Palestine Today 10 31 2011

A cease-fire is called between armed groups in Gaza and the Israeli military, and Netanyahu calls on the Palestinians to arrange secret direct talks, these stories and more, coming up, stay tuned

Tension between Gaza resistance groups and the Israeli military has been mounting over the weekend, with an Israeli air strike on a military training centre belonging to the Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad. Five fighters were reportedly killed.

Groups in Gaza are said to have fired missiles into the Western Negev, scoring a direct hit and killing an Israeli civilian. Military sources state that six mortar shells were fired into Israel.

The Israeli army claimed they proceeded to fire into Gaza on a group of fighters. Palestinian Medical sources reported that the Israeli Air Force (IAF) bombarded the area in the southern part of the Gaza Strip on Sunday, killing two Palestinian fighters.

Most of the casualties are from Islamic Jihad, with one being a member of the National Resistance Brigades, the armed wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, who was killed Sunday morning. A second member of the NRB was killed during a separate strike.

It is reported that the number of Palestinians killed over the weekend has now reached ten, and 1 reported Israeli death.

In an attempt to prevent further escalations, Israel and resistance groups agreed upon a ceasefire on Sunday.

The NRB issued a statement saying that Israel is held responsible for the military escalation in the Gaza Strip. Moreover, the statement called on the DFLP fighters to respond to the Israeli air strike, which led to the death of one of its fighters.

Whilst Israeli fighter jets still patrol the sky, on Monday, Abu Ahmad, spokesperson for the Al Quds Brigades, told The Seventh Day Egyptian paper that his group values the Egyptian efforts.

He stated that the Brigades will retaliate to any violation, and that it will be determining the time and place of this retaliation, adding that all armed groups will abide by the declared truce as long as Israel fulfils its part.

During the Quartet visit to Palestine last week, Israel submitted a proposal to break the current impasse of the peace process. This is by initiating secret direct negotiations, which were immediately rejected by Palestinian officials.

The Quartet has held separately meetings with Tel Aviv and Ramallah, in hopes of breaking the stalemate.

The proposal of Israel for secret-direct negotiations has been rejected by the Palestinians, who refuse to enter direct negotiations whilst settlement construction continues.

As a result of the Palestinian refusal to enter the negations, Netanyahu
expressed his outrage and attacked the Palestinian President, Abu Mazen, saying that he rejects peace and has no serious intentions to enter into negotiations with Israel to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Thats all for today from the IMEMC News. This was the Monday October 31 daily roundup of news from the Occupied Palestinian Territories. We hope you will join us again tomorrow. This was brought to you by Husam Qassis and me William Gibson.