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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
British journalist held in Gaza as security threat
2010-02-15
A British journalist has been arrested in Gaza on suspicion of endangering the security of the state. Paul Martin, a freelance journalist and documentary film-maker who has previously written for The Times, was taken into custody yesterday by Hamas security forces. A Hamas police spokesman, Ehab Ghussein, said that they had obtained “confessions that the British journalist violated Palestinian law and the security of the state'. He is being held in a central Gaza prison.

It was reported that Mr Martin had travelled to Gaza to testify at the trial of a militant from a group called the Abu Rish Brigades who is accused of passing information to Israel. The small militant organisation has previously claimed responsibility for kidnappings and firing rockets into Israel. A spokesman for the group told the Associated Press that a Gaza judge had ordered Mr Martin to be held for two weeks during the trial.

Fadi Adeeb, a spokesman for the British consulate in Jerusalem, said: “We are urgently looking into the matter and following up with the responsible people so we can sort this matter out on the consular level.'
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Arrest of Gaza man 'trained in Iran' made public
2008-05-20
Israeli authorities yesterday permitted the publication of the arrest about a month ago of a Palestinian militant in the Gaza Strip who is believed to have undergone training in Iran. Jerusalem officials say details revealed in his investigation shed light on how Tehran is encouraging terrorism, as well as Syria's indirect contribution to the "cause."

Ala Abu-Madif, 29, an activist in the Fatah-affiliated Abu Rish Brigades, was arrested in Khan Yunis in a joint Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet security services operation. He is suspected of involvement in firing rockets into Israel and in planning terror attacks. He and other activists are thought to have traveled to Iran for training about a year ago, through Egypt and Syria. Under interrogation Abu-Madif revealed that the activists received military training, including the assembly of explosive devices and weapons training, which took place in a mountainous area of Iran.

Abu-Madif returned to Gaza last June, after Hamas took control of the Strip, and began taking part in anti-Israel activities. His interrogators believe he planned to carry out a suicide attack against IDF soldiers at the Kissufim border crossing with Israel. This is not the first time Israel has arrested Gazan militants who are suspected of having undergone military training in Iran.
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
IAF attacks Haniyeh's office; some 25 locals wounded
2008-02-28
The IDF struck back against Gaza's Hamas leadership late Wednesday night, after an estimated 50 Kassam rockets and at least four Grad-style Katyusha missiles pummeled the western Negev and Ashkelon over the course of a few hours in the afternoon, killing a student at Sderot's Sapir Academic College and sending dozens into shock.

The IAF fired a series of missiles at the Palestinian Interior Ministry in Gaza, near where Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh maintains an office. Haniyeh, who also holds the Interior Ministry portfolio in the Strip, was not in the office at the time, but Palestinians said that 25 people - many of them passersby - were wounded in the attack.

As of press time, the IDF would only say that the air force had struck a number of targets within the Gaza Strip, but would not confirm that Haniyeh's ministry was among the sites targeted.

As the air strikes were under way, Defense Minister Ehud Barak was visiting the college in Sderot, where Roni Yihye, 47, a father of four and a student at the school, was killed by shrapnel from a Kassam rocket that struck meters away from where he stood in a parking lot. Barak met with local leaders and police commanders to coordinate a plan of action for emergency responders and civil authorities. The shrapnel lodged in Yihye's chest, and despite the aid of passersby, including a Magen David Adom paramedic who studies at the school, an MDA team was unable to resuscitate him.

Another student in the school's parking lot was wounded in the leg by shrapnel, a victim of a second volley of Kassams that hit the Sderot area in less than 90 minutes.

Yihye lived in Moshav Bit'ha, near Ofakim, and was a career soldier studying logistics at the college.

The largest barrage in recent months began in the early afternoon, when Hamas fired 11 rockets at Sderot, in response, the group said, to the IDF's killing of five Hamas gunmen in the morning. The five, according to security establishment assessments, had recently received training overseas to carry out a major attack against an Israeli target.

The Abu Rish Brigades, a branch of Fatah representing a powerful Gaza clan and believed to be allied with Hamas, issued a statement Wednesday afternoon claiming responsibility for the first attacks of the afternoon. But immediately afterward, Hamas issued its own statement claiming responsibility for the rocket that hit Sapir. Both groups said the attacks were a response to IAF strikes in the Gaza Strip.

The IAF launched a strike targeting what they said was the Kassam cell responsible for the barrage that killed Yihye. Palestinians claimed that three children were killed and 12 civilians were wounded in that strike.

A video released Wednesday showed footage of Kassams fired from residential areas in Gaza, a scenario that makes it difficult to strike back against rocket-launching cells without harming civilians.
"The firing of rockets by Hamas at Israeli civilians from within populated Palestinian areas is a war crime that harms both Israelis and Palestinians," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
"The firing of rockets by Hamas at Israeli civilians from within populated Palestinian areas is a war crime that harms both Israelis and Palestinians," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "Hamas's terrorism not only endangers the lives of Israeli and Palestinian civilians, it also endangers peace and stability in the region as a whole."

Later, in the early evening, four Grad-style missiles, Soviet-made devices similar to the Katyushas used by Hizbullah against communities in the North, and with greater range than Kassam rockets, hit Ashkelon, causing major power outages. One missile struck 150 meters from Barzilai Hospital, where victims of the earlier attacks on Sderot were being treated. Barzilai officials said that other than the windows, the hospital was not reinforced against rocket attacks.

In the first barrage of the day, which was unusually large and well-aimed, a rocket slammed through the roof of the Of Kor factory, located less than a kilometer from Sapir in Sderot's industrial zone. It caused massive damage to the workers' dining hall.

The dining hall, in which some 150 employees ate lunch less than two hours before the strike, was not reinforced against rocket attacks. One woman, who was cleaning up the remains of the midday meal, was treated for shock. Three other people in Sderot were also treated for shock following the first barrage.

The factory's owner, Meir Cohen, said the building had been constructed in the 1960s and had no fortified rooms. Cohen said he had asked the relevant authorities to install protective reinforcement, but that his requests had gone unanswered.

In 2006, Of Kor employee Yaacov Yaakobov was killed when a Kassam - one of almost a dozen to hit the factory in the last seven years - crashed through the ceiling and landed meters away, sending shrapnel into his head.

Even after the first two barrages sent nearly 20 rockets at the western Negev, the hail of Kassams continued, with around 30 more rockets fired at Sderot and nearby kibbutzim and moshavim.

Starting on Thursday, some bomb shelters in Sderot that had been repaired - and then locked to prevent damage or theft - will be unlocked and made available for use. One such bomb shelter stood only a few meters from where 10-year-old Yossi Haimov was wounded by a Kassam on Monday afternoon.
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Increased signs of anti-Hamas 'intifada' in Gaza
2007-09-03
There are increasing indications that Fatah is trying to organize an intifada against Hamas, as Fatah members in the Gaza Strip try to snap out of what one commander termed a state of "depression" following their defeat at the hands of Hamas in June.

Abu Haroun, commander of the Abu Rish Brigades in the Gaza Strip, said over the weekend it would take a long time before Fatah recovered from the humiliating defeat. He said Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and top Fatah leader Muhammad Dahlan were both to blame for the collapse of the Fatah-controlled PA security forces in the Strip.

Nonetheless, over the past two weeks, Fatah supporters have twice clashed with Hamas militiamen following Friday prayers. Some Palestinians regard the street protests as a sign that Fatah is trying to regain control over the Gaza Strip.

Fatah officials expressed deep satisfaction with the anti-Hamas demonstrations. They denied, however, that the protests had been organized by Fatah, saying they were spontaneous and reflected the growing discontent with Hamas among Gazans.

Ahmed Abdel Rahman, a senior Fatah leader and close aide to Abbas, said the demonstrations were meant to send a message to Hamas that it must cancel its "bloody coup." He said the events in the Gaza Strip also sent a message to the world that the majority of the Palestinians were opposed to the Hamas takeover.

Another Fatah official, Fahmi Zaareer, said the protests showed that the Palestinians were fed up with Hamas. "The countdown for bringing the Hamas regime down has begun," he said. "We expect the protests against Hamas to escalate in the coming weeks."

Hamas leaders said they did not rule out the possibility that Fatah members would resort to an "armed struggle" against the Islamist movement. They added that there was growing evidence that Fatah was preparing for armed attacks on Hamas figures and institutions. They also noted that over the weekend Hamas militiamen discovered a weapons factory inside the house of a former Fatah security commander in the Strip.

Fatah warlord Abu Haroun admitted that his men were depressed and angry. He said he and many colleagues were working hard to "boost the morale of our fighters."

"It hasn't been easy for us because what happened last June was a big shock for us. It was a psychological blow. Our mother organization, Fatah, collapsed and this was too much for us."

Like many Fatah members, Abu Haroun blamed Abbas and Dahlan for the defeat. "President Abbas made too many mistakes," he said. "The biggest mistake was the Mecca Accord [on a PA unity government with Hamas], because he came closer to Hamas, and not vice versa. That's why he lost in the end."

Abu Haroun said another mistake Abbas made was to appoint Dahlan as his national security adviser. "Our security forces lost the battle because they lacked motivation and because they were too lazy," he said. "They also lost because someone like Dahlan was in charge of the security forces and all the armed wings of Fatah. Dahlan has been a total failure and that's how many see him."

According to Abu Haroun, who has been forced to keep a low profile since the Hamas takeover, the PA security forces in the Gaza Strip did not fight because they did not feel there was anything worth fighting for. "Our security forces lost the battle even before it started," he said. "The morale of the security officers was very low and many of them never opened fire at Hamas. In fact, many security officers and policemen stopped showing up for work days and weeks before the Hamas takeover."
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Abbas warned: Hands off Hamas forces
2007-01-08
Six Palestinian armed groups in the Gaza Strip on Sunday threatened to assassinate "collaborators and traitors" in response to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's decision over the weekend to outlaw Hamas's "Executive Force." The groups warned Abbas and senior Fatah leader Muhammad Dahlan against trying to implement the decision which, they claimed, was taken at the request of Israel and the US. Dahlan, who according to Palestinian sources has been asked to head the PA security forces in the Gaza Strip, responded by issuing a threat to eliminate Hamas leaders.

One of the six groups that issued the threat belongs to Abbas's own Fatah party. The five others are: Izzadin Kassam, the Abu Rish Brigades, Sword of Islam, the Brigades of Unification and the Salah Eddin Brigades. Abu Obaidah, a spokesman for the six groups, told reporters in Gaza City that Abbas's security forces were not carrying out their duties to restore law and order. It was a mistake to hold the Executive Force responsible for the anarchy, because it had existed long before the Hamas force was established, he added. Obaidah said a "rebellious" group inside Fatah was trying to topple the Hamas-led government with the help of the US and Israel. He criticized Abbas for the move against the Hamas force, branding him the "President of the Oslo Accords."

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians braved torrential rain and the cold to participate in a rally marking the 42nd anniversary of the founding of Fatah. The rally, the largest of its kind since 1994, turned into a show of support for Abbas in his power struggle with Hamas. Chanting "Long live Fatah" and "Death to the Hamas murderers," many of the demonstrators carried pictures of Yasser Arafat and former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

The main speaker at the rally, which was held at Yarmouk Stadium, was Dahlan who, along with other Fatah officials, used the platform to launch a scathing attack on Hamas. Condemning Hamas as a "bunch of murderers and gangsters," Dahlan said: "They are murderers. If they harm one of us, we will harm two of them. If the Hamas leaders think that they are immune, they are mistaken."

"Today you have come to respond to the murderers who are shedding Palestinian blood," Dahlan told the crowd. "As the Israeli army was raiding Ramallah, the forces of disgrace were attacking the home of Palestinian security officer Muhammad Gharib last Thursday [in the northern Gaza Strip]. If they think that the murderers will go unpunished, they are mistaken."

But Dahlan stressed that Fatah was still interested in forming a unity government with Hamas. "Our hand remains extended for national unity," he said. "The rifles of Fatah are used against the occupation, but they will also be used to protect the sons of Fatah."

Dahlan drew thunderous applause when, at the beginning of his speech, he asked his bodyguards to step aside, saying: "I don't need bodyguards to separate me from these Fatah masses. If Hamas wants, let them shoot me."

Hamas legislators in the Gaza Strip issued a statement in which they described Abbas's decision to ban their Executive Force as illegal. They said the force had been subjected to "a campaign of incitement that began in the US State Department."
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Fatah's Al-Aksa Brigades and Others Declare War on America
2006-11-13

by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz

Four Palestinian Authority terrorist groups, including that of PA President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah organization, called on Muslims worldwide to attack America "with no mercy."

In a joint statement issued on Sunday, the four groups announced that the United States will be a target for them to the same extent Israel is. They warned that they will attack American targets because of "American support for Israeli crimes and acts of massacre, such as the one in Beit Hanoun."

In the joint communique, the terrorists call on "all free people of the world, and all the mujahadeen [jihadists] to hit the US with no mercy." They added that "Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan are all being destroyed by American weapons; they who plant the bombs and destruction in the region should reap the results of what they planted with their soldiers and warplanes."

The statement more specifically called on the Arab states to support the terrorist groups financially and materially, to "enhance the resistance against the Israeli and American enemy."

The communique was released in reaction to the US veto on Saturday of a United Nations Security Council resolution that would have condemned Israel's counter-terrorism offensive in the Gaza region, which apparently led to the deaths of at least 18 Arab civilians. The resolution also would have established a UN fact-finding team, as well as creating "an international mechanism" tasked with "protection of the civilian populations." In their joint statement, the terrorist groups called the UNSC a "false council... to protect Israel and its security, to the detriment of Palestinian blood."

In addition to the Fatah's Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades, the call to attack the U.S. was issued by the Popular Resistance Committee's Salah A-Din (Saladin) Brigades, the ad-hoc Abu Rish Brigades and the Tawheed Brigades. The last-mentioned group may be affiliated with the international terrorist organization Al-Qaeda.

The four terrorist factions declared: "America, of the false civilization, ignores yet again the blood of innocent people. They have no guilt, yet the Americans look at it [Palestinian blood] as cheaper than Jewish blood. Beit Hanoun was a massacre committed by Israeli hands, using American weapons under US official supervision, with a green light from the US, completed by the Americans' use of the veto in the Security Council."
"Oh, also, where's the jizya? We're waiting."
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Terror groups vow to attack US targets
2006-11-13
Four Palestinian armed groups on Sunday threatened to attack American targets in response to the US decision to veto a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning last week's tragic incident in Beit Hanun. The threat, the second of its kind in the past few days, was included in a statement issued by the Popular Resistance Committees, Fatah's Aksa Martyrs Brigades, Abu Rish Brigades [another Fatah militia] and a hitherto unknown group calling itself Brigades of Tawhid.

The groups warned the Americans that "by supporting Israel's war crimes and massacres, you have turned yourselves into a legitimate target for all Palestinians and Muslims." They called on Muslims to deal "merciless blows" to the Americans wherever they are found. "The American-Zionist enemy understands only the language of blood and force," the groups said. "This is the only way for us to achieve our rights and demands."

The statement claimed that US Army officers participated in the last IDF military operation in Beit Hanun, which was aimed at halting the firing of Kassam rockets into Israel.

Some Palestinian groups in the Gaza Strip issued a similar threat against the US shortly after the Beit Hanun incident, in which 19 civilians were killed. Palestinian threats to attack US targets have also been made in the past. However, the Palestinians never carried out the threats, with the exception of the kidnapping of a number of US citizens in the West Bank and Gaza Strip - all of whom were eventually released unharmed.
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
IAF shoots down bridge in northern Gaza Strip
2006-07-09
Report: IDF tanks returning towards n. Gaza Strip
Palestinian witnesses said IDF tanks began moving back into an abandoned Jewish settlement in northern Gaza early Sunday, a day after pulling back. The IDF denied the claim. The Palestinians said the tanks crossed the border into the ruins of Dugit, a settlement next to the Mediterranean seacoast, destroyed during last summer's disengagement.

Gaza: 3 Palestinian gunmen wounded in IAF strike
The IAF targeted a group of armed Palestinians, wounding three of them, near the Karni crossing in the northern Gaza Strip overnight Saturday, according to Palestinian reports. Earlier, the IAF struck the headquarters of the Fatah-affiliated Abu Rish Brigades amid the ruins of the former Jewish settlement of Neve Dekalim.

Kassam fired from n. Gaza; landing spot unknown
A Kassam rocket was fired from northern Gaza at Israel Saturday night. It was not clear yet where the rocket landed. The IDF finished removing its forces from northern Gaza Saturday morning after four days of intense fighting there left some 40 Palestinian gunmen dead.

Firebombs thrown at Israeli vehicles near Ramallah
Palestinians threw two firebombs at Israeli vehicles Saturday night near the village of a-Laben, located north of Ramallah. There were no reports of casualties but damage was cased to the vehicles.

Over 70 terrorists dead since onset of Summer Rain
More than 70 terrorists have been killed since the onset of Operation Summer Rain last week in the Gaza Strip, the IDF said Saturday night. Some 40 armed Palestinians were killed in IDF operations in north Gaza, said the army. One IDF soldier, Yehuda Basel, was killed by friendly fire.

Shell hits Gaza home, at least 6 dead; IDF denies
An IDF artillery shell reportedly hit a home in the Sajiyeh neighborhood on the outskirts of Gaza City Saturday night, killing at least six people, witnesses at the scene said. According to witnesses, a six-year-old girl was among the dead. The IDF said that it had not fired towards the house.
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Foreign Ministry: Either Shalit is freed or we will act to free him
2006-07-01
Israel said Saturday that it rejects a demand by the three Palestinian militant groups holding an abducted Israel Defense Forces soldier to free 1,000 security prisoners being held in its jails and end the IDF offensive launched in Gaza in the wake of his kidnap.

Corporal Gilad Shalit was abducted Sunday morning in an attack on his IDF post near the Gaza border. Two IDF soldiers were killed in the attack.

Meanwhile, a Palestinian deputy minister said Saturday that Shalit has received medical treatment for wounds sustained during his abduction and that he is in stable condition.

Speaking at a news conference in Ramallah, Deputy Minister for Prisoner Affairs Ziad Abu Ein cited unidentified "mediators" as telling him that Shalit had been wounded during his abduction.

"He has three wounds," Abu Ein said. "I guess shrapnel wounds." He did not give further details.

But Abu Ein told Haaretz later Saturday that he had simply been quoting media reports and had not received any new information.
no contradiction - we all know what role the Palestinian/Arab media play
Channel 1 television, citing a senior Israeli security official, reported Friday night that a Palestinian doctor treated Shalit for minor shoulder and stomach wounds, and that the soldier was in good condition. Israel Radio said the doctor's visit took place Thursday.

A statement released overnight Friday by the three groups did not say explicitly that the soldier would be freed should their demands be met. But a spokesman for the military wing of the governing Hamas party, one of the three factions involved in the kidnapping, said the demands specified in the statement were in fact conditions for releasing Shalit.
uh huh. but it isn't explicit, so they can reneg.

Does it sound as if I'm sick and tired of a certain cultural pattern that includes lying for tactical and strategic advantage? It DOES??? Fancy that.
Repeating Israel's refusal to bargain for Shalit's release, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said in response to the statement that "Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has reiterated that there will be no deals, that either Shalit will be released or we will act to bring about his release."

IDF troops entered the southern Gaza Strip in the early hours of Wednesday, in a bid to pressure the Palestinians to release Shalit.

The militants' demand Saturday for the release prisoners was the second statement by the groups since Shalit's abduction. "We are declaring to the public our just and humanitarian demands," the statement said.

The statement repeated an earlier demand for the release of women prisoners and minors in exchange for information on Shalit, but made the added request for Israel to free 1,000 "Palestinian, Arab and Muslim prisoners." It said these would have to include all Palestinian faction leaders as well as humanitarian cases.

The statement cast doubt on hopes voiced by mediators that Shalit could be freed soon.
by the Palestinians, anyway.
"In spite of the good efforts of the mediators who tried in silence to speed up the treatment of this humanitarian matter, the enemy and their political leadership are still under the pressure of the security and military command," it said.

"The escalation and arrogance mean the enemy will be responsible for the bad consequences," it said.
Bull shit.
Also Saturday, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said that while the crisis is reaching a critical moment, diplomatic efforts to resolve it were yet to bear fruits.
Quel surprise!
"The next hours are critical, sensitive and serious. And though the efforts are still ongoing, we have not reached an acceptable solution until now," a statement from Abbas' office said.

"After a week of continuous and long contacts with all parties, Palestinian, Arab, international and particularly Egyptian, the [Abbas] ... is still exerting efforts to stop the Israeli aggression and avoid more disasters for the Palestinian people," the statement said.
Uh huh. Be nice if the same exertion had prevented all the attacks on Israel since the withdrawl, or the military attack on the Israeli soldiers, or ....
Abbas also appealed to all parties to work to find "an acceptable solution" to the crisis.

Meanwhile, the Israel Air Force attacked several sites late Friday and early Saturday in the latest round of raids across the Gaza Strip. There were no casualties in any of the incidents, Palestinian medical workers said.

The attacks were on what the IDF called a "terrorist training facility" in the south of the Strip, and on a building in Gaza City which Palestinians said was used by Hamas militants.

The military confirmed attacking a Hamas facility in Gaza and a former Israeli settlement near Rafah, close to the Egyptian border, which was abandoned in last year's Israeli withdrawal and taken over by militants.

Palestinians said the new occupants, activists of the Abu Rish Brigades, loosely affiliated with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah, recently evacuated the complex, fearing just such a strike.

The military could not confirm reports of a missile landing on open ground near the southern town of Khan Yunis.

Also early Saturday, IAF aircraft reportedly hit a Hamas training facility in central Gaza. There were no injuries, but the building was set on fire, Palestinian officials said. The IDF said it was looking into the claim.

Earlier Friday evening, three Palestinians were hurt in an IAF strike in the northern Gaza Strip, Palestinian security sources said. According to witnesses, an IAF missile was fired and landed adjacent to a vehicle in Gaza City. The IDF said the strike targeted an Islamic Jihad Qassam rocket-launching cell. Palestinian sources said four militants were in the vehicle at the time of the strike. Three managed to flee.

Also Friday, a Qassam rocket fired from the Gaza Strip landed within hundreds of meters of Ashkelon, in what police said was the closest a Qassam strike has come to the southern city. Police confirmed that the rocket was an improved version of the Qassam. No injuries were reported in the incident.

Early Friday, the IAF struck the Palestinian Interior Ministry in downtown Gaza City, Palestinian witnesses said, setting it on fire. There was no word of casualties.The Interior Ministry is nominally in charge of Palestinian security forces, though Abbas removed most of its authority.

The IDF confirmed its planes hit the office of Interior Minister Saeed Siyam, which it called "a meeting place to plan and direct terror activity."

A Palestinian militant injured in the strike died of his wounds early Friday, the first fatality in the IDF incursion in Gaza, hospital officials said. The local leader of Islamic Jihad, Mohammed Abdel Al, 25, had been seriously wounded in an air strike in Rafah in southern Gaza.

Three Fatah militants said they were wounded early Friday in a gun battle with IDF forces in northern Gaza, while the army denied troops had entered or fired into the territory, where forces have been massing.

Palestinian hospital officials said a 5-year-old girl was wounded in an air strike in northern Gaza early Friday. Doctors said her condition was not serious.

On Thursday night, IDF artillery shells hit the electricity distribution network in the northern Gaza Strip, plunging parts of the area into darkness.

Palestinian officials said two power transformers were struck, and two security officers were wounded by shrapnel. Dr. Ali Mousa, director of the Abu Yousef al-Najar Hospital in Rafah, also said a 15-year-old boy was moderately wounded by shrapnel in the blast.

The strike came two days after IAF aircraft attacked a major Gaza City power station, reportedly leaving roughly two-thirds of Gaza's 1.3 million residents without electricity.

The IDF confirmed it had been firing artillery at open spaces in the area at the time of Thursday's incident. The army said it has a report of an electrical pole being hit and was checking if the artillery fire was in any way related.

According to information gleaned by the PA, Shalit is being held in the Khan Yunis refugee camp in southern Gaza. Peretz said Thursday afternoon that the IDF would sustain its blockade on the Gaza Strip until Shalit is brought home safely.

In the West Bank, IDF troops Friday shot and killed two Palestinian militants during a fierce gunbattle in a Nablus cemetery, Palestinian security officials said.

The soldiers surrounded the cemetery, trapping four militants inside. Initially, two of the militants were arrested, one fled and one was killed, the security officials said. The militants belong to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, which is tied to Fatah.

A military source said shooting broke out when troops entered Nablus on a raid to arrest militants. The troops fired back, killing the first militant, the IDF said. The second militant was killed in a exchange of fire which pursued after he had already been arrested by troops.
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Aksa Brigades threatens US, Europe
2006-05-16
"Mo' money, kufr!"
The Aksa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of Fatah, on Monday threatened to strike at US and European interests in response to international sanctions on the Palestinian Authority. [T]he threat by Abbas's Fatah party came as Palestinians marked the 58th anniversary of the nakba, or catastrophe (the secular anniversary of Israel's independence).
"We won't remain idle in the face of the siege imposed on the Palestinian people by Israel, the US and other countries," said a leaflet issued by the Aksa Martyrs Brigades in the Gaza Strip. "We will strike at the economic and civilian interests of these countries, here and abroad." The leaflet added: "Let the entire world know that we won't succumb in the face of the policy of blackmail, siege and starvation. In the past we did not capitulate in the face of the policy of assassinations, detentions and air raids." The group also urged the heads of Arab and Palestinian banks to resist US and Israeli pressure and to agree to transfer funds from Arab and Islamic countries to the PA.
Another armed group affiliated with Fatah, the Abu Rish Brigades, threatened to launch a new intifada unless the international community agreed to fund the PA. "This will be a merciless intifada that will destroy everything," said Abu Haroon, a spokesman for the group in the Gaza Strip. "We will plan and carry out more martyrdom attacks inside the Green Line regardless of the price and effort," he warned. "Those who are imposing the sanctions on the Palestinians will soon regret their decision." Abu Haroon, who was speaking at a rally marking the anniversary of the nakba in Gaza City, accused the US administration and some European and Arab countries of "acting as if they were receiving instructions from the Zionist Knesset." Thousands of Palestinians took to the streets throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip to mark Nakba Day. Many carried old keys as symbols of the right of return for refugees to their original homes inside Israel. Hamas...said in a statement marking Nakba Day that there would be no compromise on the right of return for all refugees. Hamas also emphasized the Palestinians' right to pursue the fight against Israel until the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Islamic Jihad threatens suicide attacks
2006-05-15
GAZA CITY - The radical Palestinian group Islamic Jihad vowed on Monday to carry out further suicide attacks to avenge the killing of six Palestinians, including two of its leaders, by Israeli troops.
"We must have Dire Revenge!"
“We confirm that the occupation crime will make us stronger and not weaken the resolve of our fighters. The enemy will not rest easy on our land,” its armed wing, the Al Quds Brigades, said in a statement.

“We confirm to the criminal enemy that we will continue our martyrdom operations and nobody can stop the martyrs,” it added. “We will succeed in facing up to the agression until we are victorious.”

The Abu Rish Brigades and Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, two armed offshoots of the former ruling Fatah party, said they had fired rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israel to protest against Sunday’s killings in the West Bank. An Israeli army spokesman said three rockets exploded overnight but that there were no reports of any damage or casualties.

Five Palestinians, including the two Jihad leaders were shot dead by Israeli troops during clashes in the northern West Bank town of Qabatiya on Sunday.
A security guard outside the local Palestinian Authority intelligence headquarters in the nearby city of Jenin was also shot dead by Israeli troops.

Among the dead in Qabatiya was Elias Al Ashkar, a leader of Jihad’s armed wing and who Israel held responsible for the last eight suicide bombings.
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Israel-Palestine
Fatah hard boyz refuse to disarm
2005-09-06
Three armed groups affiliated to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas’ ruling Fatah party yesterday flouted calls to disarm after Israel completes its pullout from the occupied Gaza Strip. “We cannot allow anyone to destroy our happiness in our victory. We reject having any Israeli remain at the Rafah border crossing and we cannot allow Gaza to be under siege,” said a joint statement sent to AFP.

“Resistance is legal and there is no question that if the occupation continues we cannot let our weapons go at any price,” added the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Abu Rish Brigades and the Fatah Falcons. They vowed that the resistance would continue until Israel released all Palestinian prisoners, allowed all refugees and Palestinian exiles to return and Jerusalem was “forever” the capital of a Palestinian state. The groups also urged Arab and Muslim states not to open relations with Israel after Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri met his Israeli counterpart Silvan Shalom last week. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades has already made clear that it would not disarm after Israel leaves the Gaza Strip following a warning last week from the interior ministry that armed groups would not be tolerated.
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