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Hundreds of protesters are gathering in Cairo to mark the anniversary of the Israeli war on Gaza of last year, BBC News reports.

Their aim is to cross the Egyptian border and march into Gaza, a request that has been rejected by the Egyptian authorities because of the “sensitive situation” in the Palestinian territory, as the Egyptian foreign minister said.

A group of activists that reached the Sinai port of el-Arish was detained by the Egyptian police, while hundreds are camped in Cairo, in front of the United Nations mission, on a hunger strike to pressure the Egyptian government. Among them, there is even a 85-year-old American activist survivor of the Holocaust.

The Egyptian government is accusing the activists of trying to embarrass Egypt and willing a media exposure, al-Jazeera English reports.

Meanwhile, the “Viva Palestina” aid convoy led by the british MP George Galloway, has been blocked for five days in the Jordanian port-city of Aqaba. The organizers of the convoy planned to get on a ferry from Aqaba to the Sinai port of Nuweiba, then continue to the border city of Rafah and enter into the Gaza strip, but the Egyptian authorities denied its access five days ago.

After a Turkish mediation, the Egyptian authorities allowed the convoy to enter its Mediterranean port of El-Arish, which means that the convoy must now head to the Syrian port of Latakia and sail to el-Arish, and then continue via land to Gaza, al-Jazeera explains.

The organizers of the Gaza Freedom March are hoping to be able to cross the Palestinian border on December 31, in order to join the Palestinians in a “non-violent march from northern Gaza to the Israeli Erez border”.

The Gaza Strip is under a tight both Israeli and Egyptian blockade, that is limiting the entry of food, medicines and other supplies.

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• Gaza marchers go on hunger strike (news.bbc.co.uk)
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The Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs, Avigdor Lieberman, affirmed that ‘the ball is in the Palestinian court,’ reports al-Jazeera.

He referred to the restart of the peace talks, after the announcement made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of a plan that includes a halt on the construction of West Bank settlements.

‘The Palestinians will make their considerations based on internal considerations that don’t need to concern us,’ Lieberman said, adding that ‘instead, we should care about our friends in the world.’ As announced on Israel’s Army Radio on Thursday, Lieberman said that the freeze on construction will mobilize international support for Israel,  as it will demonstrate Israel’s support for restarting the political peace process.

However, Israeli Attorney General Menachem Mazuz revealed on Thursday that Israel does not have the means to apply the freeze due to a lack of settlement inspectors. There are currently only 14 in the West Bank.

Israeli Defense Minister, Ehud Barak, expressed his hopes for the restart of peace talks with the Palestinians and urged the establishment of a budge for the surveillance of the settlements, but Minister of Finance Yuval Steinitz rejected the request.

Netanyahu, meanwhile, offered the 10-month suspension of settlement construction.

Yaser Abd Rabbo, secretary of the PLO’s executive commission, assured that the Israeli proposal would be rejected by the Palestinians, who called it a ‘political trick’ which did not offer anything new to the peace talks. He asked the United States to place more pressure on Israel as the US and the international community welcomed the initiative as ‘a step in the right direction.’

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• Israel ponders temporary settlement freeze (cnn.com)
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• Israeli Foreign Minister: No Chance for Peace Deal (abcnews.go.com)

Jack Teitel, the Israeli settler that has been charged with killing two Palestinians, denied in front of the Israeli court any sense of guilt. He added that killing the two Palestinian was pleasant, considering his act as an offer to his Lord that “I have no doubt, is proud of me,” al-Jazeera reports.

The public prosecutor has drawn up a list of his 14 charges and submitted them to the central court of Jerusalem. Among other charges, he is accused of murder, explosions, illegal possession of weapons, attempt to harm the security of his fellow citizens, racial incitement and harassment against Israeli leftists, homosexuals and even messianic Jews.

Teitel “the terrorist” emigrated to Israel from the United States in the 90’s, and killed a Palestinian taxi-driver in 1997 in east-Jerusalem. Afterwards, he murdered a Palestinian farmer in the West Bank. He was arrested last month and will remain in custody until the 16th December, while the investigations on him continue.

He denies the reports of Israeli journalists disclosing his alleged collaboration with Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) for few months some years ago.

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• Jewish settler on murder charges (news.bbc.co.uk)

The head of Hamas’ political office, Khaled Meshaal, urged the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas to stop the compromises with Israel and the plan of a resolution, emphasizing the necessity for the Palestinians to put an end to their disagreements, al-Jazeera says.

Concerning the talks with Israel, he affirmed that the compromise that started in Oslo in 1993 has failed to stop the Israeli settlements and address the need for establishing a constitution for an autonomous Palestinian state in the Occupied Territories.

“Any leader who insists on the right of return for the Palestinians and on restoring the land, even to the 1967 borders … must know that the way to do this is not through negotiations or betting on the Americans but through holy struggle, resistance and national unity,” Meshaal said.

Meshaal urged for reconciliation between the two Palestinian sides: “Our hand is stretched out to reconcile with our brothers in Fatah and the Palestinian presidency to achieve our national project,” he affirmed.

The call came after Mahmoud Abbas announced that he won’t run for the next Palestinian elections on 24th January, a move defined by Hamas as “insolvent for a failing resolution plan”.

In turn, the Palestinian president accused Hamas, reminding Meshaal that internal Palestinian politics had been compromised by the bloody coup d’etat staged by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

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According to a report released on Tuesday by Amnesty International, Israel denies Palestinians necessary fresh water in the West Bank and in Gaza Strip, al-Jazeera says.

The report also reveals that the daily consumption of water per person in Israel surpasses by more than four times its daily consumption in the Palestinian territories.

“Water is one of the fundamental needs and a fundamental right. However, with regard to many Palestinians, the quantities of water – as well as the quality of it- they have access to don’t cover their needs, so that it becomes a luxury for them,” explains Donatella Rovera from Amnesty International.

Israel controls the majority of the aid for the Palestinian territories and has increased its plans for the region, including the exploitation of an underground aquifer that runs almost entirely beneath the occupied West Bank. Yet, according to the assessments, the consumption of water in Israel reaches approximately 300 liters daily, against the 70 liters daily of the Palestinians. The worst situation is in the Gaza Strip, where Israel set a blockade for the population under the authority of Hamas since 2007.

The Israeli Water Authority contested those numbers, reporting 408 liters daily for the Israelis and 287 for the Palestinians. The Jerusalem Post reports that while acknowledging the difference between these two amounts, the authority stressed that it was nowhere near as drastic as Amnesty had portrayed it.

However anti-Palestinian discrimination goes beyond the allotment of fresh water reserves. According to Amnesty, Israel has also imposed a complex system of permits which the Palestinians must obtain from the Israeli army and other authorities in order to carry out water-related projects in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Applications for such permits are often rejected or subject to long delays.

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• Israel withholds water from Palestinians: Amnesty (ctv.ca)
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• Israel ‘cuts Palestinian water’ (news.bbc.co.uk)

Many students from Iranian universities gathered yesterday in front of the Saudi embassy in Teheran to protest the Saudi role in the blast of last Sunday in Sistan-Baluchistan in south-east Iran, reports al-Jazeera.

The demonstrators protested against what they consider as a Saudi move aimed at escalating the conflict between Sunni and Shiite Muslims. Moreover, they protested against the Saudi position on the Palestinian question, the war in Yemen and the support of the disorders in Iraq. They also asked the Iranian Government to ban the pilgrimage (Hajj) to Saudi Arabia for this year.

The explosion that happened on Sunday morning in the city of Baish on the border with Pakistan targeting a tribal gathering is considered as antagonizing the Sunni and Shiite  populations, explains al-Jazeera. The blast killed 42 people, and between them 15 officers of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

The Iranian national security services blamed the movement Jundallah for the attack, assuring the highest punishment for those responsible.

However, the Iranian foreign minister Manushahr Mottaki blamed blamed Great Britain and Pakistan for the blast, saying that the movement is based in Pakistan and has been organizing regular attacks both on the Iranian-Pakistani border and inside Iran.

Two days ago, the head of the Revolutionary Guards said that an Iranian security delegation might be sent to Pakistan to ask for the handover of the chief of Jundallah movement, accusing Pakistani, British and American intelligence services.

Pakistan has denied the Iranian accusations, explaining that those responsible for the blast are hoping for the destruction of  relations between Pakistan and Iran.

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• Top officers among dead in Iran bomb blast (cbc.ca)
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