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REUTERS
Mon Jun 6, 2005 07:48 AM ET
By Jeffrey Heller

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli police faced off against Palestinians throwing rocks at Jews outside Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque on Monday during Israel's annual celebration of its capture of Arab East Jerusalem 38 years ago.

Police, who hurled several stun grenades as they moved into the area known to Jews as Temple Mount and to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary), pulled away from the shrine about an hour later after calm was restored.

Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said Palestinians had thrown stones at groups of Jews visiting the compound on "Jerusalem Day," which marks Israel's seizure of East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war.

Two Jews were slightly injured and one Palestinian was arrested, he added.

Israel Radio said local Muslim religious authorities had appealed for calm as several hundred chanting Palestinians faced off against police and waved green Islamic flags outside al-Aqsa to avoid violence.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, commenting on the incident, told reporters in the West Bank that visits by right-wing Jews to the holy site, one of the most politically sensitive in Jerusalem, could have "dire consequences."

Jewish visitors regularly tour the compound, where two biblical temples once stood, but Israeli authorities do not allow them to pray there, enter al-Aqsa or hold any political demonstrations for fear of angering Muslims.

ULTRANATIONALIST JEWS STOP SHORT OF SHRINE

After the flareup at the shrine, the Temple Mount Faithful, a Jewish fringe organization, marched toward the compound but stopped about 50 meters (yards) short of its closed gate in an apparent bid to avoid a confrontation with police.

"We will liberate the Temple Mount," said signs carried by the group, which numbered around 50 and sang the Israeli national anthem before turning back.

The marchers, who advocate building a new Jewish temple in place of al-Aqsa, also held aloft a cardboard coffin marked "disengagement," showing their opposition to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to evacuate all 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza and four of 120 in the West Bank starting in mid-August.

In the Gaza Strip, a spokesman for the militant Islamic Jihad group said any harm to al-Aqsa would be met with "martyrdom operations, rocket firings, infiltrations and bombings."

A Palestinian uprising erupted in September 2000 after Sharon, Israel's opposition leader at the time, toured the compound. Violence has dropped since Abbas and Sharon declared a ceasefire in February.

Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state they hope to establish in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israel regards all of Jerusalem as its eternal and indivisible capital.

(Additional reporting by Wafa Amr in Ramallah, Jonathan Saul in Jerusalem and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza)

Pastor Roger,

Brother, it's looking more like the end days of this age every day. We all know that Bible Prophecy will be fulfilled to the letter at God's appointed time. No political entity or military force will be able to slow or hasten God's plan by even a second. Here's the blunt facts - it was promised in the Holy Bible, AND IT WILL BE DONE.

Love In Christ,
Tom

2 Corinthians 5:17-18  Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

Amen,

Satan and his followers will try their best to alter this but Gods Word is stronger.

Israeli air strike targets Palestinian militants firing rockets

By IBRAHIM BARZAK
   
 GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - An Israeli aircraft on Wednesday fired at a group of Hamas militants preparing to attack Israeli targets in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian witnesses said, further straining a fragile ceasefire and escalating tensions in the region.

The witnesses said the militants escaped unharmed. But the incident, near the city of Khan Younis, was the latest sign of trouble for the ceasefire. Six people were killed Tuesday in a series of clashes in the West Bank and Gaza, making it one of the bloodiest days since the truce was declared on Feb. 8.

During more than four years of fighting, Israel has carried out dozens of air strikes in Gaza, virtually halting the practice since the truce declaration.

Despite the fighting, Israeli and Palestinian officials were making efforts to prevent the situation from deteriorating further.

Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz and his Palestinian counterpart, Nasser Yousef, were to meet later Wednesday evening to discuss the security situation, and Palestinian officials in Gaza claimed they blew up four explosives discovered near a Jewish settlement. Israel did not comment on the claim.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said he expects the ceasefire to survive and urged militants to respect it.

"I'm not worried about the calm," Abbas said after a meeting with visiting British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. "The calm is our responsibility, and I hope that all of us will honour their responsibilities."

Abbas spoke before the Israeli air strike. Later Wednesday, he headed to Gaza for talks with Hamas and other militant groups. Officials said the talks would focus on the latest incidents as well as a dispute between Abbas's Fatah Party and Hamas over recently postponed legislative elections.

Israeli officials have urged Abbas to crack down on militant groups like Hamas and reserve the right to hit militants carrying out attacks, as in Wednesday's air strike in Gaza.

Straw, speaking to reporters, said Britain supports Israel's right to defend itself.

The militants have sent mixed signals over the truce. Hamas and Islamic Jihad have periodically fired barrages of rockets and mortars at Israeli targets, claiming they are in response to Israeli violations. At the same time, the groups have said they remain committed to preserving the quiet.

On Wednesday, a senior Hamas official in the West Bank said the group is ready for dialogue with the U.S. and Europe, even though it rejects calls from the West to disarm.

"We are interested in the dialogue," said Mohammed Ghazal. "But we are not able to meet their conditions now before resolving our national cause."

Straw ruled out any talks with the group, which calls for the destruction of Israel, as long as it remains committed to violence.


In Washington, U.S. officials on Tuesday also rejected talks with Hamas. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Hamas "is designated as a terrorist organization, and we do not have dialogue with designated terrorist organizations."

Israel wants the ceasefire to remain in effect to ease the way for its planned withdrawal from Gaza and part of the West Bank in August.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon chaired a ministerial meeting Wednesday where preparations for the withdrawal were discussed.

The meeting was uncharacteristically opened to journalists, in an apparent effort to dispel impressions that the government isn't ready to provide alternative housing, jobs and schools for the 9,000 settlers who are to be relocated.

"The evacuation will take place on schedule," Sharon said, criticizing "incitement," threats and pressure on the settlers by opponents of the pullout.

Officials said only about half of the settlers slated for evacuation are in talks with the government about moving, defying calls by their leaders to oppose the plan at all costs, officials said Wednesday.

Pullout opponents have urged settlers not to co-operate with the pullout plan, and some settlers who have said they are ready to go say they have been threatened and ostracized.

"They are not concerned with the fate of the settlers and their children," Sharon said. "They are willing to create great suffering on top of the suffering the evacuation will inflict, in order to achieve their political aims."