Gunmen in the Gaza Strip on Friday shot dead a Hamas official who was freed by Israel in a 2011 prisoner swap, the interior ministry in the Palestinian enclave said. Mazen Faqha was released along with more than 1,000 other Palestinians in exchange for Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier Hamas had detained for five years. … Read more
Ten Egyptian soldiers were killed in two roadside bombings as they clashed with Islamic State group jihadists in the Sinai Peninsula, the military said on Thursday. Fifteen jihadists were also killed in the fighting, the military said in a statement, without saying when the incidents took place. The military said the clashes broke out when … Read more
More and more Gazans are falling ill from their drinking water, highlighting the humanitarian issues facing the Palestinian enclave that the UN says could become uninhabitable by 2020. The situation has already reached crisis point in the war-scarred, underdeveloped and blockaded territory, says Monther Shoblak, general manager of the strip’s water utility. “More than 97 … Read more
Israeli authorities said Tuesday they have arrested a Palestinian employee in Gaza of Turkey’s international aid agency TIKA on accusations of diverting its project funds to Hamas. It was the third such arrest in recent months by Israel, with a UN worker and the Gaza head of Christian charity World Vision having previously been accused … Read more
An Australian government probe has found no evidence taxpayer money was misused by the World Vision NGO in the Gaza Strip, after Israel alleged millions of dollars were diverted to Hamas. In August 2016, Israel accused World Vision’s Gaza head Mohammed al-Halabi of siphoning off millions of dollars per year to the Islamist group which … Read more
Secretive British street artist Banksy’s hotel next to Israel’s separation wall welcomed its first guests on Monday, two weeks after its surprise launch. The Walled-Off Hotel in Bethlehem is only four metres (yards) from the controversial wall which cuts through the occupied West Bank, and all the rooms face it. The nine rooms, which Banksy … Read more
Secretive British street artist Banksy’s hotel next to Israel’s controversial separation wall was due to welcome its first customers Monday, two weeks after its surprise launch. The Walled-Off Hotel in Bethlehem is only four metres (yards) from the controversial wall which cuts through the occupied West Bank, and all the rooms face it. The nine … Read more
A Hamas military court on Sunday sentenced two Palestinians to death for drug smuggling in the Gaza Strip, in the first punishment of its kind in the enclave. “The Gaza military court announced the death penalty for two civilians from Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, for selling narcotics,” the Hamas-controlled interior ministry said in … Read more
A rocket fired by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip slammed into southern Israel on Saturday, prompting retaliatory Israeli tank fire, sources on both sides said. The Israeli army said the rocket hit an open area. “No casualties have been reported.” Palestinian security officials said the Israeli tank fire targeted an observation post of Gaza’s Hamas … Read more
A Palestinian woman gave birth on Thursday to conjoined twin sisters who share a heart, her husband said, as he launched an urgent search for funds to pay for their surgical separation abroad. “My wife and my two daughters are in hospital and doctors say they are all in good health,” Anwar Zyadat told AFP … Read more
A top adviser to US President Donald Trump met Israeli settler leaders Thursday in an unusual move that may raise fresh concerns over prospects for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The US embassy confirmed the talks between Jason Greenblatt and leaders of the Israeli settler movement took place in Jerusalem as part of … Read more
A British activist who advocates boycotting Israel over its occupation of Palestinian territory has been denied entry to the country, authorities said Monday. Hugh Lanning, head of the London-based Palestine Solidarity Campaign, was denied entry on Sunday night at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv over his “ongoing actions to promote boycotts against Israel,” a … Read more
Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on Friday denounced planned Israeli legislation that would quieten mosques, warning such a law would face stiff resistance. The Israeli parliament on Wednesday gave preliminary approval to two controversial measures that would limit calls to prayers from mosques in Israel and occupied east Jerusalem, including one prohibiting the use of loudspeakers … Read more
In the heart of the Gaza Strip’s Shati refugee camp, machines buzz as Mohammed Abu Shanab’s employees sew small, round pieces of cloth: Jewish skullcaps for export to Israel. It may seem an unlikely product to be made in the Palestinian enclave run by Islamist movement Hamas and hit by three wars with Israel since … Read more
An Israeli state inquiry accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and top army brass Tuesday of being unprepared for the strategic threat of tunnels used by Hamas militants during the 2014 Gaza war. The findings of the two-year inquiry sparked a frenzy among Israel’s political establishment prior to their official release Tuesday, with critics of Netanyahu … Read more
Palestinian local elections scheduled for May will take place in the West Bank only and not in Gaza, the government announced Tuesday, scuppering hopes of the first vote in both territories in a decade. The Palestinian Authority, run by president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah party, sits in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, while the Islamist … Read more
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared on the defensive ahead of a report Tuesday expected to criticise him and military leaders for insufficiently preparing for attack tunnels in the 2014 Gaza war. The findings of a two-year inquiry by state comptroller Yosef Shapira are widely expected to fault Netanyahu, then-defence minister Moshe Yaalon and former … Read more
Israeli aircraft hit targets in the Gaza Strip on Monday, hours after a rocket fired from the Palestinian territory slammed into southern Israel. “Three bombs were dropped by the air force on a Hamas military base east of Nusseirat refugee camp,” south of Gaza city, a Palestinian security source said. The planes also made two … Read more
Israeli politicians and ex-generals are scrambling for cover ahead of the publication on Tuesday of a report expected to slam their conduct of the costly 2014 Gaza war. The findings of a two-year inquiry, due to be released at 1400 GMT, are widely expected to inflict collateral damage on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, then-defence minister … Read more
Palestinian officials on Sunday called for a boycott of Israeli military courts after a Palestinian freed in a 2011 prisoner exchange was rearrested and sent back to prison for life. Speaking in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, Palestinian Prisoners Club head Qadura Fares called on detainees’ families and Palestinian organisations to stop taking … Read more