VARIOUS: Israel kills a militant in missile strike on Gaza as Abbas calls for Hamas's removal ouster as Gaza's ruler

Israeli military helicopters launch an air strike at Palestinian militants in northern Gaza, killing one. In the West Bank, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas calls for Hamas's removal as Gaza's ruler. Palestinians also mark the 19th anniversary of Yasser Arafat's Palestinian "Declaration of Independence". An Israeli military helicopter fired at least two missiles on a group of Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday (November 15), killing a militant and wounding four other people, witnesses and hospital officials said. Video footage from the scene of the air strike shows an Israeli military helicopter firing two missiles. After the second missile hits an area near a road, a rocket fired by Palestinian militants is seen launching. An Israeli military spokeswoman said ground forces fired on a Palestinian rocket crew. The dead militant was identified as a member of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed wing of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who leads a government which holds sway in the West Bank, said on Thursday the Gaza Strip's Hamas Islamist rulers must be brought down, issuing his strongest call yet for their removal. "But we at the same time have to bring down this gang that forcibly took over the Gaza Strip, and trading the suffering and the pain of our nation which has seen nothing but criminal works that is accompanied with the renewal of the siege by Israel," Abbas said during a televised address. Abbas, preparing for a U.S.-hosted Middle East conference the United States hopes will bolster him, offered no details about how Hamas's removal could be accomplished. Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri described Abbas's comments as "shameful" and said they "proved he was not interested in any Palestinian internal reconciliation". "The statements of the Palestinian President are dangerous statements. These statements assure that the Palestinian President is not interested in any agreement with Hamas and he is the first, and directly responsible for the ongoing crisis. These statements are with no doubt shameful, because what is demanded on the national level is ending the occupation and the resistance movements starting with Hamas," Abu Zuhri told Reuters. Elsewhere in the West Bank, Palestinians marked the 19th anniversary of the Palestinians' Declaration of Independence. From exile in 1988, late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat declared the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, including Arab East Jerusalem as capital, and the Gaza Strip, lands Israel occupied in 1967. In Bethlehem, a monument to the declaration was unveiled during a small ceremony. Scores of Palestinians also marched peacefully along an Israeli highway which cuts through the West Bank on land Palestinians want for an independent state. Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have been struggling to agree on a joint document that would address in broad terms core issues like borders, the future of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees. But it is increasingly unclear whether a joint document will be ready in time for an expected Middle East conference at the end of the month. Both Israeli and American officials said reaching an agreement on the document was not a requirement for going ahead with the meeting as scheduled. rz/jrc

ITN Source | November 15, 2007

Tags:. .criminal. .agreement. .wounding. .scheduled. .wing