IDF kills Two - Updates

Bei einem weiteren Luftangriff der IAF auf ein fahrendes Auto in Gaza City werden zwei Mitglieder der PRC getötet. "Einige" Verletzte werden gemeldet. Am Abend verkündet Verteidigungsminister Ehud Barak eine Ausweitung der militärischen Offensiven. ["We may have to broaden Gaza operations; we are also preparing for that [possibility]," IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi said Wednesday. "As far as the infantry, armored corps air force and navy are concerned, there is an ongoing war in Gaza. We have no doubts as to the solution that we must provide...in order to bring an end to rocket attacks." "As far as we are concerned, in Judea and Samaria the most important thing is to maintain the IDF's freedom of action," said Ashkenazi, who was addressing high school students in Jerusalem. "If in the passing year not one terror attack against Israel's home front was successfully launched from Judea and Samaria, this is [the] remarkable achievement [of] the IDF and the Shin Bet."]Die Hamas berichtet von einem Telefonat zwischen dem ramallahnischen Präsidenten Mahmoud Abbas und dem Hamas-Führer Mahmoud al-Zahar, dessen Sohn am Dienstag getötet wurde. Damit wäre der erste direkte Kontakt seit der Machtübernahme der Hamas im Gazastreifen zu Stande gekommen. Am Abend flachen die Attacken aus dem Gazastreifen ab. Weiterhin schwanken die Angaben der Daten beträchtlich. Von Dienstag mittag bis Donnerstag muß mit einer Mindestanzahl von über 60 Raketen und weiteren 60 Mörsergranaten gerechnet werden. Zumeist landen die Projektile in unbewohnten Zonen. An die acht Gebäudeschäden und mindestens sieben verletzte Zivilisten sind zu verzeichnen. Im Nordwesten Jerusalems werden für den Hunnenwall der Israelis etwa 30 Beduinen aus Al-Jib endgültig vertrieben. Nachdem im Jahr 2004 eine Petition von Familien gegen einen Räumungsbescheid der Israelis vor Gericht erfolgreich war wurde im Oktober ein erneuter Räumungsbescheid gerichtlich abgesegnet. In Hebron wird eine Ausgangssperre über das Zentrum verhängt nach dem palästinensische Jugendliche gegen arme Opferlämmersoldaten der IDF randalieren.

Der Gazastreifen vermeldet ein erneutes Stromversorgungsproblem. Nachdem erst am Wochenende "beschlossen" wurde die Treibstofflieferungen vornehmlich an die Gaza power plant zu erhöhen wurde am Dienstag der verwendete Grenzübergang Nazal Oz wegen der ausgebrochenen Kämpfe geschlossen. Die Menschenrechtsorganisation Gisha berichtet zudem von Problemen mit einer Stromleitung aus Israel, die "Tausende" ohne Strom in Gaza City seit Montag nicht nur im Dunkeln sitzen läßt. Der Hinweis auf sehr kühle Temperaturen ist durchaus von Nöten. In der Negev soll es schon zu Todesopfern durch Erfrieren gekommen sein.Die Fatah berichtet von einer Durchsuchungsaktion der Polizei vom montag Abend in ihren Headquarters, wobei Möbel und technisches Gerät gelootet worden sein soll. In Nablus zelebriert die Fatah die erste öffentliche performance des berühmt gewordenen Ibrahim Abu An-Naja. An Silvester hatte ihn die Hamas im Gazastreifen vier Stunden inhaftiert und dabei seinen Bart und sein Haupthaar geschändet, was zu Solidarbart- und Kopfrasuren unter Fatahisten führte. Der Bart ist jetzt fast wieder hergestellt. Interessant ist jedoch wie der Mann aus dem Gazastreifen es überhaupt nach Nablus geschafft hat. Ich meine, man diskutiert in "Sicherheitskreisen" ob man palästinensische Sterbenskranke ausreisen lassen soll oder nicht. Man berichtet von kranken Gaza-Kids, deren Eltern nicht mit ausreisen dürfen. Man blockiert ewig Ausreisen von Pilgern. Man... läßt dann so einen "most senior Fatah-Typen" einfach so aus dem Gazastreifen raus und schleust ihn nach Nablus, bloß weil ihm der Bart geschoren wurde?

A former Border Police officer was convicted of manslaughter on Wednesday in the death of a Palestinian man during an October 2006 search in Jaffa for people without entry permits. Tomer Avraham was convicted in Tel Aviv District Court of killing Iyad Abu Ra'iya of the West Bank town of Tarqumiya, as well as aggravated assault and battery. This is the first time since at least 2000 that a police officer has been convicted of killing a Palestinian or Israeli Arab within Israel. No officers were convicted of killing in the wake of the events of October 2000, when 12 Arab Israeli citizens and one Palestinian were shot to death by Israeli police officers.

Defense forces evacuated two unauthorized outposts in the West Bank on Wednesday, IDF officials said. Police and IDF troops arrived at the first outpost, Harchivi, near Nablus, and the five people there fled at the sight of the forces, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. No arrests were made. At the second outpost, Shvut Ami, also near Nablus, around 20 teenage protesters gathered at the scene before forces arrived, laying down barbed wire and rocks on the road and posting signs with slogans reading, "The land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel." Some protesters lay down on the floor of one of the two incomplete structures at the site and were carried out by police.

Die Story des Tages: He once carried an assault rifle and planned attacks on Israelis. Now, the retired Palestinian operative breaks up fights between children in a theater that he helped establish in the West Bank town of Jenin. The new role brings Zakariya Zubeidi full circle. As a child he was a founder-member of a children's theater group run by an Israeli woman seeking to promote Jewish-Arab coexistence. As he grew up, he became a gunman during years of fighting between Israelis and Palestinians and rose to become the head of the Al Aksa Martyrs' Brigades in his home town. Die Urspungsmeldung: Theater of the absurd - Clowns are a rare sight at the refugee camp in Jenin. This week, they were there to celebrate with the camp's children the opening of al-Huria Theater, established by Juliano Mer-Khamis in honor of his mother, Arna. Zakaria Zubeidi, number one on Israel's most wanted list and one of Arna's pupils, took part in the opening ceremony. Und noch urspünglicher. Die Story von Tali Fahima.

Programmgemäß startet die israelische Aussenministerin Tzipi Livni zu einem Besuch in Moskau. Programmgemäß darf ein Bush-Lakai vorher berichten: Iran recently announced it manufactured a new missile - the Ashoura - with a range of 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) that was capable of reaching Israel and US bases across the Middle East. "They also made statements that once you reached that range, getting beyond that is fairly easy," Obering said. "Currently, there's no protection in Europe against the intermediate-range or long-range weapons," he warned.

The Palestinian question is the core of conflict in the Middle East and Egypt very much hopes for a peace deal by January 2009, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said on Wednesday during talks with U.S. President George W. Bush in Sharm el-Sheikh. Mubarak told reporters he updated Bush on Egypt's position that "the Palestinian question, of course, is the core of problems and conflict in the Middle East, and it is the entry to contain the crisis and tension in the region, and the best means to face what's going on in the world, and our region - I mean by that, the escalation of violence, extremism and terrorism."

Helena Cobban, die auch von einem Rücktrittgesuch des palästinensischen Repräsentanten in Washington berichtet: Interview with Ms. Bushra Kanafani, Director of the Foreign Media Department at the Syrian Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The Lebanese government and Palestinian leaders have struck a quiet deal that would grant a new legal status to at least 3,000 Palestinians living in Lebanon without any identity documents, The Daily Star has learned. The plan was approved at a meeting last Friday that included representatives from the Interior Ministry, General Security, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee (LPDC) and the Palestine Liberation Organization, PLO consul in Lebanon Mahmoud al-Asabi said. + Damascus on Wednesday said it could not force its Lebanese allies to accept a solution to the 13-month-old political impasse, as US President Georges W. Bush urged Syria and Iran to stop alleged meddling in Lebanon's internal issues. "Dealing with Syria as if it was still in Lebanon or as if its allies are a tool represents an insult to a large proportion of the Lebanese," Syrian Information Minister Mohsen Bilal told reporters during a news conference in Damascus.

Shibley Telhami, "Its not about Iran": As President Bush travels through the Middle East, the prevailing assumption is that Arab states are primarily focused on the rising Iranian threat and that their attendance at the Annapolis conference with Israel in November was motivated by this threat. This assumption, reflected in the president's speech in the United Arab Emirates yesterday, could be a costly mistake. Israel and the Bush administration place great emphasis on confronting Iran's nuclear potential and are prepared to engage in a peace process partly to build an anti-Iran coalition. Arabs see it differently. They use the Iran issue to lure Israel and the United States into serious Palestinian-Israeli peacemaking, having concluded that the perceived Iranian threats sell better in Washington and Tel Aviv than the pursuit of peace itself.