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Israel Maintains Gaza Blockades While Jordanians Protest

by Rob Walker | November 21, 2008 at 11:35 am

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Israel says it will maintain closure on Gaza crossings, despite concerns from humanitarian groups, media organizations and the United Nations.

The Israeli Defence Department said the continued closure was due to rocket attacks from within Gaza, another of which exploded early Friday morning, causing no damage.

Thousands of Jordanians protested in the capital city of Amman to protest the Israeli Gaza blockade. Over 3,000 protesters marched in the streets and torched US and Israeli flags.

More than 3,000 demonstrators marched in the streets of the Al-Wihdat Palestinian refugee camp in Amman and torched US and Israeli flags, organisers said.

Chanting pro-Hamas slogans, the protesters carried banners reading, "Yes for resistance" and "End the Zionist occupation of Palestine."

"We can't be silent anymore about what happens in Gaza," Hamazah Mansur, head of the Islamic Action Front's six-member parliamentary bloc, told AFP.

Israel said on Friday it will maintain its closure of the Gaza Strip despite international concern over a deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the aid-dependent Palestinian territory.

"This decision was taken because of the continuation of Palestinian rocket attacks against southern Israel," said Peter Lerner, a defence ministry spokesman.

Palestinian armed groups in Gaza said they would honor a truce with Israel if one were presented, even as rockets were fired this morning:

Palestinian armed groups in Gaza remain committed to a truce with Israel if the Jewish state reciprocates, Hamas's Gaza leader said on Friday, even as militants launched more attacks from the coastal territory.

Gaza militants fired a rocket and two mortars at Israel, continuing almost daily attacks over the past 17 days, none of which has inflicted major casualties.

Meanwhile, three International Solidarity Movement activists detained yesterday say they have gone on a hunger strike. The three protesters are being held in a prison near Tel Aviv and face deportation.

Speaking to the BBC from prison, Mr Muncie said that for the past two months, he had been going out on Palestinian fishing boats off the coast of Gaza.

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Mr.FoxTalbot

at 14:49 on November 21st, 2008

I took this photo at the Suq in Damascus. It started to rain and the shop keeper treated us to some tea and cigarettes while it rained outside. In exchange we bought one of those boxes (although not the one in the photo). What do we mean when we talk about Palestine, anyway? Is it just the West Bank and Gaza or the whole of Israel?.

Mr.FoxTalbot has contributed a photo to this story.

wagepeacebeach

at 16:26 on November 22nd, 2008

Weekly nonviolent demonstrations against the Israeli occupation, the illegal route of the wall, and the ongoing confiscation of farmland in the Palestinian village of Bil'in and throughout the West Bank.

wagepeacebeach has contributed a photo to this story.