Arabic/Eng/Nat

XFA

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have until Wednesday before they have to provide U-S President Bill Clinton with their final decisions on the latest U-S proposal for peace between the two sides.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said on Sunday that now was the time to make a major push for a Middle East peace deal.

But Palestinians have been more cautious about the proposal, saying key differences remained.

Talks that have taken place between the two sides in Washington over the last week have resulted in a new proposal by the U-S for reaching a settlement.

This focuses on the four major issues of disagreement - Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees, borders and the ending of the conflict in the region.

According to the U-S proposal a Palestinian State would be established on 95 percent of the West Bank and all of the Gaza Strip.

Israel would be sovereign over the remaining five percent of the West Bank which includes Jewish settlement blocs.

Israel, which currently claims sovereignty over all of Jerusalem, would concede control of the Arab neighbourhoods in east Jerusalem to the Palestinians, including most of the walled Old City.

Palestinians would also have control over the disputed Al Aqsa mosque compound in the Old City, an extremely sensitive site sacred to both Muslims and Jews.

Israeli politicians from the right-wing opposition, and even some from within Barak's government, have condemned any concession on the Al Aqsa compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount.

A special body would be established to deal with Palestinian refugees who fled or were driven out in past wars.

Most refugees would be settled in the countries where they currently reside Jordan, Syria and Lebanon and some would be absorbed into Palestinian areas.

Only a limited number would be permitted to resettle inside Israel.

Palestinian negotiator Yasser Abed Rabbo, who attended the talks in Washington said that until now there has not been enough flexibility in the Israeli position to encourage the Palestinians to say they're close to reaching an agreement.

Rabbo said that the Palestinians were still considering the U-S proposal.

Yasser Arafat went to discuss the plan with Egyptian president Hossni Mubarak, and Israeli Foreign minister Shlomo Ben-Ami briefed Barak on the U-S talks on Sunday.

If they see the potential for progress, Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat are likely to travel to Washington for talks with Clinton.

According to Ben-Ami, Clinton would then decide whether it was worth convening a Mideast summit.

Time is running short for a deal under Clinton's watch.

He leaves office in four weeks, while Barak faces an uphill battle for re-election as prime minister on February 6.

If a peace deal is negotiated, Barak has said he will consider the election a referendum on the agreement.

But both sides have faced criticism at home over their reported concessions.

Meanwhile, the three months of Middle East violence scared away Christian pilgrims and put a damper on Christmas festivities in Bethlehem, the town of Jesus' birth.

SOUNDBITE: (English)

"Once you give them something they want more, so eventually they'll just take us all, they'll control us all - and that's what they want, they don't want peace."

SUPER CAPTION: Vox pop

SOUNDBITE: (English)

"I think the proposal is good."

SUPER CAPTION: Vox pop

SOUNDBITE: (Arabic)

"We won't accept any proposal that doesn't give us complete guarantees over the implementation of the agreement. For example the presence of international forces to overlook the accurate implementation of an agreement."

SOUNDBITE: Yasser Abed Rabbo, Palestinian negotiator

SOUNDBITE: (Arabic)

"This is totally rejected, because he who lost a son or a family member will not accept such proposal. The issue between us and the Jews is not an issue of land or territory, its an issue of blood."

SUPER CAPTION: Vox pop

SOUNDBITE: (Arabic)

"If the agreement is fine for the interest of the Palestinian people so why not?"

SUPER CAPTION: Vox pop

Jerusalem; Ramallah; Akbat Jaber - 24-25 December, 2000 and File

Jerusalem - File

1. Various aerials views of city

West Jerusalem - 25 December

2. Soldiers standing on street

3. SOUNDBITE: (English) Vox pop

4. SOUNDBITE: (English) Vox pop

5. Soldiers standing around in shopping precinct

6. Close-up of newspapers - zooms in to headline reporting the US proposal

7. Various close-ups of articles and graphics showing the proposal

Ramallah - 24 December

8. Set up view of Yasser Abed Rabbo, Palestinian negotiator

9. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Yasser Abed Rabbo

East Jerusalem - 25 December

10. People walking along street

11. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Vox pop

12. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Vox pop

13. People in street

Akbat Jaber - File

14. Various aerial views of refugee camp outside of Jerusalem

Arabic/Eng/Nat

President Clinton's visit to the Middle East continues to provoke reactions from hardline Palestinians.

Arabs throughout the region have been demonstrating against moves by Yasser Arafat to water down the Palestinian charter as agreed under the Wye Accord.

The Palestinian government-in-exile voted to revoke clauses in the P-L-O charter that calls for the destruction of Israel, under pressure from the United States and Israel.

But extremist Palestinians have accused their leaders of betraying the Palestinian cause.

As U-S President Bill Clinton prepared to address the Palestinian assembly, Israeli troops in the West Bank clashed with young Palestinian demonstrators.

The men were apparently trying to break into the settlement of el Bireh.

At first Palestinian police tried to prevent the Palestinian demonstrators burning tyres as they approached the Jewish settlement.

Israeli troops then blocked their path and fired tear gas and rubber bullets into a crowd.

Palestinian police were among the crowd.

Earlier hundreds of Palestinians had taken to the streets of the West Bank to demand the release of the prisoners still held in Israeli gaols.

Under the Wye agreement Israeli troops are to withdraw from a further 13 percent of the West Bank, in return for a Palestinian crackdown on terrorism.

But the deal has faltered, with both sides accusing the other of reneging on the agreed terms.

Israel had promised to release 750 prisoners by the end of January.

Last month, Israel freed 250, but most were common criminals rather than political prisoners.

There is also great mistrust of America.

Many Palestinians accuse the U-S of indirect involvement with Israel's cause.

In Nablus, another West Bank town, demonstrators shouted slogans condemning Clinton.

Clinton's appearance at the specially convened session of the Palestine National Council (P-N-C) was the centre piece of his trip.

But while the politicians debated, the Palestinian people were calling for the vote to be cancelled until the issue of the prisoners was resolved.

The protests have not been confined to the West Bank.

In Palestinian communities throughout the middle East, feelings are running high.

In Jordan, about four-hundred Palestinian refugees gathered to protest changes to the Palestinian charter.

Hard liners, such as these, in Jordan, who were at the forefront of the fight for a Palestinian state, say they feel let down by Yasser Arafat.

Ever since the first peace treaty with Israel in 1993, Palestinian leaders have referred to the clauses in the charter calling for the destruction of the Jewish state as null and void.

Now, on the day of Clinton's visit to Gaza, the National Palestinian Council voted to revoke the clause.

Members of Palestinian refugee groups want to register their anger.

As refugees from the first Arab-Israeli war in 1948, these people feel particularly betrayed by the move.

Camp council members also believe that it is premature to revoke such a clause until peace has been reached.

SOUNDBITE: (Arabic)

"We don't want the people to think that we are against a just peace, we are against normalisation until peace is justly implemented."

SUPER CAPTION: Sheik Hassan Abyu Dbaah, Baqaa Camp Council

SOUNDBITE: (Arabic)

"We would accept to live in a tent if it meant living in our own country."

SUPER CAPTION: Abdul Majid Shehada, Vox Pop

Meanwhile, in Lebanon, the mood was no different.

Protestors in the southern city of Sidon burned U-S and Israeli flags and criticised the Wye agreement.

They were lambasting Clinton and Netanyahu for their roles in Wye.

They believe Israel has unfairly pressured the Palestine government into changing its historic charter.

And they claim Clinton forced the Palestinians into a humiliating climb down.

They are called their own leaders traitors, shouting slogans against Arafat.

SOUNDBITE: (English)

"We, the sons of the Palestinian People, announce our condemnation of the meeting taking place in Gaza today the 14th of December which will be held as a consequence to the American demand and Zionist Presence in order to Nullify our National Palestinian Pact. We announce with power and strictness our refusal to modify or nullify any Paragraph in the National Palestinian Pact, and our support to the Palestinian Popular Convention taking place in Damascus."

SUPER CAPTION: Khaled Younes, Democratic Front for Liberating Palestine (D-F-L-P)

SOUNDBITE: (English)

"They want the rights which is known as the rights for any people. They didn't accept Wye Plantation, they didn't accept the Israeli Occupation, they didn't accept all agreements which didn't give them their simple and well-known rights."

SUPER CAPTION: Abou Ali Hassan, Popular Front For Liberating Palestine, (P-F-L-P)

And in Syria demonstrators shouted "Clinton get out! Palestine will remain free!".

Many of the 15-hundred demonstrators carried banners denouncing Arafat's peace deals with Israel and his plan to revoke calls for Israel's destruction.

These people want to return to an independent Palestine as soon as possible.

But, if their feelings are representative of the whole of the Palestinian people, then it could be some time before the dream of peace in the Middle East is finally realised.

El Bireh, Ramallah and Nablus, West Bank; Amman, Jordan; Sidon, Lebanon; Damascus, Syria - December 14 1998

AGENCY COMMON

El Bireh, West Bank

1. Various of Palestinians throwing stones.

2. Palestinian police trying to stop demonstrators burning tyres

3. Israeli troops fire tear gas and rubber bullets into crowd

4. Israeli troops

APTN

Ramallah, West Bank

5. Wide of women holding pictures of sons, who are prisoners

6. Various close ups of women shouting slogans

7. Wide of students marching

8. Various of banners against Clinton's visit

9. Close up student chanting

10. Students burning flags

Nablus, West Bank

11. Palestinians with pictures of prisoners

12. Close up child chanting

13. Demonstrator with megaphone shouting slogans against Clinton and U-S-A

14. Various of Palestinians shouting slogans

Amman, Jordan

15. Wide shot demonstration

16. People carrying a banner saying "Refugee until I return"

17. Various shots of students shouting slogans

18. Various green flags

19. Various shouting Arafat is a traitor and the Koran is the solution

20. Banner saying "We are all Ahmed Yassin, no to the deportation no for creating a homeland."

21. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Sheik Hassan Abyu Dbaah, Camps

22. Demonstrators (Soundbite overlaid)

23. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Abdul Majid Shehada, Vox Pop

24. Various shots of demonstration

Ain el-Hilweh refugee camp, Sidon

25. Burning American and Israeli Flags

26. Fighters with machine guns and behind them a banner condemning Wye Plantation agreement

27. Masked fighters

28. Fighters with machine guns

29. Close up burning flags

30. People with Palestinian Flag

31. SOUNDBITE: (English) Khaled Younes, Democratic Front for Liberating Palestine (D-F-L-P)

32. Fighters with machine guns stamping American and Israeli flags

33. SOUNDBITE: (English) Abou Ali Hassan, Popular Front For Liberating Palestine, (P-F-L-P)

34. Group of fighters with American and Israeli flags before and during setting fire to them

Damascus, Syria

35. Pull out from flags to wide of crowd

36. Pan of crowd of demonstrators

37. Pull out from flag

38. Side shot of man addressing rally

39. Protestors in street

40. Boy on man's shoulders waving flag

41. Burning Israeli flag

Arabic/Eng/Nat

XFA

News of Ariel Sharon's election victory was met largely with indifference in the Arab world, though many also viewed it as the last rite for the troubled peace process.

After 52 years of wars, a decade of frustrating peace efforts and months of deadly Palestinian-Israeli clashes, many Arabs have given up hope any Israeli leader will give Palestinians rights and land considered their due.

Sporadic battles between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers erupted in the West Bank town of Hebron on Wednesday following the election.

Israeli soldiers fired tear gas at Palestinian youths who retaliated by throwing rocks.

It's the first violence in the West Bank since the election of Mr. Sharon on Tuesday.

Gun battles also broke out between suspected militant Palestinians and Israeli soldiers after the homes of Israeli settlers were fired on.

Homes in the isolated Jewish neighbourhood of Tel Romeide in the heart of Hebron came under fire.

Israeli Defence Force sources said the hostile fire on Tel Romeide was reported to have come from the adjoining Arab neighbourhood of Jebel Abu-Sneina in Hebron.

Around five hundred settlers live in Hebron, surrounded by an estimated 130-thousand Palestinians.

During the clashes the Israeli army also shelled a local building.

In Gaza, Palestinian Minister of Planning and top negotiator Nabil Shaath said on Wednesday that nobody from Ariel Sharon's office had contacted the Palestinian authorities, and leader Yasser Arafat was still waiting for a telephone call.

Palestinians hope the peace process will continue under the right wing leadership of Sharon, Shaath said, and talks between Israelis and Palestinians will not stop.

Shaath spoke in Gaza, after Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat met American diplomats and to discuss the future of the relationship between Israel and the Palestinian authority under Sharon's leadership.

Meanwhile, Egypt reacted cautiously to Ariel Sharon's election victory on Wednesday.

The country has been at chilly peace with Israel since 1979.

Foreign Minister Amr Moussa said they would have to wait and see what direction Sharon would take in relation to the Middle East peace process.

Palestinian refugees in camps in Lebanon voiced their anger on Wednesday after the election of Ariel Sharon as Israel's Prime Minister.

Sharon is vilified by those who live in the camps.

In 1982, as defence minister, he engineered Israel's invasion of Lebanon.

It was portrayed as a quick, limited strike to drive Palestinian fighters from Israel's northern border.

However, Israeli troops advanced to the outskirts of Beirut and war escalated.

Israeli-allied Christian militia killed hundreds of Palestinians at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in west Beirut, sparking international outrage.

At Wednesday's protests, demonstrators burned effigies of Sharon and chanted anti-Israeli slogans.

Inmates of the camps, some of whom have lived in them since the creation of the Jewish state in 1948, demand the right of return to their former homes in what is now Israel.

Successive Israeli governments have denied them this.

SOUNDBITE: (English)

" Not yet, there has not yet been any direct contact between the two. President Arafat has talked to Mr Powell. "

Q: Reporter asking Shaath if there has been any contact between Arafat and Sharon?

" Not yet, no not yet."

SUPER CAPTION: Nabil Shaath, Palestinian Minister of Planning and Co-operation

SOUNDBITE: (Arabic)

"Look, if we judge him on his previous statements and his policies and his actions I think we would be very pessimistic towards the peace process. We have to wait a little bit to hear what he will say as a Prime Minister and not as an opposition leader or leader of any party. If the logical start is to build on what has been achieved then there will be peace which can be activated but if his policy is to destroy whilst peace has been agreed upon then there will be pessimism and frustration and that will very serious indeed. "

SUPER CAPTION: Amr Moussa, Egyptian Foreign Minister

Various- 7 February 2001

Hebron, West Bank

1. Soldiers next to jeep firing tear gas at Palestinian stone throwers

2. Soldier next to jeep fire tear gas

3. Israeli settler in the street talking to soldier

4. Soldier firing automatic weapon from behind fortified lookout

5. Building being hit by automatic weapons fire

6. Soldier firing rifle from lookout

7. Buildings being hit by shells

Gaza

8. Various shots of Yasser Arafat meeting American diplomats

9. Close up of Palestinian police

10. Arafat shaking hands with the diplomats as they leave Arafat's office building

11. Various of Arafat meeting diplomats outside Arafat's office building

12. Set up shot Nabil Shaath

13. SOUNDBITE: (English) Nabil Shaath Palestinian Minister of Planning and Co-operation

14. Shaath walking away

Cairo, Egypt

15. Egyptian President Mubarak and Amr Moussa, Egyptian Foreign Minister, arriving and walking off plane

16. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Amr Moussa, Egyptian Foreign Minister

Ein El Heloueh refugee camp, South Lebanon

17. Various of Palestinian refugees demonstrating

18. Demonstrators carrying anti-Sharon and anti-Israeli banners and shouting anti-Sharon slogans

19. Demonstrators carrying pictures of Arafat and Palestinian flags

20. Demonstrators burning effigy of Israeli President Elect Ariel Sharon

21. Demonstrators shouting against Sharon

22. Various of soldiers in camp

English/Nat

XFA

Despite some violence, it was a relatively calm Friday in the Mideast.

Authorities report only scattered clashes - in contrast to previous weeks when Palestinians would often march toward Israeli positions after noon prayers.

In the West Bank town of Hebron, a Palestinian man was shot and killed by Israeli troops during stone-throwing clashes.

The army said that the Palestinian had thrown an explosive at Israeli soldiers who returned fire.

The 23-year-old was killed in the Palestinian-run part of the divided city and an APTN camera crew filmed soldiers dragging his body more than 100 yards through the streets to the Israeli-controlled sector.

The soldiers' commander tried to get his men out of the Palestinian sector as quickly as possible, yelling "run, run."

One of the soldiers clutched the assailant's gun.

Earlier in the day, about one-thousand Palestinians had marched in Hebron in support of demands that Palestinian refugees be given the right to return to former homes in what is now Israel.

"No peace without the return of refugees," one banner read.

The fate of nearly four (M) million refugees and their descendants is a key sticking point in the negotiations.

And in Ramallah, several hundred Palestinians threw stones at Israeli soldiers at a chronic friction point, a traffic circle outside the West Bank town.

For a few minutes, there was an exchange of fire between troops and Palestinian gunmen.

The sporadic violence came hours after Israeli and Palestinian negotiators resumed surprise peace talks.

No progress was reported but more talks may be held over the weekend.

After three hours of negotiations at the Erez checkpoint between Gaza and Israel, Palestinians said it would take a miracle to reach a deal in the eight remaining days of President Bill Clinton's term.

Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said he was not hopeful that a deal could be worked out in that time.

Despite the Palestinians' pessimism, the chairman of Israel's parliament did not rule out hope of a settlement.

Avraham Burg added that Israeli negotiators were seeking first and foremost an end to violence.

One sign that things were moving forward in the Middle East was the reopening of Gaza airport on Friday after nearly two months of closure.

The reopening came as part of Israel's measures to ease the closure, which was imposed on the Gaza Strip and the West bank following the eruption of the violence almost four months ago.

Hundreds of Palestinians arrived at the airport in early morning to try to leave Gaza.

The development should help to ease the situation.

But any move towards peace must be tempered by the apparent shift to the right of the Israeli electorate with elections just weeks away.

Right wing protesters were on hunger strike in Jerusalem on Friday to protest against the talks with the Palestinians.

The demonstrators called on Prime Minister Ehud Barak to stop any negotiations until after the elections, on February 6.

Peace talks now are not acceptable, they said, especially whilst terrorist attacks are still continuing.

With opinion polls showing massive support for right wing Likud leader Ariel Sharon, who has publicly written off the Oslo accords, such views could soon become enshrined in government policy.

But that attitude is not shared by all Israelis.

Hundreds of drummers from all over the Jewish state gathered in Jerusalem on Friday in a prayer for peace.

The drummers, belonging to the "Drummers For Peace" group, gathered in an area overlooking the Wailing Wall and the Al-Aqsa mosque.

They gathered with other groups to show support for local, national and international peace.

SOUNDBITE: (English)

"We're trying our best, and we are excerpting maximum efforts, but to be realistic, with such issues, like Jerusalem, refugees, water, I think this issues require so many details, and require detailed maps. So I don't know if it's doable to talk about an agreement before 20th January."

SUPER CAPTION: Saeb Erekat, Chief Palestinian Negotiator

SOUNDBITE: (English)

"I hope that the contents of the conversation over the negotiations is about one single issue first, and this is a total ceasefire, a total end of violence. Only then, after the violence will drop down dramatically and finally we can resume the peace talks about the constructive solutions, what to be done between the two people."

SUPER CAPTION: Avraham Burg, Israeli chairman of the Knesset

Gaza City, Gaza Strip, Hebron and Ramallah, West Bank and Jerusalem, January 12, 2001

Hebron

1. Various, Israeli soldiers dragging dead man's body across pavement

2. Various of protesters throwing stones

3. Israeli soldiers throwing tear gas grenade

4. Various shots fires burning in street as Palestinians throw stones

Ramallah

5. Demonstration with people marching carrying banners

6. Protesters burning Israeli flag and stamping on it

7. Various of donkey being led through streets draped in Israeli flag and dressed as Jewish worshipper

8. Crowd with clouds of tear gas rising

9. Various of protesters thowing stones and tear gas rising

10. Injured man being loaded into ambulance

11. Ambulance pulling away

Gaza City

12. Set up shot Saeb Erekat, Palestinian top negotiator

13. Cutaway cameraman

14. SOUNDBITE (English) Saeb Erekat, Palestinian top negotiator

Municipality Square, Jerusalem

15. Wide shot of hunger strike tent

16. Various of meeting in hunger strike tent, with Avraham Burg seated

17. SOUNDBITE (English) Avraham Burg, Israeli chairman of the Knesset

Gaza City

18. Long shot Gaza airport

19. Various of passengers checking in for flights

20. Luggage on conveyor belt

21. Planes on runway

Jerusalem

22. Wide shot drummers and the Old City of Jerusalem

23. Close shot drummers drumming

24. Various of people dancing in circle

HEADLINE: Documents show Palestinian Jerusalem offer

CAPTION: Palestinians were prepared to compromise over two of the toughest issues, Jerusalem and refugees, during peace talks in 2008, the Al-Jazeera TV channel reported Sunday, quoting from documents it said came from the talks. (Jan. 24)

(nats of protests)

PROTESTORS BURN AN ISRAELI FLAG OUTSIDE THE WEST BANK OFFICES OF THE AL-JAZEERA TELEVISION NETWORK. THEY'RE UPSET FOLLOWING AL-JAZEERA REPORTS THAT PALESTINIAN OFFICIALS WERE READY TO COMPROMISE ON TWO KEY ISSUES WITH ISRAEL.

AL JAZEERA SAYS IT OBTAINED DOCUMENTS FROM 2008 PEACE TALKS. BUT THE CURRENT AND PAST CHIEF PALESTINIAN NEGOTIATORS SAY MANY PARTS OF THE DOCUMENTS WERE FAKED.

(Arabic/ Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian President:

"What is meant is to mix things up. I have seen what the TV channel broadcast, I say here expressly that we have nothing to hide. This is what all the Arab countries, altogether and unilaterally, know. In all our negotiations and meetings regarding any issue that we discuss, we submit it all to the Arab countries, backed up by documents. Thus things have been mixed up between Israeli proposals, which are various, and Palestinian positions, that happens intentionally and it is really shameful.")

PRESIDENT MAHMOUD ABBAS SAYS THE PALESTINIANS HAVE NOTHING TO HIDE. HE SAYS THE PALESTINIANS HAVE ADVISED OTHER ARAB NATIONS OF THEIR DEMANDS IN PEACE TALKS WITH ISRAEL. ABBAS GOES ON TO SAY THAT DETAILS OF THE ISRAELI PROPOSALS AND PALESTINIAN POSITIONS WERE MIXED UP.

AL-JAZEERA REPORTED THE PALESTINIANS OFFERED TO LET ISRAEL KEEP ALL BUT ONE JEWISH ENCLAVES IN EAST JERUSALEM. THE PALESTINIANS WANTED ISRAELI LAND IN RETURN. THE PALESTINIANS REPORTEDLY AGREED THAT ISRAEL WOULD TAKE 100-THOUSAND REFUGEES--DOWN FROM THE SEVERAL MILLION THAT PALESTINIANS SAY HAVE A RIGHT TO RETURN TO ISRAEL.

(Arabic/ Fawzi Barhoum, Hamas spokesman:

"This confirms that the Palestinian Authority is giving up the rights of the Palestinian people, especially their rights in Jerusalem. And this is a proof that the PA is misleading the public, therefore this scandal requires from Abu Mazen and Erekat to resign.")

THIS HAMAS SPOKESMAN SAYS THE AL JAZEERA REPORT CONFIRMS THAT THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY IS GIVING UP THE RIGHTS OF THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE. THE MILITANT HAMAS PARTY OPPOSES ABBAS' FATAH PARTY.

THEN ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER, EHUD OLMERT, HAS SAID HE OFFERED THE PALESTINIANS A STATE IN THE GAZA STRIP AND ABOUT 95 PERCENT OF THE WEST BANK, WITH TERRITORIAL SWAPS.

(sot: Arie Eldad, Israeli Knesset member)

"This is not a territorial conflict, in a territorial conflict you can solve by division of the land, partition of the land, but if the conflict is a religious war, ideological clash, you don't cure it by division of the land and that's the true nature of the conflict."

AL-JAZEERA CLAIMS IT HAS 16-HUNDRED LEAKED DOCUMENTS FROM PEACE TALKS OVER THE PAST DECADE. THE NETWORK SAYS THE REPORT IT AIRED SUNDAY WAS THE FIRST OF FOUR.

APTN STORY NUMBER: 673012

SHOTLIST:

AP TELEVISION NEWS

Ramallah, West Bank - 24 January 2011

++4:3++

1. Zoom out from Al-Jazeera bureau in Ramallah to protesters

2. Protesters burning Israeli flag with "Al-Jazeera" written inside it

3. Tilt up of graffiti on ground

++16:9++

4. Mid of lift inside Al-Jazeera office building with graffiti sprayed on it, pan to more graffiti with Star of David on wall

5. Tilt up from debris on ground to security officials inside hallway

6. Pan of broken glass on stairs

AP TELEVISON

Cairo, Egypt - 24 January, 2011

++16:9++

7. Wide of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, zoom in to Abbas, pan to Mubarak

8. Wide of Abbas arriving at news conference

9. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian President:

"What is meant is to mix things up. I have seen what the TV channel (Al-Jazeera) broadcast, I say here expressly that we have nothing to hide. This is what all the Arab countries, altogether and unilaterally, know. In all our negotiations and meetings regarding any issue that we discuss, we submit it all to the Arab countries, backed up by documents. Thus things have been mixed up between Israeli proposals, which are various, and Palestinian positions, that happens intentionally and it is really shameful."

10. Abbas leaving news conference

AP TELEVISION NEWS

Ramallah, West Bank - 24 January 2011

++16:9++

11. Mid of Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) Secretary-General Yasser Abd Rabbo entering room

12. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Yasser Abed Rabbo, Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) Secretary-General:

"Talks are talks and dialogue is dialogue, but don't get mixed up between this and the serious political positions, I don't want to go in all the media games that happened yesterday, to trick and mislead the simple citizen or to mislead the political experts because they well understand these tricks."

13. Wide of Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki

14. SOUNDBITE (English) Riad al-Malki, Palestinian Authority's Foreign Minister:

"I wonder what is really the purpose of this leak, the timing of it, and really the intensions."

AP TELEVISON

Gaza City, Gaza Strip - 24 January 2011

++16:9++

15. Set up shot of Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum

16. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Fawzi Barhoum, Hamas spokesman:

"This confirms that the Palestinian Authority is giving up the rights of the Palestinian people, especially their rights in Jerusalem. And this is a proof that the PA (Palestinian Authority) is misleading the public, therefore this scandal requires from Abu Mazen (Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas) and Erekat (the current chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat) to resign."

POOL

FILE: Annapolis, Maryland, US - 27 November 2007

++4:3++

17. Various of then US President George W Bush, Abbas and then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert standing together linking hands as Olmert and Abbas then shake hands at the US-hosted Middle East peace conference

AP TELEVISON

FILE: Jerusalem - 27 December 2007

++4:3++

18. Zoom out from Abbas and Olmert posing for photograph with then Israeli negotiator Tzipi Livni (far right) and then chief Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qureia

19. Various of meeting

AP TELEVISION NEWS

Jerusalem - 24 January 2011

20. Set up shot of Mahdi Abdul Hadi, founder and Head of the Palestinian Academic Society for the study of International Affairs

21. SOUNDBITE (English) Mahdi Abdul Hadi, Founder and Head of the Palestinian Academic Society for the study of International Affairs:

"I think this is the last bullet on the peace process and the negotiations. You will not find after this bullet Palestinian and Israelis sitting and negotiating."

AP TELEVISON

Jerusalem - 24 January, 2011

++16:9++

22. Set up shot of Israeli Knesset member for the National Union Alliance Aryeh Eldad

23. SOUNDBITE: (English) Aryeh Eldad, Israeli Knesset Member for the National Union Alliance:

"This is not a territorial conflict, in a territorial conflict you can solve by division of the land, partition of the land, but if the conflict is a religious war, ideological clash, you don't cure it by division of the land and that's the true nature of the conflict."

AP TELEVISION NEWS

Jerusalem - 24 January 2011

++16:9++

24. Wide of the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa mosque

25. Wide of Jerusalem's old city

AP TELEVISON

FILE - Sheik Jarrah, East Jerusalem - 25 March 2010

++4:3++

26. Sign reading "Sheik Jarrah"

27. Pull out from Israeli flag over house formerly occupied by Palestinians and now occupied by Jewish settlers

28. Palestinian woman in yard of another house

SHOTLIST:

Beit Hanoun, Gaza Strip

1. Zoom in on bulldozer knocking down house

2. Tank UPSOUND: gunfire

3. Bulldozer driving UPSOUND: gunfire

4. Women shouting at bulldozers to stop

5. Wide bulldozer and women, tear gas exploding

Near Jebaliya refugee camp, Gaza Strip

6. People running and ducking, horse riding past ambulance UPSOUND: gunfire

7. People ducking UPSOUND: gunfire

Near Jebaliya refugee camp, Gaza Strip

8. Injured man being put in back of ambulance UPSOUND: gunfire

Shifa hospital, Gaza Strip

9. Wounded man in hospital

10. Dead youth being carried on stretcher

Gaza City, Gaza Strip

11. Wide body of 22 year old Hamas militant being carried towards ambulance by funeral procession

12. Body being put in back of ambulance

13. Close up face of dead alleged Hamas militant

14. Funeral procession carrying body around corner

15. Body of 14 year old youth killed on Wednesday being carried along funeral procession

Ramallah, West Bank

16. Palestinian President Yasser Arafat meeting Canadian representative to the Palestinian authority, Ron Wilson

17. Arafat and Ron Wilson zoom in to Arafat, pan to Wilson pull out to both

18. Set up shot of Spokesman for Yasser Arafat, Nabil Abu Rdeineh

19. SOUNDBITE: (English) Nabil Abu Rdeineh, Yasser Arafat's spokesman

"This Israeli escalation in Gaza and the West Bank is a dangerous step by the Israeli government aiming to sabotage all the efforts carried out to safeguard the peace process. This continuous Israeli escalation is dangerous and we urge the quartet to stop this escalation."

Nablus, West Bank

20. Wide shot funeral procession for Majdi Halifa, a member of al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades

21. Close up Halifa's body being carried

23. Various wide shots funeral procession for Halifa

24. Gunman firing into the air

25. Wide shot procession for Halifa

Jenin, West Bank

26. Rubble and debris from demolition

27. Palestinians walking through rubble

28. Boy walking through rubble

29. High shot boy walking through rubble

30. Palestinian boys running

31. Objects being thrown at Israeli tanks

32. Tanks driving through city

STORYLINE

A large force of Israeli tanks, armoured vehicles and troops pushed into northern Gaza in an overnight raid aimed at rooting out militants who have fired rockets against nearby Israeli towns.

The incursion, which continued on Wednesday, killed at least three Palestinians, Palestinian sources said.

About 110 Israeli vehicles swarmed throughout a swath of northern Gaza that militants have allegedly used as a staging ground for rocket attacks on Israel in recent days, witnesses said.

In the town of Beit Hanoun, troops sealed off roads and bulldozers were seen destroying houses.

Militants engaged in clashes with Israeli troops in northern Gaza, who fired shells and machine guns from tanks and helicopters.

Overnight, Palestinian gunmen took up positions to fight the Israelis, witnesses said.

A 22-year-old Hamas militant, Tawfik Ali Charafi, was killed during the clashes with Israeli forces, near the Jebaliya refugee camp, they said.

Early on Wednesday, two other Palestinians, both wearing school uniforms, were shot and killed by Israeli forces near the camp, Palestinians said.

They said 10 other Palestinians aged 12 to 21 had been wounded by Israeli forces after they threw stones at Israeli jeeps and armoured vehicles.

Funerals for Charafi and the other dead Palestinians were later held in Gaza city.

The Israeli military said it launched an airstrike against three alleged militants preparing to launch a rocket from an area east Jebaliya later on Wednesday.

At least one of the militants was hit, the Israeli military said.

Elsewhere, the Israeli army demolished a home believed to be that of Zakariye Zubeydi, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades leader in the West Bank town of Jenin.

Zakariye Zubeydi was not arrested, but officials did detain a man thought to be his aide, witnesses said.

While tanks were in the city, children ran after them throwing stones.

Meanwhile hundreds of Palestinians attended the funeral for Majdi Haifa, a member of al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

Haifa was killed early on Wednesday as he fled Israeli troops who had come to arrest him, the army said.

Speaking in Ramallah, Arafat's spokesman Abu Rdeineh condemned the Gaza incursion and the escalation of violence throughout Gaza and the West Bank.

He called members of the Quartet - the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations - to help stop the violence in order to safeguard the peace process.

SHOTLIST:

Rafah, Gaza Strip - 4 Feb 2002

1. Various shots of men gathered around destroyed car

2. Various parts of car

3. Ambulance standing by

4. Various shots of people collecting body parts from around the car

5. Various shots of surgeons operating on wounded man at hospital in Khan Yunis

Essaweya, East Jerusalem

6. Wide shot of bulldozers inside village

7. Israeli soldiers escorting the bulldozers

8. Palestinians on hillside looking at demolished house

9. Various demolished house, pan to woman standing crying among ruins

10. Israeli border police and Palestinians at ruins

11. Long shot of Palestinians, pan to police on road firing teargas

12. Patrol of Israeli soldiers

Jerusalem

13. Walking shot Danny Ayalon

14. SOUNDBITE: (English) Danny Ayalon, Prime Ministerial foreign policy advisor:

"Last night in Gaza a bomb factory -- a mortar factory -- was hit. This was an action of self-defence. Israel has the right, indeed the duty, for self-defence since the palestinians keep the terror. We have the mortars, which is an indiscriminate killer on our community. The terror continues and where the palestinians -- Arafat -- do not prevent it, as they have to by all the agreements and commitments, we must do it."

15. Walking shot Danny Ayalon

STORYLINE:

Four Palestinians were killed Monday in an explosion in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian doctors and witnesses said.

The dead men were discovered in a burned-out car about 600 meters (yards) from the Sufa crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip, near the town of Rafah.

The dead men were not immediately identified. A fifth man, who was badly wounded, was taken to Nasser Hospital in the nearby town of Khan Yunis.

A Palestinian farmer from the area said he heard an explosion near his land. He said that he found a completely destroyed car, and human body parts were spread about 10 meters (yards) around the car.

Kalashnikov assault rifles were reportedly found near the vehicle.

The Israeli military said it was checking the report.

In East Jerusalem, Israeli bulldozers demolished two Palestinian houses in the Palestinian neighborhood of Essaweya.

Israel said the homes were demolished because the owners failed to get the proper permits to build them.

Israeli border police and soldiers fired tear gas to disperse the crowd as the demolition took place.

Israel has defended an rocket attack earlier on Monday, in which a goldsmith's workshop in just north of Gaza City was destroyed.

Israel claims the workshop was illegally manufacturing mortar bombs.

Danny Alayon, a foreign policy advisor to Prime Minister Arial Sharon, said Israel had a right and a duty to defend itself because the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had failed to prevent terrorism in the Palestinian territories.

SHOTLIST:

Rafah, Gaza Strip - 4 Feb 2002

1. Various shots of men gathered around destroyed car

2. Various parts of car

3. Ambulance standing by

4. Various shots of people collecting body parts from around the car

5. Various shots of surgeons operating on wounded man at hospital in Khan Yunis

Essaweya, East Jerusalem

6. Wide shot of bulldozers inside village

7. Israeli soldiers escorting the bulldozers

8. Palestinians on hillside looking at demolished house

9. Various demolished house, pan to woman standing crying among ruins

10. Israeli border police and Palestinians at ruins

11. Long shot of Palestinians, pan to police on road firing teargas

12. Patrol of Israeli soldiers

Jerusalem

13. Walking shot Danny Ayalon

14. SOUNDBITE: (English) Danny Ayalon, Prime Ministerial foreign policy advisor:

"Last night in Gaza a bomb factory -- a mortar factory -- was hit. This was an action of self-defence. Israel has the right, indeed the duty, for self-defence since the palestinians keep the terror. We have the mortars, which is an indiscriminate killer on our community. The terror continues and where the palestinians -- Arafat -- do not prevent it, as they have to by all the agreements and commitments, we must do it."

15. Walking shot Danny Ayalon

STORYLINE:

Four Palestinians were killed Monday in an explosion in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian doctors and witnesses said.

The dead men were discovered in a burned-out car about 600 meters (yards) from the Sufa crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip, near the town of Rafah.

The dead men were not immediately identified. A fifth man, who was badly wounded, was taken to Nasser Hospital in the nearby town of Khan Yunis.

A Palestinian farmer from the area said he heard an explosion near his land. He said that he found a completely destroyed car, and human body parts were spread about 10 meters (yards) around the car.

Kalashnikov assault rifles were reportedly found near the vehicle.

The Israeli military said it was checking the report.

In East Jerusalem, Israeli bulldozers demolished two Palestinian houses in the Palestinian neighborhood of Essaweya.

Israel said the homes were demolished because the owners failed to get the proper permits to build them.

Israeli border police and soldiers fired tear gas to disperse the crowd as the demolition took place.

Israel has defended an rocket attack earlier on Monday, in which a goldsmith's workshop in just north of Gaza City was destroyed.

Israel claims the workshop was illegally manufacturing mortar bombs.

Danny Alayon, a foreign policy advisor to Prime Minister Arial Sharon, said Israel had a right and a duty to defend itself because the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had failed to prevent terrorism in the Palestinian territories.

Arabic/Nat

XFA

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said on Thursday that he hopes the peace talks with Israel will continue and an agreement will be achieved between the two sides.

Arafat spoke after returning to Gaza from Cairo, where he met yesterday with Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben Ami.

Ben-Ami was already in Cairo Wednesday when Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak suggested that he see Arafat there.

Arafat flew to Cairo and they met there for two hours.

Both sides said after the meeting that they were considering the prospects of reaching a new agreement.

The Palestinians, disappointed by American President Bill Clinton's proposal, are still hoping to hear new ideas from the Israelis.

Martin Indyk, the U-S ambassador in Israel, expressed his disappointment on Thursday regarding the Palestinian reaction to the American proposal.

Speaking to reporters in Jerusalem, Indyk called it a shame that Palestinian leaders and spokesmen have not been able to stand before their people and ask them to stop the violence.

Indyk said that the Americans expected Arafat to try to convince his people that even though he understands their anger, the peace proposal served their interests and met their objectives in the peace process.

Meanwhile, in the West Bank City of Bethlehem, Palestinians held a march in support of the executing of fellow Palestinians suspected of collaborating with Israel.

Dozens of armed and masked Fatah members led the march that started at Manger Square in the city.

The marchers chanted "Death to Collaborators" and called on the Palestinian authority to execute all Palestinians held in prisons for collaborating with Israel.

At least six Palestinians have been killed as suspected collaborators, two of them were executed by Palestinian police.

In Balata refugee camp, near Nablus, hundreds of Palestinians held a rally to protest the idea of resettling Palestinian refugees in foreign countries such as Canada and Australia.

Masked men marched in the streets of the refugee camp, shooting in the air and chanting against the settling of refugees outside Israel.

The issue of the Palestinian refugees is one of the main key issues in the Palestinian Israeli ongoing conflict.

Clinton's proposals suggested that the Palestinians receive sovereignty over Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem, as well as a disputed holy site sacred to both Muslims and Jews, where the Al Aqsa Mosque compound sits atop the ruins of the biblical Jewish Temples.

In return, the Palestinians would scale back their demand that all refugees and their descendants, about 4 million people, have the right to move back to their old homes in Israel, a country of 5 million Jews.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak has said he would never agree to the "right of return" for the Palestinian refugees.

Paying the ultimate tribute, Yasser Arafat helped carry the coffin of his protege, the Palestinian TV chief, Hisham Mikki, who was gunned down by masked men in a Gaza City hotel.

The Palestinian Authority said in a statement that Mikki was a "martyr" and that he was killed by traitors and collaborators - language that would suggest an Israeli role.

But in a leaflet sent to news agencies in Jerusalem, a group calling itself the Brigade of Al Aqsa Martyrs claimed responsibility for the killing.

"The failure (of Arafat) ... to punish corrupt people has forced us to carry out the assassination of Hisham Mikki," the leaflet said.

On Wednesday night, Arafat had a surprise meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami in Cairo.

Speaking for the first time since his surprise meeting, Arafat told reporters the two sides had agreed to talk further and return to Taba an Egyptian resort on the border with Israel, where negotiations that led to the second interim peace accord of 1995 took place.

The first Israeli-Palestinian agreement was in 1993.

SOUNDBITE: (Arabic)

"Of course we're still committed to what we agreed in Sharm El Sheik. And we hope that the Israeli side would also keep the same commitment which is the full strict implementation of the agreements of Sharm El Sheik one and two."

SUPER CAPTION: Yasser Arafat, Palestinian Leader

SOUNDBITE: (English)

"Its a shame that Palestinian leaders and spokesmen have not been able to stand in front of their people and say - wait a minute, we understand your anger, but something has been proposed here that serves Palestinian interest and meets Palestinian objectives in the peace process"

SUPER CAPTION: Martin Indyk, US ambassador in Israel

SOUNDBITE: (Arabic)

"Even if my brother was a traitor, I wouldn't spare his life. I would kill him myself. Traitors don't only harm their own families, they harm the whole nation. That's why they should be executed."

SUPER CAPTION: Vox Pop

SOUNDBITE: (Arabic)

"We agreed to continue the negotiations which we agreed upon and we suggested to Ben Ami to return one more time, for instance, to Taba where we were able, if you remember, to reach important solutions with (former Israeli Prime Minister) Rabin and Peres and he said he would think about it. Meanwhile we told them that the efforts should continue to reach the implementation of what was agreed upon in Sharm el Sheikh One and Sharm el Sheikh Two."

SUPER CAPTION: Yasser Arafat, Palestinian Leader

Various, Israel and Palestinian territories and Cairo, Egypt - 18 January, 2001Gaza 1. Long shot of Yasser Arafat's convoy - Arafat approaching reporters 2. Arafat and followers marching3. Camera man4. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Yasser Arafat, Palestinian Leader Jerusalem 5. Long shot of Martin Indyk entering room 6. Cutaway 7. SOUNDBITE: (English) Martin Indyk, US ambassador in IsraelBalata, near Nablus 8. Long shot of Palestinian rally 9. Various of protesters burning effigy of John Manley, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister 10. Close up of placard11. Masked men shoot guns in airBethlehem 13. Wide shot of march14. Close up on armed masked men15. Back shot of armed men16. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Vox Pop17. Wide shot of men with guns in airGaza18. Various of Arafat at funeral of head of Palestinian Television Hisham MikkiCairo - Mute 19. Meeting between Yasser Arafat and Hosni Mubarak 20. Arafat walks to podium22. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Yasser Arafat, Palestinian LeaderJerusalem - File21. Aerial shot of Jerusalem

SHOTLIST:

Beirut

1. Exterior of hotel where security meeting is being held

2. Police outside venue

3. Mid shot of police

4. Various of ministers arriving

5. Various of opening session

6. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Nayef Ben Abdel Aziz, Saudi Interior minister:

"The fight against terrorism requires constant consultation and coordination between countries. What must not be forgotten is the distinction between terrorism and legal struggle in defence of land."

7. Cutaway

8. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Nayef Ben Abdel Aziz, Saudi Interior minister:

"We are following what's happening in the Palestinian occupied territories - the horrible and anti-human acts of Israeli terrorism against the unarmed Palestinian people. The Israeli war machine kills fathers, throws women out of their homes, destroys houses and kills innocent civilians while the whole world stands by and watches. This makes us wonder - if the Israeli acts aren't terrorism - what is terrorism?"

9. Various of people attending summit

10. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Elias Murr, Lebanese Interior minister:

"How can we make peace in the region when Israel is exercising the worst kind of terrorism - bloodshed, terrorizing innocents and terrorizing the minds. Killing innocent women and children. The Israeli government is killing Arab civilians, destroying people's houses and occupying Arab land. It destroys whatever it wants wherever it wants."

11. Various of meeting

12. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Ahmed Saeed Tamimi, Palestinian vice Interior minister:

"It isn't strange that the Israeli's hinder (Palestinian Interior minister) Freiha Abu Mideen from attending the summit because they are even keeping Abu Amar (Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat) prisoner. So it is not strange because, if they refuse the leader of the Palestinians free movement, they can do anything. These are typical Israeli acts and this is how the Israeli government deals with the Palestinians."

13. Cutaway press

14. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Ahmed Saeed Tamimi, Palestinian vice Interior minister:

"This meeting must - there is a need - provide stability in the region."

Ein El Helweh, Southern Lebanon

15. Various Palestinian protest in Ein El Helweh Palestinian camp

16. Palestinian refugees holding anti-Sharon banners

17. Pan of protest

STORYLINE:

Arab interior ministers met in Beirut on Tuesday for the annual Arab League Summit - where they are due to discuss a range of issues from regional security policy, drug trafficking and the fight against terrorism.

But the first day of the meeting showed the difficulties in defining terrorism - as ministers from Saudi Arabia and Lebanon criticised Israeli government actions against the Palestinians.

At the opening session, the Saudi Interior minister questioned why Israeli actions in the occupied territories aren't considered terrorism.

Nayef Ben Abdel Aziz added: "The whole world stands by and watches."

His comments were re-iterated by the Lebanese Interior Minister, Elias Murr.

Murr said a peace agreement could not be reached between Israel and the Palestinians, because "Israel is exercising the worst kind of terrorism - bloodshed, terrorizing innocents and terrorizing people's minds."

Delegates from 17 Arab countries are attending the meeting.

Meanwhile in Ein El Helweh Palestinian camp - the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon - Palestinians called on the Arab interior ministers meeting in Beirut to stop Israeli aggression.

SHOTLIST:

Ramallah, West Bank - 16 Mar 2002

1. Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat outside of Yasser Arafat's headquarters

2. US envoy Anthony Zinni's convoy arrives

3. Security officer standing outside of headquarters

3. Zinni shaking hands with Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat

4. Cameramen outside of headquarters

Ramallah, West Bank - 16 Mar 2002

5. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat enters room and shakes hands with US Envoy Anthony Zinni

6. Exterior of headquarters with cameramen

7. Various of Erekat and Palestinian negotiators sitting with Zinni

8. Security standing outside of headquarters

Ramallah, West Bank - 16 March 2002

12. Saeb Erekat emerges from Yasser Arafat's Palestinian headquarters

13. SOUNDBITE (English) Saeb Erekat, Senior Palestinian negotiator:

"Let me say that General Zinni is exerting every possible effort. At this stage, he is pursuing bilateral Israeli-American talks with bilateral Palestinian-Israeli talks. Our understanding is that he wants to proceed with to tracks - two parallel tracks, one political, one security. Because here we have to have the linkage between Tenet and Mitchell on the political horizon - meaning ending Israeli occupation. We need during the implementation of Tenet and Mitchell to have a time-line, mechanisms with monitors on the ground. It's premature to jump to conclusions at this stage. We are having in-depth talks with General Zinni. He is exerting maximum efforts with both sides and we hope that above anything else, the Israeli army will complete the withdrawal from all areas re-occupied - especially in area 'S'."

14. Erekat leaves building and gets into car

Tel Aviv, Israel - 16 Mar 2002

15. Shimon Peres enters hall

16. Wide shot of Peres speaking

17. SOUNDBITE (English) Shimon Peres, Israeli Foreign Minister:

"We don't want to harass, clearly not to end, the existence and the functions of the Palestinian Authority and its elected chairman. And we are taking the whole opportunity as seriously and profoundly as we may."

Ramallah, West Bank - 16 Mar 2002

Night shots

18. Arafat walking through the streets of al-Amari refugee camp

19. Various of Arafat comforting grieving relatives

20. Arafat being greeted by supporters

STORYLINE:

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office has moved to retract an announcement that Sharon would meet Palestinian leaders on Sunday with the intention of declaring a cease-fire.

The surprise announcement came after the US peace envoy Anthony Zinni held separate meetings with Sharon and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

But an hour later Sharon's office said in a second statement that it had only agreed Zinni would continue with his efforts to cement a cesaefire.

Zinni shuttled between the Palestinian and Israeli leaders on Saturday, trying to bring the two sides together for face-to-face talks on a cease-fire that would halt nearly 18 months of Mideast violence.

Zinni met Yasser Arafat at his West Bank headquarters in the town of Ramallah, and then held five hours of talks with the Palestinian leader's top aides including Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat.

Erekat said that General Zinni was exerting maximum efforts with both sides.

Arafat was cheered on by crowds of supporters as he left his West Bank residence on a rare excursion out of his headquarters on Saturday evening.

Arafat visited al-Amari refugee camp where he comforted the relatives of many of those killed during the latest Israeli incursions into Ramallah.

SHOTLIST:

Al Askar refugee camp, near Nablus, West Bank

1. Various of destroyed house of Ali Azuri, accused of orchestrating Wednesday's suicide attacks in Tel Aviv (Ali Azuri's father and three brothers are arrested)

2. People picking through rubble of Azuri family house

3. Two female members of Azuri family sitting together

4. Closeup photo of Ali Azuri

5. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Ali Azuri's mother (no name given):

"Q: What will happen if your family are deported to Gaza?

A: They (Israeli authorities) can do anything they want, they are demolishing homes and deporting whoever they want, nobody is stopping them. But if they do deport them who will look after their families?"

Balata refugee camp, near Nablus, West Bank

6. Street scene

7. Exterior home of Ibrahim Najie, one of the Tel Aviv suicide bombers (member of previously unheard of Al-Nazir group, affiliated with Fatah)

8. Various of Najie's family members

9. Closeup photo of Najie

10. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Najie's uncle (no name given):

"No one has told is us officially that he carried out the bombing- we just heard it on the new."

Jericho, West Bank

11. Set up shot Saeb Erekat, chief Palestinian negotiator

12. SOUNDBITE: (English) Saeb Erekat, chief Palestinian negotiator:

"The collective punishment of demolishing homes and then deporting families from their place of residence to other areas. This is a war crime. This is unacceptable. The international community must stop Israeli war crimes against the innocent Palestinian civilian population."

Jerusalem

13. Various security and police at bus stops and road blocks

STORYLINE:

Israeli troops have demolished the family homes of two men said to be the commanders of terror cells that carried out attacks on Israeli citizens earlier this week.

The male family members in each house - 16 in total - were detained, and Israel says it wants to deport them to the Gaza Strip.

The arrests took place in the early hours of Friday morning.

In the Al-Askar refugee camp in Nablus, soldiers destroyed the house of a leader of the Fatah-linked Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades militia, Ali Ajouri, 23, badly damaging several nearby houses, residents said.

They arrested Ajouri's father and two brothers but Ajouri himself was not captured.

And in the village of Tel, south of Nablus, soldiers destroyed the house of Nasser Aseida, 26, leader of the Hamas military wing, suspected of organizing the bus ambush in the Jewish settlement of Emmanuel.

Palestinian officials condemned the arrests. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat described the Israeli military's actions as 'war crimes.'

Elsewhere in Nablus, two other families were celebrating the deaths of the suicide bombers who carried out the attacks in Tel Aviv.

Mohammed Attala, 18, and Ibrahim Najie, 19 came from the Balata refugee camp and belonged to a previously unheard of group, Al-Nazir.

The group is affiliated with Fatah, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's movement.

SHOTLIST:

Bethlehem

1. Bethlehem skyline

2. Soldiers carrying body away from church on stretcher

3. Squad of soldiers climbing steps

4. Palestinian negotiating team get out of white car in front of church

Ramallah

5. Various of Palestinian cabinet ministers at table in meeting

6. Wide shot of Palestinian demonstrators marching along road

7. Palestinians chanting anti-Israel slogans

8. Palestinians and press run away from Israeli position, gunshot is heard

9. Palestinian youths throwing rocks

10. Wide shot, tear gas cannister lands between Israeli checkpoint and Palestinians

11. Various of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat with supporters

12. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat kneeling for prayers

13. Exterior Arafat headquarters, zoom into Arafat with Japanese delegation, pointing to show them damage

14. Rubble and destruction

15. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Yasser Arafat, Palestinian leader:

"They talk about peace and then they come and attack on a daily basis against Palestinian people, against Palestinian cities, Palestinian refugee camps, Palestinian organisations, because the military operation is still going on."

16. SOUNDBITE (English) Yasser Abed Rabbo, Palestinian Minister of Information:

"The decision of the security council to postpone sending the investigation committee is a real setback. We believe this will affect the credibility of the United Nations and it will encourage the Israelis to continue their attacks against Palestinian cities, towns, villages, populated areas in general."

Jenin

17. Wide shot of damage, Palestinian flags flying on damaged buildings

18. Various of residents in make shift tents

19. SOUNDBITE (English) Peter Bouckaert, Human Rights Watch:

"Well, our report found that the Israeli army committed extremely serious violations of the laws of war in Jenin. We did not find any evidence to support Palestinian claims that hundreds of people were killed in the Jenin refugee camp. But, certainly, extremely grave violations took place, including some possible war crimes."

20. Wall with graffiti in English reading: "Israeli crimes should be stopped"

STORYLINE:

A Palestinian negotiating team refused to enter the Church of the Nativity on Friday after Israeli security officials demanded they bring out with them a list of those still inside.

One wounded man was carried out of the church by monks and taken away by Israeli troops for treatment and questioning.

As the stand-off at the Bethlehem church continued, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat celebrated the end of his month-long confinement in his Ramallah headquarters and summoned his cabinet Friday to discuss the fate of two senior officials imprisoned as part of the deal to secure Arafat's own release.

Arafat held Friday prayers at his headquarters and greeted crowds of cheering supporters who had gathered at his compound hoping to see the Palestinian leader.

Meanwhile Palestinians protesters clashed with Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Ramallah, following the end Muslim prayers on Friday.

In Jenin, US-based Human Rights Watch said Israeli troops who battled their way through the refugee camp last month may have committed war crimes, but there was no evidence to support Palestinian claims of a massacre.

Sitting amid their destroyed homes, the residents of Jenin refugee camp condemned the United Nations for its decision to disband the committee that was supposed to determine what happened in the camp.

SHOTLIST:

1. Crowd standing by damaged buildings

2. Man sitting on rubble

3. People amongst rubble

4. People watching building being taken down

5. European MEPs walking through wrecked streets

6. European MEPs looking at buildings

7. European MEPs walking

8. SOUNDBITE: (English) Francis Wurtz, French MEP, Chairman of Delegation

"War crime, it's a war crime. I think it's not possible to be without reaction. We will explain that tomorrow in the European Parliament in Brussels, with the participation of Mr Solana and Commissioner Patten, and every member of the European Parliament. We will explain what we have seen."

9. Various, European MEPs walking

10. SOUNDBITE: (English) Ray Perry, British MEP

"It's a scene of real devastation isn't it, horrific to see that this has happened. And it's clearly not just shooting, it's systematic destruction of this place."

11. Various, rubble being cleared

12. Pan to human remains

13. Man looking on

14. Remains being sealed in bag

15. Various, people looking on

16. Various, man on pile of rubble examining debris

17. Tilt down to people digging in rubble

STORYLINE:

A delegation of European parliamentarians toured Jenin refugee camp on Tuesday in advance of an anticipated UN fact-finding mission.

The parliamentarians, from both the left and the right, represented ten countries and nine different parties in the European Parliament.

The group, with members from Great Britain, Ireland, The Netherlands, Greece, Sweden, Spain, Denmark, Germany, France and Italy, spent most of the day touring the camp and talking to residents.

They saw diggers knocking down damaged and unsafe buildings and while there witnessed the body of a young child being dug from the rubble.

The head of the delegation described what had taken place in Jenin as a "war crime".

A colleague, clearly shocked by what he had seen, said that it was a scene of devastation and described what he had witnessed as "horrific".

The UN Security Council on Friday approved a fact-finding mission to Jenin, site of some of the fiercest fighting of Israel's three-week-old offensive in the West Bank.

Palestinians and Arab leaders have accused Israel of a massacre of civilians in the camp, but Israel says the deaths and destruction resulted from gun battles between its soldiers and Palestinian gunmen.

VOICED BY EMILY MORGAN

SHOTLIST:

APTN

Jenin - April 11 2002

0000 Pull out from rubble on the ground to demolished houses in refugee camp

0006 Mid shot demolished houses

0009 Mid shot rubble

0012 Israeli troops

0014 Armoured vehicle

0021 Demolished house and pan to people looking at it

APTN

Jerusalem - April 12 2002

0026 SOUNDBITE (English) Ziad Abu Zayaad, Palestinian Minister:

"It's obvious that there was an awful massacre in Jenin refugee camp. Israel was considering how to hide this - the Israeli army suggested to delay the withdrawal in order to be given more time to hide it and they were considering yesterday the burial yesterday of many of the people killed in Jenin, to be buried inside Israel and to hide this crime.

0039 SOUNDBITE (English) Moshe Fogel, Israeli Defence Force (IDF) spokesperson

"The Palestinians are experts in the big lie - they assume that if you say something absurd enough times then people will believe it. Quite to the contrary we paid a very high price with the lives of our Israeli soldiers when we went in to try and ferret out terrorists from the civilians.

0059 Powell and Sharon shaking hands

0108 Sharon speaking at presser

UNTV

Geneva - April 12 2002

0115 Kofi Annan walking

0118 Cutaway press

0121 SOUNDBITE: (English) Kofi Annan, United Nations secretary-general

"The situation is so dangerous and the humanitarian and human rights situation so appalling. In fact, you heard me say that this morning that I think the proposition that a force should be sent in there to create a secure environment - and as well as provide space for diplomatic and other negotiations - can no longer be deferred."

APTN

Jenin - April 11 2002

0148 Woman walking in Jenin refugee camp

0153 Israeli troops

0159 VISION ENDS

STORYLINE

Against a backdrop of another suicide bombing in Jerusalem that killed at least six people - and a refusal by the Israeli prime minister to commit to a timetable of withdrawal from Palestinian territories - the US Secretary of State's peace mission got underway on Friday.

As residents of Jerusalem mourn the victims of the latest attack, there's increasing international concern over allegations of widespread human rights abuses by the Israeli army in Jenin refugee camp.

VOICE-OVER:

0003 This is Jenin refugee camp - scene of the deadliest fighting in Israel's two-week offensive.

0010 The Israeli army has announced that it plans to bury Palestinians killed in the camp during its military operations.

0017 The army says the dead are gunmen - but Palestinians say hundreds of civilians have been killed, and Israel is trying to hide the bodies.

0026 SOUNDBITE: (English) Palestinian Minister, Ziad Abu Zayaad:

"It's obvious that there was an awful massacre in Jenin refugee camp. Israel was considering how to hide this crime - the Israeli army suggested to delay the withdrawal in order to be given more time to hide their crime."

0039 SOUNDBITE (English) Moshe Fogel, Israeli Defence Force (IDF) spokesperson:

"The Palestinians are experts at the big lie - they assume that if you say something absurd enough times then people will believe it. Quite to the contrary we paid a very high price with the lives of our Israeli soldiers when we went in to try and ferret out the terrorists from the civilians."

0059 As Israel continues its military operation around Jenin, the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell met with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

0108 But speaking at a press conference after their meeting, Sharon refused to commit to a timetable for withdrawal.

0115 There is now growing worldwide pressure for an international protection force.

0120 SOUNDBITE (English) Kofi Annan, United Nations secretary-general

"The situation is so dangerous and the humanitarian and human rights situation so appalling. In fact, you heard me say that this morning that I think the proposition that a force should be sent in there to create a secure environment - and as well as provide space for diplomatic and other negotiations - can no longer be deferred."

0148 But for the moment, those left in Jenin are trying to pick up the pieces - with Israeli troops surrounding their homes.

0156 SOUND ENDS

0158 VISION ENDS

SHOTLIST:

Al Askar refugee camp, near Nablus, West Bank

1. Men outside destroyed house of Ali Azuri, accused of orchestrating Wednesday's suicide attacks in Tel Aviv (Ali Azuri's father and three brothers are arrested)

2. Damaged building

3. Man picking his way through rubble of Azuri family house

4. Smoking rubble, pull out to show people looking at damage

5. Two female members of Azuri family sitting together

6. Close up photo Ali Azuri

7. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Ali Azuri's mother (no name given):

(answering question about what would happen if those arrested from her family are deported to Gaza)

"They (Israeli authorities) can do anything they want, they are demolishing homes and deporting whoever they want - nobody is stopping them. But if they do deport them who will look after their families?"

Balata refugee camp, near Nablus, West Bank

8. Exterior home of Ibrahim Najie, one of the Tel Aviv suicide bombers (member of previously unheard of Al-Nazir group, affiliated with Fatah)

9. Family members

10. Closeup photo of Najie

11. Family sat around

Jericho, West Bank

12. Saeb Erekat, chief Palestinian negotiator, meeting people round table

13. SOUNDBITE: (English) Saeb Erekat, chief Palestinian negotiator:

"The collective punishment of demolishing homes and then deporting families from their place of residence to other areas. This is a war crime. This is unacceptable. The international community must stop Israeli war crimes against the innocent Palestinian civilian population."

Jerusalem

14. Various security and police at bus stops and road blocks

15. SOUNDBITE: (English) Daniel Taub, Israeli Foreign Ministry Official

"We've seen mothers appearing in videos made by suicide bombers before they go out to commit their atrocities. We've seen families of suicide bombers afterwards expressing the wish that their other children will follow suit, and we know that these families are receiving cheques of 25-thousand dollars from the government of Iraq, as basically bribery to commit mass murder. We have to try and break this cycle, we have to try and provide a deterrent."

16. Various security on streets of Jerusalem

STORYLINE:

Israeli soldiers destroyed houses of two Palestinians suspected in two bloody terror attacks this week and arrested 16 male relatives early Friday morning.

Israel Radio reported that the fathers and brothers are to be expelled to the Gaza Strip, reflecting new, harsh Israeli measures.

In the Askar refugee camp, soldiers destroyed the house of a leader of the Fatah-linked Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades militia, Ali Azuri, 23, badly damaging several nearby houses, residents said.

They claimed soldiers arrested Azuri's father and two brothers, but Azuri was not captured.

In Tel, near Nablus, soldiers destroyed the house of Nasser Aseida, 26, leader of the Hamas military wing, suspected of organising the bus ambush.

Israeli soldiers also went to the home of Ibrahim Najie, 19, in Balata refugee camp.

Ibrahim Najie was identified by a previously unheard of group called Al-Nazir, of being one of the suicide bombers in Tel Aviv.

Al-Nazir, or the warning, is reportedly a new group affiliated with Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement.

A relative, Abdel Nasser Najie, said Ibrahim Najie used to work in Israel.

He said Najie left for Israel several days ago, and the family lost connection with him. He said if relatives had known he was going to carry out a suicide attack, "we would have stopped him."

Palestinian officials say Israel's threat to deport suspects from the West Bank to Gaza is unlawful and are calling on the international community to prevent it.

But Israeli foreign ministry official Daniel Taub said Israel had to find a means of deterring people from carrying out terror attacks.

Taub claimed that Palestinian families often received financial incentives to send their sons and daughters on suicide missions, and that Palestinian mothers regularly speak about how proud they are to have lost their children in this way.

SHOTLIST:

Rafah, Gaza strip,

1. Wide shot of people in the street

2. Civilians and gunmen in an alley (gun shot audio)

3. Bullets ricocheting off upper levels of apartments

4. Gunmen walking through the alleys

5. Women trying to get out of their house waiving a white shirt of a stick

6. Woman ducking as a shot is heard and returning into the house

7. Wide shot of ally (heavy gunfire audio)

8. Palestinian gunmen lying on the floor looking around a corner

9. People evacuating belongings as gunmen barge passed them

10. Gunmen in alley

Ramallah, West Bank

11. Exterior of Palestinian Leader Yasser Arafat's compound

12. Russian ambassador to the Occupied Territories arriving

13. Yasser Arafat seated with the ambassador Serje Bifcov

Gaza City, Gaza

14. Various wide shots of demonstration

15. Various of man on roof with Palestinian flag

16. Wideshot of march

17. Little boy on father's shoulders

18. Wideshot of march

19. Hamas flag

Rafah, Gaza

20. Body wrapped in green Hamas flags surrounded by mourners

21. Body wrapped in a Palestinian flag being carried by crowd

22. Various of mourners running in the street carrying body on stretcher

23. Wide shot of funeral

STORYLINE:

Israel's military battled Palestinian gunmen for the second day in the Rafah refugee camp on Saturday and searched for tunnels allegedly used to smuggle weapons and drugs into Gaza underneath the border with Egypt.

One Palestinian was killed bringing the death toll since the incursion began on Thursday to eight.

More than 60 people have been wounded.

The raid, the biggest in Gaza in nearly half a year, could signal a new approach to dealing with Palestinian refugee camps.

In the past, Israeli troops would conduct only rapid raids to try to minimize the risk - this time they might stay for several days.

The raid was part of stepped up military activity following last weekend's suicide bombing that killed 20 Israelis in a restaurant in the port city of Haifa.

The army said troops uncovered and blew up three weapons smuggling tunnels during the operation.

In Ramallah, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat met with the Russian ambassador Serje Bifcov, after meetings with his prime minister and officials from his Fatah faction to try to resolve a political dispute over a new Cabinet.

The wrangling has held up parliamentary approval of the new government, leveling a major blow to Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia, whose success is crucial to efforts to salvage the U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan.

In Gaza, hundreds of Palestinians marched to show solidarity with residents of the Rafah refugee camp.

Earlier, in Rafah, hundreds of mourners packed the streets of Rafah refugee camp for the funeral of three Palestinians killed during an Israeli military operation.

The three men were among seven Palestinians killed on Friday.

Two children were also killed, caught in the crossfire when Israeli troops moved into the camp to search for weapons smuggling tunnels between Egypt and Gaza.

Armed gunmen were also among the crowd of mourners on Saturday, firing in the air and calling for revenge.

VOICED BY: LOUISE BATES

SHOTLIST:

West Bank

00 00 Various shots of investigators examining the wreck of the car

Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital, Jerusalem

00 09 Injured woman being wheeled into hospital

00 16 "Emergency Room" sign

00 19 Injured woman being wheeled inside hospital

Tel Aviv

00 24 SOUNDBITE: (English) Silvan Shalom, Israeli Foreign Minister:

"I think the time has come for Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian Prime Minister) and his government to take this strategic decision to dismantle the infrastructure of the terrorist organisation, and the sooner the better."

Jenin

00 37 Sound of gunfire and Palestinian protesters throwing stones

00 42 Gunfire hitting wall of building

00 48 Various of protesters throwing stones at Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles

Beit Hanoun, Gaza Strip

00 55 Various of Israeli bulldozers clearing land

Balata Refugee Camp, Nablus, West Bank

01 05 Tank outside Nablus

01 12 Israeli soldiers in the streets

01 15 Soldier climbing through a hole knocked in the wall of a house

Khan Younis, Gaza Strip

01 18 Wide shot of funeral procession

01 21 Mourners carrying body wrapped in a Hamas flag

01 29 Mourners carrying the body

01 36 ENDS

STORYLINE

An Israeli motorist was killed and his pregnant wife seriously wounded in a Palestinian shooting attack in the West Bank.

The Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a militant group loosely affiliated with Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, claimed responsibility.

Meanwhile, Israeli troops battled Palestinian gunmen from a West Bank lookout Friday, broke through walls of homes in a hunt for militants and uprooted Gaza orchards apparently used for launching rockets.

The violence came just hours after an Israeli helicopter in southern Gaza fired missiles, killing a Hamas fugitive as he drove a donkey cart, the fourth lethal airstrike against members of the Islamic militant group in a week.

00 02

The couple were heading off for a weekend trip when their car was hit by gunfire near the West Bank town of Ramallah.

00 09

The injured woman, who was seven months pregnant, was rushed to hospital for treatment.

00 14

Her husband was killed in the shooting.

00 17

Israel's foreign minister said the Palestinians were "not willing to do anything to put an end to terrorism."

00 25

SOUNDBITE: (English)

"I think the time has come for Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian Prime Minister) and his government to take this strategic decision to dismantle the infrastructure of the terrorist organisation, and the sooner the better."

SUPERCAPTION: Silvan Shalom, Israeli Foreign Minister:

00 37

UPSOUND

00 39

Meanwhile, in Jenin, Palestinian gunmen opened fire on a makeshift Israeli army lookout post, sparking an intense firefight.

00 50

Tanks and armoured vehicles drove the gunmen back before picking up the soldiers and leaving town.

00 55

Israeli bulldozers moved into Beit Hanoun in the Gaza Strip, to clear land Israel claims is used by Palestinian militants to fire rockets into Israel.

01 05

Israeli troops also combed the Balata refugee camp on the edge of Nablus as part of a weeklong search for militants.

01 12

Troops moved from house to house breaking down walls with sledgehammers.

01 18

In the Gaza Strip, mourners called for revenge as they carried the body of 23-year-old man through Khan Younis.

01 25

Hamdi Kalakh was killed on Thursday when in an Israeli helicopter attack, the fourth lethal airstrike on a Hamas target in a week.

01 36

ENDS

SHOTLIST

AP Archive Instant Library - World News Review 2007

Tape Number: WNR/IL 2007

Sound: Nat Sot

Duration: 80 minutes 48 seconds

IRAQ

10:00:13

In January President Bush acknowledged for the first time that he had made a mistake by not ordering a military build-up in Iraq in 2006 and said he was increasing U.S. troops by 21,500 to quell the country's near-anarchy. "Where mistakes have been made, the responsibility rests with me," Bush said. The build-up puts Bush on a collision course with the new Democratic Congress and pushes the American troop presence in Iraq towards its highest level yet. It also runs counter to widespread anti-war passions among Americans and the advice of some top generals. In addition to extra U.S. forces, the plan envisions Iraq's committing 10,000 to 12,000 more troops to secure Baghdad's neighbourhoods.

509270

POOL

Washington DC - 10 Jan 2007

SOUNDBITE: (English) George W. Bush, US President:

"The situation in Iraq is unacceptable to the American people, and it is unacceptable to me. Our troops in Iraq have fought bravely. They have done everything we have asked them to do."

SOUNDBITE: (English) George W. Bush, US President:

"...our commanders say the Iraqis will need our help. So America will change our strategy to help the Iraqis carry out their campaign to put down sectarian violence and bring security to the people of Baghdad. This will require increasing American force levels. So I have committed more than 20,000 additional American troops to Iraq."

10:00:54

In January two of Saddam Hussein's co-defendants, the half-brother of Saddam Hussein, former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the former chief justice of the Revolutionary Court, were executed. Both were previously convicted and sentenced to hang on November 5th 2006 but the verdict was upheld by the appellate court on December 26th. The two men were sentenced to death alongside Saddam Hussein for the killing of 148 Sunni Muslims from the town of Dujail after a failed 1982 assassination attempt against Saddam in the northern city.

Barzan Ibrahim, one of three half-brothers of Saddam Hussein, was formerly head of the Iraqi secret service, the Mukhabarat, and was also Iraq's former representative to the United Nations until 1998. Awad Hamed al-Bandar presided over the Revolutionary Court's death sentencing after the attempt on Saddam's life in Dujail.

508468

AP/POOL

Baghdad - FILE

FILE: Baghdad, Iraq - 2006

1. Wide of defendants in dock

2. Close up of Barzan Ibrahim, Saddam's half brother and former chief of intelligence, rising to his feet

3. Awad Hamed al-Bandar, former head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court

4. Wide shot of defendants in the dock

10:01:15

In February a suicide truck bomber obliterated a Baghdad market in a mainly Shiite area, killing at least 132 people in the deadliest single suicide bomb strike in the capital since the US invasion in 2003. Suspicion fell on Sunni insurgents.

An explosive laden truck carrying a ton (0.9 metric tons) of ammunition hidden beneath cooking oil, canned food and bags of flour, levelled about 30 shops and 40 houses, witnesses said. The blast shaved the walls off nearby buildings, sending bricks, desks and other debris spilling onto Kifah Street, where the Sadriyah market was located. As people gathered around the scene of the blast, police fired into the air to disperse crowds fearing further attacks. The Health Ministry said more than 300 people were injured in the explosion that sent a column of smoke into the sky on the east bank of the Tigris River.

511800

AP TELEVISION

Baghdad - 4 Feb 2007

al-Sadriyah Neighbourhood

1. Various of bomb site, people gathered among rubble and wreckage

10:01:37

message traffic and provides counter-terrorism intelligence services for the American government. Al-Furqan is the media production house of the Islamic State of Iraq, an umbrella organisation for Sunni insurgency groups in Iraq including al-Qaeda.

Graphics overlaid onto the video footage claimed the attack took place in Iraq's Anbar province. No other details were provided.

The video depicted a man crawling under a stationary US armoured vehicle twice, each time to allegedly place explosives under the vehicle. At one point, graphics overlaid on to the video claim to indicate, with a red circle, US soldiers nearby completely unaware of the man's presence as he crawls away. Shortly afterwards the explosives are detonated destroying the vehicle.

516349

IntelCenter

Unknown Location, Unknown Date

++AP TELEVISION HAS NO WAY OF INDEPENDENTLY VERIFYING THE CONTENT, LOCATION OR DATE OF THIS AUDIO AND VIDEO++

++THIS VIDEO WAS MADE AVAILABLE TO AP TELEVISION BY INTELCENTER, A FIRM BASED IN ALEXANDRIA, IN THE US STATE OF VIRGINIA, THAT PROVIDES COUNTER-TERRORISM INTELLIGENCE SERVICES TO THE US GOVERNMENT

++PERMISSION IS GRANTED FOR USE IN PRINT, BROADCAST AND INTERNET MEDIA AS LONG AS THE INTELCENTER BUG REMAINS UNOBSCURED AND THE VIDEO IS CREDITED TO INTELCENTER ++

++AUDIO AS INCOMING++

++AUDIO INCLUDES SONGS AND ALSO SPEAKERS NOT RELATED TO THE VIDEO++

1. Man picks up more explosives and crawls back under tank - zoom out to wide shot - red circle graphic overlaid on to video claims to indicate nearby US soldiers - zoom in as man crawls away from vehicle.

2. Wide of vehicle explosion ++first seconds replayed three times++

10:02:01

In March Iraq's Sunni Vice-president Tariq al-Hashimi visited victims of a chlorine gas bomb attack at a military hospital inside Baghdad's Green Zone. Al-Hashimi spent a few minutes at the bedsides of several of the patients, many of them children. Some of the patients were on respirators.

In the attack, three suicide bombers drove trucks rigged with tanks of toxic chlorine gas and struck targets in heavily Sunni Anbar province, killing at least two people and sickening 350 Iraqi civilians and six US troops, the US military said. Seven children were among those affected in the attacks.

Chlorine, which irritates the respiratory system, eyes and skin at low exposure and can cause death in heavier concentrations, is easily accessible. It is used for water purification plants, bleaches and disinfectants. The primary effect of the chlorine attacks has been to spread panic. Although chlorine gas can be fatal, the heat from the explosions can render the gas non-toxic. Victims in the recent chlorine blasts died from the explosions, and not the effects of the gas.

516480

POOL

Baghdad, 19 March 2007

1. Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi visiting hospital, talking to a patient on a respirator

2. Mid of patient

3. Al-Hashimi at the bedside of a sick child

4. Close-up of child showing a swollen eye, various tubes attached to face

5. Al-Hashimi standing to next to another ill child lying on stomach in hospital bed

10:02:22

On February 12th Saddam Hussein's former deputy was hanged for the killing of 148 Shiites, an official with the prime minister's office said. Taha Yassin Ramadan, who was Saddam's vice president when the regime was ousted four years ago, was the fourth man executed in the killings of 148 Shiites following a 1982 assassination attempt against the former leader in the city of Dujail.

Ramadan was convicted in November 2006 of murder, forced deportation and torture and sentenced to life in prison. A month later, the appeals court said the sentence was too lenient, and returned his case to the High Tribunal, demanding he be sentenced to death. The court agreed to turn it to a death sentence and an appeals court upheld the death sentence in February

516489

AP TELEVISION

Baghdad - February 12, 2007

1. Various of former Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan in court as judge passes death sentence

10:02:39

A suspected suicide bomber blew himself up in the Iraqi parliament cafeteria on Thursday 12th April, killing at least eight people and wounding dozens in a stunning assault in the heart of the heavily fortified, US-protected Green Zone. The security breach occurred in the third month of a US-Iraqi crackdown on violence in the capital.

State television said at least 30 people were wounded in the attack. The parliament bomber struck the cafeteria while several lawmakers were eating lunch, officials said. After the blast, security guards sealed the building and no one - including lawmakers - was allowed to enter or leave.

No-one claimed responsibility for the attack.

519098

POOL

Baghdad - 12 April 2007

1. Mid shot of parliament in session with members voting

519113

Agency Pool

Baghdad - 12 April 2007

2. Zoom in and out of smoky hallway, men running past UPSOUND: shouting

3. Tracking shot of smoke filled room, men dragging out man on chair

10:03:00

Four large bombs exploded in mostly Shiite areas across Baghdad on Wednesday 18th April, killing at least 183

people and wounding scores as unrelenting violence severely undermined a two-month old US-Iraqi crackdown to secure the capital.

It was the worst single day of violence since the US-led security clampdown in capital began in February.

In the bloodiest of the attacks, a parked car bomb detonated in a crowd of workers at the Sadriyah market in central Baghdad, killing at least 112 people and wounding 115, according to a hospital official. A police official confirmed the toll, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to release the information.

Among the dead were several construction workers, who had been rebuilding the mostly Shiite marketplace after a bomb destroyed many shops and killed 137 people there in February, the police official said.

The market is situated on a side street lined with shops and vendors selling produce, meat and other staples.

About an hour earlier, a suicide car bomber crashed into an Iraqi police checkpoint at an entrance to Sadr City, the capital's biggest Shiite Muslim neighbourhood and a stronghold for the militia led by radical anti-US cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

The explosion killed at least 30 people, including five Iraqi security officers, and wounded 45, police said.

Earlier, a parked car exploded near a private hospital in the central neighbourhood of Karradah, killing 11 people and wounding 13, police said.

The blast damaged the Abdul-Majid hospital and other nearby buildings.

The fourth explosion was from a bomb left on a minibus in the north-western Risafi area, killing four people and wounding six others, police said.

519721

AP TELEVISION

Baghdad - 18 April 2007

SADRIYAH - AT LEAST 112 KILLED

1. Thick plumes of smoke rising from scene of blast

2. Various of people gathered around looking at wreckage from bombings, women grieving on balcony

SADR CITY - AT LEAST 30 KILLED

4. Wide of blast scene with ambulances and smoke rising UPSOUND: siren

5. Crowd attempting to move wrecked car

6. Fire-fighters alongside cars, spraying water

519827

AP TELEVISION

Baghdad - 19 April 2007

Sadriyah - Baghdad

7. Wide pan of burnt out minibuses

10:03:44

It was reported on Tuesday 1st May that the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq Abu Ayyub al-Masri had reportedly been killed on Monday 20th April in an area north of the capital Baghdad. But Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister, Barham Saleh emphasised the fact that these reports had yet to be been confirmed.

"I insert the word, it is 'preliminary' reports that he was killed probably yesterday in Taji area in a battle involving a couple of insurgents groups, and possibly some tribal people who have been having problems with al-Qaeda,'' he said.

Tribesmen in the western Anbar province have been fighting al-Qaeda for weeks and claim to have killed dozens of them.

However The Islamic State of Iraq - an Iraqi insurgent umbrella group - published a statement on the internet denying that al-Masri had been killed.

The statement, on a website commonly used by insurgents, said al-Masri was alive and "still fighting the enemy of God".

Al-Masri, an Egyptian militant also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, took over leadership of the group and was endorsed by Osama bin Laden after Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed last June in a US air-strike in Diyala province.

521128

AP PHOTO/AP TELEVISION

Baghdad - 1 May 2007/File

AP PHOTO: (made available by US military)

1. STILL of Abu Ayyub al-Masri who is purportedly the man claiming to be leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq and is apparently the same person as a man identified by the nom de guerre, Abu Hamza al-Muhajer

++AP TELEVISION HAS NO MEANS OF INDEPENDENTLY VERIFYING THE CONTENT OF THE VIDEO BEING PLAYED TO REPORTERS AT THE NEWS CONFERENCE++

AP Television

FILE: Baghdad - 1 October 2006

2. Zoom in to screen showing a video, purportedly of Abu Ayyub al-Masri, leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, being shown on screen to reporters when there were reports claiming he had been killed

10:03:54

US-led forces in Iraq conducting a crackdown on al-Qaeda killed a senior member of the insurgent group who was responsible for the high-profile kidnappings of several Westerners, a US military spokesman told journalists on Thursday 3rd May whilst the Iraqi Interior ministry further clouded days of confusion by stating that two different operatives, one of whom the US said it had killed, were in fact the same man.

US Major General William Caldwell said the killing of Muharib Abdul-Latif al-Jubouri, described as al-Qaeda's information minister, had apparently led to confused reports that two other men had been killed - Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the head of an umbrella group of insurgents which includes al-Qaeda, and Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the head of al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Al-Jubouri was killed while trying to resist detention in an operation about six kilometres (four miles) west of the Taji air base, north of Baghdad, early on Tuesday morning, he said.

Caldwell said the body was initially identified by photos, then confirmed by DNA testing on Wednesday.

Al-Jubouri was alleged to have been deeply involved in the kidnapping of American reporter Jill Carroll, who was released, and Tom Fox, one of four men from the Chicago-based peace group Christian Peacemaker Teams who was found fatally shot in Baghdad on March 10, 2006.

521384

POOL

Baghdad, 3 May 2007/File

1. Zoom into close up of photo of bloated dead body of man Iraqi Interior Ministry claim is Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, at Iraqi Interior Ministry news conference

2. Photo of Muharib Abdul-Latif al-Jubouri, shown at news conference

10:04:04

In June an Iraqi court sentenced Saddam Hussein's cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid, and two other former regime officials to death by hanging for their roles in a 1980s scorched-earth campaign that led to the deaths of 180-thousand Kurds.

Al-Majid, the former head of the Baath Party's Northern Bureau Command, trembled and stood silently as the judge read the verdict. Al-Majid was better known as "Chemical Ali", a nickname he earned for his alleged use of chemical weapons

The judge, Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa, said al-Majid was convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes for ordering army and security services to use chemical weapons in a large-scale offensive that killed or maimed thousands.

Saddam's former defence minister and his armed forces deputy director were also sentenced to hang for their roles in the so-called "Operation Anfal" campaign.

The judge sent former minister Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tai to the gallows after ruling that the defendant ordered a large-scale attack against civilians and used chemical weapons and deportation against the Kurds.

The former deputy director of operations for the Iraqi Armed Forces, Hussein Rashid Mohammed, was sentenced to death after he was convicted of drawing up military plans and other allegations against the Kurds.

Two other former regime officials - Farhan Mutlaq Saleh, former head of military intelligence's eastern regional office, and former director of military intelligence under Saddam Hussein and Sabir al-Douri, were sentenced to life in prison.

The judge announced that the charges had been dropped against Taher Tawfiq al-Ani, the former governor of Mosul and head of the Northern Affairs Committee, because of insufficient evidence.

That decision had been expected as the prosecutor had requested that al-Ani be released.

Kurds welcomed the verdicts as their chance to taste vengeance, although the case did not deal with the most notorious gassing - the March 1988 attack on the northern city of Halabja that killed an estimated five thousand Kurds.

A Kurdish resident of Halabja, scene of a notorious chemical attack which claimed the lives of thousands, said he wanted al-Majid and his co-defendants to be executed in the cemetery where many of the victims are buried.

527274

AP TELEVISION/POOL

Baghdad/Halabja - 24 June 2007

1. Wide of Ali Hassan al-Majid, Hussein Rashid Mohammed, Farhan Mutlaq Saleh, Sabir al-Douri, Taher Tawfiq al-Ani and Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tai in dock

2. Chief Judge Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa

3. Ali Hassan al-Majid

4. Ali Hassan al-Majid (Chemical Ali)

Halabja north of Baghdad

5. Sign reading: ''Welcome to Halabja''

6. Gravestones and monument representing man disfigured due to chemicals

7. Man reciting verses from Holy Quran

10:04:30

Tension was high on the border between Iraq and Turkey in October. Funerals were held on Monday 8th October for 13 Turkish soldiers killed in an ambush in the south-eastern province of Sirnak. After the funeral, at a military compound in Sirnak, the bodies of the soldiers were taken to their hometowns by ambulance and helicopter. Mehmet Gungor, one of the attendees, blamed the PKK, or Kurdistan Workers' Party, for the attack.

On 8th October, the Turkey's government met to discuss what to do next after Turkish troops shelled an area near Iraq to try to stop the rebels from escaping across the border. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey would take up the issue of fight against the PKK.

Turkey has been pressing Iraq and the United States to hit PKK bases in northern Iraq, and has considered a unilateral military operation across the border to root out the rebels.

539166

AP TELEVISION

Sirnak - 8 Oct 2007

1. Wide of military at gate to Sirnak Military Compound

2. Close-up of photos of the 13 killed soldiers

3. Wide of helicopters taking bodies of soldiers back to their hometowns, zoom-in to one of helicopters, zoom-out to helicopters flying away

10:04:42

Residents of a Kurdish village near the Iraqi-Turkish border said their village and surrounding area was "bombarded by Turkish army artillery" late on the evening of Monday 8th October.

On Tuesday 9th October, a villager from Dera Loc - near the Ibrahim al-Khalil border crossing between Kurdistan and Turkey - pointed out the village which he says "was bombarded by Turkish army artillery.''

Villagers in Dera Loc pointed out craters in the ground which they said were a result of the alleged bombardment.

Turkish officials did confirm that troops had shelled an area, in Turkey, near the Iraqi border to try to stop rebels from escaping across the border following the rebel attack.

539275

AP TELEVISION

Dera loc, Iraq - 9/8 Oct 2007

Dera Loc, Iraq - 9 October 2007

1. Smoke rising from mountains around Dera Loc village

2. Wide of village

3. Various of craters in ground

4. Wide of smoke rising over mountains surrounding village ++MUTE++

5. Wide village ++MUTE++

10:04:56

Turkish soldiers continued patrolling the Iraq border on Friday 12th October, as Turkish prime minister said his country would be ready to pay the price of an Iraq campaign, if it decided to go ahead with a cross-border offensive against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq.

Turkey accuses Kurdish rebels of crossing back and forth from bases in Iraq, using remote, mountain passes that are difficult to monitor.

In recent months, Turkey has increasingly criticised both the US and Iraq for failing to eliminate the Kurdish rebel bases, and most parties in the 550-seat Turkish assembly were expected to support the motion for an incursion.

Rebels of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, have been fighting for autonomy in southeast Turkey since 1984 in a conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

Turkey conducted two dozen large-scale incursions into Iraq between the late 1980s and 1997.

The last such operation, in 1997, involved tens of thousands of troops and government-paid village guards.

539652

AP TELEVISION

Sirnak - 12 Oct 2007

1. Patrol platoon with armoured vehicle and signal jammer truck to avoid remote controlled mine explosions

2. Soldiers searching for mines

3. Close of soldier using binoculars to check mountains for extremists

4. Armoured vehicle driving over camera on road

ISRAEL / PALESTINE

10:05:27

A senior Palestinian security officer allied with Fatah was killed when Hamas militants laid siege to his house in the northern Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials and witnesses said. The officer, Colonel Mohammed Ghayeb, was the chief of the Preventive Security Service in northern Gaza. His killing was expected to trigger revenge attacks by the men under his command. Ghayeb was on the phone to Palestine TV just moments before his death and appealed for help as his house in Beit Lahiya came under attack. The battle outside the house raged for much of the day and killed four of Ghayeb's guards and a Hamas gunman. About three dozen people, including eight children, were also wounded.

508650

AP TELEVISION

Jebaliya, 4 Jan 2007

++NIGHT SHOTS++

1. Ambulance arriving with body of Colonel Mohammed Ghayeb

2. Close up of Ghayeb's face

10:05:36

Palestinian militants allied to President Mahmoud Abbas marched into a Nablus bank on January 28th and snatched a local Hamas leader in front of news crews and startled tellers, as violent confrontation between Abbas' Fatah movement and the radical Islamic Hamas spilled over from the Gaza Strip into the West Bank. A group of about 15 Al-Aqsa gunmen had been roaming the streets of Nablus looking for known Hamas members, and attracting a tail of newsmen as they went, when they stormed into the city's Arab Islamic Bank and spotted Fayyad Al-Arba. Without bothering to mask their faces or stop news cameras recording the scene they hustled the protesting Hamas man out of the building and into a car, which sped away. Abu Jabal, head of Al-Aqsa Brigades in Nablus, said his men had abducted between ten and fifteen people. "Our demand is the resignation of the interior minister (Said Siyam) and the suppression of the executive force in Gaza," he said.

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AP TELEVISION

Nablus - 28 Jan 2007

1. Various of Abu Jabal, head of Al-Aqsa Brigades in Nablus in street

2. Gunmen taking Hamas official out of the building plus shots fired

3. Gunmen putting Hamas official in vehicle outside

10:05:56

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas urged gunmen to withdraw from Gaza City's streets in February, after both Hamas and the rival Fatah movement violated a ceasefire deal. Fatah spokesman Abdel Hakim Awad said both sides involved in the factional clashes affecting Gaza were in constant contact to end the violence and preserve an agreed truce. Hamas and Fatah gunmen have clashed at Cabinet ministries, universities and security headquarters in defiance of the truce that it was hoped would calm the seething Gaza Strip. Gunmen set up roadblocks at various points in the city, stopping cars and searching them for rivals.

More than 100 Palestinians have been killed in internal violence since Hamas, which rejects Israel's right to exist, won parliamentary elections a year ago and wrested power from Fatah, which advocates peacemaking with the Jewish state.

511760

AP TELEVISION/ AGENCY COMMON

Gaza City - 3 Feb 2007

1. Armed masked gunmen walking in street, AUDIO: Gunshot

2. Medium shot of Shefa hospital entrance with people sheltering from gunfire

10:06:10

In February Israeli workers began a dig at a centuries-old walkway that leads to a holy site disputed by Muslims and Jews. Palestinians have warned the work just outside the site, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount, would inflame already high tensions and officials suggested Israel is planning to damage the compound, Islam's third-holiest site.

Palestinians demonstrated outside the Holy Land's most contentious religious site throughout February, protesting against construction work being carried out by Israel on a new ramp up to the hilltop compound. Israeli police stormed the shrine after noon prayers on February 9th, firing stun grenades and tear gas to disperse hundreds of Muslim worshippers who threw stones, bottles and refuse in an eruption of outrage over contentious Israeli renovation work. The clash came after days of mounting tensions over the work and raised concern that protests could spread to the West Bank and Gaza, as they did at the start of the second Palestinian uprising in 2000. About 200 police streamed on to the hilltop compound known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount, to try to quell the violence, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. As many as 300 protesters barricaded themselves inside the Al-Aqsa mosque at the compound. Seventeen protesters and 15 police officers were slightly injured, police said.

511973

Israel - Israel begins contentious renovation near disputed holy site

AP TELEVISION

Jerusalem - 6 Feb 2007

1. Wide of Old City and Al-Aqsa mosque

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Israel - Protests continue against Israeli construction at Muslim holy site

AP TELEVISION

Jerusalem, 8 Feb 2007

2. Bulldozer working near site

512371

Israel - Violence at disputed Jerusalem holy site

AP TELEVISION

Jerusalem - 9 Feb 2007

3. Protester being arrested by police

4. Soldiers in positions on wall of Old City AUDIO: gunfire and sirens

512395

Israel - Police, Muslim worshippers clash at disputed Jerusalem holy site

AP TELEVISION

Jerusalem - 9 Feb 2007

5. Muslim worshippers throwing stones inside mosque compound, tear gas being fired

6. Man praying in midst of clashes

7. Policemen firing tear gas at protesters, storming mosque

8. Various of clashes

10:07:19

The new Hamas-Fatah coalition won overwhelming parliament approval on March 17th, clearing a final formal hurdle before taking on the challenge of persuading a sceptical world to end a crippling year-long boycott of the Palestinian government. Speaking after the vote, Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat, a close ally of President Mahmoud Abbas, said he hoped "everyone in this government, including the Prime Minister will act as the prime minister, minister of all the Palestinians, and not just to serve their interests." After the 83-3 vote was announced, lawmakers jumped up from their seats and clapped. In all, parliament has 132 members, but 41 of them are in Israeli detention.

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AP TELEVISION

Gaza City - 17 March 2007

Gaza city, Gaza strip

1. Parliament speaker Ahmad Bahar, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas hold hands and wave

2. Various of Parliament members raising hands in favour of government

3. Bahar talks and then hugs and kisses Haniyeh, the two shake hands

10:07:35

Kidnappers freed a Peruvian news photographer held since January 1st, according to officials from the Palestinian Fatah movement. The photographer, Jaime Razuri, worked for the French news agency AFP. The 50-year-old was abducted at gunpoint from a part of central Gaza City where many foreign journalists have offices. There was no immediate word on who the kidnappers were.

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AP TELEVISION

Gaza City, 7 Jan 2007

1. Mid of Peruvian photographer Jaime Razuri with Tayeb Abdel Rahim, Abbas aide

2. Close-up of Razuri

10:07:44

In March masked Palestinians kidnapped a BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) reporter at gunpoint from his car in Gaza City, Palestinian security officials said. As he was being taken, the journalist threw a business card on the street that identified him as Alan Johnston of the BBC, the officials said. Four gunmen carried out the kidnapping, and Johnston's car was found abandoned near his Gaza City apartment, security officials said, who asked that their names not be used as they were not authorised to speak to the media. Police found the lease of the rental car, which stated the vehicle was rented to the BBC.

Palestinian journalists later held a sit-in, to call for the release of Johnston.

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Gaza - BBC TV reporter kidnapped in Gaza

AP TELEVISION

Gaza city - 12 March 2007

1. Alan Johnston's BBC car in Gaza police station

516305

Gaza - Protesters ask for the release of kidnapped BBC journalist

AP TELEVISION

Gaza City, 17 March 2007

++PLEASE NOTE: VIDEO QUALITY AS INCOMING++

2. Medium of demo outside Shawa building

3. Close up of sign with Alan Johnston's picture on it

10:07:59

In March three masked Palestinian gunmen fired on a vehicle carrying the chief of the U.N. refugee mission in Gaza and tried to kidnap him. The target of the attempt was John Ging, head of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA) in Gaza. He said no one was hurt in the kidnap attempt, in northern Gaza. Ging said he, a driver and a security official were travelling in an armoured vehicle when the gunmen jumped out of a white Subaru and opened fire. He said the men had tried to force the car door open, but the driver managed to speed away, under continued gunfire. The vehicle was clearly marked with the U.N. insignia and a U.N. flag, he said. Eleven bullets pierced the car, Ging added. The incident took place about half a mile (one kilometre) from the Erez passenger crossing into Israel, he said.

No one claimed responsibility

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AP TELEVISION

Gaza City - File

FILE: Gaza City - 3 November 2006

1. John Ging, head of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency in Gaza walking into room

10:08:06

Hamas reluctantly brought Fatah into the coalition in March 2007 to quell an earlier round of violence, but the uneasy partnership began crumbling in May over control of the powerful security forces.

The two factions have warred sporadically since Hamas took power from Fatah last year, but never with such intensity.

A militant commander affiliated with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement was shot dead in May, in the most serious attack since Abbas launched a new effort to calm a wave of violence in the Gaza Strip earlier in the month.

Fatah quickly blamed the rival Hamas group, with which it shares power in the Palestinian government, and the dead man's comrades vowed revenge.

.

Hamas fighters launched a fierce offensive on Gaza City in June, attacking the main security bases and the president's compound with mortars and rockets and sending some of the rival Fatah forces fleeing in disarray as the Islamic group appeared close to taking over the entire Gaza Strip. At least 60 died in the June campaign

Khan Younis fell to Hamas when militants detonated a one-ton bomb underneath a security headquarters there, demolishing the building and killing at least one person, Palestinian security and medical officials said.

Security forces later said they lost control of the town.

The building was destroyed by a bomb planted in a tunnel underneath it, said Ali Qaisi, a presidential guard spokesman.

At least one person was killed and eight others were injured, medics said.

A group of boys ran to the local mosque to seek shelter from the crossfire of a fierce gunfire they found themselves caught in. They were trapped inside the mosque for almost an hour.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas moved quickly to cement his rule in the West Bank on the 15th of June, as major political fallout from Hamas' military rout of Fatah in Gaza continued.

He replaced the Hamas Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh, with Finance Minister Salam Fayyad, an internationally respected economist, and a new moderate government was to be formed later in the day.

A Hamas military victory in Gaza would split Palestinian territory into two, with the Islamic militants controlling the coastal strip and Western-backed Fatah ruling the West Bank, pushing hopes for statehood even further away. Hamas fighters who wrested control of most of the Gaza Strip focused their firepower on 14th June on the battle's top prizes - Fatah's security and political command centres in Gaza City.

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AP TELEVISION

Gaza - 14 June 2007

1. Wide of Gaza City skyline at dawn/UPSOUND: gunfire

2. Wide of skyline/ UPSOUND: Gunfire

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AP TELEVISION

Gaza City - 13 May 2007

3. Two women crying

4. Male relatives kissing face of militant commander Baha Abu Jarad, of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades

5. People grieving around body

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AP TELEVISION

Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Gaza City's Shojaiyeh District, Gaza Strip, and Gaza City, near the Egyptian Representation Office, Gaza Strip - 13 June 2007

Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip

6. Walking shot of people in the street running to hide from gunfire, UPSOUND: gunfire

7. Boys hiding at local mosque, pan right to people hiding from gunfire underneath tin roof, UPSOUND: gunfire

8. Various of boys taking refuge inside mosque, UPSOUND: gunfire

Gaza City's Shojaiyeh District, Gaza Strip

9. UPSOUND: gunfire, people scatter

Gaza City, near the Egyptian Representation Office, Gaza Strip

10. Man in traditional dress with flags of all Palestinian factions tied together, waving at gunmen on street corner, UPSOUND: gunfire

11. Gunman firing, man stopping him, pushing him back, UPSOUND: gunfire

526448

AP TELEVISION

Ramallah, West Bank and Gaza City, Gaza Strip - 15 June 2007/File

Gaza City, Gaza Strip - 15 June 2007

12. Various of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh arriving at demonstration and waving to crowd UPSOUND: cheering and gunfire

Ramallah, West Bank - 15 June 2007

13. Close-up on Palestinian flag

14. Mid of Abbas at Friday Prayers

526224

AP TELEVISION

Nablus, West Bank - 13 June 2007

15. Gunfire exchanged with Al Aqsa Brigades gunmen

16. Mid of gunmen

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AP TELEVISION

Khan Younis - 13 June 2007

17. Back shot of militant holding rifle, UPSOUND: gunfire

526327

AP TELEVISION

Rafah, Gaza Strip -14 June 2007

18. Wide of the explosion of a Fatah-allied security building, (also called Preventive Security building) pull out to show crowd cheering and clapping and running towards the scene: UPSOUND: gunfire

19. Masked Hamas fighters rising up from their kneeling position on the road, after prayers, other gunmen firing into the air

20. Masked Hamas gunmen carrying away computers from scene

526447

AP TELEVISION

Gaza city, Gaza Strip - 15 June 2007

21. Wide of jeep carrying masked Hamas military wing spokesman Abu Obeideh with other fighters

22. Close-up of masked fighter

10:10:15

Palestinian security forces allied with Fatah arrested three dozen Hamas members in the West Bank on 14th June.

The move came as Hamas were close to a military takeover of the Gaza Strip.

Fatah leaders said a decision was made by security commanders to crack down on Hamas in the West Bank, to prevent it from taking any positions in that territory, a Fatah stronghold.

Arrests of Hamas activists were reported in the West Bank towns of Jenin, Nablus, Jericho, Ramallah and Bethlehem.

In Nablus, masked security agents and Fatah gunmen rode together in cars, searching for Hamas members, and broke into several homes of Hamas activists.

In one area, a brief firefight erupted, with Fatah and Hamas gunmen exchanging fire in the centre of the West Bank city.

On Saturday16th June Fatah gunmen took over the Hamas-controlled city council in Nablus and other Hamas-run institutions in the West Bank.

Gunmen arrived at the council building shooting in the air, walked in and then climbed to the roof where they hung flags of Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, the military wing of Fatah, from the roof.

In Ramallah, at the parliament building, Fatah supporters chanted, "Hamas Out," climbed on the roof of the building and fired in the air.

They placed Fatah and Palestinian flags on the building.

Gunmen entered the office of Deputy Speaker Hassan Kreisheh and tried to seize him, but Fatah employees stopped them.

526309

AP TELEVISION

Nablus, West Bank - 14 June 2007

1. Fatah gunman gathering in city centre

2. Mid of gunman aiming weapon

3. Gunfire erupting, people running to take cover, gunmen aiming weapons, UPSOUND: gunfire

4. Various of office supply and furniture thrown from offices of Palestinian Legislative Council

526497

AP TELEVISION

Nablus - 16 June 2007

5. Fatah gunmen approaching building while shooting in the air, pan to gunmen gathered outside building entrance

6. Pan from mid of masked gunmen to fighters at entrance

7. Tilt up from gunmen in street to rooftop with two flags, pan back to gunmen shooting into the air

8. Zoom in to more gunmen on rooftop

526529

AP TELEVISION

Ramallah, West Bank - 16 June 2007

9. Top shot Fatah gunmen coming out of building pulling Deputy Speaker Hassan Kreisheh, out of the building, Kreisheh stumbling in the scrum

10. Various of Fatah gunmen approaching another building

11. Exterior of the Council of Ministers building, gunmen entering

10:11:22

Deposed Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas on Sunday 24th June called for the kidnapping of British journalist Alan Johnston to end, as a new video recording was seen, which shows Johnston wearing what appears to be an explosives belt.

In the video, Johnston warns the belt, which is of the type suicide bombers use, will be detonated if an attempt is made to free him by force.

The one-minute-42-second tape, called "Alan's Appeal," was posted on a Web site used by militant groups to post their messages.

The video was made by the Army of Islam, a shadowy group with apparent al-Qaeda links that claimed responsibility for snatching Johnston, a correspondent with the British Broadcasting Corporation, from a Gaza City street on 12th of March.

527327

INTELCENTER

Video date and Location Unknown

++AP TELEVISION HAS NO WAY OF INDEPENDENTLY VERIFYING THE CONTENT, LOCATION OR DATE OF THIS AUDIO AND VIDEO.++

++THIS VIDEO WAS MADE AVAILABLE TO AP TELEVISION BY INTELCENTER, A FIRM BASED IN ALEXANDRIA, IN THE US STATE OF VIRGINIA, THAT PROVIDES COUNTER-TERRORISM INTELLIGENCE SERVICES TO THE US GOVERNMENT.++

++PERMISSION IS GRANTED FOR USE IN PRINT, BROADCAST AND INTERNET MEDIA AS LONG AS THE INTELCENTER BUG REMAINS UNOBSCURED AND THE VIDEO IS CREDITED TO INTELCENTER. ++

++AP TELEVISION HAS NOT EDITED THE MILITANT VIDEO.++

1. SOUNDBITE: (English) Alan Johnston, Kidnapped BBC Journalist: (Includes on-screen graphics)

"Captors tell me that very promising negotiations were ruined when the Hamas movement and the British government decided to press for a military solution to this kidnapping and the situation is now very serious. As you can see I've been dressed in what is an explosive belt, which the kidnappers say will be detonated if there's any attempt to storm this area. They say they are ready to turn the hideout into what they describe as a death zone if there's an attempt to free me by force."

10:12:03

An Israeli aircraft attacked a car in the northern Gaza Strip on Monday 7th May, saying the vehicle was carrying militants preparing to fire rockets into Israel.

The air strike occurred shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned of severe consequences if recent rocket fire out of Gaza continued.

The attack occurred near Beit Hanoun, allegedly a frequent launching ground for Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel.

The Islamic Jihad, a militant group in northern Gaza, said its members were in the car on a 'holy mission.'

Israeli citizens in Sderot ran to shelters in panic on Wednesday 16th May as Hamas militants fired eight rockets into Israel, following a barrage of around 20 rockets that seriously wounded an Israeli woman on Tuesday.

Wednesday's rocket salvo at the southern Israeli town of Sderot, just outside Gaza, continued a barrage that began in earnest on Tuesday 15th and wounded 21 Israelis, one seriously, a woman whose house took a direct hit.

There were no casualties on Wednesday morning, but school was cancelled in Sderot and residents huddled in bomb shelters.

Hamas said its rockets were retaliation for Israeli violence.

A Hamas compound in central Gaza City was one of three targets hit by Israeli air strikes on Thursday 17th May, adding a new layer of violence to internecine Palestinian fighting that has paralysed the Gaza Strip.

One person was killed at least 45 people were wounded at the compound, Palestinian witnesses and medical officials said.

Two other people were killed and scores injured in later air strikes in Gaza City.

526985

AP TELEVISION

Gaza City - 20 June 2007

Jebaliyah refugee camp

1. Hamas supporters burning Israeli flags

Gaza City

2. Masked Palestinian boy marching with Hamas ribbon round his head

521817

Islamic Jihad Video

Purportedly Gaza - 7 May 2007

++AP TELEVISION NEWS HAS NO WAY OF INDEPENDENTLY VERIFYING THE AUTHENTICITY, DATE AND LOCATION OF THE VIDEO HANDOUT++

3. Rocket being launched

522825

AP TELEVISION

Sderot, Israel - 15/16 May 2007

4. Children running towards shelter shouting, UPSOUND: rocket exploding

5. People walking away from house, camera tracks to window and films smoky interior

6. Various of damaged house

7. Various of damaged furniture and household items

523013

AP TELEVISION

Gaza City - 17 May 2007

8. Wide of smoke rising over Gaza skyline

9. Man gesturing to people inside the bombed out building, UPSOUND: Gunfire/Sirens

10. Top shot of rubble and rescuers

11. Body being carried out on stretcher

10:13:14

Kidnapped by Palestinian gunmen in Gaza for in March, British journalist Alan Johnston had only one link to the world, a radio that picked up British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) programmes reporting frantic efforts to free him. Confined to a dark room by his captors, Johnston told the BBC after his release on July 4th that he was often unsure if he was going to live or die.

He thanked his colleagues for standing by him; "I'm so immensely grateful for that, and I will be all my life," Johnston said in Jerusalem, addressing a BBC rally in London celebrating his release.

Johnston, a native of Scotland who reported from Gaza for the BBC for three years, was snatched from a Gaza City street by masked gunmen on March 12, shoved into a car and spirited away. Johnston was one of in a string of foreigners kidnapped in Gaza, though his time in captivity was by far the longest.

He was released before dawn on July 4th in a deal between Gaza's Hamas rulers and his kidnappers from the Army of Islam, a group run by one of Gaza's most notorious and heavily armed crime families, the Doghmush clan.

528410

AP Television

Gaza City - 4 July 2007

1. Deposed Palestinian Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh, putting Palestinian sash around freed BBC journalist Alan Johnston's neck

528324

AP TELEVISION

Gaza City - 4 July 2007

2. Various of BBC Journalist Alan Johnston being escorted by Hamas security after being released from deposed Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh's office

528398

POOL

Jerusalem - 4 July 2007

3. Johnston waving to crowds and shaking hands with British Consul-General in Jerusalem, Richard Makepeace

10:13:40

In September Police claimed to have cracked a cell of young Israeli neo-Nazis suspected in at least 15 attacks on foreign workers, drug addicts, homosexuals and observant Jews. Eight gang members have been arrested, and a ninth fled the country, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

"This was a cell, an active neo-Nazi group that in fact began here in Israel carrying out attacks and sabotage as well as different attacks on individuals. Unfortunately a number of individuals were injured," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

All are in their late teens or early 20s, immigrated from the former Soviet Union and have Israeli citizenship, Rosenfeld also said.

The gang documented its activities on film and in photographs, and Israeli TV stations showed grainy footage of people lying helpless on floors while several people kicked them.

535848

AP TELEVISION/POLICE HANDOUT

Various - 9 Sept 2007

Ramleh, near Tel Aviv - 9 September 2007

AP Television news

1. Members of Neo Nazi suspects getting out of car

2. Members of cell walking in court room

3. Courtroom symbol on wall

4. Mid of Neo Nazi suspects

Tel Aviv - Recent

Police Handout

6. Various of Neo Nazi cell members beating by-passers at central bus station in Tel Aviv

7. STILL of drawing of man holding Neo- Nazi flag

8. Cell members beating man

9. STILL of man giving Nazi salute

10. Various of cell members beating up a man

10:14:08

On September 28th some 20-thousand mourners gathered in Jerusalem to accompany the body of Rabbi Avraham Shapira, an Israeli spiritual leader, to its final resting place, the Mount of Olives. Shapira, famous for urging soldiers to disobey orders to evacuate the Gaza Strip, died in Jerusalem at the age of 94. A chief rabbi in Israel for 10 years beginning in 1983, Shapira spent much of his life fighting vigorously against territorial concessions to the Palestinians - emerging as one of the Jewish state's most divisive religious figures. To his followers, however, Shapira was a sage. When he was taken to the hospital earlier in the week, thousands prayed for his well-being at Jerusalem's Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site. Because the funeral took place during the joyous, week-long Jewish festival of Sukkot, or Feast of Tabernacles, rabbis told mourners it was best to avoid crying.

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Thousands at funeral of chief rabbi who opposed land handover

AP TELEVISION

Jerusalem - 28 Sep 2007

Mount of Olives, Jerusalem

1. Wide of mourners marching during funeral procession, Dome of the Rock in background

2. Wide of mourners marching in funeral

3. Mid of people carrying body of Rabbi Avraham Shapira to burial at cemetery

4. Mid of man crying

5. Wide of mourners at funeral, Dome of the Rock in background

LEBANON

10:14:34

Opposition protesters blocked roads with car tyres around the Lebanese capital of Beirut and other regions on January 23rd to enforce a general strike aimed at toppling Prime Minister Fuad Saniora's government. Opposition activists turned out early in the morning to burn tyres on major highways north, south and east of the city as well as a ring road around downtown Beirut, sending black clouds of smoke billowing in the air, witnesses said. Army troops and fire engines moved in to remove the obstacles. The road to Beirut international airport was blocked, as were the highway linking Beirut with the mountains and the highway to Damascus, the Syrian capital, Hezbollah's television stations reported. Scores of opposition supporters took the streets and in some instances security forces stood by and watched.

510522

AP TELEVISION

Beirut - 23 Jan 2007

++PRE DAWN SHOTS++

1. Wide top shot of city skyline with plumes of smoke rising from fires

2. Wide shot of protesters and tyres on fire

3. Wide shot of military vehicles arriving at the scene

4. Strikers protesting

510536

AP TELEVISION

Beirut - 23 Jan 2007

5. Lebanese army arresting a protestor

6. Various of clashes in the street

7. Lebanese army shooting in the air

10:15:17

Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah told a crowd of mourners who had gathered in southern Beirut to commemorate the festival of Ashoura, that the US president , who he referred to as the "greatest satan", wanted to punish his group because they "stood fast and were victorious" in last summer's war against Israel.

Nasrallah was responding to a statement made by US President George W Bush earlier in January in the which the president condemned a recent outburst of violence in Lebanon.

511324

AP TELEVISION

Beirut, 30 Jan 2007

1. Wide shot of building with Nasrallah speaking from balcony

2. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah Secretary-General:

"(US President) George Bush wants to punish you because you stood fast and were victorious."

3. Crowd of women chanting

4. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah Secretary-General:

"When the greatest Satan declares his enmity and his war against us, this is a great honour of which we are proud."

10:15:47

Lebanese tanks pounded shells at a militant group's headquarters in a Palestinian refugee camp next to the northern city of Tripoli on the afternoon of Sunday 20th May.

The shelling came hours after clashes that left 13 soldiers and several militants dead, along with dozens of wounded.

Security officials reported a further 19 soldiers and 14 police officers injured in the fighting, the worst violence to hit the northern city in two decades.

A spokesman for the Fatah Islam group, Abu Salim, said two militants were killed and five wounded inside the Nahr el-Bared Palestinian refugee camp.

The group is considered by some Lebanese officials to be a radical Sunni Muslim group with ties to al-Qaeda, or at least al-Qaeda style militancy and doctrine.

The fighting threatens to further destabilise a conflict-ridden Lebanon that is facing its worst political fall out between the Western-backed government and pro-Syrian opposition since the end of the 1975-90 civil war.

Initially, gunfire erupted early on the 20th after police raided a militant-occupied apartment on Mitein Street, a major thoroughfare in Tripoli, looking for suspects in a bank robbery a day earlier in Amyoun, a town southeast of Tripoli, in which gunmen made off with 125-thousand US dollars in cash.

The armed militants resisted arrest and a series of battles then ensued that spread to surrounding streets and the nearby Palestinian refugee camp.

Lebanese troops pounded a Palestinian refugee camp with artillery and tank fire for a second day on Monday 21st May, raising huge palls of smoke as they battled a militant group suspected of ties to al-Qaeda.

The fighters holed up in the camp returned fire - lending credence to reports that they are far better armed than first thought.

Artillery and machine gun fire echoed around a crowded Palestinian refugee camp for a third straight day Tuesday 22nd May, as the Lebanese government ordered the army to finish off the Fatah Islam fighters holed up inside the camp in the country's north.

Black smoke billowed from the area after artillery and machine gun exchanges at the Nahr el-Bared camp on the outskirts of the port city of Tripoli.

Hundreds of Palestinian civilians continued to stream out of the besieged Nahr el-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon on Wednesday 23rd after a truce in the fighting mostly held overnight.

About 15-thousand, nearly half the camp's residents, fled late at night when the lull took hold in fighting between Lebanese troops and Islamic militants who were barricaded in the crowded Nahr el-Bared refugee camp, relief officials said.

About 1-thousand fled on Wednesday morning.

The Lebanese air force on Saturday 2nd June joined tanks and artillery in pounding Islamic militant hideouts on the second day of an intensifying offensive to uproot al-Qaeda-inspired gunmen barricaded in a Palestinian refugee camp.

A French-made Gazelle helicopter fired two missiles and directed machine gun fire at suspected militant hideouts on the western edge of the Nahr

el-Bared camp near the Mediterranean coastline, in an apparent attempt to block any sea escape route.

It was the first time the army used its limited air force capability in the battle, signifying the intensity of the ground fighting.

The army has helicopters, but no fixed-wing aircraft.

There was more heavy shelling on Wednesday 13th June in the Nahr el-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon, as Lebanese troops reportedly clashed with Muslim militants still holed up there.

More than 25,000 people have fled the Nahr el-Bared camp, near the northern city of Tripoli, since fighting between the Lebanese army and Fatah Islam militants began on May 20.

Dozens of people have been killed since then.

The army said that the number of troops killed since the fighting began to 61.

The fighting has also claimed the lives of at least 60 Fatah al-Islam militants and at least 20 civilians.

523344

AP TELEVISION

Tripoli - 20 May 2007

1. Tanks and soldiers in the streets of residential area

2. Soldiers firing from armoured vehicles at building occupied by militants

523379

AP TELEVISION

Tripoli and Nahr el-Bared Palestinian refugee camp - 20 May 2007

Tripoli

3. Lebanese army troops running across street and firing at building

4. Soldier firing at building

Nahr el-Bared Palestinian refugee camp

5. Tank firing missile on target inside refugee camp

523492

AP TELEVISION

Nr Nahr El-Bared - 21 May 2007

6. Wide of Tripoli skyline, building explodes

7. Wider shot of black smoke, AUDIO: loud explosion, pan to fresh white plume of smoke

523528

AP TELEVISION

Nahr El-Bared - 21 May 2007

8. Wide of skyline with smoke rising

523595

AP TELEVISION

Near Nahr el-Bared, Lebanon - 22 May 2007

9. Wide of explosion on top of building with black smoke billowing from building AUDIO: gunfire and shelling

523742

AP TELEVISION

Nahr el-Bared - 23 May 2007

10. Various of refugees leaving camp

11. Refugees getting out of red truck

12. Refugees in red truck

13. Various of damaged buildings inside camp

14. Pan across destroyed vehicle

524975

AP TELEVISION

Nahr el-Bared - 2 June 2007

15. Wide skyline shot of camp with explosion and smoke rising

16. Lebanese army helicopter flying over camp

524834

AP TELEVISION

Nahr el-Bared - 1 June 2007

17. Various of armoured cars and military vehicles on the move

526205

AP TELEVISION

Nahr el-Bared Palestinian refugee camp - 13 June 2007

18. Various of shelling at camp

19. Various of shelling

10:17:57

Lebanese troops on July 5th resumed pounding suspected hideouts of al-Qaeda-inspired militants entrenched in a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon. Lebanese troops, backed by artillery and tank fire, blasted suspected hideouts of Fatah Islam militants barricaded inside the Nahr el-Bared camp near Tripoli. The refugee camp and its remaining inhabitants have now endured more than forty days of gun battles between the Lebanese troops and militants.

Meanwhile Lebanese authorities and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) started distributing money to the displaced from Nahr El-Bared - 1350 US dollars for each family. Some of the money was contributed by Saudi Arabia, said Richard Cook, General Manager of the UNRWA. UNRWA launched a worldwide campaign to gather money to help the displaced Palestinians and to rebuild Nahr El-Bared camp once the violence stops.

On July 12th two Lebanese soldiers were killed as the army pounded a refugee camp with artillery fire, but the military denied reports that the barrage was part of a final assault on the al-Qaeda inspired Islamic militants barricaded inside. AP Television filmed heavy shelling, which began just before dawn just hours after more than 150 civilians fled on foot from the camp and the army moved tanks and armoured vehicles up towards the camp. The army said two soldiers were killed Thursday, bringing the number of military dead to 88 since fighting began at the Nahr el-Bared camp on May 20. Earlier an armoured personnel carrier was seen ferrying at least two wounded soldiers out of the camp. From five to 10 shells were slamming into the camp every minute.

Plumes of black smoke continued to rise from tank and artillery shellfire at the beleaguered Nahr el-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon on July 14th as Fatah Islam gunmen holed up there exchanged heavy fire with the encircling Lebanese army troops. The army said two soldiers died on July 13th, one from wounds he suffered in fighting on the 12th. The fatalities brought to 94 the number of soldiers killed since fighting began on May 20.

Most of Nahr el-Bared's 30,000 residents had fled since the beginning of the battles, and conditions are desperate for those still inside. The Lebanese army said that it had seized control of a number of buildings in the camp that had been used by Fatah Islam militants to attack and snipe at soldiers.

On July 14th Lebanon's rival parties met at a French chateau for rare and long-awaited talks which it is hoped will start the process of healing the rift between enemies mired in a political and sectarian crisis which is threatening to tear their country apart. But the closed-door meetings, organised by France with U.S. and Iranian approval, were not expected to end the political deadlock between the Western-backed prime minister and the Hezbollah-led opposition. The meetings at La Celle Saint Cloud, a small town west of Paris, mark the first time that the 14 parties are meeting since a national dialogue conference in November that failed to resolve the tensions.

Heavy shelling continued at a besieged Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon on July 17th as army troops continued to pound damaged buildings, believed to be the remaining hideouts of al-Qaeda-inspired militants holed up inside with artillery and tank fire. Lebanese security officials said significant progress was being made by the military, and a senior official said the southern part of the Nahr el-Bared "old camp" - a reference to an area deep within the camp with narrow, winding streets where the Fatah Islam militants are believed to be holed up - would soon be entirely under the army's control. He said that militants from the Fatah Islam group were now encircled in an area thought to be no bigger than 500 square metres.

On September 2nd the last stronghold of Islamic militants holed up in a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon fell to the army, security officials said. Only occasional gunfire could be heard inside the Nahr el-Bared camp, hours after the army killed 39 militants and captured at least 20 others as they tried to break out of the camp. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the last stronghold of Fatah Islam militants fell later in the day to the army, which captured five wounded militants in their hideout. The army, which said it lost three soldiers in the gun battle, was not ready to formally declare an end to fighting in the camp, large parts of which were destroyed by army bombardments in the last three and a half months.

The gun battles that began during the dawn breakout had continued through the early afternoon, with troops chasing Fatah Islam fighters in buildings, fields and roads around the camp, in an area called Wadi El-Gamous. The clashes eventually tapered off, but the military search continued. Celebratory gunfire erupted in nearby villages as soon as news of the latest developments spread. Dozens of residents took to the streets of Mohammara, waving Lebanese flags and honking their horns as troop convoys poured into the area with soldiers flashing victory signs. Several Red Cross and military ambulances were seen racing out of the camp, reportedly carrying militant casualties and transporting them to the Government Hospital in the nearby port city of Tripoli. Army officials and senior security official told the Associated Press that they did not know whether Fatah Islam leader Shaker al-Absi was among those who attempted to break out. Al-Absi has not been seen or heard since early in the fighting. The military said three soldiers were killed on September 2nd and two on Saturday September 1st, raising to 158 the total number of troops who have died in the conflict.

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Nahr El-Bared - 5 July 2007

1. Wide of shelling on Nahr El-Bared Palestinian refugee camp

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Nahr el-Bared - 12 July 2007