Penduduk Palestin Gagalkan Usaha Ganas Yahudi Sekat Laluan Ke Baitulmaqdis

BAITULMAQDIS, 29 Okt (Berita Minggu) - Tentera Israel menggunakan peluru getah dan gas pemedih mata untuk menghalang beratus-ratus penduduk Palestin daripada menunaikan solat atau menghampiri Masjidil Aqsa, kelmarin, lapor agensi berita Palestin, Wafa.

Pemberita Wafa melaporkan, tentera Yahudi turut mendirikan berpuluh-puluh sekatan sekatan serta pos pemeriksaan di seluruh bandar di timur Baitulmaqdis itu untuk menghalang penduduk Palestin menunaikan solat di al-Aqsa.

“Beribu-ribu tentera dan polis Israel turut menyerang mereka yang cuba untuk bersembahyang di pintu masuk masjid itu,” kata pemberita itu sambil menegaskan tentera Israel turut menggunakan kekerasan bagi menghalang jemaah masuk ke Baitulmaqdis.

Meskipun pelbagai sekatan itu, 200,000 penduduk Islam berjaya memasuki al-Aqsa serta menunaikan solat berhampiran Masjid Kubah Batu atau Masjid Omar, tempat Nabi Muhammad naik ke langit dalam kejadian Israk Mikraj.

Berpuluh-puluh ribu penduduk Islam menunaikan solat di pekarangan al-Aqsa meskipun tentera Israel melarang penduduk yang berusia 45 tahun ke bawah memasuki kompleks suci itu.

Di utara Baitulmaqdis, polis Yahudi melepaskan bom renjatan selepas 5,000 penduduk Palestin yang menunggu melontar batu ke arah mereka.

Israel Kills Islamic Jihad Commander

Friday, 28 October 2005 - Israeli forces have fired missiles at a Gaza refugee camp killing least seven people, including a leading Islamic Jihad fighter, Shadi Mohanna, according to Palestinians and the Israeli military.

Witnesses said the target of the attack after nightfall on Thursday was a white Subaru car in the Jabaliya refugee camp, a sprawling shanty town next to Gaza City.

Late on Thursday, Israeli warplanes also launched a series of bombing raids again in northern Gaza.

Palestinian security officials said Israeli fighter jets had bombed three areas of northern Gaza, targeting open fields used by resistance fighters to fire rockets into southern Israel.

There were no reports of any casualties in the airstrikes, which the Israeli army said was aimed at rocket-launching sites used by Palestinian fighters.

Witnesses in the area said they had seen fighters from Islamic Jihad firing at least two missiles into southern Israel in response to the earlier airstrike which killed two fighters from the movement's armed wing, the Al Quds Brigades.

Deadly strikes
Mohanna, the Islamic Jihad field commander in northern Gaza, was killed along with his assistant, Mohammed Ghazaineh, according to Islamic Jihad.

An Associated Press reporter saw the two charred bodies.

Aljazeera's correspondent in Gaza, Wael al-Dahdouh, reported that two members of al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of Islamic Jihad, were killed in the explosion in Bait Lahiya, in northern Gaza.

The explosion was the result of a rocket attack that targeted a car in the area, he said, adding that an unmanned aircraft appeared to have fired at least one rocket at a car which was travelling through the area.

The rocket completely destroyed the car, scattering body parts as it found its targets, al-Dahdouh said.

The attack came as Palestinians were leaving mosques after evening prayers, witnesses told AP, and at least six people were taken to a hospital.

Attack confirmed
Five of the dead are thought to be bystanders with no connection to the fighters, security sources said.

Medics said a man in his 60s and a teenage boy were among the dead, but the identities of the victims were not immediately clear. Another 20 people were injured in the blast, five of whom were in serious condition.

Angry Palestinians demonstrated around the scene of the attack. Channel 10 TV showed footage of people waving what appeared to be a body part in the air.

The Israeli military confirmed it carried out the attack. "In a security forces operation this evening in the northern Gaza Strip, the Israel Air Force attacked a vehicle carrying a senior Islamic Jihad terrorist who was responsible for several murderous terrorist attacks," the military said in a statement.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said: "We want to condemn this attack and warn about the consequences of this escalation."

Both the political and the military wings of Islamic Jihad condemned the air strike and vowed to respond. "We will not stand idly by with our hands tied in the face of this Israeli aggression," the group said.

Earlier on Thursday, an Islamic Jihad leader has been captured by Israeli troops amid gun battles after army jeeps and tanks moved into the West Bank city of Jenin, Palestinian security sources said.

Abed al-Khaleem Ezzedine, 40, who lived in the city, was one of the top commanders of the resistance group in the occupied Palestinian territory.

Around 40 jeeps and tanks moved into Jenin on Thursday and surrounded houses as shooting rang out and two Israeli Apache helicopters circled in the sky overhead, the security sources said.

Firefights erupted between Palestinian fighters and Israeli troops in Haifa Street at the western entrance to the city, in an operation launched less than 24 hours after a human bombing claimed by Islamic Jihad killed five Israelis.

Earlier, Israeli warplanes launched two air strikes in the Gaza Strip.

Shaky ceasefire
Israel's latest air strikes occurred on the third successive day of raids over the Gaza Strip. The bloodshed has threatened to unravel an already shaky ceasefire.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Thursday promised an open-ended offensive against Palestinian armed groups.

Sharon said there could be no advance towards peace now because of the "absolute failure of the Palestinian Authority in the fight against terrorism".

"Our action will be broad and will not stop until it brings about a cessation of terrorism," Sharon said before a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Tel Aviv.

An Israeli Interior Ministry statement said the first strike on Thursday before dawn was carried out near the northern village of Bait Hanun, while the second, carried out by F16 fighter jets, struck a newly built bridge in the village.

The Israeli military said it launched the air strikes to prevent resistance fighters from firing rockets into Israel during the worst flare-up of violence since Israel withdrew from Gaza last month after 38 years of occupation.

No casualties were reported in the air strikes mounted in response to rocket attacks since Monday.

Aljazeera's correspondent reported that more than 30 military vehicles stormed into the town of Qabatia, home to the Palestinian who is said to have carried out the market attack.

Israeli occupation forces surrounded the home of Hasan Abu Zaid, the correspondent said.

Islamic Jihad, while claiming responsibility for the latest attack, said it was avenging Israel's killing of one of its top West Bank commanders on Monday.

Curfew, closures
The army is also imposing a general curfew on the West Bank and all crossings into Palestinian-controlled areas will be closed. In addition, "northern Samaria will be cut off from the rest of the West Bank, and no privately owned Palestinian vehicles will be allowed to travel in that area", the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.

An operation against Qassam rocket launchers in the northern Gaza Strip will be launched and ground forces will be deployed for a possible incursion into the Strip, added the report.

Israeli army tanks are expected to enter Qassam launch zones near Bait Hanun in northern Gaza.

The report also stated that the operation in the northern West Bank will encompass the cities of Jenin and Tulkarim and large villages such as Qabatiya, the bomber's home town Yaabed, Atil, Saida and Ilar.

The army will impose a closure on the villages and attempt to arrest known Islamic Jihad activists and supporters, the report continued.

It was also decided at a meeting of the Israel Defence Forces' General Staff on Wednesday that the Erez and Karni crossings between Gaza and Israel would be reshut, reported Haaretz.

Condemnation
Meanwhile, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the bombing and pledged to try to salvage the truce he engineered earlier this year.

"It harms the interest of the Palestinian people and leads to expansion of the cycle of violence," he said.

Political fallout from Wednesday's blast was equally swift. Israel, which suspended security contacts after three young Jewish settlers were killed in a West Bank ambush last week, cancelled a meeting between the Israeli and Palestinian transport ministers.

Islamic Jihad, sworn to Israel's destruction, had vowed revenge after Israeli troops shot and killed West Bank commander Luai al-Saadi, the most senior leader killed since the truce began.

Khadir Habib, an Islamic Jihad leader in Gaza, called the Hadera bombing "a natural reaction to crimes of the occupation".

Asked about Abbas's condemnation of the bombing, an Islamic Jihad spokesman said: "Anyone who criticises the resistance is a violator of the national consensus and stands beside the enemy."

www.aljazeera.net

Guantanamo Detainee Pleads To Die

Guantanamo Bay, 25 Oct - A hunger striking detainee at Guantanamo Bay wants a judge to order the removal of his feeding tube so he can be allowed to die, one of his lawyers has said.

Fawzi al-Odah of Kuwait asked his lawyers during a meeting last week to file court papers seeking the removal of his feeding tube "out of desperation" over his imprisonment without charges, attorney Tom Wilner said on Tuesday.

"He is willing to take a stand if it will bring justice," Wilner said.

The lawyers have not filed the motion because they first want al-Odah to get the approval of his family and doctors not affiliated with the US government, Wilner said.

Al-Odah's family does not want him to starve himself to death and they are "frantic" about the situation, the attorney said.

Al-Odah, a 28-year-old who was arrested in Pakistan in 2002, weighed 139 pounds three years ago and is now down to 112 pounds, according to government records cited by his attorneys in court papers.

Ethical issues
Al-Odah's request raises a number of ethical and legal issues, including whether his lawyers would be able to continue representing al-Odah and his parents if they disagree on whether to file the motion seeking removal of the feeding tube.

"If it gets to the point where he says 'I want to die' and his parents say no, then we have a conflict," said Wilner, the lead attorney for 11 Kuwaitis held at Guantanamo and a partner in the Washington law firm of Shearman and Sterling. "We could represent one or the other but not both."

Al-Odah's request for an order seeking the removal of his feeding tube was mentioned in a footnote in court papers filed in Washington by Wilner as part of an effort by defence lawyers to gain more frequent access to their clients, copies of their medical records and to allow the prisoners to speak by phone with their relatives.

The US military has said that it considers hunger striking a form of suicide and will take whatever steps are necessary to prevent any detainee deaths at the prison where the government says it holds some 500 men are held on suspicion of links to terrorism.

Unnecessary loss of life
Guantanamo spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Jeremy Martin said the military will not comment on specific cases but that it is Department of Defence policy to prevent "the unnecessary loss of life of detainees through standard medical intervention ... to overcome a detainee's desire to harm themselves."

There are 26 detainees participating in the hunger strike, which began on 8 August, including 23 who are being force-fed through nasal tubes, Martin said.

"The detainees are clinically stable, closely monitored by medical professionals, and will continue to receive appropriate nutrition, fluids, and excellent medical care," he said.

Guantanamo officials have said this latest hunger strike began with 76 detainees protesting their confinement.

Defence lawyers have cited other reasons as well, including complaints about food and water, alleged abuse by guards and interrogators and their desire to either face trial or be released.

www.aljazeera.net/

India To Open Border For Aid Camps

Saturday, 22 October 2005 - India has said it plans to set up three relief camps for quake victims along the militarised Line of Control dividing Kashmir, allowing Pakistanis to walk across the frontier of the volatile region for the first time in nearly six decades.

The camps in the remote mountains along the border will supply food, drinking water, medical care and temporary shelters, said Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna on Saturday.

They will begin operating on Tuesday, pending approval from Pakistan, which has been informed of the plan, he said.


Mounting trust
Permitting the free flow of civilian aid-seekers across the Line of Control that divides the Indian and Pakistani portions of Kashmir is a sign of increasing trust between the long-time rivals that have fought two wars over the Himalayan region since gaining independence from Britain in 1947.

Many families were torn apart when Kashmir was divided, and Sarna said Indians would be allowed to visit relatives from the Pakistani side at the camps.

Pakistan's part of Kashmir bore the brunt of the quake, and Saturday's announcement of the camps follows a call from the Pakistani president, General Pervez Musharraf, that Kashmiris from both sides of the ceasefire line be allowed to travel across to help each other rebuild.

In Islamabad, Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said that Pakistan had proposed that officials from both countries meet to discuss ways to implement Musharraf's idea, and the two sides could discuss the Indian camps then.

"We will discuss whatever steps they want to take when the two delegations meet," she said. No date has been set for the meetings, she added.

Officials hoarding aid
Rights group Human Rights Watch accused Pakistani authorities in the quake-stricken city of Muzaffarabad of hoarding tents and essential supplies instead of distributing them to victims.

Scarce tents and other relief supplies were being put in storage in Muzaffarabad by civilian authorities working under the supervision of the military, rather than handed out to needy, homeless persons, the US-based rights group said in a statement on Saturday.

Human Rights Watch said civilian administration officials in Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistani Kashmir, told it on Wednesday that tents and other emergency supplies, which had been designated for government workers, were being stored instead.

It quoted officials present as saying this was being done so they would be able to avoid problems when senior military and civilian officials demand supplies that otherwise would not be available.

It quoted another official as saying he would be fired if he handed out the tents.

A Pakistani relief spokesman denied the allegations.

"We will look into this (HRW) report. But to our knowledge there are no civil secretariat employees distributing relief supplies and tents to earthquake affectees," a spokesman for Federal Relief Commissioner told AFP.

Reports untrue
"There might be one or two such odd incidents, but to say that relief supplies and tents are not reaching the people in Azad Kashmir because they are being stored are not true," he said.

"Soldiers are distributing food, medicines and tents in far-flung mountainous areas, reaching there on foot or by mules so that maximum number of people could be saved," he said.

"In Pakistan-administered Kashmir, tents are the difference between life and death," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

"It is essential for the public to know that aid is being handled in a non-arbitrary, non-discriminatory manner."

The massive earthquake on 8 October has killed more than 53,000 people and injured 75,146 in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and neighbouring northern towns, officials said.

India has said the quake killed more than 1300 people in its part of divided Kashmir. - AFP

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www.aljazeera.net/

Update From Pakistan!

1. “Base kami di Balakot, kawasan yang paling teruk terlibat dengan gempa bumi!. Kami bersama dengan PIMA dan Yayasan al-Khidmat Pakistan. Suhu di sini tengahari 20C° dan Petang, Malam, Subuh 8C°, sejuuukkk! Perjalanan 11 jam dari Lahore. Keselamatan dijaga oleh tentera Pakistan. Hanya NGO Arab dan Jepun yang sanggup di sini.!"
2. "Kami baru lalu bandar yg hancurrr... Ya Allahhh... Bau mayat, lalu atas sungai, jalan pecah... Hanya Allah yg tahu. Lokal time 11.15mlm. Sekarang depan ribuan khemah. Laporan Jamal from Balakot, Pakistan. - 18 Okt 2005, 1.19am”
3. "Tlg call 2nd Team, kalau dtg ke Pakistan, kami kurang doktor, mangsa terlalu ramai, pesan juga bawa stokin tebal, sarung tangan n sarung kepala, kopi, baju panas tebal, seluar tebal, sbb suhu bawah 10 C."
4. “Kami nangis bila anda bagi derma! Kami tunaikan amanah anda wlu pun perit, susah dan b’risiko”

Demikian antara SMS yang diterima dari Team Bantuan 1 yang telah berada di Balakot, Pakistan. Pada hari kedua misi bantuan telah bergerak menaiki gunung yang tinggi. Perjalanan mengambil masa selama 4 jam. Di atas gunung didapati lebih 500 orang tercedera. Team Bantuan terpaksa turun semula kerana kesejukan dan tidak sempat merawat semua pesakit.

www.amalmalaysia.net

Gempa Bumi Kuat Di Sumatra

KUALA LUMPUR, 17 Okt (Bernama) -- Gempa bumi kuat berukuran 6.4 pada skala Richter berlaku di pantai barat Sumatera pada pukul 3.02 pagi hari Isnin, menurut Jabatan Perkhidmatan Kajicuaca.

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Pusat gempa bumi itu di lokasi 702km barat daya Kuala Lumpur pada koordinasi 0.5 Utara, 95.9 Timur.

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Kenyataan jabatan itu tidak menyatakan sebarang penilaian terhadap impak gempa bumi tersebut.-- BERNAMA

Pasukan Peninjau Bantuan PAS Berada Di Islamabad

ISLAMABAD, 17 Okt (Hrkh) - Pasukan peninjau bantaun PAS sudah berjaya menetapkan kawasan yang bakal diberikan khidmat oleh Misi Kemanusiaan PAS bagi membantu mangsa gempa bumi di Pakistan. Bendahari PAS Pusat, Dr Hatta Ramli dan AJK PAS Pusat, Dr Dzulkifli Ahmad telah berada di Islamabad 15 Oktober lalu selepas tiba di Karachi, Pakistan pada paginya.

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Kedua-dua ditugaskan menentukan kawasan yang bakal diberikan khidmat oleh pasukan Sukarelawan PAS yang bertolak semalam.
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Semalam, 10 anggota yang terdiri dari tujuh doktor perubatan, seorang paramedik, seorang jurutera dan seorang guru agama berlepas ke Karachi bagi memulakan bantuan kepada mangsa gempa di Pakistan, Afghanistan dan India.
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Mereka dijangka akan berpusat di Islamabad dan bergerak dengan kerjasama Al Khidmat, sebuah NGO Islam di Pakistan.
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Pasukan pertama ini akan berada di Pakistan sehingga 24 Oktober manakala pasukan kedua akan berlepas ke Pakistan 25 Oktober.
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Mereka dijangka akan berada di sana sehingga 1 November sebelum pasukan seterusnya tiba.
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Sebelum ini, Presiden PAS, Dato' Seri Tuan Guru Abdul Hadi Awang telah memaklumkan akan menghantar pasukan Misi Kemanusiaan bagi membantu mangsa gempa bumi di Pakistan, Afghanistan dan India.
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Orang ramai boleh menghulurkan bantuan untuk mangsa gempabumi ini melalui tabung mangsa gempa bumi PAS dengan cara memasukkan terus ke akaun PARTI ISLAM SEMALAYSIA akaun nombor 564070703248 Maybank.

Pakistan Quake Toll Surpasses 53,000

Sunday 16 October 2005, 23:55 Makka Time, 20:55 GMT - The toll from South Asia's earthquake soared past 53,000 in Pakistan and could rise still far higher as relief workers struggle to reach survivors, the Pakistani Kashmir leader said.

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"With all responsibility, I can say that not less than 40,000 are killed," Sikandar Hayat Khan, the prime minister of the Pakistani side of the divided Himalayan region, said on Sunday.

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"There are still cities which are not cleared of debris and the death toll could go to 70,000 or 80,000. It is the worst tragedy in our history," he said.

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It was a drastic jump from the last government figures that said more than 25,000 people died on the Pakistani side of Kashmir from the powerful 8 October earthquake. Pakistan's central government had earlier said that more than 13,000 people were killed in the North West Frontier Province. The earthquake also ravaged the Indian side of divided Kashmir, killing 1329 people there, according to Indian police.
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Line Of Control
The Pakistani Kashmir leader said that many of the freshly reported casualties were near the Line of Control, the ceasefire line that is the de facto border in the bitterly disputed Himalayan region.
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Many new casualties were nearthe Line of Control"Some areas along the Line of Control and the areas where the snow is falling ... there is still debris. Helicopters have not reached there," he said. But he said the military was doing its best in conditions that some relief workers have said are the most difficult they have ever encountered in a natural disaster. "We have not been able to clear the debris. But the army is doing its maximum. They are picking out the areas. They are providing relief and help to the affected people," he said. Winter deaths

But relief workers have warned that thousands of people risk death within days unless help - particularly tents to shield from the imminent winter - comes immediately. Nearly all helicopters were grounded on Sunday on both sides of Kashmir after heavy rain and clouds.
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Relief workers say thousands of people risk death within daysA growing number of political leaders in the two sectors of Kashmir have called for an unprecedented opening of the Line of Control to speed up relief operations for the catastrophe. So far four countries - the United States, Germany, Japan and impoverished neighbour Afghanistan - have responded to Pakistan's request for helicopters but the Japanese choppers are not yet in operation, officials said. Logistical nightmare

Some 3.3 million have been left homeless in Pakistan, and officials and aid agencies warn that many will not receive help before winter closes in on the rugged Himalayan region and leaves mountain villages completely stranded. "It's a logistical nightmare," said Alain Pasche, coordinator of UN relief operations in Muzaffarabad, the ravaged capital of Pakistani-administered Kashmir. "Especially so in the little villages and for the people who are coming into Muzaffarabad. The situation is catastrophic here," he said.
AFP

Six US Servicemen Killed In Iraq

Monday 17 October 2005, 1:39 Makka Time - Five US soldiers have been killed by a roadside bomb in Ramadi, west of Baghdad, the US military said in a statement.

The statement gave no details beyond saying the soldiers were assigned to the 2nd Marine Division. A Marine also died in a bomb blast on Saturday in the town of Saqlawiyah, 75km west of Baghdad, the US military added.

The soldiers' deaths came as some 10 million Iraqis headed to the polls to vote on a referendum on a draft constitution. Although there were reports of heavy fighting in Ramadi, the capital Baghdad witnessed the lowest level of violence in months.
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On Sunday, Ramadi residents reported that heavy fighting continued in the city with US warplanes bombing areas in the east. Doctor Bassem al-Dulaimi at Ramadi hospital said he had received 25 dead and eight wounded and said relatives had told him the victims had been hit in aerial bombardments.
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Residents reported heavy gunfire and clashes in central and eastern parts of the city. The US military said it had no immediate information on any operations or clashes in the area.

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In Falluja 50km west of Baghdad, two Iraqi soldiers were killed and three wounded when armed men hurled grenades in a market area, police officer Sami Muhammed said on Sunday. US forces killed 10 fighters in Karabila, 300km west of Baghdad, the US military said on Sunday.
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Reuters