Palestinian killed in first deadly Israeli airstrike since truce

Smoke rises after an Israeli air strike in the northern Gaza Strip November 14, 2012. (Reuters)

A Palestinian man was killed on Tuesday after an Israel air strike on Gaza City, in the first deadly air raid since an Egyptian-brokered truce went into force last November.

Gaza's health ministry said one man was killed and another injured.

"A man in his 20s was martyred and another injured in an Israeli air strike... in Shati refugee camp in western Gaza City," health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra told AFP news agency.

An Israeli government spokesman told Reuters news agency the military had hit a "jihadi who was an expert in manufacturing rockets".

He added that the man had "played a role" in a rocket attack from Egypt's Sinai peninsula against Israel's Red Sea resort of Eilat on April 17, which had caused no damage or injuries.

Locals in Gaza named the dead man as Haitham al-Meshal, 29,saying he was hit while riding a motorcycle in the north of the enclave. He was believed to be a member of Hamas's national security force, but relatives said he also belonged to a Jihadist Salafist organization.

Over the last two months, there has been an uptick in rocket fire on southern Israel after more than three months of complete quiet following a deadly confrontation in November which ended with the Egyptian-brokered truce deal.

The latest firing was on Monday when a mortar shell struck an open area in southern Israel, a day after an Israeli air strike on southern Gaza. Neither incident caused any injuries.

On Sunday morning, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Israel would retaliate with great force against any rocket or missile fire on Israeli territory.

"I want to make it clear that we will respond in a very offensive way against any rockets or missiles. We will take all necessary measures to ensure the security of Israelis... on all fronts," his office quoted him as saying.
 

30 Apr, 2013

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Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/04/30/Palestinian-killed-in-Gaza-by-targeted-Israeli-airstrike.html
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Extra medical staff sent to Guantanamo over hunger strike

Lawyers for the detainees have said around 130 inmates are observing the hunger strike, more than officially acknowledged. (Reuters)

Extra medical staff have been sent to the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay to help address a hunger strike that has spread to nearly two-thirds of the detainees, authorities said Monday.

With the strike now entering its 12th week, President Barack Obama has faced fresh calls to honor his promise to close the prison at the U.S. base in Cuba, which holds 166 individuals captured as part of the "War on Terror."

Some 40 U.S. Navy medical personnel, including nurses and specialists, arrived over the weekend, said Lieutenant Colonel Samuel House, a military spokesman at Guantanamo.

"The influx of personnel was planned several weeks ago as increasing numbers of detainees chose to protest their detention," he said.

House said 100 of the 166 inmates are striking, a number that hasn't changed since Saturday. Of those, 21 are receiving feeding through nasal tubes, the spokesman said, one more than on Saturday.

Five are hospitalized, he added in the statement, without specifying whether any were in life-threatening condition.

However, he told AFP that none were close to dying, officially denying allegations by British Guantanamo expert Andy Worthington, who wrote on his blog that four prisoners were "close to death" as a result of the strike, citing a "credible source inside Guantanamo."

One of the at-risk detainees, Worthington said, was Khiali Gul, one of 86 prisoners cleared for release yet jailed indefinitely.

"Every day I expect to hear the worst. I am appalled that President Obama has done nothing, and continues to do nothing," Worthington told AFP.

Lawyers for the detainees have said around 130 inmates are observing the hunger strike, more than officially acknowledged.

The rapidly growing protest movement began on February 6, when inmates claimed prison officials searched Korans in a way they considered blasphemous, according to their lawyers.

Officials have denied any mishandling of Islam's holy book.

But the strike has now turned into a larger protest by prisoners against their indefinite incarceration without charge or trial over the past 11 years.

House said recently that while detainees have a right to protest, "it is our mission to provide a safe, secure and humane environment, and we will not allow our detainees to starve themselves to death."

On Friday, the White House said it continues to closely monitor the hunger strikers and that Obama remained "committed to closing" Guantanamo.

"A fundamental obstacle to closing this detention facility ... remains in Congress," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

A 'critical moment'

More and more critics have called for the immediate closure of the facility.

Among them is former chief prosecutor at Guantanamo, Air Force colonel Morris Davis, who warned that "unless President Obama acts soon, I believe it is likely one or more of the detainees will die."

Andrea Prasow, senior counterterrorism counsel and advocate at Human Rights Watch, said "there has never been such a critical moment in the history of Guantanamo."

"It's an incredible crisis in the American government, both in terms of health and welfare of these men, but there are also very serious national security concerns should someone die in Guantanamo," she told AFP.

"I think it will be perceived outside of the U.S. as the U.S. government's responsibility."

Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat from California, wrote a letter to Obama asking the administration to "renew its efforts" to transfer out the 86 detainees who were cleared for such a move by U.S. military authorities.

She also called for the reassessment of the "security situation on the ground in Yemen, because is my understanding that 56 of the 86 detainees cleared for transfer are Yemeni."

Obama imposed a moratorium on repatriating Yemenis held at Guantanamo in 2009 after a plot to blow up an airliner on Christmas Day was traced back to al-Qaeda's Yemeni franchise.

30 Apr, 2013

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Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2013/04/30/Extra-medical-staff-sent-to-Guantanamo-over-hunger-strike.html
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Watchdog: Bomb near interior ministry building in Damascus kills five

Syrian TV confirmed the explosion occurred in the central district of Marjeh, although the target was not immediately clear. (Courtesy: Syria's al-Ikhbariya TV)

At least five people were killed in Damascus after a powerful explosion hit an area near to an interior ministry building on Tuesday, a Syrian watchdog reported.

"At least five citizens were killed in a car bomb near the back door of the old interior ministry building in the Marjeh district," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement, warning that the number of casualties was expected to rise.

Gunfire was heard in the area immediately after the Tuesday morning blast, according to The Associated Press.

Syrian TV also confirmed the explosion occurred in the central district of Marjeh, although the target was not immediately clear.

The blast comes a day after Syria's prime minister narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in Damascus' Mazzeh neighborhood.

The car bomb, which exploded as his convoy passed through the upscale neighborhood, killed one of his bodyguards and five other people, according to the Observatory.

Damascus has seen a wave of major bombings in recent weeks, including on April 9, when a massive blast in the center of the city killed at least 15 people.
 

30 Apr, 2013

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Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/04/30/Watchdog-Bomb-near-interior-ministry-building-in-Damascus-kills-five-.html
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