With less than a month remaining before Israel’s disengagement from the Gaza Strip, UNICEF has completed final deliveries of aid supplies to some of the most isolated enclaves in the area. In preparation for the mid-August disengagement, the organization has also expanded activities in psychosocial support, health and education. The disengagement plan calls for the evacuation of some settlements and installations. Because of their close proximity to the soon-to-be-evacuated settlements, many enclaves in Gaza are being sealed off, making humanitarian aid deliveries virtually impossible for the next several weeks. This is why special attention has been devoted to these areas, some of which are currently accessible only by a single gate for a few hours a day. Read more about UNICEF boosts aid deliveries before Gaza disengagement
Published by the Development Studies Programme at Birzeit University, the fourth Palestine human development report focuses on the empowerment of Palestinians as the basis for strengthening Palestinian society building. The 2004 Palestine Human Development Report is an attempt to assess the various aspects of the Palestinian condition as a first step toward an integrated approach to the development of Palestinian individuals and society and to strengthen the social fabric needed to support national liberation and development activities. Each section of the report addresses these aspects from two perspectives — the general Palestinian condition, hopes and challenges, and major influencing independence and development. Read more about Fourth Palestine Human Development Report released
In talks scheduled with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas will seek to obtain assurances that Israel will stick to the peace plan. Rice met Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia, together with several Palestinian cabinet ministers on Saturday, at the start of a day-long series of talks. Later she was to meet President Mahmoud Abbas and Palestinian Interior Minister Nasser Yousef, who is responsible for the Palestinian security forces, amid signs the Palestinians were buckling under heavy Israeli and US pressure to clamp down on resistance groups such as Hamas and the Islamic Jihad. Read more about Rice in talks with Palestinian leaders
While it is essential for both Israel and the Palestinians not to lose sight of the immediate goal – Israel’s disengagement from Gaza – relations between the two sides are being marred because no agreed framework exists for that pull-out, or for what will happen next, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Alvaro de Soto told the Security Council today. “The unease, suspicion and cynicism that bedevil Israeli-Palestinian relations can be attributed in large part to the fact that the disengagement is not taking place within an unequivocally agreed framework for the next steps toward the overall solution to which both sides claim adherence, i.e., two states living alongside each other in peace,” he said in the monthly briefing – his first – on the situation. Read more about Israeli-Palestinian relations bedevilled by lack of framework – UN envoy (3/3)
While it is essential for both Israel and the Palestinians not to lose sight of the immediate goal – Israel’s disengagement from Gaza – relations between the two sides are being marred because no agreed framework exists for that pull-out, or for what will happen next, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Alvaro de Soto told the Security Council today. “The unease, suspicion and cynicism that bedevil Israeli-Palestinian relations can be attributed in large part to the fact that the disengagement is not taking place within an unequivocally agreed framework for the next steps toward the overall solution to which both sides claim adherence, i.e., two states living alongside each other in peace,” he said in the monthly briefing – his first – on the situation. Read more about Israeli-Palestinian relations bedevilled by lack of framework – UN envoy (2/3)
While it is essential for both Israel and the Palestinians not to lose sight of the immediate goal – Israel’s disengagement from Gaza – relations between the two sides are being marred because no agreed framework exists for that pull-out, or for what will happen next, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Alvaro de Soto told the Security Council today. “The unease, suspicion and cynicism that bedevil Israeli-Palestinian relations can be attributed in large part to the fact that the disengagement is not taking place within an unequivocally agreed framework for the next steps toward the overall solution to which both sides claim adherence, i.e., two states living alongside each other in peace,” he said in the monthly briefing – his first – on the situation. Read more about Israeli-Palestinian relations bedevilled by lack of framework – UN envoy (1/3)
A PRCS ambulance was stopped at Howwara checkpoint on route to Nablus. One of the soldiers opened the rear door of the vehicle aand ordered the team to step out. The soldiers asked if the car contained any weapons and the ambulance crew responded “no”. The soldiers then started searching the ambulance. The soldiers ordered the team to lift the seat opposite the patient’s bed, the team obeyed and were surprised to find an Israeli army M16 weapon in the seat. The soldiers immediately stepped back and pointed their weapons at the medical team. The soldiers questioned the crew about the source of the weapon. The soldiers then laughed and mocked the team as the soldiers removed the weapon. Read more about Israeli army hides M16 in Palestinian ambulance
Voicing alarm at the renewed violence between Israel and the Palestinians in recent weeks, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today called on both sides to work for a negotiated settlement. In a statement released by his spokesman, the Secretary-General said the recent suicide bombing in Netanya and rockets fired from Gaza killing innocent Israeli civilians “are shocking and condemnable.” He also welcomed efforts by the Palestinian Authority security forces to prevent them. Mr. Annan noted that Israel “has resumed forceful action in the face of the serious deterioration that has shattered the lull in violence of the past few months.” Read more about With Middle East violence rising, Annan calls for efforts to negotiate settlement
The Palestinian Islamic Resistance group, Hamas, says it remains committed to observing the ceasefire, despite the assassination by Israel of at least eight of its resistance cadres. Israeli warplanes on Friday carried out two pinpoint missile attacks on two Palestinian vehicles in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, killing at least eight Hamas resistance activists. “We are still committed to the ceasefire. We are not interested in any escalation. However, if Israel continues these acts of extrajudicial executions of our people, then we will most certainly defend ourselves,” said Hasan Yousuf, Hamas’s spokesman in the West Bank. Read more about Hamas: "We are committed to ceasefire"
Urging all sides to concentrate on restoring the quiet that has prevailed in recent months, the top United Nations Middle East envoy condemned both today’s targeted killings of Palestinian militants in Gaza, and yesterday’s rocket attack on the southern Israeli town of Nativ Ha’asara that killed one Israeli woman and wounded several others. “Without prejudice to Israel’s right to legitimate and proportional self-defence, UNSCO [the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process], reiterates the United Nations’ consistent and vocal opposition to extra-judicial killings,” said one of two statements released today by envoy Alvaro de Soto’s office in Jerusalem. Read more about UN envoy condemns latest violence in West Bank and Gaza
