A 32-year old woman died when a Qassam rocket fired from the Gaza Strip scored a direct hit on her car in the Sderot commercial center on Monday night. Another person received moderate injuries from shrapnel. At least 17 rockets were fired at Israel on Monday. Rioting broke out following the rocket barrage. Trash was hurled at the passing motorcade of Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni during the melee. Prime Minister Olmert, who was making his second visit to Sderot in a week, fared better. He stood with residents and refused to move to a bomb shelter when incoming rounds were announced. A spokesman for Hamas said on Monday that it would arrange for a halt in rockets fired from Gaza if Israel will call a truce in the West Bank. Israel's response is to step-up the policy of targeting leaders of those groups responsible for the rocket-fire.  More rocket fire was underway by Tuesday morning.

The Israeli air force struck at two cites in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday morning. One target was a building said to be used to store weapons and the other was said to be a command center of the Popular Resistance Committees, the group claiming responsibility for Monday's lethal rocket attack in the Israeli town of Sderot. A woman died in that attack. Speaking on Israel Radio, Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh said that "there is no one who is in the circle of commanders and leaders in Hamas who is immune from a strike." The comment has been interpreted as a threat to Is'mail Haniyya, the Hamas leader who is prime minister of the Palestinian Authority.

 

Battles between the Lebanese army and members of Fatah Al-Islam continued to rage into a third day on Tuesday. Fatah Al-Islam fighters appear to be holed-up in the Nahr Al-Bared refugee camp in Tripoli, with government forces shelling from outside. Army troops cannot enter Palestinian camps by terms of a longstanding treaty. About fifty people have died in the fighting which began on Sunday. Al-Jazeera quoted a source inside the camp as saying residents are "under siege. There is a shortage of medicine and food. There are children under the rubble of damaged buildings." Palestinian factions are attempting to broker a cease fire.

 

Israeli parliamentarians will elect a new president on June 13^th. Moshe Katzav, the incumbent president, was forced from office by allegations of sexual misconduct and rape. His seven-year term would have ended in July. The largely ceremonial position is be sought after by several candidates, including octogenarian Shimon Peres, who lost out to Katzav the last time around. The race will be decided by a vote of the parliament.

 A majority of American Muslims believe that a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can be found in which Israel exists "in a way that the rights and needs of the Palestinians are met," according to a new poll by the Pew Research Center. Only 16% expressed the view that if Israel exists, Palestinians cannot be taken care of. The more educated elements of American Muslim society overwhelmingly support the positive view. Pew researchers point out that the majority view as expressed in the poll is consistent with the rest of American society, but differs sharply from Muslims elsewhere.