HRW: Deadly Israel Raid on Gaza Home Violated War Laws

The Israeli army committed a clear violation of the laws of war when it killed 12 Palestinians, including women and children, in an air strike on a Gaza home last month, Human Rights Watch charged on Friday.
The raid, carried out during Israel’s eight-day Operation Pillar of Defense, was on the home of a family whose father, Mohammed Jamal Al-Dallu, 29, the Israelis described as a “known terrorist”.
Human Rights Watch urged Israel to provide a full account of its air strike on the house, saying the action appeared to have been illegal.
The November 18 attack on the three-storey home of the Dalu family was the bloodiest of the eight days of fighting between Israel and Palestinian fighters, in which around 170 Palestinians and six Israelis died, Reuters reported.
New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Israel should have anticipated the civilian toll and censured it for not proving it was justified in targeting the home.
Ten members of the Dalu family were killed, along with two neighbors.
“Attacks in which the expected civilian loss exceeds the anticipated military gain are serious violations of the laws of war,” HRW said in a report.
Israel launched its November assault on the Gaza Strip in what it described as a defensive effort to disrupt Palestinian rocket capabilities.
“The Israeli claim that the attack on the Dalu home was justified is unsupported by the facts,” said HRW special adviser Fred Abrahams, who conducted research in Gaza.
“The onus is on Israel to explain why it bombed a home full of civilians killing 12 people. Anyone who violated the law should be appropriately punished.”
At the time of the attack, the Israeli military said it had struck the commander of Hamas’s rocket-launching operations, naming him as Yihia Abayah.

Meshaal Kisses Gaza Soil On First Ever Visit

Hamas leader in exile Khaled Meshaal made his first visit to Gaza on Friday, kissing the ground and saying he hoped he would one day die a “martyr” in the Palestinian territory.
After his seven-vehicle convoy swept across the border from Egypt, Meshaal got out and kissed Palestinian soil before embracing Gaza’s Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya.
Green Hamas flags and the red, white, green and black of the Palestinian flag were everywhere to mark the unprecedented visit which was timed to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Islamist movement.
Meshaal was accompanied by his deputy Mussa Abu Marzuk and other top officials on a trip which came just two weeks after the end of a deadly confrontation with Israel, which began on November 14 with an Israeli air strike that killed Hamas military commander Ahmed Jaabari.
Shortly after his arrival, Meshaal was taken to see the charred remains of Jaabari’s car, which had been transported to Rafah especially for the visit.
“I hope God will make me a martyr on the land of Palestine in Gaza,” he said.
Security was tight across the territory with guards from Hamas military wing the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades out in force, wearing fatigues and carrying Kalashnikov assault rifles, as they patrolled the roads along
which Meshaal’s convoy was to travel.
“This is the first time that I am coming to Palestine in 37 years,” said Meshaal who is originally from a village in the West Bank but went into exile with his family after the 1967 Middle East war, only returning for a brief visit in 1975.
It was his first-ever visit to Gaza.
“This is my third birth,” he told reporters at a brief press conference, saying his second was after he escaped an Israeli attempt to kill him in Jordan in 1997.
Izzat Al-Rishq, another senior member of the Islamist movement’s exiled politbureau, said it was a moving experience to finally be in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
“This is the greatest feeling I’ve ever had. It is an unforgettable historic moment,” he said. “Our wish to kiss the soil of Palestine has come true.”
Mahmud Al-Zahar, a senior Hamas official in Gaza, said the visit was replete with symbolism.
Shortly afterwards, the convoy set off for Gaza City, travelling along streets decked with Hamas flags and the red flags of the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) which on December 11 marks its 45th anniversary.
In Gaza City, the delegation was to pay a visit to the home of Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, who was assassinated by Israel in 2004.
Hamas marks its official anniversary on December 14, but celebrations are to begin on Saturday with a major rally at which Meshaal is expected to speak.
During his four-day visit, Meshaal will meet members of different Palestinian factions as well as the bereaved and the wounded from last month’s conflict, Hamas officials said.
His trip comes just two weeks after an Egyptian-brokered truce ended eight days of bloodshed which left 174 Palestinians dead, more than 100 of them civilians, as well as six Israelis--four civilians and two soldiers.
Islamic Jihad’s leader Ramadan Shallah had also been expected to attend the celebrations, but was expected to cancel the visit after Israel objected.
Israel said the visit proved there was no blockade on Gaza.
“This visit by Meshaal, which follows that of the Qatari emir and the Egyptian prime minister and other officials proves there is no Israeli blockade on Gaza,” said foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor, referring to a measure put in place by Israel in 2006, but eased in recent years.
Founded in 1987 shortly after the start of the first Palestinian intifada, or uprising, Hamas was inspired by Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood.
Its charter calls for the eventual destruction of Israel and the establishment of an Islamic state on the pre-1948 borders of the British Palestine Mandate.
In 2006, Hamas won a landslide general election victory, routing the long-dominant Fatah party of Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas. Some 18 months later, Hamas ousted Fatah forces from Gaza after several weeks of running street battles.

Egypt Opposition Rejects Morsi Dialog Offer

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The opposition bloc accused Morsi of rejecting “repeated demands to him to offer consensus solutions... to lift Egypt out of its current disastrous situation.”
It accused the president of “dividing Egyptians between his ‘supporters of legitimacy’... and his opponents, whom he calls ‘thugs’.”
In a televised speech late on Thursday, Morsi defended giving himself sweeping new powers by decree last month, and said he would push on with a December 15 referendum to change Egypt’s constitution along lines drafted by a mostly Islamist panel.
Morsi said he was ready to hold talks with the opposition on Saturday, but showed little inclination to compromise.
The scene outside the presidential palace was calm ahead of noon prayers but security was tight, an AFP correspondent reported.
Around a dozen tanks and armored troops carriers were deployed in the vicinity, with soldiers and riot police massed behind barbed wire barricades. On Thursday, they had cleared the area.
Protests were expected to swell after the main prayers. Youth activist group April 6 called for marches from all of Cairo’s mosques to converge on the capital’s main squares.
The demonstrations seen this week were the biggest since Morsi took office in June. The street clashes were also reminiscent of the upheaval in February 2011 that toppled veteran strongman Hosni Mubarak.
In his speech late on Thursday, Morsi said the referendum on the constitution would go ahead as planned, adding that “afterwards... everyone must follow its will.”
He said: “We respect peaceful freedom of speech but I will never allow anyone to resort to killing and sabotage.”
Hundreds of opposition protesters tried to storm the Cairo headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood as he made his speech, but were pushed back by riot police firing tear gas.
At least four of Morsi’s advisers have quit over the crisis, and the Cairo stock market has taken a heavy hit.
The United States and European Union have called for dialogue to resolve the crisis.
US President Barack Obama expressed “deep concern” in a call to Morsi on Thursday, the White House said.
Obama also told Morsi that it was “essential for Egyptian leaders across the political spectrum to put aside their
differences and come together to agree on a path that will move Egypt forward.”

Baghdad, Kurds Preliminary Agreement on Security

Iraq’s prime minister said on Thursday that Baghdad and Kurdish officials reached a preliminary agreement to allow inhabitants of disputed northern areas to oversee their own security.
Nouri Al-Maliki told reporters in Baghdad that the central government and leaders from the Kurdish autonomous region agreed that local ethnic and sectarian groups will form units to replace Iraqi and Kurdish forces currently in the disputed areas, which are claimed by Arabs, Turkomen and Kurds, Reuters reported.
Tensions between Baghdad and the Kurds have increased over the last two months, following a decision by Al-Maliki to form a new military command to oversee security forces bordering the self-ruled Kurdish region. The move was deemed unconstitutional by the Kurds.
In late November, the two rival governments traded accusations of rushing troops into disputed border regions to assert dominance.
“The talks have taken a big step forward by accepting the proposal to leave the task of protecting the disputed areas to the people living there,” Al-Maliki said.
Officials in the Kurdistan Regional Government could not be immediately reached for comment.
In Baghdad, Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Othman described the agreement as “positive”, but added that a lot of work was still needed to implement it on ground.
“We hope that both sides will adhere to this agreement. What we need is a hard and sincere effort to reach a permanent solution to the problem of the disputed areas,” he said.
Meanwhile, police said gunmen shot dead five policemen after storming a trailer where security personnel were sleeping next to a checkpoint just south of Baghdad.
A doctor in a nearby hospital confirmed the death toll. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to talk to media.
Although violence in Iraq has ebbed, insurgent attacks are still frequent.

Jordan King Visits West Bank

Jordan’s King Abdullah has paid a rare visit to Israel-occupied West Bank to congratulate Palestinian officials on their recent success in winning status upgrade at the UN for Palestine.
Thursday’s visit, during which the Jordanian monarch met with the acting Palestinian Authority chief, Mahmoud Abbas, is the first by a head of state to the West Bank since the UN General Assembly upgraded Palestine’s status at the world body from non-member observer entity to non-member observer state last month, Press TV reported.
Palestine now enjoys access to UN agencies and the International Criminal Court.
The vote is seen as a long-sought victory for the Palestinians, but an embarrassing diplomatic defeat for the United States.
The United States and Israel have spared no means for the past two years to stymie the Palestinians’ efforts towards upgrading Palestine’s status at the UN, arguing that it is only through negotiations with Israel that Palestinian statehood ambitions can yield. The US blocked Palestine’s full membership bid at the UN Security Council last year, using its veto power.
In 2010, Israel bought talks with the Palestinians to a halt after it refused to extend a moratorium on its settlement activities on the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Jordanian officials have also sharply criticized Israel’s recently-announced plan to build thousands more settler units in East Beit-ul-Moqaddas and the West Bank in apparent retaliation for the upgrade.
“The world has rejected settlements as unconstructive and illegal and there have been condemnations from numerous countries to this decision,” said Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Joudeh.

Dutch to Send Turkey 2 Patriot Systems

The Dutch government approved a NATO request Friday to send two batteries of Patriot missile defense systems to Turkey, following in Germany’s footsteps, Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans said.
Parliament must sign off on the Cabinet decision, but Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s two-party coalition has a comfortable majority in the 150-seat lower house, so the vote is expected to be a formality, AP reported.
The Dutch decision comes a day after Germany agreed to send two Patriot batteries and troops to Turkey’s southern border with Syria at NATO’s request.
The Western alliance approved sending the weapons to prevent cross-border attacks against Turkey after mortar rounds and shells from Syria killed five Turks.
“It is very restive along the border, with escalating violence and the risk that it could spill over into neighboring countries,” Timmermans told reporters after the Cabinet meeting.
Timmermans said a maximum of 360 Dutch troops will also be sent to operate the Patriot systems in a yearlong deployment.

UAE Detains Blogger

A human rights group said authorities in the United Arab Emirates have detained an 18-year-old blogger as part of a widening crackdown on perceived dissent.