May 23, 2007
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May 16, 2007
Israel attacks in Gaza amid factional violence
At least 16 Palestinians were killed in fierce factional fighting in Gaza on Wednesday and Israel launched an air strike on a Hamas compound that killed at least four gunmen.
Hamas declared a ceasefire in factional fighting, effective at 1700 GMT, and a Fatah official said President Mahmoud Abbas issued similar orders to his men. Previous truces have fallen apart within hours and it was unclear if this one would hold.
Palestinian officials said the widening hostilities could bring down a two-month-old unity government formed between ruling Hamas Islamists and Abbas’s secular Fatah. Some Palestinians see this leading to all-out civil war and the end of the Palestinian Authority.
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Israel accused of violating international law
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) accuses Israel of a “general disregard” for “its obligations under international humanitarian law - and the law of occupation in particular,” to serve its own interests, according to a confidential report.
ICRC condemns Israel usage of its rights as an occupying power “in order to further its own interests or those of its own population to the detriment of the population of the occupied territory,” which it says is “foreign to the letter and spirit of occupation law.”
The committee said that the Israeli policy has far-reaching humanitarian consequences for Palestinians living under occupation in East Jerusalem, including the isolation of Palestinians living in Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank, problems of access to basic services and a “condition of artificial illegality” in which thousands of Palestinians live in Jerusalem without the ability to get permanent residency.
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Chlorine bomb kills 32 in Iraq
A van loaded with tanks of toxic chlorine gas exploded in an open-air market in the Iraqi province of Diyala, killing at least 32 civilians and wounding 50 others, police said on Wednesday.
The bomb exploded at around 7.30 pm on Tuesday in Abu Saydah, northeast of Baghdad, officers and local officials said.
“A small van with gas canisters exploded in a crowded market, there were many people dead at the scene,” Captain Sadiq Mohammed said.
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Israelis kill Palestinian driver in “cold blood”
Two French-Israeli brothers were detained on Tuesday in connection with the brutal murder of a Palestinian taxi driver in a disgraceful anti-Arab crime, police said.
A police spokesman quoted one of the suspects as saying: “I decided to kill an Arab because he was Arab.”
Julian Soufir went to Jerusalem to hunt for an Arab taxi driver, according to police investigators.
Mickey Rosenfeld, a police spokesman, said that the elder brother Soufir, 25, would be held for 10 days and his brother, Jonathan, 21, for only three days.
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Egyptian charged as spy praises Israel
An Egyptian accused of spying for Israel praised the Jewish state for its advanced technology on Tuesday and claimed documents he passed on were so outdated they posed no threat to Egypt’s security.
Mohammed Sayed Saber, 35, a nuclear engineer with Egypt’s atomic agency, has been charged with stealing secret documents and giving them to the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, in exchange for $17,000, and with the aim to harm Egyptian national security, the prosecutor said.
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Iran says ready for full diplomatic ties with Egypt
- Iran is ready to restore full diplomatic relations with Egypt by reopening its embassy in Cairo the “very day” the Egyptian government agrees, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday.
“We are ready to establish diplomatic ties with Egypt. If the Egyptian government signals its willingness, we will open our embassy that very same day,” Ahmadinejad told reporters, according to the ISNA news agency.
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وزارة التعليم تنفي وفاة تلميذة بضربة شمس أثناء تشريفة الوزير
تناقضت رواية وزارة التربية والتعليم مع رواية والد التلميذة أميرة محمد عطا، الطالبة بالصف الثالث الابتدائي، بمدرسة نجع معين الابتدائية بمحافظة قنا حول أسباب وفاة أميرة يوم 8 مايو الماضي.
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الزمالك يوقف إينو 4 شهور ويوقع عليه غرامة مالياً
أوصت الشئون القانونية بنادي الزمالك بإيقاف معتز إينو لاعب الفريق أربعة أشهر وتوقيع غرامة مالية عليه وفقاً لبنود اللائحة وعدم الغاء العقوبة المالية السابقة والتي قدرت بخمسين ألف جنيه من مستحقات اللاعب.
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