WAR 09/09: Hamas orders West Bank operatives to fight PA.............."The Winds of War"

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Mortar shell hits near school 30 minutes before class

By JPOST.COM STAFF
09/08/2010 10:13
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=187532​

No injuries reported at Sha'ar Hanegev kibbutz; building, only
reinforced at the roof, sustains light damage; studies to continue as usual.

A mortar shell fired from the Gaza Strip on Wednesday morning landed near several childrens' school buildings in a Sha'ar Hanegev regional council kibbutz, some 30 minutes prior to the students' scheduled arrival.

One of the buildings sustained light damage, and no injuries were reported. The school building impacted by the mortar was reinforced only at the roof and not at the side walls, like other protected buildings in the area.

Security officials decided to let school continue as usual. Children will remain in the reinforced buildings and will not play in the exterior yard in the following hours.

Schools are operating on the eve of Rosh Hashana and Friday as usual.


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Ahmadinejad to visit Lebanon and offer help against Israel

Published Today - 08:48 GMT
www1.albawaba.com​

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is due to make an historic two-day visit to Lebanon Oct. 13-14 for talks with his Lebanese counterpart Michel Suleiman and other senior Lebanese officials. The daily An-Nahar reported Thursday Ahmadinejad will discuss Iranian readiness to provide "unequivocal" support for Lebanon to face Israeli threats.

Sources also told the Beirut-based newspaper that the Iranian President will also renew his offer to provide military assistance to the Lebanese army. The sources said Ahmadinejad has voiced his wish to visit south Lebanon to inspect the scene of fierce clashes between Hizbullah and the Israeli army and during July 2006 war.



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Hamas accuses PA of 'treason' after W.Bank arrests

By JPOST.COM STAFF
09/09/2010 10:34
http://www.jpost.com/Headlines/Article.aspx?id=187614​

Hamas accused the Palestinian Authority of "direct cooperation with the enemy" after it arrested Hamas members in conjuction with the fatal West Bank terrorist attack that left four Israelis dead last week, Army Radio reported Thursday.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum likened the arrests to "treason" and warned the Fatah run authority not to hand the men over to Israel.

"The continuation of this criminal campaign crosses all red lines and is direct cooperation with the enemy," Barhum said.


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Iran, Israel 'Meet' at Lebanon's Border

Elizabeth Arrott
08 September 2010
www.voanews.com​

An Iranian flag flies above a hilltop park overlooking Israel, 02 Sep 2010. The garden was a gift from Tehran to the people of South Lebanon.

The revived Middle East Peace talks are focused exclusively on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But there are other key actors in the search for an overall peace between Israel and its neighbors.

There is a pretty park on a hillside overlooking Israeli farmland. Children climb atop a playground equipment here, while adults sit at a picnic table nearby. There would be nothing remarkable about the scene, except the park is in Lebanon and the flag flying above it is Iran's.

The Islamic Republic, whose leaders say the Israeli state must disappear from the map, gave the garden to the people of southern Lebanon after the 2006 conflict between Israel and Iran's proxy in Lebanon, the militant Shi'ite group Hezbollah.

Role of Hezbollah

The park is one transparent display of money spent in the south since the war. The truckloads of cash handed out by Hezbollah after the war for reconstruction and getting businesses running again is widely believed to have come from Iran.

More difficult to assess are the funds given to keep Hezbollah, which runs much of the south, armed.

Paul Salem, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, says the group has a wide range of short, medium and long-range missiles, although the exact number and what Hezbollah intends to do with them is unclear.

"Who's to say? But apparently, they have a massive capacity to harm Israel through missile systems. Now Hezbollah doesn't want to repeat what happened in 2006. They do not want a war with Israel, if they can help it," he said.

Although Hezbollah claimed victory in that conflict, Lebanon paid a heavy price, and Hezbollah was largely blamed. Cluster bombs still mar the countryside and an estimated 200,000 people remain internally displaced.

Salem argues that Hezbollah has evolved dramatically from the revolutionary Islamist model of its creators to a more integrated part of Lebanon's multi-religious society. Its past attacks on American targets have earned it a place on the U.S. list of terrorist groups. But Hezbollah also holds seats in parliament and ministerial posts in the Lebanese government. And it is continuing its social work, running hospitals, schools - even organic farms.



Signs of normality

Such activities have helped make the past four years ones of relative calm. Among the surprising signs of normality is a young English actor, star of a popular children's movie series, vacationing at the elegant villa of his grandfather, a British-Lebanese historian who lives part-time in what has been referred to as "Hezbollahland."

The quiet is attributed in part to a boosted presence of the United Nations peacekeeping mission, UNIFIL, after 2006, and a return of the Lebanese Armed Forces, or LAF, to the area after an absence of decades.

"The situation has been one of the calmest periods in recent history, and also the relation and coordination with the LAF has been good. And as an important part of this cooperation is that recently the Lebanese Army has also decided to enhance its strength in the south, adding an additional brigade," said UNIFIL spokesman, Andrea Tenenti.


Lebanese Army involvement

But it was the Lebanese Army, not Hezbollah, that was involved in the most serious incident of recent years -- a firefight with Israel last month over the demarcation of the Blue Line. A senior Israeli military officer, three Lebanese soldiers and a journalist were killed.

Despite what was seen as the Lebanese Army's mishandling of the confrontation, its willingness to take on its much better-equipped neighbor raised the idea that it could perhaps undercut Hezbollah's main argument for maintaining its vast arsenal -- national defense.

Retired Lebanese General Elias Hanna says it is unlikely that the army will replace Hezbollah any time soon, not only because he says it is ill-prepared.

"Is there some competition between Hezbollah and the army? For sure, because if you have an army similar to Hezbollah and ready to defend, you don't need Hezbollah. But Hezbollah, really is connected to regional issues, and Hezbollah says it from time to time, the 'Axis of Resistance' -- Lebanon, Syria and Iran," he said.

Iran and regional issues

One of Iran's more immediate regional issues is the possibility of an Israeli airstrike on its nuclear facilities. Israel, along with the United States and other nations, say Iran is seeking to build nuclear weapons, with Israel as an obvious target.

Paul Salem of the Carnegie Middle East Center says that if Israel were to carry out a pre-emptive strike, Iran's only real way to retaliate would be through Hezbollah.

"Now, is anybody happy about that? Are Lebanese happy about that? No. But did Iran arm this force for years and spend hundreds of millions of dollars on this force so as not to be used when they want it? No. That is not the case," he said.

Salem says Iran is not going to allow "a few Lebanese" to block its retaliation for any Israeli attack.



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Obama's prepared the path to war

National Post · Thursday, Sept. 9, 2010
www.nationalpost.com

Re: Peace In The Middle East? Don't Bet On It, George Jonas, Sept. 8. ​

George Jonas is to be commended for his analysis of the Middle East peace process. I have just returned from speaking with many Arabs and Jews of all political persuasions in Israel and the disputed territories. There was one phrase that all repeated time and again, "Obama is playing with fire."

The current situation is as good as it has been in 10 years for Muslim Arabs in Palestinian Authority ruled areas (although unfortunately not for Christian Arabs). All expect this situation to end soon because of the U.S. President's misguided meddling.

With Mr. Obama fully behind them, the Arab world will stand firm on the demands that Israel's Jews retreat to the lines of 1949. Israel cannot agree to such demands, and will be blamed for not making enough concessions. A new war of terror will ensue.

When terrorists finished off a pregnant woman in cold blood, the most the Palestinian leadership could say is that the murder hurts Palestinian aspirations for statehood. They could not even bring themselves to condemn this outrageous moral wrong. Peace cannot be formed with those who have no morality. Mr. Obama has prepared the path for war.

Michael N.W. Baigel, Toronto.


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Sep 10, 2010

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Hariri exonerates Syria over father's murder

By Sami Moubayed
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/LI10Ak02.html​

DAMASCUS - Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri this week put an end to an ongoing saga in his country's relationship with Syria, saying that the Syrians had not killed his father, Rafik al-Hariri, on that fateful day on February 14, 2005.

Those accusations, he noted, had been "political" adding, "We committed mistakes and were hasty in accusing Syria." Hariri added that bilateral relations between Syria and Lebanon were "historic and brotherly" and what harmed one country, by default, directly harmed the other.

He said that when visiting Damascus, he always felt he is in a "brotherly and friendly country". The thundering declaration, made during an interview with the Saudi daily al-Sharq al-Awsat, has



ripped through Beirut like a forest fire and left a big smile on the face of the Syrians.

Hariri's u-turn speaks volumes about what happened in Syrian-Lebanese relations over the past five years, and in the entire Middle East at large: conspiracy, fraud, and plenty of political manipulation.

Hariri, young and politically inexperienced at the time of his father's death in 2005, aged only 35, was made to believe that Syria was guilty of killing his father, who was killed when a bomb ripped through his motorcade as it drove past the St George Hotel in the Lebanese capital.

A team of veteran politicians surrounding Hariri, headed by men like Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, former premier Fouad Siniora and former Telecoms minister Marwan Hamadeh, wanted him to believe, for political reasons, that Syria had killed their former patron.

Many took their cue from the George W Bush White House, whose relations with Damascus had plummeted after the war on Iraq in 2003. They reasoned that with Syrian-Saudi relations in turbulence, and Syrian-US relations reaching rock bottom, it was politically unwise to stand in the way of what Bush wanted for the Middle East.

The young Hariri, furious with the murder, seemingly swallowed the bait presented to him by trusted aides of his father and spearheaded a campaign against Damascus, which lasted until he became prime minister last December.

Today, five years down the road, Hariri has clearly matured, outgrowing the small group of politicians who helped bring him to power in 2005. He has proven to be a wise man, realizing that there is something fishy about the International Tribunal established to investigate his father's murder, given the resignation of judges in recent months.

A tremendous amount of false witnesses have also turned up over the years, and contrary to what the Hariri family wanted - a clean judicial investigation - the tribunal has been politicized by various international players.

Thanks to Saudi advice, Hariri is beginning to ask questions put forth by both Syria and Hezbollah since day one. Namely: why has there been no investigation into possible Israeli involvement? And why did Detlev Mehlis, the first commissioner of the United Nations-backed tribunal process, base his October 2005 report on the testimony of false witnesses?

The original Mehlis report read like an Agatha Christie crime novel, with imaginative stories of Syrian officials meeting at the Meridian Hotel in Damascus to plan the murder of Hariri. It added that a Mitsubishi van had been loaded with explosives in broad daylight, with no cover, at the summer resort of Zabadani, then sent to Beirut to carry out the attack.

Those reports have been completely discarded by all prosecutors who succeeded Mehlis in the Hariri probe, including the current chief judge, Daniel Bellemare. None of these witnesses have ever been arrested or brought to court and several of them, like central witness Zuhair al-Siddiq, have disappeared under the watchful eyes of the international community.

Also, why is that the four generals arrested in 2005, accused back them of involvement in the murder, were released four years later, declared innocent of the charges originally brought against them by the Hariri investigation? What kind of an investigation is this, Hariri suddenly seems to be asking himself.

Hariri reportedly is starting to see the tribunal, and his father's entire murder, as part of a large conspiracy targeting his country's relations with Syria. This is being repeated by those close to him, namely Walid Jumblatt, who did his own u-turn earlier in 2010, and King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, who was opposed to internationalizing the Hariri affair from the start.

The King of Saudi Arabia is clearly no longer convinced that Syria had anything to do with the Hariri murder. Had he thought otherwise, simply, he would not have mended his country's relations with Syria in early 2009 and made two state visits to Damascus since then.

The same applies to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who charted a new course with Syria after succeeding Jacques Chirac, one of the architects of the "Blame it on Syria scenario". Bush has left the White House, and his successor, Barak Obama, is clearly no longer interested in pursuing a crash course with Syria, vis-a-vis the Hariri affair.

For all practical purposes, the Hariri saga, as far as blaming it on Syria, is finally over. Neither the world community believes that Syria had anything to do with the case anymore, nor does the international tribunal, and nor does Hariri's own family.

It would be a mistake, however, to believe that the Hariri affair is over, given increased speculation that the upcoming indictment, originally earmarked for this September, will blame members of Hezbollah, Syria's prime ally in Lebanon, of the Hariri murder.

Hariri after all said that Syria was not guilty of killing his father, but said nothing about Hezbollah in his al-Sharq al-Awsat interview. As far as Syria is concerned, pleased as it may be by the Lebanese premier's recent statements, blaming Hezbollah is a red line that Syria will not tolerate.

It is as dangerous blaming Hezbollah as Syria. Contrary to what some in the West may believe, a trade-off with the Syrians is not an option for Damascus, which is firmly convinced of Hezbollah's innocence.

During the most recent summit in Beirut, Saudi Arabia pushed for postponement of the tribunal indictment, while Syria called for complete abolishment of the tribunal, because it had been "catastrophic" for Syria and Lebanon. Whatever transpires in that regard requires a lot of heavyweight diplomacy, by the Syrians, Saudis and Lebanese, and at this stage all options remain on the table on what direction the tribunal will take.

If Syria had nothing to do with the Hariri murder, then who exactly killed the Lebanese premier? The Syrians and Hezbollah believe that Israelis murdered Hariri. Another theory says Hariri was murdered by al-Qaeda-style terrorists. A third argument blames it on different players within Lebanon, who wanted to get rid of the Sunni heavyweight who had prevented the rise of anybody in Beirut politics who was not operating underneath his direct umbrella.

A fourth argument blames it on Hezbollah. A fifth - and the most probable - is that we will never know for sure who really killed Hariri, due to the complexity of the crime and the involvement of so many different and contradicting accomplices. That would place the affair side-by-side with classic mysteries like the murder of former US president John F Kennedy.

Forty-seven years down the road, we still don't really know if it was Lee Harvey Oswald who gunned Kennedy down on November 22, 1963. And we may never know who killed the former prime minister of Lebanon on February 14, 2005.


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Iran: Zionists behind Koran-burning initiative

Published: 09.09.10, 15:56 / Israel News
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3951979,00.html​

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki condemned a US church's initiative to burn Koran's on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks, claiming that "the Zionists are behind the move."

According to a report on Iran's official news agency, Mottaki warned that the "despicable initiative will draw Muslim reactions worldwide. He urged US authorities to prevent the burning of the books and safeguard the rights of American Muslims. (AFP)



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2010/09/09

US new scenario: 'Quran burning cover-up for US crimes'

A senior Iranian commander says burning the holy Quran is
part of a US scenario to distract global attention from its crimes.

http://www.abna.ir/data.asp?lang=3&id=203245​

Ahlul Bayt News Agency, “By creating secondary issues and drawing public attention to marginal issues, the US government is trying to cover up its crimes and burning the Quran on September 11 by a Christian pastor is part of this movement,” said deputy head of Iran's Armed Forces Joint Chiefs of Staff Brigadier General Seyyed Masoud Jazayeri on Wednesday.

He went on to add there is strong evidence that the September 11 incident was staged by the then US government and their Israeli agents.

Jazayeri argued that certain decision-making lobbies in the US were looking for an acceptable excuse to expand their influence throughout the world and for which the September 11 incident provided the necessary pretext.

But as time passed, US involvement in the incident has been revealed and the US government has no choice but to resort to other issues to whitewash its crimes, the Iranian commander added.

Jazayeri's remarks come as Pastor Terry Jones, who heads the Dove World Outreach Center, announced plans to set fire to several hundred copies of the holy Quran on the ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

Many Muslim countries have held massive demonstrations against the US church's intent.

Despite global condemnation and outrage, Jones says he will go ahead with his plan as he wants to "send a clear message to the radical element of Islam" by torching the Quran on Saturday.

Although US officials have condemned the plan, no legal measure has been taken so far to block the blasphemous move.



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UN watchdog sniffs around alleged reactor site in Syria

Bashar Assad's regime remains tight-lipped about nuclear
ambitions while stymying IAEA access to military facility

By Jonathan Manthorpe, Vancouver Sun
September 9, 2010
www.vancouversun.com​


In the deadly drama of the proliferation of nuclear weapons, the arrogant displays of ambition by North Korea and Iran tend to overshadow the other actors on the set.

But there are many national leaders who for one reason or another believe that acquiring nuclear weapons would give their countries unmatched security.

More often than not, of course, the leaders are most worried about the survival of their regimes.

Bashar Assad, the president of Syria, is a case in point.

There is little doubt that Assad was committed to a nuclear development program. All the evidence is that he'd bought a nuclear reactor from North Korea.

But the Syria problem seemed to be solved before it got started when in September 2007 Israel, which doesn't like anyone in the Middle East having nuclear weapons except itself, bombed the Syrian reactor site at Dair Alzour.

Damascus has said very little about the raid except to firmly deny it was building a reactor at Dair Alzour, though it says the place was a military site.

The pre-emptive raid by the Israelis has left many with the impression that if Syria was a potential nuclear problem, the problem has been solved in a crude but effective manner.

Well, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations' watchdog on these matters, is not so sure.

On Monday, at the same time as it reported that Iran has totally failed to improve its behaviour since the UN tightened sanctions against the Tehran regime three months ago, the IAEA also set out its continuing worries about Syria.

The report is scathing about the almost total failure of the Assad regime to give the IAEA the access or the answers needed to ascertain exactly what the Syrian government was up to before the Israeli air force put a stop to it.

Because of this lack of cooperation, the IAEA report leaves hanging the question about whether Assad has abandoned his nuclear weapons ambitions. Indeed, in the realm of nuclear weapons, where information is purposefully withheld or obscured, it is always wise to assume the worst.

Since the veteran Japanese diplomat and specialist on arms control, Yukiya Amano, took over as director-general of the IAEA last year, the agency's pronouncements have adopted a refreshing bluntness of tone.

The report on Syria notes Damascus' denial that the Dair Alzour facility was a nuclear reactor, but then points out that the building's features, Syria's purchase of large quantities of graphite for the installation and its capacity to pump large quantities of cooling water suggest the opposite.

There's also the matter of Syria importing large quantities of barite, the material used to increase the effectiveness of concrete in stopping penetration of radiation. This could come from a reactor core or from used fuel rods being processed to extract plutonium which could be used for a bomb.

IAEA inspectors have, apparently, only been allowed one visit to the Dair Alzour site in June 2008, by which time the Syrian authorities had spent a good deal of time and effort cleaning up the aftermath of the Israeli raid.

The inspectors were not and have not been given the documents, such as architectural and engineering plans of the destroyed building, that they asked for and they weren't given access to debris or equipment from the site.

But they do seem to have acquired some samples from the site and found what the report describes as "anthropogenic natural uranium." What that means is uranium that has been manufactured by a man-made chemical process.

The Syrians have tried to brush this aside, saying no doubt the uranium came from the munitions and bombs fired at the Dair Alzour facility by the Israelis.

The IAEA report says the agency "has assessed that the probability the particles originated from the missiles used to destroy the building is low," though one gets the feeling the writer would have liked to say something a good deal more direct and rude.

So there should be no surprise that moves are afoot to get the backing from the IAEA board of governors when it meets in November for a "special investigation" of Syria, a move usually reserved for extreme flouting of UN safeguards.



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S

Shacknasty Shagrat

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Dutch, the title of the OP leads me to believe that the balloon has gone up.
Thanks for your work.
I urge you to get sleep, food, liquids while you can. The next few days are shaping up to be very busy, 24/7. I'll be checking in every half hour or so. Winter is coming on and I have things to do.
Is there more confirmation by words or events that would indicate that Hamas and the PA have been/ are/ are going to .. start shooting at each other, more than they have been?
IMHO, the PA will get wiped out if this scenario plays and that will be unacceptable to Israel.

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Hamas orders West Bank operatives to fight PA

Published: 09.09.10, 12:58 / Israel News
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3951935,00.html​

Hamas has ordered its operatives in the West Bank to refrain from turning themselves in to the Palestinian Authority if its security forces attempt to arrest them, and to rebel against the Palestinian government. (Ali Waked)



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Well at a minimum the Palestinian Civil War appears about ready to start up again in earnest. "The Question" then becomes who else is going to be "invited" to the dance?
 
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Israeli air strikes target Hamas sites in Gaza

– 11 mins ago
news.yahoo.com​

GAZA (Reuters) – Israel carried out air strikes against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip Thursday, the Islamist group and Palestinian witnesses said.

They said a Hamas security compound in Gaza City, a Hamas training camp in the north of the coastal territory and smuggling tunnels in the south along the border with Egypt were hit by the Israelis. No injuries were reported.

Palestinian witnesses reported hearing Israeli aircraft flying over the territory. The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the air strikes, which occurred after a rocket and a mortar bomb fired from Gaza landed in Israel.

Israel frequently responds to rocket attacks from Gaza with air strikes. It holds Hamas responsible for any attacks from the territory, which is controlled by the Islamist group.

(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Writing by Joseph Nasr, Editing by Mark Heinrich)


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Israeli Air Strikes Target Hamas Sites in Gaza

September 9, 2010
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=11596456​

GAZA (Reuters) - Israel carried out air strikes against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip Thursday, the Islamist group and Palestinian witnesses said.

They said a Hamas security compound in Gaza City, a Hamas training camp in the north of the coastal territory and smuggling tunnels in the south along the border with Egypt were hit by the Israelis. No injuries were reported.

Palestinian witnesses reported hearing Israeli aircraft flying over the territory. The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the air strikes, which occurred after a rocket and a mortar bomb fired from Gaza landed in Israel.

Israel frequently responds to rocket attacks from Gaza with air strikes. It holds Hamas responsible for any attacks from the territory, which is controlled by the Islamist group.

(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Writing by Joseph Nasr, Editing by Mark Heinrich)



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Gaza missiles strike Israel, no casualties (AFP)

10 September 2010
www.khaleejtimes.com​

JERUSALEM — A mortar shell fired by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip hit southern Israel on Thursday evening causing no casualties, the second such attack of the day, the Israeli military said.

The shell “struck wasteland in the Shaar HaNegev region,” near Gaza’s northern border with Israel, an army spokeswoman said.

Earlier, a rocket fired from the Palestinian enclave landed in an open field in southern Israel, also causing no damage or injuries, according to the spokeswoman.

The two attacks coincide with the second and last day of the Jewish New Year celebrations in Israel and bring to five the number of projectiles fired across the Gaza border since Monday.

On Wednesday a mortar shell fell next to a nursery school on a kibbutz several kilometres (a few miles) inside Israel, but the building was unoccupied at the time and there were no casualties.

Hamas, the radical Islamist movement that rules Gaza, has reined in rocket fire since the end of Israel’s devastating 22-day offensive against the coastal territory in January 2009.

But more than 100 rockets or mortar rounds have been fired from Gaza since the start of the year, according to the military.

Hamas has not claimed any of the attacks, which are believed to have been carried out by smaller, more radical factions.


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Third kassam rocket hits western Negev towns

By JPOST.COM STAFF
09/09/2010 20:12
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=187641​

No damage, injuries reported as rocket hits open area; since start of Rosh Hashana four rockets have been fired.

A third kassam rocket was fired from the Gaza Strip on Thursday evening and landed in an open area in the Shaar Hanegev regional council.

No injuries or damage were reported.

Shaar Hanegev regional council spokeswoman said that loud explosions were heard in the area after the firing, Channel 10 news reported.

The color red alert system was activated as a result of the launch.

Earlier Thursday a kassam rocket was fired at the Sdot Negev regional council and also landed in an open area. No injuries or damage was reported.

Thursday's rocket attacks comes after a mortar shell landed near several childrens' school buildings on Wednesday in a Sha'ar Hanegev regional council kibbutz, some 30 minutes prior to the students' scheduled arrival.

One of the buildings sustained light damage, and no injuries were reported. The school building impacted by the mortar was reinforced only at the roof and not at the side walls, like other protected buildings in the area.

Security officials decided to let school continue as usual.



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3 September 2010

Hamas must prevent further attacks on Israeli civilians

www.amnestyusa.org​

Amnesty International today strongly condemned this week’s two attacks, one of them fatal, against Israeli civilians in the occupied West Bank and urged the 13 Palestinian armed groups who issued a statement today threatening further such actions to desist from attacking civilians.

In a letter sent today to Isma’il Haniyeh, Prime Minister of the Hamas de facto administration in the Gaza Strip, Amnesty International expressed its serious concern about the involvement claimed by Hamas’ military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, in the two recent incidents and urged the Hamas authorities to take immediate measures to prevent future attacks on civilians.

Amnesty International also voiced its grave concern about the statement today by 13 Palestinian armed groups, including the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, that more attacks on civilians are planned in response to the renewed negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority which began yesterday.

Four Israeli civilians, including a pregnant woman, who were travelling in a car near the settlement of Kiryat Arba were shot dead on the evening of 31 August 2010, while two Israeli civilians were wounded in a shooting attack near the settlement of Kochav Hashachar on the evening of 1 September 2010. In both cases the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades claimed “full responsibility”, according to their website and media reports. Hamas political leaders such as Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar and spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri, while not directly claiming involvement, have made statements during the past few days which seem to condone such attacks.

Amnesty International condemns all attacks targeting civilians, wherever, whenever and by whomever they are carried out and calls for those responsible to be held to account. Such attacks are prohibited absolutely under international law, regardless of the actions of other parties. The prohibition of deliberate attacks on civilians applies to everyone at all times, including to people under occupation who are engaged in armed struggle for self-determination.

Amnesty International has repeatedly condemned the establishment of Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories as violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention. However, the unlawful status of Israeli settlements does not affect the civilian status of settlers, who only lose their protection from attack if and for such time as they take a direct part in hostilities.

Amnesty International also notes with concern reports that many of the at least 350 people apprehended by Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces in the wake of the attacks have been arrested without a warrant, raising fears that many of those still held are being detained arbitrarily. While the PA has a duty to investigate and prosecute individuals under its jurisdiction who are alleged to have carried out or ordered such attacks, they must do so in the framework of respect for human rights. Additional concerns are raised by widely documented reports in recent years of torture and other ill-treatment of Hamas detainees in the custody of the PA security forces.

Following the two attacks on Israeli civilians, attacks on Palestinian civilians and their property have been carried out by Israeli civilians reportedly living in illegal settlements in the Nablus, Hebron and Jericho regions of the West Bank. Amnesty International condemns these attacks and calls upon the Israeli authorities to prevent further such attacks against Palestinian civilians.



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