Protests in Lebanon, Syria against Gaza offensive

By ZEINA KARAM, Associated Press Writer

BEIRUT, Lebanon – An estimated 2,500 Lebanese and Palestinians protested peacefully in downtown Beirut on Sunday against Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip, as hundreds of demonstrators in neighboring Syria shouted insults at the both the Jewish state and Arab leaders.

Angry protests have swept the Arab world since Israel's bombing campaign in Gaza began on Dec. 27 to stop rocket fire from the militant Palestinian group Hamas. Gaza health officials say more than 820 Palestinians have been killed, roughly half of them civilians. Thirteen Israelis have also died.

Many of the protesters in Lebanon held Palestinian flags and banners calling on the international community to stop the Israeli attack as they marched near a building housing United Nations offices.

One group set fire to a large Israeli flag, while children taking part in the protest held bloody dolls representing Palestinian children killed in Gaza.

A convoy of some 15 ambulances from an Islamic medical society also participated, sounding their sirens for 20 seconds in solidarity with Gaza medics.

Some 50 local medics in orange uniforms held pictures of bloody Palestinian victims of the Israeli offensive and a banner reading "Stop the mass genocide."

In Syria, demonstrators took their anger out on Arab leaders they blame for alleged complicity in Israeli attacks on Gaza, including Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

"Mubarak, you are a coward, you are the agent of colonization," they shouted. "Down, down with the Arab rulers, the collaborators."

Many in the Arab world have criticized Egypt's refusal to open the Rafah border crossing with Gaza, perceiving it as abetting Israel's attacks.

The demonstrators in Damascus waved Syrian and Palestinian flags and carried placards reading "Shame on those who maintain silence on Gaza's blockade."

Revolutionary songs were blared from loudspeakers as some in the crowd called on Syrian President Bashar Assad and the militant group Hezbollah to support Gaza by attacking Israel.

25 killed in fighting in Somalia between rival Islamist groups

MOGADISHU (AFP) – Fighting between rival Islamist groups in central Somalia left at least 25 people dead and more than 50 wounded Sunday, said local elders and witnesses.

Clashes broke out between fighters of the hardline Shebab militia and members of a more moderate religious group, the Ahlu Sunna Wal-jama'ah in Guriel, about 500 kilometers (310 miles) northeast of Mogadishu.

"It was the heaviest clash ever in the region between the two sides," Abdulahi Hirsi Moge, a local elder, told AFP.

"We have counted at least 25 people, most of them combatants, killed in the fighting and there is still a possibility of some undisclosed dead bodies outside of the town," he added.

Local resident Ahmed Abdifatah said the fighting had stopped around midday and the dead bodies, at least 25 of them, were being collected from the streets. The wounded, including several civilians, had been taken to hospital, he added.

Mohamed Adan, a member of staff at the main hospital in the town, said at least 51 people had been admitted after the fighting.

The two forces clashed several times for control of the town at the end of December.

Somalia has been in the grip of a civil war since 1991, with no central government strong enough to impose its authority.

Shebab officials blame Ethiopian troops -- who invaded the country in 2006 to back the government but who are in the process of pulling out -- of supporting some religious groups against them.

Israel sends reservists into Gaza but says end may be near

GAZA CITY (AFP) – Israel poured reservists into the Gaza Strip on Monday as heavy clashes brought the death toll from its war on Hamas to 900 even as officials said that an end to the fighting might be in sight.

Israeli troops pushed deeper into Gaza's main city, as warplanes carried out nearly 60 air strikes on the 16th day of a war launched to combat Palestinian rocket fire, which has continued despite the offensive.

An Israeli private television channel said the army had begun sending in some of the thousands of reservists called up when the war began, and an army spokesman said they would be increasingly "integrated" into combat units.

Civilians again fell victim in the impoverished and isolated Palestinian enclave, one of the world's most crowded territories where half of the 1.5 million residents are less than 18 years old.

Two women and four children were killed in a strike on a house in Beit Lahiya, medics and witnesses said.

Israeli officials suggested the end might be close to its offensive despite its rejection of a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire.

"The decision of the (UN) Security Council doesn't give us much leeway," Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai told public radio.

"Thus it would seem that we are close to ending the ground operation and ending the operation altogether."

Earlier, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that Israel was nearing the goals it had set for its operation, but that fighting would continue for now.

"Israel is approaching these goals, but more patience and determination are required," Olmert told a cabinet meeting.

Israel has "dealt Hamas an unprecedented blow," government secretary Oved Yehezkel quoted him as telling ministers. "It will never be the same Hamas."

Israeli forces have demolished some 200 smuggling tunnels beneath the Gaza-Egypt border -- Hamas's main resupply route -- representing two-thirds of the total, military spokeswoman Avital Leibovich said.

Hamas, which also ignored the Security Council resolution, has vowed to keep on fighting. On Sunday, 19 rockets were fired into Israel from Gaza, including four military-grade Grad rockets, without wounding anyone.

Early on Sunday, troops entered the narrow streets of Gaza City's southern Tal al-Hawa neighborhood, encountering roadside bombs, mortar and gunfire from Palestinian fighters, witnesses said.

They withdrew at daybreak, but hundreds of panicked residents fled the area, clutching small children and hastily packed bags after a sleepless night.

"We couldn't take anything with us, not even milk for the children," said Ibtisam Shamallah, 22, as she fled with her two children.

Twelve bodies were later pulled from the rubble in Tal al-Hawa, including 10 fighters, medics said. In all, at least 26 Palestinians were killed in clashes on Sunday, they said.

Egypt has spearheaded Western-backed efforts to end the fighting, calling for an immediate truce, opening Gaza's border crossings, preventing arms smuggling and relaunching Palestinian reconciliation efforts.

On Sunday, it ramped up pressure on Israel by summoning its ambassador to demand that the Jewish state comply with the Security Council resolution and open humanitarian corridors to relieve the besieged territory.

It also held what it said were positive talks with a Hamas team, saying the Islamists agreed "on the importance of ... stopping the shedding of Palestinian blood as soon as possible."

Osama Hamdan, Hamas's representative in Lebanon, told Al-Jazeera television afterwards that "there was some progress on some points" of the Egyptian proposal.

"We reject parts of this proposal ... but that does not mean rejection of all the proposal." He added without elaborating that there had been no progress "on some of the sensitive points."

Hamas's exiled political chief, Khaled Meshaal, has vowed that his group will not discuss any kind of ceasefire until the Israeli offensive stops.

"As long as there is an occupation, there is a resistance," he said.

The Egyptian-Hamas talks were due to resume later on Monday, and senior Israeli defence official Amos Gilad was to return to Cairo for more talks with the Egyptians.

Since the Israeli onslaught began on December 27, at least 890 people have been killed, including 275 children, and another 3,800 wounded, according to Dr Muawiya Hassanein, the head of Gaza emergency services.

Ten Israeli soldiers and three civilians have been killed in combat or in rocket attacks since the operation began. Palestinian militants have fired more than 600 rockets, some of them penetrating deeper than ever inside Israel.

The conflict has sparked worldwide pro-Palestinian demonstrations, and US president elect Barack Obama said he is assembling a team of diplomats to start addressing the Middle East conflict once he is sworn in on January 20.

Russia declares gas monitoring deal void

By YURAS KARMANAU, Associated Press Writer

SUDZHA GAS METERING STATION, Russia – Teams of EU monitors deployed Sunday at natural gas transit sites along Ukraine's vast pipeline network, but still no gas flowed to a freezing Europe.

Russia refused to restart gas supplies that have been stalled since Wednesday, saying the deal for the monitors was made void by Ukraine, which signed the document but then issued what it called a "declaration" to accompany it.

The European Commission insisted the declaration could not change the agreement, but Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said the document was void unless Ukraine withdrew the declaration.

He denounced the Ukrainian move as a "mockery of a common sense and a violation of previously reached agreements."

Russia has demanded monitors to track the movement of gas across Ukraine before it will restart supplies to other European countries. Russia stopped supplying gas to Ukraine on Jan. 1 amid a price dispute and later stopped supplying countries beyond Ukraine because it claimed Kiev was siphoning off the gas.

Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso in a phone conversation that Russia considers any supplements to the deal unacceptable. He added that the Ukrainian declaration defies the pact and refers to commercial issues that aren't part of it.

Bohdan Sokolovsky, an energy adviser to the Ukrainian president, insisted the declaration was only a statement explaining the Ukrainian position. He accused Moscow of exerting political and economic pressure on Ukraine.

"Russia has turned the gas war into a gas circus where bears have already forgotten that they can be tamed," Sokolovsky told The Associated Press. "The Kremlin is consciously creating conflict."

Even before the gas cutoff, Russia and Ukraine had been at odds over Ukraine's efforts to join NATO and its support for the former Soviet republic of Georgia in its war with Russia in August. Last week, U.S. officials had warned Russia not to use its energy resources as a weapon against Europe.

Russia supplies about one-quarter of the EU's natural gas, 80 percent of it shipped through Ukraine, and the disruption has come as the continent is gripped by subfreezing temperatures in which at least 11 people have frozen to death.

Fallout from the gas cutoff reverberated Sunday, with the Hungarian capital, Budapest, issuing its first-ever smog alert because power plants had switched from natural gas to dirtier fuels. Austria also voiced alarm over neighboring Slovakia's plans to restart an aging Soviet nuclear reactor to get heat for its people.

Sales of electric heaters have soared across eastern Europe and thousands of businesses have been forced to cut production or even shut down.

The European Commission strongly urged Russia to move faster, noting that monitoring teams already had reached gas facilities on Ukraine's eastern border. "There is no reason to further delay gas supplies," it said in a statement.

Russia said it had to halt supplies because Ukraine was stealing gas intended for Europe. Ukraine angrily denied the accusations, saying Russia did not send enough gas to pump supplies west over Ukraine's 23,000 miles (37,800 kilometers) of pipelines.

One EU team reached the Sudzha gas measuring station on the Russian side of the border with Ukraine on Sunday, 250 miles (400 kilometers) east of Kiev.

Another EU team moved to a different unit at Luhansk on Ukraine's southeastern border and three groups of experts were traveling to gas pumping stations on Ukraine's border with EU countries at Orlovka, Uzhgorod and Drozdowichi.

EU monitors will also be in Kiev and Moscow, at the pumping centers for Ukraine's state gas company Naftogaz and Russia's state-run gas monopoly Gazprom.

Ukrainian officials said it would take three days for gas to reach Europe if Russia decides to resume supplies.

Sudzha officials on Sunday were measuring pressure in five huge, silver snow-covered pipes capped by round sensors. The pipes, stretching several hundred yards (meters) to the Ukrainian border, are extensions of underground pipelines that carry gas.

One EU monitor there, Michael Huesken of German energy giant E.ON AG, voiced hope that the mission will "help quickly restore gas deliveries through Ukraine."

Both Russia and Ukraine have been hard hit by the global economic slowdown. Energy is the driving force behind Russia's economy and the government's budget, and the drastic fall in oil prices since summer has decimated Moscow's currency reserves.

Ukraine, meanwhile, faces economic collapse and is desperate to avoid higher gas prices because it is heavily dependent on natural gas.

Last year, Russia charged Ukraine $179.50 per 1,000 cubic meters, about half what it charged its European customers, but both Putin and Medvedev have vowed that Ukraine will pay market rates for gas in 2009.

Naftogaz company chief Oleh Dubyna said the latest round of contract talks ended Saturday without result, with Gazprom demanding a price of $450.

Israeli forces advance deep into Gaza urban areas

By IBRAHIM BARZAK and CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA, Associated Press Writers

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Israeli ground forces made their deepest foray yet Sunday into Gaza's most populated area, with tanks rolling into residential neighborhoods and infantry fighting urban warfare in streets and buildings with Hamas militants who kept up their rocketing of southern Israel.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said residential neighborhoods in Gaza are riddled with homemade bombs and booby traps, including mannequins placed at apartment entrances to simulate militants and rigged to explode if soldiers approach.

The army "is advancing more into urban areas," said the spokeswoman, Maj. Avital Leibovich. "Since the majority of the Hamas militants are pretty much in hiding in those places, mainly urban places, then we operate in those areas."

Late Sunday, dense plumes of smoke from explosions rose over Gaza City and heavy gunfire was heard just south of the city. Early Monday, Israeli navy gunboats fired more than 25 shells at Gaza City, setting fires and shaking office buildings, including the local bureau of The Associated Press. The military said that in general, the targets are Hamas installations but had no immediate information about the shelling that began just after midnight.

Gaza medical officials say at least 870 Palestinians, about half of them civilians, have been killed in the conflict that began Dec. 27 with Israeli airstrikes on Hamas buildings, as well as suspected rocket launch sites and smuggling tunnels on the Egyptian border. Thirteen Israelis, including 10 soldiers, have died.

German and British envoys pressed efforts to negotiate an end to the war even though Israel and Hamas have ignored a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for an immediate and durable cease-fire.

Outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel had made progress in its objectives in the Gaza offensive but was not finished yet.

"Israel is nearing the goals that it set for itself," Olmert said. "However, further patience, determination and effort are necessary in order to achieve those goals in a way that will change the security reality in the south."

While Olmert's comment signaled no immediate end to the offensive, it indicated that Israel is wary of an open-ended conflict with an unclear agenda. Israel wants to end years of rocket attacks by Hamas on its southern population, a complex goal that could require Egyptian or international help in shutting off routes to smuggle weapons into Gaza from Egypt.

Hamas, in turn, demands that Israel open Gaza's blockaded borders as part of any halt to the fighting. Such a measure would relieve economic pressure on the destitute territory but also strengthen Hamas's control of Gaza, an odious prospect for Israelis who fear a halt to the fighting will just give Hamas another opportunity to re-arm.

In Cairo, Egypt's state-owned news agency reported progress in truce talks with Hamas, but provided no specifics. The Middle East News Agency quoted an unnamed Egyptian official as saying talks between the nation's intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman, and Hamas envoys were "positive."

Palestinian medical officials reported about 60 deaths on Sunday, including 17 who had died of wounds suffered on previous days. Most of those killed Sunday were noncombatants, medical officials said, including four members of one family killed when a tank shell hit their home near Gaza City, and a 10-year-old girl killed in a similar attack.

Palestinian witnesses said Israeli troops moved to within half a mile of Gaza City's southern neighborhoods, and within a quarter mile of the northern neighborhood of Sheikh Ajleen.

Firefights in Sheikh Ajleen erupted before dawn as Israeli forces advanced toward Gaza City, home to 400,000 people, Palestinian witnesses said.

Gunfire subsided in the afternoon, with the Israelis in control of some buildings on the neighborhood's outskirts. Israeli tanks later withdrew.

"We are safe, but we don't know for how long," said Khamis Alawi, 44, who huddled with his wife and six children in their kitchen overnight. He said bullets riddled his walls and several came in through the windows.

Military analysts say Israeli troops are probing territory, clearing buildings and moving around regularly, rather than digging into positions that would allow Hamas militants to get a fix on their whereabouts and lay ambushes. Israel risks losing the advantage of armor and heavy firepower in urban settings that the militants know well.

Israeli military footage showed soldiers walking around a zoo in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City two days ago. The footage showed caged birds and a white cable identified as an explosive detonation cord, part of an alleged booby trap set by Hamas.

An Israeli airstrike destroyed a mosque and Islamic school in Rafah, on the border with Egypt. Hours later, men and boys clambered over the wreckage, and one man held aloft the remains of a Quran recovered from the debris.

Israeli has accused Hamas of launching attacks from mosques and schools and using them to hide weapons. Israel says Hamas fighters are wearing civilian clothes and endangering civilians by operating in residential areas.

The Israeli military said it hit more than 40 Hamas militants on Sunday, but did not specify whether they were killed or wounded.

International aid groups say Israel must do more to ensure the safety of civilians. They note that civilians are in many cases unable to flee to safe places in Gaza, and are essentially trapped because the territory's exits are closed.

The U.N. agency in charge of Palestinian refugees has resumed operations after suspending them because of Israeli attacks on its convoys. U.N. aid vehicles were moving around Gaza on Sunday and U.N. workers tended to about 30,000 people in shelters, but aid officials warned that the dire security situation made it impossible to operate at full capacity.

"This is a very small fraction of what we normally do in the Gaza Strip," said Filippo Grandi of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency. "Things might get worse."

Israel has warned Gaza residents of a wider offensive. On Sunday, it dropped leaflets urging Gaza residents to report the whereabouts of Hamas fighters, providing a phone number to call.

Israel's chief military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Avi Benayahu, said the army has sent more reserve units into the Gaza Strip.

In other fighting, Hamas militants launched at least 24 rockets at southern Israel, lightly injuring three people. Rockets hit an empty kindergarten and a children's playground in the city of Ashdod.

The rockets have disrupted life for hundreds of thousands of terrified people who rush into bunkers and basements at the sound of warning sirens. Four people have died in rocket attacks.

However, thousands of children in southern Israel returned to school Sunday for the first time in two weeks. Schools had been closed since the beginning of the offensive, but the military said schools that have been sufficiently fortified against attack could open.

British Mideast envoy Tony Blair and Germany's top diplomat visited Jerusalem Sunday, and Israel planned to send a senior defense official this week to Egypt, which is trying to broker a truce.

Blair met Olmert and said a plan to end the fighting must include a halt to weapons smuggling and the opening of border crossings into Gaza. He said urgency was vital because "every day this action continues there are more people that die."

Germany's foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, appeared at a news conference with his Israeli counterpart, Tzipi Livni, in Jerusalem.

"The shooting of Qassam rockets and other weapons must be stopped and the smuggling of new weapons to the Gaza Strip for re-arming, or even to improve the weapons of Hamas, must be stopped," Steinmeier said.

Bush reportedly rejected Israeli plea to raid Iran

WASHINGTON – President George W. Bush rejected a plea from Israel last year to help it raid Iran's main nuclear complex, opting instead to authorize a new U.S. covert action aimed at sabotaging Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program, The New York Times reported.

Israel's request was for specialized bunker-busting bombs that it wanted for an attack that tentatively involved flying over Iraq to reach Iran's major nuclear complex at Natanz, where the country's only known uranium enrichment plant is located, the Times reported Saturday in its online edition. The White House deflected requests for the bombs and flyover but said it would improve intelligence-sharing with Israel on covert U.S. efforts to sabotage Iran's nuclear program.

The covert efforts, which began in early 2008, involved plans to penetrate Iran's nuclear supply chain abroad and undermine electrical systems and other networks on which Iran relies, the Times said, citing interviews with current and former U.S. officials, outside experts and international nuclear inspectors who spoke on condition of anonymity. The covert program will be handed off to President-elect Barack Obama, who will deciding whether to continue it.

According to the Times, Bush decided against an overt attack based on input from top administration officials such as Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who believed that doing so would likely prove ineffective and could ignite a broader Middle East war.

Israel made the push for permission to fly over Iraq for an attack on Iran following its anger over a U.S. intelligence assessment in late 2007 that concluded Iran had effectively suspended its development of nuclear weapons four years earlier. Israel sought to rebut the report, providing evidence to U.S. intelligence officials that they said indicated the Iranians were still working on a weapon.

Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the National Security Council, declined to comment Saturday.

In an interview with The Associated Press earlier this week, Stephen Hadley, Bush's national security adviser, said he believed that Iran is the biggest challenge Obama will face in the Middle East and that more sanctions will be needed to force Tehran to forgo its nuclear ambitions and support for extremists. He said the Bush administration has been trying to "shore up and store up leverage" to bequeath to the Obama administration.

Last month, Obama suggested that a combination of economic incentives and tighter sanctions might work. Tehran rejected the proposal. Obama also has said he would pursue tough-minded diplomacy.

Thousands in Europe, Lebanon protest Gaza violence

By DAVID RISING, Associated Press Writer

BERLIN – Tens of thousands of people demonstrated in cities across Europe and in Lebanon Saturday, shouting protests against the Israeli offensive in Gaza.

Protesters burned Israeli flags in Sweden and threw shoes at the U.S. consulate in Edinburgh, Scotland. In central London, three officers were hurt when demonstrators hurled shoes and placards at police outside the Israeli Embassy. One officer was knocked unconscious. Some 180 people were arrested in Paris.

But in Innsbruck, Austria, volunteer security personnel arranged by the Islamic organizers of a demonstration moved quickly to surround and protect an elderly man after he suddenly unrolled an Israeli flag in the middle of the protest.

Israel says its two-week-old offensive is intended to stop Palestinian Hamas rocket attacks on southern Israel. Palestinian medical officials say more than 800 people have been killed.

A crowd of 12,000 gathered in London's Hyde Park carrying placards marked "Gaza: Stop the massacre" and chanting "free, free Palestine."

Police said 15 people were arrested after a group of around 2,000 demonstrators clashed with police guarding the Israeli embassy. Two were detained on suspicion of assaulting police officers.

Scores of marches were held across France, the biggest of them in the capital, where police estimated 30,000 people took part. Paris police scuffled with a small group toward the end. Police said they made 180 arrests and a dozen police officers were injured.

Police estimated that 30,000 people protested in the northern Spanish city of Barcelona, some carrying bloodstained blankets and mock dead bodies of children.

The demonstration had been called by around 300 Catalan groups who have asked the Spanish government to back cease-fire initiatives and to stop all trade, especially arms, with Israel.

In Italy, several thousand people carrying Palestinian flags marched in Milan, Florence and Venice to protest the Israeli offensive. In Milan, protesters burned a white sheet with the Star of David on it, and some participants carried posters with the Israeli flag and a swastika on them, the ANSA news agency reported.

In Germany, some 8,500 people rallied in Berlin's Alexanderplatz and then marched to the city's main train station. Hundreds of police were deployed along the route, and several Hamas flags were confiscated from the protesters. No serious incidents were reported, however, police said.

In the western German city of Duisburg, 10,000 people marched.

"We want to show our solidarity with the victims in the Gaza Strip, and signal our opposition to the oppression and violence in Gaza," said organizer Engin Karahan.

Nearly 20,000 people marched through the southern Lebanese town of Nabatiyeh in a protest organized by the militant Hezbollah group, a strong ally of Hamas that fought its own war with Israel in the summer of 2006.

They waved Lebanese and Palestinian flags and some carried posters of bloody Palestinian children. "Gaza is the nation's battle," read a banner carried by several of the protesters.

In Norway, police used tear gas to try to disperse at least 1,000 protesters after some hurled bottles, rocks and fired fireworks at officers. Two people were injured and two were taken into custody, said Oslo police spokeswoman Unni Groendal.

Protesters in Sweden tried to break through sealed-off areas at Israel's embassy in Stockholm after a march through the city by 3,000 to 5,000 people.

Thousands of demonstrators in Edinburgh, Scotland, threw shoes at the American consulate — a gesture evoking an Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at President George W. Bush during a recent Baghdad visit. Organizer Ian Hood said the group was angry with the United States for failing to stop the bloodshed in Gaza.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators in Athens were joined by several Greek leftist groups to form a crowd of about 2,000 who marched to the Israeli Embassy.

On Friday, more than 60 people were injured during a large demonstration in Algeria's capital, many by stone throwing, the Interior Ministry said. One journalist was left in a coma.

The Interior Ministry said the demonstration was "infiltrated by troublemakers" who looted some shops, damaged cars and destroyed bus stops and other public facilities.