Israel raids over Lebanon and Palestina

[Menydh]

Rice outlines strategy for peace

The Jerusalem Post
July 21, 2006

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, heading for a weekend trip to the troubled Middle East, said Friday she would work with allies in the region to help create conditions for "stability and lasting peace."

She ruled out a quick cease-fire as a "false promise" and defended her decision not to talk to officials from Hizbullah or Syria.

"Syria knows what it needs to do and Hizbullah is the source of the problem," Rice said at the State Department as she outlined US hopes for a diplomatic solution to the current crisis.

Rice said she was meeting not only with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, but also with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as well as with allies at a gathering in Rome.

Asked why she didn't go earlier and engage in quick-hit diplomacy to try to end the fighting that has gripped the region, she replied, "I could have gotten on a plane and rushed over and started shuttling and it wouldn't have been clear what I was shuttling to do."

Daniel Ayalon, Israel's ambassador to Washington, told The Associated Press that Israel would not rule out an eventual international stabilization force in south Lebanon. But, he said, Israel was first determined to take out Hizbullah's command and control centers and weapons stockpiles.

He described it as a "mop-up" operation, and said that Israel had no desire to repeat its 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon that ended in 2000.

"They overplayed their hand, they miscalculated," Ayalon said of Hizbullah operatives based in southern Lebanon and supported by Syria and Iran.

"This is a war not of our choosing," he said. The flare-up in violence began after Hizbullah captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight others in a cross-border operation last week.

Rice said the United States was committed to ending the bloodshed, but didn't want to do it before certain conditions were met. The United States has said all along that Hizbullah must first turn over the two Israeli soldiers who were captured and stop firing missiles into Israel.

"We do seek an end to the current violence, we seek it urgently. We also seek to address the root causes of that violence," she said. "A cease-fire would be a false promise if it simply returns us to the status quo."

Rice said that it was important to deal with the "root cause" of the violence, echoing what has been the US position since last week.

President George W. Bush, asked what he hopes Rice will achieve on her trip, said he would discuss it with her when he returns to the White House on Sunday. He was speaking at a restaurant in Aurora, Colo., as he met with 10 members of the military who recently returned from Iraq.

Announcing plans earlier for a weekend meeting that Bush and Rice will have with Saudi officials, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said, "This is part of the president's broader diplomatic outreach on the developing situation in the Middle East."


[source]

[Errigal]

July 22, 2006
Israel's Disproportionate Violence No Surprise
by Jonathan Cook





The general surprise that Lebanese civilians are taking the brunt of Israel's onslaught – and the unwillingness in some quarters of the media to report the fact – reflects a poor understanding of Israel's historical use of violence. Since its birth six decades ago, Israel has always been officially "going after the terrorists," but its actions have invariably harmed civilians in an indiscriminate manner.

The roll call of dishonor is long indeed, but its highlights include: the massacre of some 200 civilians in Tantura, as well as large-scale massacres in at least a dozen other Palestinian villages, during the 1948 war that established Israel; Ariel Sharon\'s attack on the village of Qibya in 1953 that killed 70 innocent Palestinians; the Kfar Qassem massacre inside Israel when 49 farm workers were gunned down at an improvised army checkpoint; a massacre in the same year in the refugee camp of Khan Yunis, in Gaza, in which more than 250 civilians were killed; attacks on dozens of Palestinian, Egyptian and Syrian villages during the 1967 war; the killing of six unarmed Arab citizens of Israel in 1976; the massacre of hundreds of Palestinian civilians in the Lebanese refugee camps of Sabra and Shatilla in 1982; the unremitting use of lethal force by the army against unarmed Palestinians, often women and children, during the first intifada of 1987-93; the aerial bombardment of Qana in south Lebanon in 1996 that killed more than 100 civilians; and the endless "collateral damage" of Palestinian civilians during the second intifada, including a half-ton bomb that killed a husband and wide and their seven children a week ago.


The true reasons for these deaths are concealed from credulous observers by Israel's use of Orwellian language. When it says it is destroying the "infrastructure of terror," Israel means it is crushing all Arab resistance to its territorial ambitions in the region. The "infrastructure" includes most Arab men, women and children because they continue to support – against Israel's wishes – their peoples' rights to self-determination without interference from the Israeli army.


In this sense, and others, there is very little difference between what Israel is doing in Gaza to overturn the democratic wishes of the Palestinian electorate and what it is doing in Lebanon to smash any hopes of a democratic future for its northern neighbor. In Gaza, it wants Hamas destroyed because Hamas is prepared to counter Israel's unilateral policies with its own unilateral agenda; and in Lebanon, Israel wants Hezbollah obliterated because it is the only force capable, possibly, of preventing a repeat of Israel's long invasion and occupation of the 1980s and 1990s.


By rounding up the Palestinian cabinet, Israel is not destroying terror, it is clipping the political wings of Hamas, those in its leadership who are quickly learning the arts of government and searching for a space in which they can negotiate with Israel. Through its rejectionist behavior, Israel is only confirming the doubts of those in the Hamas military wing who argue Israel always acts in bad faith.


Similarly in Lebanon, Israel is holding Hezbollah less to account with its attacks than the Lebanese people and their government, despite the latter's transparently shaky grip on the country. Israel's military strikes polarize opinion in Lebanon, weaken Fouad Siniora and his ministers, and threaten to push Lebanon over the brink into another civil war.


Israel is keen to talk about "changing the balance of power" in Gaza and Lebanon, implying that it is trying to strengthen the "democrats" against the "terrorists." But this impression is entirely false. Israeli actions are destroying what little balance of power exists in Gaza and Lebanon so that the two areas become ungovernable.
In Gaza, Israel has been engineering a debilitating struggle for power between Fatah and Hamas, while in Lebanon whatever hollow shell of national unity has existed till now is in danger of cracking under the strain of the Israeli onslaught.


Superficially at least, this seems self-destructive behavior on Israel's part, given that it has also been striving to detect the fingerprints of outside actors in Gaza and Lebanon.


In the case of Gaza, Israel points to Syria as a safe haven for the exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshal, to Hezbollah and Iran as sponsors of Hamas "terror" and even to a new al-Qaeda presence. In the case of Lebanon, Israel additionally identifies the strong ties between Hezbollah and Damascus and Tehran.


So why would Israel want Lebanon and Gaza to be ravaged by factional fighting of the kind that might make them more vulnerable to this kind of unwelcome interference from outside?


A history lesson or two helps clarify Israel's reasoning.
In the occupied Palestinian territories, Hamas was born during the upheavals of the first intifada and encouraged by Israel as a counterweight to the unifying secular Palestinian nationalism of Yasser Arafat.


In Lebanon, the Shi'ite militia Hezbollah was the inevitable byproduct of Israel's occupation of the south and its establishment of a mostly Christian proxy militia, the South Lebanon Army, against the Muslim majority.
In both cases it is clear Israel hoped that, by Islamizing its opponents in these regional conflicts, it would delegitimize them in the eyes of Western allies and that it could cultivate sectarianism as a way to further weaken the social cohesiveness of its neighbors.


Recently Israel has encouraged the slide deeper into Islamic extremism through its policies of unilateralism and its refusal to negotiate.


The same set of policies is being continued now in the Palestinian territories and Lebanon: the shattering of these two societies will only deepen the trend toward radical Islam. Islamic movements not only offer the best hope of local resistance to Israel for these weakened societies but they also offer a parallel social infrastructure of health care and welfare services as state institutions collapse.


There is immediate advantage for Israel in this outcome. With secular society crushed and Islamic resistance movements filling the void, Israel will be able to reinforce the impression of many in the West that Israel is on the front line of global "war of terror" being waged by a single implacable enemy, Islam. Israel's ability to persuade the world that this war is being waged against the whole "civilized" Judeo-Christian West will be made that bit easier.


As a result, Israel may be able to drag its paymaster, the United States, deeper into the mire of the Middle East as a junior partner rather than as an honest broker, giving Israel cover while it carves up yet more Palestinian land for annexation, puts further pressure on the Palestinians to leave their homeland, and destabilizes its regional enemies so that they are powerless to offer protest or resistance.


For some time President Bush has found himself in no position to criticize Israeli actions when Tel Aviv claims to be doing no more to the Palestinians than the US is doing to the Iraqis. If the US allows itself to be handcuffed to Israel's even more extreme version of the "war on terror," the consequences will be dire not just for the Palestinians or the region, but for all of us.





From Antiwar.com

[Menydh]

Bush rushes bombs to Israel

Al Jazeera
July 22, 2006

The Bush administration is rushing a delivery of precision-guided bombs to Israel, according to The New York Times.

Citing American officials who spoke on condition of anonymity, the Times said on Saturday that the decision to ship the weapons quickly came after relatively little debate within the White House.

The report said that the news threatens to anger Arab governments and others who could perceive Washington as aiding Israel in the manner that Iran has armed Hezbollah.

The munitions are part of a sales package approved last year, the officials said. But some military officers said the request for expedited delivery was unusual and indicated that Israel has many targets it plans to hit in Lebanon.

The arms shipment has not been announced publicly. The officials who described the decision by George Bush's administration to rush the munitions included employees of two government agencies.

One of them said the shipment was only one example out of a broad array of armaments that the United States has long provided Israel, the Times said.

Pentagon and military officials declined to describe in detail the size and contents of the shipment to Israel, the newspaper said.

But one US official said the shipment should not be compared to the kind of "emergency resupply" of dwindling Israeli stockpiles that was provided during the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, according to the Times report.


[source]

[Menydh]

'Civilians bearing brunt of conflict'

Al Jazeera
July 24, 2006

The Lebanese government has said Lebanon is on the verge of a humanitarian disaster as foodstuffs, medicines and basic necessities are quickly being depleted under an Israeli naval, land and aerial blockade.

Middle East spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Nada Doumani says international humanitarian law dictates that the blockade imposed on Lebanon must not prevent foodstuffs and other essential supplies from reaching the civilian population.


[source]

Rice sets tough terms for truce

Al Jazeera
July 25, 2006

Condoleezza Rice has blamed Hezbollah for the war with Israel and said a ceasefire would be possible only if two kidnapped Israeli soldiers were freed.

[...]

Rice offered sympathy for the Israeli people as fighting raged between their armed forces and the Shia group, Hezbollah, on the eve of her talks with Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, and Mahmud Abbas, the Palestinian president.


[source]

Hezbollah blamed for civilian deaths

Al Jazeera
July 25, 2006

Jan Egeland, the UN humanitarian chief, has accused Hezbollah of "cowardly blending" among Lebanese civilians and causing the deaths of hundreds during two weeks of cross-border violence with Israel.

The militant group has built bunkers and tunnels near the Israeli border to shelter weapons and fighters, and its members easily blend in among civilians.

[...]On Sunday he had toured the rubble of Beirut's southern suburbs, a once-teeming Shiite district where Hezbollah had its headquarters.

During that visit he condemned the killing and wounding of civilians by both sides, and called Israel's offensive "disproportionate" and "a violation of international humanitarian law."

[...]

"Consistently, from the Hezbollah heartland, my message was that Hezbollah must stop this cowardly blending ... among women and children," he said.

"I heard they were proud because they lost very few fighters and that it was the civilians bearing the brunt of this. I don't think anyone should be proud of having many more children and women dead than armed men."


[source]

[Menydh]

One killed, 48 wounded as rocket salvos strike North

Jerusalem Post
July 25, 2006

After a comparatively quiet morning, the North of Israel found itself once again under rocket fire early Tuesday afternoon, with rockets landing in Kfar Mrar, Kiryat Shmona, Acre, and Nahariya. The heaviest barrage, which included 16 rockets, struck Haifa.

In Kfar Mrar, a 15-year-old girl was killed after a rocket stuck a private residence near a mosque in the Galilee village, which is home to Druse, Christians, and Muslims. 24 other people were wounded in the attack - one seriously, two moderately and two lightly. 20 were being treated for shock, according to Magen David Adom.

Earlier, in Haifa, at least 23 people were wounded - two moderately and 11 lightly - when 16 rockets pounded the city. The rest were suffering from shock. Magen David Adom ambulances evacuated the wounded to Haifa's Rambam Hospital.


[source]

[Menydh]

Israeli troops attack Hezbollah heartland

The Globe and Mail
July 25, 2006

Israeli troops moved in yesterday on a southern Lebanese town symbolic as a base for Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Jerusalem last night to begin working toward a diplomatic solution.

[...]

An Israeli general said the army is expanding its ground invasion from what it has previously said were "pinpoint" operations in efforts to push back Hezbollah.

"The scope continues to grow in recent days," Brigadier-General Alon Friedman told Army Radio, adding that the operation would continue for as long as 10 more days. "We are advancing."

Two Israeli soldiers, the co-pilots of a helicopter, died yesterday when their helicopter went down.

Two more Israeli soldiers were killed in yesterday's fighting, and at least 14 others wounded, and two Hezbollah guerrillas were reported captured.

Forty-one Israelis, including 17 civilians, and at least 384 Lebanese, the vast majority of them civilians, have now been reported killed. Humanitarian agencies interviewing floods of refugees coming into Beirut and Sidon from southern Lebanon say they expect the death toll in Lebanon to be much higher, as bodies remain trapped under rubble.

Refugees who arrived at a makeshift shelter outside Beirut yesterday after the harrowing drive out of south Lebanon described driving by carloads of corpses that no one has yet been able to count. "We saw three cars with bodies still in them," said Mohammed Mahfouz, the 42-year-old owner of a tire store in the southern town of Aytaroun.

He said the cars appeared to have been destroyed by Israeli air strikes.

Rocket fire on northern Israel has also continued unabated; more than 80 rockets landed yesterday, injuring more than 20 people.


[source]

[Savage]

Israel bomb kills at least 4 UN observers in Lebanon (Reuters)

An Israeli air strike on Tuesday hit a U.N. base in southern Lebanon, killing four United Nations observers, Lebanese security sources said.

The UNIFIL peacekeeping force in Lebanon confirmed that there were U.N. casualties but declined to say if any observers had been killed at the base, which appears to have collapsed while the U.N. observers were in the shelter.

"One aerial bomb directly impacted the building and shelter in the base of the United Nations Observer Group in Lebanon in the area of Khiam," said Milos Strugar, a UNIFIL spokesman.

"There are casualties among the observers. A UNIFIL dispatched rescue team which is on the spot is still unable to clear the rubble," he said.


"There were 14 other incidents of firing close to this position in the afternoon from the Israeli side and the firing continued during the rescue operation," he said.

In Jerusalem, an Israeli army spokeswoman said the military was investigating the report.

In Rome, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan declined immediate comment on the bombing. "We are trying to get more details".

An Israeli tank shell hit a UNIFIL position in southern Lebanon on Monday, wounding four Ghanaian soldiers. Shrapnel from tank shells fired from the Israeli side seriously wounded an Indian soldier last week and Hizbollah fire wounded an Italian observer on the border on Sunday.

In 1996, during Israel's Grapes of Wrath campaign in Lebanon, an Israeli jet bombed a UNIFIL compound in the southern village of Qana, killing 106 civilians sheltering inside.

UNIFIL was created in 1978 after Israel's first major invasion of southern Lebanon and has been there ever since. The United Nations has called for a bigger, better armed, more robust international force in the area.




And the CNN version, focusing on USA`s role as peacemaker in the region...

U.N.: Israeli airstrike hits U.N. observer post. Sources: Condoleezza Rice floats plan to end conflict

An Israeli airstrike hit a United Nations post in the southern Lebanon late Tuesday, killing four of the agency's observers, according to the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon.

UNIFIL sent a rescue-and-medical team to the city of Khiyam, and the team was trying to clear rubble early Wednesday. UNIFIL said there were at least 14 incidents of firing close to the post since Tuesday afternoon.

The Israel Defense Forces said it was looking into the report, which came as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice proposed an ambitious plan in which international military forces would help the Lebanese government stabilize southern Lebanon, Lebanese political sources said.

Rice pitched the plan Tuesday to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem, then traveled to the West Bank city of Ramallah for talks with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Rice's diplomatic moves came on the 14th day of the conflict sparked by Hezbollah's capture of two Israeli soldiers.

Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes continued to pound Lebanese cities, while Hezbollah rockets rained down on northern Israel.

The Israel Defense Forces also said it killed senior Hezbollah commander Abu Jaafar, who Israel says was in charge of the central area of Lebanon's border with Israel. CNN was not able to confirm the report and there has been no confirmation from Hezbollah.

Since July 12, at least 392 people, mostly civilians, have been killed and as many as 1,383 wounded in Lebanon, Lebanese security officials said Tuesday.

At least 41 Israelis have died, including 19 civilians, and at least 388 have been wounded, Israeli officials said.

The plan proposed by Rice initially would involve putting an international force of up to 10,000 Turkish and Egyptian troops under a NATO or U.N. commander into southern Lebanon following a cease-fire, the Lebanese political sources said.

Another international force of up to 30,000 troops then would help the Lebanese government regain control over the region, the sources said. (Full story)

Rice presented the plan Monday to Lebanese officials, the sources said, and will show it to European foreign ministers Wednesday in Rome, Italy.

U.S. and diplomatic sources said Lebanese officials are leaking details of the proposal because they are opposed to many of them.

The sources describe the plan as an outline or working proposal and said no one has agreed to it. They also said there are many hurdles to overcome before it could be implemented.

[Savage]

Israel kills 1,000 civilians in Lebanon



8/10/2006 11:20:00 AM GMT Source

More than 1,000 Lebanese civilians, 30% of them children, have been killed since Israel launched its bloody war on Lebanon on July 12, an official body said on Thursday, according to AFP.

The state relief committee said at least 1,002 civilians, 30% of them children under 12, have been killed as well as 30 Lebanese soldiers and policemen.

The committee added that 3,580 have been wounded so far.

The Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah said that 58 of its fighters have died, while seven fighters of the Amal movement, which is allied to Hezbollah, have been killed during the four-week-old offensive.

The pro-Syrian Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) has also announced the death of one of its fighters.

Four United Nations observers and one member of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) have also been killed in Israeli attacks.

The Lebanese High Relief Commission also said that 915,792 people have been displaced in just 30 days, including 220,000 Lebanese who fled the war-torn country.

This figure also includes 100,000 foreigners or dual nationals who have been evacuated, according to an AFP count.

Israel claims it halted Lebanon assault, but seizes towns

Israeli troops pushed deeper into Lebanon on Thursday and seized southern Lebanese towns even though the Jewish state claimed that it held off its massive offensive to give diplomacy a chance to end the month-old war, Reuters news agency reported.

Israel’s Maariv daily reported that Israeli leaders decided last night to suspend a plan they had approved hours earlier to expand the ground offensive in southern Lebanon.

"There is a certain diplomatic process under way," Tourism Minister Yitzhak Herzog told Israel's Army Radio. "We can allow a little more time to see if there's a possibility for a diplomatic process."

But Herzog, a member of Israel's decision-making security cabinet, also made clear that Israel would resume its deadly assault if diplomacy failed.

"If there won't be a diplomatic solution, there will be a need to remove this threat," he added, referring to the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah.

Israel Radio also quoted a top political source as saying Israel was pessimistic about the outcome of the diplomatic efforts, adding that they “could collapse within hours.

Israel currently has more than 10,000 ground troops operating within around 8 km of the Israel-Lebanon border, but Wednesday’s decision to widen the offensive could require the deployment of at least 30,000 additional troops who would go as far as the Litani River, up to 30 km into Lebanon.

The Jewish state shows no signs of easing its deadly offensive, despite urgent pleas from aid agencies for a respite from the fighting to deliver urgently needed aid to Lebanon, which has been virtually cut off from the outside world.

Israel's Deputy Prime Minister Eli Yishai even said on Wednesday that the war would last at least another month.

Israel seizes Christian towns

Despite Israeli claims that the expanded offensive was put on hold, Israel’s Channel Two television reported late Wednesday that ground military operations were under war, citing movement of troops and tanks from the northern town of Kiryat Shmona toward al-Khiam.

Lebanese police also reported fierce clashes in al-Khiam, adding that Israeli troops fired more than 1,000 shells on the town, and that Hezbollah fighters responded with anti-tank rockets.

Israeli forces also seized the Christian towns of Qlaiah and Marjayoun, a major border town about 10 km inside Lebanon.

Witnesses told Reuters news agency that Israeli troops had moved on foot through Marjayoun, as well as Qlaiah and the nearby village of Burj al-Molouk. The soldiers were followed by tanks which deployed on roads nearby, drawing intense Hezbollah rocket and mortar fire.

In Marjayun, the head of the town council, Fuad Hamra, told Lebanese television that sporadic shooting could be heard. "We have a problem because we have 600 displaced in schools. We were supposed to deliver water for them and now we cannot do anything" he said.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah said in a statement that it destroyed 11 Israeli tanks, killing or injuring their crew, in fighting in the area. It added that it knocked out two more two tanks near the village of Ainata to the west.

Marjayun was the headquarters of pro-Israeli South Lebanon Army militia during Israel’s 22-year occupation of the south Lebanon that ended in May 2000. It is now the site of one of the largest Lebanese army barracks in the border area.

The Lebanese military has so far stayed on the sidelines of the conflict. But the government has recently offered to deploy 15,000 Lebanese soldiers backed by UN peacekeepers in the south in order to stabilize the area, provided that Israeli forces withdraw immediately and end all hostilities.

On Wednesday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah backed the government’s plan, but he repeated his opposition to the idea of sending international troops to the border region to disarm the resistance movement, as demanded by the Israelis and a draft UN resolution.

"If everyone sees that deploying the army will help find a way out politically that would result in the halting of aggression ... this for us is a national and honorable way out," he said in a televised address.

Sheikh Nasrallah also warned that the Israeli army would face higher casualties if it launched the expanded offensive.

"I tell the Zionists that you can invade but this will be very expensive," he said. “You will not be able to stay on our land ... we will transform our dear south into the graveyard of the Zionist invaders and if there is no other way than a confrontation then welcome to the large-scale ground operation."

He also insisted that his arsenal had not been seriously depleted by the Israeli offensive, and urged Arab residents of Haifa to leave the city.

Despite its military superiority, Israel's armed forces have found it much harder than expected to crush Hezbollah or curb its rocket attacks.

The Israeli army said that 15 of its soldiers were killed in fighting with Hezbollah fighters on Wednesday, one of the deadliest days in the conflict.

More than 116 Israelis, mostly soldiers, have died since the Israeli offensive began.

UN wrangling

Meanwhile, members of the UN Security Council are still trying to reword a draft calling for a ceasefire after Lebanon and the Arab League said that it should call for an immediate ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.

Correspondents say there are difference between France and the U.S., who co-sponsored the original resolution, and that no vote seems imminent.

The U.S. backs Israel's plan to keep its troops in Lebanon until an international force deploys, while France, which may lead the foreign force, doesn’t want it to deploy before a ceasefire and a political agreement.

Meanwhile, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said that his country will sever diplomatic ties with Israel in protest against its deadly offensives in Lebanon and Gaza, Reuters news agency reported.

The Venezuelan leader has already withdrawn Caracas' charge d'affaires to Israel, a move that led Israel to call back its ambassador to Venezuela.

In a statement, President Chavez said he had withdrawn Venezuela's ambassador to Israel out of "indignation at seeing how the state of Israel continues ... bombarding, killing, quartering" in Lebanon and Gaza.

Gaza killings “utterly unjustifiable”

The UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said that the war in Lebanon shouldn’t distract attention from the situation in Gaza, according to the BBC.

"The continued killing and injuring of hundreds of civilians, including children, in Gaza, by Israeli forces is utterly unjustifiable," Annan’s spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said.

He also stressed "the urgent need to work towards a solution to the current crisis in the occupied Palestinian territory".

This "further undermines the Palestinian institutions which must be preserved if a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is to be achieved", he added.

Annan also expressed grave concern over the "arbitrary arrests" of top Palestinian officials, including Aziz Dweik, the Palestinian parliamentary speaker arrested by Israel last Sunday.

Meanwhile, Palestinian officials said an Israeli air strike on Gaza City killed more than three Palestinians on Wednesday, including a little girl.

At least three others were wounded, including a child who is in critical condition, medics said.

In a seperate development, Israel briefly opened the Rafah border crossing from Gaza to Egypt.

The crossing, Gaza's main gateway to the outside world, has been closed for the past seven weeks. It opened today for a few hours, allowing about 1,000 people to cross from Gaza into Egypt.

Israel’s deadly offensive in Gaza, which began on June 28, has killed more than 170 Palestinians, mostly civilians.