Israel hits Hamas HQ in Gaza (VIDEO, PHOTOS)

A Palestinian looks from his damaged house at the destroyed office building of Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh after Israeli air strikes in Gaza City November 17, 2012 (Reuters / Suhaib Salem)

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/news/israel-gaza-hamas-bombing-924/

Israel has bombed Hamas’ headquarters in Gaza, as Operation Pillar of Defense enters its fourth day, the IDF reported. Overnight Israel’s military targeted 85 more sites in the area.

­Witnesses at the scene report massive damage from the strikes.

There were two series of strikes overnight: one at around 3am local time (01:00 GMT), and another at 5am (03:00 GMT).

Activists reported that bodies were under the rubble of a house hit by the strike in Jabalia, situated in Gaza’s north.

During the second string of strikes the Hamas leadership’s buildings were hit, but they are said to have been empty.

The IDF said it had targeted 85 more sites in the Gaza Strip during the past six hours, including the Hamas Gaza headquarters.

Amid an intensifying air offensive against Gaza, the Israeli cabinet also authorized the call-up of 75,000 reserve troops, reportedly in preparation for the possible ground invasion.

At least 39 Palestinians have already been killed in the assault that has been going on for four days, Ma'an news agency reported. Seven of the casualties were children. Three Israeli citizens also died in the violence.

 

A Palestinian Hamas security member inspects the destroyed office building of Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya in Gaza City on November 17, 2012 (AFP Photo / Mahmud Hams)

 

A Palestinian man looks for injured people in the rubble following an Israeli air raid on a house in Beit Lahia, the northern Gaza Strip on November 17, 2012 (AFP Photo / Mohammed Abed)

 

A wounded Palestinian girl lies on a hospital bed after an Israeli air strike in the northern Gaza Strip November 17, 2012 (Reuters / Ali Hassan)

 

Palestinian firefighters and rescue personnel work at a blast site following an Israeli air raid in Gaza City on November 17, 2012 (AFP Photo / Marco Longari)

 

Palestinians inspect the destroyed office building of Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya in Gaza City on November 17, 2012 (AFP Photo / Mahmud Hams)

 

Palestinians inspect the destroyed office building of Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza City November 17, 2012 (Reuters / Suhaib Salem)

 

 

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Hypocrisy of slaughter: Israel’s Orwellian account of Gaza campaign (Op-Ed)

 

Family members shout in grief as they carry the body of two-year-old Palestinian Walid Abadleh, killed in the latest Israeli airstrikes, during his funeral in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis on November 15, 2012. (AFP Photo/Said Khatib)

Source: Press TV

http://rt.com/news/israel-gaza-campaign-hypocrisy-815/

Israel’s assault on Gaza raises doubts that it has any interest in finding the lasting peace settlement it proclaims to want. Does the campaign have an alternative objective as part of a strategy to engineer a strike on Iran?

It’s probably the world’s most tragic never-ending story.For almost 65 years now, Israel has been bombing, maiming and humiliating the Palestinians, bulldozing their homes and placing Gaza in lock-down mode turning it into the world’s largest concentration camp.

In the latest outbreak of violence this week both sides are accusing the other, “You started it!”Who knows? At this stage, does it really matter anymore who started the violence?

On Wednesday 14th, an Israeli helicopter attack killed Hamas military wing leader Ahmed Jabari, triggering a violent reaction from Hamas which rained little rockets over southern Israeli towns, which in turn brought in more Israeli air attacks killing 19, injuring 100 and leaving six children dead.

Dejá-vù: it’s January 2009’s “Operation Cast Lead” revisited; this time they’re dubbing it “Operation Pillar of Defense.”

Clearly, Israel’s right-wing leaders do not want a peaceful agreement with the Palestinians.That’s why they’ve systematically sabotaged all possibility of reaching a two-state solution.

The last honest Israeli who tried to bring peace was Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, until he was gunned down in the streets of Tel-Aviv in November 1995; not by an Islamic fanatic, not by some mad Neo-Nazi, but by one Ygal Amir: an ultra-right-wing Zionist fanatic linked to both the fundamentalist Settlers’ Movement and Israel’s security agency Shin-Beth.

Since then, Israel’s extreme right-wing Apartheidists have called the shots and will continue doing so even more now that Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party has merged with Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beitenu.Maybe this latest bout of Palestine-bashing is their way of celebrating their new Gross Partei…

‘Don’t worry about America…’

Former Israeli PM Ariel Sharon is infamously quoted as yelling to his colleagues during a heated debate in Israel’s Knesset in October 2001, that they need not worry about American reaction to Israel’s Palestine-bashing because “we the Jewish people control America!"

Watching how US politicians file through powerful Pro-Israel lobbies, think tanks and organizations like AIPAC – American Israeli Public Affairs Committee -, the ADL and others, competing to give their most impassioned and dramatic pro-Israel speeches, one is tempted to believe Mr. Sharon’s candid words.

During the recent US presidential campaign both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney each tried to give their most convincing Joe Biden-like “I-am-a-Zionist” speeches, to win over not just the Jewish vote and money in America, but also the Zionist vote which is represented by many non-Jewish born-again Christians.

So, when earlier this week US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice openly supported Israel and condemned Hamas’ retaliatory attacks describing them as “violence that Hamas and other terrorist organizations are employing against the people of Israel", one can hardly be surprised.

It doesn’t really matter who sits in the Oval office; whether Democrat or Republican, the US will always unthinkingly and unreservedly support Israel every time it decides to play a new round of Palestine-bashing.

Naturally, US and global mainstream media willingly oblige, having succeeded in drilling deep into the collective psyche the conclusion that “Terrorism” is always linked to “Islamic Fundamentalists”.

So, Hamas is made illegitimate before we even start discussions about a two-state solution.No matter that Hamas won the democratically held 2006 elections in Palestine; no matter that Israel itself was founded by violent terrorist groups like Irgun Zvai Leumi, Stern and Hagganah which later merged to become Israel’s – oh, so democratic! – Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).

Those Zionist terror groups were led by Israeli founding fathers later to become prime ministers (and even a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate!) like Menahem Beguin and Isaac Shamir, who in their “freedom-fighter” days blew up hotels with dozens of people inside them, assassinated UN envoys, carried out hundreds of targeted assassinations, and imposed policies of genocide by killing and maiming hundreds of thousands, and then driving off millions of Palestinian men, women and children from their homes and land using the most barbarous terror tactics.

Israel’s logic in Palestine seems to run like this: if Israel steals lands and homes and livelihoods from the Palestinians, they have no right whatsoever to complain; and if they dare fight back, then they automatically become “terrorists”.America, the UK and most of the EU seem to agree…

Good if I do it; bad if you do…

That’s why those countries have branded Hamas and Hezbollah “terrorist organizations”.

Basic political common sense, however, tells us that a nation’s armed forces – whether in the US, Russia, China, Brazil or Israel – must report to the civilian leaders of its Nation-State.But what happens if, like the Palestinians, you are not allowed to have a Nation-State?How can Palestinians defend themselves against Israel’s systematic terrorist tactics if they can’t have their own Nation-State and therefore no armed forces?That’s why Hamas and Hezbollah came into the picture to offer the prospect of some self-defense.

Sure, it’s easy to disqualify them as “terrorist organizations” but – using that same criteria – would the Western Powers today reclassify the French Resistance during world war two, for example, as a “terror organization”, simply because they refused to passively accept the German military invasion of their country?Should the Resistance have given up so as to avoid the Oberkommando in Berlin branding them as “terrorists”?

And what about the terror groups that assassinated Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi last year or the ones wreaking havoc in Syria right now?“Freedom fighters”, I presume, because they violently oppose non-US friendly regimes?

The West must understand that you can’t have it both ways: either the French Resistance, and Irgun and Stern, and Hamas and Hezbollah, the Syrian and Libyan uprisings are all “freedom fighters” or, they should all be branded “terrorist organizations”.You can’t have your cake and eat it too.

All options on the table…

Going into full Baby-Bush-warmonger-mode, recently an IDF spokesman threatened not just the Palestinians but the entire world saying that for Israel, “all options are on the table…”

Powerful words coming from the only nation in the Middle East that has an arsenal of nuclear weapons, and the behavioral track record that gives credibility to their willingness to use them.

So, Palestinians must brace themselves for ever increasing levels of violence in the days and weeks to come.Will this latest flare-up be used by Israel as an excuse to attack southern Lebanon where Hezbollah has its strong hold (and where Israel was routed when they last invaded Lebanon for the nth time in mid-2006)?

Are we seeing a crescendo of violence leading to armed attack on Syria in conjunction with Turkey/NATO and with the “Syrian Free Army” (aka, Al-Qaeda, CIA, Mossad, MI6)?

Is this all part of an Israeli strategy to “Secure the Realm” that has a unilateral military attack against Iran as Israel’s real and final goal?

More generalized violence in the Middle East will help to convince Obama (and the US military) to stop dragging their feet on Iran and to come on strong again in the region.

Israel is calling this latest shock and awe attack “Operation Pillar of Defense.” A Good Orwellian euphemism for Palestine-Bashing.

If Israel has decided to let all hell lose in the Middle East to set the stage for an attack against Iran, then it becomes clear that the violence should start (yet again!!) in martyred Palestine.

OK, so Israel starts a new Middle Eastern war in Palestine but… where does it end?

Adrian Salbuchi for RT

­Adrian Salbuchi is a political analyst, author, speaker and radio/TV commentator in Argentina.www.asalbuchi.com.ar

 

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Explosion, air raid sirens heard in Tel Aviv for first time since Gulf War

A picture taken from the southern Israeli town of Sderot shows a rocket being launched from the Gaza strip into Israel on November 15, 2012. (AFP Photo / Jack Guez)

Source: Press TV

http://rt.com/news/rocket-suburb-tel-aviv-791/

A rocket has hit Tel Aviv. The sound of an explosion and air raid sirens were heard throughout the city. There are no reports of injuries or damage. It was the second rocket to land in the greater Tel Aviv area on Thursday.

A siren warning residents of incoming rockets was heard in the Tel Aviv area at around 6:45pm on Thursday. An explosion was reportedly heard shortly after.

RT correspondent Tom Barton said he heard the sirens and the explosion while reporting from central Tel Aviv.

“The sirens sounded, much to our disbelief. We didn’t expect sirens to be heard this far away from Gaza. It’s never happened before,” he said.

The rocket landed in the sea in front of Jaffa Beach, south of Tel Aviv. Islamic Jihad has already claimed responsibility for the attack, Ynetnews reports.

Today marks the first time air raid sirens were set off in Tel Aviv since the 1991 Gulf War.

The news comes shortly after a rocket from Gaza hit Rishon LeZion, a city located just nine miles from Tel Aviv.

No injuries were reported from the previous strike.

Rishon LeZion, a city of 200,000 people, is Israel's fourth largest city.

The rocket reportedly set off an air raid siren in the city.

The area is located just nine miles from Tel Aviv, and is Israel's fourth largest city.

The Israeli Defense Forces confirmed the strike on its Twitter account.­

Israel and Hamas have exchanged fire for a second day in a row, after Israel opened strikes on Gaza on Wednesday, killing the commander of the Hamas military wing.

Since then, Israel has reportedly hit more than 200 targets in Gaza. Hamas has responded by firing rockets at Israel.

The exchanges have resulted in a number of casualties on both sides. Three people have been killed and several dozens injured in Israel while in Gaza, at least 13 people have been killed and over 100 injured.

The strike comes some 17 hours after Hamas’ armed wing claimed to have shelled Tel Aviv.

Israeli Defense Forces denied the report.

 

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Palestinians will retaliate against Israel's cowardly attacks Iran official

 

Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike on the besieged Gaza Strip, November 14, 2012

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/11/15/272345/israel-cowardly-attacks-will-be-retaliated/

Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian says the resistance movement in Palestine will give a “crushing response” to Tel Aviv amid the deadly Israeli airstrikes on the blockaded Gaza Strip.

“The new players and the new atmosphere in the region will deprive the criminal Zionists from the opportunity for any aggression,” Amir-Abdollahian said on Wednesday.

He added that the Israeli regime, which has been disappointed over its failure in harming the resistance front and the failure of its attempts against Syria, seeks to whitewash its defeat through “cowardly attacks” on the besieged Gaza.

The Israeli regime, however, has adopted a completely wrong strategy by making such a move, Amir-Abdollahian pointed out.

On Wednesday, the Israeli military launched a series of new air and sea attacks against the Palestinians in the coastal territory.

The offensive left at least 13 Palestinians dead, including senior Hamas commander Ahmed al-Ja’bari, the head of Ezzeddin Qassam Brigades, and nearly 100 others wounded since Wednesday.

The 15-nation United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting on Wednesday over Israeli military action against Palestinians in Gaza, which has been under an Israeli blockade for the past five years.

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Egypt recalls ambassador from Israel calls for emergency UNSC meeting

Egyptian Embassy in the city of Tel Aviv (AFP Photo/Jack Guez)

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/news/egypt-ambassador-un-israel-719/

Egypt recalled its ambassador from Israel after the country announced a operation against "terror targets" and started bombing Gaza. Cairo ordered Egypt’s UN representative to call for an emergency meeting over Israel’s intensifying military campaign.

Following the decision to recall the country’s ambassador on Wednesday, Egyptian presidential spokesman Yasser Ali said Cairo had asked the Arab League's Secretary General to convene an emergency ministerial meeting in response to a series of Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza strip. The Arab League announced it would hold an urgent meeting Saturday in light of Wednesday's events.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr condemned the attacks which resulted in the death of Hamas military chief Ahmed Jaabari and at least nine others – including two children.

Amr called on “Israel to stop its strikes on Gaza Strip immediately,” saying any escalation from Israel “could have negative repercussions on the security and stability of the region.”

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi summoned the Israeli ambassador in Cairo shortly before recalling the country’s ambassador from Tel Aviv.

After calling for an an immediate cease fire between Israel and Hamas, Morsi ordered Egypt’s UN representative to call for an emergency meeting at the UN Security Council over the intensifying Israeli military campaign in Gaza.

Egypt’s government is currently dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood, a movement which spawned the Islamic resistance group Hamas.

Prior to the fall of Hosni Mubarak, Egypt had been a longtime mediator between Israel and Hamas. The political ascendency of the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP)– which Morsi headed up before being sworn in as President – has increasingly put Israel and Egypt at loggerheads.

On Wednesday, the FJP said the ongoing Israeli military operation in Gaza would require “swift Arab and international action to stop the massacres,” Al Arabiya cites them as saying. Warning that Israel must bear in mind regional changes following the Arab Spring, the FJP vowed Egypt “will not allow the Palestinians to be subjected to Israeli aggression, as in the past.”

 

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Hamas says now in open war with Israel promises gates of hell

Palestinians extinguish the fire after an Israeli air strike on a car in Gaza City November 14, 2012. (Reuters)

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/news/hamas-open-war-israel-694/

Hamas says that it is now in a state of "open war" indefinitely with Israel after the killing of the Hamas commander Ahmed Jabari by an Israeli airstrike.

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The assassination has "opened the gates of hell," the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, were quoted by AFP as saying.

"The occupation committed a dangerous crime and crossed all the red lines, which is considered a declaration of war," he said in a statement. Hamas vowed to "continue the path of resistance."

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has called for an immediate Arab League meeting in response to Wednesday's attack.

Mosques across Gaza were packed with mourners vowing revenge. The streets outside the hospital where Jabari's body was taken were filled with thousands of angry Palestinians chanting "retaliation" and "We want you to hit Tel Aviv tonight." Among the mourners outside the Shifa hospital in Gaza City were armed men firing into the air.

Gaza's Health Minister Dr. Mufeed Mkhallalati said a total of 10 people were killed, including Jabari. Fourty five people are reported injured, 10 of them are in critical condition. An 11-month-old and a 6-year-old girl were among the dead.

Six rockets were fired from Gaza toward Beersheba following the airstrike on Wednesday evening, Israel’s Army Radio reported. One rocket hit a shopping center in the city, while there were other media reports that a vehicle was struck in the attack. No casualties were reported.

The Israeli Press Office said“The Iron Dome missile defense system has thus far intercepted 15 rockets fired at Israel.”

Hamas said no tactic would be left off of the table following the strike.

"The resistance's options are now open and they include suicide attacks and quality attacks in Israel cities," Ynet cites top Hammas commander Ismail al-Ashkar as saying.

Hamas spokesman Khalil Al Haya vowed its Zionist enemy would "pay a price for this cowardly assassination.”

“The assassination of this great leader Amhed Al-Jaabary clearly confirms that we are still in the heart of resistance with the Israeli enemy; the Zionist enemy knows nothing but the language of killing and blood; our battle with the enemy is an open battle; God willing, this battle will end with Palestine and Jerusalem liberated. They should wait for our action, not words,” RT Arabic cites him as saying.

Senior Hamas official Izzat al-Rishq said the assassination will not "break the will of our people, nor weaken our resistance," Al-Rishq wrote on his Facebook page, Al Ahram reported.

He added that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is using the "war crime"to appear tough on national security as part of his reelection bid, though his plan could backfire.

Israel will hold a general election on January 22. Residents in southern Israel have been severely critical of his conservative government’s handling of rocket strikes in recent weeks. On Wednesday night Netanyahu said that no country in the world would accept a situation in which rockets were being fired at its citizens, and neither would Israel.

Fatah’s former chief negotiator Saeb Erekat disagreed with the Israeli PM's justification for the operation, saying “this exposes that Israel has an agenda for war but not for peace” on Twitter.

"We hold Israel responsible for the consequences that this new act of aggression would bring to the region,” he continued.

Washington said it is closely watching developments in Gaza, a Pentagon spokesman said.

"We're monitoring the situation closely. We stand by our Israeli partners in their right to defend themselves against terrorism," Lieutenant Colonel Stephen Warren said.

Egypt's foreign ministry released a statement calling on Israel to stop its strikes on Gaza Strip immediately.

The Muslim Brotherhood controlled government says it "will not allow the Palestinians to be subjected to Israeli aggression," the Jerusalem Post cites him as saying.

Egypt has reportedly recalled its ambassador in Tel-Aviv back to Cairo in response to the start of Israel’s Operation Pillar of Defense in Gaza. Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi also summoned Israel’s ambassador in Cairo to protest the attacks.

Morsi also ordered Egypt’s UN representative to call for an emergency meeting over Israel’s intensifying military campaign in Gaza.

Egypt had been working to broker a truce between the Israeli and Palestinian sides after five days of sporadic attacks between the two sides, and was believed to be close to a breakthrough.

The Israeli Air Force (IAF) killed Jabari in an airstrike on his car in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday. Israel's TV Channel 2 says his son also died in the missile attack. There are also reports that Raed al-Atar, the commander of Hamas's southern division, was also killed.

The attack comes as the first step in the expanding Israeli operation which could see IDF troops on the ground in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli Air Force strikes reportedly hit at least 20 rocket-launching pads belonging to Hamas and Islamic Jihad, “seriously damaging their long-range missile capabilities,” an Israeli military spokesman said. IDF tank fire also struck targets in Gaza. The IDF said it was willing to initiate a ground operation in Gaza to eliminate any further sources of rocket fire.

"All options are on the table. If necessary, the IDF (army) is ready to initiate a ground operation in Gaza," the IDF said on its official Twitter account.

Jabari, who was deputy commander of Hamas’s military wing, is the most senior Hamas official to be assassinated since Israel’s sweeping 2008 military operation in Gaza which resulted in the death of some 1,800 Palestinians. In reponse to the targeted assassination, the IDF characterized Jabari as a "man with a lot of blood on his hands."

In the run up to the operation on Wednesday, seven Palestinians had been killed in retaliatory Israel strikes to missile strikes originating in Gaza.

 

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Israel strikes Gaza, calls up reservists, ready to expand operation

Palestinians extinguish fire from the car of Ahmaed Jaabari, head of the military wing of the Hamas movement, the Ezzedin Qassam Brigades, after it was hit by an Israeli air strike in Gaza City on November 14, 2012. (AFP Photo / Mahmud Hams)

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/news/hamas-military-chief-killed-684/

The IDF announces a widespread campaign on “terror targets” and begins bombing the Gaza Strip, preparing for a ground operation. This comes after the head of Hamas’ military wing Ahmed Jabari was killed in an Israeli airstrike.

­FOLLOW LIVE UPDATES

­Hamas says now in 'open war' with Israel, promises 'gates of hell'

The operation, called “Pillar of Defense”, has been launched by the Israel military. Many of the buildings in downtown Gaza City are on fire after being attacked by Israeli warplanes, RT’s Arabic correspondent Saed Swerky reports on Twitter.

The IDF says all options are on the table in Gaza, including a ground operation. Israeli warships have struck "terror sites" in the Gaza Strip, the military forces confirmed.

“Today we sent a clear message to Hamas and other terrorist organizations, and if it becomes necessary we are prepared to expand the operation,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised address on Wednesday.

The country’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak declared a special situation in all Israeli territory, covering the area up to a radius of 40 kilometers around the Gaza Strip, the Jerusalem Post said.

The minister said that Israel is just at the start of the action, but in the long term, the operation will restore peace.

Israel has started emergency call up of reservists, while saying they are preparing for a ground invasion of Gaza, RT`s Tom Barton reports from Israel.

The strikes caused extensive damage to the long-range missile capabilities and underground weapons storage facilities, the IDF said on Twitter.

The Gaza Education Ministry has announced a suspension of study at Gaza schools and universities due to heavy fire by Israel.

A large explosion occurred near home of Hamas leader, Mahmoud Zahar, Al Arabiya reported.

The death toll from some 20 strikes has risen to 10 with some dozens wounded, Gaza`s health minister said.

Jabari was traveling in his vehicle in Gaza City when his car was struck, AP reports, citing witnesses. Reports say Jabari, his son and three other people were killed in the strike.

 

Smoke rises after an Israeli air strike in the northern Gaza Strip November 14, 2012. (Reuters / Amir Cohen )

An Israeli strike also targeted Raad Atar, another senior Hamas military wing commander, but he survived, Israeli Ynet reports.

The assassination has "opened the gates of hell," the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, were quoted by AFP as saying. The militants vowed to "continue the path of resistance."

The IDF stated on its website that it has launched a "widespread campaign on terror sites and operatives in the Gaza Strip" and Jabari was its first target. He's the highest ranking Hamas official to be killed since 2009, when Israel conducted ground offensive against Gaza.

“The purpose of this operation was to severely impair the command and control chain of the Hamas leadership, as well as its terrorist infrastructure. This was a surgical operation in cooperation with the Israeli Security Agency, that was implemented on the basis of concrete intelligence and using advanced capabilities,” the statement said.

The crackdown follows the recent escalation of violence in the region. The conflict broke out last week when Palestinian militants attacked at an Israeli military jeep.

Israel responded with retaliatory attacks, to which the Gaza Strip replied with heavy rocket fire at southern Israel.

Jabari is the most senior Hamas official to be killed since Operation Cast Lead in Gaza four years ago. He is believed to be behind the notorious abduction and detention of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was held hostage for more than four years until being released last year as part of a hostage swap deal.

 

Palestinians extinguish fire from the car of Ahmaed Jaabari, head of the military wing of the Hamas movement, the Ezzedin Qassam Brigades, after it was hit by an Israeli air strike in Gaza City on November 14, 2012. (AFP Photo / Mahmud Hams)

 

 

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UK forcing Palestinians to drop UN bid

 

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/11/11/271565/uk-forcing-palestinians-to-drop-un-bid/

The British government is pressuring the Palestinian Authority (PA) to abandon its efforts for a non-member status in the United Nations, says a senior member of Fatah movement in Palestine.

“Until this moment, there is no international pressure on the PA concerning the UN bid (from Europe), except from Britain,” Nabil Sha’ath told Palestinian independent news agency Ma’an.

Sha’ath, who is a member of the Fatah Central Committee, said London has been trying to force the Palestinian Authority to drop its bid apparently for the US to get more time to kill regarding the bid for the recognition of a Palestinian state.

However, he pledged that the PA is determined to push with the bid despite London’s pressure and threats by the US to cut off its funding for the Palestinian Authority.

“The PA will not postpone the UN bid as it is a strategic decision,” Shaath said, adding that the bid would be submitted by the end of November.

Acting Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas has decided to table a resolution at the UN General Assembly for a Palestinian state.

In a recent interview with the Voice of Palestine Radio, Sha’ath stated that the PA expects several European countries to back the resolution.

“European countries are talking with us about the timing of the vote, the formula of the draft resolution to the UN.”

The US and the UK want Palestinians to return to the negotiating table over a deal with the Zionist regime of Israel.

The Palestinian-Israeli talks, observers consider no more than delaying tactics to buy time for Tel Aviv, hit a deadlock after the Israeli regime resumed building of illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories in October 2010.

The Fatah bid centers on recognition of a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders, but Abbas has said he will only return to talks with Israeli officials when they recognize a Palestinian state at pre-1967 borders.

Abbas is not widely supported in Palestine partly due to his position on the return of Palestinian refugees forced out of their lands by Israeli forces in May 1948.

Many Palestinians believe he has given up on the right to return, especially after his interview with Israel’s Channel 2 earlier this month where he said he ‘does not have the right’ to live in the city that his family was expelled from in 1948.

His remarks were also condemned by the resistance movement Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and the Islamic Jihad Movement.

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