This week was all about details of the January 20 assassination of Hamas military leader Mohammed Al Mabhouh, who was killed in his Dubai hotel room. Dubai police initially identified 11 people, most of them European nationals, but reports later said seven more may have been involved. While Israel has yet to officially deny or acknowledge its part in the assassination, all indications point to it. Apparently, several of the assassins carried fake European passports, all stolen identities of Israelis with dual citizenship.

Since then, London, Dublin, France and Germany have all either summoned Israel’s ambassadors to their countries or asked for official for clarification about the passport theft. The fiasco is causing considerable tension between Israel and these western countries, especially since it would not have been the first time Israel uses this method in its assassination operations of Palestinians. Dubai police have said they are “99 if not 100 percent sure” the Mossad is involved and would put out an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if Israel’s involvement was confirmed. International warrants have already been issued for the 11 identified culprits.

France has its own take on the killing. On February 20, the French Foreign Minister said in an interview with a French magazine that Mabhouh’s assassination highlighted the urgent need for an immediate recognition of a Palestinian state.

Meanwhile, Hamas has vowed to avenge its man’s murder, even warning the west not to use Arab land to facilitate the killing of Palestinian activists. In a sermon at Friday prayers on February 19 Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahhar said the west must “close its gates to the [Israeli] occupation” or face confrontation.

"The west must realize that we do not wish to be enemies, nor do we seek confrontation in this world,” he said, “but if the West allows the Israeli occupation to turn its land into a land where Palestinians are killed, it will be the loser.” Reports of two Palestinians involved in the plot and apprehended in Jordan have also surfaced.

Meanwhile, in the Palestinian territories, the Gaza Strip saw an elevated level of violence this week as Israeli troops infiltrated deep within its borders on February 18. The clashes that ensued resulted in an injured Israeli soldier and the death of one Palestinian and several injuries. According to Palestinian sources, four Israeli tanks and a bulldozer penetrated 900 meters into the Maghazi refugee camp and demolished two homes there.

On February 20, Israeli helicopters fired and injured three Palestinians who engaged in an armed clash with the troops near the Kissofim military base.

In the West Bank, Palestinian and international demonstrators in Bilin were able to dismantle a 30-meter section of the separation wall built in the village during their weekly demonstration there. Prime Minister Salam Fayyad took part in the non-violent demonstration that included about 1,000 people. This week marked five years since the beginning of the Bilin protests. After dismantling the section of the wall, Palestinian protesters were able to plant a Palestinian flag atop a military post there.

Jewish West Bank settlements, which the wall was largely designed to encompass, have been growing in spite of Israel’s so-called 10-month moratorium on settlement construction. According to the Israeli organization Peace Now on February 15, 33 West Bank settlements were in violation of the freeze. Israel’s defense minister Matan Vilnai said the government only acknowledges 29.

It is not only the West Bank that Israel is circling in on, but also Jerusalem and even Palestinian territories within the 1948 borders. This week, protests have taken place in Jaffa, inside Israel after an Israeli court approved on February 16, the sale of a building in the Arab Ajami quarter to B’Emuna, an extremist Jewish group. The group is aimed at building subsidized homes for orthodox Jewish families, much of its work which is carried out in West Bank settlements. B’Emuna, which took over the building to complete 20 apartments over the next few months, has already applied for a license to build an additional 180. Palestinians living in Jaffa are unhappy with the decision, saying they would not allow extremist Jews to settle Jaffa in the same way they overtook Hebron.

As for Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on February 17 during the International Jerusalem Conference that the city would remain Israel’s undivided capital even if the two peoples had to coexist. “Jerusalem is the capital of the Jewish people. It has never been the capital of another people,” he said. Netanyahu also assured his audience that as long as he is the country’s premier, PFLP leader Ahmad Saadat would not see the outside of his prison cell.

Also in Jerusalem, the Israeli Jerusalem municipality announced on February 14 that 657 buildings in Silwan were unlicensed and would therefore be demolished. The area in question is the Bustan Quarter, which Israeli authorities have pegged for the venue of an archeological park.

Jerusalem municipality officials have also zeroed in on the Old City, handing several Palestinian shop owners inside Damascus Gate demolition orders on February 17. The orders called for the owners to evacuate and subsequently demolish their own stores. Earlier reports have spoken about municipality plans to close off Damascus Gate for a two year period to carry out infrastructure works although Palestinian sources say the move is to further execute diggings underneath the city. The move will force 400 stores to close and inconvenience scores of Palestinians living along that road.