IDF kills Two

Nachdem am Mittwoch-Abend an der ägytischen Grenze in Rafah in einer Manufaktur ein Islamic-Jihad-Mitglied bei einem Luftangriff der IAF getötet wird verstirbt durch die gleiche Ursache ein mutmaßliches Mitglied der Entführergruppe des israelischen Soldaten Gilad Shalit namens Nafez Mansour [Hamas]. Bei dem Vorfall in Rafah wird auch ein Mädchen verletzt. Gefechte mit einrückenden Panzern werden erneut aus der Gegend vor Khan Younis gemeldet. Weniger Neues in Sachen Waffenstillstandsverhandlungen: Islamic Jihad: Cease-fire agreement conditioned on lifting of Gaza siege. + Israel's expected acceptance of a Cairo-brokered cease-fire with Hamas in the Gaza Strip will "significantly" expedite the release of kidnapped Cpl. Gilad Schalit, a top official involved in the negotiations told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday. + Islamic Jihad said on Thursday it would not formally sign onto an Egyptian-brokered truce with Israel but would not be the first to violate it. Egypt is expecting Israel to accept and implement the cease-fire proposal agreed on by the Palestinian factions, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit's bureau chief said Wednesday. But a number of factions were equivocal in their support for a ceasefire, and some said they reserved the right to retaliate against Israeli attacks. In a new statement, Zeyad al-Nakhala, deputy to exiled Islamic Jihad chief Ramadan Shallah, said the group could not be a party to a truce agreement that did not also apply at the onset to the occupied West Bank. Während am Mittwoch insgesamt 15 Projektile palästinensischer Gruppen auf israelischem Gebiet niedergehen sind es am Donnerstag bislang sechs. [...] A Palestinian father of six who was diagnosed with a brain cancer died at Gaza's Shifa Hospital on Wednesday while waiting for an entry permit to Israel, where he was set to undergo brain surgery and receive chemotherapy treatment at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv. Editor: Eine Ente.[...] Die großmächtig auf spätestens gestern Abend angekündigte Veröffentlichung einer Untersuchung der Vorfälle die zum Tode einer Mutter und vier kindern in Khan Younis geführt haben fällt aus. Nachträglich eingereichte Werke aus IDF-Produktion können hier nicht mehr anerkannt werden.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert held talks in Jordan on Wednesday with Jordanian King Abdullah II on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. A palace statement said during the closed-door talks, Abdullah urged Olmert to work on improving the living conditions of Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. [...] Increased Israeli restrictions on the checkpoints around East Jerusalem have caused more delays and more lost man hours for UN staff in March 2008 than in all of 2007, the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has reported. In the Humanitarian Monitor for March, released on 24 April, OCHA said "operations were significantly affected" and almost daily UN vehicles were delayed and even turned back by Israeli soldiers at checkpoints south of Jerusalem. [...] Sechzehn Palästinenser werden bis Donnerstag Morgen in der Westbank verhaftet, erneut wird in Jenin eine Hamas-charity gelootet und das alte "deutsche" Krankenhaus in Nablus kann einen drohenden Konkurs nur mit der Entlassung etwa eines Drittels der Belegschaft abwenden. ... am Freitag ist wieder Donor-Konferenz für die Taschen der Fatah: U.S. officials and analysts played down expectations for her [US-aussenministerin Condis riceauflauf mit Quark] trip, which begins in London for meetings on Friday to discuss reviving the Palestinian economy, reining in Iran's nuclear program and supporting newly independent Kosovo. ... Martin Indyk, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel now at the Brookings Institution think tank, was skeptical that the Bush administration was on the verge of offering its own ideas on how to craft a peace agreement to end the six-decade conflict. "I see no indication of that. I think that their very clear attitude to this -- at least the president's view of it -- is that it's up to the parties to make the deal," Indyk said.

A majority of Israeli teens believe the country is under "serious threat" of destruction, a survey published by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day and Israel's 60th anniversary revealed. According to the telephone survey of 500 teenagers between the ages of 15 and 17, which was conducted in late March, a growing number of Israeli youth - 30% - believe that "Israel is under a serious threat of destruction" compared to 24% in 2007, while 52% said they believe "Israel is under "a certain threat of destruction," a slight decline from 59% in 2007. On the question of whether "a second Holocaust of the Jewish people is possible or not," nine percent of those polled said there was a real possibility, compared to 6% in 2007; 30% said there was a certain possibility, and 59% said a second Holocaust was not possible. [...] Transportation Minister and former defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said Wednesday that Iran could have nuclear bomb technology as early as this year. Speaking at Yale University, Mofaz warned that Iran is progressing steadily with its nuclear program and will have the knowhow to build a bomb within months.