Tag Archives: Gaza

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told his Israeli counterpart on Monday that a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was best for the future of Israel, the US State Department said “The Secretary addressed the US approach toward a more peaceful, secure, and prosperous future for Israelis, Palestinians, and …

John Bolton, former US President Donald Trump’s national security advisor, said on Wednesday that while a return to the Iran nuclear deal appears to be a priority for the Biden administration, he doubts the sincerity of Tehran’s promises not to pursue the development of nuclear weapons. In an interview with …

U.S. President Joe Biden plans to speak with Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu soon, the White House said on Thursday without providing a date. Biden’s failure to include Netanyahu so far in his calls with foreign leaders has raised eyebrows in Israel and among Middle East experts. Former Presidents Barack Obama …

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday stopped short of endorsing the Trump administration’s recognition of the occupied Golan Heights as part of Israel, instead noting that the territory was important for Israel’s security. Former President Donald Trump officially granted U.S. recognition of the Golan as Israeli territory in …

Leaders of rival Palestinian factions began Egyptian-brokered reconciliation talks in Cairo on Monday to try to heal long-standing internal divisions, ahead of planned Palestinian elections later this year. Egypt has tried in vain for 14 years to reconcile Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s nationalist Fatah faction and its bitter rival Hamas, …

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian envoy to the UN, on Thursday called for a renewed show of will from the international community to tackle the problems his people continue to face. He said that the tools for achieving peace in the conflict between the Palestinians and Israelis — namely UN resolutions …

Fatah and Hamas leaders appear to be moving closer to setting up a unified list that will be the basis of a Palestinian coalition government, a draft agreement between the rival factions reveals. The agreement, seen by Arab News, was a key factor in the decision to hold elections — …

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Friday announced dates for the first Palestinian elections in more than 15 years, setting legislative polls for May 22 and a July 31 presidential vote. Abbas’s Fatah party, which controls the Palestinian Authority based in the occupied West Bank, and the Hamas group, who hold …

France on Tuesday condemned Israel’s plan to advance construction of 800 more Jewish settler homes in the occupied West Bank in a move to cement the projects shortly before pro-settlement U.S. President Donald Trump leaves office. In a statement, the French Foreign Ministry urged Israeli authorities to drop the plan. …

Amnesty International on Wednesday called on Israel to provide coronavirus vaccine doses to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, saying the Jewish state was obligated to do so under international law. The Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank, which is home to some 2.8 million Palestinians, has …

The grand, 500-year-old brick walls of the Al-Kamalaia School slowly emerged from years of accumulated garbage as grassroots preservers began the long process of restoring it to its former glory. Located in the heart of the old quarter of Gaza City, the Mamluk era building is one of an ever-dwindling …

The peace accords that Israel has signed with the UAE and Bahrain will serve as a foundation to expand energy trade, US Energy Secretary Daniel Brouillette said on Tuesday. The Trump administration is moving quickly to invite other Arab nations — including Oman, Sudan, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority, Saudi Arabia …

Bahrain will not allow the import of Israeli goods produced in settlements in occupied Palestinian territory, state news agency BNA reported, disavowing comments made by the Gulf state’s trade minister earlier this week. Bahrain’s Industry, Commerce and Tourism Minister Zayed bin Rashid al-Zayani had voiced openness to settlement imports, adding …

Palestinian and Israeli human rights groups voiced concern on Tuesday over the condition of a Palestinian who began a hunger strike 79 days ago against his detention without charge by Israel. Maher Al-Akhras, 49, is now in an Israeli hospital suffering from heart pain and convulsions and has slipped occasionally …

U.S. President Donald Trump will hold a Sept. 15 signing ceremony for a groundbreaking Middle East agreement normalizing relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, a senior White House official said on Tuesday. As part of the deal, announced at the White House on Aug. 13 following what officials …

Footage of an Israeli soldier throwing a Palestinian activist to the ground and kneeling on his neck has sparked outrage in the Palestinian territories and beyond. The protester, named as Khairi Hanoun, a man in his late 60s, took part in demonstrations on Tuesday near Tulkarm, in the north of …

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas held a rare meeting with rival factions on Thursday as they sought to present a united front over Israel and the United Arab Emirates’ deal to normalise ties. The meeting was held through video-conference between Ramallah in the West Bank and Beirut, where Hamas chief Ismail …

Israeli aircraft and tanks struck Hamas facilities in Gaza on Friday and militants fired half a dozen rockets towards southern Israel, its military said, as mediators struggled to work for calm along the volatile frontier. There were no reports of casualties on either side. The United Nations’ Middle East envoy …

The United States said on Tuesday it strongly objected to Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s recent hosting of two leaders of Hamas in Istanbul, prompting a swift riposte from Ankara. The State Department said the officials were Specially Designated Global Terrorists and the United States was seeking information about one for his involvement in …

Israeli warplanes bombed Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip early on Wednesday in response to Palestinians in the enclave launching incendiary balloons towards Israel, the military said. There were no reports of casualties in the strikes that Israel’s military said targeted underground infrastructure belonging to Hamas, the Islamist group that …

Israel’s settler leaders say Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has defrauded them of their long-held dream of annexing the occupied West Bank as part of the country’s normalisation deal with the United Arab Emirates. Their anger could be a problem for right-wing Netanyahu, whom they accuse of repeatedly floating the …

Dismayed by the plastic bags piling up in the Gaza Strip, a group of young Palestinians is recycling discarded fabric into reusable totes to clamp down on waste and protect the environment. Their cloth bags – painted with colourful characters and slogans including “NOT PLASTIC – FANTASTIC” sell for 25 …

by James M. Dorsey | Jul 14, 2020 An initial version of this story was first published in Inside Arabia A podcast version of this story is available on Soundcloud, Itunes, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spreaker, Pocket Casts, Tumblr, Podbean, Audecibel, Patreon and Castbox. A Palestinian move to secure Palestine’s energy needs by tying them to high-stakes Turkish regional gambits constitutes an effort to reduce Palestinian dependence on …

Young Palestinian soccer players, all amputees and many on crutches, were back on the field in Gaza on Tuesday for the first time since coronavirus restrictions were eased in the territory. Their coach said some of the 26 athletes lost limbs to Israeli fire in Gaza, where Hamas, the ruling …

U.S. officials will gather this week to discuss whether to give Israel a green light for its plan to annex Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s target date of July 1 approaches. A senior administration official said on Monday that the U.S. ambassador …

Norway, which chairs a group of international donors to the Palestinians, urged Israel on Tuesday not to annex parts of the occupied West Bank. Norway heads the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC), which met on Tuesday, partly to discuss Israel’s plan to extend its sovereignty to Jewish settlements and the …

Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz said on Monday he ordered the military to step up preparations for Israel’s pending annexation of parts of the West Bank, a plan that could stoke Palestinian violence. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to begin cabinet discussions on July 1 on extending Israeli sovereignty …

The Palestinians have suspended contacts with the CIA after announcing an end to security coordination with Israel and the United States in protest at Israeli proposals to annex territory in the West Bank, a Palestinian official said on Thursday. Saeb Erekat, Secretary General of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said Washington …

The two million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip face insurmountable obstacles in attempting to prevent the novel coronavirus from spreading throughout the isolated enclave. Israel’s continued siege and blockade severely limits their ability to test for the virus and provide healthcare to those who become infected. By Zaha Hassan …

By Damir Nazarov   The emergence of new resistance factions in Palestinian society makes us wonder: The emergence of new resistance factions in Palestinian society makes us wonder: Veterans of the Palestinian Islamic resistance may remain an uncontested option for Palestinians? Do Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad really stick to …

By Dr. Aqel Salah*     This study discusses the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip and the continuing Israeli war by all means against Hamas. The study is based on a fundamental question: Is the war on Gaza aimed at rocket warheads or the head of Hamas? In order …

By Layla Azmi Goushey   In Palestine + 100: Stories from a century after the Nakba, twelve Palestinian writers answer the question” What might your country look like in the year 2048?” Their answers are encased in a thrilling collection of speculative, dystopian, and futuristic short fiction edited by Basma …

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced calls on Thursday from his coalition partners to hold an early election, a day after the defense minister’s resignation left the government with a razor-thin majority. Avigdor Lieberman quit on Wednesday over what he described as the government’s too-soft policy on cross-border violence with …

Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman announced his resignation on Wednesday in protest at a Gaza ceasefire that he called a “capitulation to terror”, weakening Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s conservative coalition government. “Were I to stay in office, I would not be able to look southern residents in the eye,” Lieberman …

Palestinians in Gaza fired scores of rockets, mortar bombs and at least one anti-tank missile into southern Israel on Monday and Israel launched retaliatory air strikes, a day after an Israeli incursion prompted deadly fighting in the enclave. Three Palestinian gunmen were killed in the air attacks, their factions said. …

The Israel-Gaza border fell quiet on Monday after a botched Israeli undercover operation in the Gaza Strip led to fighting that killed a Hamas commander, six other Palestinian militants and an Israeli colonel. Palestinians fired 17 rockets into southern Israel late on Sunday in response to the incursion and air …

A $15 million Qatari cash infusion was paid out to impoverished Palestinian civil servants in the Gaza Strip on Friday, offering the enclave’s dominant Hamas Islamists a potential domestic reprieve though Israel said the money would not go to them. Hamas’s political rival based in the West Bank, Palestinian President …

Egyptian naval forces fired on a Palestinian fishing boat and killed a fisherman on Wednesday, Gaza’s interior ministry said, but an Egyptian military source denied the report. Egypt’s navy has in the past shot at Gazans whom it has accused of crossing the maritime border. There was no initial information …

Palestinian militants said on Saturday they would halt attacks into Israel from the Gaza Strip after they fired the heaviest rocket salvoes across the border since August. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad, one of the armed groups that operates in Gaza, said it fired the rockets in retaliation for Israel’s killing …

Israeli jets struck targets in the Gaza Strip early on Wednesday after a rocket fired by Palestinians struck a house in the southern occupied city of Beersheba, the Israeli military said. Residents in the Gaza Strip said jets had targeted eight locations. The military said another rocket had been launched …

In recent years, Israel has attempted to manage the explosive problem of Gaza, and has found itself locked in stalemate as a result. The last major armed conflict between Israel and Hamas, fought in 2014, saw Israel dragged into combat, inclusive of a ground incursion, despite it having no wish to be bogged down in asymmetrical …

Sweeping new US cuts in humanitarian aid to Palestinians are already hitting hundreds of thousands of the most vulnerable people, amid accusations that the Trump administration is using the issue to “blackmail” Palestinians into accepting a peace deal that critics say will favour Israel. Fears of a wholesale withdrawal of …

Asharq Al-Awsat reports on a developing US Mideast peace plan that recognizes east Jerusalem as Palestinian capital, no right of return, limited demilitarized sovereignty, billions in aid, Jordan Valley remaining in Israeli hands; Europeans offer arbitration assistance but unwilling to replace US. The US peace plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian …

US President Donald Trump has ordered more than $200m (£155m) in economic aid which was to be allocated to Gaza and the West Bank be redirected elsewhere. A State Department official said the decision was made after a review “to ensure these funds are spent in accordance with US national …