Mahmud Al Zahar, a prominent Hamas leader in Gaza, stated Saturday that the Palestinian internal dialogue is back to ground zero. He added that that there are no new developments on that front. Al Zahar also said that Ramallah officials don’t have the capacity to enter a serious dialogue because of the American and European Veto.

Al Zahar said to Alwatan Saudi news paper on Saturday that the Berlin conference revealed that there is an American European Veto over the Palestinian internal dialogue process.

He said that this Veto sets unreasonable conditions on Hamas and the other political groups, and that Hamas rejects this interference.

Al Zahar put the responsibility for the lack of Palestinian internal unity on the western world, and accused those nations of interfering on Israel's behalf. He added that even if a dialogue happens, former negative experiences will prevail, pointing out that the US-backed Fateh movement has no unity in its stand towards internal affairs.

Al Zahar's statements came after leaders of his party, Hamas (led by Palestinian Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyya), and the rival Fateh, led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, traded accusations this week over the blocking of a genuine national dialogue.

On Thursday, a Fateh official in the West Bank, Ahmad Abdelrahman, said that Haniyya's visit to the abandoned Palestinian Presidential headquarters in Gaza indicates the "Hamas domination of Gaza".

Meanwhile, Sami Abu Zuhri, the Hamas spokesman in Gaza, criticized recent remarks by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to foreign media outlets that Hamas should "adhere to international demands". 

When asked by an IMEMC correspondent about current Palestinian efforts to bridge the gap between Fateh and Hamas for the benefit of Palestinian unity, Rabah Mhanna, a Gaza-based leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine stated, " In this respect, we have opened up the profile of political detainees of both sides in Gaza and Ramallah, with the aim of emptying the prisons of such detainees, as a preliminary step towards dialogue. In addition, we have proposed forming a preliminary committee to organize a comprehensive national dialogue and we are working tirelessly with all parties concerned".

Since Hamas was elected to lead the Palestinian government by popular vote in 2006, the party has been sidelined by America, Israeli and western governments.

International players demand that Hamas give up the right of return of Palestinian refugees by "recognizing the jewish state", drop its resistance agenda and adhere to previously signed peace agreements with Israel.  These Western leaders have demanded these things of Hamas without placing any demands on the occupying state of srael, who continue to illegally occupy all Palestinian land and dominate every aspect of their lives, in addition to causing the vast majority of the casualties in the Israel-Palestine conflict.

In June 2007, Hamas-led forces ousted Fatah-loyal security personnel and leaders from the Gaza Strip amidst factional fighting with the Fatah party. Afterwards, Abbas outlawed Hamas and demanded an end to what he called the ' coup against legitimacy', before any dialogue could be initiated with the Hamas party. Last month , Abbas launched an initiative for dialogue, based on a Yemeni proposal for reconciliation.

Israeli online daily, Yedioth Ahronoth, reported that the Palestinian man who carried the attack in Jerusalem on Wednesday had a relationship in the past with an Israeli Jewish woman, and they had a 7 year old child.

At least three Israelis were killed and 30 others were wounded, two seriously, as the attacker drove a bulldozer into an Israeli bus and a number of cars on Jaffa Street in West Jerusalem on Wednesday midday.

Israeli sources said a Palestinian from Jerusalem, identified as Tayyser Dowikat, 31, carried out this attack, and was shot by Israeli policemen who were in the area. The attacker according to an Israeli police source had a criminal record as he was sentenced on February 2001 to 12 months imprisonment for assaulting his girlfriend.

Yedioth Ahronoth report stated that Dowikat was involved with a Jewish woman from a settlement in Jerusalem.

Speaking under conditions of anonymity, the woman told the news paper that she is still in love with him even though that they ended their relationship five years ago, "I am afraid to tell how much I still love him, he never left my imagination for a second, he was a good person who cared about others, ".

The 27 year old women never stated her name, but referred to herself as "Sh", stated that they met 12 years ago and fell in love" from the first sight".

 He was her first love while she was a high school student as he worked as a bulldozer driver in Jerusalem.

She stated that she had to hide this affair from her mother as she harshly rejected their relationship. His parents never knew that he had a Jewish girlfriend until they broke up.

The ex-girlfriend also stated that the police called her for questioning because of their previous involvement.

The Associated Press reported that Dweikat was married to a Palestinian woman identified as Jamileh, 20, and both had two sons aged 3 and 5.

His mother-in-law, Hoda Dabash, stated that his ex-girlfriend stayed with his parents for nearly 18 months until her family took her away from him as they did not like him.

 The ex-girlfriend stated that she does not believe that Dweikat carried the attack out of nationalist motives. She added that the “the problem was that he smoked lots of drugs”.

 Later on, she added, he became very abusive and would hit me really hard, “I was even willing to convert to Islam for him, I still loved him”.

 The ex-girlfriend also said that her child does not know that Dweikat is his father, and that she registered the child as the son of a man she married later on and divorced. She is currently living in a settlement in East Jerusalem.

 The Associated Press reported that residents of his neighborhood, Sur Baher, said that Dweikat was an “unpopular trouble maker” and that the morning after he carried his attack, some female relatives shouted martyr outside his home but his father silenced them.

 

Israeli troops invaded the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem on Saturday at dawn and kidnapped two civilians.

According to security sources in Bethlehem, a Israeli troops invaded several parts of the city and searched a number of homes. Soldiers left the city on Saturday morning after kidnapping Muhammad 'Obeyat, and Nasser Nawawre both 18 years old.

At least 22 civilians were injured by Israeli army fire, when troops attacked a nonviolent protest in the village of Na'alen, located near the central West Bank city of Ramallah on Friday midday.  In addition, four Israeli civilians participating in the protest were kidnapped by Israeli forces and taken to unknown locations.

The villagers of Na'alen organized a protest on Friday against the illegal Israeli wall being built on the villagers' lands.

Sources in the village said that the protest took place in two waves in an attempt to stop the bulldozers from destroying the village farm lands.

Salah Al Khawaja, of the local Popular Committee against the Wall, said that soldiers attacked the protesters with tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets and concussion grenades, injuring 22.

Al Khawaja added that troops attacked the villagers in their homes after the demonstration, and closed all roads leading in or out of the village.

The families of two men who carried out attacks against civilians will be punished for the actions of their relatives, said Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Friday. Barak called for the demolition of the homes of the men's relatives, a move which was condemned by Israeli human rights group B'tselem as “a grave breach of international humanitarian law.”

The group added that punitive home demolitions, which constitute about 10% of the home demolitions carried out by the Israeli state (the other 90% are administrative demolitions), are “a clear case of collective punishment, which violates the principle that a person is not to be punished for the acts of another.”

 

The two men, Hussam Duwiyat and Alaa Abu Dhaim, both carried out attacks against Jewish civilians in Jerusalem, and both men were killed by Israeli forces during the course of their attacks. Duwiyat killed three Israeli civilians this past Wednesday using a bulldozer. Abu Dhaim attacked students at the extreme right religious school Mercaz Harav in March, killing eight.

 

Now, the Israeli Defense Minister has insisted on punishing the families of the two men, a practice that is policy under Israeli law, but is forbidden under international human rights standards. The demolition order by Barak comes a day after Israeli Attorney General Menachem Mazuz ruled that demolition of the homes of family members of people who attack Israelis is permissible under Israeli law.

 

But the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem urged the Israeli leadership “not to sacrifice justice and morality on the altar of revenge." The group has conducted numerous studies showing that the demolition of homes of family members of attackers does not deter future attacks, but has the opposite effect, fueling anger and resentment among those affected.

 

In at least one of the cases in question, the house of the family of Hussam Duwiyat, the home is in a building housing three other families, so punishing the Duwiyat family by destroying their home would inevitably make three other families homeless as well.