Hamas was to unveil a new policy document on Monday that eases its stance on Israel after earlier calling for the country’s destruction, party officials said. The announcement was due to be made in the Qatari capital Doha, where exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal is based, at a press conference scheduled for 1745 GMT. Leaders … Read more
The new leadership of Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas will be announced in the coming days, officials said Sunday, while it also prepared to unveil a new version of its charter. Ismail Haniya, until recently head of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, said the results of internal elections will be announced “in the coming days”. A … Read more
Hamas is to unveil a new version of its controversial founding charter which called for the destruction of Israel in a bid to ease its international isolation, party officials said. Leaders of the Islamist movement have long spoken of the more limited aim of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip … Read more
Palestinians clashed with Israeli soldiers across the occupied West Bank on Friday in support of hundreds of Palestinians on hunger strike in Israeli prisons. Clashes took place near Israeli settlements and army checkpoints close to several villages in the Ramallah area, as well as by Hebron in the southern West Bank and many other locations … Read more
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cancelled talks on Tuesday with German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel after the visiting diplomat declined to call off meetings with rights groups critical of Israel’s government, an official said. The Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the meeting was cancelled after Gabriel decided to go ahead with talks with … Read more
A Palestinian man stabbed a British woman to death on Friday near Jerusalem’s Old City, where thousands of Jewish and Christian pilgrims were gathered for religious holidays. The 23-year-old student was rushed to hospital with serious wounds but later died, according to the emergency services. The attack took place on a tram close to the … Read more
A British woman has been stabbed to death on a tram in Jerusalem. She has been named as student Hannah Bladon by Israel’s ambassador to the UK, Mark Regev. Ms Bladon was stabbed several times in the chest while she travelled on a tram in Tzahal Square, packed with pilgrims visiting for Passover and Easter, … 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
Gaza’s Hamas rulers hanged three men they accused of collaborating with Israel Thursday following calls for revenge for the killing of one of their commanders last month, an AFP journalist reported. Hamas says that the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad and its “collaborators” killed Mazen Faqha in the Palestinian territory on March 24, but has offered … 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
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
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 Palestinian prisoner freed after 17 years in an Israeli jail for a murder he was later acquitted of said he felt reborn Friday, after returning to his family in Gaza. Hatem al-Maghari was arrested and convicted of murder after the brutal lynching of two Israeli soldiers in 2000, but was released this week after … 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
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
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