Egyptian President Mohammad Morsi has invited most of the political powers and figures in Egypt to hold a national dialogue session on Tuesday to discuss guarantees of the integrity and transparency of the upcoming Parliamentary elections, scheduled for April 22. The session will also discuss the different opinions of...

UN Middle East Peace Envoy, Robert Serry, last week told Israeli newspaper Haartetz that the peace process in the region is in an “extremely grave condition” noting that talks with Hamas were sometimes in Israel’s interest. Serry urged Palestinians and Israelis to move ahead with peace talks toward the...

The United Nations on Monday called for an independent inquiry into the deaths of Palestinian prisoners who have died in Israeli custody. It also warned that mounting tensions could erupt in violence in the Occupied Territories, the AFP said. UN Middle East peace envoy, Robert Serry, made the call...

An advisor to President Mahmoud Abbas has said that Israel plans to arrest Palestinian activists in response to a global cyber-attack. Telecommunication and technology expert Sabri Seedam told Wafa news agency that there are no actual indications that Palestinian activists were connected to cyber-attacks against Israel. “These things take...

EXCLUSIVE PICTURES Dozens of Palestinian refugees protested on Monday at the gate of the UNRWA headquarters in the Gaza Strip demanding the resumption of its services and an increase, not a reduction, in the aid that it gives to needy families. The UN agency had announced previously that it...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has, it is claimed, rejected a request from Mahmoud Abbas to provide a map of the proposed border between Israel and a future State of Palestine. According to newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, Netanyahu said that he cannot provide such a map “at this stage”, citing the...

Israel’s Economy and Commerce Minister has told the Canadian Foreign Minister that a future state of Palestine will not be based on the borders of 1967. Right-wing politician Naftali Bennett told John Baird, “I believe that the choice of establishing a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders cannot succeed...

Palestinian fighters have claimed that they hit an armoured vehicle on Tuesday during an Israeli incursion in Gaza. The incident took place in the south east of the Gaza Strip as a group of eight Israeli military vehicles and bulldozers drove up to 200 metres inside Palestinian territory. Local...

A team of Italian surgeons and nursing staff led by Stefano Lewis has carried out complicated open-heart surgery on a six-year old Palestinian child in the European Hospital in the Gaza Strip. The operation repaired a hole in the child’s atrium which has been present since birth. Described by...

The new Israeli government has stipulated impossible pre-conditions to the resumption of the stalled Palestinian-Israeli negotiations, the Israeli daily newspaper Maariv said on Tuesday. According to Maariv, the Israeli government headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has demanded that Palestinians recognise Israel as a Jewish state in exchange for...

The chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, has revealed that the Palestinian Authority has rejected a US suggestion to amend the terms of the Arab peace initiative. Dr Erekat did not mention what the suggested modifications were but they are understood from local sources to refer to “agreed-upon border modifications”...

Officials in Israel have launched a strong attack against Justice Minister Tzipi Livni for hinting that the government may be willing to give up the demand for Palestinian recognition of the “Jewish State” as a precondition for a return to negotiations. Livni has been put in charge of negotiations...

Palestinian journalists have called for a ban on Israeli media personnel from entering the occupied West Bank. The move is seen as retaliation for the restrictions that they face on working in Israel and comes after an Israeli journalist was forced to leave a press conference at the Palestinian...

Israeli occupation forces have re-arrested the former hunger striker Thaer Halahla from his house in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Halahla was one of five Palestinians arrested during overnight raids on their homes across the occupied West Bank. His father said that he was shocked by the attack...

The US Secretary of State was not entirely successful in his contacts with the Palestinian and the Israeli leaderships regarding the resumption of the peace process, Israel’s Maariv newspaper said on Wednesday. John Kerry could only get agreement on a number of economic projects from the Israelis. The proposed...

Four states in the Middle East are responsible for 99 per cent of the death sentences carried out in the region, Amnesty International has revealed. Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Yemen are the states in question, said a new AI report. Iraq, said the human rights organisation, has witnessed...

The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan faces a very hot political summer due to the variety of crises affecting the country. Lurking in the background is the state’s use of violence and detention against university students protesting against government policies and blatant “mukhabarat” (secret police) intervention in the universities’ student...

In what is being seen as a nod to the liberals and leftists, the Egyptian government has named a group of law experts to come up with modifications to the Constitution, the Middle East News Agency (MENA) has reported. Prime Minister Hesham Kandeel has targeted between 10 and 15...

An overwhelming majority of attendees of a debate held on Tuesday in Cairo said that the Egyptian opposition had disappointed them and wasted reform opportunities, at a time when political disputes and instability increase in the largest Arab state. About 79 per cent of the attendants agreed on the...

Israel’s Prime Minister has told John Kerry that recognition of the state and its security must be secured before a resumption of negotiations with the Palestinians. Benjamin Netanyahu met with the US Secretary of State for 3 hours during his 3-day visit to Israel earlier this week. According to...

Reports from occupied Palestine claim that Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has offered his ministerial council’s resignation to President Mahmoud Abbas. The move, it is alleged by “informed sources”, comes amid a longstanding power struggle in the Palestinian Authority. Reuters says that Fayyad’s office refused to comment on the claim....

Jordan’s Minister of Health has appealed for international support to help the country deal with one million refugees fleeing the conflict in Syria. Mjalli Mheilan said that the influx is putting great pressure on medical and health resources in the Kingdom. “The health ministry needs urgent assistance of around...

The Arab League has called on the international community to assume its responsibilities in compelling Israel to end its crimes against the Palestinian people; end its military occupation; and implement all relevant international resolutions. In a statement released to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the notorious Deir Yassin massacre,...

The Israeli newspaper, Maariv, reported in today’s issue that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may have to cancel his visit to London to attend the funeral of former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, which will take place next Wednesday. The newspaper said that the reason for this is the strike...

Israel has accelerated its digging and destruction around the Al-Magharbeh Gates, which is an essential part of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Al-Aqsa Foundation for Islamic Endowments and Heritage said in a statement on Thursday. “Dozens of workers are working on a daily basis to clear the underground ways connecting...

Israeli occupation forces have shot and wounded a Palestinian man as they arrested him from his home during a pre-dawn raid on Thursday, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club has revealed. Motaz Abeedo, 32, a disabled former prisoner from Hebron who suffers from incontinence and cannot walk, was shot by an...

Israel’s President Shimon Peres has said that Canada could play a significant role in the peace process, especially with regards to the Palestinian refugee issue. Mr Peres made his remarks after meeting Canada’s Foreign Minister John Baird in Tel Aviv. Peres pointed out that Canada has shown willingness in...

Inspectors from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees have praised Kuwait’s leading role in humanitarian work, notably in contributing to the UNHCR’s own efforts in the field. Such support, said Astrid Ran Stewart and Erin McLeod, helps to make the mission to provide the best possible services to...

Officials in Egypt are intensifying their efforts to obtain the release of Palestinian hunger striker Samer Al-Issawi. His protest at the conditions faced by Palestinian prisoners held by Israel started several months ago. The Palestinian Authority’s Minister of Prisoners’ Affairs in Ramallah, Issa Qaraqe, told Al-Resalah.net on Thursday, “Egypt...

Former Israeli Defence Minister, Moshe Arens, has recommended that Israel destroy the West Bank Wall (Separation Wall) as it does nothing to protect Israel’s security, but harms it on an international level, an Israeli newspaper has said. Arens, who was head of the Foreign and Security Affairs Committee in...

Tunisia has been given the first payment of the money plundered from the country by the former regime. A UN lawyer working on the case handed a cheque for $28.8 million to President Moncef Marzouki this week. The cash was recovered from Lebanese bank accounts of the wife of...

President Mahmoud Abbas is facing massive American and European pressure to change his mind over accepting the resignation of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, which has coincided with US efforts to revive peace talks in the region. A senior western diplomat expressed his displeasure over the political disputes inside the...

Israeli media reports have unveiled for the first time a scheme which threatens Al-Magharbeh Hill and the historic sites close by. The so-called “Sharansky Proposal” is to expand the Buraq (“Western”) Wall plaza to the south-west of the Noble Sanctuary of Al-Aqsa, destroying the historic hill and Islamic sites...

EXCLUSIVE PICTURESThe Palestinian prime minister in Gaza has joined orphans in Gaza at the celebration of Arab Orphans’ Day. The event was held at Al-Amal Orphanage in the central area of the Gaza Strip; Ismail Haniyeh was the main guest and watched as the orphans presented displays of Palestinian...

Despite US and European pressure, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has accepted the resignation of his Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. The president has asked Fayyad to continue in the post until a new government is formed. Sources reported that Fayyad expressed his deep thanks to President Abbas for his...

A Palestinian boy has been knocked over by a Jewish settler in what is being described by locals as a hit and run incident. The incident took place in Bethlehem as Malik Al-Shaer was on his way to school. The settler fled from the scene before the police and...

A leading member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation has accused Canada of violating International law. Senior negotiator Saeb Erekat said that a meeting held by Foreign Minister John Baird with Israeli officials in occupied East Jerusalem is a flagrant violation of international law and breaches Canada’s commitment to the...

Egypt’s Foreign Minister has confirmed that Egypt respects the peace treaty with Israel as long as it is respected by the other party. Mohamed Kamel Amr told journalists that it is important to make progress with the Israel-Palestine issue. The alternative, he stressed, is that there could be further...

The Israeli government approved on Sunday the extension of a law that places restrictions on the reunification of Palestinian families for a further year “due to security considerations”. The law in question, which was presented by Israel’s Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar, has a specific impact on segments of the...

A professor of international law has revealed that the most recent poll published by the Israeli occupation forces indicate that Israel has revoked the “permanent residence” status of 14,087 Palestinian Jerusalemites in the period 1967 to 2011. Dr Hanna Essa’s findings were presented by the WAFA official news agency...

The resignation of the Palestinian Authority Prime Minister in Ramallah, Salam Fayyad, has attracted much attention within the Israeli media. On the whole, the various media outlets have given it varied analyses with some considering it to have a negative impact while others believe that it means nothing. The...

Dozens of Palestinian and international members of solidarity movements took part in a solidarity gathering in the Gaza Strip on Monday. The gathering marked the second anniversary of the assassination of Italian activist, Vittorio Arrigoni. Arrigoni first arrived in Gaza in 2008 on board a ship that had sailed...

Gaza Central Prison has reopened. Commonly known as Al-Saraya, the old cells have been renovated; new tents have been erected; and the whole perimeter wall is topped with shiny barbed wire. The biggest difference, though, is that it is an NGO which has done the work on the remains...

Fatah Central Committee and Palestine National Council member Marwan Barghouti has accused the Palestinian Authority of not putting the issue of prisoners in Israeli jails as a priority in negotiations with the occupying state. In an interview given from his cell to commemorate his 11th year in an Israeli...

The General Secretary of the Arab League, Nabeel Al-Arabi, called on Tuesday for an end to Israel’s violations against Palestinian prisoners, labelling them “violations of all human rights principles and conventions”. In a statement issued by his office in Cairo, Mr Al-Arabi – who is in Geneva said that...

Talks between the International Monetary Fund and Egypt have ended without an agreement regarding a proposed loan of $4.8 billion to help Cairo deal with its severe economic crisis. However, in a statement issued early on Tuesday morning after 12 days of negotiations in Cairo, the IMF said that...

Senior Fatah member Marwan Barghouti has called on the movement’s head, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, not to resume negotiations with the Israelis. Barghouti said that the results would be no different given the Israel government’s hostility to peace. He is in the 11th year of a life sentence...

The Israeli occupation authorities have extended for the fifth week in a row their ban on visits by the families of prisoners from the Gaza Strip being held in Israel’s prisons. The pretext is so-called Israeli Independence Day, which led to the closure of the two border crossings between...

The Palestinian Authority in Ramallah is to ask Turkey’s Prime Minister to delay his proposed visit to the Gaza Strip until internal reconciliation is achieved. A report in London-based Al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper said that high level talks are taking place between senior Palestinian officials and their Turkish counterparts regarding...

The US Ambassador to Israel has claimed that Secretary of State John Kerry has met Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas three times but has failed to make any significant progress towards a resumption of negotiations. Dan Shapiro was speaking to Israel Radio when he mentioned his doubts regarding the...