Jerusalem – A Qassam rocket was fired on Tuesday night from Gaza to Kibbutz Gvaram in the Ashkelon area. The rocket landed in an open area, and no one was reported injured and no damage was caused.

After a situation assessment, Israel Defense Minister Ehud Barak decided to close the border crossings between Israel and the Gaza Strip yesterday, following the Qassam rocket attack.

Hamas’ representatives have made contradictory statements this week about the future of the “tahdia” (cease fire/calm) arrangement, which is scheduled to expire on Dec. 19.

Hamas Spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said his movement had not decided so far whether to continue the tahdia or end it. However, Hamas leader Mushir al-Masri, speaking on the “Sawt al-Quds” radio station in Gaza, said ending or extending the tahdia required the consent of all the Palestinian organizations.

He said that the “Zionist enemy’s” attempt to evade the terms of the tahdia could encourage the organizations not to extend it.

Mr. Masri said further that the remaining months would determine whether the tahdia had achieved its goals, mainly with regard to opening the crossings and bringing goods into the Gaza Strip.

He also stated in the same interview that in the Hamas lexicon, tahdia means “rest for the jihad fighter,” and it is used for the purpose of training and preparing the military system for the “battles to come.”

He added that in principle, the normal policy of the Palestinian people and the “resistance” (i.e. the terror organizations) was the “option of jihad and resistance,” while the tahdia was a temporary and irregular phenomenon.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com. His Web site is www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com

©The Bulletin 2008

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David Bedein
David Bedein is an MSW community organizer and an investigative journalist.   In 1987, Bedein established the Israel Resource News Agency at Beit Agron to accompany foreign journalists in their coverage of Israel, to balance the media lobbies established by the PLO and their allies.   Mr. Bedein has reported for news outlets such as CNN Radio, Makor Rishon, Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times, BBC and The Jerusalem Post, For four years, Mr. Bedein acted as the Middle East correspondent for The Philadelphia Bulletin, writing 1,062 articles until the newspaper ceased operation in 2010. Bedein has covered breaking Middle East negotiations in Oslo, Ottawa, Shepherdstown, The Wye Plantation, Annapolis, Geneva, Nicosia, Washington, D.C., London, Bonn, and Vienna. Bedein has overseen investigative studies of the Palestinian Authority, the Expulsion Process from Gush Katif and Samaria, The Peres Center for Peace, Peace Now, The International Center for Economic Cooperation of Yossi Beilin, the ISM, Adalah, and the New Israel Fund.   Since 2005, Bedein has also served as Director of the Center for Near East Policy Research.   A focus of the center's investigations is The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). In that context, Bedein authored Roadblock to Peace: How the UN Perpetuates the Arab-Israeli Conflict - UNRWA Policies Reconsidered, which caps Bedein's 28 years of investigations of UNRWA. The Center for Near East Policy Research has been instrumental in reaching elected officials, decision makers and journalists, commissioning studies, reports, news stories and films. In 2009, the center began decided to produce short movies, in addition to monographs, to film every aspect of UNRWA education in a clear and cogent fashion.   The center has so far produced seven short documentary pieces n UNRWA which have received international acclaim and recognition, showing how which UNRWA promotes anti-Semitism and incitement to violence in their education'   In sum, Bedein has pioneered The UNRWA Reform Initiative, a strategy which calls for donor nations to insist on reasonable reforms of UNRWA. Bedein and his team of experts provide timely briefings to members to legislative bodies world wide, bringing the results of his investigations to donor nations, while demanding reforms based on transparency, refugee resettlement and the demand that terrorists be removed from the UNRWA schools and UNRWA payroll.   Bedein's work can be found at: www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com and www.cfnepr.com. A new site,unrwa-monitor.com, will be launched very soon.