Israel had hoped a row over the use of forged passports in the killing of a top Hamas militant in Dubai was over.
The heat is on Benjamin Netanyahu from within his own party to resist US pressure and not utter the words ”Palestinian state” in his policy speech.
Israel kept three border crossings with the Gaza Strip closed on Wednesday following rocket attacks that breached a truce with Hamas rulers.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert meets top ministers on Tuesday to weigh up a possible large-scale military offensive against the Gaza Strip to stop rocket fire from the Hamas-ruled territory.
No image available
/ 17 January 2007
Israel’s military chief quit on Wednesday over the failures of the Lebanon war in a second blow to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s unpopular government after a graft probe was launched. In what several newspapers called an ”earthquake”, Lieutenant General Dan Halutz became the most senior head to roll over last year’s war.
No image available
/ 7 December 2006
Israel will continue to keep mum on whether it has atomic weapons, officials said on Thursday after the incoming United States defence secretary described the Jewish state as a nuclear power. "Israel won’t say, or not say, whether we have nuclear weapons," Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres told public radio. "It suffices that one fears that we have them and that fear … constitutes an element of dissuasion."
No image available
/ 19 November 2006
Israel lashed out Sunday against a United Nations resolution calling for a probe into a botched Gaza shelling as ministers convened to discuss the ongoing battle against Palestinian rocket attacks. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert criticised the UN General Assembly resolution calling for a fact-finding mission to probe an Israeli shelling that killed 19 Palestinians this month.
No image available
/ 17 October 2006
Israel on Tuesday ratcheted up threats of a massive ground offensive in the Gaza Strip, amid an ongoing war of words with the ruling Hamas movement, which has vowed to teach the army a harsh lesson. ”Gaza should not become a second Lebanon,” said Immigrant Absorption Minister Zeev Boim, reiterating a phrase used by Israeli leaders recently.
Israel vowed on Thursday to continue air attacks in the Gaza Strip, despite global outcry over the killing of civilians in botched raids, as the Israeli and Palestinian leaders met in Jordan. Fourteen Palestinian civilians, including five children, have been killed in air strikes over Gaza in nine days, following an upsurge in cross-border violence.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned on Wednesday that his contested plan to set Israel’s borders on the West Bank with or without agreement from the Palestinians was unstoppable. "My plan cannot be stopped and is the most that Israel is prepared to agree to," he told reporters accompanying him on a state visit to Paris.