At least three Palestinians, including a young girl, were killed and seven others were injured Thursday evening in an Israeli military strike east of Gaza City, the Ha’aretz Daily reported. The attack followed an earlier military incursion into the Gaza Strip overnight Wednesday in which six Palestinians were killed and several others were injured.
(more…)
In the Gaza Strip, five Palestinians have died so far today in attacks by the Israeli military.
(more…)
In the Occupied Territories, a senior UN official is warning daily life for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip is reaching a “breaking point.” The official, UN Relief and Works Agency Karen Abuzayd, says Israel’s ongoing military offensives and economic blockade is creating suffering and mass despair for Gaza’s one and a half million residents. Abuzayd called on the international community to send an influx of foreign monitors.
(more…)
An Israeli military court has ordered fifteen Hamas officials to go on trial for membership in an outlawed organization.
(more…)
In Gaza, thousands of demonstrators broke into a government compound earlier today.
(more…)
Nine Palestinians died today in a continuing Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip.
(more…)
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has admitted he would not have ordered last month’s capture of two Israeli soldiers had he known Israel would have responded as it did. In an interview with Lebanese TV, Nasrallah said:
“We did not think, even one percent, that the capture would lead to a war at this time and of this magnitude… Had we known that the kidnapping of the soldiers would have led to this, we would definitely not have done it.”
Two Fox journalists kidnapped by militants two weeks ago in Gaza were freed and appeared to be in good health.
(more…)
A previously unknown militant group released the first video Wednesday of two kidnapped Fox News journalists and demanded that Muslim prisoners in U.S. jails be released within 72 hours in exchange for the men.
(more…)
The Israeli government abducted two more members of the Palestinian Parliament.
(more…)
Two Fox News journalists were kidnapped in Palestine.
(more…)
The Israeli military kidnapped the speaker of the Palestinian parliament.
(more…)
Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi, a Shiite, described the Irsaeli bombing that killed dozens of civilians in Qana, Lebanon, this weekend as a “massacre.”
(more…)
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Monday there would be no cease-fire in the coming days to stop fighting between his nation’s forces and Lebanon-based Hezbollah militia.
“Quite a few days of fighting are still before us,”
Olmert told a conference of local officials.
(more…)
The Israeli military has admitted it has been using cluster bombs. Earlier this week, Human Rights Watch said Israel is shelling civilian areas with cluster bombs in violation of international law. Israel says its used the weapons lawfully.
Peter Bookert, Emergencies Director at Human Rights Watch:
“It’s very disturbing to see that Israel is using cluster bombs in populated areas because we documented in Iraq and in Kosovo the severe effect on the civilian population of the use of this very indiscriminate weapon.”
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Jerusalem on Saturday for talks on ending the war in Lebanon as Israel signaled it would not demand the immediate disarming of Hizbollah as part of any deal.
(more…)
Israeli airstrikes and artillery shelling on the Gaza Strip Wednesday killed 23 Palestinians. Israel said it was going to increase its air bombings of Lebanon, and that the world had given it the green light to wipe out Hezbollah. Al-Qaida’s No. 2 leader issued a worldwide call Thursday for Muslims to rise up in a holy war against Israel and A “well-connected former CIA officer” has told Harper’s Magazine Washington bureau chief that the Bush Administration is considering deploying US troops to Lebanon.
(more…)
At least ten Palestinians were killed and thirty wounded in Israeli strikes earlier today. The dead included a three-year old girl in the northern Gaza town of Jabalya.
(more…)
The Prime Minister of Lebanon is pleading for help, while the UN and the US continue to argue on the conditions of a ceasefire.
(more…)
14 Israeli troops were killed, and Hezbollah promised to widen its attack.
(more…)