Haniya to Arab world: Your support tells the world to keep their "hands off" Gaza

Date: 19 / 12 / 2008  Time:  14:45
Gaza - Ma’an -

The De Facto Palestinian Prime Minister in Gaza thanked Hizbullah, and several Islamic and Arab national parties for their calls to stand by the people of Gaza as the ceasefire agreement came to an end Friday.

During his weekly speech at the Friday prayer session Ismail Haniya sent thanks to the Arab and Islamist parties and factions expressing solidarity, and said the Strip needed parties to stand by them and help Gaza break the siege.

Gazans, he said, appreciate the sit-ins and rallies organized by other Arab peoples. He said they indicated that the Arab nation is sick of the siege and the Palestinians are not alone in facing it.

Haniya described the support for Palestinians a message to the world to ‘keep their hands off.’

Truce declared dead; Israeli press reacts

Date: 19 / 12 / 2008  Time:  14:16
Bethlehem – Ma’an Report –

The day the truce ended leading Israeli newspapers hit the stands with clear and bold headlines pronouncing the death of the ceasefire agreement, and predicting the worst for the days to come.

The three main newspapers in Israel, Yedioth Ahronoth, Haaretz and the Jerusalem Post ran front-page photos of Palestinian fighters linked to the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

The images showed PFLP-affiliated Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades members preparing to shell the western Negev and nearby towns with projectiles, as well as a few other tense images of Israelis awaiting the bombardment.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz predicted violence will return to the region, and revealed the presence of Israeli troops massing at the borders ready to target Hamas’s Al-Qassam fighters when violence is initiated and unmanned Israeli aircrafts are being readied to target launch sites.

Maariv had a front-page spread discussing Hamas and claiming the Gaza Strip is the only area from which a real decision can come, not Damascus or Cairo.

And according to Israeli journalist Ben Caspit, Israeli troops can certainly enter Gaza, but he remained skeptical on how they will exit it.

All the Israeli press expect the worst from Gaza, and seem to agree that the decision over what comes next from the area is an internal one that neither Israel nor any other power has control over. As for the Israeli response to the Gaza outcome, the press made it clear that the military is prepared, but for what? No one is sure.

Report: Khaled Mesha'al ordered end to truce

Date: 18 / 12 / 2008  Time:  21:59
Bethlehem - Ma'an/Agencies -

Damascus-based senior Hamas leader Khaled Mesha'al ordered the end to the six-month Hamas-Israel truce, according to Israeli press reports.

Sources claimed that Mesha'al participated in heated arguments about the future of the ceasefire agreement with Israel, saying repeatedly that "there is no truce; there is no truce."

Mesha'al apparently won the arguments over whether or not to cease military operations in light of the truce's impending expiration.

It expires on Friday.

He was apparently able to convince the rest of the leadership to (end) the truce after threatening the movement's financial resources, which he apparently controls.

Some Gaza analysts confirmed the Arabic sources in statements claiming that Hamas is unable to allow itself to be viewed as an organization willing to end its war with Israel without having achieved any tangible result.

PRC: Israel ended the truce long before projectiles were fired

Date: 18 / 12 / 2008  Time:  17:47
Gaza – Ma’an –

The Israeli occupation government ended the truce long before Israeli killings and invasions did, said Spokesperson for the Popular Resistance Committees Abu Mujahid on Thursday.

The PRC statement came one day ahead of the end of a six-month ceasefire between Israel and Gaza factions.

“The occupation did not comply to the conditions of the truce at all,” Abu Mujahid explained, “The siege was not lifted, the crossings were not opened and the attacks did not stop, dozens were killed during these attacks.”

The PRC statement called media censorship the reason Israel was allowed to continue its oppressive procedures.

Responding to the Israeli media report indicating the nation’s military would carry out assassination attacks against high-profile Gaza targets if the truce was allowed to run out, Abu Mujahid blamed Arab silence around Israeli attacks for arousing people’s suspicions.

If the Arab world had paid more attention to the atrocities going on in Gaza, he said, than there would be less concern about their motives now.

He called for the resistance factions to respond to current and future Israeli attacks, and to unify their resistance efforts in Gaza and in Palestine.

Israel will pay the price for each attack carried out against the Palestinians in every part of Palestine, he concluded.

Barghouthi blames Israel for truce collapse; encourages Palestinian unity

Date: 18 / 12 / 2008  Time:  13:37
Ramallah – Ma’an –

Mustafa Barghouthi, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council and runner up in the 2005 Palestinian presidential election blamed the Israeli government on Thursday for the collapse of the Israeli-Gaza truce.

Barghouthi issued a statement attributing the collapse to Israeli aggression, stating that “Israel didn’t commit to the truce conditions and killed people and overran many cities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.”

Rather than renewing the truce which will expire on Friday, Barghouthi added that the real response to Israeli attacks is Palestinian unity, Barghouthi said.

Barghouthi also pointed out that there is an obvious relation between Israeli elections and their increased aggression in the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian factions weighing formal withdrawal from Gaza truce

Date: 18 / 12 / 2008  Time:  15:21
Gaza - Ma’an –

The Palestinian factions in Gaza seem poised to announce the formal end of a six-month truce with Israel. All that remains to be decided is the precise mechanism of making this declaration.

The Egyptian-brokered ceasefire was declared in June by Israel and all of the Palestinian political factions in Gaza, led by the Hamas-controlled government.

The declaration of the end of the truce could be made through the media or could be made clear through military action. One Hamas leader, Ayman Taha, told Ma’an that the factions do not at this time want a joint declaration of the end of the truce. Taha also stressed that the factions could still decide to cancel or renew the truce.

The factions are holding last minute meetings before Friday, which is the original expiration date of the truce. The meetings are being held in part because the original broker, Egypt, has made to attempt to contact Hamas or the other factions recently in order to broker an extension of the calm.

“The Egyptians did not make any contact over the truce in particular after the visit of the Amos Gilad, representative of the Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, to Cairo to discuss the truce and [captive Israeli soldier Gilad] Shalit,” said Taha.

While Egypt’s top mediator, intelligence chief Umar Suleiman, has met with Israeli officials in the last month, no Hamas leaders have traveled to Egypt recently.

Hamas pulled out of an Egyptian-sponsored conference in November which was intended to reunite Hamas with its Palestinian rival, Fatah.

Hamas has since said the agreement benefited Israel more than the Palestinians.

“Israel wants calm in exchange for calm. This is what happened over the past period of time. The factions will hold consultations until the last moment of the truce by declaring a mechanism of getting out of it,” he said.

Concerning the Shalit issue and the Israeli demand of Austrian mediation, Taha said that “Shalit’s file is as the same. There is no news except the proposal of former US president Jimmy Carter for mediation during the meeting that he held with Khalid Mash’al earlier in Damascus. We do not have any problem but rather its Israel that rejects the conditions of the resistance factions.”

He indicated that Hamas will consider any new offer for new mediation.

In the regard of appointing the PLC speaker as a Palestinian president after 9 January in the light of imprisoned PLC speaker Aziz Duwaik’s refusal to take this post, he said only that Hamas is adhering to Palestinian law.

Blockade-challenging ship plans to bring medicine, Qatari envoys to Gaza

Date: 18 / 12 / 2008  Time:  14:52
Gaza - Ma’an -

A ship carrying peace activists, Qatari civil society representative, medicine, high protein baby formula and gifts will set sail on Friday in an attempt to defy an Israeli military blockade and sail to the Gaza Strip.

If successful, the vessel will be the sixth such ship to reach Gaza since June. The Free Gaza Movement, the group organizing the voyages, said the ship carries donations from the people of Qatar. Two envoys from that nation will accompany the supplies.

The Qatari civil society envoys will evaluate the humanitarian situation in Gaza, examining hospitals and other infrastructure, before returning home. They will evaluate the situation in hopes of starting large-scale projects in the besieged area.

"This is just the beginning. After we assess the situation there, we will go back and let the people of Qatar know how we can help. We are delighted that we are finally able to go and see how we can work together to help relieve this terrible situation in Gaza," said Alze Al-Qahtani, one of the envoys from Qatar in a statement.

In November, the Qatari government acceded to an Israeli government request not to send its own ship to Gaza in defiance of the blockade. The Israeli Navy also blocked a Libyan ship carrying aid.

The ship, the Dignity is also returning two Palestinians to their families. In addition to these and the human rights workers, there will be two Israelis on board, including a journalist from Israel's Channel 10 News.

A Lebanese ship is also planning an attempted voyage to Gaza in January, carrying, journalists and civil Lebanese institution representatives on board.