Israel prepares to demolish homes on Jerusalem outskirts, stoking Palestinian fears

SUR BAHER, West Bank - Israeli forces began preparations to demolish homes near a military barrier on the outskirts of Jerusalem under the cover of darkness on Monday, in the face of Palestinian protests and international criticism.

Bulldozers accompanied by hundreds of Israeli soldiers and police moved in to Sur Baher, a Palestinian village on the edge of East Jerusalem in an area that Israel captured and occupied in the 1967 Middle East War.

Palestinians fear that the razing of village buildings near the fence will set a precedent for other towns along the route of the barrier, which runs for hundreds of kilometres around and through the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The pending demolition is the latest round of protracted wrangling over the future of Jerusalem, home to more than 500,000 Israelis and 300,000 Palestinians, and sites sacred to Judaism, Islam and Christianity.

Israel's Supreme Court ruled in June that the structures violated a construction ban. The deadline for residents to remove the buildings expired on Friday.

However, some residents said they would be made homeless. Owners said they had obtained permission to build from the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Israeli forces cut through the wire fence near the village early on Monday, allowing them easier access to the buildings.

Floodlights lit up a partly constructed multi-storey building as dozens of vehicles brought helmeted police and soldiers into the area.

They were filmed and photographed by Palestinian, Israeli and international activists who had mobilised to try and stop the demolition.

"Since 2 a.m. they have been evacuating people from their homes by force and they have started planting explosives in the homes they want to destroy. There are hundreds of soldiers here," said Hamada Hamada, a community leader in one of the threatened areas.

DEMOLITION PREPARATIONS

The sprawling village of Sur Baher straddles the line between East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Its political geography is complicated by the fact that parts of it lie outside the municipal boundaries of Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem but on the Israeli side of the barrier, cutting it off from the rest of the West Bank.

Palestinian officials say the threatened structures lie within areas that they should control. The Palestine Liberation Organization issued a statement accusing the Israeli court of aiming "to set a precedent to enable the Israeli occupying forces to demolish numerous Palestinian buildings located in close proximity" to the barrier.

Jamie McGoldrick, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator, and other U.N. officials called on the Israeli authorities last week to halt the demolition plans. They said 17 Palestinians faced displacement from the plans to level 10 buildings, including dozens of apartments.

The European Union issued a statement saying: "The continuation of this policy undermines the viability of the two-state solution and the prospect for a lasting peace."

However, the Israeli Supreme Court's 3-judge panel ruled unanimously in favor of demolition. "The petitioners took the law into their own hands when they began and continued building structures without receiving a special permit from the military commander," it said.

The court said construction close to the barrier could provide cover for attackers. The Israeli military had no immediate comment on Monday, and said it was checking the reports.

Israel credits the barrier - projected to be 720 km (450 miles) long when complete — with stemming Palestinian suicide bombings that peaked in 2002 and 2003. Palestinians call it a land grab designed to annex parts of the West Bank, including Israeli settlements.

In some areas of Jerusalem and the West Bank the barrier is a high concrete wall, but in Sur Baher it consists of two wire fences separated by a military patrol road and protected by watchtowers and electronic sensors.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Christians worldwide prepare for holidays with an eye on security

JAKARTA - Christmas church services and other celebrations are being held this weekend under the gaze of armed guards and security cameras in many countries after Islamic State gunmen attacked a Methodist church in Pakistan as a Sunday service began.

Majority-Muslim countries in Asia and the Middle East were particularly nervous after United States President Donald Trump's recent announcement that he intends to relocate the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, a decision that has outraged many Muslims.

In Indonesia, the world's biggest Muslim-majority country, police said they had stepped up security around churches and tourist sites, mindful of near-simultaneous attacks on churches there at Christmas in 2000 that killed about 20 people.

Muslim volunteers in Indonesia are also on standby to provide additional security if requested.

"If our brothers and sisters who celebrate Christmas need to maintain their security to worship, we will help," said Yaqut Chiolil Qoumas, chairman of the youth wing of the Nahdlatul Ulema, one of the country's biggest Muslim organisations.

In Cairo, where a bombing at the Egyptian capital's largest Coptic cathedral killed at least 25 people last December, the interior ministry said police would conduct regular searches of streets around churches ahead of the Coptic celebration of Christmas on Jan. 7.

Egypt's Christian minority has been targeted in several attacks in recent years, including the bombing of two churches in the north of the country on Palm Sunday in April.

At the Heliopolis Basilica, a Catholic cathedral in northeastern Cairo, security forces had set up metal detectors at the main doors and police vehicles were stationed outside ahead of masses on Dec. 25, which marks Christmas Day for Catholic and Protestant Christians.

German police brought in experts and an explosives robot to investigate a suspicious package at a Christmas market in the city of Bonn late on Friday.

Germany is on high alert a year after a failed Tunisian asylum seeker killed 12 people when he hijacked a truck and drove it into a Berlin Christmas market.

BOMBED-OUT CHURCH

In the Pakistani city of Quetta, members of a Bethel Memorial Methodist Church were repairing the damage done by a pair of suicide bombers who attacked during a service last Sunday, killing 10 people and wounding more than 50.

Broken pews and damaged musical instruments were still strewn around church grounds on Thursday, with about a dozen police standing guard.

"We're making efforts to complete repairs and renovation before Christmas, but it seems difficult in view of the lot of damage," said Pastor Simon Bashir, who was leading the service when the attackers struck. He was not hurt.

The government of Baluchistan province, of which Quetta is capital, plans to deploy 3,000 security personnel in and around 39 Christian churches this Sunday and Monday.

Provincial police chief Moazzam Jah Ansari told Reuters volunteers from churches were also being trained to conduct body searches and identify worshippers entering churches.

Pakistan's Christian minority, which makes up about 1 percent of the population of 208 million, has been a frequent target, along with Shi'ite and Sufi Muslims, of Sunni Muslim militants.

In the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore, where an Easter Day bombing in a park last year killed more than 70 people, police Detective Inspector General Haider Ashraf said every church would be monitored with CCTV cameras as part of security measures.

Christian Kaleem Masih lost his aunt in the Easter attack, which was claimed by Islamic State, and his wife was wounded, but he said they would be attending Christmas services.

"Christmas is our holy day," Kaleem said. "We will fulfil our religious duty by celebrating it with smiles on our faces."

JERUSALEM ISSUE

In Malaysia, a police official said Trump's decision on Jerusalem increased worry about attacks.

"We are concerned not only with safety at churches and places of worship but also any threats by Islamic State or any other security threat following the Jerusalem issue," said Malaysia's Inspector-General of Police Mohamad Fuzi Harun.

Jerusalem, revered by Jews, Christians and Muslims alike, is home to Islam's third holiest site and has been at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for decades. Israel captured Arab East Jerusalem in 1967 and later annexed it in an action not recognised internationally.

Protests across the Muslim world in Asia and the Middle East have largely been peaceful.

In Jerusalem itself, an Israeli police spokesman said there were no new security measures but police would deploy forces as usual around Christian holy sites including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and also secure convoys of worshipers from the West Bank city of Bethlehem, traditionally known as the birthplace of Jesus Christ and run by the Palestinian Authority.

Many Palestinian Christians oppose Trump's announcement and say they have no fear of attacks.

"Trump's decision offended all Palestinians, be they Christians or Muslims. Why would we feel threatened by Muslims?" said George Antone, a Catholic who lives in Gaza, which is run by the Palestinian Hamas group.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Fresh bloodshed in Gaza as Hamas denies holding soldier

GAZA CITY - A fresh wave of violence killed dozens in Gaza after the collapse of a UN and US backed ceasefire, officials said Saturday, as Hamas denied it kidnapped an Israeli soldier.

A Palestinian delegation was due to arrive in Cairo for talks on the terms of a durable truce, however, even after the 72-hour humanitarian ceasefire fell apart within hours starting on Friday.

But the chances of a new truce seemed remote after Israel said it believed militants captured Second Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, 23, in an attack near the southern Gaza city of Rafah that killed two other soldiers.

In the violence that ensued, at least 107 Palestinians were killed in Israel air strikes on the Gaza Strip, including 35 since midnight, officials said.

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, a member of Israel's security cabinet which met till the early hours of Saturday, accused Hamas of being behind the soldier's disappearance and said the group would pay a high price.

US President Barack Obama called for the soldier to be "unconditionally" released, but also said more must be done to protect Gaza civilians.

But Hamas' armed wing denied any knowledge about the fate of the missing soldier.

"The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades has no information on this soldier. We have lost contact with one of our combatant groups, which was fighting in the sector where the soldier went missing and it is possible that our fighters and this soldier were killed," it said.

On Saturday, AFP correspondents said Israeli aerial strikes targeted a mosque at Jebaliya, in northern Gaza, and flattened houses in a beachside neighbourhood.

In Israel, the Iron Dome air defence system intercepted two rockets fired from Gaza over the Tel Aviv area and another over the southern city of Beersheba, the army said.

The Qassam Brigades said they had fired three rockets at Tel Aviv.

- Congress approves Israel funds -

The US Congress had meanwhile on Friday approved an emergency $225 million to restock the Iron Dome systems with interceptor missiles, in a measure that awaits Obama's signature.

Palestinian emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said at least 107 Palestinians had been killed in Gaza since the planned three-day ceasefire collapsed soon after it started at 0500 GMT on Friday.

Since the conflict broke out on July 8, a total of about 1,650 Palestinians have been killed in the violence, the vast majority of them civilians, Qudra said. On the Israeli side, 63 soldiers and three civilians have died.

The Israeli military said the two latest deaths among its forces occurred in the same incident in which the soldier went missing near Rafah.

"Our initial indications suggest a soldier has been abducted by terrorists in an incident where terrorists breached the ceasefire," said spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner.

Israelis are highly sensitive about the kidnapping of their soldiers.

In 2006, Hamas militants from Gaza captured Israeli conscript Gilad Shalit and held him for five years before freeing him in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.

Obama said the United States "unequivocally condemned Hamas and the Palestinian factions that were responsible for killing two Israeli soldiers, and abducting a third almost minutes after a ceasefire had been announced".

"If they are serious about trying to trying to resolve this situation, that soldier needs to be unconditionally released, as soon as possible.

"We have also been clear that innocent civilians in Gaza caught in the crossfire have to weigh on our conscience and we have to do more to protect them," the US president added.

- Cairo talks 'still on' -

US Secretary of State John Kerry had said that once the ceasefire was under way, Israeli and Palestinian representatives, including from Hamas, would begin talks in Cairo on a more durable truce.

The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad later said Egypt was postponing the talks after news of the missing Israeli soldier, but Cairo said the invitation to talk was "still in place".

And Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said a joint delegation, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, would travel to Cairo on Saturday for talks despite the renewed fighting.

Before the truce, Israeli tank fire and aerial bombardment killed 14 Palestinians in Gaza, and the army said five soldiers died in mortar fire near the shared border.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office accused Hamas and other Gaza militants of "flagrantly violating" the ceasefire.

Hamas in turn said Israel "violated the ceasefire" and that "the Palestinian resistance acted based on... the right to self defence".

Israel launched "Operation Protective Edge" on July 8 to counter rocket fire from Gaza, and nine days later it sent ground troops into the Palestinian enclave to destroy tunnels used by militants to attack its territory.

It has vowed to press on with the offensive until the tunnels are demolished.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Israel shell fire brings Gaza deaths above 800: medics

GAZA CITY - Israeli shell fire on a house in Gaza killed one person Friday, bringing the total death toll to more than 800 Palestinians after one of the bloodiest days of the conflict.

The tank shell hit a home in the southern city of Khan Yunis, emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said, killing at least one man.

Nearly 100 Palestinians were killed on Thursday, according to figures from emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra, as Israel pressed on with its 18-day campaign to stamp out Gaza rocket fire.

Projectiles fired into Israel have killed three civilians - two Israelis and a Thai migrant worker - and fighting in and around Gaza has killed 32 Israeli soldiers.

It is the bloodiest conflict in the besieged Palestinian territory since a 2009 military operation there.

NGOs put the Palestinian civilian toll at around 80 percent of total casualties, including a large number of women and children.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com