As the Israeli military again bombed three sites in Gaza, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu warned that Hamas would “make a terrible mistake to test our will to defend our people.”
An Israeli court ruling overturned an Israeli Defense Forces decision to allow a Palestinian farmer to work a contested field near the West Bank settlement of Shiloh.
The governments of Brazil and Argentina announced that they are recognizing Palestine as an independent state within the borders defined in 1967.
Most of the 33 British passengers on May’s Gaza aid flotilla have asked to give oral testimony to Israel’s Turkel Commission to Examine the Maritime Incident, but say their request has been “snubbed.”
Israel has started building at least 544 apartments since a 10-month building freeze expired late last month. In a statement, UN envoy Robert Serry called the construction activity “alarming.”
An Israeli military court sentenced non-violent protest organizer Abdallah Abu Rahmah of the West Bank’s Bil’in village to 12 months imprisonment, with a six-month suspended sentence.
The Israeli cabinet approved an amendment to the country’s citizenship law that would require those seeking citizenship to pledge allegiance to Israel as a “Jewish and democratic state.”
Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman prompted the Palestinian mission to walk out of the UN General Assembly by calling for an “exchange of populated territory” on the West Bank.
Israeli commandos intercepted a boat carrying Jewish activists who hoped to breach the blockade of the Gaza Strip, using a Taser gun against well-known refusenik Yonatan Shapira.
Human Rights Watch called on Israel to make permanent and total the partial “freeze” on construction in West Bank settlements, asserting that continued construction would have severe consequences.
Several thousand Israeli settlers and supporters celebrated to mark the end to a 10-month moratorium on new construction in their West Bank enclaves—as deadly unrest rocked Jerusalem.
The US joined with other Quartet members in calling for Israel to extend the settlement freeze, but brought pressure to defeat a resolution demanding Israel join the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
