Gaza 2009. - Gaza City - "We need more then ten years..."

Gaza 2009. - Gaza City - "We need more then ten years..." from bogARTphoto on Vimeo.

ICRC - Occupied Golan: ICRC transports 8,000 tonnes of apples to help local communities

Geneva (ICRC) – The gates at Kuneitra opened today and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) began transporting up to 8,000 tonnes of apples between the occupied Golan and the Syrian checkpoint. Three ICRC trucks made the first crossing at approximately 10 a.m. local time.

An apple transfer through the demarcation line between the occupied Golan and Syria proper is no everyday event. The ICRC is acting in its capacity as a neutral intermediary at the request of the farmers of the occupied Golan and with the approval of the Syrian and Israeli authorities.

"There has been keen interest on both sides in the apple transfer," said Jean-Jacques Frésard, the ICRC's head of delegation in Syria. "We hope this operation will help create an environment conducive to raising other humanitarian concerns – for example the fact that family members separated by the demarcation line cannot cross the gates to maintain family ties."

The operation has been coordinated with all the parties concerned, including the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF). The transfer of all of the apples is expected to take between six and eight weeks.

This will be the fourth time the ICRC has conducted such an operation at the Kuneitra crossing. While there was no apple transfer in 2008 because of poor harvests, the ICRC transported almost 8,000 tonnes of apples in 2007, 5,000 tonnes in 2006 and 4,000 tonnes during the first operation, which took place in 2005. The sale of the fruit is the main source of income for the Syrian farmers of the occupied Golan, as apple production is the backbone of the local economy.

The ICRC has been carrying out humanitarian activities in the occupied Golan since 1967 and has maintained a permanent presence there since 1988. In its role as a trusted neutral intermediary, the ICRC provides a range of services addressing the consequences of restrictions placed on the movement of the population as well as legal and administrative difficulties resulting from the occupation.

Gaza 2009. - Al-Attatrah - Destroyed dreams

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Preedited footage from Al-Attatrah area

Fresh violence shakes Gaza Strip

Israeli jets have bombed tunnels on Gaza's border with Egypt, after two rockets were fired at southern Israel.

The Israeli military said the air attack targeted a tunnel used for smuggling arms into Gaza.

A little-known militant group called Hezbollah Brigades Palestine claimed responsibility for the rocket attacks, which caused no casualties.

The violence came amid moves to turn ceasefires that ended Israel's 22-day offensive in Gaza into a lasting truce.

Two rockets fired from Gaza landed in Israel on Monday morning, the Israeli military said.

Several hours later, Israeli jets bombed a border area in the southern Gaza town of Rafah.

Unexploded munitions

Palestinian officials said a 25-year-old Gaza man was killed and five people were injured in an explosion in northern Gaza near the border with Israel.

The explosion was apparently caused when an unexploded munition was thrown into a fire being used to melt down scrap metal.

Sporadic violence has continued between Israel and Gaza since Israel ended its offensive on 18 January and the Hamas movement declared a ceasefire.

Egypt has been trying to mediate a long-term truce. About 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed in the 22 days of violence.

Hamas wants Israel to open Gaza's blockaded border crossings, but Israel said on Saturday that it would only do so if Hamas released an Israeli soldier it helped capture in 2006.

Hamas wants Israel to release hundreds of top-level Palestinian militant prisoners in return for Cpl Gilad Shalit's freedom.

Settlement move

Separately, a leading Israeli newspaper says the Israeli civil administration in the West Bank has designated an area of 172 hectares (425 acres) as state land.

Haaretz says the decision could pave the way for some 2,500 new settlement homes to be built.

However, several steps of government approval are required for building work to begin, which the newspaper says means construction is still a long way off.

Israeli has pledged to freeze settlement activity on occupied land, but it has continued to expand existing settlements, built in defiance of international law since 1967.

Right-wing parties which fared well in Israeli elections on 10 February are strong supporters of the settlement movement, which is seen as a major obstacle to the two-state solution supported by the US.

The settlement of Efrat, south of Jerusalem, is at the centre of the latest expansion plans. The mayor says he wants the 1,600-family settlement to grow to 30,000 residents.

More than 400,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 war.

(source:bbc)

Israel bombs Gaza targets

Israeli aricraft have bombed targets on Gaza's border with Egypt, after Palestinian fighters fired rockets into southern Israel, witnesses say.

One Palestinian man was also reported to have been killed and five others injured in the north of the Gaza Strip on Monday, but it was unclear as to whether he had been killed in an Israeli attack.

Palestinian medics and witnesses said that Rajab Sobeh was killed by an Israeli shell.

But an Israeli spokesman said in relation to the death: "We have no knowledge of any firing by the Israeli army but we are looking into it."

Later Palestinian sources told Al Jazeera that the man had died in a "work accident".

Rocket attacks

The attacks on the Gaza border followed the firing of two rockets from the northern Gaza Strip into southern Israel early on Monday by Palestinian fighters.

The rockets exploded without causing any casualties, an Israeli army spokesperson said.

One of the rockets hit a farm, causing slight damage, while the other struck wasteland.

The attacks are the latest between the two sides following a ceasefire declared on January 18, after Israel's three-week offensive in the Gaza Strip in which more than 1,300 Palestinians were killed.

Talks, brokered by Egypt, are ongoing to establish a lasting truce between Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip and Israel, and opening Gaza's borders to allow humanitarian supplies into the territory.

Israeli demands

But Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, said on Saturday that no deal will be struck until Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured by Palestinian fighters in 2006, is released.

Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, has said that Shalit's release had never previously been a factor in the truce discussions. They were rather part of separate negotiations on a prisoner exchange.

Mark Regev, an Israeli government spokesman, told Al Jazeera: "Shalit has always been a top priority for us. We want him out."

"We understand that there will be a price to be paid - that Hamas will want some of its terrorists out of jails. And I think that we are ready to pay such a price," Regev said.

"But the deal is not done ... There is only one result here and that is that our serviceman is released. Everything else is unacceptable," he said.

Election influence

Mike Hana, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Gaza, said that Israeli elections last week has altered the negotiations as the demands of a right-wing majority coalition, which is likely to take power in the coming weeks, now has to be considered in the talks.

"The goalposts have moved. That is the general situation and belief here in Gaza," Hana said.

"I spoke to a very senior Hamas official, he said that as far as they was concerned a series of agreements had been reached, through the Egyptian intermediaries, with the Israelis concerning the opening of the crossings, concerning who exactly should police the crossings with regard to Rafah [on the Egyptian border] ... and a long lasting truce," he said.

"In the last 48-hours Gilad Shalit ... has suddenly come up on the negotiating table.

"That had been part of a totally different set of negotiations for a long period of time. It has suddenly come up as a central part of the negotiations concerning the truce."