyahu has voiced regret for the civilian deaths but said Israel could not ignore attacks on its territory.It could be that this matter will entail exchanges of blows, and it may take a certain period of time, but we are very determined to strike at the terrorist elements and deny them the means of attacking our citizens, he told parliament.Israel launched a three-week war on the impoverished coastal enclave in 2009, killing about 1,400 Palestinians and drawing heavy international censure. Hamas, which seized control of Gaza in a 2007 coup, had mostly held fire since then.
Israel will act aggressively to preserve security: PM
– Wed Mar 23, 2:55 pm ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that Israel will act aggressively and responsibly to preserve quiet and security after violence with Palestinians escalated over the past week.Israel will act aggressively, responsibly and wisely to preserve the quiet and security that prevailed here over the past two years, Netanyahu said before boarding a plane to Moscow where he will meet Russian leaders.Violence along the Gaza border has spiked in recent days and a bombing attack on Wednesday in Jerusalem that Israeli police blamed on Palestinian militants killed one woman and injured at least 30 other people.(Writing by Ari Rabinovitch)
Militants fire on Israeli city as Gaza violence spirals
by Adel Zaanoun – Wed Mar 23, 8:53 am ET
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – Two Grad rockets slammed into the Israeli city of Beersheva on Wednesday, as Gaza militants vowed to strike deep into the Jewish state after raids killed eight Gazans.Rising violence in and around Gaza prompted a stark warning from Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu, who said it could take an exchange of blows to put the militants out of action.It may be that it will take an exchange of blows, and it may be that it will take some time, but we are very determined to strike at the terrorist elements' ability to harm our citizens, the premier told MPs.Following a morning in which militants fired two Grads and seven mortars across the border, Israel's response was decidedly muted, with Netanyahu locked in talks with top military and defence advisers to mull his options, public radio said.The first Grad struck the centre of Beersheva around dawn, moderately injuring one man, police said. The second, fired several hours later, struck harmlessly in an open area.Beersheva is about 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Gaza, and much further away than the Israeli cities regularly targeted by Palestinian militants.
Another Grad hit the outskirts of the city on February 23, but this was the first time since the 2008-2009 war that such a projectile hit the centre of the city of 186,000 people.The Al-Quds Brigades, Islamic Jihad's armed wing, claimed responsibility for both attacks as well as for another Grad fired on the port city of Ashdod overnight, and vowed to continue targeting cities deep inside Israel.The Al-Quds Brigade has entered a new phase of bombing targets which are further away, where thousands of Israelis live, Abu Ahmad told AFP.The stage of targeting Sderot and Ashkelon in southern Israel are behind us, he said, referring to a small town close to the border, and to a port city 18 kilometres (11 miles) to the north.From now on, there are no more red lines for the resistance as long as the enemy ... keeps killing civilians, he said.Grad rockets have a longer range than mortars or the crude, homemade Qassams normally used by Gaza militants, and can travel up to 30 miles (50 kilometres).During the morning, the Israeli air force targeted militants on the eastern side of Gaza City, but no one was injured, Palestinian medical sources said.Over the past week, there has been a significant increase in Palestinian rocket attacks and retaliatory air strikes, which has ramped up tensions between Israel and Gaza's Islamist Hamas rulers and raised fears of a large-scale Israeli military incursion.
Wednesday's attacks came a day after Israel mounted a series of raids on targets in the eastern sector of Gaza City, killing eight people, including two children and four militants from the Al-Quds Brigades.Tens of thousands of Gazans flocked to the funeral of the eight victims, including Hamas premier Ismail Haniya who declared a day of mourning, an AFP correspondent said.There were also dozens of Al-Quds Brigades gunmen in the crowd. They fired into the air as the bodies of their four fellow militants, shrouded in black Islamic Jihad flags, were carried through the city. The four civilians were wrapped in Palestinian flags.The four militants were killed as they tried to fire rockets at Israel, while the other four were civilians who died when Israeli artillery opened fire on a house outside which youngsters were playing football, medics said. Two of the victims were boys aged 11 and 16.Hours later, the Al-Quds Brigades fired a Grad at Ashdod but it fell short, prompting Israel to mount an overnight air strike which injured two of their militants, one critically.The dramatic increase in tension along the Gaza border prompted warnings from Israeli officials, with Home Front Defence Minister Matan Vilnai warning a fresh war on the Islamist Hamas movement was looming.It's only a matter of time until we clash with Hamas again, and again teach them the rules, he told army radio as officials in Beersheva closed schools for the day and urged people to remain close to their bomb shelters.I have no doubt that it will happen -- they are taking all the steps leading in that direction.
Israel kills 9 in Gaza in deadliest day in months
By Nidal al-Mughrabi – Tue Mar 22, 7:34 pm ET
GAZA (Reuters) – Israeli air strikes and shelling killed nine Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, medical officials said, in the deadliest day of conflict in the enclave in months.Palestinian medical officials said three youths aged 12, 16 and 17 who were playing football and an adult relative were killed by Israeli shelling, and five militants were killed later in two separate air strikes elsewhere in the Gaza Strip.Tuesday's death toll was the highest for a single day in months, provoking calls from militants for revenge, condemnation by a U.N. official and a call from the Palestinian prime minister for foreign intervention to stop the violence.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologized for the civilian casualties and said Israel had no intention of seeking a further escalation of the conflict, but would defend itself against rocket fire aimed at its citizens.Hamas has stepped up rocket fire aimed at Israel after a hiatus since the two sides fought a war two years ago, and said its fighters had fired more than two dozen mortar shells and rockets at the weekend.Israel has retaliated with air and ground assaults, saying it was targeting militants firing rockets and mortar shells at its towns and cities.In Tuesday's raids, Israel killed five militants of the Islamic Jihad group in two air strikes, one of which took place east of Gaza City, Hamas officials and medical staff said.Israel said one group of militants had been preparing to fire a rocket and the same men had shot a rocket that struck a house in the Israeli city of Beersheba last month.
YOUTHS PLAYING FOOTBALL
Earlier, Israel's armed forces said it aimed mortar fire at militants shooting at Israel. Palestinian medical officials said the Israeli shells struck a house, killing four people and wounding 12, including eight children.The owner of the house was inside and the youths were outside playing football, witnesses and medical officials said.Netanyahu issued a statement expressing regret for the mistaken strike on innocent civilians.Abu Abdallah Al-Harazeen, an Islamic Jihad leader, threatened in a statement that blood would beget more blood and by this blood we shall fight Israel again and again.Hamas spokesman Ismail Rudwan said on the movement's website that this massacre will not pass easily and the Zionist entity should prepare itself for a tough response.Later a Grad rocket that Islamic Jihad said it fired struck near the Israeli city of Ashdod, about 40 km north of Gaza, Israeli officials said, in one of the deepest strikes at Israel since the war two years ago. There were no casualties.France's Foreign Ministry appealed to both sides to show restraint, and the U.N. coordinator for Middle East diplomacy, Robert Serry, condemned both sides and called for an urgent halt to all act of violence.
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad urged immediate intervention by the international community to press Israel to curtail its strikes.Palestinian analysts linked the growing violence to calls for President Mahmoud Abbas to heal a four-year rift with Hamas, which seized control of Gaza in a bloody struggle in 2007 with Abbas's Western-backed Fatah movement.Some Hamas officials were seen as worried that Fatah could regain control of Gaza if the two groups were reconciled.(Writing by Allyn Fisher-Ilan)
Russia tells Abbas of growing Mideast concern
– Tue Mar 22, 1:02 pm ET
MOSCOW (AFP) – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told visiting Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Tuesday that he was concerned about the fate of the Middle East peace process given the current turmoil in the region.The Russian leader told Abbas he still supported an independent Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital, the message he took with him on a visit to the West Bank town of Jericho in January.But he expressed worry that the current violence in Libya and other countries around the region could damage the fragile peace talks.Some time has passed since my visit to the Palestinian territories and unfortunately, the situation in the Middle East and North Africa has not improved, Medvedev told Abbas at his suburban Moscow residence.On the contrary, it has grown substantially more complex, he added.I expect that despite the current difficulties, we will be able to overcome the current trend.The meeting came just a day before the expected arrival in Moscow of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is also under strong US pressure to resume open and productive dialogue with the Palestinians.Russia has lost much of its influence in the Middle East since the Soviet era and has been watching the revolutions and social unrest sweeping the region with alarm.Medvedev has voiced fears that the resulting power vacuum could lead to the rise of Islamists, potentially also destabilising the situation along Russia's troubled southern periphery.Sounding a more optimistic note, Abbas told Medvedev he was also tracking the developments to see how they would affect the peace process, adding that if they lead us to democracy, this should only be supported and welcomed.Besides being unable to move the Israeli peace process forward, Abbas has also been waging an uphill battle to end his secular Fatah group's split with the Gaza-based Hamas movement and form an interim government.Abbas has said he is ready to go to Gaza for talks, and he repeated that message in Moscow.I hope that the Hamas leadership accepts my initiative, Abbas said.
Canada condemns violence in Yemen, Bahrain, Syria
– Mon Mar 21, 6:08 pm ET
OTTAWA (AFP) – Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon on Monday condemned crackdowns on anti-government protesters in Yemen, Bahrain and Syria.Canada vigorously condemns the increasingly frequent and violent attacks on demonstrators in Yemen, Cannon said in a statement. We urge the Yemeni authorities to immediately take measures to prevent any further violence against civilians.He said, Canada is also deeply concerned by the recent actions taken by the government of Bahrain in response to protests in that country and condemns reported human rights abuses against the Bahraini population and violations of international humanitarian law.As well,Canada deplores the multiple deaths and injuries following protests in several Syrian cities over the weekend, the minister said in urging a stop to the use of force against peaceful protesters.
Palestinians eye UN recognition of state
– Sun Mar 20, 2:45 pm ET
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – The Palestinians are planing to ask the United Nations to recognise a Palestinian state and grant them membership of the world body, a top official said Sunday.The decision to go forward with the plan had been made by the Palestinian leadership and it is the choice of president Mahmud Abbas, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP.However, Erakat said no date had been set for the move, which would request the world body recognise a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders and with east Jerusalem as its capital, saying only that it would happen as soon as possible.It comes after the United States in February vetoed a Security Council resolution that would have condemned continued Israeli settlement building.The resolution, drafted by the Palestinian leadership in an attempt to pressure Israel to halt settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, was supported by the 14 other members of the Security Council.The United States said its veto should not be interpreted as support for Israeli settlement construction, but that it did not believe the United Nations was the best place to resolve the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.Nevertheless, Erakat said he was confident this time the move would succeed.The choice of Palestine applying for to the Security Council for a full membership is a realistic one that we must work on applying as soon as possible, he said.Erakat said the Palestinians had no choice but to seek an alternative as negotiations with Israel were not going anywhere.
We are convinced that negotiation with (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu's government is impossible because it refuses to stop settlement activities, he said.
So the Palestinian leadership decided to start implementing alternatives to negotiations and the first of these is demanding recognition, he said.The United States secured the relaunch of direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians in September 2010, after a hiatus of nearly two years.But the negotiations ground to a halt just weeks later, with the expiry of an Israeli moratorium on settlement building in the West Bank.The Palestinians insist they will not negotiate while Israel builds on land they want for a future state.
