Today's Situation

DEATHS IN GAZA, June 27, 2007

Israel launched two military operations in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday morning, in which at least 10 Palestinians were killed and two IDF soldiers were injured.

According to Haaretz, seven Palestinians, including senior Islamic Jihad militant Raed Fanuna, were killed in an IDF raid east of Gaza City. Two IDF soldiers were lightly wounded in the operation when their tank was hit by an anti-tank rocket.

In a separate raid near the southern Gaza town of Khan Yunis, troops killed two Islamic Jihad militants and wounded three others. In addition, a 25-year-old Palestinian was killed in an explosion in the area. It is unclear, however, whether he was killed by IDF troops or mishandled explosives.

The IDF confirmed both operations, saying they were aimed at 'negating threats.' The army said all those killed were militants, adding that troops came under anti-tank rocket fire during the operations. None of the troops were wounded.

Ynet, the Internet site of Yedioth Ahronoth, carries an unconfirmed report that a child was also killed in the shelling of Gaza City.

Arutz 7, meanwhile, reports that a suspected Qassam rocket strike in Ashkelon, in which one person was killed and three were wounded, was more likely to have been the work of underworld elements, as part of an ongoing war between criminal gangs in the town.

In the printed press, the media focuses almost exclusively on the Arab world, with the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and the Lebanon-Syria border providing the lead story for all four of the major dailies.

Yedioth Ahronoth leads with an interview with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who tells the newspaper that the violent clashes between Hamas and Fateh scuppered a deal for the release of kidnapped Israeli soldier, after the sides had agreed all of the major points of the agreement.

Speaking on Channel 1 television on Tuesday evening, however, Mubarak insisted that the events in Gaza must not prevent an Israeli-Palestinian peace process from occurring.

'[The events in] Gaza cannot interrupt the political procedure… [or] stop us from helping the Palestinian people,' the Egyptian president said during the interview. 'It is the joint responsibility of Israel, Egypt and the Palestinians to ensure that Palestinian civilians do not get caught up in the political events taking place between Hamas and Fateh.'

In the meantime, Israel Radio reports that Egyptian presidential spokesman, Suleiman Awad, says Egypt and Saudi Arabia are ready to resume mediation between rival Palestinian factions following the seizure of Gaza by Hamas.

Saudi King Abdullah told Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak during talks in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Tuesday, that his country would be willing to resume inter-Palestinian mediation, Awad said.

Awad adds, 'We need some time for the spirits to calm down, for the verbal clashes to subside. We need time to create the climate conducive to mediating between the Hamas people and the Palestinian Authority.'

Army Radio, meanwhile, quotes an unnamed Israeli security source as saying that Hamas is trying to create a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip and allows attacks to continue against the crossing points. According to the source, Hamas hopes the impression of a humanitarian crisis will lead to international pressure on Israel. Israel believes there is enough food, water and fuel in the strip for the next 80 days.

All the papers cover a decision by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to issue a decree banning the possession of weapons or explosives without the permission of the Palestinian Authority.

Two of Maariv's main stories focus on jailed Fateh activist Marwan Barghouti. In its lead article, Maariv quotes the firebrand activist as urging Israel not to miss the opportunity that negotiations for a prisoner exchange deal could create. 'This is a golden opportunity to hammer out a final-status solution,' Barghouti told the paper from his Israeli prison cell.

Maariv also reports that Mahmoud Abbas has been pressing Israel to include Barghouti in any deal for the release of Shalit. Quoting the London-based pan-Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat, Maariv reports that Abbas is seeking the freedom of the former secretary-general of Fateh in the West Bank.

Haaretz, meanwhile, leads with a report from a team appointed by the United Nations to examine security along the Lebanon-Syria border, which found that there is no satisfactory mechanism for preventing arms smuggling and recommended the establishment of a mobile force to intercept any flow of weapons.

The 46-page Report of the Lebanon Independent Border Assessment Team, said management of the border is currently shared by four Lebanese security agencies that do not coordinate operations or planning and do not share intelligence. In addition, the report said, most of Lebanon's border posts are secured by gates and operate with no obvious procedures to determine which goods to inspect and which people to question.

The report also says the presence of armed Palestinian camps in the border zone constitutes 'a major obstacle' to border security and the incomplete delineation of the Lebanon-Syria border also poses difficulties to efficient border control.

While the five member team said it found 'widespread professional will to secure the borders of Lebanon, it also assessed that the present state of border security was insufficient to prevent smuggling, in particular, the smuggling of arms, to any significant extent.'

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