The Islamic Development Bank in Jeddah has agreed to fund new reconstruction projects in the Gaza Strip worth $15 million. An IDB delegation made the announcement at the end of a visit to the Palestinian territory. The latest sum brings the total value of IDB projects in Gaza to...

Israel has revealed that it will use the advanced Tamuz “smart” missile in any future offensive against the people of the Gaza Strip. The previously-top secret weapon was used for the first time against a target on the border with Syria two weeks ago. A spokesman for the Israeli...

The Secretary-General of the United Nations has expressed his belief that the current situation in the occupied Palestinian territories “cannot continue” from both a political and economic perspective. In a letter to the UN International Meeting on the issue of Palestine being held in Addis Ababa, Ban Ki-moon said,...

The Hamas-led Palestinian government in Gaza has renewed its call for Egypt to intervene with Israel in order to end violations of last November’s truce conditions. The ceasefire agreement which ended Israel’s 8-day offensive against the civilians of the Gaza Strip was mediated by the Egyptian government. A spokesman...

EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS Labour Day in the Gaza Strip is unlike in any other place in the world as workers here continue to work today. Yes, they continue to work here as a consequence of the dire economic conditions that result from the long-standing Israeli blockade of the Sector, as...

The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement has expressed its concern that an agreement over land swaps with Israel will lead the Palestinian Authority and Arab world even deeper into the culture of concessions. Responding to the news that the Arab League will accept the principle of land swaps with the...

A senior member of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement has restated the group’s refusal to concede or swap any part of historic Palestine, or recognise the Israeli occupation. Salah al-Bardaweel said that Hamas believes that Palestine is a land for Palestinians and any kind of partition is rejected. Speaking...

In a sign that Israel will keep its large illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, Arab foreign ministers have said that they are ready to endorse a new peace plan which includes land swaps and a Palestinian state built otherwise on the 1967 borders. The announcement was made...

Israeli occupation forces have carried out a limited incursion around Beit Hanoun crossing in the north of the Gaza Strip. Witnesses said that six Israeli tanks and two armoured bulldozers went around 300 metres into the territory; the bulldozers were used to destroy agricultural land. In the same area,...

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has described the Arab Peace Initiative as “historic”. Speaking to Israel’s Channel Ten news programme he urged the Knesset not to miss out on the “historic opportunity” for the resumption of peace talks with the Palestinians. In an interview with the Jerusalem Post,...

At the end of an extraordinary meeting of its Shura (Consultative) Council, Tunisia’s Al-Nahda Party has agreed on having a dual parliamentary system which balances the powers of the president and prime minister. Announcing the move, senior member Fathi Li’yadi stressed that they are looking for success in the...

The head of the Political Bureau of the Islamic Resistance Movement has listed seven strategic priorities for the years ahead. The list revealed by Khaled Meshaal included more openness in the international community. During the weekly programme presented on Al-Jazeera Arabic TV by Ahmed Mansour, the Hamas leader said...

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has stressed that humanitarian solidarity with the people of Gaza and lifting the Israeli blockade imposed on them since 2006 is much more important than the aid provided by supporters. The second largest international organisation after the UN said in a monthly report...

The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has demanded that the Israeli army withdraw its troops from the northern part of Ghajar village in a sensitive border area. Israeli troops were apparently carrying out engineering operations in the village, which extends over both sides of the Lebanon-Israel border and...

The Foreign Minister of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, Riyad Al-Maliki, has said that the leadership has promised Washington to halt its efforts to join United Nations agencies. Al-Maliki said that the PA has promised US Secretary of State John Kerry not to pursue membership of various agencies, especially...

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) appealed on Tuesday to all sides to end the human suffering caused by the conflict in Syria, and resolve the differences through dialogue and political negotiations. UNRWA warned in a statement that Palestinian refugees in Syria are being...

EXCLUSIVE PICTURES Gaza’s Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyya, today performed the Friday prayers at the Abbas Mosque in Gaza City. Prayers were attended by a number of Arab delegations including a solidarity delegation from Tunisia, a delegation from the Egyptian Shura Council, a delegation from Turkey and the European Hope...

Israel’s Palestinian citizens have rejected the proposal made by Arab League foreign ministers to agree to land swaps between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The rejection was made on the basis that such swaps would threaten their right to their own land and that Israel is exploiting the principle...

A draft UNHRC report called on Thursday for a resolution banning the production, transportation and use unmanned aircraft vehicles (UAV) across the entire world because they breach international law, German News Agency (DPA) said. According to the draft report, the use of lethal robots or UAVs has raised “wide-scale...

EXCLUSIVE PICTURES Orthodox Christians gathered in Prophorius Church in the centre of Gaza City on Sunday to celebrate Easter. Prophorius Church is the oldest and most central for Orthodox Christians in the Gaza Strip. Church bells along the Strip rang as happy Christian worshippers attended prayers with their families....

The Israeli daily newspaper, Yediot Ahronot, reported on Monday that Israel has sent a secret message to the Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, as part of efforts to ease tensions after the second attack on Syria in less than 48 hours. The newspaper featured on its front page reports that...

More than 40 extremist Israeli settlers, including senior Likud officials, invaded Al-Aqsa Mosque through the Maghrabi Gate on Tuesday morning. They said they were commemorating the ‘unification’ of Jerusalem. June 5, 2013 will be the 46th anniversary of the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem. Israel has since been controlling...

Palestinians sources have stated that Israeli occupation forces have allowed settlers to establish a new settlement bloc in the town of Beit Sahour, east of Bethlehem. This will mean seizing control of approximately 11,000 square metres of the towns land, putting an end to investment projects being carried out...

Palestinian researcher and former prisoner Abdul-Nasser Ferwaneh released statistics on Tuesday showing that Israeli occupation forces have detained around 9500 Palestinian minors since the beginning of the second Intifada in September 2000. The statistics showed a steady increase in the number of minors detained over the last year. “This...

The Israeli Ministerial Committee on Legislation passed a draft law yesterday regulating Bedouin settlement in the Negev known as the “Prawer Plan”, which will allow the seizure of approximately 700,000 dunams of the Negev and the destruction of 40 unrecognised villages. The government will present the draft law to...

A senior Turkish official has revealed that there are three scenarios on the table before the United States and its allies for the departure of Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad. In remarks quoted by Kuwait’s Al-Siyaasa newspaper, the Turkish official who requested anonymity said that, “The first scenario is to...

The UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon has lodged a protest with Israel after it observed increased violations of Lebanese air space by the country which carried out recent raids in Syria targeting what it said were “Iranian missiles” being sent to “Hezbollah”. Intelligence sources said that “on Friday...

The Jordanian Parliament has voted overwhelmingly for the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador to Amman, Daniel Nevo, and recalled the Jordanian ambassador to Tel-Aviv, Waleed Obaidat, Safa Palestinian news agency has said. The Parliamentarian, Abdul-Kareem al-Daghmi, said: “The decision to expel the Israeli ambassador to Amman is obligatory on...

Amid strict security measures around the holy city of Jerusalem, the Israeli occupation detained on Wednesday morning two senior Palestinian religious officials and prevented Muslim worshipers from entering the Al-Aqsa Mosque which was left empty for Israeli settlers to wander inside. Palestinian sources said that the Israeli occupations broke...

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) has said that the poverty rate among Palestinians in Jerusalem is 79.5 per cent and 85 per cent among children. According to the ACRI report which presented grave facts about Israeli discrimination against Palestinians in Jerusalem, “this is the worst rate...

A report published by the Israeli daily newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, on Wednesday, revealed that Israeli attempts to create a demographic balance in Jerusalem have failed, because of what it called the “transformation of the Haredim.” In addition to this, “the relatively slow lifestyle” which forces students who are studying...

PICTURES Former head of the International Union for Muslim Scholars, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, accompanied by a large delegation of Muslim scholars arrived in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday evening through the Rafah Crossing between Gaza and Egypt. Palestinian Prime Minister in Gaza, Ismail Haniyyeh, Palestinian Legislative Council speaker, Ahmed...

The Arab League and the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation have strongly condemned the arrest of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, the preacher of Al-Aqsa Mosque, by the Israeli occupation authorities. They broke into the home of Sheikh Mohammed Hussein yesterday morning and arrested him. A statement issued following...

As Israeli justice minister, Tzipi Livni, met with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Rome on Wednesday, the Israel Civil Administration approved a plan to build 296 housing units in the West Bank settlement of Beit El; an Israeli newspaper reported. The newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, today described the...

On Thursday at dawn, the Israeli occupation released Tariq Qedan and Jaafar Izzidin, two Palestinian hunger strikers who have been on strike for 93 days. Qedan, 42, and Izzidin, 41, from Arraba neighbourhood in South Jenin, went on hunger strike in protest at their administrative detention by the Israeli...

The Action Committee for Jerusalem and Palestine has called for demonstrations in all Egyptian mosques on Friday in protest at the latest Israeli aggression against the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the detention of the Mufti of Jerusalem and other Palestinian activists. The Head of Jerusalem Committee of the Arab Doctors...

“The number of the Syrian refugees in Jordan will make up 40 per cent of the total Jordanian population by the middle of the next year,” Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Jodah has said. In a meeting with the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, in Rome, Jodah said: “Currently,...

80 per cent of those killed by Israeli forces killed during the last four days of the war waged on the Gaza Strip in November were uninvolved civilians, Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem said on Thursday. “After several months of field research and crosschecking data, human rights organization B’Tselem...

Palestinians protesters organised a candlelight demonstration on Thursday night to protest against an Israeli court ruling allowing parts of the Separation Wall to be built in the Wadi Cremisan neighbourhood of Beit Jala. The decision clears the way for Israel to confiscate hundreds of acres of local land for...

The Director-general of the Israeli “Religious Affairs Ministry” announced during a session in the Knesset that the ministry is seeking to review a law that will allow Jews to perform religious rituals in the Al-Aqsa Mosque. He explained that a parliamentary committee was charged with examining the matter in...

Israeli newspaper, Maariv, yesterday reported Martin Nesirky, a UN spokesman, as saying that the organization have decided to withdraw their international observation forces from the Golan Heights, in light of the deteriorating security situation and tensions between Israel and Syria. Nesirky said that approval has been sought in the...

Iqbal al-Asaad, 20, a Palestinian refugee from Lebanon has graduated from Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar as the youngest medical practitioner in the world. Iqbal, who finished secondary school at the age of 12, won herself an academic scholarship from the Qatar Association for Education, Science and Social...

Israel apologized to the Arab Republic of Egypt on Wednesday over an incident that happened in the old town of Jerusalem last Saturday in which Israeli police attacked Egyptian diplomats and a Coptic cleric. Israeli public radio said the country’s ambassador in Cairo, Jacob Amitai, made the apology during...

Israel has denounced a paper by the Scottish Church which denies “Jews’ special claim to the land of Israel.” The paper entitled “The Inheritance of Abraham,” which was published last week rejects “claims that scripture offers any peoples a privileged claim for possession of a particular territory.” According to...

On Sunday, the Israeli occupation handed over an ‘administrative destruction notice’ to the owner of a six-flat building under construction in the Beit-Haneena neighbourhood in Jerusalem and detained three construction workers from the site. Staff of the Jerusalem Municipality claimed that the building is being built without a construction...

The eleven martyrs in Maroun el-Ras in southern Lebanon and the four in the occupied Golan Heights on May 15, 2011, were enough to turn the “Return to Palestine March” held across the Arab world into an annual event, and to turn “Al-Nakba Day” into “Return Day”. This event...

Ismail Haniyeh has praised the people and government of Sudan for their support for the Palestinian cause, especially the Gaza Strip. “It was a pleasure for Sudan to pay a heavy price for their links with us,” said the Palestinian Prime Minister approvingly. Speaking at a welcome ceremony for...

Jewish settlers from the illegal Havat Ma’on settlement have set fire to half-an-acre of wheat grown by Ali Awad in the South Hebron Hills. The arson attack took place on Monday. Witnesses were able to tackle the blaze before even more damage was done. Meanwhile, another group of settlers...

Israeli occupation forces have kidnapped two Palestinian workers in Johr Al-Deik in the Middle Area of the Gaza Strip. Mahmoud Obaid, 27, and his cousin Ra’ouf Obaid, 17, were taken on Tuesday morning while they were collecting scrap metal close to the Palestine-Israel border. Family sources confirmed that the...

Israeli health ministry announced on Monday that Israel’s annual mortality rate caused by skin cancer is between 400 and 480 individuals. It is commonly found among Israelis from American and European origins. It is less widespread among Israelis of Arab origin, the health ministry affirmed. The ministry report published...