Ramadan food supply pledged

MANAMA: Industry and Commerce Minister Dr Hassan Fakhro yesterday toured Manama and Muharraq central markets.

Fruit and Vegetable traders confirmed the ample availability of both for the whole month of Ramadan.

Fruit and Vegetable supplier Redha Al Bustani affirmed that markets are loaded well above the market's needs.

Ibrahim Salman from Bahrain Livestock Company confirmed the availability of meat and said it would be enough for Ramadan, noting that next Friday a ship will arrive loaded with 21,000 Australian cattle.

Dr Fakhro also inspected Lulu Hypermarket in Dana Mall. The general manager assured him of the stability of food prices. He added that there are a lot of promotional campaigns for goods in high demand during Ramadan.

Thanks to Industry and Commerce Ministry's efforts to educate consumers, they are now not accumulating goods, but buying them day by day.

Source : Gulf Daily News

HRW: Israeli Should Allow Humanitarian Groups Into Gaza

JERUSALEM, January 14, 2009 (WAFA)- Israel should immediately allow humanitarian groups broad access to Gaza and the evacuation of the wounded to alleviate the suffering of the civilian population,Human Rights Watch said in a report released, Tuesday.

Human Rights Watch also urged the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who is to visit Israel on January 15, to take urgent steps to help alleviate the suffering of Gazan civilians.

Nineteen months of a highly restrictive blockade and two weeks of intense military operations have left Gazans in desperate need of food, water, electricity, and sanitation. Medical care is woefully inadequate to deal with the thousands wounded in the fighting. Civilians have nowhere to flee the aerial and ground attacks engulfing the Strip.

Human Rights Watch said that United Nations agencies have only been able to reach a small portion of those dependent on aid, which includes more than 80 percent of the population, since the Israeli offensive began on December 27, 2008. The electricity supply has slightly improved in recent days but remains low, and in some places open sewage is spilling into the streets. The ongoing fighting is preventing many families from leaving their homes to purchase food or obtain food aid. Children, who make up 56 percent of Gaza's residents, are especially vulnerable.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, Israeli attacks in Gaza had killed at least 997 Palestinians and wounded another 4525. More than 311 children and 100 women are among the dead; more than 1,459 children and 625 women had been wounded. According to the UN, more than 40% of the dead and 50% of the wounded are women and children.

'Gaza was in the midst of a humanitarian crisis even before this fighting started due to Israel's unlawful blockade, aided by Egypt's cooperation in keeping its border with Gaza closed,' said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch 'And now it is facing a catastrophe.'

The wounded are getting only rudimentary care from facilities that lack equipment, material and personnel. Hospitals have been running full-time on generators since December 30, when Gaza's only power plant stopped functioning, and in some hospitals, generator fuel is running low. According to humanitarian agencies and medical officials, many patients are needlessly dying because of a lack of timely medical care. A key problem has been the inability to transfer seriously wounded persons out of Gaza. According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, at least 413 wounded were in critical condition as of January 11.

'The UN secretary-general's visit is an opportunity to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the need for protecting civilians,' said Roth. 'He needs to lean on all actors, protect civilians, and ensure accountability. Only an impartial international investigation can achieve that.'
Source: AJP

Israel resumes Gaza raid after lull

Violence has escalated again in Gaza after Israel temporarily halted attacks in Gaza City in the north of the strip for three hours as a "humanitarian respite".

In the latest incident, an Israeli air raid on a car in Beit Lahia, near Gaza's northern border with Israel, killed three children and their father, who was described as a civilian by medical workers in the besieged strip.

Israel on Wednesday also approved an even tougher war on Hamas, warning residents to flee southern Gaza ahead of planned bombardments of cross-border tunnels, as the Palestinian death toll passed 700.

After a brief lull to allow Gaza's beleaguered population to hunt for food and fuel, Defence Minister Ehud Barak was given the green light by the security cabinet to order a deeper offensive into Gaza towns as part of the campaign to halt Hamas cross-border rocket attacks.

Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, chaired the security cabinet meeting in Jerusalem which "approved continuing the ground offensive, including a third stage that would broaden it by pushing deeper into populated areas," a senior defence official said.

The final decision will be left with Barak, the official added.

Israel also warned thousands of people in the Rafah zone on the Egyptian border to leave their houses or face air strikes.

"You have until 8:00am (0600 GMT)" on Thursday, said leaflets which were dropped by the Israeli military.

At least 700 Palestinians have died in Gaza since Israel began its assault on December 27, and that number continues to climb. About 3,085 people have also been wounded.

Seven Israeli soldiers and three civilians have died in the same period.

Temporary lull

Palestinians and aid workers in and around Gaza City had used Wednesday's respite to recover dead bodies, treat the wounded, and gather much-needed supplies in and around Gaza City.
Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman, announced "offensive" military action across the strip would be suspended for three hours every alternating day, although the timings may vary.

Despite this, Israeli air raids were reported on other parts of the Palestinian territory during Wednesday's announced timeframe of 1pm-4pm (11:00GMT).

Most of Wednesday's clashes occurred in northern Gaza, with explosions reported in Jabalya and Beit Lahia.

In Gaza City, four people were killed and seven injured outside a Mosque in the Sheik Radwan neighbourhood.

Two people were also killed earlier when the Zeitoun district was targeted from the air.

Further south, air raids hit the towns of Khan Younis and Rafah, where over 20 houses were destroyed.

No Israeli injuries have been reported on Wednesday after around eight rockets were fired from Gaza into southern Israel.

Civilian deaths

Israel is facing mounting pressure to agree a ceasefire after an attack on a school run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (Unrwa) in the northern town of Jabaliya on Tuesday left 43 Palestinians dead and around 100 wounded.

Doctors said all the dead were either people sheltering in the school or residents of the nearby Jabalya refugee camp.

Israel claims missiles were fired from the UN building and that their troops were simply returning fire.

Around 15,000 Palestinians have had to flee the fighting so far, but have found few safe havens, as Israel and Egypt continue to largely keep border crossings shut.

Heba, a Gaza resident and mother of two, told Al Jazeera there was no place left in Gaza that can be considered safe.

"What happened in the school was a hugely offensive and inhumane thing. We never expected that people who sought refuge in a UN building would be attacked and killed," she said.

While earlier attempts to agree a ceasefire resolution at the UN have so far floundered, a French-Egypt proposal appears to be gaining some support.

The deal, which could include stationing international monitors at the Egyptian-Gaza border, has received qualified backing from the US and support from Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president and leader of Hamas-rival Fatah.
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

Israel rebuffs call for Gaza truce

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) - Israel on Wednesday rejected calls for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and stepped up preparations for a possible ground offensive after Hamas's long-range rockets hit another major population center.

Israeli aircraft carried out more than 10 air strikes in sharply reduced operations in rainy weather that allowed many Gaza residents to venture out to shop for food for the first time since the start of Israel's five-day-old offensive.

The poor weather -- "a truce imposed by God" as one Palestinian put it -- could delay any push by Israeli tanks into the territory. Forecasters predicted several days of clear skies starting late on Thursday.

U.S. President George W. Bush spoke by phone to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert but did not discuss a timetable for halting Israeli strikes, the White House said. Bush put the onus on Hamas to stop firing rockets as a first step to a truce.

Foreign pressure has grown on both sides to end hostilities, but Israel brushed aside as "unrealistic" a French proposal for a 48-hour truce that would allow in more humanitarian aid for Gaza's 1.5 million residents.

"If conditions will ripen and we think there will be a diplomatic solution that will ensure a better security reality in the south, we will consider it. But at the moment, it's not there," an aide quoted Olmert as saying.

"We didn't start this operation just to end it with rocket fire continuing as it did before it began," Olmert said, according to the aide. "Imagine if we declare a unilateral ceasefire and a few days later rockets fall on (the town of) Ashkelon. What will that do to Israel's deterrence?"

Olmert made the remarks -- which did not rule out a ceasefire in the future -- to his security cabinet.

Hamas, for its part, said it was prepared to study proposals for a ceasefire so long as it "will bring an immediate cessation to the aggression and lift the siege entirely," senior official Ayman Taha said, referring to Israel's blockade of the Hamas-ruled coastal territory.

With Palestinians increasingly enraged over the offensive, President Mahmoud Abbas called for the fighting to be stopped "immediately and without any conditions" and said Israel was "fully responsible" for the carnage. Abbas will ask the U.N. Security Council to act, aides said.

Diplomats said the deadliest conflict in the Gaza Strip in four decades appeared close to a tipping point after four days of air strikes that have killed 393 Palestinians, at least a quarter of whom, U.N. figures showed, were civilians.

Along the heavily-fortified border fence, Israeli tank crews prepared for battle while Islamist militants, hiding as little as a few hundred yards (meters) away, laid land mines and other booby traps should a ground war break out.

Inside Gaza, many residents ventured outside their homes to stock up on supplies, taking advantage of a lull in Israeli air strikes that have turned Hamas government buildings into piles of rubble.

Some children played happily in the rain, as one parent remarked they were finally able to run free after what he called days of "house arrest."

Despite calls by European and Arab powers for an end to the violence, public anger in Israel over the widening of the rocket attacks to include Beersheba, 40 km (24 miles) from Gaza, could prompt the government to hit Hamas even harder.

Israeli officials said they were open to amendments to the French proposal and alternatives being put forward by international parties.

Cabinet ministers, however, approved the mobilization of 2,500 army reservists, expanding on an earlier call-up of 6,500 soldiers for the garrison on the Gaza border, and officials said a ground offensive was an option.

HUMANITARIAN AID

Israel said it was doing its part to let humanitarian supplies into Gaza despite the rocket fire. Ninety-three truckloads of food, medicine and blood for hospitals entered on Wednesday, defense official Peter Lerner said.

Arab foreign ministers met in Cairo to seek a common position in response to the Israeli attacks, but the Arab world is deeply divided in its attitude toward Hamas, which took over the Gaza Strip last year after fighting a brief civil war with the secular Fatah faction loyal to Western-backed Abbas.

The diplomatic moves coincided with an escalation in Hamas rocket fire deeper inside Israel.

At least four of the longer-range Grad rockets hit Beersheba, the city Israel calls the capital of the Negev, its southern region. One struck a school that was empty. Municipal authorities had canceled classes after rockets landed in Beersheba on Tuesday evening for the first time.

Other long-range rockets hit the southern coastal city of Ashkelon. Dozens of short-range rockets pelted border towns.

Israel's air strikes on Wednesday targeted smuggling tunnels on the Gaza-Egypt frontier and Hamas government offices in Gaza City. Palestinian medics said four people -- two militants, a doctor and a paramedic -- were killed.

Food supplies in Gaza were running low and power cuts were affecting much of the territory. Hospitals were struggling to cope with the high number of casualties from the offensive.

Medical officials revised the number of wounded to 1,650 after figures arrived from medical centers that had not reported their casualty statistics earlier. Three Israeli civilians and a soldier have been killed by rockets.

Olmert's centrist government launched the operation six weeks before a February 10 election that opinion polls predict the opposition right-wing Likud party will win, with the goal of halting rocket attacks by militants in Gaza.

The current violence erupted after a six-month ceasefire brokered by Egypt expired on December 19 and Hamas intensified rocket attacks from the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip.

France said it would host Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Thursday and an Israeli official said French President Nicolas Sarkozy planned to visit Jerusalem next Monday.

(Additional reporting by Adam Entous, Ari Rabinovitch and Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem, Wafa Amr and Ali Sawafta in Ramallah, James Mackenzie in Paris and Alaa Shahine in Cairo; Writing by Adam Entous and Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Charles Dick)

Prophet Daniel

Ibn Abi Al-Dunya narrated the following, based on a chain of citations. Nabuchadnezzar captured the two lions and threw them into a pit. He then brought Daniel and threw him at them; yet they did not pounce at him; rather, he remained as Allah wished. When then he desired food and drink, Allah revealed to Jeremiah, who was in Sham (Palestine/Syria): "Prepare food and drink for Daniel." He said: "O Lord I am in Jerusalem while Daniel is in Babylon (Iraq)." Allah revealed to him: "Do what I have commanded you to do, and I shall send you one who will carry you and what you have prepared." Jeremiah did so and Allah sent him something that would carry him until he arrived at the brink of the pit. Then Daniel asked: "Who is this?" He answered: "I am Jeremiah." He asked: "What brought you?" He answered: "Your Lord sent me to you." He said: "And so my Lord has remembered me?" He said: "Yes." Daniel said: "Praise be to Allah Who never forgets those who appeal to Him! And Praise be to Him Who compensates good with good, rewards patience with safety, dispels harm after distress, assures us when we are overwhelmed, and is our hope when skill fails us."
Yunus Ibn Bakeer reported that Muhammad Ibn Ishaaq reported that Abu Khalid Ibn Dinar reported that Abul Aa'lia said: "When Tastar was invaded, we found, in the treasure house of Al-Harmazan, a bed on which lay a dead man, with a holy script at his bedside. We took the scripture to Umar Ibn Al Khattab. He called Ka-b and he translated it into Arabic, and I was the first Arab to read it. I read it as I read the Qur'an." Here, I (Khalid Ibn Dinar) said to Abul Aa'lia: "What was in it?" He said: "Life history, annals, songs, speech, and what is to come." I asked: "And what did you do with the man?" He said: "We dug in the river bank thirteen separate graves. At nightfall we buried him and leveled all the graves in order to mislead people for they would tamper with him." I asked: "And what did they want from him?" He said: "When the sky was cloudless for them, they went out with his bed, and it rained." I asked: "Who did you think the man was?" He said; "A man called Daniel." I asked: "And for how long had he been dead when you found him?" He said: "Three hundred years." I asked: "Did not anything change on him?" He said: "No, except for the hairs of his face (beard, and mustache); the skin of the prophets is not harmed by the earth, nor devoured by hyenas."
The chain of citation from Abul Aa'lia is good, but if the date of the dead man's death was really three hundred years, then he was not a prophet but a saintly an, because there was no prophet between Isa (Jesus)(pbuh), and the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), according to the hadith in Bukhari. The span between them (the dead man and Muhammad (pbuh)) was variously reported as four hundred, six hundred, and six hundred twenty years. It could be that he had died eight hundred years earlier, which would be near to Daniel's time, if his being Daniel is correct. However, he could still have been somebody else, either a prophet or a saint. Yet the truth is more likely he was Daniel, because he had been taken by the King of Persia and remained imprisoned as already mentioned.
It was narrated with a correct citation that his nose as one span (nine inches) long. Anas Ibn Malik, with a good citation, said that his nose was an arm's stretch long (two feet), on which basis he is thought to be an ancient prophet from before this period. Almighty Allah knows best.
Abu Bakr Ibn Abu Dunya related without citation that when Abu Musa was told that he was Daniel, he stayed with him, embraced him, and kissed him. Then he wrote to Umar that he found with him nearly ten thousand Dhirhams. It used to be that people came to borrow from it, and if they did not return it, they became sick. Umar ordered his burial in a grave to be kept secret and the money to be sent to the treasury, with the b ox and the ring a gift to him (Abu Musa).
It is related of Abu Musa that he told four of the captives to dam the river and dig a grave in the middle, where he buried him. Then he beheaded the four captives in order for the secret to be kept from all except himself.
Ibn Abu Dunya also reported, by a chain of citations, that a ring was seen on the hand of Ibn Abu Barda Ibn Abu Musa. The gem was carved with two lions with a man between them, whom they were licking. Abu Barda said: "This is the ring of that man whom the people of this town say is Daniel. Abu Musa took it the day he was buried. The learned people of the town told Abu Musa that soothsayers and astrologers told the king in Daniel's time that a boy would be born who would destroy him and his kingdom. So the king swore to kill all the baby boys, except that they threw Daniel in the lions' den, and the lion and lioness began to lick him and did not harm him. His mother came and took him. Abu Musa said: "And so Daniel carved his image and the image of the two lions into the gem of his ring, for him not to forget Allah's blessing upon him in this.'" This has a good citation