The Muslim Student Association @ UConn

The crater is two meters in length and 1.5 meters in width. (Al-Aqsa Online Photo)

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — A landslide at part of Al-Aqsa Mosque esplanade has sounded the alarm over the ongoing Israeli excavations near Islam's third holiest shrine.

Worshippers witnessed a crater at the esplanade as they were en route to the Friday prayer, Al-Aqsa Online reported Saturday, February 16.

The crater is two meters in length and 1.5 meters in width.

"I was cleaning the mosque's esplanade for the Friday prayers," said Ashraf Al-Sharyati, the driver of the mosque's cleaning vehicle.

"Suddenly, some bricks fell down at 10:00 a.m., creating a crater. We covered the big hole with wooden plans for worshippers' safety."

The landslide occurred near Al-Selsela (Chain) Gate and Qatibai Water Fountain at the mosque's western side.

Al-Aqsa Mosque is the Muslims’ first Qiblah [direction Muslims take during prayers] and it is the third holiest shrine after Al Ka`bah in Makkah and Prophet Muhammad's Mosque in Madinah, Saudi Arabia.

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(WASHINGTON, D.C., 01/21/08) - The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today called on American Muslims and other people of conscience to urge their elected officials to immediately intervene to put an end to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

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GENEVA (AFP) - Israel's targeting of a Hamas government office which caused serious casualties at a nearby wedding party was a "war crime" and those responsible should be punished, a United Nations official said Saturday.

Bloodied victims were dragged from the wreckage of the multi-storey structure. (Reuters)

GAZA CITY — At least six Palestinians were killed and scores others injured on Thursday, May 17, in a barrage of Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip, drawing threats of reprisal inside Israel.

Israeli warplanes fired missiles at a car in the Sufa area, one of the crossing points between Israel and the southern Gaza Strip, killing three people inside, a Palestinian security official told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The latest air strike, the fourth, brought to six the number of Palestinian killed by Israel Thursday.

The first raid destroyed a Hamas-run Executive Force compound in the heart of Gaza, killing one Palestinian.

As bloodied victims were dragged from the wreckage of the multi-storey structure, medical officials said at least 45 people, including two women, were wounded.

Shortly after, another strike targeted a car carrying Hamas activists, killing a senior commander.

A house was hit in later strikes also killing on Hamas resistance fighter.

"We are going to hit all those who are implicated in the firings and the production of rockets," Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh told the army radio shortly before the air strikes began.

On Wednesday, May 16, Israeli air strikes on Hamas facilities in Gaza killed five people.

Meanwhile, about 15 Israeli tanks advanced into the Gaza Strip Thursday and deployed a battery of 155mm artillery along the strip border.

"Israeli tanks advanced between one and two kilometers inside the Gaza Strip in the area of the former settlement of Dugit," a Palestinian security official said.

Israel fought Hezbollah in Lebanon in July and August

BBC News: Israel has for the first time admitted it used controversial phosphorous bombs during fighting against Hezbollah in Lebanon in July and August.

Cabinet minister Jacob Edery confirmed the bombs were dropped "against military targets in open ground".

Israel had previously said the weapons were used only to mark targets.

Phosphorus weapons cause chemical burns and the Red Cross and human rights groups say they should be treated as chemical weapons.

"Israel should withdraw from all Lebanese territory, including Shebaa Farms, and release the Lebanese prisoners," Carter said.

CAIRO — Former US president Jimmy Carter believes there will be no genuine and durable peace for any peoples in the volatile Middle East as long as Israel continues to violate UN resolutions by occupying Arab lands.

"Traumatized Israelis cling to the false hope that their lives will be made safer by incremental unilateral withdrawals from occupied areas," Carter, a Nobel peace laureate, wrote Tuesday, August 1, in an editorial in The Washington Post.

"Palestinians see their remnant territories reduced to little more than human dumping grounds surrounded by a provocative 'security barrier' that embarrasses Israel's friends and that fails to bring safety or stability."

Israel is building a 700km-long Israeli separation barrier, a mix of electronic fences and concrete walls, that will eventually snake some 900 kilometers (540 miles) along the West Bank and leave even larger swathes of its territory on the Israeli side.

Palestinians see the wall as nothing other than a new land grab and an attempt to pre-empt the borders of their future state.

Israel has spurned a landmark ruling by the International Court of Justice and demand by the UN General Assembly to tear down the barrier and compensate the Palestinians affected.

Huda, 7, lost her parents and three brothers in the Israeli beach attack. (Reuters).

BEIT LAHIYA, Gaza Strip – "Don's leave me," cried 7-year-old Huda Ghalya while bidding farewell to her mother, father and three siblings who were killed by Israeli artillery fire on a Gaza beach.

"Father, father, forgive me," said a tearful Huda while kneeling to kiss her father's face at the stark cemetery in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, reported Reuters.

The child fainted several times, only to be roused by women relatives who splashed water and perfume on her face.

Ghalya's parents and three brothers, aged one, three and ten, were among seven Palestinians killed on Friday, June 9, while enjoying a picnic on a beach in northern Gaza.

Ontario public employees' union vote to boycott Israel until it recognizes Palestinians' right for self-determination

On Monday (5/29), the Ontario division of Canada's largest union voted to support an international campaign to boycott Israel over its treatment of Palestinians, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported on its website this weekend.

KFAR SABA, ISRAEL -- Besides cementing relations between Israel's new prime minister and President Bush, Ehud Olmert's ritual visit to the White House was little more than a photo opportunity.

While Mr. Bush seems to understand that negotiations are a prerequisite to any successful redrawing of Israel's borders, he also described Mr. Olmert's unilateral ideas as "bold." As he hedges on supporting the Israeli "convergence" plan in the West Bank, Mr. Bush is also pushing legislation intended to isolate the new Hamas-led Palestinian government with sanctions and to further impoverish its people.