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/ 18 April 2008

Carter meets Hamas chief in Syria

Former United States president Jimmy Carter met Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Damascus on Friday for talks expected to focus on ways to include the Islamist group in efforts to achieve Palestinian-Israeli peace. High-level Hamas members also attended the meeting, at which Carter would also raise with Meshaal the fate of an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas.

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/ 6 March 2008

Aid groups say Gaza conditions worst since 1967

British humanitarian agencies on Thursday said the situation in the Gaza Strip was the worst in 40 years and urged the European Union to hold talks with Hamas. ”The situation for 1,5-million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip is worse now than at any time since the beginning of the Israeli military occupation in 1967,” the eight NGOs said in a joint report.

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/ 5 March 2008

Israel vows to continue Gaza strikes

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed on Wednesday to keep up military strikes on the Gaza Strip as long as rocket fire from the Hamas-ruled territory continues. ”The Israeli army operations against the Gaza Strip will continue as long as the rocket fire continues,” a senior official quoted the premier as saying.

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/ 7 February 2008

Hamas rejects Abbas truce offer

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas offered to help negotiate a ceasefire as Israel pounded Gaza on Thursday, killing seven people days after a suicide bombing claimed by Hamas rulers. Hamas promptly rejected the offer, with spokesperson Fawzi Barhum branding it a ”blackmail attempt against the Palestinian people”.

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/ 4 February 2008

Egyptian soldiers seal Gaza border

Egyptian security forces closed the border with the Gaza Strip on Sunday nearly two weeks after the wall was first breached. Gunmen from the Hamas movement, which controls Gaza, appeared to be cooperating with the Egyptians, turning back crowds of Palestinians as barbed wire and metal barricades were installed.

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/ 21 January 2008

Gaza endures fourth day of Israeli blockade

Gaza endured a fourth day of hardship on Monday as Israel vowed to maintain a punishing blockade in response to rocket fire from the Hamas-run territory, despite increasing international concern over a developing humanitarian crisis. The European Union slammed what it termed the ”collective punishment” of impoverished Gaza’s 1,5-million residents.

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/ 11 January 2008

Israel salutes Bush, cautious of ‘treaty’ hopes

The Israeli government said on Friday it endorsed United States President George Bush’s call during his visit for a rapid peace agreement but made clear it does not see the final establishment of a Palestinian state this year. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s spokesperson said that Israel hoped for a ”historic agreement” in 2008.

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/ 2 January 2008

Death toll in Arab-Israeli conflict fell in 2007

The number of Israelis and Palestinians killed in the Middle East conflict dropped last year but human rights abuses continued, a leading Israeli human rights group said on Tuesday. The number of Israeli casualties was at its lowest level since the start of the second intifada in 2000, reflecting a growing sense of security within Israel.

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/ 20 December 2007

Bush to make first presidential visit to Israel

United States President George Bush is to embark on a week-long tour of the Middle East in the new year to nudge Israelis and Palestinians towards an end to their decades-long conflict and to bolster an Arab coalition against Iran. It will be the first time in his seven years as president that Bush will have visited Israel, the West Bank, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states.

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/ 5 December 2007

Iranian president claims US report as a victory

Jubilant Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on Wednesday said the United States report confirming his country had abandoned its nuclear weapons programme was a ”declaration of victory”. ”This was a final shot to those who, in the past several years, spread a sense of threat and concern in the world through lies of nuclear weapons.” Ahmadinejad said.

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/ 19 November 2007

Olmert vows to halt new settlements

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed on Monday ahead of a United States-sponsored peace meeting that Israel would freeze construction of new settlements and dismantle unauthorised ones in the occupied West Bank. ”We have committed ourselves under the road map not to build new settlements in the West Bank,” a senior government official quoted Olmert as saying.

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/ 15 November 2007

Israel braces for ‘the day after’

Israel is quietly preparing for the possibility of a nuclear-armed Iran despite public pledges to deny its arch-foe the means to pose an ”existential threat”, Israeli political and defence sources said on Thursday. Israel predicts that Iran’s nuclear programme could produce warheads by 2009.

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/ 26 October 2007

Abbas, Olmert hope to break stalemate

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas pledged on Friday to work towards a meaningful agreement for a United States conference following major disagreement on how to proceed. The two leaders met for two-and-a-half hours with their chief negotiators.