Israel is going to build 1,400 new apartments in the West Bank and the disputed part of Jerusalem, officials announced, despite objections by Palestinians and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
In violence yesterday, Israeli troops shot and killed two Hamas gunmen during a raid on the central Gaza Strip, Hamas said.
The army confirmed troops operating against rocket launching squads in the area shot toward two gunman who approached them.
Israel's construction announcements on Monday came just after Rice left for Amman to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. In the Jordanian capital, Rice said Israel should stop such construction projects, but to no avail.
The move reflects the political weakness of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert -- who continues to support construction in disputed areas because it allows him to keep his fragile coalition intact -- and further damages Abbas' standing.
Olmert insisted Israel is not building new settlements, nor is it confiscating additional land for existing ones. Instead, he said, Israel is building only in places it intends to keep even after a peace treaty is signed.
Palestinians charge that the ongoing construction is sabotaging peace efforts.
Though they tacitly agree that Israel will, in the end, retain some or all of these areas, the bulldozers, cranes and work crews are tangible evidence to Palestinians that peace negotiations are not helping their cause, further complicating Abbas' position.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak says he will consider opening the Gaza Strip's crossings if Palestinian militants there stop bombarding Israel with rockets.
The statement is significant because Barak had previously opposed opening passages to the territory. Gaza is controlled by Islamic Hamas militants.
Defense officials said yesterday that the announcement was meant to strengthen Abbas in his power struggle with Hamas.
Political realities are also driving Olmert. His own popularity battered by his inconclusive 2006 war against Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon, he depends on Shas, a hawkish ultra-Orthodox party, for his coalition government's parliamentary majority.
An announcement of 600 new housing units to go up in Jerusalem came from the Jerusalem city hall, but the larger project -- 800 new apartments in Beitar, an ultra-Orthodox settlement, came from Shas. Olmert is not in a position to deny it: Shas leaders have made repeated threats to bring down his government if Olmert crosses them.
Rice arrived in the region on Saturday for three days of talks with Israeli and Palestinian officials. At a news conference with Abbas in Jordan, Rice said it was her impression that both sides were serious about advancing the talks.
"I think it's all moving in the right direction," she said.
But she also warned Israel to halt new settlement activities that could upset progress.
"Settlement activity should stop -- expansion should stop," Rice said.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat condemned the construction plans and appealed to the US to intervene.
"This announcement is changing the situation on the ground for the worse," Erekat said.
East Jerusalem, captured in the 1967 Middle East War and annexed by Israel shortly afterward, is home to 180,000 Jews, who live in neighborhoods built after the war.
Because of the annexation, Israel does not consider construction there to be settlement activity, but the Palestinians and the international community do, because no country has recognized Israel's annexation.
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
YELLOW SHIRTS: Many protesters were associated with pro-royalist groups that had previously supported the ouster of Paetongtarn’s father, Thaksin, in 2006 Protesters rallied on Saturday in the Thai capital to demand the resignation of court-suspended Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and in support of the armed forces following a violent border dispute with Cambodia that killed more than three dozen people and displaced more than 260,000. Gathered at Bangkok’s Victory Monument despite soaring temperatures, many sang patriotic songs and listened to speeches denouncing Paetongtarn and her father, former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and voiced their backing of the country’s army, which has always retained substantial power in the Southeast Asian country. Police said there were about 2,000 protesters by mid-afternoon, although
MOGAMI-CLASS FRIGATES: The deal is a ‘big step toward elevating national security cooperation with Australia, which is our special strategic partner,’ a Japanese official said Australia is to upgrade its navy with 11 Mogami-class frigates built by Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles said yesterday. Billed as Japan’s biggest defense export deal since World War II, Australia is to pay US$6 billion over the next 10 years to acquire the fleet of stealth frigates. Australia is in the midst of a major military restructure, bolstering its navy with long-range firepower in an effort to deter China. It is striving to expand its fleet of major warships from 11 to 26 over the next decade. “This is clearly the biggest defense-industry agreement that has ever
RSS