GAZA CITY

Palestinian resistance faction Hamas made it clear on Sunday that a cease-fire agreement between Gaza-based groups and Israel signed last week in Cairo is "open-ended."

The assertion came to address fears that violence might re-erupt after the expiry of the one-month deadline set in the agreement for another round of indirect talks to begin on a long-term cease-fire deal.

"What was mentioned in the agreement that the talks should be resumed within one month. The calm, meanwhile, is open-ended, and we wanted to clarify this to prevent any confusion among the Palestinians," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in statement.

The Egyptian-brokered cease-fire deal, signed on Tuesday, put an end to Israel's 51-day offensive on the Gaza Strip, which left some 2,147 Gazans dead and 11,000 others injured – mostly civilians. The crippling onslaught had also partially or completely destroyed thousands of buildings across the coastal enclave.

http://www.aa.com.tr/en/rss/381660--hamas-says-gaza-cease-fire-open-ended

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) -- The first of August dawned as a day of promise for the Mahmoum clan and thousands of other Palestinians stuck in United Nations shelters in Rafah - thanks to a temporary cease-fire with Israel they could go home for three days.

But the expected respite quickly turned into one of the deadliest and most controversial episodes in the recent war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. After just two hours, amid fear that Hamas had captured an Israeli soldier, the Israeli military sealed off the Rafah area and began shelling. By the end of the next day, 190 Palestinians were dead, according to a list of names compiled by two Gaza human rights groups, including 14 members of the Mahmoum family.

The Rafah operation is almost certain to be a focus of U.N. investigators and rights groups looking into possible war crimes because it highlights a key concern: The treatment of civilians.

A Palestinian rights group argues that the Israeli army violated the rules of war, which include giving adequate warning to civilians, using proportionate force and distinguishing between civilians and combatants. Unlike in many other Gaza battles, civilians were caught by surprise by the sudden fire and sealed exits.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_GAZA_TRAPPED_UNDER_FIRE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-08-31-08-00-29

Dubai: Palestine is free to file charges of war crimes against Israel, if it so decides. That’s the position taken by ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda.

Writing in British newspaper The Guardian on Friday, Bensouda stated that her office had never avoided opening such an investigation due to political pressure, but in fact lacked the jurisdiction to act due to Palestine’s lack of party to the Rome statute.

Bensouda sighted that since Palestine’s upgrade to non-member observer state in 2012, it had both the freedom and volition to sign up to the International Criminal Court and file complaints for investigation.

The Jerusalem Post described the article as “a highly uncharacteristic public venue for her [Bensouda] to articulate her office’s usually closely held official positions”

http://gulfnews.com/news/region/palestinian-territories/palestine-can-sue-israel-says-icc-1.1378933

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- A representative of the Palestinian political movement Fatah on Wednesday said the group has invited Hamas to a meeting to discuss the implementation of the national reconciliation agreement and were still waiting for a response.

Senior Gaza-based Fatah leader Faisal Abu Shahla told Ma'an that Fatah had already formed a delegation based on central committee members and had asked Hamas to form a delegation "authorized to take decisions" in order to take part in a meeting outside of Palestine.

The two delegations, he said, would meet and discuss unresolved issues and arrangements related to the reconciliation agreement the two movements signed in April that ended eight years of tensions.

The meeting will be dedicated, Abu Shahla said, to "crystallizing a clear attitude toward the Palestinian national consensus government" that would enable it to operate without obstacles or intervention from any side.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=725155

Jerusalem: Israel's Cabinet convened on Sunday to debate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's call for swingeing budget cuts to pay for the 50-day military campaign in Gaza.

Netanyahu, Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon and Finance Minister Yair Lapid are seeking cuts of two percent from every government ministry - other than defence - to raise about 2 billion shekels ($561 million, 425 million euros).

According to documents released by the cabinet office ahead of Sunday's weekly meeting, the biggest proposed cut is to the education ministry, which is being asked to give up 480 million shekels.

Welfare and social services are being asked for 62.6 million and health spending is to be trimmed by 43 million.

http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/israeli-pm-benjamin-netanyahu-seeks-cuts-to-2014-budget-to-finance-gaza-war-584660?curl=1409496750

Israel has been presented with a hefty bill for 50 days of war in Gaza, as the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, moved to slash government spending by 2% this year to offset the $2.52 bn (£1.51bn) cost of the conflict.

With only the Israeli military and domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet exempt from the sharp spending reductions, the area to be hit hardest emerged as the Israeli education system, with critics – including members of Netanyahu's cabinet – predicting that the poorest Israelis will feel the brunt of the cuts.

Among those protesting was the welfare minister, Meir Cohen, who insisted there was no more fat in his budget to trim.

"From whom will we take? From those who have nothing to put in their children's sandwiches for school?" he complained on Israeli army radio.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/31/gaza-war-costs-israel-budget-cuts

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The plan aims for the immediate allocation of about 1.5 billion shekels ($419 million) to the Defense Ministry for some of the costs of the war, it added.

Based on the volume of their respective budgets, the Education Ministry will take the largest cut in terms of funds – 695 million shekels, while the Transportation Ministry is expected to lose 247 million shekels, it added.

http://www.aa.com.tr/en/rss/381820--israel-to-apply-budget-cut-to-cover-cost-of-gaza-war

And they say war does not pay.

JERUSALEM — The Israeli military says a soldier wounded in fighting in the Gaza Strip died Sunday, bringing the Israeli military toll in the recently concluded conflict to 66.

The military says 20-year-old Sergeant Shachar Shalev was wounded on July 23, six days after Israeli ground forces entered the densely populated coastal strip.

Six civilians were also killed on the Israeli side, including one agricultural worker from Thailand.

More than 2,100 Palestinians, mainly civilians, were killed during the 50-day war.

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Israeli+soldier+succumbs+wounds+Israel+Gaza+death+toll+rises/10164393/story.html

Israel has been appropriating land on the West Bank for a long time.

Russia is appropriating land in Crimea.

ISIS/ISIL wants huge swaths of land in Syria, Iraq, Iran.

Is there any consistency in our responses?

I never cease to wonder how it is that you can actually get honest news about such things in Israel, but not in the US

Israel appropriates massive tract of West Bank land

http://www.haaretz.com/mobile/.premium-1.613319?v=8DC0E9826011BF2F4980D8FC16D55D67
http://www.haaretz.com/polopoly_fs/1.613398.1409512106!/image/19784054.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_640/19784054.jpg


Israel’s Civil Administration in the West Bank yesterday announced the takeover of 988 acres (3,799 dunams) belonging to five Palestinian villages between the Etzion settlement bloc and Jerusalem. The move clears the way for construction of a new settlement named Gvaot.

The announcement follows the cabinet’s decision last week to take over the land in response to the June kidnapping and killing of three teenage Jewish boys by Hamas militants in the area.

Peace Now, which monitors settlement construction, said it was the largest Israeli appropriation of West Bank land in 30 years.

David Perl, head of the Gush Etzion local council, said the “declaration of some 4,000 dunams as state land paves the way for the establishment of Gvaot, a new city in Gush Etzion. I want to congratulate the prime minister and the government of Israel on their promotion of the initiative, and the defense minister and head of the civil administration on getting the decision approved.”

The appropriated land belongs to five Palestinian villages in the Bethlehem area: Jaba, Surif, Wadi Fukin, Husan and Nahalin.

The move is the latest of a series of plans designed to attach the Etzion settlement bloc to Jerusalem and its environs. Construction of a major settlement, known as Gvaot, at the location has been mooted by Israel since the year 2000. Last year, the government invited bids for the building of 1,000 housing units at the site, and 523 are currently under construction. Ten families now live on the site, which is adjacent to a yeshiva.

J Street condemns as provocative, damaging and extremely destructive to Israel and to hopes of peace a decision by the Israeli government to seize almost 1,000 acres of land in the occupied West Bank to build a massive new settlement.

The decision, both in its timing and intrinsic nature, could hardly be more negative and harmful. This has been described as the largest grab of Palestinian land for the purpose of building settlements in 30 years. It demeans and weakens Israel’s peace partner, the Palestinian Authority; it defies the will of Israel’s most important ally and friend, the United States, and it flies in the face of a broad international consensus.

Most of all, it casts serious doubt on the Israeli government's sincerity in claiming to favor a two-state peace agreement with the Palestinians. Prime Minister Netanyahu says he is in favor of peace based on a two-state solution, yet almost all of the government's actions and words point to the opposite conclusion.

This decision is also a test of US seriousness in Mideast peace-making.The United States has protested settlement announcement after settlement announcement for decades – yet its opinion has been disregarded by successive Israeli governments to the point that US credibility has been called into question. How can the world expect US leadership in dealing with hostile actors across the Middle East when even its closest friend in the region flagrantly ignores its policies? It is time for the Administration to make clear to Israel that it means what it says and that US opposition to settlements is not just symbolic but real.

J Street urges the United States government to undertake a thorough review of its policy toward Israeli settlements and to announce the steps it will take if Israel goes forward with this decision. As a first step, it should declare now that it is the view of the United States that settlements are not merely "unhelpful" or "illegitimate" but illegal under international law as laid out in the Fourth Geneva Convention.

It may be true that the land being expropriated from five Palestinian villages lies within one of the settlement blocs that are likely to be retained by Israel in any prospective peace deal. But until there is such an agreement, this kind of land grab can only be seen as a blatant unilateral move to create new facts on the ground.

It is particularly unfortunate coming on the heels of last week's Gaza cease-fire which seemed to offer a new start for diplomacy in tackling the conflict. One would have thought following that war, that Israel would do everything possible to strengthen PA leaders and their pursuit of diplomacy and non-violence. Instead, this move undermines President Abbas and reinforces his opponents, including Hamas, whose abhorrent use of violence shows exactly why now is the time to empower moderate Palestinian leadership.

We urge the Israeli government to reverse this decision, to announce a settlement freeze and its readiness to return to negotiations for a final settlement based on the 1967 borders with agreed land swaps.

Finance Minister Yair Lapid and Justice Minister Tzipi Livni have already noted how much harm this decision will cause to the US-Israel relationship. Other responsible members of the ruling coalition should join them in working to reverse this decision and to move urgently to seek a two-state solution.

I've read a lot of articles about the appropriation, and not a single other one of them says this is the largest one in 30 years. If we are to maintain any credibility, we have to avoid exageration.

I don't see what else they might do with the land than settle it.