MIFTAH
Thursday, 28 March. 2024
 
Your Key to Palestine
The Palestinian Initiatives for The Promotoion of Global Dialogue and Democracy
 
 
 

On Friday 13, it was reported that Israel plans for the construction of 1,300 homes in settlements in occupied east Jerusalem. According to the Israeli Jerusalem Municipality, the apartments are to be built in the Ramat Shlomo settlement, where there are already 2,000 settler homes. The Jerusalem urban planning commission reportedly made the decision on June 10. This news was greeted with outrage from Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Chief Negotiator Dr.Saeb Erakat.

"We firmly condemn this project which reveals the Israeli government's intention to destroy peace," Erakat told AFP. On June 12, Dr. Erekat warned that any large-scale Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip would destroy the peace process and push the region and its peoples into further violence, chaos and bloodshed. His sentiments were echoed by Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad who says he believes reaching a peace agreement with Israel by the end of 2008 to be impossible. At the Annapolis Conference held in November 2007, Washington expressed its hopes of reaching a framework agreement before US President George W. Bush ends his term of office in January 2009.

Also on June 13, a week after President Mahmoud Abbas announced the formation of a committee comprising PLO Executive Committee members to lay the groundwork for a successful national dialogue, Palestinians are doing their best to launch a fruitful dialogue between the different factions. Deposed Prime Minister and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh delivered a speech welcoming a future-oriented dialogue, and stated that there should be "no consideration of who won or who lost."

Meanwhile, other Hamas and Fatah leaders are trying to join the Palestinian people with moderate declarations promoting national unity. These include Azzam Al-Ahmad, head of the Fateh bloc in the Palestinian Legislative Council, who applauded President Abbas' and Ismail Haniyeh's initiative and urged the rivals to move the dialogue forward. Fatah Revolutionary Council member Jibreel Rajoub did the same when he told the Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa television station that the rival factions should adhere to the dialogue.

This followed a declaration by Israel on June 9, denying any intention to weaken the Palestinian caretaker government led by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad through delaying the transfer of tax revenue money that pays the salaries of Palestinian civil servants. Israel reportedly delayed the transfer of tax funds for over a week in retaliation for a protest Fayyad lodged with the European Union over Israel's expansion of illegal settlements.

On June 8, Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Qatar were reported as working behind the scenes to broker a compromise between rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah, and to assemble a new Palestinian unity government.

The Israeli security cabinet decided on June 11 to support the Egyptian efforts aimed at achieving a ceasefire in Gaza. At the same meeting, the security cabinet also issued instructions for the Israeli military to continue its preparations to confront any possible scenario if the Egyptian efforts do not succeed. Israeli radio reported that the Israeli cabinet had adopted the position of its Minister of Defense Ehud Barak that all possibilities for reaching a ceasefire should be exhausted before the army undertakes a large-scale military operation in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli television previously announced that the Israeli government was demanding a ceasefire agreement include the release of kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, but it appears that this matter is now being discussed separately.

On June 10, Israeli President Shimon Peres already implied that he favored a ceasefire with the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. Peres reportedly met with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and exchanged views with him.

On June 9, there was further international involvement when Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade urged Hamas and Israel to hold their fire on Monday afternoon. "I ask Israel and Hamas to declare an immediate ceasefire from Monday June 9, 2008, at 1200 GMT: no more attacks or Israeli incursions into the Gaza Strip and no more shooting by Hamas in the direction of Israel," Wade said in a statement. In the event of a breach in his proposed ceasefire, Wade said both sides should turn to him for mediation.

Hamas applauded the Senegalese call confirming that they are ready to enter into a bilateral ceasefire so long as Israel lifts its crippling blockade of the Gaza Strip.

On June 9, Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) members met in the West Bank city of Ramallah and adopted a work plan to break the parliamentary stalemate that has persisted since Hamas took over the Gaza Strip last June. Sunday’s meeting at the PLC building in Ramallah was attended by PLC Secretary-General Ibrahim Khreisheh and representatives of the different parliamentary blocs. It followed a session held on June 5 at which PLC members welcomed President Abbas’ initiative to renew intra-Palestinian dialogue and resolved to reactivate the legislature.

PLC members at the meeting on Sunday approved a work plan and detailed mechanisms to resume their legislative roles. The committee of deputies agreed to form working groups dealing with economics and finances, public services, public opinion, freedoms and civil society and social issues.

There were yet more reports of settler violence this week, with two civilians injured when Israeli settlers attacked a house in Huwara, south of Nablus, on June12. Resident Mahmoud Khalaf reported that two settlers from the Yitzhar settlement attacked his house injuring his 33-year-old brother Ahmad Khalaf, who was stabbed with a knife, and 25-year-old Samer Mustafa Al-Haj Ali, who was hit on the head with a metal wrench and had to be transferred to the Rafidia Hospital in Nablus. On June 9, four Palestinians, including a woman, were injured when masked Israeli settlers attacked shepherds on Sunday in the West Bank village of Sussia, south of the city of Hebron. On June8, boars released by Israeli settlers from Ariel settlement attacked an elderly Palestinian farmer, 70-year-old Ahmad Ad-Dims, while he was heading to his olive groves near the separation wall in northern Salfit.

In terms of Palestinian deaths, four Palestinian were killed on June 11 by Israeli bombing and artillery in the Gaza Strip, and at least six others were wounded. Amongst them was 26-year-old Yasser Abu Haleeb. Nine-year old Hadeel Al Sumeiri was also killed in the Gazan town of Qarara. Head of Ambulance and Emergency Services, Dr Mo'awiya Hassanein, told Ma'an that Abu Haleeb's body and those injured were transferred to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, describing their cases as serious. Among those received at the hospital was three-year-old Wa'ed Fayyad, who suffered serious shrapnel injuries from Israeli tank shelling.

Israeli tanks killed three Palestinian fighters in two separate attacks east of Gaza City on June 10, medical sources confirmed. Five Palestinians were also injured in the shelling. Medics said the slain fighters, Ahmad As-Safadi, Yahya Hamid and Mustafa Atallah, were all in their twenties and were affiliated to Hamas' armed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades.

Two members of the Al-Aqsa Brigades and the National Resistance Brigades, the military wings of the Fatah and DFLP movements respectively, were killed in a joint military operation on the morning of June 12. The brigades infiltrated into Israeli territory inside the Green Line near the evacuated Dugit settlement north of Beit Lahiya and clashed with Israeli forces in the area for more than half an hour.

Meanwhile, the Israeli army announced its responsibility for killing an armed Palestinian near the electric fence in the northern Gaza Strip, stating that they opened fire at a Palestinian fighter approaching the fence and killed him.

 
 
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