Syrian Jets Bomb Palestinian Refugee Camp in Damascus

At least 25 Palestinians, sheltering in a mosque in the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus were killed Sunday, when Syrian troops loyal to President Bashar Assad fired a rocket that hit the mosque. It was the first aerial strike on the refugee camp since the revolt against Syrian President Bashar Assad broke out 21 months ago. Yarmouk, in southern Damascus, is part of an area where Assad’s forces have been trying to push back rebels. More than 500,000 Palestinian refugees live in Syria, many in Yarmouk. Thousands of refugees have fled the area in recent days, traveling to Jordan. Speaking in Rome, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas condemned the shelling of the refugee camp. He urged “all parties involved in the Syrian conflict to refrain from harming our people in the refugee camps. Don’t drag them into your fighting.” He also asked the international community to protect Palestinians in Syria.

Large Explosion in South Lebanon

Lebanese state media reported a large explosion in the south on Monday, three miles from the border with Israel. A Lebanese security source said the blast was caused by a rocket that Israel had fired into Lebanon in 2006 but had not detonated on impact. But a spokesman for UN troops peacekeeping troops in south Lebanon, said the cause was not yet clear. There were no casualties although several animals in the field were killed. Press reports say it is likely that the explosion was inside a Hizbullah weapons depot. Two months ago, a series of explosions killed at least nine people in the Hizbullah-controlled Beqaa Valley in eastern Lebanon. Israel and Hizbullah guerrillas fought a month-long war in 2006, when Hizbullah fired dozens of long-range rockets into Israel and Israel launched airstrikes in south Lebanon. Israeli intelligence says that Hizbullah has since rebuilt its weapons capability.

 

Blast Kills Ten Afghan Girls Collecting Firewood

An explosion killed ten girls as they were collecting firewood in eastern Afghanistan on Monday. It was not clear if the explosion came from a bomb planted by Taliban insurgents or a landmine. The girls between 9 and 11 years old, were collecting wood in a remote district near the border with Pakistan. “Unfortunately, ten little girls were killed and two others wounded but we don’t know whether it was planted by the Taliban,” said Ahmadzia Abdulzai, provincial government spokesman. Meanwhile, a blast in a market in northwest Pakistan killed at least 15 people. The blast occurred in the Khyber region near the border with Afghanistan.

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Calls for Boycott of All Israeli Goods

Salam Fayyad called on Palestinians to boycott all Israeli-manufactured goods. “We call on Palestinian citizens to stop purchasing Israeli goods as a way of resisting the occupation,” Fayyad told reporters in Ramallah on Sunday. He said the call came in response to Israel’s decision to freeze Palestinian tax and customs revenues for at least four months and use them to pay Palestinian debts to Israeli companies, such as the Electric Company. The Israeli move came after the United Nations General Assembly recognized “Palestine” as a non-member observer state last month. Fayyad also called for an emergency Arab summit to discuss the financial crisis in the Palestinian Authority (PA), and urged Arab countries to fulfill their promise to provide the PA with $100 million each month. He said the PA needs more than $300 million monthly just to pay salaries of teachers and other civil servants.

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