Hamas commander killed in Gaza despite truce

"A spokesman for Hamas's armed wing said he was killed by the Preventive Security Service, most of whose members belong to President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction. The security service denied any connection with his death. The ceasefire had appeared to be holding, bringing...

New Palestinian clashes kill five in Gaza

"GAZA CITY (AFP) - Factional clashes flared anew in the Gaza Strip between the ruling Hamas movement and president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah party, killing five people in less than 24 hours. A Fatah loyalist, a Hamas member and a teenager were killed in the volatile coastal strip...

Abbas declares Hamas militia illegal

"RAMALLAH, West Bank - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday declared Hamas' paramilitary militia in the Gaza Strip illegal, raising the stakes in his standoff with the Islamic movement. ADVERTISEMENT Abbas made the announcement two days after members of the Hamas...

A sovereign Palestine? No chance

"Three young brothers, Salam, 4, Ahmed, 7, and Osama, 9, were gunned down outside their school on the morning of December 11. They had just arrived by car when they and the driver died in a wild spray of gunfire. Four other schoolboys who happened to be nearby were...

Israel Decides to Target Gaza Rocket Launching Squads

"Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - Israel decided on Wednesday to resume targeted strikes on Palestinian squads launching rockets at southern Israeli communities from the Gaza Strip but will maintain the Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire. The decision followed a rocket strike on the...

Israel Says 'New' West Bank Settlement Is 25 Years Old

"Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - Israel denied on Thursday that it is setting up a new settlement to house families evicted from their homes when its military forces unilaterally withdrew from the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2005 and said that the settlement has been there for 25...

Israel PM orders resumption of Gaza strikes

"JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has ordered the army to resume strikes on Palestinian militants in Gaza after a rocket attack wounded two Israeli teenagers despite a month-long truce. After meeting with top security officials Wednesday, Olmert ordered...

[Barry Rubin] Necessary civil war of Fatah, Hamas

"Regardless of the latest hastily negotiated truce, the battle between nationalist Fatah and Islamist Hamas seems to be gaining intensity. Palestinian politics, always self-destructive, has reached new heights of internal conflict, pulling the population deeper into disorder...

US vetoes yet another anti-Israel Security Council resolution

What is there to say?  The United States has had, once again, to veto an unjust Security Council resolution that would have 'convicted' Israel of intentionally wicked violence against the Palestianians.  U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said the Arab-backed draft...

Kidnapped AP photographer freed in Gaza

"GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - An Associated Press photographer was freed unharmed Tuesday after a harrowing day in the hands of Palestinians who abducted him at gunpoint and dressed him in women's clothes to spirit him from one secret location to another."