Israeli sources reported on Friday that a Sudanese man died of dehydration while attempting to infiltrate into Israel via the Negev desert seeking work.

The sources added that three Sudanese men were moved to an Israeli military base suffering from dehydration after managing to infiltrate through the borders. Medics gave them first aid but one of them died later on.

The two other Sudanese nationals ate currently in Soroka Israeli hospital in Be’er Sheva. There conditions were described as mild.

It is worth mentioning that the Israeli Knesset is currently preparing a draft law which states that infiltrators would be tried and sentenced to a maximum of five years imprisonment.

Nasser Judeh, Jordan’s information Minister, reported on Thursday night that six tourists, including an Israeli Arab woman, where shot by a gunman who opened fire at a tourist bus in Jordan’s capital, Amman. The gunman was chased by policemen and shot himself in the head.

The wounded are an Israeli Arab woman, four Lebanese tourists, and their Jordanian driver.

Judeh stated that the attack appears to be criminally motivated and added that the assailant is in critical condition at a hospital in Amman.  The assailant was chased by the policemen near the Roman amphitheatre late on Wednesday and shot himself in the head.

 The minister added that the investigation is still underway but added that all information available leads to the conclusion that this attack is an isolated incident.

Israeli online daily, Haaretz, reported that a Jordanian police official identified Thursday’s attacker as Tha’er Al Waheedy, 19, a resident of Al Baq’a refugee camp, one of the largest 11 Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan.

Haaretz quoted a Jordanian official stating that Al Waheedy had a criminal record and was implicated in previous cases of attempted murder and looting. The official was talking on condition of anonymity as the investigation is still underway.

 In Israel, officials at the Israeli Foreign Ministry said that the incident cannot be viewed as a terrorist attack and that the motivation is criminal.

 A similar attack took place in 2006 when a gunman opened fire at tourists outside the amphitheatre and killed a British man; six other tourists were wounded in the attack.

 In 2005, 63 persons were killed as suicide bombers targeted three hotels in Amman. One of the bombings targeted the Radisson SAS Hotel in Amman and 18 Palestinians, member of Al Akhras family of Sielet Al-Thaher village, were killed in the blast. They were attending a wedding of one of their family members.

"Anti-Zionist Orthodox Jews worldwide condemn the savage pograms unleashed against the Palestinian people in the West Bank by the Zionist terrorist gang known as the 'IDF', " a statement by the Neturei Karta in Palestine started.

The statement, which was signed by Rabbi Meir Hirsh, condemns the attacks against the Palestinian people and describe it as a program aimed at terrorizing the civil society in Palestine, and describes the Gaza Strip as a prison made by Israel.

The statement also calls on the International community to take steps to change the situation in the Palestinian Territories and to boycott Israel.

"We implore the world community not to stand idly by and allow the Palestinian people to be terrorized and sacrificed solely in order to make life comfortable for the Zionist regime. Where are the peacekeeping troops? Where are the UN declarations? Where are the world summits of the major powers? Where are the declarations and condemnations? Where are the arms boycotts against the Zionists?"

The group also relate the lack of action by the world countries to being called anti-Semite.

"What is the reason for the constant silence in the face of the Zionist miscreants? Is it intimidation and threats to use the term “anti-Semite” against any person or government who dares to criticize their brutality?"

The statement criticizes the Jewish leaders and rabbis in Israel saying that they ae intimidated by the Zionists, accusing Zionism of disgracing the word "Jew."

"You are silent and the word “Jew” is seen among the nations to mean murderer and terrorist!," the statement added.

Neturei Karta is the Aramaic term for "Guardians of the City. According to their website, Neturei Karta opposes the state of Israel. The group was founded in Jerusalem, Palestine in 1938, splitting off from Agudas Yisroel. Agudas Yisroel was established in 1912 for the purpose of fighting Zionism.

"Neturei Karta oppose the so-called 'State of Israel' not because it operates secularly, but because the entire concept of a sovereign Jewish state is contrary to Jewish Law," the webstie says.

Members of Neturei Karta in Palestine refer to themselves as Palestinians and they are represented in the Palestinian Legislative Council, (The Palestinian Parliament).

Every Monday for over a year, dozens of women gather at the offices of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Gaza City to protest their inability to visit their sons who are detained in Israeli jails.

Since last June, Israel has denied the families entry for reasons that remain unknown and the women are appealing to the ICRC in the hope that the Israeli authorities will finally allow them to visit their sons.

Fatma Alnems, 75, of the Sabra neighborhood in Gaza City held a
picture of her son, Ghazi, while attending the sit-in at the ICRC offices. Ghazi has been sentenced to 100 years of imprisonment in one of Israel’s detention facilities and Fatma explained that "I have not seen him for the past year.

Before this denial I used to visit him twice a month, but now I no longer see him, and I don’t know why, why Israel deprives me of seeing him. Maybe I will pass away before I see him, who knows?" However, she hopes that Ghazi may finally be
released as part of an exchange of prisoners with Israel.

A similar sentiment was expressed by mother of Ibrahim Baroud, who has
been in jail for 23 years. "I have not seen my son for 12 years, so I am here joining other helpless mothers like myself, in the hope that I can get through to him, maybe for the last look in my life," Baroud’s 70-year-old mother said, while pointing to her son's picture.

She added that "I have been prevented from visiting Ibrahim, and when I wanted once to head for [the Hajj] pilgrimage I was prevented by the Israelis for security reasons."

The 70-year-old mother of detainee Ayman Alfar, has not seen her son
for the past 12 months, since Israel imposed a closure on the Gaza Strip last June.

She explained that “I have not seen him since the coup. My son was imprisoned when he was 17 year-old and he has been now in jail for the past 19 years or for longer than his age. I appeal for the release of all detainees not only my son. May God be merciful
to them all by freeing them."

These mothers and many others look forward to a prisoners' swap deal between Israel and Palestinian resistance factions in Gaza. Three Palestinian groups; Hamas, the Popular Resistance Committees and the Army of Islam, have been attempting to have some of those prisoners freed.

On recent Egyptian-mediated talks over the captured Israeli soldier Gil'ad Shalit, PRC's spokesman in Gaza, Abu Mojahed, spoke to IMEMC.

" The Israeli occupation still blocks any progress over such talks by refusing to release prisoners with long-term sentences, therefore, the Palestinian resistance insists that if Israel does not free such prisoners, Shalit will remain in captivity", Abu Mojahed maintained.

In June2006, the said three factions captured Shalit during a cross-border attack in southern Gaza Strip. For releasing Shalit, Israel has employed all means at its disposal including military attacks, but it yet failed.

According to the ICRC, there are 12,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, hundreds of them have been sentenced to long-term imprisonments. In addition, Israel continues to detain 950 Palestinians from Gaza, including four women and some juveniles.

"This humanitarian situation is of a major concern to the ICRC. Therefore, the ICRC has made the necessary contacts to solve this problem, bearing in mind that the same program is running and continuing as usual in the West Bank," Iyad Nasser the ICRC’s media spokesman in Gaza explained.

Asked whether there has been any Israeli justification for the
decision to stop the program, Nasser maintained that no clear-cut reason has been given.

He asserted that "the ICRC is following and working according to the Israeli security regulations and measures since 1967, therefore, the ICRC is not in the position to
list whatever Israeli reasons for blocking or stopping such a program."

Since 1967, Israel has detained Palestinians on almost a daily basis, as part of their crackdown on the Palestinian resistance to its occupation of the Gaza Strip, West Bank and East Jerusalem.

In June 2007, Israel placed the coastal territory under strict closure, following the Islamist Hamas party takeover of Gaza amidst factional fighting with Fatah party of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas. Last month, Hamas began negotiating possible prisoner swap with Israel through Egyptian mediators.

The talks were reportedly suspended over what Hamas described as Israel's procrastination to implement a recent ceasefire deal with Israel, brokered by Cairo.

Meanwhile, the protest outside the ICRC offices will continue every Monday until Palestinian prisoners can be seen by their mothers, fathers, wives, children, sisters and brothers.

Palestinian sources reported on Friday at night that one Palestinian was wounded and four others went missing when a tunnel on the border between Rafah and Egypt collapsed during evening hours.

Medical sources reported that Mohammad Al Basthteeny, 23,  was moved to Abu Yousef Al Najjar Hospital in Rafah after suffocating while trying to save four residents who went missing under the rubble of the collapsed tunnel.

Al Bashteeny is in serious condition while the fate of the four missing residents remains unknown.

So far, armed groups in Gaza did not make any statements regarding the incident. It is worth mentioning that some tunnels on the Gaza-Egypt borders are dug by smugglers while others are dug by fighters in order to smuggle arms and ammunition into the coastal region.