Originally published by the Voice of America (www.voanews.com).
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February 23, 2009

Reports: Clinton to Israel, West Bank Next Week
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http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=22785EE:A6F02AD83191E1609C3772A73092B2503CF5CDEF8FC051DA&
 
No word on whether she will travel to Gaza 
Palestinian and Israeli officials say U.S. Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton will visit Israel and the occupied West Bank next week, her
first official visit to the region. Hillary Clinton Clinton is scheduled
to attend a donor conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt March 2 on
rebuilding the Gaza Strip in the wake of last month's Israel-Hamas war.
Officials in the region say she will then travel to Israel and the West
Bank. There was no word on whether she would travel to Gaza, whose Hamas
leadership Washington considers a terrorist group. In a separate
development, the rights group Amnesty International Monday accused
Israel and Hamas of using foreign-supplied weapons to kill civilians.
Amnesty says Israel used white phosphorous and other weapons supplied by
the United States to carry out what it called serious violations of
international humanitarian law. The rights group also accused Hamas and
other Palestinian militants in Gaza of firing hundreds of rockets at
civilians in Israel, an act it describes as a war crime. Israel says any
use of white phosphorous during the Gaza conflict was within
international guidelines. Foreign ministry spokesman Andy David also
criticized Amnesty for not pointing out that Hamas used civilians as
human shields. Also Monday, efforts to find a durable truce in the Gaza
conflict hit another obstacle, when Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
suspended his lead negotiator from his duties. Officials said that
senior defense official Amos Gilad, representing Israel in
Egyptian-brokered talks, was relieved after he was quoted telling an
Israeli newspaper that Mr. Olmert's inconsistent approach to the talks
undermined national security. In the interview with the Israeli
newspaper "Maariv", Gilad said the prime minister's last minute decision
to make the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit a precondition to a
cease-fire was an insult to Egypt. Shalit was captured by Palestinian
militants in a cross-border raid more than two years ago.


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