Hamas leader set to visit Gaza
Islamists to mark 25th anniversary
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip, Dec 2, (AP): The leader of Gaza’s ruling Hamas group will visit the Palestinian territory for the first time, an official said Saturday, a sign of increasing boldness of the Islamic militant movement after it held its own against an Israeli military offensive.
Khaled Mashaal was set to arrive in the Gaza Strip next week by crossing the border from Egypt to mark Hamas’ 25th anniversary and congratulate its leaders and fighters for battling Israel during the recent eight-day offensive, according to a senior Hamas official in Gaza. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of security concerns.
Mashaal previously had been prevented from crossing into Gaza by longtime Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak. But Mubarak was ousted in February 2011, and the Muslim Brotherhood, which has close ties to Hamas, has risen to power.
Mashaal has led Hamas since 1996, helping to build the Iranian-backed movement into a potent force. Under his leadership, Hamas carried out numerous suicide bombings and other attacks on buses, cafes and other public places that killed hundreds of Israelis during a Palestinian uprising a decade ago. The group has been branded a terrorist organization by Israel, the U.S. and the European Union.
He also survived an Israeli assassination attack in Jordan in 1997. Until recently, he was based in Syria but after civil war broke out there relocated to Qatar. GENEVA, Dec 2, (AFP): Around 60 samples were taken from the remains of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for a probe into whether he was poisoned by polonium, a Swiss newspaper reported Sunday, quoting a lead investigator.
The samples were distributed among three teams doing separate analyses eight years after Arafat’s death in a French hospital, Patrice Mangin told Le Matin Dimanche.
A Palestinian pathologist was the only person allowed to touch the body when Arafat’s grave was opened on Tuesday in the West Bank city of Ramallah. He was able to “take all the samples that were wanted, around 60 in total,” said Mangin, the director of the Swiss University Centre of Legal Medicine in Lausanne. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (3rd from right), holds the weekly cabinet meeting at his offices in Jerusalem on Dec 2. Israel is halting the transfer of tax and tariff money it collects for the Palestinians in response to their successful bid for UN non-member
observer state status, Israeli media reported. (AFP)