Jewish settler guilty of killing Palestinian civilians

An Israeli court convicted a Jewish settler of murdering four Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank last year as Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip, the BBC reported.

Asher Weissgan snatched a rifle from a settlement security guard and shot dead four Palestinian employees at the Shilo industrial zone on August 17, 2005.

Prosecutors said the attack was an attempt by extreme-right Jewish groups and individuals to disrupt Israel’s pullout from all settlements in Gaza and four isolated enclaves in the West Bank.

After his arrest, Weisgan said he didn’t regret the shooting of the Palestinians, and expressed the hope that someone would assassinate then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who condemned the attack at the time as a “Jewish act of terror”.

Weissgan’s attack came two weeks after another Jewish extremist killed four Israeli Arabs in the town of Shfaram in northern Israel.

Officials said Weissgan would be sentenced shortly.

Convictions for settlers’ crimes in the West Bank are rare, according to a report by an Israeli human rights group.

Rights group Yesh Din found that 90% of Israeli investigations into settler violence against Palestinians end in failure because files were lost or closed due to "lack of evidence."

The findings show that “Israel is abusing its obligation to defend the Palestinian civilian population in the occupied Palestinian territories against the criminality of Israeli civilians,” the report said.

"The most worrying conclusion arising from the report is that there is practically no law enforcement mechanism in place to protect Palestinians from settler violence," said Yesh Din research director Lior Yavne.

* Israeli court orders release of Hamas officials

An Israeli military court ordered that 18 Hamas lawmakers, including three Cabinet ministers, be released on bail while their trials continue, the Associated Press news agency reported.

However, the men will remain behind bars for at least two days pending an appeal by Israeli prosecutors against the court’s ruling.

The court is due to issue a final ruling next Thursday.

Israel has detained more than two dozen Hamas lawmakers and several other cabinet ministers since it launched its deadly offensive in Gaza last June, claiming that it’s aimed at freeing an Israeli soldier captured by Palestinian resistance fighters.

Palestinian officials slam the detention as illegal, saying that Israel is using Hamas officials as bargaining chips in its efforts to secure the release of the captured Israeli soldier.

Meanwhile, a Hamas spokesman said the group is willing to back peace efforts with Israel as part of the new national unity government being formed by the Palestinians.

Hamas has "no problem" with the government pursuing peace talks with Israel, Ghazi Hamad told Israel's Army Radio.

"We have nothing against negotiations, we have nothing against a diplomatic process but we have rights,” he added.

* Israeli soldier killed in Gaza

Palestinian resistance fighters killed an Israeli soldier and wounded others in an attack in the Gaza Strip, the BBC reported.

The Israeli military confirmed the death of the soldier.

Fighting between Palestinian fighters and Israeli soldiers took place near the Kissufim crossing with Israel in central Gaza during an Israeli military incursion.

A joint statement by Hamas' military wing and the Popular Resistance Committees said the ambush took place just 500m inside Gaza.

The Israeli soldier is the second to die in Gaza since the launch of the Israeli offensive there. The other soldier was killed in a friendly fire incident.

On the other hand, more than 226 Palestinians, including 54 minors, were killed by Israeli occupation forces in Gaza between the end of June and the end of August, according to Israel’s Human rights group, B'Tselem.