Four dead in Gaza Strip fighting

GAZA CITY— Renewed clashes between Israel and militants in the Gaza Strip left at least four Palestinians dead Saturday and 30 others wounded, according to Palestinian officials.

The violence began when an Israeli tank patrolling the northern Gaza border was struck by an anti-tank missile fired by Gaza militants. Four Israeli soldiers were wounded, including one in critical condition.

It was unclear which Palestinian militant group was responsible for the attack.

Israel Defense Forces struck back with ground fire and air raids over nearby areas, Palestinian witnesses said. Most of 30 injured Palestinians were residents of a neighborhood east of Gaza City that came under fire when militants fled to their area, Palestinians said.

Among the dead were Ahmed Dardasawi, 18, and Mohmad Harara, 17, Gaza hospital officials said.

The fighting raised fears that violence in the Gaza Strip could escalate. Hamas, the Islamist group that controls Gaza, condemned the “Zionist escalation and targeting of civilians," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said.

Shortly after the Israeli airstrikes, Gaza militants fired numerous rockets into southern Israel. No injuries were  reported. Israel warned citizens living near the border to remain close to bomb shelters.

Back-and-forth violence has rattled the region for months despite efforts to broker a cease-fire.

Several Palestinian civilians have been killed in recent clashes, including a 12-year-old boy struck in crossfire and a mentally unstable young man shot by Israeli soldiers when he drifted close to the border, Palestinian officials said.The two deaths occurred last week.

On Thursday, an Israeli soldier was wounded when an explosive device destroyed a vehicle that was involved in maintenance work along the border fence. 

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Photo: Wounded Israeli soldiers are wheeled into the Soroka hospital in Beersheva, southern Israel, following clashes along the Gaza Strip border, east of Gaza City on Saturday. Credit: Dudu Grunshpan / AFP/ Getty Images

Palestinians hope President Obama's second term will help bring change

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Palestinians expressed hope Wednesday that President Obama’s second term will be more forthcoming than his first one when it comes to resolving their conflict with Israel.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was quick to congratulate Obama on his victory and expressed hope that he will help achieve peace in the Middle East.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said he hoped Obama's second term would see the implementation of a two-state solution. Palestinians also remain determined to become a nonmember state in the United Nations General Assembly, Erekat said.

Analyst Sam Bahour said he expects Obama will have more leverage and face less pressure from lobbying groups in dealing with issues such as conflicts in the Middle East.

"On the one hand, he is more knowledgeable of the issues, and on the other he has to deal with the changing politics in the region, particularly with the emergence of two new powers in the Middle East — Iran and Turkey — which means the U.S. cannot afford to leave a political vacuum that could be filled by either of these two powers," Bahour said.

Palestinians in general do not expect Obama to change his support of Israel, particularly in light of what Bahour described as "a Congress hijacked by the pro-Israel camp."

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Photo: President Obama meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington in March. Credit: Pablo Martinez Monsivais / Associated Press

Israel to build 1,285 housing units over Green Line

JERUSALEM -- Israel on Tuesday published tenders for the construction of 1,285 new units of Jewish housing in the Jerusalem area and the West Bank settlement of Ariel, all on land seized by Israel during the 1967 Middle East war, according to the anti-settlement group Peace Now.

The new housing proposals, one of the biggest tender offers in months, includes 607 units in Pisgat Zeev and 606 units in Ramot, both located on land that Israel annexed into Jerusalem but that Palestinians claim for their state.

Another 72 units will be built in Ariel, a large Jewish settlement built deep in the West Bank near Nablus.

Plans for the units were previously announced and approved by the government. The tender offer represents one of the final stages before construction can break ground.

Peace Now officials criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government for expanding settlements beyond the Green Line that marks land seized in 1967 and accused the Housing Ministry of trying to hide the last announcement by releasing it on a day that attention was focused on U.S. elections.

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Photo: The Jewish neighborhood of Pisgat Zeev in East Jerusalem is seen in 2009 with the Shuafat refugee camp in the background and Israel's separation barrier running between them. Israel said Tuesday that it was pushing forward with construction of more than 1,200 new homes in Pisgat Zeev and another Jewish enclave in east Jerusalem as well as Ariel, a large Jewish settlement in the West Bank. Credit: Sebastian Scheine / Associated Press

Israel admits responsibility for 1988 assassination

This post has been updated. See the note below for details.

JERUSALEM -- More than 24 years after Palestinian military leader Khalil Ibrahim Wazir was assassinated in Tunisia, Israel acknowledged for the first time that its spy agency Mossad carried out the killing.

Wazir, one of the founders of the Fatah Party and a top aide to the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, was viewed by Israel as a terrorist and by Palestinians as a freedom fighter.

After refusing for years to publicly confirm Israel's role in the April 16, 1988, assassination, the nation's military censors on Thursday permitted the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot to publish an interview with the commander who led the secret mission. The article had reportedly been suppressed by censors for more than a decade.

Wazir, also known as Abu Jihad, was believed to have been behind numerous strikes against Israelis, including a 1978 bus-hijacking attack that killed 38 Israelis, and to have helped organize the 1987 Palestinian uprising known as the first Intifada from his base in Tunisia.

The killing was condemned by the United States and international community and was widely believed to have been carried out by Israel.

According to the report, 26 Israeli commandos participated in the attack on Wazir’s heavily guarded home, including two agents who approached the house posing as a vacationing couple but carrying guns with silencers.

[Updated, 11:19 a.m. Nov. 1: The mission’s commander was Nahum Lev, who died in a 2000 motorcycle accident shortly after giving an interview about the operation to Israeli journalist Ronen Bergman.

He told Bergman that he and a male soldier dressed as a woman were the pair who posed as vacationers. The first team killed a bodyguard asleep in his car, while other squads entered the home, killing other guards as well as a gardener who got in the way.

“It was too bad about the gardener,” Lev told the journalist. “But in operations like this, you have to ensure that all potential resistance is neutralized.”

Lev said Wazir was found and shot in an upstairs room as his wife stood nearby. The team escaped without suffering any casualties.]

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Photo: Khalil Ibrahim Wazir, also known as Abu Jihad, the Palestine Liberation Organization's military chief on Feb. 10, 1986, in Amman, Jordan. Credit: John Rice / Associated Press

Two new settler outposts go up in West Bank, activists report

JERUSALEM -- Two new outposts of settlers have gone up in the West Bank in recent months, according to a report by the Israeli anti-settlement organization Peace Now.

The organization noted that unlike the usual makeshift set-up of such outposts, the new ones come complete with paved roads and infrastructure connections to electricity and water, suggesting official support.

"They wouldn't have been able to do this without the authorities' assistance," Hagit Ofran of Peace Now told Israeli media. The group said these are the first outposts to enjoy such official backing since 2005.

Danny Dayan, chairman of the Yesha Council, the settler umbrella group, dismissed the report as "nonsense," saying neither outpost was new or illegal and that both were built inside existing settlement boundaries.

The Civil Administration, a branch of the Israeli military, was aware of the two locations and has begun procedures to stop work on the site and issue demolition orders, according to Israeli media.

Israel, Palestinian militants exchange strikes in Gaza Strip flare-up

JERUSALEM -- Tensions along the Gaza Strip intensified Wednesday as a sustained barrage of rockets fired into Israel prompted an Israeli airstrike, marking an escalation in the latest round of fighting in the region.

In a morning barrage, Palestinian militants fired more than 50 rockets into Israel, officials said, with several making direct hits on farms and residences. Three immigrant Thai farm workers who were injured in the attacks were airlifted for medical treatment.

School was canceled throughout Israeli communities bordering on the Gaza Strip, and residents were instructed to remain near shelters and protected areas.

Israel retaliated with an airstrike on Gaza, the fourth in 24 hours.

"The [Israel Defense Forces] will not tolerate any attempt to harm Israeli civilians and will operate against anyone who uses terror against the state of Israel," said an army statement that held Hamas, which seized control of the seaside territory in 2007, "solely responsible for any terrorist activity emanating from the Gaza Strip."

Qatari emir visits Gaza Strip in sign of support

This post has been updated. See the notes below for details.

GAZA CITY -- Palestinians in the Gaza Strip rolled out the red carpet Tuesday for Qatari Emir Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani, the first foreign head of state to visit the besieged seaside territory since it was taken over by the Islamist militant group Hamas in 2007.

[Updated, 10:55 a.m. Oct. 23: The emir called on Hamas and its rival, the West Bank-based Fatah Party, to reconcile their differences and work together to establish a Palestinian state.

"Palestinians should understand that division does the greatest harm to them and to the cause of all the Arabs," he said during a speech at Islamic University in Gaza.]

The visit came during a period of renewed violence between Gaza militants and Israel.

On Monday, two Palestinian militants were killed by Israeli airstrikes as they attempted to fire rockets into southern Israel, Israeli officials said. An Israeli officer was wounded Tuesday morning by an explosive device planted along the Gaza border.

In preparation for the emir's visit, Hamas deployed hundreds of security guards to protect the him and his delegation, and lined the streets with Qatari flags.

Hamas leaders have been looking increasingly to Qatar for patronage since the unrest in Syria led the militant group to abandon its base in Damascus.

Fatah dominates West Bank election amid low turnout

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- Amid a lackluster voter turnout, Palestinians largely elected the dominant Fatah Party to represent them in local councils throughout the West Bank, election officials said Sunday.

But rather than strengthening Fatah’s credibility as its leaders had hoped, the election -- the first municipal poll held since 2005 -- exposed internal party divisions and a deep public apathy.

Only about 55% of eligible voters went to the polls Saturday, down from 70% when municipal elections were last held seven years ago.

Analysts said the low turnout reflected a public frustration over the lack of new leaders and choices.

Fatah’s main rival -- the Islamist party Hamas, which controls Gaza Strip -- boycotted the West Bank election, saying its members were being harassed. No voting occurred in Gaza.

Palestinians vote in first local elections since 2005

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- Palestinians headed to the polls Saturday in the West Bank’s first local elections in seven years, selecting new leaders for 93 cities and villages.

Turnout was light in the morning but picked up as the day progressed, according to officials from the central elections commission.

As they cast their votes, many Palestinians expressed pride and happiness that the long-delayed local elections were finally being held.

“It makes me feel that democracy is well here,” said Tareq Makhlouf, 26, a U.S.-born Palestinian who moved to Ramallah last year.

Others said they hoped the new slate of local leaders would bring change.

“It is time to see new faces in the municipalities,” said Faisal Darras after casting a vote at a Ramallah polling station. “Seven years of the same faces is enough .... Elections should be held every four years, not every seven.”

The Palestinian Authority had attempted to conduct local elections several times since 2010, but votes were canceled due to political instability and the fracture between the two main Palestinian parties, Fatah in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas, which controls Gaza, did not allow voting to take place in the seaside territory and urged its supporters in the West Bank to boycott Saturday’s poll.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas cast his vote in al-Bireh, Ramallah’s sister city. It is believed he voted for his party’s list, the Fatah-led Independence and Development bloc, one of only two lists running in the city.

“This is a day of democracy for the Palestinian people,” Abbas said.

He expressed hope that the Palestinian people would soon be able to vote in presidential and legislative elections as well. The last national election was held in 2006.

Counting the votes will start soon after the polls close Saturday evening, but preliminary results will not be announced before Sunday afternoon, election officials said.

Because of the Hamas boycott, most analysts predict Fatah lists will dominate the new local councils.

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Photo: A Palestinian woman looks at a voter registration list outside a polling station in the West Bank city of Hebron. Credit: Abed Hashlamoun / EPA

Israeli navy intercepts Gaza-bound protest ship

JERUSALEM -- Israeli navy commandos early Saturday intercepted a Gaza Strip-bound ship carrying about 30 pro-Palestinian activists as it attempted to break through a maritime blockade of the  impoverished seaside territory.

Israeli military officials said that after the ship refused to alter its course, soldiers took control of the vessel and directed it toward the Israeli port of Ashdod.

No injuries were reported.

The ship, called Estelle, was the last attempt by activists to bring attention to Israel’s naval blockade around Gaza. The boat carried cement and other supplies that Israel currently restricts from entering Gaza because it says they could be used to build military bunkers or weapons. Among the passengers were parliament members from Greece, Norway, Sweden and Spain, activists said.

In 2010, Israeli commandos killed nine Turkish activists on a similar protest ship when passengers violently resisted being taken over.

The Israeli government has called the protest ships a provocation and defended its naval blockade as necessary to ensure that militant groups in Gaza do not receive weapons.

Critics say Israel should relax its restrictions on land borders to permit the importation of more building supplies.

“If Israel wants to exercise its authority as occupying power to stop ships from reaching Gaza, it must fulfill its obligation to allow free movement of people and goods via the land crossings, subject only to individual security checks," said Sari Bashi, director of Gisha, an Israeli group that has criticized the blockade.

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