From Occupied Palestine

Shalit seen as prisoner of war and bargaining chip
CHRIS McGREAL
Guardian, 30 June 2006

The terminology alone reflects the gulf of views over the plight of Corporal Gilad Shalit. To Israelis, the teenage soldier was kidnapped by Palestinian terrorists and is a hostage just as much as foreigners held in Iraq. To Palestinians he is a prisoner of war - a legitimate target as a soldier in the uniform of an army that has killed dozens of civilians in the Gaza Strip in recent weeks - and a bargaining chip.

Harsh reality governs fate of snatched soldiers
CHRIS McGREAL
Guardian, 28 June 2006

Corporal Gilad Shalit was perhaps fortunate that as he was dragged into the Gaza Strip by Palestinian gunmen on Sunday his colleagues were not around to carry out the "Hannibal Directive", rumoured among Israeli forces to be an order to rain gunfire at an enemy abducting one of their own even if it costs the snatched soldier his life.

Two children among 11 killed in missile strike on Gaza City
CHRIS McGREAL
Guardian, 14 June 2006

Gaza City -- An Israeli air strike on a busy Gaza City street killed 11 people yesterday, including two young children and their father, after Palestinians who ran to help those wounded by the first missile were caught by the blast from a second rocket.

A sudden exit, a jail is stormed - and Israel's long wait is over
CHRIS McGREAL
Guardian, 15 March 2006

[see also, STEVE BELL cartoon]

Jericho -- With explosions and gunfire echoing across Jericho yesterday, Colonel Ronnie Blekin finally got the men for whom he and his army had waited for four years: the Palestinians accused of one of the most audacious political killings in Israeli history - the assassination of a cabinet minister in a Jerusalem hotel in 2001.

Brothers in arms - Israel's secret pact with Pretoria
CHRIS McGREAL
Guardian, 7 February 2006

During the second world war the future South African prime minister John Vorster was interned as a Nazi sympathiser. Three decades later he was being feted in Jerusalem. In the second part of his remarkable special report, Chris McGreal investigates the clandestine alliance between Israel and the apartheid regime, cemented with the ultimate gift of friendship - A-bomb technology

Worlds apart
CHRIS McGREAL
Guardian , 6 February 2006

Israelis have always been horrified at the idea of parallels between their country, a democracy risen from the ashes of genocide, and the racist system that ruled the old South Africa. Yet even within Israel itself, accusations persist that the web of controls affecting every aspect of Palestinian life bears a disturbing resemblance to apartheid. After four years reporting from Jerusalem and more than a decade from Johannesburg before that, the Guardian's award-winning Middle East correspondent CHRIS McGREAL is exceptionally well placed to assess this explosive comparison. Here we publish the first part of his two-day special report

Snipers with children in their sights
CHRIS McGREAL
Guardian, 28 June 2005

It was the shooting of Asma Mughayar that swept away any lingering doubts I had about how it is the Israeli army kills so many Palestinian children and civilians.

Asma, 16, and her younger brother, Ahmad, were collecting laundry from the roof of their home in the south of the Gaza Strip in May last year when they were felled by an Israeli army sniper. Neither child was armed or threatening the soldier, who fired unseen through a hole punched in the wall of a neighbouring block of flats.

From prison to power in the West Bank
CHRIS McGREAL
Guardian, 13 May 2005

Qalqilya -- The freshly elected members of Qalqilya town council are not sure whether their new mayor knows he is about to take office. Wajia Nazal has spent the past three years in Israeli military detention without trial for membership of Hamas. But next week he will be appointed, in absentia, as Qalqilya's mayor after his party swept aside the once dominant Fatah and won all 15 seats on the town council in Palestinian local elections.

Israelis use barrier and 55-year-old law to quietly seize Palestinians' land
CHRIS McGREAL
Guardian, 31 January 2005

Bethlehem -- The Israeli government has quietly seized thousands of acres of Palestinian-owned land in and around east Jerusalem after a secret cabinet decision to use a 55-year-old law against Arabs separated from farms and orchards by the vast "security barrier".

Soldier who shot Briton admits lying
CHRIS McGREAL
Guardian, 16 December 2004

Jerusalem -- The Israeli soldier on trial for killing the British peace activist Tom Hurndall in the Gaza Strip has admitted he was lying when he said his victim was carrying a gun, but said he was under orders to open fire even on unarmed people.