Meanwhile, President Bush arrived in Israel today, where he begins his week-long Middle East tour. It’s Bush’s first visit to Israel and the Occupied Territories during his time in the White House. Bush says he’s come to the region to help revive peace talks launched out of November’s U.S.-brokered summit in Annapolis. Bush is expected to visit the West Bank tomorrow. His tour won’t include the Gaza Strip, now under control of Hamas. On Tuesday, thousands of Palestinians marched in Gaza to protest Bush’s visit. Israel has launched a series of attacks on Gaza over the past week. One man, Hamdan Fayyad, lost his wife and two children to Israeli gunfire.

Hamdan Fayyad: “I tell Bush, the weapon factories in which you are an artist in perfecting the weapons and then you send them to Israel, or what some call Israel, you send it to them so that they can kill the Palestinian people, especially the innocent, and as I heard and understood, this weapon is internationally banned.”