From Al jazeera

Group claims second Israeli soldier held

Saturday 01 July 2006, 6:17 Makka Time, 3:17 GMT

Kidnappers demand that Israel end its offensive in Gaza

Palestinian fighters have kidnapped a second Israeli soldier and threatened to kill him unless Israel ends its military offensive in the Palestinian territories, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades announced overnight on Friday.

In a statement received by AFP in Gaza City, the armed group, loosely affiliated to the Fatah movement, called for "the end of the Israeli offensive" and "the lifting of the blockade" in the territories.

"If our demands are not met, the Al-Aqsa Brigades will kill the kidnapped soldier," the statement said, without giving any details.
The soldier was seized in the West Bank, the group said. They named him as Hoffmann Kfeir Samuel, 24, a resident of Hulul, south of Tel Aviv.

There was no immediate Israeli response.

From the ABC

Israel to intensify operations in Lebanon
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has ordered more intense strikes on Lebanon, following the capture of two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid by Hezbollah guerrillas.

The move comes after a late night meeting of security chiefs.

"The decision was made to intensify Israel's operations in Lebanon," Army Radio quoted political sources as saying.

Israel has already blockaded Lebanese ports, bombed the Beirut airport and air strikes have hit two military airbases.

Early today Israeli aircraft struck the main highway linking Beirut with the Syrian capital, Damascus.

It is not immediately clear if there are casualties.

Israeli air strikes and shelling have already killed at least 55 Lebanese civilians since the two soldiers were captured on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, a steady barrage of Hezbollah rocket fire into northern Israel has killed two Israeli civilians and wounded 90.

The violence is the fiercest since 1996, when Israeli troops still occupied part of south Lebanon.

Lebanese Govt meets
The Lebanese Information Minister, Ghazi Aridi, says the Government has held an emergency meeting to discuss how to respond to the crisis.

"Contacts are still open," he said.

"Lebanon's main request is an immediate and complete ceasefire and to stop this open aggression.

"Until now there is no result. The Israelis are still pursuing their assault. Therefore we have to mobilise all our efforts on all levels to stop this aggression."

The Lebanese Government has denied any role in Hezbollah's capture of the two Israeli soldiers - the incident that prompted the offensive.

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Gus pontificates: Israel is behaving absolutely badly like the Nazi-Nazis of past era that Jews and honest people have so condemned for atrocities committed... Now the Jews have become the Nazis that they so despised... weird...

Are we human or beast? A philosopher once said "Humans are not angels nor beasts but whoever tries to be an angel becomes a beast..." To which Gus adds: "but whoever tries to be a beast becomes one, fast..."

Revenge, retaliation, etc. are not elements of civilisation... they are the elements of sadists and crooks.

from the New York Times

2 More Israelis Are Killed as Rain of Rockets From Lebanon Pushes Thousands South

By GREG MYRE
Published: July 15, 2006
SAFED, Israel, July 14 — More than 100 rockets rained down on northern Israel on Friday in a third straight day of attacks, killing a woman and her 5-year-old grandson, while thousands of residents around here packed their cars, boarded buses and hitched rides out of a region that normally enjoys a large influx of tourists on summer weekends.

read more at the NYT

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Gus news: while a rain of rockets (100 rockets) fell on Israel killing 2 people, a trickle of bombs (more than 2,000) has fallen on Gaza in the last day or so killing more than 50...

From Al Jazeera

Air strike kills Lebanese villagers

Saturday 15 July 2006, 14:24 Makka Time, 11:24 GMT

At least 12 Lebanese villagers, including women and children, were killed on Saturday in an Israeli air strike on vehicles fleeing a village in southern Lebanon, a witness said.

The convoy was leaving the border village of Marwahin when it was attacked.

An Associated Press photographer said he counted 12 bodies in two cars that were destroyed by the attack shortly after midday (0900GMT).

An adviser to Lebanon's health minister put the toll at about 15. Hasan Hutait told Aljazeera that two cars had been directly hit by Israeli fire.

The deaths brought the toll in Israel's offensive in Lebanon to 79, Hutait said, adding that a total of 250 have been wounded.

Warning

Hours earlier, Israeli forces across the border told villagers by loudspeaker to leave the area or else the village would be destroyed. They did not give a reason for the ultimatum.

"Israeli forces threatened us on Saturday at 8 am to destroy our town if we do not evacuate it," Akram Ghannam, a resident of Marwahin, told Aljazeera on Saturday.

The Damur bridge south of Beirut
was damaged in an Israeli strike

Residents seeking refuge were turned away from a UN peacekeepers position, he said.

"People, including women and children, have gathered in the streets. They do not know where to go," Ghannam said.

The convoy was hit near the border fence about 1 kilometer (0.62 miles) from the village.

There was no immediate confirmation from UN peacekeepers, who have a force in southern Lebanon.

Ghannam said there were no Hezbollah forces in Marwahin.

Related:
Israel strikes across Lebanon after ship hit
Hezbollah declares war on Israel
Arabs rally against Israeli attacks
Saudi sideswipe at Hezbollah
Chirac questions Israeli intentions
Lebanon divided over Hezbollah raid
On the ground in Israel

read more at Al Jazeera
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That Gus points a finger at Israel for these atrocities does not mean that Gus supports the violent means used by the Palestinians and some Arabs in the region. But for a country "given" to the Jews — people who have survived concentration camps and devastating retaliations 60 years ago, a country effectively created from a highway robbery by the Western World — inflicting the same they suffered on others cannot be left without calling upon Israel to stop immediately its aggression. In the short term it will achieve nothing and in the long term it will only prove that Israel is made of stupid sadist aggressive people... A peaceful solution has to be found forthwith but the US is so eager for Israel to defeat Arabs that it will let Israel get away with murder. This is unacceptable and civilised countries should call back James Wolfenson to help sort this mess out without fear or favour.

from Al Jazeera

Israeli killings resume in Gaza Strip

Friday 03 November 2006, 3:55 Makka Time, 0:55 GMT

Israeli troops are reported to have [http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/2B86D106-3C03-42D8-A063-7A0A76C7ADA8.htm|killed eleven Palestinians] in Gaza, three of them civilians including a 75-year-old, in one of its biggest operations in the coastal strip in months.
Most of Thursday's dead were reported to have killed in the town of Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza during an Israeli army raid on the area.
Witnesses said soldiers, backed by tanks and using loudspeakers, ordered all residents over 16 years of age in the town to present themselves at a school for questioning.

Olmert offers prisoner swaps          
Ehud Olmert said  that Palestinians stand at a "historic crossroads"

Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, has said Israel is ready to "withdraw from considerable territory", free Palestinian prisoners and release funds to the Palestinian Authority in exchange for the return of a soldier seized in June.
 
He also said a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip was possibile if peace talks were begun.
   
It is the first time Olmert has offered to exchange prisoners for Gilad Shalit, whose capture in a cross-border raid by Palestinian militants triggered an Israeli offensive into the Gaza Strip.
 
Olmert's speech came after a ceasefire agreement took effect in Gaza on Sunday morning.

 An appeal for an abandoned people
This year, The Independent's Christmas Appeal will focus on the dispossessed of the Palestinian territories, for whom 2006 has been the worst of times
By Donald Macintyre in Gaza
Published: 05 December 2006

Maybe they are just conveniently forgetting other periods in Gaza's turbulent and blood-stained history, but most Gazans will tell you that 2006 is the worst year they can remember.

In Gaza City's deserted gold souk, people are not even coming to sell their jewellery any more. "We just sit and drink tea," said Yasser Moteer, 35, who runs a jewellery stall. "It's worse than any time in the 20 years I've been here. It's crazy."

The gold-selling started soon after the international and Israeli boycott of the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority started to plunge Gaza's economy into collapse last March. But having long ceased to buy here, the poor now have nothing left to sell.