At least thirteen Palestinians, including children, have been injured in two separate Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, medics say.

The incident took place during a brief incursion by Israeli forces into eastern Gaza City on Wednesday, a Press TV correspondent reported. 

Eleven Palestinians were injured after an Israeli tank shell hit eastern part of the Gaza City. 

The incident came shortly after a number of Israeli tanks and bulldozers rolled into the Palestinian territory in an apparent effort to destroy agricultural lands along the occupied border zone. 

Three members of the Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, and three children are among the injured. 

Hundreds of Israelis have taken to the streets of Tel Aviv to protest against rising fuel prices caused by a spike in tax rates.

A tax surcharge imposed last month and high global oil prices have brought the price of a liter of petrol in Israel to $1.97. 

In addition to mounting domestic political pressure, Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu has recently been under fire for the soaring prices of food and gasoline. 

He, however, has promised the Israelis to take a series of economic measures to curb the rapidly rising prices. 

The Israeli cabinet has vowed that it would raise wages and lower the prices of water, public transportation and gasoline.

Even members of Netanyahu's party have been hard on him over the past days, arguing that the high prices of basic goods and fuel would hurt the poor and middle-classes. source

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak says Israeli armed forces may cross into the southern Lebanese territory again and engage in a military confrontation with Hezbollah resistance fighters.

“Israel Defense Forces (IDF) may be called into Lebanon in the future,” Ha'aretz newspaper quoted Barak as saying on Tuesday during his first military tour with new IDF Chief Benny Gantz in the Granit brigade situated along the border with Lebanon. 

The UN human rights chief has sharply criticized Israel for ignoring the harm done to Palestinians by its illegal settlement policy and the construction of the apartheid wall.

Speaking at the end of a six-day visit to the region on Friday, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said that she had been shocked at the apathy among Israeli officials when she raised the issue of the suffering of Palestinians living near the illegal settlements or close to the towering apartheid wall, which cuts across the occupied West Bank. 

“I have been struck by the complacency with which the entirely-avoidable predicament of Palestinians affected by the wall and settlements is treated by Israeli authorities with whom I have discussed these issues,” Pillay said. 

Turkey says it has unveiled its final inquiry report on the Israeli deadly attack on a Gaza-bound aid convey last year, which proves Israel used “excessive” force and trampled international law.

The Israeli commandos attacked the Freedom Flotilla in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea on May 31, killing nine Turkish citizens on board the Turkish-flagged Mavi Marmara, and injuring about 50 other people who were part of the team on the six-ship convoy. 

The Turkish National Commission of Inquiry said in its final report to United Nations released Friday that Israel used “excessive, indiscriminate and disproportionate force” against the unarmed civilians on board the aid convoy, TurkishPress.com reported. 

Israel has held a rapid-response drill to gauge abilities of its armed forces as the Israeli ruling class is afraid the outcome of the Egyptian revolution affects Tel Aviv.

Israel has held a rapid-response drill to gauge abilities of its armed forces as the Israeli ruling class is afraid the outcome of the Egyptian revolution affects Tel Aviv.

Israeli police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld told Xinhua news agency on Thursday that police and border police units held an exercise on Thursday to deal with "any possible scenario” in Israel.

The drill came as outgoing police chief Insp.-Gen. David Cohen said on Wednesday that 27,000 members of Israeli forces are ready to handle any breakout of protests in Israel. 

Israel vows new settlements in al-Quds

Israel is planning to evict several Palestinian people from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East al-Quds (Jerusalem) and construct two new Jewish settlements in the area.

The Jerusalem Municipal Committee for Planning and Building approved a plan on Monday to build two buildings in the neighborhood that include 13 apartments.

According to the plan, two buildings would be razed and several Palestinian families living there evicted from their homes.

The project is organized by US-registered companies, which have been probably set up by right-wing Israeli activists for transferring funds for the purchase of real estate in the occupied land, Ha'aretzreported.

Alongside other Palestinian and Arab territories, Tel Aviv occupied East al-Quds during the Six-Day War in 1967.

The occupation and later annexation of the city -- which the Palestinians have long been demanding as the capital of their future state -- have never been recognized by the international community.

Israel refused to prolong a 10-month ban on settlement construction in late September 2010, stalling US-sponsored direct talks with the Palestinian Authority, which started earlier that month in Washington.

The Palestinians say that the settlement activities are being carried out to prevent the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

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Israel appoints new chief of staff

Israel's former deputy chief of staff Major General Benny Gantz

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has appointed Major General Benny Gantz as the regime's 20th armed forces chief of staff after months of infighting among the high command over the issue.

Barak said he has Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's backing for promoting Gantz, a former deputy chief of staff, to head Israel's military, Israeli media reported.

The decision was taken for "the urgent need at this time to dispel the uncertainties surrounding the appointment of a chief of general staff," Barak said.

The choice of Gantz has to be ratified by the government on Sunday and also by an ethics committee.

Barak's first choice for the post, Major General Yoav Galant, was ruled out by the attorney general and the state comptroller last Tuesday after he was accused of illegally obtaining land around his house on Moshav Amikam.

Galant commanded Israel's 22-day war on the Gaza Strip in December-January 2008, during which at least 1,400 Palestinians, more than half of them civilians were killed and thousands of others were displaced.

Former chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi and Barak were "no longer able to work together," Israeli dailyHa'aretz quoted Netanyahu as saying.

Tension between the two increased amid calls by politicians and public figures to extend Ashkenazi's term as chief of staff beyond his scheduled retirement on February 14 and until the cabinet appoints a suitable successor.

Barak has formerly accused Ashkenazi of ethical and professional flaws.


http://www.presstv.ir/detail/163942.html

Mideast Quartet seeks to bridge widening gulf

JERUSALEM: The Middle East Quartet meets on Saturday in a bid to revive Israeli-Palestinian talks, as Israel fears for its peace treaty with Egypt and the Palestinians seek international recognition for statehood.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton are to convene in Munich, Germany to help “find a solution to the present deadlock,” as Ashton has said.
Talks between Israel and the Palestinians, relaunched on September 2 after a long hiatus, fell apart weeks afterward after Israel refused to renew a temporary ban on building settlements in the West Bank.
The Palestinian leadership refuses to resume negotiations as long as Israel builds on land wanted for a Palestinian state.
In an address to the Israeli parliament on Wednesday overshadowed by events in Egypt, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated a call to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas to drop his demand for a freeze.
“I hope that president Abbas will regard the changes taking place in the region as an opportunity to sit down with us and discuss peace without preconditions,” Netanyahu said.
“It is possible, they say, that the gap between Israel and the Palestinians may be too wide to bridge. They might be right, but if we do not try, we will surely not succeed.”
He went on to criticise “unilateral measures” – a reference to Palestinian efforts to win the widest possible international recognition for a Palestinian state comprising the occupied West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat on Tuesday called on the Quartet to “take an historic decision to recognise the state of Palestine” based on the borders that existed before the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
In a statement on Thursday, prominent Palestinian parliamentarian Hanan Ashrawi appealed for “a qualitative shift in the way the Quartet does business.”
“It is far too late for the Quartet to simply issue statements without enactment or intervention, and to repeat the mantra of a return to bilateral negotiations,” she said.
Shaul Mofaz, chairman of the Israeli parliament’s foreign affairs and defence committee and former head of the armed forces, said uncertainty in Egypt added to the urgent need for accommodation with the Palestinians.
“Because of the strategic change in our region, we have to move forward with the Palestinians,” he said. Failure to do so, he said, could lead to an Israel that was “one state for two peoples, close to a new war with its neighbours.”
In the New York Times on Thursday, columnist Thomas Friedman wrote that “Netanyahu … is in danger of becoming the Mubarak of the peace process” – a reference to offering too little too late in the way of concessions.
“Israel has never had more leverage vis-a-vis the Palestinians and never had more responsible Palestinian partners,” Friedman said. “But Netanyahu has found every excuse for not putting a peace plan on the table.”
US President Barack Obama “should put his own peace plan on the table, bridging the Israeli and Palestinian positions, and demand that the two sides negotiate on it without any preconditions,” the journalist added.
Paris will host a new international donor conference in June for a Palestinian state, ministers from donor countries and the Quartet said following talks in the French capital on Thursday.
“At the request of the PA, a new international donors’ conference for the Palestinian State will be held in Paris in June 2011,” a statement released after the talks said.
The group also “call on Israel to take more ambitious, structural measures to continue to ease access and movement” of Palestinians.
http://www.dawn.com/2011/02/04/mideast-quartet-seeks-to-bridge-widening-gulf.html

US, Israel to fill power vacuum in Egypt

A photo sent to Press TV's UReport by Qutab depicts Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu (L) shaking hands with Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman.

A media report says US and Israel are floating a plan to introduce newly appointed Vice President Omar Suleiman as President Hosni Mubarak's possible successor.

Suleiman was handpicked as vice president after President Mubarak sacked the cabinet amid ongoing massive rallies against his regime.

Suleiman, who may take over the presidency from Mubarak, was the country's longtime spy chief and is a close US and Israel ally.

A report appeared on the AOL News website said on Friday that the US and its allies view Suleiman, 74, as a reliable fix-it man in some of the Middle East's most sensitive disputes.

Suleiman has mediated Arab-Israeli talks and even aided the CIA when it needed a hand in interrogating so-called terror suspects, the report added.

"He has a long history of doing all the dirty work that needs to be done in Egypt. Both domestically, and we also know that he was involved with the infamous rendition affairs with the United States," Rime Allaf, a Middle East expert at London's Chatham House think tank, told AOL News.

"We've heard a lot of stories where he [Suleiman] would take a personal interest, either in the renditions or in anybody who was caught who he thought had links to Islamist groups. He was said to be personally involved in the interrogations and the torture," Allaf added.

"He's not a civilian, and he's not a pleasant person."

Suleiman has recently described the calls for Mubarak's resignation as calls for chaos.

Egypt has been ruled by four presidents since it was declared a republic back in 1953. All of them have been members of the country's most influential institution -- the military.

Experts say with former intelligence chief thought of as President Mubarak's possible successor, it seems like things in Egypt would not really change that much.

"But Suleiman is the choice of Israel obviously you know of the long history between Netanyahu and his government and the proceeding government and Suleiman is a bad choice, but it shows you where the power of politics lie in this. That is why the Americans and Israelis want him" Franklin Lamb, a professor at the American University of Beirut told Press TV on Friday.

The developments come as millions of Egyptians take to the streets demanding an immediate end to the Mubarak regime's rule.

Protesters have vowed to stand firm despite the deadly clashes that left several people dead over the past 11 days. Thirty protesters have been arrested on Friday alone.

According to the United Nations, at least 300 people have so far been killed and thousands more have been injured during nationwide protests in Egypt.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/163602.html

Former Israeli min. defends Mubrak

Former Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer

Former Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer has defended Egyptian President Hosni Mubrak, saying his collapse will be “tremendous loss” for Israel.

The former army general has praised Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak for supporting Israel for thirty years, Israel's Arutz Sheva newspaper reported.

“When I watched his speech in which he said he would step down, it pained me to see his collapse," Ben-Eliezer said on Wednesday about Mubarak.

He criticized the American authorities for their handling of the crisis in Egypt saying "the Americans still don't realize the extent of the catastrophe into which they have pushed the Middle East."

Ben-Eliezer said Egypt's main opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, will win if there are polls in the country.

He said that there will be a new Middle East if the Muslim Brotherhood wins elections in Egypt.

The Muslim Brotherhood has said that if the revolution in Egypt succeeds, the country will hold a referendum to decide the fate of its 1979 peace treaty with Israel.

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, during the Friday prayer sermons in Tehran, pointed to Mubarak as a “lackey of the Zionist Regime.”
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/163528.html

Israeli lawmaker backs Hosni Mubarak

Israeli lawmaker Binyamin Ben-Eliezer

A senior Israeli politician has strongly defended out-of-favor Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, describing a revolution in Israel's southern neighbor as a loss for Tel Aviv.

Praising Mubarak for standing by Israel during his three-decade long rule, labor lawmaker Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said on Thursday that Mubarak's possible collapse would be painful for Israel.

Ben-Eliezer, who has held several ministerial posts, including Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor, Minister of Defense and Deputy Prime Minister, also criticized Washington's policy toward Egypt, saying by withdrawing its support from Mubarak's regime, the US has pushed the Middle East toward a catastrophe.

The Israeli lawmaker also predicted that if elections are held in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's Islamist opposition party, would win.

Tel Aviv is anxiously monitoring political developments in its powerful southern neighbor Egypt. Israeli officials have repeatedly warned that the implications of a regime change in Egypt, the country's only ally in the Arab world, would be enormous in Israel.

Egypt was the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979 following days of secret negotiations at Camp David, US. Many Egyptians, however, believe that the treaty did not end Israeli occupation and therefore are opposed to it.

Tel Aviv fears that the ongoing popular uprising against the Egyptian president could jeopardize its 31-year-old peace treaty with Egypt.

"Peace with Israel under its present terms can only be enforced by a dictator like Mubarak. Democracy will give the people a voice and their voice clearly demands that the peace accord be broken," Ray Hanania, an Israeli journalist, wrote in the Jerusalem Post on Wednesday.

Egypt is one of the main suppliers of Israel's natural gas.

Israel also shares a long border with Egypt and both have a frontier with the Gaza Strip. For years, with the help of Cairo, Israel has managed to impose a crippling blockade on the Palestinian territory. Tel Aviv fears that a regime change in Egypt would spell the end of the Gaza siege.

The Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said on Friday that the recent developments in North Africa are the result of the “Islamic awakening, which followed the great [Islamic] Revolution of the Iranian nation.”

The Leader also described Mubarak as the “lackey of the Zionist regime [of Israel].”
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/163570.html

'Israel dumps chem. waste in W Bank'

Israeli factories are quietly dumping hazardous industrial waste from polluting industries in the West Bank city of Tulkarm, the city's governor says.

The Israeli move came to light in November when Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces seized a truckload of chemical waste, originating from Israeli factories, to be emptied in the grounds of Khaduri University, Talal Dweikat said. 

PA officials said that a Palestinian man was hired for the job, Ma'an news agency reported on Sunday. 

The waste was examined in PA laboratories and was found to be dangerous. 

PA forces were put on high alert to check every Israeli truck, arriving in Tulkarm, for hazardous material. 

Meanwhile, University President Daoud Az-Za'tery said the university is holding awareness courses to educate students on the hazardous materials. 

He noted that many complaints have been received from Tulkarm residents concerning the chemical waste being dumped in the area by Israeli factories. 

Some occupied West Bank towns have become "dustbins" for Israeli industrial wastes -- including toxic wastes -- raising cancer rates up to 10 times, according to local Palestinian doctors. 

Another report says there are at least seven Israeli industrial zones in the occupied West Bank and an estimated 200 such factories are located there. 

Many of the factories are built mainly on hilltops, which often results in the flow of industrial wastewater into adjacent Palestinian lands damaging the citrus trees, polluting the soil as well as polluting the underground water. 

For example, a pesticide factory in Kfar Saba which produces dangerous pollutants has been moved to an area near Tulkarm. 

The Dixon Gas industrial factory, which was located in Netanya has also been moved to the Tulkarm area. The solid waste generated by the factory is burned in open air. 

Source