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
An imprisoned Palestinian journalist ended a 32-day hunger strike on Friday after receiving assurances Israel would not extend his detention without trial next month, his wife and lawyer said. It will be the second time within a year that 34-year-old Mohammed al-Qiq, who works for the Saudi television channel Al-Majd, has been released by Israel … 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
A report severely criticising Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s leadership in the 2014 Gaza war may weaken the self-styled “Mr Security”, analysts say. The state inquiry published Tuesday attacked Netanyahu’s governing style throughout the war in which 68 Israeli soldiers died, prompting opposition figures to demand his resignation. Netanyahu lashed out at the report, accusing … 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
Mossab Abu Toha has never actually left Gaza, instead devouring books as an escape. Now he is struggling to open the first English-language library in the beleaguered Palestinian territory. “Send us books in English, new or used,” says the 24-year-old reading enthusiast on his Facebook page. Abu Toha, like so many Gazans effectively trapped in … Read more
The new leader of Hamas in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, made his first public appearance since his election for the inauguration of a mosque on Friday, winning praise from his predecessor. His Islamist movement which has run the Gaza Strip for the past decade invited the media to attend the opening of the Gaza City mosque … Read more
A report expected to criticise Israel’s prime minister and the armed forces command over their conduct in the runup to the 2014 Gaza war is to be released next week, officials said Friday. State comptroller Yossef Shapira’s report, the result of a two-year inquiry, will be published on Tuesday, a spokesman for his office told … Read more
Yahya Sinwar, the new leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, is a top commander in the Islamist movement’s armed wing with decades of intelligence experience and a reputation for secrecy. He rose through the Hamas ranks as a fierce advocate of armed struggle against Israel, imposing his authority among prisoners whilst in Israeli jails. … Read more
When his family’s restaurant in Aleppo was crushed by bombs, Anas Qaterji had no choice but to flee war-torn Syria. He made his way to Turkey, then Egypt, before slipping into the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip though a tunnel under the border. Since his arrival in 2013, he has attempted to recreate life in the formerly … Read more
Israeli police said on Thursday they had closed a private Palestinian school in annexed east Jerusalem, accusing its officials of belonging to the Islamist movement Hamas. The Al Nkhba School in the Sur Baher district had already been ordered to close by the Israeli education ministry, a decision ratified by a court. But its director … Read more
Hundreds of mourners gathered Wednesday in Cairo for the funeral of Omar Abdel Rahman, the blind sheikh linked to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing who died in a US jail. The Egyptian-born sheikh died of natural causes Saturday at the age of 78 at a federal medical centre in North Carolina, where he was … Read more
At least two rockets fired from Egypt’s Sinai peninsula on Monday hit southern Israel, causing no damage, the army said, the second such incident this month. “Earlier today, projectiles launched from the Sinai Peninsula hit an open area in the Eshkol Regional Council,” the army said in a statement. “No injuries have been reported. Forces … Read more
Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Thursday warned Hamas of a tough response to “provocation”, after a projectile fired from Gaza saw the Jewish state retaliate with force. Lieberman also said Israel would turn the Gaza Strip into a prosperous territory if its people toppled the enclave’s Islamist rulers, or if the militant group changed … Read more
Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Thursday warned Hamas of a tough response to “provocation”, after a projectile fired from Gaza saw the Jewish state retaliate with force. Lieberman also said Israel would turn the Gaza Strip into a prosperous territory if its people toppled the enclave’s Islamist rulers, or if the militant group changed … Read more