Hamas ended an 18-month ceasefire on Saturday, firing 11 rockets at Israel just hours before Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas was due to announce a controversial referendum. A statement by the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, said the attacks were in response to the killing of 10 Palestinians.
Israeli troops staged their first ground operation in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday since pulling out of the territory last year, killing three Islamic Jihad militants and a Palestinian police officer. Three other militants were also killed in the occupied West Bank overnight, making it the deadliest spike in violence since the radical Islamist movement Hamas came to power.
The Hamas government on Friday recalled a controversial paramilitary force from the streets of Gaza on the second day of cross-party talks to resolve deadly Palestinian feuding. The move came one day after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas threatened to call a referendum to end the deadly rivalry between Hamas and his former ruling Fatah party.
Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas was on Friday locked in a battle of wills with the Hamas government, revoking its decisions to create a new special force and name a top militant to a key security post. The head-on collision sent tensions soaring between the moderate Palestinian Authority president and the radical Islamists, marking the first time Abbas has revoked decisions by the Hamas government since it was sworn in last month.
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/ 29 December 2005
A shaky truce that has marked a huge drop in Israeli-Palestinian violence during 2005 appears unlikely to be renewed at the year-end with armed factions accusing Israel of doing nothing in return. Transgressed repeatedly by the most radical Palestinians and endangered frequently by Israeli military operations, the de facto ceasefire has nonetheless put the brakes on a deadly cycle of violence since September 2000.
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/ 27 December 2005
Israeli air raids struck buildings and roads in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday with the army poised to implement a security zone in the Palestinian territory intended to thwart militant rocket attacks. Army helicopters fired missiles, heavily damaging offices connected to the ruling Fatah movement and roads in the northern part of the territory.
Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas said on Thursday he would bombard Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon with demands at a forthcoming Middle East summit as Israel seeks to bolster the Palestinian leader in his efforts to rein in Islamist militants.
Calm returned to the Gaza Strip on Tuesday after deadly internecine clashes and police protests over dire insecurity problems, as Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian mother of five in the West Bank. ”Things are calm and we hope that everyone will respect the law and public order,” said interior ministry spokesperson Tawfiq Abu Khossa.
Israeli troops pressed on with their offensive in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday as the United Nations was set to vote on a resolution calling for a halt to the onslaught that has killed almost 80 Palestinians. The death toll mounted further as a Palestinian gunmen was killed by an Israeli tank shell fired at the Jabaliya refugee camp.
50 000 trapped by Israeli assault
Israeli troops moved into northern Gaza on Tuesday in a bid to halt rocket attacks by Palestinian militants but failed to stop a new volley landing in southern Israel, a day after the missiles claimed their first fatalities. Meanwhile, a 14-year-old Palestinian boy was shot dead by Israeli troops in the southern Gaza Strip.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=117902">Gaza braces for revenge</a>