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Turkish PM slams Israel at Davos (25-31 Jan)

A panel on the Middle East process at the World Economic Forum in Davos ended unexpectedly on January 30 with Turkish PM Recep Erdo=F0an leaving in protest. Erdo=F0an, seated alongside Israeli President Shimon Peres, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa, stormed out after angrily responding to Peres's defense of Israel's assault on Gaza. Erdo=F0an said, ""I feel sad when people applaud what you [Peres] say because a large number of people were killed and I think it's a mistake and inhuman to applaud an operation that led to such outcomes." Many Arabs and Palestinians wished their own governments would take such a stance, a sentiment echoed by Islamic Jihad spokesman Dahoud Shehab who said,

"We wished that Arab countries did the same thing and gave a similar reaction to what Turkey did."

While Israel's uneasy truce continues in Gaza, Hamas's one week ceasefire has expired, though discussions are ongoing for a longer term ceasefire. On January 25, Israel proposed an 18 month truce with Hamas in indirect negotiations taking place in Egypt. Hamas offered a counterproposal for one year ceasefire instead. Hamas has claimed it will not accept any truce unless Israel ends its siege of Gaza and opens the borders. While Israel is linking talks with the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, Hamas officials claimed on January 28 that they rejected the notion of linking Shalit's release with the opening Gaza's borders. On January 25, Israeli Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz threatened that the Israeli government intends to exhaust all the new possibilities for the release of Shalit, saying that "Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh will not see the light of day," until Shalit does.

Despite Israel's withdrawal to the borders of Gaza, calm still continues to elude the Strip. On January 27, Palestinian fighters fired a rocket propelled grenade (RPG) at an Israeli tank, which killed one Israeli soldier and injured three others. Israeli troops immediately responded with tank fire, killing one Palestinian fighter. Later that day, a Palestinian man riding a bicycle was critically injured after an aerial drone opened fire on the center of Gaza's Khan Younis area. On January 29, another nine Palestinians, mostly children, were wounded when an Israeli warplane fired a missile aimed at two alleged Palestinian fighters. The next day, Palestinian fighters fired a projectile at Israeli military personnel, though it did not cause any injuries. On January 31, a Grad was fired from Gaza into Ashkelon, with no injuries reported.

On January 28, seven Israeli human rights organizations appealed to Israeli courts concerning the "appalling conditions" in which Palestinians arrested during the assault on Gaza were held. Israel held many Gaza prisoners in harsh and humiliating conditions and threatened their lives and their health, according to their report. The groups' investigation brings to light the "humiliating and inhuman treatment to which [detainees] were subjected" from the time of their arrest until their transfer to the custody of the Israel Prison Service."

In the meantime, more destruction in Gaza is still being uncovered. The UN reported on January 25 that four water wells in Beit Hanoun, Gaza and Jabalia were totally destroyed during the Israeli assault. As a result, one-fifth of the population of Gaza has no direct access to drinking water and currently depends on water purchased from private suppliers.

Much has been done to raise funds for Gazans. Jerusalem Patriarch Theophilos III declared Sunday January 25 a day for collecting donations from churches in the Holy Land and around the world for Gaza. On January 26, Yusef Islam, the musician formerly known as Cat Stevens, released a song for Gaza, the proceeds of which will go to UNRWA and Save the Children's efforts there. That same day, over 40 truckloads of medical supplies, flour, olive oil, blankets and milk were collected from the people of Ramallah and Al-Bireh, which were then sent to Gaza. The Hebron and Jenin governorates have also sent supplies to Gaza. On January 28, UNICEF also announced that it is sending educational materials to Gaza, as thousands of children attempt to return to schools, either in old buildings or tents. On January 31, the Egyptian Foreign Minister announced that Egypt would host an international conference to rebuild Gaza on March 2. Unfortunately, humanitarian groups were shocked when the BBC announced on January 26 its refusal to air an aid appeal for Gaza. "We concluded that we could not broadcast a free-standing appeal, no matter how carefully constructed, without running the risk of reducing public confidence in the BBC's impartiality in its wider coverage of the story," explained Mark Thompson, Director General of the BBC. The decision incited more than 2,000 people to protest in the streets of London.

Elsewhere in Palestine, Israeli forces continued to raid towns and villages, arresting more Palestinians. On January 25, Israeli forces seized 334 Palestinians in Israel who were working without permit. They also arrested 16 Israelis for employing them. That same day, Israeli troops stormed homes and restaurants in several neighborhoods in Ramallah and Al-Bireh, but with no reported arrests. However, they did arrest four Palestinians at a checkpoint in Nablus. The next day, Israeli forces Israeli forces raided homes in Husam near Bethlehem, while army bulldozers dug up the main roads linking the village with neighboring areas. Israeli border guards also seized another 250 Palestinian workers in Israel, accusing them of staying in Israel without permits. Most of those detained are West Bank residents. On January 28, Israeli forces imposed a curfew on Zabuba, near Jenin, and seized eight Palestinians in dawn raids. On January 29, another 14 Palestinians were seized in raids in Bethlehem, Hebron, and Beit Suweif. In Beit Ummar, two Palestinians were injured and two others seized when Israeli troops opened fire at a house belonging to 63-year-old Fathi Jamal Al-Alamah, injuring him in the chest. His 55-year-old wife Fahima was injured in the leg. Israeli troops also detained eight men in Hijjah near Qalqiliya before dawn on January 30. That same day, 17 Palestinians were injured when Israeli soldiers opened fire with live ammunition on Palestinian demonstrators in Israeli-occupied Hebron.

Israeli settlers have been busy this week, when on January 25, protected by soldiers, they seized new land south of Hebron. After erecting a metal fence on the land, they prevented the owners and local Palestinian residents from approaching it. This comes as a disturbing new report was published on January 28 by Peace Now claiming that Israel has accelerated construction in illegal settlements in the West Bank during 2008 by nearly 60%. Roughly 1,257 new structures were built within settlements during 2008, compared to 800 in 2007. Building more than doubled in "outposts," =97 unauthorized settlements that are not officially recognized by the Israeli government =97 with 261 structures built, compared to 98 the year before.

On January 29, another alarming report was issued by Amnesty International, which stated that there was evidence that, in addition to white phosphorus, the Israeli army had used a variety of other weapons in densely populated civilian areas of Gaza. Specifically, a weapon containing 5,000 to 8,000 flechettes, four cm-long sharp metal darts, were fired into Gaza. An anti-personnel weapon designed to penetrate dense vegetation, flechettes are not meant to be used in built-up civilian areas, Amnesty explained. The Israeli army has used them in Gaza for several years, killing and maiming many. Meanwhile, on January 26 it came to light that weapons clearing NGOs have been attempting unsuccessfully to enter Gaza to assess the risk of unexploded munitions there, which have already killed two children. So far, Israel has yet to grant them access.

On January 29, a mission consisting of prominent human rights defenders and activists from Europe and the US accused Israel of violating international law. "We are appalled at the horror of the war launched in the Gaza Strip, the major loss of civilian lives and the wide scale destruction of civilian property and infrastructure in the context of the operation," the group of professors, lawyers and ambassadors said. According to their statement, Israel had violated the Fourth Geneva Convention on the Protection of Civilian Populations in Times of Conflict, as well as customary international law governing the conduct of hostilities. On January 28, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas also stressed that the PA had called for an international investigation into Israeli war crimes.

Finally, despite the death and destruction in Gaza, Palestinians still found time to remember the Jewish Holocaust, erecting a memorial site near the West Bank city of Ramallah to remember Nazi Germany's crimes against the Jewish people. Hundreds of Palestinians attended the event, which took place on January 28.