Israel & Palestinian

[Soldier4Christ]

'Palestinian government' in Israel within weeks
Officially opening institutions in Jewish state's capital city


JERUSALEM – The Palestinian Authority, aided by international donors, will attempt to open official institutions in Jerusalem within weeks, WND has learned.
 
While Israel has not officially approved the PA's presence in Jerusalem, Palestinian diplomatic sources said there is an unwritten agreement in which Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office has agreed not to interrupt some PA activities in Jerusalem.
 
Hatem Abdel Khader, a member of Palestinian Authority President Mahmad Abbas' Fatah party and a former member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, held a meeting today with Fatah activists in Jerusalem in which he declared the PA would start officially acting in Jerusalem.

(Story continues below)

Official PA minutes of the meeting, obtained by WND, announced the launching of "practical PA activities in Jerusalem such as those that took place before the closing of Orient House in Jerusalem by Israeli Occupation Authorities."
 
In line with previous Israeli-Palestinian accords, the PA has been barred from conducting political activity in Jerusalem, although it maintained an office, called Orient House, in an eastern Jerusalem neighborhood that previously functioned as a de facto PA headquarters.
 
Orient House was closed down by Israel in 2001 following a series of suicide bombings in Jerusalem and information Israel said indicated the House was used to plan and fund terrorism.

Thousands of documents and copies of bank certificates and checks captured by Israel from Orient House – including many documents obtained by WND – showed the offices were used to finance terrorism, including direct payments to the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group.

A press release from Khader yesterday said the PA would start acting in Jerusalem on both the social and political levels "to strengthen Palestinian preservation of Jerusalem."

Khader's release stated the World Bank and other international donors provided $150,000 in initial seed money to launch PA activities in Jerusalem and that more aid was expected.

Palestinian diplomatic sources claimed they received tacit agreement from Israeli officials to allow some PA political activities in Jerusalem's Old City and eastern Jerusalem neighborhoods.

David Baker, a spokesman for Olmert, did not returns a request for comment before press time.

The Palestinian sources noted Israel last week arrested Khader, as reported by WND, accusing him of setting up a Palestinian council in Jerusalem to attend to the needs of the city's Israeli Arab population. But Khader was released after a few hours and no charges were brought against him.

Palestinian officials speaking to WND said they recently urged the U.S. to support what they said is a key demand allowing the PA to open official institutions and to reopen Orient House to serve as their Jerusalem headquarters. The U.S. brought the request to Olmert in November, but according to sources in Jerusalem, Israeli officials replied for domestic political reasons Olmert is waiting to discuss Jerusalem during biweekly negotiations held with Abbas.

Olmert is facing major opposition from the Israeli Shas party, a member of his governing coalition whose leadership has stated it would bolt Olmert's government if he negotiated over Jerusalem.

Olmert, though, previously hinted he would be willing to divide Jerusalem, asking during a December speech whether it was "really necessary" to retain certain Arab neighborhoods in Judaism's capital. His vice premier, Haim Ramon, a member of Olmert's ruling Kadima party, last month reportedly mapped out a future partition of Jerusalem under a deal with the Palestinians.

But following Shas threats to bolt his coalition, Olmert has denied he is negotiating over Jerusalem, a claim strongly contested by Palestinian negotiators speaking to WND.

[Soldier4Christ]

 The Palestinians may declare their own state unilaterally

A senior Palestinian official has said that the Palestinians ought to unilaterally declare a state if peace talks with the Israelis do not succeed, adding that the Palestinians deserved independence more than Kosovo.

Another Palestinian official disagreed saying that the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) had declared independence in 1988 and now the Palestinian people need real independence, not a declaration, they need real independence by ending the Israeli occupation. These comments coming from key Palestinian officials even as the peace negotiations continue between the Israelis and the Palestinians while at the same time there is the continuation of Palestinian violence and Israeli military activity in Gaza.

If the Palestinian people follow the lead of Kosovo and declare an independent state unilaterally, the End Times scenario of Bible prophecy will be set to be fulfilled.

Even though there has never been a Palestinian state throughout all of history, the world has now been led to believe that the Israelis must give back the Palestinian state. Until the Oslow Accords, the peace treaty between the Israelis and the Palestinians signed in 1993, there was never a legitimacy to the Palestinian claim of a state for the Palestinian people. Now, with Kosovo going against international law and declaring their own independence from Serbia, the Palestinians say they deserve to be an independent state as well.

This scenario was revealed 2,500 years ago by the ancient Jewish prophet Malachi just as the Old Testament Period was closing out. Malachi wrote that the descendants of Esau, the Edomites, would one day return and rebuild their nation, Malachi 1:4. God told Malachi that He would call the borders of the Edomites, the Palestinians of today, the borders of wickedness, Malachi 1:4. Obadiah wrote 2,800 years ago that the Last Days would see the Israelis and the Palestinians in conflict as they are today.

Declaration of a Palestinian state will indeed set the stage for Bible prophecy to be fulfilled.

[nChrist]

Hello Pastor Roger,

Many things around the world are looking more like Bible Prophecy by the day. Evil is skyrocketing, and we should all know that GOD'S Patience will run out. GOD certainly didn't have to put up with evil these thousands of years. Mankind has had plenty of time to look at the evidence and decide, and it appears that most of mankind will disrespect, reject, and disobey GOD. Bluntly, GOD'S Righteous Wrath is richly deserved!

[Barbara]

Kuwaiti Paper: Mughniyeh 'hit only first step' The Jerusalem Post, February 20,2008

The assasination of Palestinian arch-terrorist Imad Mughniyeh was only the first step in a string of assasinations that Israel is planning to carry out against Hizbullah, Hamas and perhaps even Iran'...The source did not rule out the possiblility that the 'Mossad will move to stage two and target the head of the 'Iranian Revolutionary Guards - without waiting for Hezbullah's response to the assasination of Mughniyeh.

Those who assasinated Mughniyeh knew well enough that they had hit the highest-ranking coordinator between Iran and it's proxies aroung the globe' the sources said. 'Those who did this understand the implications of such an operation.'

According to the sources, 'the Mughniyeh assasination was a link in a long chain of operations. After Mughniyeh there will be a second stage, and a third stage which will target Hezbullah and Hamas. This could prompt Iran to take action, which will force Israel to target it.'

Mughniyeh was one of the key leaders trying to block the establishment of the Palestinian state - very interesting!

[Shammu]

Costa Rica Recognizes 'State of Palestine'

(IsraelNN.com) Costa Rica has officially recognized the non-existent State of Palestine, encompassing Judea, Samaria and Gaza.

Israel's Foreign Ministry postponed a meeting with Costa Rican diplomats to protest the move.

Two years ago, Costa Rica, which had been one of the few nations to have its embassy in Jerusalem, decided to move it to Tel Aviv.

Costa Rica Recognizes 'State of Palestine'
~~~~~~~~~

The Bible says all nations and armies of the world will one day turn against nation Israel. Biblical Prophecies will be fulfilled.......

[nChrist]

Costa Rica Recognizes 'State of Palestine'

(IsraelNN.com) Costa Rica has officially recognized the non-existent State of Palestine, encompassing Judea, Samaria and Gaza.

Israel's Foreign Ministry postponed a meeting with Costa Rican diplomats to protest the move.

Two years ago, Costa Rica, which had been one of the few nations to have its embassy in Jerusalem, decided to move it to Tel Aviv.

Costa Rica Recognizes 'State of Palestine'
~~~~~~~~~

The Bible says all nations and armies of the world will one day turn against nation Israel. Biblical Prophecies will be fulfilled.......

Hello DreamWeaver,

Brother Bob, it appears that time is NEAR or here. As for Christians, I think we should simply give THANKS, PRAY, and FINISH OUR COURSE. GOD'S WILL BE DONE!, and it WILL BE!

Love In Christ,
Tom

Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable GIFT, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour Forever!

[Shammu]

Abbas does not rule out resuming armed conflict with Israel

Jordanian newspaper interviews Palestinian President Abbas, quotes him as boasting about past activities in PLO, expressing vague support for possibility of Palestinians resuming armed conflict with Israel

Roee Nahmias
Published: 02.28.08, 09:38
Israel News

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday that he does not completely rule out the possibility of resuming the armed conflict with Israel.

In an interview to the Jordanian newspaper al-Dustur, Abbas said that he is against an armed conflict at this time, but things may differ in the future.

Abbas, a leading figure of the Palestine Liberation Organization, was quoted as boasting about the fact that he was the one to "fire the first bullet of the resistance" back in 1965, adding it was the PLO that taught many around the world "how to resist, when resistance is most effective and when it is not."

"I had the honor to lead… we taught everyone, including the Hizbullah, the ways of resistance. They were all educated in our training camps."

According to al-Dustur, Abbas does not demand of Hamas to acknowledge Israel, but rather wants it to join a government which will negotiate the recognition.

"I demanded that a unity government be formed, to negotiate with Israel… that is what I told Syrian President Bashar Assad – and he backed me up.

"Hamas entered an election based on the Oslo Accords, which recognize Israel. I am not the only one pushing for such recognition, the Arab initiative – which is a consensus in the Arab and Muslim world – calls for it as well."

The Palestinian president also said he objects to Israel's definition as a Jewish State: "We negated the concept in the Annapolis peace conference and it almost ended because of it… they wanted us to state we recognize Israel as a Jewish State in the closing statements, but we wouldn't hear of it."

Abbas does not rule out resuming armed conflict with Israel

[nChrist]

Gaza militants 'risking disaster'

Israel air strikes pounded targets in Gaza for a second night.

Israel's deputy defence minister has said the Palestinians will bring a big disaster upon themselves if they step up rocket attacks on Israel.

Matan Vilnai said Israel would use all its might to defend itself, after Palestinian rockets hit the city of Ashkelon, 10km (six miles) from Gaza.

At a rally attended by thousands in Gaza, Hamas leader Ismail Haniya said it was ready for a large-scale attack.

Israeli air strikes have killed about 30 Palestinians in the past three days.

Four Palestinian boys were killed in an Israeli raid as they played in a field in northern Gaza on Thursday. Several militants, including a Hamas commander, were also killed.

The string of attacks came a day after a rocket fired by Hamas killed an Israeli student on the outskirts of Sderot, about a mile from Gaza, the first such death in nine months.

The barrage continued on Friday with militants aiming several Grad rockets at Ashkelon, a major Israeli city which has 120,000 residents.

The Iranian-made rockets are said to have a range of about 22km (14 miles).

One rocket hit a block of flats in the city, breaking through the roof and slicing through three floors below, while another landed near a school, wounding a 17-year-old girl.

It is the first time Israeli officials have ordered Code Red sirens to be sounded in Ashkelon and reports say soldiers from the Israeli military's Home Front Command have been hanging posters around the city instructing residents on what to do when the warning sounds.

"It's a city with large facilities - a huge soccer stadium, and a basketball stadium, and a beach. No-one is ready for this," Ashkelon mayor Roni Mehatzri told Israel Radio.

   
ISRAEL-HAMAS ATTACKS
Friday:
Israeli city Ashkelon activates warning system after Palestinian rocket hits
Israeli air raids continue, with four wounded in Jabaliya
Thursday:
Four children killed near Jabaliya refugee camp
Hamas militant killed near Shati refugee camp
Hamas militant killed near Beit Hanoun
Three Hamas militants and two from PRC killed in Gaza City
Wednesday:
Six-month-old boy killed near interior ministry
Five Hamas militants near Khan Younis
Islamic Jihad militant near Bureij refugee camp
Israeli civilian killed in Sderot

Israel's leaders have been under pressure in some quarters to launch a ground invasion of Gaza to end the rocket fire and although they are reluctant, Mr Vilnai admitted on Friday that they may have "no other choice".

Speaking on Israel Army Radio, Mr Vilnai said if Palestinians increased rocket fire, they will bring upon themselves what he called a "shoah" - a Hebrew word for catastrophe, and for the Nazi Holocaust.

The BBC's Katya Adler in Jerusalem says many of Mr Vilnai's colleagues have quickly distanced themselves from his comments and also tried to downplay them saying he did not mean genocide.

"We're getting close to using our full strength. Until now, we've used a small percentage of the army's power because of the nature of the territory," he added.

Separately, the chairman of the Knesset's defence and foreign affairs committee, Tzachi Hanegbi, said Israel "must make a strategic decision to order the army to prepare quickly".

A recent opinion poll has indicated a majority of Israelis favour a truce with Hamas.

The Islamist movement, which seized control of Gaza in June, has said it will cease fire if Israel stops its military operations in Palestinian areas and ends the blockade of the territory which has cut essential supplies to its 1.5m inhabitants.

Ismail Haniya (29 February 2008)
Mr Haniya said any Israeli invasion would end in terrible failure

Addressing a crowd of around 2,000 Hamas supporters at a rally held after Friday prayers in Gaza City, former Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya said Israel was deluded if it thought it could now remove his group.

"Gaza today faces a real war, a crazy war led by the enemy against our people," he said.

"What does a large-scale raid mean? You were in the Gaza Strip and you quit because of the resistance. What does assassination mean? If some leaders are assassinated, would the cause be assassinated?" he asked.

Several senior Hamas leaders, including Mr Haniya, have remained out of public view during the last six weeks because of fears that Israel might try to kill them.

Mr Haniya, who was dismissed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas after Hamas ousted his Fatah movement in Gaza, said any Israeli attempt to invade would "end in terrible failure just like all the other rounds have failed".

A senior Palestinian negotiator in the ongoing peace talks between the PA and the Israeli government, Saeb Erekat, also condemned the recent Israeli air strikes and urged both sides to work towards a ceasefire.

"We strongly condemn this bloodbath and the massacring of our people," he told al-Jazeera.

[nChrist]

Gaza conditions 'at 40-year low'
   
Gaza's humanitarian situation is at its worst since Israel occupied the territory in 1967, say UK-based human rights and development groups.

They include Amnesty International, Save the Children, Cafod, Care International and Christian Aid.

They criticise Israel's blockade on Gaza as illegal collective punishment which fails to deliver security.

Israel says its military action and other measures are lawful and needed to stop rocket attacks from Gaza.

Israel pulled its troops and settlers out of the Gaza Strip in 2005, but retains control over Gaza's airspace and coastline, and over its own border with the territory.

It tightened its blockade in January amid a surge in rocket attacks by Palestinian militants in Gaza.

Israel's Defence Ministry rejected the criticism in the report, blaming the Hamas militant group which controls Gaza.

"The main responsibility for events in Gaza is the Hamas organisation, to which all complaints should be addressed," a statement read.

The groups' report, Gaza Strip: A Humanitarian Implosion, says the blockade has dramatically worsened levels of poverty and unemployment, and has led to deterioration in education and health services.

More than 1.1 million Gazans are dependent on food aid and of 110,000 workers previously employed in the private sector, 75,000 have now lost their jobs, the report says.

"Unless the blockade ends now, it will be impossible to pull Gaza back from the brink of this disaster and any hopes for peace in the region will be dashed," said Geoffrey Dennis, of Care International UK.

Last week Israeli forces launched a bloody and destructive raid in northern Gaza, in which more than 120 Palestinians - including many civilians - were killed.

Israel says the measures are designed to stamp out frequent rocket fire by Palestinian militants.

Recent rocket attacks have hit deeper into southern Israel, reaching Ashkelon, the closest large Israeli city to the Gaza Strip.

The UK-based groups agree that Israel has the right and obligation to protect its citizens, urging both sides to cease unlawful attacks on civilians.

But they call upon Israel to comply with its obligations, as the occupying power in Gaza, to ensure its inhabitants have access to food, clean water, electricity and medical care, which have been in short supply in the strip.

"Punishing the entire Gazan population by denying them these basic human rights is utterly indefensible," said Amnesty UK Director Kate Allen.

"The current situation is man-made and must be reversed."

Other recommendations from the groups include international engagement with the Hamas movement, which rejects Israel's legitimacy and has been shunned by Israel's allies, and the Fatah party of Palestinian West Bank leader Mahmoud Abbas.

"Gaza cannot become a partner for peace unless Israel, Fatah and the Quartet [the US and UN, Europe and Russia] engage with Hamas and give the people of Gaza a future," said Daleep Mukarji of Christian Aid.

[nChrist]

Fierce Gaza clashes break out

Reports from Gaza say fierce fighting has broken out between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen near the Kissufim border crossing.

The Israeli army says one soldier was killed and another three injured when a bomb exploded beside their jeep.

In northern Gaza, a member of a militant group had been killed in an Israeli air strike, medics said.

The clashes come three days after Israel ended a major offensive in which more than 120 Palestinians were killed.

The Israelis say the incursion was aimed at stopping rocket fire into Israel by Palestinian militants.

Two Israeli soldiers and an Israeli civilian were also killed over the same period.

Israeli tanks were rushed to the area in which the Israeli jeep was attacked and helicopters landed to evacuate the wounded, eyewitnesses say.

One of the injured was seriously wounded, the Israeli military said.

An official said the jeep was on a patrol in Gaza near the fence that marks the border between the Israel and the strip.

Also on Thursday, a coalition of UK-based human rights and development groups published a report saying Gaza's humanitarian situation is at its worst since Israel occupied the territory in 1967.

The report criticises Israel's blockade on Gaza as illegal collective punishment which fails to deliver security.

[nChrist]

Eight killed at Jerusalem school

The gunman entered the school's dining room and opened fire.

Eight people have been killed and nine wounded by a Palestinian gunman who infiltrated a Jewish seminary in West Jerusalem, Israeli officials say.

Witnesses said the gunman went into the library at the Mercaz Harav seminary in the city's Kiryat Moshe quarter and opened fire.

The assailant, who Israeli police said was a resident of East Jerusalem, was shot dead by an Israeli army officer.

The attack is the worst of its kind in Israel for a number of years.

The White House has led international condemnation but the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas called the attack "heroic" while not claiming responsibility.

When we got in... we saw young, 15-, 16-year-old guys lying on the floor with their Bibles in their hands - all dead on the floor.

However, the 15-strong UN Security Council failed to agree on a resolution condemning the attack because of reservations from temporary member Libya, which sought to link it to Israeli actions in the Gaza Strip.

A previously unknown group called the "Jalil Freedom Battalions - the Martyrs of Imad Mughniyeh and Gaza" claims to have carried it out, according to Lebanese Hezbollah media.

The fact that the school is at the heart of the settler movement in the occupied West Bank may have been the reason why it was targeted, BBC Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen reports.

Many of its students are on special courses that combine religious study with service in combat units in the Israeli army, he notes.

There will be an Israeli response to this attack, our Middle East editor adds - the question is how severe it will be.

The gunman entered the library at the Mercaz Harav seminary on Thursday evening, where about 80 students were gathered, and fired an AK-47 rifle for several minutes, witnesses say.

   
MERCAZ HARAV SEMINARY
Founded in 1924 by influential Rabbi Avraham Hacohen Kook
Some 500 students enrolled in Talmudic study
Students mainly high-school age and young adults
Graduates serve as rabbis and rabbinical judges in Israel and Jewish settlements
School has played a major role in ideology and theology of Israeli religious settlement movement
Key figures linked to the school were strongly opposed to Israeli pull-out from Gaza

One of the students, Yitzhak Dadon, reportedly shot the gunman twice before he was finally killed by an off-duty Israeli army officer, who had gone to the school after hearing gunfire.

"I shot him twice in the head," he told the Reuters news agency.

"He started to sway and then someone else with a rifle fired at him, and he died."

Another man told the BBC that there had been "terrible scenes" inside the building afterwards.

"When we got in... we saw young, 15-, 16-year-old guys lying on the floor with their Bibles in their hands - all dead..." he said.

Jerusalem police commander Aharon Franco confirmed there had been only one gunman and said he had hidden his weapon in a cardboard box.

Imad Mughniyeh, a senior Hezbollah leader and military commander, was killed in a car bomb in Damascus on 12 February.

An Israeli foreign ministry spokesman said that "terrorists [were] trying to destroy the chances of peace" but peace talks with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas would continue.

   
DEADLY ATTACKS IN ISRAEL
4 Feb 2008: One dies, Dimona suicide bombing
29 Apr 2007: Three die, Eilat suicide bombing
17 Apr 2006: Nine die, 40 wounded, suicide bombing near old bus station in Tel Aviv
30 Mar 2006: Four die, Kedumim suicide bombing
29 Dec 2005: Thee die, suicide bombing near Tulkarm
5 Dec 2005: Five die, Netanya suicide bombing
26 Oct 2005: Six die, Hadera market suicide bombing
12 July 2005: Two die, Netanya suicide bombing
25 Feb 2005: Five die, 50 hurt, suicide bombing outside Tel Aviv nightclub
13 Jan 2005: Six die, suicide bombing at Karni crossing

Mr Abbas condemned the attack in a statement saying he "condemns all attacks that target civilians, whether they are Palestinian or Israeli".

US President George W Bush condemned the attack "in the strongest possible terms" and UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband said news of the killings was "shocking".

"They are an arrow aimed at the heart of the peace process so recently revived," Mr Miliband added.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also criticised the "deliberate killing and injuring of civilians" in what he called a "savage attack".

In the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, gunmen fired into the air after news broke about the attack.

This heroic attack in Jerusalem is a normal response to the crimes of the occupier and its murder of civilians.

A loudspeaker in Gaza City reportedly broadcast the message: "This is God's vengeance".

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the group "blesses the heroic operation in Jerusalem" calling it as a "natural reaction" to Israeli attacks.

Last week, Israeli forces launched a raid into northern Gaza in which more than 120 Palestinians - including many civilians - were killed.

Shortly after the Jerusalem shooting, the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad said four of its fighters had been killed in an Israeli air strike in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis.

Israel says the recent military offensive has been designed to stamp out frequent rocket fire by Palestinian militants.

Rocket attacks have hit deeper into southern Israel, reaching Ashkelon, the closest large city to the Gaza Strip.

[nChrist]

Egypt hosts Gaza ceasefire talks

Delegations from the Palestinian militant groups, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, have begun talks in Egypt about a possible ceasefire with Israel.

Egyptian officials hope to broker an agreement that would end rocket attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip.

The groups have indicated that, in return, Israel would have to stop all attacks on Gaza and lift its blockade.

The US has sent top state department official David Welch to Cairo to support Egypt's mediation efforts.

Aides of Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman met officials from the two groups in the city of al-Arish, security officials said.

Hamas officials said one of the group's senior leaders, Mahmoud al-Zahhar, was heading its delegation.

Hamas leaders have been in hiding in recent days because of the threat of assassination attempts by the Israeli military.

Correspondents say Egypt appeared to have launched the mediation under heavy pressure from its ally, the US.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice held talks with Egyptian leaders on Tuesday.

On Thursday Ms Rice said she backed Egyptian mediation efforts but would not discuss "specifics about meetings".

The US has shunned Hamas as a terrorist group since its parliamentary election victory in 2006 and ousting of the rival Fatah group from Gaza in 2007.

The US is keen for peace talks to resume between the West Bank Palestinian leadership of Mahmoud Abbas and Israel as part of the process launched in Annapolis last November.

Earlier, there were renewed clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen.

One Israeli soldier was killed in an explosion, and one Palestinian militant died in an Israeli air attack in northern Gaza.

The latest violence came three days after Israel ended an offensive in which more than 120 Palestinians were killed.

[nChrist]

Israel buries victims of shooting

Thousands of people have attended the funerals in Jerusalem of eight students killed by a Palestinian gunman at a Jewish religious college on Thursday.

People at the Mercaz Harav seminary openly wept as a rabbi recited prayers over the bodies of the victims.

Israel's government has said the attack will not lead it to break off peace talks with the Palestinian Authority.

The gunman, who was shot dead by an army officer, was a resident of East Jerusalem and worked as a driver.

Israeli police named him as Ala Hashem Abu Dhaim, a 25-year-old from the Jabal Mukabir neighbourhood.

His family set up a funeral tent outside their home there, adorned with the flags of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Lebanese militant group, Hezbollah.

His sister described him as quiet and intensely religious, but said he was not a member of a militant group. Israeli security forces detained several of his male relatives, his fiancee, and a number of neighbours after the shooting, she added.

"They surrounded the building and raided my brother's flat. They smashed it up, took things away and arrested all these people," she told the BBC Arabic Service.

A previously unknown group called the Jalil Freedom Battalions - the Martyrs of Imad Mughniyeh and Gaza, claimed it was behind the attack, Hezbollah's al-Manar television channel reported.

Imad Mughniyeh, a senior Hezbollah leader and military commander, was killed in a car bomb in the Syrian capital, Damascus, on 12 February.

The BBC's Crispin Thorold in Jerusalem says that until Israel establishes whether the statement is true, it is unclear how it will respond.

However, the outpouring of public grief will add to pressure on the Israeli government to end the peace talks with the Palestinians, our correspondent says.

Palestinian Authority President broke off contacts with the Israelis at the weekend after an Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip killed more than 120 people.

Sobbing and wailing filled the air at the funerals for the eight religious students killed in what the Israeli government described as a massacre on Thursday night.

Thousands gathered outside the bullet-scarred seminary to attend the ceremony as a rabbi recited Hebrew psalms in memory of the victims, all but one of whom were aged between 15 and 19. The eldest victim was 26 years old.

"The time for us has come to understand that an external struggle as well as an internal struggle is raging," Rabbi Yaakov Shapira told the crowd.

Abu Dhaim entered the library at the seminary in West Jerusalem, where about 80 students were gathered, and fired an AK-47 rifle for several minutes, witnesses said.

Students scrambled to flee the scene, jumping out of windows, witnesses said.

A student reportedly shot the gunman twice before an off-duty Israeli army officer killed him.

Dani Speigel, a student from the seminary - called a yeshiva in Hebrew - told the BBC of the loss that his school had suffered.

"Well, it's very hard here in the yeshiva, we're having a very hard time. What people do not understand is that kids, 14 years old, 15 years old, 16 years old, high school kids died here yesterday," he said.
   
MERCAZ HARAV SEMINARY
Founded in 1924 by influential Rabbi Avraham Hacohen Kook
Some 500 students enrolled in Talmudic study
Students mainly high-school age and young adults
Graduates serve as rabbis and rabbinical judges in Israel and Jewish settlements
School has played a major role in ideology and theology of Israeli religious settlement movement
Key figures linked to the school were strongly opposed to Israeli pull-out from Gaza

The BBC's Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen says that the school was no ordinary seminary. It was the ideological cradle of the settler movement in the West Bank, which could be the reason it was targeted.

Many of its students are on special courses that combine religious study with service in combat units in the Israeli army.

Our editor says that those who gathered at the seminary ahead of the victims' funerals were people who were already opposed to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's decision to engage in talks with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

This incident will only make stronger their determination to stop any agreements going through, our editor says.

The Palestinian leadership has been split between Mr Abbas's Fatah faction, in control of the West Bank, and Hamas, who have ruled Gaza since forcing out Fatah last year.

The Palestinians - without Hamas - have been engaged in a US-launched peace process with the Israelis since late last year.

Hamas supporters celebrated the attack, drawing condemnation from Mr Abbas as well as Israel.
   
DEADLY ATTACKS IN ISRAEL
4 Feb 2008: One dies, Dimona suicide bombing
29 Apr 2007: Three die, Eilat suicide bombing
17 Apr 2006: Nine die, 40 wounded, suicide bombing near old bus station in Tel Aviv
30 Mar 2006: Four die, Kedumim suicide bombing
29 Dec 2005: Three die, suicide bombing near Tulkarm
5 Dec 2005: Five die, Netanya suicide bombing
26 Oct 2005: Six die, Hadera market suicide bombing
12 July 2005: Two die, Netanya suicide bombing
25 Feb 2005: Five die, 50 hurt, suicide bombing outside Tel Aviv nightclub
13 Jan 2005: Six die, suicide bombing at Karni crossing

Hamas described the shooting as a "natural reaction" to Israel's actions in Gaza.

The Israeli operations aim to stop Palestinian militants from firing rockets from Gaza that have been hitting its border towns since it ended its permanent military presence in Gaza in 2005.

There was international condemnation of Thursday's shooting.

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said it was "clearly an attempt to strike a blow at the very heart of the peace process".

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called it a "savage attack", but the UN Security Council failed to agree on a statement.

HAVE YOUR SAY As long as Gaza keeps firing missiles into Israeli towns, Israel will do everything to defend itself Elaine, UK

The Libyan representative said his country and several others wanted the council to couple any condemnation of the Jerusalem shootings with one against Israel for killing large numbers of civilians, including children, in Gaza.

Israel has occupied East Jerusalem since the 1967 war and annexed the area, a move not recognised by the international community.

Israel regards the entire city as its "eternal, indivisible" capital and has settled hundreds of thousands of Jews in East Jerusalem.

The Palestinians hope to establish the capital of their future state in East Jerusalem, which is home to about 240,000 Palestinians.

[nChrist]

Egypt Walls Up Gaza Border

By ASHRAF SWEILAM – 1 day ago

RAFAH, Egypt (AP) — Egypt is building a 13-foot high concrete and rock wall interspersed with watch towers along its narrow boundary with the Gaza Strip to prevent Hamas militants from breaching the border, an official said Thursday.

The wall, set back nearly 35 feet from an existing metal barrier, has guard towers every 100 yards. With it, Egypt hopes to prevent any future breaches like one in January when Palestinians broke through to escape an Israeli blockade, a security official said on customary condition of anonymity.

On Jan. 23, Hamas broke through the metal wall to let hundreds of thousands of Palestinians escape the blockaded Gaza. At first, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak ordered his troops to let the Palestinians cross freely as long as they came to buy food and commodities.

But after 12 days, Egypt sealed its borders and strongly warned against any attempts to forcibly open the seven-mile-long border again.

"Work on the wall started as soon as Egyptian authorities closed the borders and they have completed about eight kilometers (five miles) of the wall," said Ashraf Barhoum, a local farmer living nearby.

[nChrist]

Gaza: Thousands celebrate Jerusalem attack

Palestinians distribute sweets in celebration of Jerusalem terror attack as Hamas promises 'this is only the beginning'
Ali Waked

Gaza's streets filled with joyous crowds of thousands on Thursday evening following the terror attack at a Jerusalem rabbinical seminary in which eight people were killed.

In mosques in Gaza City and northern Gaza, many residents went to perform the prayers of thanksgiving.

Armed men fired in the air in celebration and others passed out sweets to passersby.

Hamas stopped just short of claiming responsibility but issued a statement saying the group "blesses the (Jerusalem) operation. It will not be the last,'' Hamas said in a statement.

An Islamic Jihad spokesman Abu Ahmed told Ynet the blame for the attack lay with Israel for its operations in Gaza. "The responsibility lies with those who killed 130 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them children," he said. "We welcome this heroic act and strengthen the hands of those who carried it out. This is only the first of many responses the Palestinian people are planning."

The spokesman, a member of the organization's military wing – the al-Quds Brigades – said Israel is "reaping what it has sown in the Strip. Those who carried out the attack have brought great pride and raised the heads of the Palestinians."

The 'Galilee Freedom Brigades' – an Israeli-Arab group - has claimed responsibility for the attack. The organization has claimed responsibility for several terror attacks in Israel in the past.

Initial estimates indicate the gunman was a resident of east Jerusalem and likely possessed the blue ID card given to Israeli citizens.

The attack came a day after Rice persuaded Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to return to peace talks with Israel. Abbas briefly suspended talks to protest an Israeli offensive in Gaza.

At his West Bank headquarters, Abbas harshly criticized the attack. ''The president condemned all attacks that target civilians, whether they are Palestinian or Israeli.''