Hamas said Israeli voters elected a “troika of terrorism”—an obvious reference to Tzipi Livni, Benjamin Netanyahu and Avigdor Lieberman, the three politicians now jockeying to form a coalition government.
A Turkish prosecutor launched an investigation into claims that Israel’s offensive in Gaza amounted to genocide and crimes against humanity, based on a complaint filed by the rights group Mazlum-Der.
Benjamin Netanyahu, favorite to win next month’s Israeli election, predicted al-Qaeda will blow up the purported burial place of Jesus Christ if Israel relinquishes control of Jerusalem.
The Israeli human rights group Yesh Din is launching a campaign to help Palestinians sue over the use of their privately owned lands for Jewish settlement in the West Bank.
Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has assembled a team to defend his government against charges of war crimes in its recent Gaza Strip offensive.
In his first call to a foreign leader, President Barack Obama spoke to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas—a day after Hamas held a massive “victory” rally in Gaza.
One of Barack Obama’s first moves as president is to be nomination of Sen. George Mitchell as Middle East envoy. Mitchell headed the 2000 committee to probe the roots of the al-Aqsa Intifada.
A tense calm prevails over Gaza as aid agencies take stock of the massive destruction, with some 4,100 homes destroyed, while on the West Bank “al-Basha’er Army” claimed a shooting attack on an Israeli settler.
Israeli forces began withdrawing from the Gaza Strip following a tentative truce with Hamas. Palestinian factions agreed to honor the ceasefire on the condition that Israeli troops are out of Gaza within a week.
Israeli troops and Hamas gunmen exchanged fire in northern Gaza early Sunday—hours after Israel declared a “unilateral cease-fire.” Hamas says it will continue resistance as long as Israeli troops remain.
The UN General Assembly demanded an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and an Arab summit in Qatar called for regional states to break diplomatic ties with Israel, as the death toll in the three-week offensive reached 1,170.
Israeli strikes set a UN aid compound, media buildings and a hospital ablaze as tanks rolled deep into Gaza City and diplomats struggled to find a way to halt the offensive that has now killed 1,075.
