1 killed, 19 wounded in Israeli gunfire near Gaza

Gaza:
Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian man and wounded 19 people as crowds surged toward Gaza's border fence with Israel on Friday, a health official said, the first violence since a truce between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers took hold a day before.

The shooting did not appear to pose an immediate threat to the Egypt-brokered cease-fire, which called for an end to Gaza rocket fire on Israel and Israeli airstrikes on Gaza. The truce came after eight days of cross-border fighting, the bloodiest between Israel and Hamas in four years.

The Gaza prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, has urged militant factions to respect the cease-fire. It appeared unlikely Hamas would retaliate for the Friday's shooting because that could jeopardize the militant group's potential gains from the cease-fire deal, such as an easing of restrictions on movement in and out of the Palestinian territory.

Hamas officials were not immediately available for comment. Nafez Azzam, a spokesman for Gaza's Islamic Jihad, said the shooting was a violation of the truce and that Egypt was informed.

On Friday, hundreds of Palestinians approached Israel's border fence in several locations in southern Gaza, according to an Associated Press Television News cameraman. In the past, Israel's military has barred Palestinians from getting close to the fence, and soldiers opened fire routinely to enforce a no-go zone meant to prevent infiltrations into Israel.

Since the cease-fire, growing numbers of Gazans have entered the no-go zone.

In one incident captured by Associated Press video, several dozen Palestinians, most of them young men, approached the fence, coming close to a group of Israeli soldiers standing on the other side.

Meanwhile Russia deployed warships off the coast of the Gaza strip in anticipation of a possible evacuation of Russian citizens in the event of a renewed escalation, a Russian news agency reported via a military source.

West Bank:
Palestinian sources said that the Israeli Forces arrested several members from the Palestinian Legislative Council for Hamas in the West Bank.

The Hamas office noted that the “occupation is waging a campaign of mass arrests against Hamas affiliated deputies, arresting 5 so far.”

Speaking from Beijing, an envoy of the Palestinian Authority Leader Mahmoud Abbas said that the Palestinians are anticipating a greater role in the Middle East, especially in regards to mediating with Israel.

Bassam el-Salihi added during a press conference, the true agreement reached between Israel and Hamas can only survive with the sole support of the United Nations and the Security Council and countries like China.

Israeli Elections Polls post Gaza:
In Israel, a poll showed that about half of Israelis think their government should have continued its military offensive against Hamas.

The independent Maagar Mohot poll released Friday shows 49 percent of respondents feel Israel should have kept going after squads that fire rockets into Israel. Thirty-one percent supported the government's decision to stop. Twenty percent had no opinion.

Twenty-nine percent thought Israel should have sent ground troops to invade Gaza. The poll of 503 respondents had an error margin of 4.5 percentage points.

The same survey showed Netanyahu's Likud Party and electoral partner Israel Beiteinu losing some support, but his hard-line bloc would still able to form the next government. Elections are Jan. 22.


AP/REUTERS/LBCI