Israel sets out changes to Gaza blockade curbs

Israel has given details of its plan to ease the blockade of Gaza, with all civilian goods now expected to be let into the territory.

Israel will allow items into Gaza unless they feature on a new list which specifies banned goods.

The move will let in humanitarian aid, food and building supplies.

Israel has blockaded Gaza since 2005, but has faced heavy criticism since the recent killing of nine people on an aid flotilla heading to Gaza.

In a statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a long list of previously banned items, which included some food, domestic equipment and building materials would be replaced by a shorter, specific list of "weapons and war materiel".

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UN to Gaza

An Israeli official said Sunday that U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon is moving ahead with plans for an international commission to investigate Israel's deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla.

Ban wants former New Zealand Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer, a maritime law expert, to head the panel, which would include Israeli, Turkish and U.S. representatives, the Foreign Ministry official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because Ban has not announced details of his proposal.

The push for an international inquiry puts Israel under further pressure to explain how its attempt to stop the aid ship from breaching a blockade of Hamas-ruled Gaza turned deadly. It could also cast light on the motives and plans of some of the ship's passengers who Israel says were Islamic extremists intent on attacking its troops.

The outrage over the deaths has also prompted calls from many nations, including the United States, for at least a partial lifting of a blockade that Israel says is necessary to isolate the Islamic

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Rachel Corrie's Ship Captured Israeli Soldier

The Israeli military says its troops have risen to Rachel Corrie's Ship “with the full compliance” of the crew and passengers in a peaceful operation. It added that the ship and the 15 people on board, most of them Irish or Malaysian activists, were being escorted to the southern Israeli port of Ashdod.

But the takeover prompted a furious response from the Dublin-based Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign. “For the second time in less than a week, Israeli forces stormed and hijacked an unarmed aid ship, kidnapping its passengers and forcing the ship toward Ashdod port,” it said, also noting that those on board were believed to be unharmed.

Army spokeswoman Avital Leibovitz said the Rachel Corrie had been commandeered in international waters some 21 nautical miles northwest of Ashdod after the vessel refused to respond to four requests to change course.

The operation began shortly after dawn on Saturday when activists on board the vessel spoke by phone with the Gaza-based welcoming committee and said they had been surrounded by Israeli naval boats.

The boat was carrying around 1,000 tonnes of aid and supplies, half of which was reportedly cement – a substance which Israel does not allow into Gaza, claiming it could be used for building fortifications.

Despite an international outcry over the deadly commando operation, Israel vowed to block all attempts to reach Gaza by sea in defiance of the tight blockade it has imposed on the impoverished territory since 2006.

Israel had warned it would stop the Rachel Corrie, named after a US activist killed in 2003 as she tried to prevent an Israeli bulldozer from razing a Palestinian home.

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Is Hamas As a Terrorist Group ?

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday he did not view radical Palestinian group Hamas, Israel’s arch-foe, as a terrorist organisation.

“Hamas are resistance fighters who are struggling to defend their land. They have won an election,” Erdogan said in a public speech in the central city of Konya, broadcast live on television.

I do not accept Hamas as a terrorist organisation. The United States and the European Union blacklist Hamas as a terrorist group despite its victory in Palestinian elections in 2006.
Erdogan made the remarks in an angry tirade against Israel after Monday’s raid on a flotilla carrying aid to the Gaza Strip, which claimed the lives of nine Turks and plunged already strained ties between the once-close allies into deep crisis.

He lashed out at Western powers for denying Hamas a chance to shift to a democratic platform.
Erdogan renewed criticism of Israel’s raid on the aid flotilla, whose main organisers included a Turkish Islamist charity, with the bulk of its passengers Turks. Our problem is with the oppressive Israeli administration which commits state terror,” he said.

The Israel government, he said, is “hypocritical,” “paranoid” and a “lier.”
Ankara has previously insisted that peace cannot be achieved in the Middle East if Hamas was excluded from the process. In February 2006, Ankara angered Israel when it hosted a delegation led by Hamas supremo Khaled Meshaal, following the Islamists’ victory in Palestinian elections, in what Turkish officials defended as an effort to press the militant group to lay down arms.

In January 2009, Turkish officials acted as mediators between Hamas leaders based in Syria and Egyptian officials seeking to hammer out a ceasefire deal to end Israel’s devastating 22-day war on Gaza. Israel has cut Gaza off from all but vital humanitarian aid in a bid to pressure Hamas to end rocket attacks on southern Israel.

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Talking Turkey

Just four years ago, Turkey was considered one of Israel's closest allies in the region. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Israel was on the verge of losing its best friend in the region. He said Israel's decision to raid the Marmara was an unacceptable violation of international law.

The Turkish government has demanded that Israel lift its blockade of the Gaza Strip and allow an investigation into the raid. Israel has rejected those calls, saying the blockade prevents missile attacks on Israel from the Hamas-ruled territory.
Turkey has also called off planned military exercises with Israel, and some Israeli analysts fear military contracts between the two countries could also suffer.
Israeli analyst Anat Lapidot-Firilla, a professor at Jerusalem's Hebrew University, says that Turkey-Israel relations were once prized by both countries.

Israel regards the Iranian nuclear program as an existential threat.
Yaakov Katz, a military analyst for the Jerusalem Post newspaper, says Turkey's newfound closeness to Iran is ironic, considering Israeli air force pilots are widely reported to have simulated attacks on Iranian nuclear installations during training flights over Turkish territory.
Katz has observed Israeli and Turkish military exercises in the past.

"Israel is a very small country and the air force requires large places to be able to drill and exercise long-range flights — such [as] a potential attack on Iran," Katz said. "Turkey is a very large country [and] has enabled Israel to fly over its airspace, and that has allowed Israel to plan long-range flights, some of which it might have to carry out in the near future."

Lapidot-Firilla says Israel has already contacted a number of countries such as Azerbaijan and Greece to propose joint drills. Still, she says, the deteriorating relationship between Israel and Turkey will be felt acutely within the Israeli military establishment.

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Russia's commitment to the Palestinian Liberation

Russia is one country that is committed to help the Palestinians get the right to independence. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said "Going forward, Russia will of continue to promotes a settlement in the region on the universally recognized international legal basis," Medvedev said. "Our approach on this issue Principled Remains unchanged - the result of this work Should be an independent Palestinian state will from That live in peace with Israel."

Israeli commandos on Friday stormed a Convoy of vessels in neutral waters in the Mediterranean Sea That Were en route to the Hamas-run Gaza Strip with Some 10.000 tons of humanitarian aid and 700 human rights activists.
Nine activists are confirmed killed but the Arab media reports put the toll at close to 20. Were Dozens reported injured. The international community has widely condemned Israel, with Turkey recalling its ambassador.

The president said that Russia is fully satisfied with the good results of the coordination of its activities with Egypt with regards to the promotion of the Arab-Israeli peace process.
On Friday, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak ordered to open the Rafah crossing on the border with Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid and open access for Those WHO need medical treatment.

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