The Action Group for Palestinians of Syria has reported that a ship carrying hundreds of Palestinian and Syrian refugees who fled from Syria drowned in the Mediterranean close to Libyan shores after coming under fire from Libyan side on Friday. The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said that it is following the developments and contacting all related authorities to ensure rescue operations for surviving refugees. The BBC has reported that shot were fired at the ship as it left Libyan shores, and that bullet holes caused the boat to sink. It added that 33 refugees died in the attack, and that the incident just comes one week after more than 350 migrants were killed in a shipwreck near Lampedusa Italian Island. The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said that President Mahmoud Abbas instructed it and all related institutions to closely monitor and aid rescue attempts, and that Foreign Minister, Riyad Al-Maliki, formed a committee operating in the Palestinian embassies in Libya, Malta, Italy a...

Let's hope these stories of arms smuggling from Libya will not be used as another pretext for further wars against the people of Gaza. (Reuters) - Israel has accelerated the installation of anti-missile defences on its airliners, a security official said on Friday, seeing an enhanced risk of attack by militants using looted Libyan arms. Jets flown by El Al (ELAL.TA) and two other Israeli carriers are being equipped with a locally made system known as C-Music that uses a laser to "blind" heat-seeking missiles, the official said, giving a 2013 target for fitting most of the fleet. As a stop-gap, Israel is adapting air force counter-measures for use aboard civilian planes, said the official, who declined to elaborate on the technologies involved, or to be identified. "We have long been aware of the threat and were ahead of the rest of the world in preparing for it. Libya has meant government orders to step things up even further," the official said, citing intellig...

BETHLEHEM ( Ma'an ) -- Israel is concerned that unrest in Libya has created a new smuggling route for weapons into Gaza, Israeli media reported Friday. The Hebrew-language newspaper Maariv said Israeli security officials had received information that fighting against Moammar Gadhafi's regime in Libya had weakened the leader's control and allowed the flow of weapons into the hands of arms dealers and "terror organizations." Weapons were smuggled from Libya through Egypt and into Gaza via underground tunnels, the report said. According to Maariv, Egyptian authorities were trying to intercept the weapons, but many convoys managed to reach Gaza. Hundreds of Grad rockets with ranges of 60 - 70 kilometers had been smuggled into Gaza in recent weeks, strengthening Hamas and posing a serious threat to Israel, the newspaper reported. Short-range rockets, rifles and ammunition had also been smuggled into the coastal enclave, the report said. Israeli officials had received i...

John Lennon's song applied mainly to the 2011 Arab Uprisings...

The Middle East's tyrants have been fond of late of blaming their difficulties on Israel and al Qaeda, but it turns out that Israel, by encouraging an Israeli company to recruit mercenaries in sub-Saharan Africa, is a key backer of Gaddafi's murderous regime. TEL AVIV, Israel ( Ma'an ) -- An Israeli company is recruiting mercenaries to support Moammar Gadhafi's efforts to suppress an uprising against his regime, an Israeli news site said Tuesday. Citing Egyptian sources, the Hebrew-language news site Inyan Merkazi said the company was run by retired Israeli army commanders... ...Company representatives recently flew to Chad to discuss the matter with a high-ranking Libyan intelligence officer Abduallah Sanusi, the report said. During the meeting, Sanusi agreed to pay the company to recruit up to 50,000 mercenaries from African countries, according to the news site. more

Cosmetics heir Ronald Lauder, Reagan’s ambassador to Austria who heads the World Jewish Congress, recently demanded that Israel be admitted to membership in NATO. This proposal has been raised over the past decade in academic and in political circles but the rapidly changing situation in the Arab world, and in the Middle East, gives it a sense of urgency for Zionists around the world seeking protection for the “Jewish State”... ...Writing in an editorial published Tuesday in the major daily Die Welt, Lauder said current events in Egypt, Tunisia and other Muslim countries show both the forces of "freedom, democracy and economic participation" at work as well as "how unpredictable developments in the Middle East are. If NATO is to continue upholding "our basic principles and our Western way of life," then Israel, "the only democracy in the Middle East," deserves guarantees for its peace and security that membership in NATO would help provide, Lauder wr...

Hasn't the Israeli Navy got anything better to do than stopping children getting books and medicine? EL-ARISH, Egypt — A Libyan ship with aid for Gaza has docked in an Egyptian port after Israel's navy stopped it from reaching the blockaded Palestinian territory. The director of the port of el-Arish, Gamal Abdel Maqsoud, says the ship will unload its cargo Thursday and hand it over to the Red Crescent for delivery to Gaza by land. Israeli missile ships stopped the aid vessel from reaching Gaza, which has been blockaded for three years. more According to Maan news agency Saif Al-Islam Ghadafi says a deal with Egypt and Israel would see supplies taken into Gaza by land.

Egypt approved a request by Gaza- bound Libyan aid ship Al-Amal (Hope) to dock in its Arish port instead after failing to reach Gaza port due to Israeli interception, a security source said Wednesday. The ship's engine broke down Wednesday morning 130 miles (about 209 km) from al-Arish port which is ready to receive it later on the day, the source told Xinhua. The ship with 21 persons on board is carrying 2,000 tons of humanitarian aid, including food and medical supplies, to the Gazans. more Libyan aid ship forced to dock at El-Arish. Following the sabotage in Cyprus of vessels involved in the Freedom Flotilla we have to be suspicious about the engine breakdown.

update: 17:28 GMT +1: Captain refuses to change course for El-Arish in the face of Israel's illegitimate demands. more CAIRO — An Israeli military vessel confronted a Libyan aid ship Tuesday trying to breach Israel's three-year-old Gaza blockade and ordered it to divert to an Egyptian port, the Israeli military and organizers said. The Gadhafi International Charity and Development Foundation said the Moldovan-flagged Amalthea, which left Greece on Saturday carrying 2,000 tons of food and medical supplies, refused to alter its course for el-Arish in Egypt and insisted it will steam on for Gaza . more Haaretz reports that the Israeli navy has made contact with the aid ship Hope on its way to deliver aid to the people of Gaza. The captain has reportedly refused to be diverted to the Egyptian port of El-Arish. ...The ship, which left Greece on Saturday afternoon, was commissioned by the Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation, headed by Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi, sec...

The 2,000 ton ship - the Amalthea, now renamed Hope for the voyage to Gaza - we reported on last week that would be going to Gaza, is not in fact joining the flotilla in September but is making its own way to Gaza now. Israel has threatened to stop the vessel reaching Gaza. Israel says it will not allow its sovereignty to be harmed. So since when was Gaza part of Israel? Israel warned yesterday that a ship sponsored by a group headed by the son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and currently crossing the Mediterranean would not be allowed to reach its stated destination of Gaza. The Moldovan-registered ship – renamed Hope for the voyage – left Greece on Saturday night for a trip intended to take between 70 and 80 hours. The organisers, the Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation, say the ship, with a crew of 12 and ten passengers on board, is carrying 2,000 tonnes of food and medicine. Israel's defence minister, Ehud Barak, has described the dispatch of the vessel...

Yet another vessel will be joining the September flotilla to Gaza, this time with the aid of a Libyan-based charity headed by Gadaffi's second son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi (pictured above, left). ATHENS — A charity headed by the son of Libyan leader Moamar Kadhafi is sending an aid boat from Greece to Gaza to break the Israeli "siege," the organisers said on Friday. The cargo ship Hope will depart from Lavrio, some 60 kilometres (37 miles) southeast of Athens, the Libyan embassy said. "This is a humanitarian mission expected to sail later on Friday," an embassy official told AFP. The Tripoli-based Gaddafi International Charity and Development Association said it was sending a cargo ship "loaded with about 2,000 tons of humanitarian aid in the form of foodstuff and medications". more

George Galloway's office in London has responded to the Guardian's article but not to the substance of Hossam el-Hamalawy's original posting at 3arabawy . This is how Rob Hoveman, an ex-comrade of mine, puts it: We are currently negotiating entry into Egypt and passage through to Gaza. The Egyptian authorities are doing everything they can to assist the process and we are in their hands, as we have been with all the other governments whose countries we have crossed in order to take these vital supplies into Gaza. We wish the convoy well and continue to support the endeavours of all those involved and applaud their commitment, but at the same time continue to worry that any meetings with Mubarak's NDP can only be used by the regime. And is it the case that the opposition is turning its back on the convoy? Also, will George be meeting with the hated steel boss Ahmed Ezz? To repeat what we have said many times about this journey across the Maghreb: the convoy is engaged i...

The Viva Palestina convoy has had a brilliant response in Libya, where the authorities, as well as the ordinary people, have got right behind the convoy - thousands attended a rally for the convoy in Tripoli's Green Square. Libyan TV reckons the convoy could swell in size to 300 vehicles by the time it crosses the border into Egypt. All this at a time when the donor conference in Egypt representing some of the most powerful states in the region and the world can only talk while Gazans huddle in their tents as the Israeli siege goes on... From vivapalestina.org ...One of our convoy members said to the Arabic newspaper Libya Elyoum today "This is the best welcome we received. What is different this time is that the authorities did not try to stop the people mingling and getting close to us, nothing was orchestrated, it was natural and spontaneous.."

Israel is gearing up for more massacres in Gaza and as usual the western media (New York Times report here ) presents it as a response to rocket attacks. The context is somewhat different of course. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights reported on Thursday that the Israeli army in the week ending 25 February alone has wounded 19 Palestinians, kidnapped 42 and made 35 incursions in the Gaza strip and West Bank. Israel is also going ahead with plans to remove 1,500 Palestinian and demolish 88 homes in occupied Jerusalem. No wonder the resistance is still firing rockets. The Observer reports today that Hamas attempted to open negotiations with Israel using a member of Olmert's family as a secret messenger. The Israelis, bent on war as ever, snubbed the moves towards dialogue. Ynetnews surveys the wreckage that was the Turkish-Israeli alliance, another unforeseen setback for the Israelis after their 23-day war against the people of Gaza. UNder the headline 'Honeymoon over' t...

From vivapalestina.org 5 days of hospitality in Libya According to the newspaper Libya Elyoum, the program for the Gaza convoy is as follows: Saturday 29-02-09 Welcome and reception at border point of Ras Ajdir Head for the Scout' training centre in Joddaim. Sunday 01-03-09 Leave for public rally in centre of Tripoli Here a local convoy will be joining ours. Press conference Short stop at Khoms Rally at Masrata and the inauguration of GAZA STREET. Monday 02-03-09 Leave Masrata in the morning Pass through Surt and Guardabia Stop at Ras Lanouf for the night Tuesday 03-03-09 Leave then stop at Akila Rest at Barika for lunch Public rally at Ajdabia next to Sport City Arrival at Bengazi-Accomodation at the Touristic Village Wednesday 04-03-09 Press conference Local convoy joins ours Rally and rest at the city of Marj Rally at Al Bayda city and stop for the night Thursday 05-03-09 Head for the town of Derna via Shahat Soussa Pulic rally at Derna Leave for the city of Tobruk Public rally ...