Palestine Today 021908

Tuesday February 19, 2008 23:30 by Ghassan Bannoura - IMEMC- Audio Dept

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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Centre, www.imemc.org, for Tuesday February 19th, 2008.

As the Palestinian and Israeli leaders meet in Jerusalem, the Israeli army clashes with the Palestinian resistance in Gaza and kills one, these stories and more coming up, stay tuned.

The News Cast

A Palestinian resistance fighter of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine's armed wing, was shot dead and another was wounded on the central Gaza-Israel border line early on Tuesday.

Medical sources identified the killed as Ismail Jadallah, and the democratic front confirmed he was killed during an armed clash with the Israeli soldiers manning the border line.

In a statement, faxed to the press, the democratic front said that Jadallah was shot dead whilst planting a roadside bomb as a group of resistance fighters exchanged gunfire with the Israeli forces.

In the meantime, the Salah Eldin brigades, the armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, claimed responsibility for firing four homemade shells onto the Nahal Auz Israeli military checkpoint, to the east of Gaza city.

Later in the day Israeli media sources reported that on Tuesday a Palestinian homemade shell landed in an Israeli poultry farm in the southern Israeli settlement of Ashkelon, causing a great deal of damage. The Mujahideen Brigades, a Gaza-based resistance group, claimed responsibility for firing the homemade shell.

On the diplomatic level, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert are scheduled to meet on Tuesday in the Jerusalem residence of Prime Minister Olmert, to discuss continuing peace talks between the two sides.

Tuesday's meeting follows recent declarations from each side, differing over key issues in these talks. This latest dispute between the two leaders is over the status of Jerusalem. The Israeli prime minister declared that the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Palestinian President Abbas had agreed to delay talks over Jerusalem to the final stage of negotiations.

Israeli media sources said that Secretary Rice had, last week, agreed with Prime Minister Olmert to reschedule the Jerusalem talks, on condition that the delay would not harm the ongoing talks. During an interview with the Jordanian press on Monday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas stated that he had not agreed to the rescheduling of talks over Jerusalem.

Conclusion

Thank you for joining us from occupied Bethlehem. You have been listening to Palestine Today from the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org. This report has been brought to you by Morwenna Pencarrow and Ghassan Bannoura.

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