Palestine became today a permanent member of the International Parliamentary Union, as the Israeli military killed earlier in the day a Palestinian boy in Ramallah city. Meanwhile, the Palestinian national unity talks in Cairo are going on with no concrete progress. These news and more are upcoming, stay tuned.

During a meeting of the International Parliamentary Union's member states in Geneva, a vote gave Palestine a permanent member status at the union. Palestinian officials regarded the move a historic achievement for the Palestinian people.

It is the first time in modern Palestinian history that Palestine be accepted as a full member of an international organization. Israel occupied Palestine in 1948 and since then the Palestinians have been struggling for their basic rights as a sovereign state.

Meanwhile, Israeli military actions in the occupied West Bank continued on Wednesday, as a teen Palestinian boy of the Jalazoun refugee camp near Ramallah city was killed and two others were wounded by the Israeli soldiers.

In addition, the Israeli troops detained four Palestinian residents from the West Bank city of Bethlehem.

In the Gaza Strip, spokesman of the Saraya Alquds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad group, Abu Ahmad, confirmed his faction preserves the right to terminate current ceasefire with Israel in light of what he called Israeli procrastination to reopen Gaza's crossings.

Abu Ahmad, however, maintained that what makes his group refrains from taking that step is the Islamic Jihad's concern over national consensus towards the matter.

Also in Gaza, Fatah party of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, opposed today to holding bilateral talks with the rival Hamas party within the framework of underway national dialogue in Cairo.

Hamas considered Fatah's rejection as a slam to the Egyptian mediation efforts to end Palestinian division, in place since Hamas took over Gaza and Fatah formed its own government in the West Bank in the summer of last year.

Amidst such a controversy, Cairo intends to involve other Palestinian public figures, such as religious dignitaries and local community leaders, in the upcoming rounds of national dialogue, Palestinian media sources reported today.

In an unrelated issue, U.S Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, said during a meeting of investors in Washington yesterday, that every possible effort should be exerted in order to reach a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine before the end of her administration's term in office in January2009.


Thank you for joining us from occupied Bethlehem. You have been listening to Palestine Today from the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org. This report has been brought to you by Rami Al-Meghari, and George Rishmawi