Fresh protests against civil service pay cuts broke out in Gaza on Saturday, AFP reporters said, amid pressure on Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas to act. The decision this week by the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority to impose pay cuts on its civil servants in the Gaza Strip has sparked anger among the employees, with protests … Read more
Christians in Jerusalem said Thursday that they are hoping for an “open Jerusalem” ahead of Passover and Easter celebrations in the city. Palestinian Christians from the West Bank and Gaza receive special permits to enter Jerusalem for Easter, where the traditional sites of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection are located in the Israeli-occupied east of the … Read more
A Palestinian man carried out a car-ramming next to a bus stop near a settlement in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, killing one Israeli and wounding another, officials said. The incident near the Israeli settlement of Ofra came ahead of the Jewish Passover holiday beginning on Monday, which has raised fears of an upsurge … Read more
Fuad Skik has been waiting in vain since December for permission from Israel to leave the Gaza Strip for cancer treatments, illustrating a problem that has concerned global health officials. “At the end of 2016, I asked for an Israeli exit permit and I registered my wife to accompany me, but I still have not … Read more
Hamas has offered “collaborators” with Israel a week to turn themselves in and receive clemency as it investigates the murder of one of its officials in the Gaza Strip, which it blames on Israel. “The doors of repentance will be open for one week, from Tuesday, April 4 to Tuesday, April 11,” the interior ministry … Read more
Brazil on Tuesday sternly criticized Israel’s approval for renewed large-scale settlement building in the occupied West Bank. “The settlements in (Palestinian territory) are illegal and amount to an obstacle for the two-state solution and for a fair and lasting peace,” the foreign ministry said in a statement. Brazil reiterated its position in favor of the … Read more
The Palestinian women’s football team saw a crushing defeat in their first match in Asian Cup qualifiers — a 6-0 loss to Thailand — but for captain Claudie Salameh, the score means little. “Playing football for girls in Palestine is an enormous challenge,” she said after the match. “We face world football but also (challenges) … Read more
Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Sunday Israel did not seek “adventures” in Gaza after Hamas accused it of assassinating an official, and suggested the group itself could have killed him. Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip, has blamed Israeli intelligence agency Mossad and its “collaborators” for the March 24 killing of Mazen Faqha in the … Read more
Hamas will allow foreign UN and Red Cross workers to leave Gaza, the Islamist movement ruling the Palestinian enclave said Saturday, after closing the only foot crossing with Israel. Hamas shut the Erez crossing on March 26 after it blamed the Jewish state for the assassination two days earlier of one of its military officials. … Read more
A Palestinian from the occupied West Bank stabbed and wounded three Israelis in Jerusalem’s Old City on Saturday before being shot dead by border guards, police said. The suspect attacked two Jewish passers-by before fleeing. He later wounded a border guard before he was shot dead. Two of the Israelis were lightly wounded and the … Read more
A United Nations political agency suspended its missions to Gaza Friday after the Hamas authorities in the Palestinian enclave partly closed the key border crossing into Israel, a source said. The UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East peace process (UNSCO) will not send staff to Gaza until further notice, the source close to the … Read more
After openly accusing Israel of assassinating a key military commander near his Gaza home, experts agree that Palestinian militant group Hamas will want to retaliate. The question is when and where? Israeli and Palestinian experts both said Hamas would seek to avenge the killing of Mazen Faqha, 38, but from a distance. A commander in … Read more
An Israeli minister has gone against the tide in proposing a way he says would alleviate conditions in the Gaza Strip while maintaining his country’s security control — build an island nearby. The unusual proposal has gained backing among some in the Israeli security establishment, but he is a long way from convincing everyone. Those … Read more
A group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators protest in front of the US embassy in Managua to demand an end to the Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, on November 19, 2012 Nicaragua has restored diplomatic ties with Israel suspended nearly seven years ago when the Jewish state sent commandos to attack a flotilla carrying humanitarian aid … Read more
A Palestinian woman said to be the mother of a man killed last year attempted to stab Israeli police at the entrance to Jerusalem’s Old City Wednesday before being shot dead, officials said. The woman pulled a knife on the security force members at the entrance to Damascus Gate but was shot dead before she … Read more
An Israeli lawmaker petitioned the Supreme Court Tuesday against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ban on visits by MPs and ministers to a flashpoint religious site in Jerusalem, his office said. The petition comes with concerns over whether violence will again flare up for the upcoming Jewish holiday of Passover beginning April 10. The ban was … Read more
At Amin al-Husseini secondary school in the occupied West Bank, with an Israeli settlement visible in the distance, singing the Palestinian national anthem is a daily ritual of student life. For the Palestinians, Haj Amin al-Husseini, former grand mufti of Jerusalem, is the hero of a 1936 revolt against the British mandate over Palestine. To … Read more
Hamas authorities partially reopened the crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel Monday, after a one-day closure following the assassination of one of the group’s leaders. “From Monday morning, travel through the Beit Hanoun (Erez) crossing will be permitted temporarily for some categories,” a statement from Iyad al-Bozum, a spokesman for the interior ministry in … Read more
Hamas shut the crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel on Sunday after blaming the Jewish state for the assassination of one of its officials in the Palestinian enclave. A statement from the interior ministry in Gaza, run by Islamist movement Hamas, said it was shutting the Erez crossing for an indefinite period as it … Read more
Thousands of Hamas supporters on Saturday called for “revenge” during the Gaza funeral of an official from the Palestinian Islamist movement gunned down the previous day. “Revenge, revenge!” called participants at the procession for Mazen Faqha, 38, who was shot dead by unknown gunmen in the Gaza Strip on Friday. Hamas-nominated attorney general Ismail Jaber … Read more