Hamas has reportedly resumed digging tunnels throughout the Gaza Strip in preparation for its next battle with Israel. According to the Hamas-affiliated website Arsalanet, tunnel construction has resumed, since they provide the organization, and particularly its military wing, with strategic depth.

On Sunday, the website published an extensive report on the tunnels, including meetings and conversations between digging team commanders and team members who are part of Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, Hamas' military wing. According to the commander of one such team, the digging will not stop as long as security conditions allow it to continue.

“In Gaza today there is a kind of a lower city for people who work around the clock with primitive means but through these tools and tunnels they attain many achievements,” he said.

The team head, who goes by the name of Abu Khaled, said that work on the specific tunnel photographed for the Web report began a few years ago, adding that the tunnel was intended to deliver supplies to Hamas' military wing.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.621706

By Ramzy Baroud

It would be intellectually dishonest to reflect on the British House of Commons' vote of October 13, on a Palestinian state without digging deeper into history. Regardless of the meaning of the non-binding motion, the parliamentary action cannot be brushed off as just another would-be country to recognize Palestine, as was the Swedish government's decision on October 3.

Unlike Sweden, and most of the 130-plus countries to effectively recognize Palestine, Britain is a party in the Middle East's most protracted conflict. In fact, if it were not for Britain, there would be no conflict, or even Israel, of which to speak. It is within this context that the British vote matters, and greatly so.

As I listened to the heated debate by British MPs that preceded the historic vote of 272 in favor and 12 against, phantoms of historic significance occupied my mind.

When my father was born in historic Palestine in 1936, he found himself in a world politically dominated by Britain. Born and raised in the now long-destroyed Palestinian village of Beit Daras - which, like the rest of historic Palestine has now become part of "Israel proper" - he, along with his family - were entrapped between two anomalies that greatly scarred the otherwise peaceful landscape of Palestine countryside. A Jewish colony called Tabiyya, along with a heavily fortified British police compound that was largely aimed at safeguarding the interests of the colony, subjugated Beit Daras.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MID-03-201014.html

Hamas' military wing, the Izzadin Kassam Brigades, said Israel was holding the remains of two bodies belonging to senior Hamas commanders killed during the Gaza war, according to the Turkish news service Anadolu Agency (AA).

Quoting a Palestinian source, AA reported that following a thorough investigation, the Gaza-based group determined that Bassil Abul Nagga and Ibrahim al-Ghamour were killed by IDF fire in eastern Khan Younis, after they ambushed Israeli troops, killing three soldiers.

According to the source, who spoke to the Turkish outlet on condition of anonymity, the information came from a Palestinian prisoner jailed in Israel.

Hamas has been searching for the bodies of the two military leaders, since the war ended a nearly two months ago, but to no avail.

http://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/Report-Hamas-says-Israel-holding-bodies-of-two-commanders-killed-in-Gaza-fighting-379272

Egypt has invited Israel and the Palestinians to resume ceasefire negotiations in Cairo next week, nearly two months after the sides ended fighting in Gaza.

The talks are expected to focus on providing relief to Gaza’s population following the 50-day conflict between Israel and Hamas that has left many homeless and without running water, Israel Radio said, citing a Palestinian report.

The talks would resume where a single day of negotiations left off in late September in Cairo, as the sides briefly convened ahead of several weeks of religious holidays.

The indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinian factions, mainly Hamas, are meant to reach a long-term ceasefire after a six-year period that has seen three wars in Gaza and thousands of deaths.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/egypt-invites-israel-palestinians-to-renew-ceasefire-talks/

every UN member country

The United Nations in Geneva on Monday rejected Israel’s claim that a major human rights treaty was not applicable to its treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

“No, [Israel] is not responsible for those violations that are committed by the Palestinian Authority or Hamas, quite clearly not,” the chairman of the UN Human Rights Committee, Nigel Rodley, told a high-level delegation of Israelis.

“But it is responsible for those violations that are outside the control of the administrating Palestinian authorities and Hamas but are within the control of the state party,” Rodley said.

He spoke at the tail end of a day-long periodic review of Israel’s compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/UN-Israel-must-uphold-human-rights-law-in-its-treatment-of-Palestinians-379354

NEW YORK

The head of the U.N. on Monday urged Israel and Palestine to revive peace talks that have been stalled for months, according to a statement from his office.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met with Israel’s Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon in New York during the minister’s five-day working visit to the U.S.

“The Secretary-General stressed the vital importance of the Israelis and Palestinians returning to dialogue to resolve their issues. There was no time to lose if hope was to be kept alive,” the statement said.

The U.S.-brokered direct Palestinian-Israeli talks came to a halt in April after Israel failed to honor an earlier promise to release a number of Palestinian prisoners.

http://www.aa.com.tr/en/rss/407654--un-chief-pushes-for-revival-of-israel-palestine-talks