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WAR REPORT
Four killed in Gaza as Egypt raises new truce proposal
by Staff Writers
Gaza City, Palestinian Territories (AFP) Aug 25, 2014


Iran 'will arm Palestinians' after Israeli drone downed
Tehran (AFP) Aug 25, 2014 - Tehran will "accelerate" arming Palestinians in retaliation for Israel deploying a spy drone over Iran, which was shot down, a military commander said on Monday.

Iran, which does not recognise the existence of Israel, has confirmed it supplied Palestinian fighters from Hamas and the Islamic Jihad with the technology for the rockets being fired relentlessly into Israel from Gaza since July 8.

"We will accelerate the arming of the West Bank and we reserve the right to give any response," said General Amir-Ali Hajizadeh, commander of aerial forces of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, in a statement on their official website sepahnews.com.

Last month, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged the Islamic world to arm Palestinians to allow them to counter what he called Israel's "genocide" in Gaza.

He also said Israel was acting like a "rabid dog" and "a wild wolf", causing a human catastrophe that must be resisted.

The death toll from seven weeks of violence in Gaza rose to 2,124 on the Palestinian side on Monday. Sixty-eight Israelis have been killed, four of them civilians and the rest soldiers.

Since a ceasefire arrangement collapsed on August 19, more than 650 rockets have struck Israeli territory from Gaza and around 100 others have been shot down.

Iran's warning on Monday came a day after the Guards said they had downed an Israeli "Hermes" stealth drone above the Natanz uranium enrichment site in the centre of the country.

Natanz is Iran's main uranium enrichment site, housing more than 16,000 centrifuges. Around 3,000 more are at the Fordo plant, buried inside a mountain and hard to destroy.

Israel has often threatened to attack Iranian nuclear installations.

An Israeli spokesman told AFP in Jerusalem on Sunday after the report that the drone had been shot down that the military does "not address foreign media reports".

- 'Radar-evading drone' downed -

Hajizadeh said at a news conference broadcast on television that the unmanned aircraft shot down was a "Hermes" stealth drone that "can evade radar".

"Pieces of the drone have been recovered intact and are being analysed," he said, adding that it had a range of 800 kilometres (500 miles).

"It was spotted by our surveillance system and shot down by a Revolutionary Guards surface-to-air missile," Hajizadeh said.

According to Hajizadeh, the drone was equipped with two cameras capable of taking high-quality images.

Footage of the recovered drone pieces was aired on Iranian television.

Iran and the P5+1 powers -- Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany -- are in negotiations to secure a nuclear deal.

They reached a six-month interim agreement under which Iran suspended part of its nuclear activities in return for a partial lifting of international sanctions.

In July that deal was extended by four months until November 24 to give the two sides more time to negotiate a final accord aimed at ending 10 years of tensions over Iran's nuclear programme.

The sides remain split on how much uranium enrichment Iran should be allowed to carry out.

Washington wants Tehran to slash its programme by three-quarters, but Iran wants to expand enrichment tenfold by 2021, chiefly to produce fuel for its Bushehr nuclear power plant.

Israel, a sworn enemy of Iran, opposes any agreement between the P5+1 powers and Tehran that will allow Iran to keep part of its uranium enrichment programme, saying they could use the material to make an atomic bomb.

Iran has consistently denied wanting to make nuclear weapons.

Violence reverberated across Gaza on Monday with four Palestinians killed in Israeli air strikes as Egypt proposed a new ceasefire that would open key crossings into the blockaded territory.

Since an earlier ceasefire arrangement collapsed on August 19, the death toll in Gaza has risen steadily with 106 Palestinians killed in more than 350 Israeli air strikes across the territory.

Over the same period, more than 650 rockets have struck Israeli territory, one of which killed a four-year-old boy over the weekend, army figures show. Around 100 rockets were shot down.

Since midnight, Israeli strikes have killed four Palestinians, including two women and a three-year-old boy, raising the Gaza death toll to 2,124.

On the Israeli side, 68 people have been killed, the vast majority soldiers.

Another 38 rockets fired from Gaza struck the Israeli south on Sunday, while another was shot down, army statistics showed.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday Israel would not be worn down by persistent rocket fire, warning it would hit any place from which militants were firing, including homes.

His remarks came as the air force stepped up its campaign against rocket fire, bombarding a 12-storey residential block.

But by early Monday, there was increasing talk about a possible new ceasefire agreement which would see the delegations return to Cairo to resume discussions on an Egyptian proposal to broker a more permanent end to the violence.

- Waiting for Israel -

"There is an idea for a temporary ceasefire that opens the crossings, allows aid and reconstruction material, and the disputed points will be discussed in a month," a senior Palestinian official told AFP in Cairo.

"We would be willing to accept this, but are waiting for the Israeli response to this proposal," he said, requesting anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.

Another Palestinian official said Egypt might invite Palestinian and Israeli negotiating teams to return to Cairo within 48 hours.

"Efforts are ongoing to reach an agreement," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told AFP, without going into specifics.

Daud Shihab, Islamic Jihad's spokesman, confirmed such efforts were under way.

"The success of contacts (talks) to reach a ceasefire depends on Palestinian demands being met," he said.

There was no immediate comment from Israel, with Netanyahu's spokesman Mark Regev saying Israel's position of no negotiations under fire had "not changed".

But Israeli Science Minister Yaakov Peri, an observer at the security cabinet and former head of the Shin Bet internal security agency, said if the rocket fire stopped, it was likely talks would resume.

"If a ceasefire goes into effect, and it sticks, there is a good chance that the prime minister will instruct the delegation to return to the talks in Cairo," he told public radio, saying it would be over a "lean arrangement."

"Generally, we will agree to open the crossings," he said, referring to Erez and the Kerem Shalom commercial crossing where humanitarian aid passes, which Israel was "also willing to increase".

Regarding the Rafah crossing with Egypt, "that is a decision for the Egyptians," although Israel would support the deployment of Palestinian Authority security personnel at the terminal, he said, defining the broad outline of a lean arrangement.

But a more comprehensive arrangement -- involving Israel facilitating the reconstruction of Gaza in exchange for its demilitarisation -- was "far off", he said.

- West Bank teen dies -

The invitation to new truce talks came after Egyptian leader Abdel Fattah al-Sisi met Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Saturday.

Egypt has repeatedly urged all parties to accept an open-ended truce and return to the negotiating table in Cairo.

Previous temporary ceasefires have failed to result in any agreement, although back-to-back extensions have given millions of people periods of relief from incessant bombardment and rocket fire.

Hamas, the de facto authority in Gaza, says any truce must provide for a lifting of Israel's crippling eight-year blockade and the opening of a seaport and airport, while Israel has demanded Gaza be demilitarised.

Meanwhile, senior Palestine Liberation Organisation official Wasel Abu Yusef told AFP the Palestinian leadership is to demand the UN Security Council set a deadline for ending the Israeli occupation.

Such a move would likely be vetoed by the United States which traditionally opposes any step perceived as anti-Israeli at the Security Council.

In the northern West Bank, a 14-year-old Palestinian died of wounds sustained Friday in clashes during a protest against the Gaza war. At least 20 Palestinians have been killed during such protests since July 8, UN figures show.

Elsewhere, Iran said it would "accelerate" moves to arm West Bank Palestinians a day after claiming it had shot down an Israeli drone above one of its uranium enrichment sites.

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