Mission & Justice

17/6/08

Israel and Hamas have agreed to a ceasefire arrangement, according to Egyptian and Palestinian officials. “Implementation of the truce will begin at 6am (0300 GMT) on Thursday,” a Palestinian official said on Tuesday. Hamas said it would respect the six-month deal, which materialised after months of mediation by Egypt. “Hamas will adhere to the timetable which was set by Egypt but it is our right to respond to any Israeli aggression before its implementation,” Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, said. Israeli officials, however, have yet to confirm the Egyptian-brokered deal.

(more…)

30/4/08

Libya stands by its United Nation envoy’s comparison of the plight of Palestinians in Gaza to the Holocaust and deplores a walkout by Western diplomats in protest at the comments, official Libyan media reported on Wednesday. Libya’s Foreign Ministry summoned the ambassadors of France, Belgium and Britain and the U.S. charge d’affaires and asked them to explain the April 23 walkout at the UN Security Council, the Jana news agency reported. Western UN envoys walked out of a Council discussion that day after a Libyan diplomat likened the plight of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to the Nazi Holocaust. “The Libyan representative at the Security Council was right to express the stance of his country,” Jana quoted Abdelatti Abidi, head of the ministry’s European Affairs department, as saying. Among the diplomats who left the council chamber were the U.S., French, British, Belgian and Costa Rican envoys, diplomats have said. Some others remained. Such protests against fellow Security Council members are rare, diplomats said.

(more…)

28/4/08

Seven Palestinians have been killed during a raid by the Israeli army in the northern Gaza Strip, six of them by a shell which hit a family home. Four children and an elderly man were among the dead. The children’s mother was taken to hospital but died later as doctors struggled to save her life. The health ministry said shells were fired at a house in the town of Beit Hanoun - the family inside were eating breakfast at the time. The Israeli army said an air raid was targeting a group of armed men near the house.

(more…)