Biodun.BBC: Gaza Strip

Showing posts with label Gaza Strip. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 16, 2019

U.S. sees Palestinian state on most of West Bank, some of East Jerusalem

January 17, 2019 03H42 GMT/UTC/ZULU

by Jenny Feder and Biodun Iginla, BBC News and Reuters, JERUSALEM. Disclosure: Jenny Feder and Biodun Iginla dated when she was based in New York.

JERUSALEM - Israeli television said on Wednesday that U.S. President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan would propose a Palestinian state on as much as 90 percent of the occupied West Bank, with a capital in East Jerusalem - but not including its holy sites.

The White House, which has kept details of the plan under wraps and said its release could still be months away, dismissed the report by Israel’s Reshet 13 TV as inaccurate speculation.

Citing what it said was a source briefed by the Americans, the television report said the plan would entail Israel annexing Jewish settlement blocs in the West Bank while isolated settlements would either be evacuated or their construction halted.

Trump wants the proposed Israeli moves to be supplemented by territorial swaps with the Palestinians, and for East Jerusalem’s walled Old City - site of major Jewish, Muslim and Christian shrines - to be under Israeli sovereignty but with the joint management of the Palestinians and Jordan, the report said.

It said “most Arab neighborhoods” in East Jerusalem would be under Palestinian sovereignty as a future capital.

Israel calls all of Jerusalem its “eternal and undivided capital”, a status not recognized internationally. The Palestinians want East Jerusalem, including the Al Aqsa mosque compound in the Old City, as capital of a future state.

The report made no mention of the fate of Palestinian refugees, another core dispute in the decades-old conflict, or of how the Gaza Strip, which is under the control of Hamas Islamists opposed to peace with Israel, might fit into the plan.

Israeli and Palestinian officials did not immediately respond to the Reshet 13 report.

Trump’s Middle East peace envoy Jason Greenblatt, a main architect of the plan along with the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, said in a message on Twitter the report “is not accurate.” He did not specify, however, what in the report was incorrect.

“Speculation about the content of the plan is not helpful Very few people on the planet know what is in it ... for now,” Greenblatt wrote. “Peddling false, distorted or biased stories to the media is irresponsible & harmful to the process.”

In separate remarks to reporters, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, predicted that the Trump plan would not be released before an Israeli election on April 9.

Pence claims ISIS 'defeated' after US soldiers die in Syria attack

Opinion polls predict an easy win that would secure a fifth term for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a rightist whose U.S.-sponsored peace talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas stalled in 2014.

“From what we understand, it will not be presented before the election,” Danon said. “It’s a smart decision because we don’t want it to become the issue of the elections.”

Monday, March 19, 2018

Israeli security guard stabbed to death in Jerusalem attack

Latest update : 2018-03-19 08H:19 GMT/UTC/ZULU TIME

by Jenny Feder and Biodun Iginla, France24, Jerusalem

A Palestinian stabbed an Israeli security guard to death in Jerusalem's Old City on Sunday before being shot dead by a police officer, Israeli officials said.

The stabbing came with concerns over the potential for an upsurge in unrest in the coming weeks as the United States prepares to move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

The security guard was taken to hospital in serious condition suffering a stab wound to his torso, medics said.

The hospital later announced he had died from his wounds. Israeli media reported that he was in his 30s, with some reports saying he was off-duty at the time.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld confirmed the assailant had been shot dead.

Israel's Shin Bet domestic security service identified the assailant as Abdul Rahmani Faddal, 28, and a father of two from Aqraba near Nablus in the north of the occupied West Bank.

The attack comes after a Friday car ramming by a Palestinian near Jenin in the northern West Bankthat the army said killed two Israeli soldiers and wounded two others.

Tensions were high after Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas called for a day of rage on Friday to mark 100 days since US President Donald Trump's controversial recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

Palestinians also see the city as their capital and Trump's recognition broke with decades of US policy that Jerusalem's status would be negotiated between the parties.

Palestinian leaders have boycotted Trump's administration over the declaration, though the White House says it still plans to push ahead with its efforts to restart peace talks.

At least 32 Palestinians and four Israelis have been killed since Trump's announcement, which set off major protests.

The United States is planning to open its new embassy in Jerusalem in May to coincide with the 70th anniversary of Israel's founding.

Palestinians commemorate May 15 as the Nakba, or "catastrophe," marking when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians either fled or were expelled in the 1948 war surrounding Israel's creation.

Gaza tensions

There have also been tensions along the border between Gaza and Israel in recent days.

Israel's military said Sunday it had carried out an air raid overnight against an underground Hamas facility in the Gaza Strip and destroyed a separate tunnel under construction that could be used for attacks.

No casualties were reported in either operation, which came after an explosive device was detonated near the Gaza border with Israel, the latest in a string of such incidents.

Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip, called Israel's actions an attempt "to scare the people" and head off planned protests along the border beginning later this month.

Israel "bears all the consequences of the escalation," Hamas spokesman Fawzy Barhoum said.

Beginning on March 30, Gazans are planning to erect hundreds of tents near the Israeli border in a six-week show of support for Palestinian refugees.

Two explosive devices were detonated Thursday along the border, which had already provoked Israeli attacks on Hamas positions.

Also on February 17, four Israeli soldiers were wounded by an improvised explosive device on the border, sparking intense military retaliation.

It was not clear who was behind the blasts, but Israel held Hamas responsible as the de facto power in the Palestinian enclave.

Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza have fought three wars since 2008. The strip has been under an Israeli blockade for around a decade.

Date created : 2018-03-19

Saturday, January 13, 2018

Hamas says will not attend Palestinian meeting over Jerusalem

13 January 2018 - 12H35 GMT/UTC/ZULU TIME

by Nasra Ismail and Biodun Iginla, France24, Gaza City, Palestine. Disclosure: Nasra Ismail and Biodun Iginla had a romantic relationship when she was based in Jerusalem.

GAZA CITY, PALESTINE -

Islamist movement Hamas said Saturday it would not participate in a meeting of Palestinian leaders to debate responses to the controversial US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

The decision not to take part in the meeting to begin late Sunday is a further setback to failing reconciliation efforts between leading Palestinian factions.

"We have taken the decision not to participate in the meeting of the (Palestinian) Central Council in Ramallah," Hamas said in a statement, however stressing its "commitment to the unity of our people".

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"The conditions under which the committee will be held will not enable it to carry out a comprehensive and responsible political review, and will prevent decisions that reach the level of our aspirations."

The two-day meeting will bring together the heads of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the internationally recognised representative of the Palestinian people.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian Islamist movement, were invited to attend despite not being part of the PLO. Islamic Jihad has also announced it would not take part.

Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip, had been pushing for the meeting to be held outside the Palestinian territories but Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas decided instead to host it in Ramallah, the base of his government in the West Bank.

The Hamas statement said this left them subject to the "pressures" of Israel, which occupies the West Bank and regularly arrests Hamas officials.

The meeting is due to discuss responses to US President Donald Trump's December 6 recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

The decision infuriated Palestinian leaders, who see at least the east of the city as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

Trump's administration has also not publicly committed to the idea of an independent Palestinian state, and the PLO office in Washington was briefly threatened with closure.

Hamas and Abbas' Fatah party signed a reconciliation agreement in October that was meant to see the Islamists hand over control of Gaza by the end of the year.

The talks have however broken down, with disputes over the fate of tens of thousands of Hamas civil servants and the future of Hamas' vast armed wing.

Hamas seized Gaza in 2007, forcing out Abbas' forces in a near civil war.

It has fought three wars with Israel since 2008 and is considered a terrorist organisation by the Jewish State, the United States and others.

Biodun Iginla, BBC News