Monday, December 22, 2003

• EGYPTIAN FM ATTACKED BY PALESTINIAN MOB WHILE VISITING TEMPLE MOUNT 
• HAMAS ENDORSES IRAQI RESISTANCE 
• COLOMBIAN HOSTAGES ON WAY TO FREEDOM 
• OTHER NEWS IN BRIEF ECONOMIC & HI-TECH BRIEFS

EGYPTIAN FM ATTACKED BY PALESTINIAN MOB WHILE VISITING TEMPLE MOUNT

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher was lightly injured today after being assaulted by Palestinian extremists during a visit to Jerusalem's Temple Mount, HA'ARETZ reported. Body guards and Israeli police drove off the assaulters, and escorted the Egyptian minister off the mount. Maher was later evacuated to Jerusalem's Hadassah University Hospital, Ein Karem, for tests.

Maher had earlier today met with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and other senior Israeli officials visiting Israel for the first time in more than two years. Sharon indicated to the Egyptian minister that Israel would respond favorably to a cease-fire offer from Palestinian terrorists. "We will respond to quiet with quiet," a senior source in the Prime Minister's office said, adding that the Sharon-Maher meeting had gone very well and could lead to a summit between Sharon and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. "I am sure that this visit will contribute to the strengthening of relations between Egypt and Israel," Sharon said.

HAMAS ENDORSES IRAQI RESISTANCE

The Iraqis fighting the U.S.-led forces of operation 'Iraqi Freedom' are an inspiration to the Palestinians, a leader of the Palestinian terror group Hamas said Sunday, THE JERUSALEM POST reported. Speaking in the Lebanese capital to mark the anniversary of Hamas' founding in 1987, Khaled Mashaal said that the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March constituted a "point of weakness and a threat to the (Islamic) nation." "But now we can deal with it as a point of strength, and a point of weakness for the American-Zionist plan in the region," Mashaal said. Mashaal is head of the Hamas bureau and is based in Damascus, Syria.

Earlier this year, the Syrian government temporarily closed the offices of Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups under U.S. pressure. But it did not expel the Palestinian terrorists, who reject all peace accords with Israel.

COLOMBIAN HOSTAGES ON WAY TO FREEDOM

Four Israeli hikers and a Briton kidnapped by Colombian rebels three months ago have been released to their rescuers, and are reportedly in good condition, THE JERUSALEM POST reported. They are now on their way to Bogota, where they are to be reunited with their families. A humanitarian team of church and UN representatives set out this afternoon to the rendezvous point in order to receive the five abducted tourists in Colombia. From there, they will be flown in a plane hired by the Israeli and British embassies to Bogota. The Israeli tourists will then meet their parents at the home of Israeli Ambassador to Colombia Yair Recanati.

The four Israelis - Benny Daniel, 23, of Ma'aleh Adumim, Ido Guy, 26, of Haifa, Erez Atawil, 24, from Herzliya and Orpaz Ohayon, 22, of Ma'aleh Adumim, - and Briton Mark Henderson, 31, were part of a group of 15 foreign bag-packers and locals kidnapped on September 12 by Colombia's second-largest rebel group, the National Liberation Army, or ELN, in the archaeological-rich area of Colombia's northern Sierra Nevada mountains, about 750 kilometers north of Bogota.

OTHER NEWS IN BRIEF