IDF kills 7-year-old

Bei der bereits erwähnten Schießerei in Dir al-Balah ist nach palästinensischen Angaben im Kreuzfeuer ein palästinenischer Junge, 7 Jahre durch eine israelische Kugel getötet worden. Zwei weitere Kinder wurden verletzt. Die IDF läßt nun verlautbaren, das sie eine kleine Operation am Rande des Ortes durchgeführt habe und wörtlich "nicht über den Vorfall mit den Kindern informiert" worden sei. Die vorige Version der Attacke eines Milizionärs an der Grenze wird nebenher aufrecht erhalten. In abasan bei Khan Younis werden zwei weitere Palästinenser verletzt. Am Nachmittag treffen nochmals zwei Qassam-Raketen das Industriegebiet in Sderot.

Denn sie wissen nicht mal über was sie geredet haben: Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met at the prime minister's residence in Jerusalem Tuesday evening. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who heads the Israeli peace negotiations team, and the head of the Palestinian team, Ahmed Qureia, were also present at the meeting. The two leaders did not discuss the sensitive issue of Jerusalem during their meeting, despite Abbas' earlier calls not to postpone addressing the contentious issue, a senior official at the Prime Minister's Office said. "The issue of Jerusalem did not come up in the discussion. I'm not aware of changes in the Israeli position," the official said. Israeli officials said the leaders had agreed to accelerate peace talks. However, senior Abbas aide and Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat disputed the report that Jerusalem was not discussed, saying that the leaders had discussed "all the core issues." Andere Quellen berichten man habe sich auf täglichen Diplomatieverkehr geeinigt. Andere Quellen sagen Olmert und Abbas würden sich in zwei Wochen wieder treffen. Salam Fayyad, ramallahnischer Superminister kündigt auf May eine Investorenkonferenz in Bethlehem an. Zuvor hatte Mahmoud Abu Ar-Rub Abbas in der Funktion eines state-comptrollers den Haushaltsbericht für das Fiskaljahr 2006 übergeben in dem lapidar keine Haushaltssumme festgestellt werden konnte, da 58% aller palästinensischen Kommunen und staatlichen Einrichtungen keine Berichte abgaben. [Peinlich.]

They used to meet in Sderot. It seems like ages ago. They were a group of Palestinians from Gaza and Israelis, most of whom were from Sderot. A siren could go off at any moment, but they continued to try to understand how sanity could be returned to the region. They thought of starting joint summer camps for children from Gaza and Sderot, and above all they tried to create a dialogue that overcame prejudices and deceptions. But it's been six months since they last met in a Sderot living room. "We have given up on persuading the authorities to let them leave Gaza," says Danny Gal, one of the dialogue's organizers. "These people do not constitute a security threat. On the contrary, they are a positive and calming element, but the closure on Gaza is sweeping. So we decided to meet online and let the world hear a different voice, from both Gaza and Sderot." Blogadresse hier.

Islamic Jihad criticized Palestinian human rights groups on Tuesday for saying they found no evidence that the Israel Defense Forces was responsible for a blast that killed eight people, including a commander of the group, in Gaza last week. "There is no evidence to confirm that the explosion was caused by rocket or aerial bombardment by Israeli occupation forces, as mentioned in some media outlets," the Palestine Center for Human Rights (PCHR) and al-Mezan Center for Human Rights said in a joint statement on Monday.

Meron Benevisti, "A democratic threat on the wane": The publication of the census results by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, which found that the population in the occupied territories has reached approximately 3.8 million people, was not widely discussed among the Israeli media - although the data (along with other figures published earlier this year by the Central Bureau of Statistics in Israel) shows that the number of Jews and Arabs living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean is close to parity. If we subtract the 200,000 East Jerusalem residents, who were counted twice, the number of Jews stands at about 5.4 million and the number of Arabs - both Israeli citizens and those living in the territories - at approximately 5.2 million.

War doch klar, das dem Typ das Klima nicht bekommt: The United States is reviewing the feasibility of deploying a NATO force in the West Bank as a way to ease IDF security concerns and facilitate an Israeli withdrawal from the area within the coming years, defense officials have told The Jerusalem Post. The plan, which is being spearheaded by US Special Envoy to the region Gen. James Jones, is being floated among European countries, which could be asked to contribute troops to a West Bank multinational force. Jones, a former commander of NATO, was sent to Israel in November to help the Israelis and Palestinians frame some of the security mechanics necessary for a broader peace agreement.

Yoel Marcus: The government proclaims the army will uproot terror from Gaza and stop the Qassam fire. Yet it has decided to allocate NIS 350 million to shellproof thousands of homes in Sderot and other towns around Gaza. What are the citizens supposed to understand from that? That the government does not believe that commando units, the "rehabilitated" army or the "major offensive" planned for Gaza can end the Qassams? That on the eve of Israel's 60th anniversary, we're back to the era of "stockade and tower" fortifications, doomed forever to huddle in a ghetto?