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
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
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
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 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
Israeli police on Tuesday closed a Palestinian research centre in Jerusalem and briefly arrested its director, a prominent cartographer, accusing him of working for the Palestinian security services. The office of cartography in occupied east Jerusalem was shut down for six months, a police statement said. Israeli officials accused its head Khalil Tafakji of working … Read more
US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Jason Greenblatt met Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday in Jerusalem, as the White House put out feelers on reviving Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. “I hope that we can do some good things together,” the premier told Trump’s special representative for international negotiations, according to a video posted by … 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
US Ambassador Nikki Haley on Tuesday discussed reviving Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations during her first meeting with the Palestinian envoy to the United Nations. Haley tweeted after her talks with Ambassador Riyad Mansour that the Palestinians should “meet with Israel in direct negotiations rather than looking to the UN to deliver results that can only be … Read more
A Palestinian was killed Sunday night in an exchange of fire with Israeli troops in the West Bank city of Ramallah, the Israeli army said. The man, who was wanted and whose name was not given, opened fire at soldiers who came to arrest him at his home, where two weapons were later found, an … Read more
A senior Palestinian official has been denied entry to Egypt, prompting a Palestinian delegation to withdraw in protest from a counter-terrorism conference he was to attend, officials said Tuesday. Jibril Rajoub, a senior member of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah party, told AFP he was “surprised by the Egyptian security decision to ban me from … 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
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
Hundreds of Palestinians celebrated in Bethlehem after a young singer from the occupied West Bank city became the second Palestinian to win the Arab Idol television song contest. Yacoub Shaheen, the 23-year-old son of a Syriac Christian carpenter, on Saturday night won the pan-Arab singing competition, defeating a fellow Palestinian and a Yemeni in the … Read more
An Israeli military court on Tuesday sentenced a soldier to 18 months in prison for shooting dead a wounded Palestinian assailant who lay on the ground, sparking criticism from rights groups. Defence lawyers announced an appeal and right-wing Israeli ministers immediately called for a pardon, while the Palestinian government and the victim’s family condemned the … Read more
A senior Palestinian journalist has been released after 10 months in an Israeli jail without charge, he told AFP on Tuesday. Omar Nazzal, 55, was released on Monday after nearly a year in prison and following 13 hearings in an Israeli military court, he said. Despite that, he added, he never received specific allegations, only … Read more
A Palestinian baby was reunited with her mother after more than six months Monday after Israel granted Jumana Daoud a permit to travel from Gaza to Jerusalem to fetch her. Daoud and rights groups said she had submitted an application several months ago to reenter Israel to retrieve baby Maryam from a hospital in Israeli-annexed … Read more
Equipped with an inexpensive camera and a big red balloon, Firas Ismail — a 20-year-old Palestinian refugee in southern Lebanon — is not your typical urban planner. But the aerial shots he helped capture of the Burj al-Shamali refugee camp, near the Mediterranean coastal city of Tyre, will help residents plan out everything from future … Read more
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday hailed the US veto of a Palestinian to be named UN envoy to Libya, saying the world body failed to give equal consideration to Israelis. “I was informed of the possibility of the appointment of Salaam Fayyad to a UN position,” he said at Israel’s weekly cabinet meeting. “I … Read more