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Four Palestinians have died in recent days awaiting entry into the Gaza Strip on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing, which has been closed for nearly two weeks since the kidnapping of Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit. More than 3,000 Palestinians, including 578 deemed "urgent humanitarian cases," have been stranded for 16 days inside a make-shift terminal on the Egyptian side of the crossing, the Red Cross said Monday. Two Palestinians died at the crossing on Tuesday - a 19-year-old woman and a 1.5-year-old infant.

Israel turned up the pressure on Palestinian militants to release a captive soldier Wednesday, sending its warplanes to bomb a Hamas training camp after knocking out electricity and water supplies for most of the 1.3 million residents of the Gaza Strip. The Hamas-led Palestinian government called for a prisoner swap with Israel, saying the Gaza offensive would not secure the soldier's release. Hamas-affiliated militants holding the hostage previously made that demand, but this was the first time the government did. Tensions escalated Wednesday evening as the military fired artillery near Gaza City - the first time Israel has targeted that...

Plast-inian, the PLASTIC language of the Arab Muslim 'Palestinians' - PLASTINIAN - Whether the (so called) 'Palestinian' Arab Muslims are a "nation" that is 39 years old (since 1967) or a bit more than that or even if you believe that they are just another group of Arabs, one thing is certain, they have contributed some vocabulary, Take some PLASTINIAN lessons: Hamas' terrorists greed for higher salaries (2006) = "starving Palestinians". Killing it's own people (like Muhammad Al Dura 2000, Rafah 2002 in a cave & now Gaza beach 2006) = "israeli aggression". Arab settlers (at the 1800's and their...

Fearing for their safety: European monitors at the Rafah crossing left their posts Tuesday afternoon, Palestinian sources reported. The Europeans apparently decided to leave the crossing after being instructed to do so in light of fears for their safety, after more than a dozen foreign nationals were abducted in the Gaza Strip and West Bank in protest of the IDF's Jericho operation Tuesday. Israeli security officials are closely monitoring the situation, as Rafah constitutes the major crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, with developments in the area possibly affecting Israel. At this time, the army is not preparing to...

Palestinian police angry over growing lawlessness in the Gaza Strip stormed the Gaza-Egypt border crossing Friday, shutting down the border and forcing European monitors to flee, Palestinian and European officials said. About 100 policemen entered the Rafah compound and took up positions alongside border patrol officers at the customs section of the crossing, Palestinian security officials and witnesses said. The European observers — responsible for monitoring the crossing and ensuring the terms of an Israeli-Palestinian agreement are upheld — fled the area, fearing the situation was getting out of control, the officials said.

JERUSALEM - Palestinians have allowed up to 15 militants wanted by Israel to return to the Gaza Strip in recent days, officials said Friday, in what Israel said was a violation of U.S.-brokered deal for securing the border. The dispute over the entry of the Hamas militants — including one of the group's founders — through the Rafah terminal on the Gaza-Egypt border threatened to undermine the biggest diplomatic breakthrough since Israel's withdrawal from Gaza. Palestinian security officials acknowledged that wanted men entered Gaza through Rafah, but said anyone with a Palestinian identity card can come into the coastal strip....

Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza, and last week permitted Palestinians to pass between Egypt and Gaza through the Rafah border crossing. The agreement to open this border point was hailed as a positive step for Palestinians -- but who cares about the consequences for Israel? It looks like Rafah will become another security loophole for Palestinian terrorists (Jerusalem Post): Rafik al-Hasanat, a senior member of Hamas who has been wanted by Israel for more than a decade, on Wednesday night returned to the Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing. ... A senior member of the armed wing of Hamas,...

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas officially opened the Rafah crossing from Gaza to Egypt Friday, enabling Palestinians to cross to and from a neighboring country away - for the first time - from the gaze of IDF soldiers. "Today is a great day, it is a day of happiness. It is a day of happiness because it means an enormous step forward for the freedom of the Palestinian people, freedom to move, to come and go, to visit ones family, to have medical care, to study abroad," European Union envoy Marc Otte said. "It's as important as bread and water....

The Rafah Agreement is against the law, common sense and prudence by Ted Belman Every since the Roadmap was introduced, I railed against the stipulations that Palestine be created and that it be viable and contiguous. These should be matters for negotiation. More recently I admonished Israel to Reject the Link arguing only that she wasn’t obligated to provide it. Now that Israel has accepted the Rafah Agreement the land link appears more ominous. David Hornik in his article Folly in Gaza:The Sequal, reports, “Since the disengagement, 35 Gazan export trucks have gone through it daily. Under the agreement, this...

EU ready to monitor Gaza-Egypt border, but Israel may not watch By Israel Insider staff and partners November 8, 2005 The EU has agreed to monitor the Gaza-Egypt Rafah border crossing and train Palestinian police forces. The decision, concluded Monday in a meeting in Brussels, Belgium, follows Israeli and Palestinian requests for EU presence at the Rafah crossing. Javier Solana, the EU's security affairs chief, said that the missions would represent the "most important security presence in the Middle East ever undertaken by the European Union" as part of the Mideast peace process. EU foreign ministers agreed to "assume the...

Mofaz meets with Mubarak in Cairo, agrees to opening Rafah with third party By Israel Insider staff and partners October 27, 2005 Israel's defense minister said Wednesday that agreement has been reached to let a third party join Egypt and the Palestinians monitor Gaza Strip crossing points. Shaul Mofaz, who held talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in a Cairo palace, said talks were ongoing over who the third party would be, although Egypt and the Palestinians have expressed support for a European presence. "It has been initially agreed for a third party to be present on the Rafah crossing...

Oct. 25, 2005 20:43 Mofaz off to Cairo to meet Mubarak By ARIEH O'SULLIVAN Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz flies to Cairo Wednesday for a one-day meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to discuss border crossing arrangements with the Gaza Strip. The sudden invitation to Cairo came following Mubarak's meeting on Monday with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas who stopped in Egypt to brief Mubarak on his talks with US President Bush in Washington last week. It also comes amid criticism by a top Mideast envoy for dragging its feet over opening the Gaza border. Mofaz's visit will also include a meeting...

Contents IntroductionWhat is the PSM/ISM?ISM Rewriting History ACT NOW! - OPPOSE GOOGLE'S PLAN Automatically send emails opposing Google's planSign a petition Introduction According to Lee Kaplan, writing for FrontPageMagazine.com: The Internet giant Google will give news agency status to the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), according to an anonymous source at Google. If true, the ISM—an affiliate of the anarchist/communist wing of the PLO—would be on par with professional news services such as CNN, Fox, and Associated Press. … The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and the Palestinian Solidarity Movement (PSM) are related and interconnected organizations that have one goal: the...

Dec. 16, 2004 23:53 IAF hits target in south Gaza By MARGOT DUDKEVITCH An IAF helicopter fired a missile at a building in the Tel Sultan neighborhood in Rafah. IDF said the building belongs to Hamas and was used to store mortar shells. Dec. 16, 2004 21:37 | Updated Dec. 17, 2004 0:02 11 soldiers wounded in mortar attack By MARGOT DUDKEVITCH Eleven soldiers of the Givati Brigade were lightly wounded when a salvo of three mortar shells exploded next to the Narkiss outpost near Atzmona in Gush Katif on Thursday evening. As soldiers returned fire, the wounded were evacuated...

IAF targeted assassination attempt in Rafah fails Gunship fires missile at car in southern Gaza. Target of attack was Jamal Abu Samahdna, commander of the Popular Resistance Committees. He was moderately injured. Two of his bodyguards sustained light wounds.Amir Buhbut Apache in action (archive photo). An IAF helicopter gunship fired a missile this (Thursday) afternoon at a car in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah, wounding three Palestinian terrorists. The target of the assassination was Jamal Abu Samahdna, one of the two Gaza commanders of the Popular Resistance Committees, an umbrella group of militant factions, according to the group....

The day the tanks arrived at Rafah zoo Among ruined houses, a haven for Gaza's children lies in rubble Chris McGreal in al-Brazil, Rafah Saturday May 22, 2004 The Guardian Ask to be directed to the latest wave of Israeli destruction in Rafah's al-Brazil neighbourhood and many fingers point towards the zoo. Amid the rubble of dozens of homes that the Israeli army continued yesterday to deny demolishing, the wrecking of the tiny, but only, zoo in the Gaza Strip took on potent symbolism for many of the newly homeless. The butchered ostrich, the petrified kangaroo cowering in a basement...

How about some facts Posted: Thursday, May 20, 2004 - written by jerry golden Intelligence and I might add very good intelligence that weapons brought in from Iran and Saudi Arabia by Hizbullah are sitting near the Israeli Egyptian border ready to be brought in by tunnels into Rafah. Some of them still in a tunnel that goes under the Suez Canal near a town called El-Arish where they were unloaded from a ship. These weapons were to escalate the battle between the Terrorists groups controlled by Yasser Arafat to make it appear that the IDF was ran out...

Translation by me: The US will abstain in the upcoming UN Security Council vote crticizing Israel for destroying houses in Rafah, and it will pass with a majority of 14 countries; the decision is complex and criticizes both sides.

Translation by me: 19 Armed Arabs have been killed so fair in "Operation Rainbow," IDF sources reported today. The sources declare that most of the killed are terrorists that dealt with weapons smuggling through the tunnels. The IDF says that as of now it is known that seven Arabs were killed in Rafah this afternoon. The IDF dismisses the Arab report of 10 deaths, saying that it includes 3 names of people killed in a previous operation.

Israel regrets harming Palestinian civilians but the Rafah operation will continue Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said Wednesday night after Palestinian protestors were killed in Rafah Wednesday afternoon. The Chief of Staff, Moshe Yaalon said that no soldier was given the command to target civilians. At a joint press conference at the Sufah checkpoint in the Gaza Strip, the two justified the Rafah operation. “The operation is essential and will continue”, Mofaz said. “It is too early to go in to the details of the incident. In such complex and complicated fighting, incidents like these happen sometimes and no other army...