The move drew a sharp response from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who warned Abbas that his alliance with Hamas would doom peace efforts.

The deal announced Monday in Doha, Qatar, removes a major stumbling block to carrying out a reconciliation accord signed by the two Palestinian movements last year. The understanding, brokered by the emir of Qatar, Sheik Hamad Bin Khalifa al-Thani, was reached in talks he hosted between Abbas, who heads Fatah, and Khaled Meshal, the exiled political leader of Hamas.

In a statement, both sides said that Abbas would lead an interim government “of independent technocrats . . . whose task will be to facilitate presidential and parliamentary elections and begin the reconstruction of Gaza.”

Abbas promised “to implement this agreement as soon as possible,” and Meshal said “we are serious about healing the wounds . . . to reunite our people on the foundation of political partnership.”

Fatah and Hamas were deadlocked for months over who would be prime minister of the interim government. Hamas rejected Salam Fayyad, the Western-backed prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, because he had led a crackdown on Islamist group in the West Bank.

Having Abbas at the helm of the interim government, holding the title of prime minister as well as president, could help preserve Western support, including crucial financial aid, for the Palestinian Authority.

The European Union, one of the major financial backers of the Palestinian Authority, said it looked forward to continuing its support, provided the new government was committed to non-violence, recognized Israel and accepted previous agreements and a negotiated peace settlement with Israel.

Hamas, which for years carried out deadly suicide bombings and has fired rockets into Israel, rejects those conditions. Hamas is considered a terrorist group by Israel, the United States and the European Union and has been boycotted by much of the West.

A State Department spokeswoman said that U.S. officials had not had a chance to talk to Palestinian officials or review details of the deal. “We are not going to give a grade to this thing until we have a chance to talk to Palestinian Authority leaders about the implications,” spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said during the department’s regular daily news briefing.

Netanyahu warned Abbas that carrying out the pact with Hamas would mean that he will “join forces with the enemies of peace.”

“You can’t have it both ways,” Netanyahu said. “It’s either a pact with Hamas or peace with Israel.”

Peace efforts have been stalled for well over a year. Exploratory talks last month hosted by Jordan failed to produce progress toward renewed negotiations, and Abbas is considering whether to continue those meetings.

Under the terms of the Fatah-Hamas accord, the interim government, composed of professionals unaffiliated with either faction, is to prepare for elections in May, although after months of delay the timing of that vote remains uncertain. The government also is supposed to lead efforts to help rebuild areas of the Gaza Strip heavily damaged by an Israeli war against Hamas in 2008 and 2009.

Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior aide to Abbas, said that the joint government would be “a technical government more than a political one” and that diplomatic affairs would “remain with the presidency and the Palestine Liberation Organization.”

Azzam al-Ahmad, a senior Fatah official, said he hoped the new government could be announced at a Feb. 18 meeting of Palestinian factions.

Hamas won the last Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006, and it routed Fatah in a brief factional war in the Gaza Strip in June 2007, seizing control of the territory. Since then, Fatah has led the Palestinian Authority government in the West Bank, with each faction jailing activists, closing offices and banning demonstrations by its rival.

With Syria in turmoil, the exiled political leaders of Hamas, based for years in Damascus, have left the country as the movement seeks to realign itself in a shifting Middle East. Meshal, who has been staying in Qatar, visited Jordan last month with the Qatari crown prince, signaling a thaw in relations. Jordan had deported Meshal and banned Hamas in 1999.

WP

About 40 relatives of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails for a range of violent attacks gathered at the Erez Crossing between Gaza and Israel, hoisting posters with pictures of their loved ones and signs in English and Arabic reading, “Ban Ki-moon, enough bias to Israel.”

Some swung their signs and wooden sticks at Ban’s convoy in protest. Three of them threw slippers at his car and another hurled a boot — an insulting gesture that is associated with an Iraqi protester who hurled his shoes at former U.S. President George W. Bush at a news conference in Baghdad in 2008.

The Gaza prisoners’ relatives, angry that Ban would not be meeting with them, formed a human chain at the crossing in an effort to block his vehicle, but Hamas security forces moved them away so Ban could enter the coastal territory.

“We came here in a symbolic message to Mr. Ban Ki-moon that Palestinians from Gaza want to have the right to visit their children and loved ones in Israeli jails,” said Jamal Farwana, a spokesman for Gaza prisoners’ families. “He should make more of an effort to release the prisoners and we wonder why every time he avoids meeting families of Palestinian prisoners.”

Israel holds about 7,000 Palestinian prisoners, after recently freeing more than 1,000 in exchange for a captive Israeli soldier. Many of the prisoners were convicted of carrying out deadly attacks against Israeli civilians.

Relatives of prisoners from Gaza haven’t been able to visit them in jail since 2006 because of strict restrictions on who can enter Israel from the coastal strip, which is run by Hamas militants violently opposed to Israel.

Local activists boycotted a planned meeting with Ban on Thursday because the U.N. chief did not meet with the prisoners’ relatives.

Ban is on a mission to the area to try to keep informal talks between Palestinians and Israelis going. In Gaza, he met with U.N. relief officials, aid groups and human rights organizations.

He also visited a U.N.-funded housing project in southern Gaza, where protesters held up signs saying, “We want to lift the siege on Gaza” — referring to Israeli restrictions on the entry and exit to and from Gaza of people and goods.

Speaking to reporters, Ban thanked the people of Gaza for their “warm welcome.”

“I met many people who were waiting for me at the entrance and I fully share their fear and frustration. That is why I am here,” he said, referring to the incident at the border crossing. “There is a very dire social, economic and humanitarian problem. People need to move freely … I have urged the Israeli authorities to lift the restrictions completely and unconditionally.”

Ban’s visit was being heavily secured by Hamas security forces, but he will not be meeting with members of the Hamas government, who are widely shunned internationally over their refusal to renounce violence.

From Gaza, the U.N. chief was due re-enter Israel to visit a border town that has been pounded over the years by Palestinian rocket and mortar fire.

“All this violence must stop,” he said in Gaza. “I would urge the Palestinians from Gaza: they must stop firing rockets on the Israeli side … this killing of civilians is not acceptable.”

Gaza gunmen broke a weekslong lull in violence after Ban’s arrival in the region on Wednesday, firing a volley of mortar shells into southern Israel. They exploded in open fields without causing casualties.

Ban spent Wednesday meeting with Israeli leaders and leaders of the Western-backed government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank.

He urged Israel to halt settlement construction and present detailed proposals for a border with a future Palestinian state. And he tried to persuade the Palestinians to continue low-level meetings with Israel that the international community hopes will evolve into serious negotiations.

Abbas has said the Jordanian-mediated meetings have run their course, but that he’ll decide whether to resume them after consulting with the Arab League next week. Ban said he had urged the Israelis to provide some good will measures to build confidence between the sides.

Formal peace talks stalled more than three years, save for a brief three weeks in late 2010. The Palestinians say there is no point in negotiating as long as Israel continues to settle its citizens in the West Bank and east Jerusalem — areas they want for their future state, along with Gaza.

Israel has rejected Palestinian demands for a settlement freeze ahead of any full-fledged negotiations. It says it wants to continue the exploratory talks and criticizes the Palestinians for imposing conditions on negotiations.

ABC/ AP

Presidential and parliament elections are envisioned for late spring, though a date has not been set.

Elections are at the center of reconciliation between the Islamic militant Hamas and Fatah, the movement of internationally backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Hamas won parliament elections in 2006 and wrested control of Gaza from Abbas by force a year later. The Gaza office of the Central Elections Commission was closed after the 2007 takeover. It was reopened Tuesday.

In a related development Israeli troops detained a Hamas legislator in the West Bank early Tuesday in the fifth such arrest in as many days, the Islamic militant group said.

Hamas has accused Israel of trying to sabotage possible Palestinian elections, the centerpiece of reconciliation attempts between Hamas and the rival Fatah movement .

Israeli military officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Israel considers Hamas a terrorist organization. The group has carried out scores of deadly attacks against Israelis, but has largely held its fire in recent years.

Hamas said that in the latest incident, lawmaker Abdel Jaber Fuqaha was taken from his home in the West Bank city of Ramallah early Tuesday. Fuqaha is the fifth Hamas lawmaker to be arrested since last week, Hamas said.

Currently, 24 of 45 Hamas legislators from the West Bank are in Israeli detention on charges of membership in an illegal organization.

Hamas lawmakers have been subject to arrest by Israel since the group competed in Palestinian parliament elections in 2006, defeating Fatah. Several lawmakers have been detained repeatedly.

Ismail Ashkar, a leading Hamas lawmaker, accused Israel of trying to sabotage reconciliation efforts.

“Every time we move toward reconciliation and reactivating the Palestinian parliament, we see Israel targeting our lawmakers in the West Bank,” Ashkar said.

Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erekat, a leader in Fatah, condemned the recent arrests as a “flagrant act of aggression” that undermines prospects for peace. “With these actions, Israel exposes the farcical nature of its peace rhetoric,” he said.

After Hamas’ 2006 election victory, repeated attempts at power-sharing between the rivals failed. Hamas seized control of Gaza by force in 2007, leaving Abbas with only the West Bank where he launched a crackdown on his rivals.

In recent months, the two sides have been trying to reconcile, but have had trouble moving forward because of continued distrust. Next week, Abbas is to meet with Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal in Cairo to try to break the impasse.

CBS/ AP

The Palestinians had put their U.N. bid on hold to participate in informal Jordanian-sponsored talks with Israel that began at the beginning of the year in Amman.

The Middle East “Quartet” — the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia — had urged the parties to submit proposals on borders and security by Jan. 26, with the goal of reaching an agreement by the end of 2012.

But with that proposals deadline approaching, officials here said Thursday that they do not expect any breakthroughs.

“We hear from our Jordanian friends that things are not going well,” said Sabri Saidam, deputy speaker of the Fatah Council and an adviser to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Mr. Saidam and other Palestinian officials told The Washington Times that, barring a last-minute development Thursday, the U.N. campaign would begin anew.

A return to the U.N. would rile the U.S., which has vowed to veto the Palestinian application for membership in the Security Council. The U.S. was spared the headache of a veto in September because the Palestinians failed to gain a nine-vote majority.

“We got 8 3/4,” Mr. Saidam said.

The entire U.N. campaign has attained great symbolism here. A giant blue chair bearing the words “Palestine’s Right: Full Membership in the United Nations” still sits in Ramallah’s central square.

A wall of Mr. Abbas‘ presidential compound features a giant photo of him holding up the Palestinian application during his speech to the U.N. General Assembly.

The Palestinians began the campaign after bolting short-lived U.S.-sponsored peace talks in September 2010, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government did not extend a 10-month freeze on Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

Palestinians say they will not restart formal direct talks unless Israel freezes settlement activity and agrees to President Obama’s formulation that any two-state solution be based on Israel’s pre-1967 frontiers — conditions Mr. Netanyahu has refused.

But the U.N. campaign is just one aspect of what many Palestinian officials describe as the “South Africanization” of their struggle — an approach that seeks to isolate Israel diplomatically while engaging in mass nonviolent protests.

“We can learn from the South African struggle against apartheid that international activism works,” said Nabeel Shaath, Fatah’s commissioner for international relations. “You don’t really have to shoot in order to get your rights.”

Mr. Shaath said it was “absolutely” a mistake for Palestinians to militarize the second intifada — the 2000-2005 uprising that claimed about 4,000 Palestinian and 1,000 Israeli lives amid suicide bombings and Israeli military strikes.

Washington Times

“Today, I say again to President Bashar Assad of Syria. Stop the violence. Stop killing your people. The path of repression is a dead end,” Ban said during a conference on transition and democracy in the Arab world in Beirut Sunday.

“The winds of change will not cease to blow. The flame ignited in Tunisia will not be dimmed.” He said

Ban stressed that the transition would not be easy, and that democracy “does not come into being with one or two elections.”

He laid out four prerequisites for success, including Arab countries’ need to create “50 million jobs within the next decade to absorb young entrants to the workforce.”

The United Nations estimates that over 5,000 people have so far died in Assad’s ten-month crackdown on anti-democracy protesters.

The UN chief also called for an end to Israeli “occupation” in the Arab world, saying the illegal building of settlements worked against a two-state solution.

“The Israeli occupation of Arab and Palestinian territories must end. So must violence against civilians,” Ban said in his keynote address at the conference in Beirut .

“Settlements, new and old, are illegal. They work against the emergence of a viable Palestinian state,” said the UN secretary general.

“A two-state solution is long overdue. The status quo offers only the guarantee of future conflict.”

Ban is in Lebanon on a three-day visit, which includes Sunday’s conference organized by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia and entitled “Reform and Transitions to Democracy.” He traveled to Naqoura, south Lebanon Saturday where he met with UNIFIL officials to discuss the security situation in the area.

“It is a dark day for the protection of human rights and for the Israeli High Court,” attorneys Dan Yakir and Oded Feller from the Association for Civil Rights in Israel said in a statement.

ACRI was one of three rights groups that had appealed to the High Court over a law preventing the Palestinian spouses of Israeli citizens from obtaining either Israeli citizenship or residency.

At present, Palestinian men over 35 and women over 25 married to Israeli citizens can only obtain short-term permits to be in Israel that allow them limited permission to work, no social benefits and must be regularly renewed.

The petitioners said the law violated the right of Palestinians married to Arab-Israelis to a family life, but in a late-night ruling, the High Court said human rights could not override security concerns.

‘Racist’ law

Six judges backed the controversial law, while five were opposed.

“Human rights are not a prescription for national suicide,” wrote Justice Asher Grunis, who is poised to become the next president of the court.

Yakir and Feller accused the court of stamping “its approval on a racist law, one that will harm the very texture of the lives of families whose only sin is the Palestinian blood that runs in their veins”.

In July 2003, parliament adopted a law limiting the right of non-nationals to residence in the Jewish state, blocking citizenship for Palestinians married to Arab Israelis.

Initially applicable for one year, the law was extended for security reasons but has been challenged by rights groups on more than one occasion.

‘Pouring oil on fires of racism’

Arab-Israeli MP Jamal Zahalka, of the Balad party, said the court “had failed the test of justice”.

“This decision will encourage the racist groups in the Knesset (parliament) to enact more anti-Arab, anti-democratic and anti-human rights laws,” he warned.

“The court’s ruling pours oil on the fire of racism burning in the Knesset and removes any fear that the High Court will repeal laws on grounds of unconstitutionality,” he added.

Mohammed Barakeh, another Arab-Israeli politician, from the Hadash party, said the ruling was proof of a “wave of racism” sweeping across Israeli institutions.

“This law, which differentiates between people in a repulsive, racist fashion, sets standards for an individual’s personal life and denies Arabs their right to choose their life partner,” he said.

Adalah, which works to protect Arab-Israeli rights and was part of the appeal to the High Court, also condemned the ruling.

‘High Court failure’

“The court upheld a law that has no parallel in any democratic country in the world,” the group’s lawyers Hassan Jabareen and Sawsan Zaher said in a statement.

“The court has failed in its basic responsibility as a defender of the Palestinian national minority while the majority in the Knesset uses its power to affect the basic principles of democracy and particularly the rights of the Arab minority in Israel,” the lawyers added.

Israeli MP Zehava Galon, a member of the left-wing Meretz party who filed her own appeal to the High Court against the law, echoed Adalah’s criticism.

“The High Court has failed in its duty to defend the principle of equality of all citizens before the law and to fight against racism,” she told Israeli public radio.

Judicial commentator Moshe Negbi said the court ruling compromised Israel’s defining principles.

“Israel defines itself as a Jewish and democratic state. For the first time, the High Court has privileged its Jewish character to the detriment of its democratic character,” he said.

News 24

Benedict delivered his “Urbi et Orbi” speech (Latin for “to the city and to the world”) from the central loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica overlooking a sun-drenched piazza below, before thousands of jubilant tourists and pilgrims, and hundreds of colorful Swiss Guards and Italian military bands.

The 84-year-old pope, fresh off a late-night Christmas Eve Mass, said he prayed that the birth of Jesus, which Christmas celebrates, would send a message to all who need to be saved from hardships. He cited refugees from the Horn of Africa and flood victims in Thailand, among others, and called for greater political dialogue in Myanmar, and stability in Iraq, Afghanistan and Africa’s Great Lakes region.

He said he prayed that God would help the Israelis and the Palestinians resume talks. “May he bring an end to the violence in Syria, where so much blood has already been shed,” he said.

The pope didn’t mention the deadly blasts on churches in Nigeria, but the Vatican issued a statement denouncing the attacks as a sign of “cruelty and absurd, blind hatred” that shows no respect for human life.

Early Sunday, an explosion ripped through a Catholic church during Christmas Mass near Nigeria’s capital of Abuja, and an emergency worker reported that 25 people were killed. A second explosion struck near a church in Nigeria’s restive central city of Jos, while two other explosions hit the northeast state of Yobe.

There was no immediately claim of responsibility for either explosion, but Nigeria has suffered a wave of sectarian attacks blamed on the radical Muslim sect Boko Haram.

Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi said the Catholic church was praying for all Nigerians confronting “this terrorist violence in these days that should be filled with peace and joy.”

The Vatican press office noted that Benedict’s speech was prepared well in advance of the attacks.

After his speech, Benedict delivered Christmas greetings in 65 different languages, from Mongolian to Maori, Aramaic to Albanian, Tamil to Thai. He finished the list with Guarani and Latin, as the bells tolled from St. Peter’s enormous bell towers.

In the West Bank, hundreds of Christian faithful, defying lashing rains and wind, celebrated Christmas Mass at Jesus’ traditional birthplace of Bethleham on Sunday, spirits high despite the gloomy weather.

Worshippers dressed in their holiday best rushed under cover of umbrellas into St. Catherine’s Church on Manger Square, leaving the plaza, with its 50-foot-tall (15-meter-tall) Christmas tree, deserted. The church was packed, and the overflow crowd waited eagerly in an arched corridor for a chance to enter.

Inside, supplicants, some dressed in the traditional attire of foreign lands, raised their voices in prayer, kissed a plaster statue of a baby Jesus and took communion. St. Catherine’s is attached to the smaller Church of the Nativity, which is built over a grotto where devout Christians believe Jesus was born. “Lots of pilgrims from around the world are coming to be here on Christmas,” said Don Moore, 41, a psychology professor from Berkeley, Calif., who came to Bethlehem with his family. “We wanted to be part of the action. This is the place, this is where it all started.”

With turnout at its highest in more than a decade, proud Palestinian officials said they were praying the celebrations would bring them closer to their dream of independence.

In Britain, the leader of the world’s Anglicans, the Archbishop of Canterbury, said the summer riots in Britain and the financial crisis have broken bonds and abused trust in British society.

In his Christmas Day sermon, Rowan Williams appealed to those congregated at Canterbury Cathedral to learn lessons about “mutual obligation” from the events of the past year. He said Sunday “the most pressing question” now facing Britain is “who and where we are as a society.” “Bonds have been broken, trust abused and lost,” he said.

time

Foreign Minister Alain Juppe blamed Syria on Sunday, singling out its powerful Lebanese ally Hezbollah which holds sway in southern Lebanon where five French soldiers were wounded in an explosion that wrecked their patrol vehicle last week.

Syria and Hezbollah both denied the charge on Monday, but Syria’s Lebanese opponents have accused Damascus of trying to stir up trouble through proxies who also include Palestinian groups in refugee camps and pro-Syrian political groups.

Analysts said the French accusation was part of an escalating showdown between Western powers demanding President Bashar al-Assad halt the violence in his country, and Syria and its allies, including Iran and Hezbollah.

“France considers itself now as spearheading the campaign against Syria,” Lebanese analyst Oussama Safa said. “I think the French see these attacks in the context of this confrontation, and (a sign of) Syria’s tentacles in the region.”

Friday’s bombing near the southern city of Tyre was the third attack on UNIFIL forces in Lebanon since the outbreak of protests in neighboring Syria in March. Prior to that, the last attack took place three years earlier in January 2008.

It also followed a rare volley of rockets fired across Lebanon’s southern border into Israel two weeks ago. Another rocket fired on Sunday night failed to cross the frontier, wounding a Lebanese woman in a border village, the army said.

Hezbollah, which fought a 34-day war with Israel in 2006 leading to UNIFIL being beefed up in southern Lebanon, condemned the attack, saying it aimed to destabilize the area. It said Juppe’s accusation was a “great injustice which we completely reject.”

Syria’s foreign ministry also denied any link to the attack and accused France of fabricating charges against Syria.

“MESSAGE FROM BASHAR”

But anti-Syrian politicians in Lebanon were even quicker than France to point the blame at Damascus.

“Another Syrian message from Bashar,” tweeted former Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri, who was ousted in January when Hezbollah and its pro-Syrian political allies resigned from his unity government.

Hariri did not say exactly who he thought carried out the attack, but Syria has allies in Lebanon where it maintained a military presence for nearly three decades before withdrawing under international pressure in 2005.

“I don’t know whether it’s Hezbollah or someone else. But if you assume it’s a Syrian message, Syria has lots of proxies in Lebanon and it could be any of them,” said Sahar Attrache, an analyst with the International Crisis Group.

“But I would also assume that Hezbollah wouldn’t mind these sort of messages being sent.”

Safa said that although Friday’s attack might “not have “Hezbollah fingerprints on it,” the powerful military and political group had extensive control in southern Lebanon. “I’d be very surprised if Hezbollah didn’t know about it,” he said.

If Hezbollah was not involved, there was “no shortage of groups that could be manipulated by the Syrians or by anyone else,” he said. “There are a lot of groups for hire in the Palestinian camps, but Syria still maintains a very strong infrastructure for such acts.”

Some analysts were surprised that Juppe should make such direct accusations when he conceded he had no proof.

“I don’t see why Hezbollah at this time would be targeting a European country. I don’t see what Hezbollah has to gain,” said Timor Goksel, a former UNIFIL spokesman who is now a professor at the American University in Beirut.

He said it was unlikely Syria would want to antagonize France just days after Paris had sent its ambassador back to Damascus. “The accusation is very serious. Why would they take such a risk?” he said.

Goksel said he believed recent attacks were the work of “very small groups trying to put themselves on the map. I see it mainly as fundamentalist or extremist groups.”

Shadowy Islamist groups have also claimed responsibility for rocket attacks against Israel in the past.

Reuters

The 28-year-old, Mustafa Tamimi, was hurling rocks at the military vehicle on Friday in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh when a soldier inside opened the rear door and fired at him from just a few yards away, witnesses said. He was taken to an Israeli hospital, where he died of his injuries on Saturday.

The army’s use of the gas canisters has come under sharp criticism in the past few years. Military officials say they are using the gas to quell violent demonstrations. The canisters, which emit choking, acrid smoke, are meant to push back crowds. But some Israeli troops have fired them directly at demonstrators, causing severe injuries and death.

Mustafa Tamimi, 28 who was struck in the face by a tear gas canister fired by an Israeli soldier at close range died of his wounds Saturday

Tensions also simmered along Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip, where mourners buried a 12-year-old Palestinian killed in an Israeli airstrike on Friday. Militants there fired two rockets at Israel.

Tamimi is the 20th person to be killed over the past eight years at similar demonstrations in rural villages throughout the West Bank, said Sarit Michaeli of the Israeli rights group B’Tselem. The weekly demonstrations are in protest of construction of Jewish settlements and a separation barrier that eats up Palestinian farm land along parts of its route.

Photographs taken by a pro-Palestinian activist from Israel, Haim Schwarczenberg, show Tamimi rushing after an armored military vehicle. The photographer says he was throwing rocks. He then crumples to the ground a few steps from the vehicle. His friends rush to help, covering his bloodied face with a black-and-white Palestinian checkered scarf.

“As he was throwing stones, a soldier opened the door of the back of the jeep. A soldier took his gun out and shot him directly,” Schwarczenberg said.

Tamimi succumbed to his wounds at Beilinson Hospital in central Israel, said another pro-Palestinian activist from Israel, Jonathan Pollak.

“The question is not whether the person is throwing stones or not throwing stones, the question is whether the army is allowed to use deadly force from within an armored vehicle,” Pollak said.

B’Tselem spokeswoman Michaeli said she had personally filmed at least a dozen cases over the years of soldiers directly firing the projectiles at demonstrators, sometimes causing terrible injuries. She said the difference in this case was the very close range between the demonstrator and the soldier, who hit Tamimi in the face.

A military spokeswoman said forces generally used canisters “to contain the violent and illegal riots that take place in Judea and Samaria,” the Biblical names for the West Bank. “Such means were used during the course of yesterday’s riot in Nabi Saleh.”

Others who have been struck by tear gas canisters include Palestinian Bassem Abu Rahmeh, who was killed in 2009 when one hit his chest.

They also include Tristan Anderson of Oakland, Calif., who is suffering from brain damage, paralysis and seizures after he was hit in the head by a canister at a 2009 demonstration.

In the Gaza Strip on Saturday, hundreds of angry mourners marched in a funeral procession for a 12-year-old boy who was killed Friday along with his father in an Israeli strike.
ABC

Hamas officials involved in raising funds for the organization’s military wing and some members of the political leadership have already left Syria with their families for Gaza, Lebanon, Sudan and Qatar, the sources said.

The sources told Haaretz “second- and third-ranking” Hamas activists are leaving but senior leaders such as Khaled Masha’al will remain in the Syrian capital.

Salah al-Arouri, a senior Hamas official, told the newspaper the organization had yet to make a decision on the matter. He said one or two families may have left but that top officials remained at the headquarters.

“The organization’s top officials are here in Damascus; our relations with the state and Syrian people are excellent … we have no intention of interfering in Syria’s internal affairs,” he told the daily newspaper.
UPI