Heartbreaking Photo Depicts Brutal Results of Gaza Blockade

I can barely choke back the tears. Just amazing how these poor, deprived Palestinians managed to construct a brand new mall without building materials. As the report notes:

I have also attached new photos and film of Gaza’s hotels, beauty spas, swimming pools, beaches and street markets -- images the BBC, New York Times and others refuse to show you.

Meanwhile, Hamas are deliberately leaving some Gazans in plastic tents, in order to fool gullible Western journalists and politicians who are brought to Gaza to witness a staged “humanitarian crisis.”

H/T Dan.

Elvis Costello: Self-Righteous Douchebag of the Day

Oh, I just don't know where to begin. How about with this: Shut up and sing, Elvis. Nobody gives a rat's ass what you think of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Singer Elvis Costello has pulled out of two gigs in Israel due to concerns over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The musician, who was due to perform later this summer, said: "Having your name added to a concert schedule may be interpreted as a political act."

Costello said his decision was "a matter of instinct and conscience" and "too grave and complex" to be addressed at a concert.

He apologised to ticket holders and event organisers.

The songwriter also said sorry to Israeli journalists who have interviewed him in advance of the concerts.

"They were of great value and help to me in gaining an appreciation of the cultural scene," he said.

In a statement on his website, Costello explained: "I must believe that the audience for the coming concerts would have contained many people who question the policies of their government on settlement and deplore conditions that visit intimidation, humiliation or much worse on Palestinian civilians in the name of national security.

"I am also keenly aware of the sensitivity of these themes in the wake of so many despicable acts of violence perpetrated in the name of liberation."

This great humanitarian has zero concern, apparently, for the Israeli people living under a constant state of siege from the maniacs surrounding them who wish death and annihilation upon them. His concern for their tormentors, it seems, is much more grave.

He said that in the end his conscience and instinct told him that if these themes were "too grave and complex" to be addressed in concert, "then it is also quite impossible to look the other way."

Too grave and complex. Heavy, man.

Exchange Rate Now 1,000 Palestinians To 1 Israeli

Show of hands. Who didn't see this coming?

Once again news is coming out of Israel that the negotiations related to the release of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit has hit another snag. Of course the article blames Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu.

The problem this time? The terrorist organization Hamas wants 1,000 criminals delivered to the West Bank. Netanyahu prefers that they be delivered to Gaza or deported aboard. I can remember when these negotiations begin the number started at 400 I think. The Palestinians have always increased their demands and managed to always shift the blame to the Israelis.

Netanyahu had earlier agreed to allow some Hamas prisoners, who have shed Israeli blood, to be released to their homes in the West Bank . Now, according to the source, Netanyahu is demanding they be released either to Gaza or be deported abroad.

I don't see how releasing them into Gaza would be that big a deal. They can walk to the West Bank from there. As far as being deported, the Palestinians have enough money from all of the western countries to buy them air fare back home. On the other hand I can't think of any sane, rational country wanting to allow confirmed Muslim terrorists into their borders willingly.

The Palestinians are not serious about releasing Gilad. They never have been. I do however think that they are also setting the exchange rate for a human life. If 1 Israeli is equal to 1,000 Palestinians, I think it would be in Israel's best interest to impose this same exchange rate the next time a Palestinian suicide bomber explodes somewhere in Israel.

The Palestinians have set the conditions.

Heartbreaking, Isn't It? Vast Majority of Young Palis Are Depressed

I guess if I was stuck in that hellhole I'd probably also be bummed out. The big difference between them and the rest of civilization is most others strive to do something about their plight and improve their lives. These people just find ways to murder Jews and blame their probably on everyone but themselves. So this doesn't even merit breaking out the world's smallest violin. Interesting to note just 14% of them consider themselves human.

The vast majority of Palestinian youth are depressed, but do not believe that violence is helpful in resolving the Middle East conflict, said a UN report released on Tuesday.

"More than 80 percent of young Palestinians are depressed and 47 percent identify themselves as Muslim rather than Palestinian," the United Nations Development Programme report said.

"Depression was more marked in the Gaza Strip, where 55 percent said they were 'extremely' depressed," it said.

Sixty-nine percent of those questioned "believe that the use of violence as a means to resolve the conflict is not very helpful, while only eight percent believe it is an important tool."

When asked to define their identity, 47 percent called themselves Muslims, 28 percent Palestinians, 14 percent humans and 10 percent Arabs.

Sure seems to be some evidence correlating being a Muslim and being depressed. They'd probably find some solace in not being so angry and--perish the thought--seeking a new religion.

Coming soon from the UN: A report examining why American liberals are so miserable.

Obama's First Phone Call As President Went To???

Fatah leader and current alleged Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas was the first person supposedly called by the dear leader. That is Abbas on the right in the picture above shaking the hand of the current Hamas leader Haniyeh. The difference between these two is that Haniyeh wants Israel wiped off the map now and Abbas is willing to take the slow death by a thousand cuts approach to wiping Israel off the map.

Strange choice to say the least. Couldn't he find an ally? What does this mean for Israel? I think it is pretty clear who's side he will take in future matters related to the Palestine/Israel problems.

He did call President Mubarak of Egypt, Ehud Olmert,Prime Minister of Israel, and King Abdullah of Jordan. Think Middle East issues are at the top of his foreign relations list?

How long before we see more pictures of Nancy Pelosi sitting down with the chinless ophthalmologist Assad in Syria?

Horrors: Israelis Using 'Skunk Bombs' on Palis

Realistically speaking, it probably makes them smell better.

Israeli security forces have started to use liquid "skunk bombs" to disperse demonstrators in the occupied West Bank, police said on Sunday.

They said border police used the new crowd-control method for the first time on Friday at the weekly demonstration near the Palestinian village of Nilin against Israel's separation barrier.

Use of the stinking liquid has been given the green light by medical and legal authorities, police said.

It can be hurled by hand or with a special device, forcing most demonstrators to disperse and rush off to change their clothes because of the unbearable stench.

Palestinians Resume Rocket Attacks on Israel, Rewarded With $242 Million

Just imagine how much money they'd rake in if they acted like human beings. Even more shameful, our own Secretary of State is there to aid in this perfidy.

International donors committed 242 million dollars on Tuesday for security infrastructure in the Palestinian territories, a German government source said on the sidelines of a conference here.

The money will be passed to the Palestinian Authority over the next three years and will be spent on grassroots measures like putting more police on the beat and building police stations and courthouses to create conditions for a viable Palestinian state.

Delegations from more than 40 countries and international organisations attended the conference in the German capital, including US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

It was due to be followed in the evening by a meeting of the Middle East Quartet -- the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia -- as a truce between Israel and Hamas entered its sixth day.

"Every link in what we call the chain of security must be intact and unbreakable. To ... invest in a future state the Palestinians must have confidence that their police, courts, penal system are dedicated to upholding the rule of law and respecting human rights," Rice said at the opening of the one-day conference.

Hu much longer must this sick joke go on? And since when is maintaining law and order a grassroots measure?

WTF?

Meanwhile, after being re-armed with $242 million in money for weapons the children, the Pali terror gang resumed doing what comes naturally: Trying to murder Israelis, which bring us this immortal headline from MessNBC:

Palestinian rockets fired at Israel despite truce

Uh, not to quibble, but when rockets are fired, there is no truce. Then again, this is MSNBC, so expect nothing less than abject stupidity and leftwing nitwittery.

Militants in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip fired at least two rockets into southern Israel on Tuesday, breaching a five-day-old cease-fire.

The attack came hours after Israeli troops killed two Palestinians in a West Bank raid. The victims included an Islamic Jihad commander. The militant group later claimed responsibility for firing the rockets, saying the attack was intended to avenge the Israeli operation.

The West Bank is not formally part of the Gaza truce. But the Israeli raid could be seen as violating the spirit of the cease-fire.

Yes, and their reportage could be seen as violating the spirit of journalistic responsibility.

Eight Fulbright Scholarships Available

There are eight Fulbright Scholarships that won't be getting used this year so maybe this is good news for some of you that might have applied. The reason they are available is because eight residents of Gaza who had received the scholarships won't be using them.

Hadeel Abu Kawik was supposed to spend next year in the United States on the prestigious Fulbright scholarship program, but now it appears she will remain trapped in the Gaza Strip by an Israeli blockade.

Word that the U.S. State Department was canceling her scholarship came after Abu Kawik, 23 and a computer engineering student, went through a lengthy process for the scholarship that included interviews, exams and an English test.

"I was building my hope on this scholarship," she said Friday.

Seven other Gaza students also lost their grants. The decision was made because they would not be able to get exit visas from Israel, according to State Department spokesman Tom Casey.

Wahhhhh!

What was surprising is that although this is an AP article, apparently the editors were asleep since bits like this were allowed to slip through.

The teeming coastal territory and its 1.5 million inhabitants have been controlled by the Islamic militant group Hamas for nearly a year. Israel has kept its border crossings closed to everything but humanitarian aid in an attempt to weaken the group and end frequent rocket barrages aimed at Israeli towns.

Somebody, not necessarily a Fulbright scholar, may want to do the math and add up all of the money that is given to the Palestinians by everybody else in the world and the UN and see how much per person that works out to? They get more money per year then most states here in America get to run their states and the populations are a helluva of lot bigger. But hey, it ain't your money, right?

Well, actually it would be your money if the government didn't take it.

To the residents of Gaza, you made your bed, now sleep in it!

U.S.-Trained Pali Police Unprepared for the Job

Good thing we sank a reported $80 million into this training. Of course it should come as no surprise these clowns are unprepared and our money is going down the rathole.

Raise your hands all of you who didn't see this coming.

Of course, the WaPo goes out of their way to blame--guess who?--Israel!

The first class of Palestinian security officers trained under a multimillion-dollar U.S. program to strengthen the Palestinian Authority is deploying to one of the West Bank's most restive cities without promised supplies of body armor, helmets or even flashlights after Israel blocked a shipment of equipment.

The shortage in U.S.-funded supplies threatens the Palestinian government's ability to provide security in the West Bank, which Israel has made a condition of future withdrawals from the occupied territories. There have also been significant problems with the training, including a final round that one American involved in the program described as "a complete fiasco."

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who arrives in the region this weekend, has said the training program is an essential part of the Bush administration's push for an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement before it leaves office in January [snicker -- ed.].

But Israel has traditionally viewed Palestinian security forces as potential adversaries, even though this training class is affiliated with the moderate Palestinian government that serves as the Jewish state's counterpart in peace talks. In this case, Israel failed to approve delivery of the requested supplies in time for the deployment, according to senior Palestinian officials.

The Israelis have it exactly right. We're essentially supplying and equipping these goons who will turn their weapons on them at the first opportunity.

This has been a complete farce from the outset and we should be ashamed for taking any part in this fraud.

Never Enough Money for Terrorists: Pali Conference Plans to Raise $1.5 Billion

When it comes to shaking down the dummies of the world for money, nobody does it quite like the Palis.

Not content with the $7.4 billion recently pledged to them, now the terror goons have a conference planned for next month where they hope to raise another $1.5 billion.

Surely, it will all go to peaceful purposes and to feed the malnourished children who throw rocks and march with weapons all day.

A Palestinian-hosted investment conference plans to raise $600 million for the Gaza Strip but delay projects in the territory while Hamas remains in control, organisers said on Wednesday.

"In Gaza, it is very difficult to do business now," said Hassan Abu Libdeh, chief executive officer of the Palestine Investment Conference opening in the West Bank city of Bethlehem next month.

"We want to show those participating that Gaza has a legacy ... what's happening in Gaza now is of a temporary nature," he said, referring to its takeover by Hamas in fighting against Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction in June.

Abu Libdeh told reporters $900 million of the $1.5 billion expected to be raised by the conference would be spent on projects in the occupied West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem.

The other $600 million will be designated for the Gaza Strip where 1.5 million Palestinians live, many of them in poverty.

"We will remind the participants of the Gaza economy and the future of the Gaza economy ... and show some of the projects that will be available once things change," Abu Libdeh said.

Abu Libdeh said many of the planned "mega-projects" the conference hopes to promote would be slated for the Gaza Strip and 100 investors from the territory would attend the gathering.

Under pressure from the United States, which wants to see a deal on Palestinian statehood by year's end, Israel said this week it would ease access to Bethlehem for the conference.

Abu Libdeh said 1,200 foreign and Arab investors would also attend the May 21-23 meeting. Asked if Israel was invited to the conference, he said: "The whole world is invited."

Without Israel, they'd have collapsed already. They give more than enough, especially in lives.

One of the companies supporting this sham is Cisco Systems.

'At Cisco we are excited that businesses and government leaders in Palestine are increasingly appreciating the correlation between productivity, GDP growth and the need to build out the information technology infrastructure to position their economies, businesses and jobs for the future,' said Yvon Le Roux, Cisco's vice president for Africa and Levant Region.

What nonsense.

More Palis Than Ever Support Suicide Bombings

Hey, let's give them a state.

The number of Palestinians who support attacks against Israelis continues to rise and more than half of them favor suicide bombings, according to a poll published this weekend.

The percentage of Palestinians who support "resistance operations" against Israeli targets rose from 43.1 percent in September 2006 to 49.5% at present. Support for this option was highest in the Gaza Strip, at 58.1%, with 24.5% in the West Bank agreeing.

Palestinians who support bombing attacks against Israeli civilians rose from 44.8% in June 2006 to 48% in September 2006 and to 50.7% now.

Again, more Gazans support these operations (65.1%), compared with 42.3% of Palestinians in the West Bank.

The Palestinian public is divided on the rocket attacks on Israel: 39.3% said the firing of these rockets was "useful" to Palestinian national interests, while 35.7% said they were harmful.

Whatever the case, their "leaders" aren't too popular.

Probably too moderate for their liking.

Both Fatah and Hamas continue to lose support among the Palestinians, and the level of trust in political leaders also dropped.

Support for Abbas fell from 18.3% in November to 11.7% this month. The poll also showed that fewer Palestinians are satisfied with Abbas's performance.

Support for Haniyeh also went down, from 16.3% in November to 13.3% this month. The same applies to Fatah's imprisoned leader, Marwan Barghouti, whose popularity moved down from 14.3% to 12.8% during the same period.

With regards to confidence in the political parties, support for Fatah decreased from 40% in November to 32.5% this month, while Hamas's popularity went down from 19.7% to 17.8%.

Shocker: Palis 'Outraged' Over West Bank Settlements

Does a day ever go by where these people aren't outraged by something?

When your entire existence is based on victimhood, seething, whining and mayhem, it gets a bit predictable.

I suppose they expected the Israelis to just sit back and meekly accept the mass murder of their citizens while these people danced in the streets.

Well, keep whining.

Palestinians have reacted with outrage today after Israel announced plans to build hundreds of new homes in the occupied West Bank - just days after a Palestinian gunman opened fire in a Jewish school associated with the settler movement.

Israeli officials said they revived a plan to build a total of 750 homes in Givat Ze'ev, a settlement near Jerusalem.

The move is yet another blow to U.S.-brokered peace talks, Palestinians said. The talks were nearly knocked off track entirely last week when a Palestinian man opened fire in a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem, killing eight students and wounding dozens of others before being gunned down himself.

Housing Ministry officials said 200 partially-constructed units would now be completed. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert authorised building another 330 new homes in the area, his spokesman, Mark Regev, said.

Let's just forget this deluded fantasy that there will ever be peace. Until the maniacs lay down their arms, stop trying to murder Israelis on a daily basis, and accept what has generously been offered to them, they can forget about any so-called peace.

Arab news and more

I seem to be running across this guy from time to time while researching other stories. That somebody is Piers Morgan. Somebody I have written about before.
I was reading the Arab News online and I found a story in which Mr Morgan is highlighted. At first when I saw the name with this description

Piers Morgan, former editor of the UK’s Daily Mirror, gave the keynote address at the Arabian Business Media and Marketing Conference in Dubai last month. He criticized media outlets in the region when he expressed his concerns over the absence of competitiveness that he expected to be present here.

So I went looking and here is what I found. To say Mr Morgan is an interesting fellow is an understatment. I was shocked to read this

He had previously decided to change the Mirror's focus to serious news after the 11 September attacks, reflected by the paper's broadsheet-style front page on 12 September, 2001.

The Mirror took a strong anti-war stance in the approach to the war in Iraq and won the Newspaper of the Year Award 2001.

Mr Morgan lost his job at the Mirror over an incident whereby he published some pictures allegedly showing British soldiers abusing an Iraqi. The photos were fake. Gee where have we heard something like that before.
In light of how this fellow first came to my attention this was surprising. It doesn't change my first praise of his reasons for participating in Donald Trumps show and the charity he is representing, but it certainly adds a lot to profile of this man.

Oh yeah and the original story I was looking into when I got side tracked was this.

2,200 Palestinian Pilgrims Stranded at Aqaba
Abdul Jalil Mustafa, Arab News

AMMAN, 29 December 2007 — More than 2,200 Palestinian pilgrims, mostly affiliated with the Hamas group, were yesterday stranded at Jordan’s Red Sea port of Aqaba after the Egyptian authorities insisted that they pass through an Israeli-controlled crossing point to the Gaza Strip, Palestinian and Jordanian source said.

Wah Wah Wah. Do we hear any outcry about the Egyptians refusing to open the border crossing at Rafah, which these pilgrims want to use and which Egypt shut down after Hamas took control? Of course not. Border controls are fine everywhere but in America and Israel.

$7.4 Billion in Palestinian Aid 'Not Enough'

Seriously, I think I'm going to be ill. The $7.4 billion pledged to these terror goons was more than they asked for, yet now we're told it's not enough.

Donors' Palestinian budget aid short of target

An international conference this week that raised billions of dollars for the Palestinian government failed to yield the hoped-for amount of budget aid, figures released by host France show.

The 87 countries and international organizations that met in Paris on Monday pledged $7.4 billion in aid to the Western-backed government of President Mahmoud Abbas to boost the moribund Palestinian economy.

That is more than the $5.6 billion over three years that Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad had asked for.

But figures released by the French Foreign Ministry on Wednesday showed the biggest item in his request, budget aid, did not receive as much as he had hoped.

Fayyad had asked for $3.9 billion in budget aid to cover running costs, such as civil servants' salaries, and the foreign ministry said only $1.54 billion of the funds pledged were in the form of budget aid.

However, another $2.23 billion had yet to be broken down in terms of what it would fund.

Donor countries pledged $2.07 billion in aid for projects, which was more than the $1.7 billion asked for, the Foreign Ministry figures showed. There was also $996 million in humanitarian aid and $644 million in "other aid".

Enough is enough. Let these people sink or swim on their own.

But I'll be gracious enough to offer some suggestions. How about all these people so sympathetic to these cavemen hold a global fundraising movement. Maybe they can hold concerts to raise money?

Perhaps all the liberals in this country who complain they don't pay enough taxes pony up some cash themselves and donate it?

Hmmm? C'mon people, you support the Palis, so why don't you aid them financially as well?

Muslim Gunman Shot Dead in Jerusalem

The AFP works overtime on this story in an attempt to portray the Israelis as the bad guys. Notice every time an Israeli is mentioned it's usually prefaced by "ultra"; forget any mention of Muslims or Islamist extremists being portrayed as terrorists.

Palestinian killed in Jerusalem shooting

JERUSALEM (AFP) - A Palestinian man was shot dead in a gunfight with Israeli security guards from an ultra-nationalist Jewish association in the Old City of occupied east Jerusalem on Friday, police said.

It was the latest violent incident involving Jews and Arabs in the tense Arab sector of the city, whose fate is one of the thorniest issues at the heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Jerusalem police chief Aaron Franco said the Palestinian seized a pistol of one of the men not far from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the walled Old City, which also contains sites holy to Jews and Muslims.

He said the Palestinian shot and wounded the guard from the ultra-Orthodox Ateret Cohanim yeshiva, whose colleague then fired on the assailant and killed him.

Ten other people were wounded in the shooting, three of them seriously, according to Israel emergency services.

Witnesses said passers-by were hit by bullets from the guard's weapon but a police spokesman told AFP it was "too early to determine which shots caused the injuries."

He said that the slain Palestinian was aged about 18 but gave no further information about his identity.

Israel captured east Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and later annexed it as part of its "eternal and indivisible" capital of the Jewish state.

However, its claims are not recognised by the international community and Palestinians hope to make the eastern half of the city, where 200,000 Palestinians live, the capital of their promised state.

Ateret Cohanim, founded in 1978, is one of several ultra-nationalist organisations which have bought land and homes from Palestinians through various means in order to place Jews in the Arab neighbourhoods of Jerusalem, including the Old City.

Tensions in the city often run high over the Temple Mount, the compound revered by Jews that is also known to Muslims as Haram a-Sharif and houses the Al-Aqsa mosque, the third holiest site in Islam.

In May, two Palestinian assailants were killed and four Israeli policemen shot and wounded in a gunfight near east Jerusalem in the Palestinian village of Sheikh Saad.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed group loosely linked to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah party, had claimed responsibility for the May attack.

The latest death brings to 5,811 the number of people killed in Israeli-Palestinian violence since the start of the intifada in late 2000, the large majority Palestinians, according to an AFP count.

Boo-hoo. Maybe the majority of dead Palestinians would still be alive if they weren't trying to kill Israelis.

Since it's Friday, expect plentyof seething and outrage from the holy Islamists after they leave the ammunition depots mosques today.

Pali Car Inspection

You can just never get enough of these.

Israeli air strike kills 2 militants in Gaza Strip

GAZA, Aug 4 (Reuters) - An Israeli air strike killed two Palestinian militants in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday, ambulance crews and local residents said.

The Israeli military said the strike, which it described as a joint operation with the Shin Bet internal security service, targeted a truck carrying a shipping container with an explosives-laden vehicle hidden inside.

The Israeli attack, a military spokeswoman said in Tel Aviv, foiled "an imminent terrorist strike on Israel".

Which brings us to the ubiquitous car swarm.

Palestinians inspect a destroyed car after it was targeted by an Israeli air strike in the southern Gaza. ... REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

Here we have the remains of the day.

Palestinian carry the body of a member of the Islamic Jihad movement who was killed during clashes in Gaza. ... REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

Make that former member.

Sadly, some made it out alive.

Wounded Palestinians lie in a hospital following an Israeli air strike in the southern Gaza. Wounded ... said. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

This Ibraheem Abu Mustafa sure does get around.

Israel to Release 250 Pali Terrorists

No doubt they'll all return to their Pali hellhole and become fine, upstanding citizens.

And I'm 12 feet tall and made out of cheddar cheese.

Israeli Cabinet OKs prisoner release

JERUSALEM - The Israeli Cabinet on Sunday approved the release of 250 Palestinian prisoners, officials said, in the government's latest gesture of support for moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in his struggle against the Hamas militant group.

However, the officials said Israel had still not finalized the list of prisoners to be freed or the timing of the release. Palestinian officials said they were disappointed Israel was not coordinating the release with them.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert agreed to the prisoner release at a June 25 summit with Abbas as part of Israel's strategy of bolstering the Palestinian leader following Hamas' takeover of the Gaza Strip last month.

Israel also has transferred more than $100 million in frozen tax funds to Abbas, and pledged to ease travel restrictions on Palestinians in the West Bank.

IAF Whacks Six Palis

First they put the fire out.


Then comes the car swarm. Those Reuters photographers are always on the spot.

6 Palestinians dead in 2 IAF strikes

Six Palestinians were killed Saturday evening in two separate airstrikes in the Gaza Strip. At around 8:30 pm, an Israel Air Force fired a missile which killed three members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades. One of the casualties was identified as Salah Kopah, a senior group member in the Strip.

The Palestinians reported that the three casualties were members of the Shahid Ayman Jouda cells, which took part in a terror attack carried out recently by the Islamic Jihad in Kissufim. The three were hit near a welding workshop, where they were apparently manufacturing ammunition.

Earlier, three members of the al-Quds Brigades, the Islamic Jihad's military wing, were killed as an IAF aircraft fired at least one missile at a car in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis. The airstrike took place at around 5:30 pm.

A spokesman for the al-Quds Brigades told Ynet that all three casualties were members of the organization, contradicting the Palestinians' initial report, according to which the three were members of the Salah al-Din Brigades, the Popular Resistance Committees military wing.

Among the casualties were Muhammad al-Raei, a prominent member of the organization who fired an RPG missile at an IDF armored personnel carrier at the Philadelphi route on May 2004. An IDF officer and four troops were killed in the incident.

WARNING: Genius At Work

Admissions and graduation standards for journalism school must be pitifully low -- if existent at all. Duncan Hooper of the UK's Telegraph newspaper provides this keen perspective on current events.

Israel has been hit by rockets fired from Lebanon for the first time since it sent troops across the border to flush out Hizbollah guerillas last summer.

The two Katyusha rockets hit a car and a factory in the northern town of Kiryat Shemona this afternoon but there were no reported casualties.

Hizbollah, which fired almost 4,000 rockets during the 34-day conflict last year, immediately denied responsibility for the attack, raising the prospect that Palestinian groups, in the midst of a bitter internal power struggle, may have been involved.

True Pulitzer Prize material.

Palestinian Ceasefire Update

Fresh Gaza violence leaves seven dead

Seven Palestinians were killed in Gaza today during fighting between rival armed factions, including a gun battle inside a hospital, which left three dead and several more injured.

Although Egyptian mediators have arranged several brief ceasefires between gunmen from the Islamist movement Hamas, which won elections last year, and its rival, Fatah, there still appears to be no agreement between the groups to halt the battles.

MENSA member?

Shooting broke out in Beit Hanoun, a town in the north of Gaza, with the killing of a Fatah bodyguard and a Hamas fighter. The gun battles then continued when armed men stormed into the Beit Hanoun hospital, which was being guarded by Hamas gunmen. Three people in the hospital were killed - a father and two sons. One was apparently shot from close range. At least 19 others were injured.

In Gaza City, gunmen fired on the offices of Ismail Haniyeh, the prime minister and a Hamas leader, as he was holding a cabinet meeting. No one was hurt, but the cabinet meeting was cancelled. Most of the cabinet members present were from Hamas, although one was from Fatah.

In a separate incident, the home of the sports minister, a Hamas figure and close ally of Mr Haniyeh, was fired on but no one was injured. Later there were also shots exchanged at Gaza City's main hospital, Shifa.

The factional fighting, which Palestinian analysts say is fuelled mostly by a struggle for power, has now claimed around 620 lives since Hamas came to power early last year. The violence has left many senior Palestinian figures warning of civil war in Gaza.

I know, let's give 'em a state!