Palestine

THE LEVANT – Israeli soldiers invaded on Saturday, at dawn, several Palestinian neighborhoods in Hebron city, in the southern part of the West Bank, as well as northern Nablus, and kidnapped one Palestinian east of the city. Local sources in Hebron said that dozens of soldiers invaded the city, and …

THE LEVANT – A fragile ceasefire around Gaza held for a second day Friday as Israel’s relations with its US ally showed new signs of strain with tough talks looming on a more lasting peace. Washington denied a report that the White House was tightening the reins on the routine …

THE LEVANT – The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation on Tuesday condemned “war crimes” by Israel in Gaza and urged a meeting of donors on financing reconstruction in the enclave devastated by a month-long war. In a statement after a ministerial meeting, the second on Gaza in three days, the OIC …

THE LEVANT- A Palestinian militant was shot dead early Monday in an exchange of fire with Israeli troops in the northern West Bank, witnesses and a Palestinian security source said. Zacharia Akra, a 24-year-old militant allied to the Fatah movement of president Mahmud Abbas, was killed in a shoot out …

THE LEVANT – A fresh 72-hour ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into effect in Gaza Monday, paving the way for talks in Egypt aimed at a durable end to a month-long conflict that has wreaked devastating bloodshed. The agreement, which began at 00:01 am (2101 GMT on Sunday), clinched days …

THE LEVANT – Attempts at talks between Palestinians and Israelis aimed at ending theGaza conflict look in danger of breaking down following warnings from both sides. Hamas’s lead negotiator said the Palestinians may abandon the Cairo-based negotiations if Israel does not take them more seriously, and says that the Islamist group may continue …

THE LEVANT – The Palestinian militant group Hamas has rejected an extension on a three-day ceasefire which expired this morning after largely holding, saying Israel had failed to meet its demands during negotiations in Egypt. The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) said Gaza militants fired a barrage of at 18 rockets at …

Israel and Hamas appeared at odds Thursday over prolonging a 72-hour Gaza ceasefire, with Hamas resistance group insisting on fulfillment of all pending stipulations. Guns have stayed silent in the tiny Palestinian enclave since 8:00 am (0500 GMT) Tuesday, bringing relief to millions of people on both sides after the …

THE LEVANT – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon demanded an end to the senseless cycle of suffering in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict Wednesday, telling the General Assembly that “the massive deaths and destruction in Gaza have shocked and shamed the world.” Ban urged the international community to support the enormous task of rebuilding …

THE LEVANT  – Palestinian Authority is going to sue Israel at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for its war crimes against Palestinian civilians in its nearly one-month terror campaign on the Gaza Strip. “Everything that has happened in the last 28 days is clear evidence of war crimes committed by …

THE LEVANT – Israeli Knesset’s deputy speaker Moshe Feiglin has called for the “annihilation” he besieged Gaza Strip which has been suffering from a nearly one-month-old Israeli terror campaign. Feiglin, who is also a member of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud Party, wrote about the plans in a …

THE LEVANT – President Jacob Zuma raised his concerns about the Gaza conflict for the third time on his US visit on Tuesday when he met US Vice-President Joe Biden on the margins of President Barack Obama’s US-Africa leaders’ summit. Zuma raised eyebrows when he sharply criticised both Israel and Hamas …

THE LEVANT – A definitive end to the four-week conflict in Gaza appeared possible on Tuesday morning as an agreed 72-hour ceasefire between Hamas and Israel came into effect and the Israeli military said it had withdrawn from the Palestinian territory. The suspension of hostilities came into force at 8am on Tuesday and is due to be followed …

THE LEVANT – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has failed to achieve the objectives of his war on the Gaza Strip, the Anadolu news agency reported a Hamas official as saying today. Sami Abu Zuhri, the movement’s spokesman, said in a statement: “Netanyahu has utterly failed in the Gaza Strip. Hamas is still …

A Palestinian worker from Bethlehem was attacked and severely beaten up by Israeli settler while he was at his workplace in Jerusalem, said security sources. Sources told WAFA that Hisham Hassan Hasasneh,20,  from the town of Obaidiya east of Bethlehem, was attacked by a group of settlers while he was …

The Israeli Army has announced that it is pulling it’s troops out of the Gaza Strip after the implementation of a 72-hour truce that took effect early today. Under the Egyptian-brokered accord, the latest effort to end four weeks of fighting, hostilities ceased at 8 a.m. local time. Hamas has …

THE LEVANT – Speaker of the Arab Parliament has thanked the presidents of Brazil, Chile, Ecuador and Peru and El Salvador, for taking measures against Israel in protest of its ongoing aggression on Gaza Strip. “Your stance against Israel’s war on Palestinian children, women and elderly people in Gaza, Israel’s …

– “The President of the [French] Republic, [Francois Hollande], condemned the unacceptable shelling of a UN school in Rafah, resulting in the death of at least ten people who took refuge in it,”  said a statement by the French Presidency on Monday.  Hollande “joined the UN Secretary General in asking …

THE LEVANT- Ask any child in Gaza to do a drawing and the resulting picture is likely to be a house being bombed by a fighter plane. In the strife-torn Palestinian enclave, thousands of children are suffering from the trauma of war but resources to help them are scarce. At a …

THE LEVANT – Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah condemned the war in Gaza Friday as a “collective massacre” and a crime against humanity, but stopped short of directly condemning Israel for its ground campaign against Hamas. Unlike past Gaza wars, including the devastating 2008 offensive, the Saudi monarch did not condemn …

THE LEVANT  EXCLUSIVE –  Israeli military announce they will bomb al-Shifa hospital in Gaza. Al-Shifa hospital has received a phone call telling them a building of the hospital will be bombed. At 16:30, the hospital received a call from an unlisted number, stating a building needed to be evacuated immediately. …

THE LEVANT – This morning a group of over 70 people, mostly women and children carrying foreign passports, planned to take advantage of the ceasefire to leave Gaza and enter Egypt. Israel began bombing Rafah and the Egyptian personnel closed the Egyptian side of the border, leaving them trapped at …

REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS – Two Palestinian journalists were killed yesterday in an Israeli air raid on a crowded market in the Shijaiyah neighbourhood, east of Gaza City. Rami Rayan, a photographer for the local news agency the Palestinian Network for Journalism and Media, was killed instantly as he was taking pictures of …

THE LEVANT – Two Israeli settlers attempted to “kidnap” a two-year old Palestinian from Jerusalem while he was walking with his father and two sisters in Shufat neighborhood in northern Jerusalem on Monday, the family said.Taha Riyad Tufahha’s father told Ma’an that he was taking a walk with his two daughters …

THE LEVANT – The Islamic World Peace Forum in its recent statement has called for prosecution and punishment of the Zionist criminals for their atrocities the the defenseless people of Gaza. The IWPF referred to the Zionists crimes in Gaza as a stark violation of principles of human and humanitarian …

THE LEVANT – Dr. Mohammad Abu Arab has warned, in an exclusive interview with the PIC, that medical services in Gaza city are on the brink of collapse as the Israeli aggression against the Strip continues for the 20th day running, calling for immediate action to save Gaza health sector. Abu …

THE LEVANT – The Under-Secretary-General for humanitarian affairs, Valerie Amos, has described the situation in Gaza as “dire”, as the organization revealed that one child has been killed every hour in the conflict for the past three days. According to the latest situation report from Gaza by the Office for the …

THE LEVANT – Six Palestinians were killed and several others were injured Sunday in Gaza after Israeli forces resumed attacks, an official said. Ashraf al-Qidra told reporters that two Palestinian men were killed in al-Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. He identified the two as 27-year-old Ibrahim Khalil Dirawi …

THE LEVANT – Hundreds of thousands of Iranians, including President Hassan Rouhani, took part in massive rallies across the country on Friday to encourage Palestinians to keep up their struggle despite the Israeli assault on Gaza. Footage from Iranian state television showed massive crowds demonstrating in the capital Tehran, chanting “Death to …

THE LEVANT  – Millions of people across the globe are preparing to hit the streets Friday to mark International Quds Day, an annual event expressing support for the Palestinian resistance against Israel. This year’s protests coincide with Israel’s brutal attacks on the blockaded Gaza Strip, which entered its 18th day. …

THE LEVANT – Iran’s Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani says the Islamic Republic had provided the Palestinian resistance groups with “the technology for producing weapons.” “We have no doubt to help the people of Gaza. At present, Gazan fighters have good capabilities to meet their weapons demand, although we had provided them …

THE LEVANT EXCLUSIVE – Gaza residents on Saturday used a 12-hour humanitarian truce agreed to by Israel and Hamas on a UN request to pull out several bodies from mounds of rubble and metal of bombed homes, as the Palestinian death toll climbed to nearly 1,000. With the temporary ceasefire …

The U.A.E.’s Red Crescent (ERC) has provided its field hospital in Gaza Strip with six trucks of medical aid to help treat the Palestinians injured in the ongoing attack on Gaza. Emad Abu al-Laban, Director of ERC Office in Gaza, said the medical aid convoy was taken to the field …

THE LEVANT EXCLUSIVE – Israel Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has virulently slammed the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) for suggesting that Israel might have committing war crimes when willingly and knowingly targeting a UN school on Thursday. The school which acted a refuge for civilians – mainly women and …

THE LEVANT – The Israeli Occupation Forces arrested 13 Palestinians this morning in the West Bank cities of Hebron and Nablus. The Palestinian Prisoners Society reported that the IOF arrested ten Palestinians from the Hebron governorate. The Israeli soldiers arrested Moneer Sharar, 30 from Dura and Ashraf Abdel Jalil Hathaleen, …

France’s government provoked outrage on Saturday by becoming the first in the world to ban protests against Israeli action in Palestine. In what is viewed as an outrageous attack on democracy, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said mass demonstrations planned for the weekend should be halted. Mr Cazeneuve said there …

THE LEVANT EXCLUSIVE –  By Catherine Shakdam – As many have yet to wake up from the nightmare of Shujaiyya, when Israeli soldiers slaughtered their way through east Gaza, maiming and killing at random as if Palestinians were no more than cattle brought to the slaughter, Zionists stoop yet again …

THE LEVANT EXCLUSIVE – Israel’s army perpetrated yesterday July 20, 2014 a horrible crime against Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip. In the center of Gaza and in the most populated quarter of Shajaeyah Israel’s heroic army killed in ruthless random shelling from land, sea and air more than 70 …

  By Amira Hass – By supporting Israel’s offensive on Gaza, Western leaders have given the Israelis carte blanche to do what they’re best at: Wallow in their sense of victimhood and ignore Palestinian suffering. One of Israel’s tremendous propaganda victories is that it has been accepted as a victim of …

PARIS – Pro-Palestinian protesters clashed with police in Paris on Saturday as they defied a ban on a planned rally against violence in the Gaza strip. A Reuters photographer said demonstrators in northern Paris launched projectiles at riot police, who responded by firing teargas canisters and stun grenades. Demonstrators also climbed …

Israeli occupation forces killed 59 Palestinians on Friday and wounded more than 430 others, including many suffering from serious injuries spokesman of the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza Ashraf Al-Qidra said. This toll on the twelfth day of the Israeli war on Gaza makes Friday the deadliest day since …

Four Palestinian children were killed in Gaza on Wednesday, after Israeli shelling struck a group playing football on a beach. The attack was witnessed by scores of foreign journalists. Reported by The Telegraph, some of the children that survived were rushed to nearby hotels to shelter from the attack. Journalists gave …

At least three mortars were fired from Gaza into Israel on Thursday, less than three hours into a five-hour “humanitarian pause” in the nine-day battle between Israel and Hamas. The suspension of hostilities, brokered by the UN and starting at 10am on Thursday, came after four Palestinian children died in an …

EXCLUSIVE THE LEVANT –  By Catherine Shakdam – Oblivious of international laws and in complete defiance of the Geneva Convention, Israel has announced it has deployed its ground troops in Gaza, determined to escalate its so-called crackdown on Hamas militants. Following ten days of relentless bombing and the death of …