Rebel News - Independent News and Analysis

A series of explosions have rocked the southern Lebanese region of Shehabiyeh near the Israeli border, causing a large fire, witnesses say.

The blasts ripped through a three-story building on the outskirts of Shihabiya, an area under the surveillance of United Nation's peacekeepers and the Lebanese army, a Press TV correspondent reported on Friday.

Iran's Judiciary chief says the US-brokered peace talks between the Palestinian Authority and Israel are aimed at “preserving the Israeli regime”.

“We believe the efforts of Palestinian people have reached a point that today poses a serious threat to the existence of the usurper Israeli regime,” IRNA quoted Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani as saying at an International Quds Day rally.

Thousands of Palestinians have poured into the streets of Gaza, marking the International Quds Day taking place on the last Friday of Ramadan every year.

Chanting anti-Israeli slogans, the angry demonstrators said they will gladly sacrifice all they have to end the Israeli occupation of al-Quds (Jerusalem) , Press TV's correspondent Ashraf Shannon reported on Friday.

Iran's Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani says the US call for direct Middle East talks is a fraudulent political ploy aimed at maintaining Israel's security in the region.

"Theatrical scheme by (US President Barack) Obama cannot make the Muslim community fall for such deceptive peace-making moves that sort of betray the Palestinian cause," Larijani said on Friday in the holy city of Qom.

At least 250 thousand Palestinians prayed in the Aqsa Mosque and the surrounding yards on the last Friday of the Muslim Holy month of Ramadan, Palestinian media sources reported. Israeli sources estimated the number at 135 thousand.

The worshipers came from different parts of the West Bank and Israel, despite measures taken by Israeli military and police who beefed up their presence on the entrances of the city in an attempt to prevent Palestinians form reaching the Aqsa Mosque.

Dozens of Israeli settlers accompanied by Israeli troops gathered on a peace of land near the village of Qaryut in the northern part of the West Bank Friday morning and claimed ownership of the land.

The settlers brought with them planting equipment and water tanks and started to plant olive trees in the land that has an area of 32 acres.

Senior Iranian cleric Ayatollah Seyyed Ahmad Khatami has strongly condemned the US-sponsored resumption of direct talks with Israel as huge betrayal to the Palestinian nation.

Addressing large crowds of worshippers following annual Quds Day demonstrations in Tehran, the capital's interim Friday Prayers leader criticized the Palestinian Authority (PA) for sitting at the negotiating table with Israel, emphasizing that the move only benefited the Tel Aviv regime by averting international attention from its crimes.

This week, anti wall protests were organized in the villages of Bil’in and Nil’in, in the central West Bank, and the village of Al Ma’sara, in the southern West Bank.

 

 

Israeli armed settlers attacked on Friday morning the village of Qaryit and took over 130 Donums of farmers lands.

Qaryit is a small Palestinian village near the southern West Bank city of Nablus. The village is surrounded by two Israeli settlements, Shilo and Aliyah.

 

This week Israeli attacks Palestinian communities in the West Bank and Gaza left 8 civilians injured the Palestinian Center for Human Rights said in its weekly report.

The report, which documents daily human rights violations in the occupied territories, covers the period of Thursday August 16th to Wednesday September 1st  2010.