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03/07/2006:

"Israel army kills 5 Palestinians in West Bank raid"

NABLUS, West Bank (Reuters) - Israeli troops killed five Palestinians on Thursday during the biggest raid against West Bank militants for months, stoking tension as Hamas Islamists held talks to form a new Palestinian government.

"This is a war crime aimed at continuing the escalation and undermining Hamas efforts to form a government," said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri. "We are committed to resistance and the occupation will pay the price for these crimes."
reuters.com/news


Israel and Hamas united on ditching road map
Kadima and Hamas, the ruling parties of Israel and Palestine, united at the weekend in burying the international road map, the blueprint for peace that was previously endorsed by the governments of Ariel Sharon and Yasser Arafat.

Since Hamas won the Palestinian election and refused to recognise the Jewish state, renounce violence or accept previous agreements, Ehud Olmert, Israel's acting Prime Minister, is no longer even paying lip service to the road map presented by the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia.

Instead, Kadima is drafting a four-year plan to evacuate at least 17 outlying West Bank settlements. If, as the polls suggest, it wins the general election on 28 March, it will unilaterally draw a new border that will keep major settlement blocks under Israeli rule.

In Moscow on Saturday, Khaled Meshal, the exiled head of Hamas's political bureau, rejected a Russian request to accept international terms for a dialogue. Although Hamas is floating the possibility of an extended ceasefire, its long-term objective remains an Islamic state from the Jordan to the Mediterranean. "We believe that Israel has no right to exist," said Mr Meshal, the target of a failed Israeli assassination attempt in Amman in 1997.