By Meredith Lee-Clark
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

THE NEGEV, Israel/Gaza – “Heavily armed” Islamic Jihad operatives were reportedly killed after a firefight with Israeli military forces near the Al-Bureij refugee camp in Gaza, early on April 13. Varying reports bring the total of dead to between two and four. Two other Islamic Jihad militants were also reportedly injured, according to Israeli forces and Palestinian medics.

The Israeli military has reported that the militants were planting explosives near the Gaza/Israel border, and that Israeli forces found substantial weaponry on the bodies of two of those killed, including explosive devices, assault rifles, hand grenades, and other weapons.

Islamic Jihad’s militant wing, the Al-Quds Brigade, later issued a statement saying that its fighters had engaged Israeli forces when the Israelis attempted to cross the border into Gaza. Israel has denied that its forces attempted to make any such crossing. Residents of the Al-Bureij camp reported that tanks crossed into the area when patrols found the militants planting explosives, and that the Israelis also used machine guns, artillery, and missiles.

The clash comes as Hamas, the ruling party in Gaza, attempts to assert its legitimacy and control of Gaza by holding together a shaky ceasefire with Israel. Hamas has controlled Gaza since it won a parliamentary election ousting Fatah, its rival Palestinian party that currently controls both the Palestinian presidency and the West Bank. In recent months, other militant factions, such as Islamic Jihad, have threatened the tenuous ceasefire that has existed between Hamas and Israel since the end of the open fighting in Gaza during the winter of 2008-2009. On April 11, Hamas security officials detained several Islamic Jihadists accused of trying to fire rockets into southern Israel. According to those detained, Hamas police made the militants sign pledges that they would not attack Israel. Many of the more extremist factions in Gaza have accused Hamas of “going soft” on Israel.

Since the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel went into effect in January 2009, international human rights groups estimate that ninety Palestinians have died in Gaza as a result of fighting with Israeli forces, and one migrant farmworker from Thailand was killed in Israel from a rocket fired from Gaza.

For more information, please see:

Al Jazeera – Palestinian Fighter Killed in Gaza – 13 April 2010

BBC News – Palestinian Militants Killed in Clashes in Gaza – 13 April 2010

Ha’aretz – Gaza Militants Fire on Israelis After IDF Foils Attack on Border – 13 April 2010

Ma’an News Agency – Israel Army: 4 Targeted in Gaza Were Heavily Armed – 13 April 2010

New York Times – Israeli Troops Kill 2 Palestinian Militants at Gaza Border – 13 April 2010

By Brandon Kaufman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

CAIRO, Egypt– Human Rights Watch has reported that Kuwaiti forces have arrested and deported supporters of the prominent Egyptian opposition figure Mohammed ElBaradei.

Human Rights Watch has reported that three Egyptians living in Kuwait were arrested on Thursday “after they attended a small meeting of ElBaradei supporters at a local café.”  Their report further went on to say that the initial arrests led to a larger gathering of approximately 30 ElBaradei supporters who met on Friday to talk about how best to respond to the arrests a day prior.  That meeting was disrupted by members of the Kuwaiti security forces who deported more than half of the participants back to Egypt on Saturday.

According to the wife of one of the men detained, some of those arrested are still in custody.  The woman briefly saw her husband on Thursday night when four men dressed in civilian clothing brought him home and subsequently confiscated campaign T-shirts with images of Dr. ElBaradei and an Egyptian flag with the slogan “For Change” written in Arabic.

Before meeting with members of an Egyptian opposition party, ElBaradei posted on his Twitter page that “Deporting Egyptians peacefully congregating in Kuwait is a gross injustice.  I call for their immediate return on humanitarian grounds.”

Sheikh Jaber al-Khaled-al-Sabah, Kuwait’s interior minister, told Human Rights Watch on Saturday that the deported Egyptians, whose meetings were apparently arranged online, had broken the country’s laws by assembling in a group of more than 20 without a permit and by criticizing Egypt’s president.  Said Mr. Sabah, “They are visitors in Kuwait, and we look at them as visitors in Kuwait.  When somebody breaks the law, he has to go back to his country.”  We don’t allow demonstrations in this country.”

For more information, please see:

The New York Times- Kuwait Deports Critics of Egyptian President– 12 April 2010

The Washington Post- Egypt Says No Hand in Kuwait Deportations– 12 April 2010

The Associated Press- Kuwait Deports 21 Egyptian Supporters of ElBaradei– 11 April 2010

By Meredith Lee-Clark
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

JERUSALEM, Israel/West Bank – Palestinian leaders have strongly condemned a new Israeli military order that would classify Palestinians living in the West Bank without “proper identification” as “infiltrators.” Palestinian officials fear the order would allow the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to deport Palestinians from their West Bank homes in the thousands.

Though the military order was passed six months ago, it will go into effect on April 13, and was discovered by HaMoked: the Center for the Defense of the Individual, an Israel-based human rights group, and was published in the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz on April 11. HaMoked, along with nine other Israeli human rights groups have joined in the calls to repeal the order.

The order would amend the 1969 laws designed to prevent infiltration to include anyone living in the West Bank without an Israeli permit. Such persons could be expelled within three days, or alternatively, sentenced to a maximum of seven years in prison. In a statement released after the Ha’aretz story broke, the Israeli military confirmed the order, and said that the IDF “is ready to implement the order, which is not intended to apply to Israelis, but to illegal sojourners,” though the statement did not elaborate on the order’s impact on Palestinians.

Ha’aretz characterized the order, saying, “[t]he order’s language is both general and ambiguous, stipulating that the term infiltrator will also be applied to Palestinian residents of Jerusalem, citizens of countries with which Israel has friendly ties (such as the United States) and Israeli citizens, whether Arab or Jewish.”

The Palestinian prime minister, Salam Fayyad, told Ha’aretz that the order “threatens the emptying of large areas of land from its Palestinian inhabitants.” There is no clear standard of what constitutes a valid permit, so many fear arbitrary, inconsistent, and discriminatory enforcement by Israeli forces.

Saed Erekat, the Palestinian chief negotiator, called on the international community to pressure Israel to revoke the order. Erekat described the order as “racist,” and was a violation of the Geneva Conventions, particularly article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits any forcible transfer or deportation of protected persons and civilians from occupied territory.

For more information, please see:

Al Jazeera – Israeli Order Raises Eviction Risk – 12 April 2010

Christian Science Monitor – Israel Moves to Deport “Illegal” Palestinians from West Bank – 12 April 2010

Ha’aretz – Fayyad: New IDF Orders Threaten to Empty West Bank of Palestinians – 12 April 2010

Ma’an News Agency – Erekat: World Must Compel Israel to Revoke Military Order – 12 April 2010

Palestine News Network – Palestinians Fear Mass Expulsions – 12 April 2010

By Ahmad Shihadah
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

SA’NA, Yemen – The father of Anwar al-Awlaki, a Yemeni religious scholar who has reportedly been added to a US hit list, says his son will halt his anti-US messages if Washington removes him from the list.

Al-Awlaki, accused by the US of having links to al-Qaeda’s Yemeni offshoot, was added to the CIA’s list of targets to be killed or captured for directly plotting against the US, a US intelligence official said last week

U.S. officials said on Tuesday that the administration of President Barack Obama had authorized operations to capture or kill U.S.-born  al-Awlaki – a leading figure linked to al Qaeda’s Yemen-based regional wing which claimed responsibility for a failed bombing of a U.S.-bound plane in December.

But Yemeni authorities said on Saturday that they had not received any evidence from the US to support allegations that the US-born al-Awlaki is recruiting for an al-Qaeda offshoot in Yemen. “Anwar al-Awlaki has always been looked at as a preacher rather than a terrorist and shouldn’t be considered as a terrorist unless the Americans have evidence that he has been involved in terrorism,” Abu Bakr al-Qirbi, the Yemeni foreign minister, said.

Awlaki’s tribe has denounced U.S. plans to target him, vowing it “will not stand by idly and watch.”

Heavily armed tribes in Yemen, the poorest Arab country, often try to protect their kin by seeking to gain their release or favorable treatment. At times, they have kidnapped foreign tourists to pressure the government.

Yemen is beset by serious political and administrative problems. In addition to the conflict with the regional branch of al-Qaeda, Yemen’s weak central government has struggled to contain separatists in the south and Houthi fighters in the north.

The government and the Houthis reached a ceasefire agreement in February. But the separatist problems in the south show no sign of a resolution.

For more information, please see;

Al-Jazeera – Yemen’s Awlaki Family Offers Deal – 12 April 2010

Washington Post – Yemen Says Seeks Cleric, Yet To Get U.S. Intelligence – 12 April 2010

Saba Net – Al-Awlaki is Required To Surrender To The Yemeni Authorities; Top Yemen Official – 12 April 2010

By Brandon Kaufman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

NAIROBI, Kenya– The crew of a Turkish-flagged carrier is now back in control of the vessel after pirates abandoned the ship.  The ship was hijacked while en route to the Kenyan port of Mombasa.

The vessel, the Yasin C, was seized on Wednesday approximately 250 miles east of Mombasa.  Andrew Mwangura, of the East African Seafarer’s Assistance Program, told Reuters that the “Yasin C was abandoned yesterday.  The pirates abandoned it, and I think the crew will seek aid from the navy before coming to Mombasa.  All the 25 crew were unharmed.”  He added that the vessel had yet to arrive in Mombasa.

Faith Kabal, a spokesman for Bergen Shipping which operates the vessel, told Turkey’s state run news agency that “the ship’s captain gave the good news that the pirates had abandoned the ship.”  The crew had apparently locked themselves in the engine room until they realized the pirates were gone.

Over the last few years, piracy groups have seized dozens of ships in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden.  And despite increased international naval patrols, pirate activity is expected to increase in the coming months as weather in the area is expected to improve.

It is unknown at this point why the pirates abandoned the vessel.

In a related story, the United States Navy said it captured six suspected pirates in the Gulf of Aden when the pirates opened fire on a navy vessel with small arms from their boat.  The USS Ashland fired two rounds at the pirate skiff from her 25-mm gun said a Navy spokesman.  The skiff caught fire and the suspected pirates abandoned their boat.  Personnel of the Ashland then deployed to assist the pirates who were in the water near the skiff.

For more information, please see:

National Turk- Hijacked Turkish Cargo Ship Released by Pirates in Indian Ocean– 10 April 2010

Reuters- Pirates Abandon Turkish-Flagged Ship off Kenya– 10 April 2010

AHN- Turkish Vessel Hijacked by Somali Pirates– 10 April 2010