A former Israeli army chief who presided over the controversial invasion of Jenin this year, and who is being investigated by Scotland Yard over allegations of war crimes, was named as Israel’s new Defence Minister yesterday, an aide to Ariel Sharon said. Lieutenant-General Shaul Mofaz, who has flown back to Israel after Scotland Yard started investigating him during a fund-raising tour of Britain, had been Chief of Staff for most of the current Palestinian intifada until he retired in July. Justin Huggler writes in The Independent, Read more about Israeli general linked to Jenin atrocities named defence chief 

Had they been there last Saturday at sunset, most Israelis would not have believed their eyes. In the middle of Havarah, a small village south of Nablus, 63 Israelis, men and women, young and old, were standing together with dozens of Palestinian villagers. Jews and Arabs talked together, drank juice offered by the hosts, exchanged addresses and phone numbers. Uri Avnery writes. Read more about Naboth had a Vineyard 

Fuad Ahmad Abu Ghali was shot dead by Israeli troops in Jenin on 27 October 2002. University of Chicago lecturer Annie Higgins, working with the medics who went to pick up his body, described an encounter with the soldiers that killed him. Read more about The killing of Fuad Abu Ghali 

In this position paper, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights tackles the thorny question of how one deals with traitors in wartime. PCHR concludes that suspected collaborators should be investigated and tried in accordance with international standards, including the rights to fair trial, not to be subjected to torture and ill treatment, right to legal counsel and others. Read more about PCHR position on collaborators 

Those Palestinians who were banished following Israel’s siege of the Church of the Nativity languish in Gaza, their families in Bethlehem. Kristen Ess crosses from Bethlehem to Gaza, to report on how families are dealing with the separation. Read more about In Exile: Bethlehem to Gaza 

In the space of a few minutes Thursday afternoon, the narrow main street of O Block became a corridor of fiery metal shards and flying body parts. In the end, six Palestinians who had been going about their daily lives — buying snacks, gossiping with neighbors, taking an afternoon nap — were dead, and 45 other Palestinians had been injured, mostly by shrapnel. Two other Palestinian men, who remained unidentified, were reported killed near the edge of O Block, but Palestinian medical officials said the Israeli military had not allowed ambulances to retrieve their bodies. Washington Post reporter Molly Moore writes from Rafah Refugee Camp in Gaza. [may require registration] Read more about In Middle East, Heaviest Toll Exacted on Civilians