From Occupied Palestine

Israeli troops fire on women in mosque siege
RORY McCARTHY
Guardian, 4 November 2006

[ed. Photo - Israeli tanks open fire on Palestinian protest march]

Beit Hanoun -- Palestinian women described yesterday how they were shot and injured in the face and the legs by Israeli troops as they led a protest march into the scene of the biggest military incursion into Gaza in months.

Gaza town shocked and battered by Israeli raid
NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI
Reuters, 4 November 2006

Beit Hanoun, Gaza -- Rasmiya Mahmoud has seen plenty of Israeli raids into the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun. But nothing like this.

Dozens of Israeli tanks have encircled the town of 30,000 people since Wednesday. Heavily armed soldiers, trying to stop militant rocket fire at the nearby Jewish state, have fought running battles with militants.

Palestinian interior minister interviewed on Executive Force, other issues
BBC Worldwide Monitoring, 23 October 2006

Al-Jazeera Television at 1732 gmt on 22 October broadcasts a recorded 25-minute interview with Sa'id Siyam, interior minister in the Hamas government, by HUSAYN ABD-AL-GHANI in Cairo, from the "Today's Encounter" programme. The date of the interview is not given.

Leader Mish'al explains Hamas's 'selective' approach to Quartet conditions
BBC Worldwide Monitoring, 13 October 2006

Head of Hamas's Political Bureau Khalid Mish'al has explained the movement's refusal to recognize Israel by saying that, if it were to recognize "the Zionist entity", Hamas would be recognizing "the legitimacy of the occupation".

However, he pointed out that Israel "exists in reality" and that what concerns him and the movement is the Palestinian state which is yet to be established and Palestinian rights which have yet to be granted.

Talking with Marwan Barghouthi
Palestine-Israel Journal vol 13 no 2 (Autumn 2006)

The time has come to open the doors for a young generation of activists

Marwan Barghouthi is a member of the Revolutionary Council of Fateh. He is currently serving a life sentence in an Israeli jail, but is viewed by all observers, including Israelis, as a potential future Palestinian leader. His imprisonment is seen as a political act and his release will constitute a substantial part of any future political breakthrough.

Foreign reporter challenges GPO over visa policy
SHAHAR ILAN
Ha'aretz, 15 October 2006

Could a situation arise in which a senior foreign correspondent posted here is arrested as an illegal resident, jailed and then deported? This scenario seems fictional, but what is not fictional is the fact that Joerg Bremer, correspondent for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, one of the most important newspapers in the world, was in Israel for several weeks as an illegal resident. He left Friday for a vacation, and does not know whether he will be allowed back in. A correspondent for another world-class newspaper told Haaretz that he has been in Israel for the past year on a tourist visa, a status that ostensibly bars him from working.

U.S. starts plan to help Hamas opponents
ADAM ENTOUS
Reuters, 13 October 2006

[ed. see also: US Funds enter fray in Palestinian Elections]

Jerusalem -- The United States has quietly started a campaign projected to cost up to $42 million to bolster Hamas's political opponents ahead of possible early Palestinian elections, say officials linked to the programme.

Italian probe: Israel used new weapon prototype in Gaza Strip
MERON RAPOPORT
Ha'aretz , 11 October 2006

An investigative report to be aired on Italian television Wednesday raises the possibility that Israel has used an experimental weapon in the Gaza Strip in recent months, causing especially serious physical injuries, such as amputated limbs and severe burns.

Judge orders probe over Palestinian cameraman hurt in Bil'in
MERON RAPPAPORT
Ha'aretz, 10 October 2006

An Israel Defense Forces judge on Tuesday ordered the army to open an inquiry into the affair of a Palestinian cameraman wounded over the weekend after soldiers arrested him during a demonstration against the separation fence in the West Bank village of Bil'in.

Not an internal Palestinian matter
AMIRA HASS
Ha'aretz, 4 October 2006

The experiment was a success: The Palestinians are killing each other. They are behaving as expected at the end of the extended experiment called "what happens when you imprison 1.3 million human beings in an enclosed space like battery hens."