Bethlehem test starts as IDF pulls out
Ha'aretz, August 20, 2002 
The "Bethlehem-and-Gaza-First" plan began yesterday with Bethlehem seeing Israel Defense Forces troops leaving the city and its suburbs of Beit Jalla and Beit Sahour south of Jerusalem in the morning and armed Palestinian police patrols arriving with Palestinian Police Commander Gen. Haj Ismail in the evening.

Battered Palestinian forces expected to keep peace
Jordan Times, August 20, 2002
BETHLEHEM — They have few weapons or vehicles, their comrades have been arrested and killed, their headquarters have been rocketed into rubble and they have not worn their uniforms publicly in months.

Palestinian Radical's Brother Killed
Guardian, August 20, 2002
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) - Israeli special forces killed the brother of a radical Palestinian leader in his home in this West Bank town Tuesday, Palestinian intelligence officers and witnesses said.

Soldier killed in Gaza; Ben-Eliezer warns PA to stop violence
Ha'aretz, August 20, 2002 
A Palestinian policeman patrolling the streets of Bethlehem Tuesday after the IDF pullback from the W. Bank city. Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer said Tuesday, after an IDF soldier was killed in heavy exchanges of gunfire in the Gaza Strip, that if the Palestinians do not stop the violence in Gaza, the army will.

Ill-Treatment of Palestinian Female Detainees
Palestine Chronicle, August 19, 2002
RAMALLAH (LAW): Palestinian female detainees in Israeli prisons are ill-treated. Today, fifty Palestinian women are imprisoned in Israeli prisons and detention centers. Forty female detainees are detained at al-Ramle prison, including six minors. The other female detainees are detained in al- Jalameh and the Russian Compound ('Moscowbiya').

Stringent Curfew Regime in Nablus Threatens Population With Humanitarian Tragedy
Palestine Chronicle, August 19, 2002 
Monday, August 19 2002 @ 08:53 PM GMT
NABLUS: The curfew regime in the West Bank has now been imposed continuously for almost nine weeks. Since 19 June this year, then the Israeli army launched the second West Bank-wide invasion in less than two months, curfews have been enforced upon all major Palestinian towns and villages.

Palestinian teenager killed in Gaza Strip
Times of India, August 20, 2002
GAZA CITY: A Palestinian teenager was shot dead by the Israeli Army near the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Yunis Tuesday, Palestinian medical sources said.

Israel kills brother of jailed PFLP chief
Al-Bawaba, August 20, 2002
Israeli special forces on Tuesday evening killed the brother of a Palestinian leader, Palestinian intelligence officers said.

Implementation of ‘Gaza First’ Plan Begins Today
Palestine Chronicle, August 19, 2002 
TEL AVIV — Israel and the Palestinians held their highest level security talks in two weeks last night, with discussions focusing on a possible Israeli withdrawal from re-occupied lands. The Defense Ministry said in a statement late last night that the implementation of the "Gaza First" security plan, which involves a phased Israeli withdrawal from reoccupied Palestinian areas, is to start from today in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank town of Bethlehem.

Collaborator arrested in Gaza; Israeli soldier shot dead in Gaza Strip; Two Palestinians killed in Tulkarem, Khan Yunis
Al-Bawaba, August 20, 2002
An Israeli soldier was killed Tuesday morning near the Neveh Dekalim settlement in the Gaza Strip. The soldier was seriously injured after being shot in the head and died of his wounds later. Hamas claimed responsibility for the killing.

Hepatitis A outbreak ignored by US media
Palestine Media Watch, August 19, 2002
PMWATCH -- August 19, 2002 -- Yet another vague promise by the IDF to "pull out" of a couple of Palestinian cities, yet another volley of promises from the Israelis to "bring some relief" to Palestinian civilians (a masterstroke of a spin, making it sound as though they are doing the Palestinians a favor by desisting from actions that are forbidden by the Geneva Conventions), yet another "deal" that anyone who knows anything about Ariel Sharon and his vision for a "final solution" can only dismiss as nothing more than a tactical move in his one-way war of attrition against the Palestinian people.

Palestinian Police Patrol Bethlehem
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
New York Times, August 20, 2002
BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AP) -- Palestinian police were back on the streets of Bethlehem on Tuesday after Israeli forces left the town as part of a trial that could lead to further Israeli withdrawals in the West Bank.

Dh5.5m allocated for Gaza hospital
Gulf News, August 20, 2002
The Red Crescent Authority yesterday said that it had allocated Dh5.5 million for the construction of Al Nada Hospital, south of Gaza Strip. Sana Darwish Al Kotbi, the Authority's Secretary-General, said that the project fell within the concerns of President His Highness Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan and His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, for extending the best humanitarian services to the Palestinian people.

Palestinians assume control of Bethlehem
Stuff.com - New Zealand, August 20, 2002
BETHLEHEM: Israel handed over security control of Bethlehem to the Palestinians and withdrew its army patrols today under a deal marking the first real progress in months in staunching nearly two years of bloodshed.

Palestinian resistance reject to Israel's Gaza First Plan, Israeli breaking acts
Arabic News, August 20, 2002
The Palestinian youth Mahmoud Ameen Abu Odeh ( 13 year old) has died after he was hit in his leg by a tank shell during the Israeli forces breaking into the city of Jenin in the course of a campaign of breaking in which also covered the towns of Barqin, Beit Sahour, al-Jalazoun camp in the West Bank amid a campaign of arrest which targeted 6 Palestinians and other 10 from Nour Shams camp near Toulkarem.

U.S. think tank urges EU to halt funding to PA
Ha'aretz, August 20, 2002
WASHINGTON - The Heritage Foundation, a conservative private research group, is urging European leaders to stop funding the Palestine Authority in light of its "overwhelming anti-Israel bias" and allegations the aid funds Palestinian terror.

Contradicting reports concerning Abu Nidal fate
Al-Bawaba, August 20, 2002
Abu Nidal, whose body was reportedly found in a Baghdad apartment over the weekend, was killed by Iraqi agents, the London-based Al Sharq Al Awsat reported Tuesday. According to this report, the Iraqi assassins fired four bullets at Abu Nidal, after Baghdad had discovered he had relations with the Kuwaiti authorities.

Al-Jazeera: The killing of Sabri al-Banna; Abu Nidal
Arabic News, August 20, 2002
The Qatari al-Jazeera TV said on Monday from well-informed Palestinian sources that Sabri al-Banna, better known as Abu Nidal, leader of Fatah group, the revolutionary council, was found killed several days ago in Baghdad in vague circumstances.

CNN: Iraqi official says Abu Nidal dead, conspired against Iraq
Ha'aretz, August 20, 2002  
According to a senior Iraqi government official, Palestinian guerilla leader Abu Nidal conspired against the government in Baghdad and in recent days committed suicide in the capital after he was confronted by security officials regarding his activities, CNN reported Tuesday.

Barak blames “extremist forces” among Israeli Arabs for October 2000 riots
Al-Bawaba, August 20, 2002
Former Israeli prime minister, Ehud Barak, speaking before the special commission of inquiry into the killing of 13 Israeli Arabs in October 2000, rejected Tuesday the claims that he had ordered the police during the demonstartions to reopen major roads "by any means," despite the risk to human life that this would entail.

Peres visits Oslo, says no regrets since receiving Nobel Prize
Ha'aretz, August 20, 2002
OSLO - Foreign Minister Shimon Peres on Tuesday shrugged off criticism from a member of the Norwegian Nobel committee and said he did not regret anything he had done since receiving the 1994 peace prize.

PA arrests Palestinian suspected of helping IDF kill Hamas chief
Ha'aretz, August 20, 2002  
A Palestinian university student gave Israel information that led to a Gaza air strike last month which killed a top Islamic militant and 15 other Palestinians, a senior Palestinian security official said on Tuesday.

Day 60: Nablus Still under Siege
Palestine Chronicle, August 19, 2002 
By Amer Abdelhadi for Palestine Chronicle
Sixty one days ago last, people of Nablus were wary of the escalating events. The Israeli Army started reoccupying major cities in the West Bank for the second time in two months.

Putting The Cart Before The Horse
Palestine Chronicle, August 19, 2002  
One of the many astonishing things that happens at checkpoints is that the Israeli military impounds Palestinians' horses, donkeys and their carts.
There seems to be no possible explanation for this. They take the carts away and leave them next to the checkpoint tents housing the officers. If the army thought there was some kind of bomb threat they certainly wouldn't leave the carts there.

Skepticism high as Israel begins pullout: Palestinians regain control of Bethlehem in security test case
Toronto Star, August 20, 2002
JERUSALEM — Amid protests from hardliners on both sides, Israeli forces last night took the first tentative steps toward easing the impasse in the Middle East, withdrawing from the historic city of Bethlehem.

Shooting deaths come as Israel withdraws from Bethlehem
MSNBC, August 20, 2002
Aug. 20 —  Palestinian police were back on the streets of Bethlehem Tuesday after Israeli forces left the town as part of a trial that could lead to further Israeli withdrawals in the West Bank. But the goodwill that accompanied the pullback deal was put to an immediate test after an Israeli soldier and two Palestinians were killed in fresh violence.

The Pain of One: Has the War on Terror Changed Attitudes on Torture?
ABC News, August 13, 2002
Beating. Asphyxiation. Electrocution. Starvation. Sexual violation: Before Sept. 11, most people would have blanched at these and other forms of torture, and most still do. But after major intelligence failures allowed 19 men to cause the deaths of more than 3,000 people, and the suffering of untold others, attitudes have had reason to change.

Palestinian, jailed since November, due to be released
Boston Globe, August 20, 2002
AMPA - A Palestinian imprisoned twice for immigration violations and suspected terrorist ties will be released this week from a federal prison and deported to a Middle Eastern country, his attorneys said yesterday.

Syria sounds alarm on US ambitions in Middle East
Jordan Times, August 20, 2002
DAMASCUS — Syria is sounding the alarm about what it says is Washington's ambition to use an attack on Iraq to reshape the Middle East to suit US and Israeli interests.