Weekly Audio Report

Weekly Audio Report
June17—June 23,2005
This Week in Palestine – a service of the International Middle East Media Center IMEMC. Org for the week of Friday June 17th to Thursday June 23rd
Despite a new round of talks among Palestinian, American, and Israeli diplomats, tensions in the area rose last week, with several violent incidents marring the current cease-fire and the Israeli military making more than 200 arrests.

Weekly Audio Report
June17—June 23,2005
This Week in Palestine – a service of the International Middle East Media Center IMEMC. Org for the week of Friday June 17th to Thursday June 23rd
Despite a new round of talks among Palestinian, American, and Israeli diplomats, tensions in the area rose last week, with several violent incidents marring the current cease-fire and the Israeli military making more than 200 arrests.
On the Diplomatic Front
The week included both a visit by U.S. security of State Condoleezza Rice and a summit meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
On Saturday Rice met with Abbas in Ramallah to discuss threats to the ceasefire and the Palestinian Authority's role in Israel's planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Rice also met in Jerusalem with Sharon and Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz. She reportedly told them the U.S. expects Israel to make more goodwill gestures toward the Palestinians in the coming days.She warned Israel against building new settlements, saying this would prejudge the path to peace with the Palestinians.
Following the Rice visit, Sharon and Abbas met in the former's official residence in West Jerusalem Tuesday. The two-hour meeting was reportedly tense and difficult. Sharon repeatedly demanded that the PA act against what he called "terrorist organizations" and prevent attacks on soldiers and settlers. He threatened expanded Israeli military operations in the territories if the resistance doesn't end its attacks.
No statements were issued after the meeting, and Abbas reportedly returned to Ramallah "furious and disappointed"
Despite the differences between the two leaders, agreements were reached on a few issues. Abbas agreed to coordinate security for Israel's disengagement from the Gaza Strip and accepted a plan according to which Israel would destroy th settlers' homes and the PA would remove the debris using international funding.
Sharon reportedly agreed to hand over Bethlehem and Qalqilyah to PA control within two weeks; to increase the number of Palestinian workers allowed in Israel, and to make improvements at checkpoints.
Accelerating violence
While the leaders talked, on the ground violence escalated. On Saturday Israeli extremists in the Gush Katif settlement bloc in the Gaza Strip attacked Palestinians from the nearby Moassi area, wounding three. Following the attack, Palestinian resistance fighters fired mortar shells at Gush Katif and homemade rockets at the Israeli town of Sderot, but no injuries or damage were reported.
Also on Saturday Israeli troops shot dead an Islamic Jihad member and wounded another after the two tried to infiltrate Kfar Darom settlement in the southern Gaza Strip. On Sunday one Israeli soldier and one Palestinian fighter were killed, and two soldiers were wounded in an exchange of fire at the Philadelphi route in the southern Gaza Strip. On Monday Israeli soldiers shot and killed one child and seriously injured another in the central Gaza Strip while they were hunting birds.
Also on Monday, Israeli soldiers arrested Wafa Samir Ibrahim, a 21-year-old resident of Jabalia refugee camp,. at the Erez crossing in the northern Gaza Strip. She had a permit to enter Israel for medical treatment, but when arrested she was carrying 10kg of explosives in her pants and said she was planning to set off a suicide bomb inside Israel.
Israeli military intelligence claimed the young woman was sent by al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, the military wing of Fatah, but a spokesperson for the group denied any connection with this incident and repeated its commitment to the current calm period.
Meanwhile, Islamic Jihad on Monday claimed responsibility for a shooting attack that killed one settler and wounded another in their car near settlement of Hermesh adjacent to the West Bank city Tulkarem .
Citing Islamic Jihad's role in the latest violence, Israel began an expanded crackdown against the resistance group. On Tuesday, just before the Sharon-Abbas summit, Israel unsuccessfully attempted to assassinate a member of the group in Beit Lahia, in the Gaza Strip, by firing missiles from a U.S.-supplied Apache helicopter. Israeli Public Security Minister Gideon Ezra confirmed that Israel had resumed its policy of assassination without trial against Islamic Jihad operatives On Wednesday Israeli soldiers arrested more than 50 members of the resistance organization in early-morning raids in several West Bank areas..
Ahmad Al Shaer from Bethlehem described the way the Israeli military searched his home, claiming they were looking for his nephew Issam
“After surrounding the house by a number of armored vehicles and military jeeps.At the beginning they fired concussion grenade, then they ordered us out of the house into the street.After that, they fired at the house claiming there was someone inside, and the firing caused damage “

Separation Wall
Israeli officials have publicly acknowledged for the first time that political considerations, not only security concerns, have played a role in the route of the separation wall they are builing on Palestinian lands. The admission came in documents filed with the Israeli high court, which is considering petitions submitted by Palestinians living in Jerusalem neighborhoods that will be cut off by the wall.
Dr Jad Issac, a Palestinian expert on the Wall, said the route of the wall in Jerusalem was planned to cement Israel's annexation of the entire city.

Meanwhile, Israel is moving ahead with construction of the wall near the city of Hebron in the southern West Bank. Military bulldozers uprooted hundreds of trees in the village of Yatta, south of Hebron, after soldiers barred the residents from reaching their lands and declared the area as a closed military zone.

Non –violent Protests
Resistance against the wall continued in several Palestinian villages, however. On Tuesday, three Israeli peace activists, three international protesters, and three Palestinian women locked themselves along with a goat in a cage placed in an area where the wall is still under construction in the West Bank village of Bel’in.. They said the cage symbolized the fact that the wall will cut them off from their farmlands and orchards and eventually turn the village into a big prison.
Israeli soldiers who were at the site, fired concussion grenades and gas bombs at the protestors. Dozens of youth responded by throwing stones at the soldiers. One resident was injured by military fire. The Army detained three Israelis, three internationals and one Palestinian.
Also on Tuesday Israeli soldiers attacked a peaceful procession protesting the bulldozing of farmlands for the construction of the Wall in the village of Marda, near the West Bank city of Salfit. A source in the village reported that soldiers fired gas bombs and concussion grenades. Nihad Wajeeh al-Khafsh, 65, a village resident who suffers from heart disease, was transferred to a hospital for treatment after inhaling the gas. Three members of the Israeli Peace Now group were arrested.
On Thursday Israeli soldiers fired live ammunition, and rubber coated bullets against Palestinian protesters in Marda. One of them, 18-year-old Mohammad Ahmad Najeh, was injured.
From The International Middle East Media Center IMEMC.Org in Biet Sahour Palestine This is ……………………