[ Middle East News Service introduction: It is difficult to quantify the affect that media attention in Lebanon has had over Israeli activities in Occupied Palestinian Territories. A few minutes ago on the ABC’s midday program the World Today it was reported that altogether 115 Palestinians have been killed in the four week period since the capture of Gilad Shalit. On the basis of the previous months’ figures the majority of those killed would have been innocent civilians and other non-combatants. (This News Service intends to continue the practice of tallying up the various categories on the B’Tselem site. You will get those figures as soon the compilation is completed.)

In the meantime it appears as if the ABC’s figures underestimate the total. Below is a translation of an Einyan Merkazi report on the subject. This is a patriotic but critical website that tends towards the vernacular. It is similar to Crikey.com.au in Australia in the sense it has got things wrong before but it has been proven correct on other stories, particularly those related to inside information from military sources. The full Israeli Ministry meets every Sunday (the first day of the Israeli working week)

– Sol Salbe.]

Quietly but surely, the Israeli Defence has been liquidating terrorists in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. If you assemble all the data together the complete picture is revealed and it is very encouraging. During a meeting of the full ministry, the Deputy Chief of Staff, Major-General Moshe Kaplinski, revealed that since the kidnapping of Corporal Gilad Shalit at Kerem Shalom, the IDF has successfully liquidated 150 terrorists. At the same time only one of our soldiers was killed in an operation in Nablus and only a handful have been injured.

On the other hand Kaplinski said that the firing of Qassam rockets has continued. Since the successful Hamas operation at Kerem Shalom there have been 193 incidents of Qassam rocket firing from the Gaza Strip, including five on Sunday morning.

[Rest of item deals with other matters.]

[The independent Middle East News Service concentrates on providing alternative information chiefly from Israeli sources. It is sponsored by the Australian Jewish Democratic Society. The views expressed here are not necessarily those of the AJDS. These are expressed in its own statements]

Deaf Ears: Speaker On Support For Mojo Mathers

Scoop Audio: In a press conference this afternoon Speaker Lockwood Smith defended his handling of requests for support for profoundly deaf MP Mojo Mathers' participation in Parliament, and said he was "deeply concerned" by the way the issue had been portrayed.

Earlier today the Greens said they had been told they would have to fund support Mathers requires out of their own budget. More>>