Hamas ready to accept 1967 borders
21/4/08
Hamas has said it is ready to accept a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders but “will not recognise Israel”. Speaking at a news conference on Monday, Khaled Meshaal, the exiled Hamas political leader, reaffirmed Hamas’s stance towards Israel and clarified his comments as relayed earlier by Jimmy Carter, the former US president. Meshaal said: “We accept a state on the June 4 line with Jerusalem as capital, real sovereignty and full right of return for refugees but without recognising Israel.” The Hamas leader was making his first public comments following two meetings with Carter in Damascus last week.
See: http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/361C0AF7-D0E7-4E34-99BC-5BEF9FD094AC.htm
Meshal offers 10-year truce for Palestinian state on ‘67 borders; Barak Ravid; 22/4/08; http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/976662.html
Israel mulls Gaza crossing curbs
22/4/08
Israel is planning to tighten controls even further over goods allowed into the Gaza Strip, Haaretz, a leading Israeli newspaper, reports. After a series of Hamas attacks on border crossings, some of the crossings will remain shut on Monday, and may remain so for several days, the paper reported. On Saturday morning, Israeli forces foiled a Hamas attempt to carry out a combined “hit and grab” attack against the Kerem Shalom crossing in the southern Gaza Strip, aimed at killing and capturing soldiers. Three Hamas fighters were killed, and 13 Israeli soldiers were wounded.
See: http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/B4FD8C6A-21A2-446B-A4BB-A582722021FD.htm
Rights group: Israel allows fewer Gaza cancer patients to enter
22/4/08
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) on Monday said the Shin Bet security service has recently tightened its policy of issuing permits to cancer patients from Gaza seeking treatment in Israel, Army Radio reported. The human rights organization said that the Shin Bet ignored all 12 requests that were submitted over the past two weeks. Ruhama Marton, the president of PHR, told Army Radio that the “Shin Bet is delaying its answer to the extent that it’s the same as not answering at all. What is at issue here is a matter of life and death: for cancer patients, a four-week waiting period equals death.”
See: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/976720.html
Continuing Land Grab
Editorial: 21/4/08
In case a comprehensive Palestinian-Israeli accord is reached by the end of this year, as espoused by US President George Bush, Israel is taking no chances. It is seeking whatever it can get its hands on should a peace deal that includes a Palestinian state be reached. Hence, the announcement that 100 new houses will be built in a West Bank settlement.The Israeli government argues that it is building new houses in existing settlements, not establishing new settlements. But all Jewish settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law. Even the United States has pressed Israel to dismantle about two dozen outposts to comply with the road map peace plan that calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and other areas. Instead, Israel will now go the other way, building 100 houses in the settlement of Ariel as a reward for the recent voluntary evacuation of two unauthorized outposts that held fewer than 10 mobile homes.
See: http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=109157&d=21&m=4&y=2008
Tags: health, Human Rights, Israel, Settlers, Terrorism