Blast kills at least two in Beirut

BEIRUT: At least two people were killed late Saturday in a mysterious blast that shook Hezbollah's stronghold in southern Beirut, a security official said, amid reports it could have targeted the Palestinian Hamas movement.

"At least two people have been killed and a number of others injured in an explosion in the southern suburbs" of Beirut where the Shiite Hezbollah movement has its headquarters, the official told media.

"The cause of the explosion has not yet been determined," the official added. Earlier the official national news agency said the blast could have been aimed at a member of the Palestinian Hamas movement in Lebanon.

The blast was "the result of three bombs placed under a car whose owner is said to be a member of Hamas," the agency said, adding that two people were wounded in the explosion.

But in a terse report, quoting unnamed security officials, Hezbollah's television said the "blast took place in an office of the Hamas movement causing casualties." It did not give further details.

Hamas spokesman Raafat Murra told media that the Palestinian Islamic movement has an office in the area where the blast occurred but could not immediately say if there were casualties among members of the group.

Israel kills 6 Palestinians in West Bank

NABLUS/GAZA CITY: Israel killed six Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in a sudden flare-up on Saturday, a day before the anniversary of its brutal war on Gaza. Israeli forces killed three Palestinians in raids on the West Bank town of Nablus and another three on its border with Gaza.

Dr. Ghassan Hamdan, director of Medical Relief in Nablus, identified the three Palestinians killed in the Israeli raid as Ghassan Abu Sharkh, 40, Anan Soboh, 36, and Ra’ed Sarkaji, 40. Sarkaji’s pregnant wife Tahani J’arah, 32, was moderately injured in the shooting, Hamdan told Arab News.

Hamdan alleged that the Israeli troops barred Palestinian medics by force from entering the Al-Qasbah and Ras El-Ain areas to render medical the victims.

Relatives who witnessed the Nablus shootings said soldiers fired at two of the men without warning. Before dawn, dozens of Israeli troops entered Nablus’ old city. Soldiers used explosives to blow open the door of the Abu Sharkh family’s three-story apartment building, said Ghassan’s brother Jihad. He said that when Ghassan came downstairs, one of the soldiers opened fire and killed him.

Troops also used explosives at the home of Sarkaji, his wife Tahani said. She said her husband opened the bedroom door. “Suddenly, shots were fired at us,” she said. “He fell down. I started shouting. I held his head in my lap and sat on the ground.”

In the third raid, troops surrounded the home of Anan Soboh and ordered everyone to come out, said Anan’s brother, Jamal. The family evacuated, but Anan stayed back.

Israel had accused the three — members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, the armed wing of Fatah — of involvement in the murder of a Jewish occupier two days earlier.

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad later made a condolence visit to Nablus and said, “This attack was a clear assassination, and I believe it is targeting our security and stability.”

In the Gaza Strip, an Israeli airstrike killed three Palestinians and injured one close to the border. The army said the four were hit after they ignored warning shots while approaching the Erez passenger crossing.

Relatives of the three dead men, ages 19 and 20, said they had tried to sneak into Israel for work and were not affiliated with political groups. Hamas said the three were civilians collecting scrap metal in an industrial zone near the border.

Residents said they were greeted with volleys of gunfire when they approached the site on donkey carts in an attempt to retrieve the bodies. They identified the dead as Mahmoud Sharatha, Hani Abu Ghazal and Bashir Abu Kheil.

Palestinians condemn new planned Jerusalem settler homes

RAMALLAH: The Western-backed Palestinian Authority on Monday condemned Israeli plans to build new homes for settlers in east Jerusalem and said they were incompatible with peace efforts.

"The Palestinian Authority strongly condemns the new decision to build in east Jerusalem and wonders whether there is a freeze of settlement activity or an intensification of it," chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said.

"The American administration needs to realise that the policies of the Israeli government embody settlements and not peace and that their choice is settlements and not peace," he added.

Israel's Channel 10 television reported Sunday that Israel has invited tenders for the building of some 692 new homes in three settlements in mostly Arab east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians have demanded as the capital of their promised state.

There are already some 200,000 Jewish settlers living alongside 270,000 Arab residents in east Jerusalem, which Israel occupied in the 1967 Six Day War and annexed later in a move not recognised by the international community.

The Palestinians have refused to restart peace negotiations suspended a year ago during the Gaza war unless Israel halts all settlement activity in the occupied West Bank, including east Jerusalem.

Israel has agreed to a 10-month moratorium on building starts in the West Bank excluding public buildings and projects already underway. The partial freeze does not include east Jerusalem.

On November 16, Israel gave its approval for 900 new housing units in another east Jerusalem settlement in a move that drew a strong rebuke from its US ally, which has been pressing both sides to restart peace talks.