Sources in Israel have hinted that the US could reduce its support for the Palestinian Authority if the planned move to seek UN recognition of an independent state goes ahead. All sectors of PA activity will be hit, claimed political sources on a Radio Israel programme broadcast on 14...

The July Report issued by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (formerly the Organization of Islamic Conference) has said that the Palestinian economy lacks the infrastructure that would enable it to function independently from Israel. This, claims the OIC, has led to the increase in unemployment in the occupied West...

Media reports claim that the Israeli Defence Ministry has ordered its forces to throw a security cordon around the occupied Palestinian territories in September. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) will carry out the order to counter the protests anticipated when the Palestinian Authority seeks UN recognition for an independent...

Egypt’s Foreign Minister has said that his country will support the Palestinian move for UN recognition of an independent Palestinian state in September. Mohamed Kamel Amr said that the decision taken by the Palestinian Authority is supported by all Arab countries, and that Egypt has supported the plan from...

Reports from Israel say that the Defence Minister Ehud Barak has approved the construction of hundreds of new housing units in the illegal settlement of Ariel, near Nablus in the occupied West Bank. Radio Israel announced that Barak has given approval for 277 new homes in Ariel; 100 units...

The Finance Committee of the Israel’s Parliament, the Knesset, has approved a decision for the family of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to pay half of his medical care expenses. Sharon has been in a coma for five years and the annual cost of looking after him is around...

A Palestinian youth, Amin Talib Dabash, died late last night 16 August after he was run over by a military jeep belonging to the Israeli ‘border guards’, in the area between Um Tuba and Jebal Abu Ghunaym, south of Al Aqsa Mosque. Eyewitnesses said the driver deliberately targeted the...

Israel’s intelligence service, Shin Bet, has levelled a number of accusations against Al-Jazeera’s Afghanistan correspondent, Samer Allawi, including that of being a member of the Islamic Resistance Movement – Hamas.  On Tuesday August 16, the Israeli military court before which Allawi testified decided to extend his remand after Shin...

EXCLUSIVE PICTURES Palestinian journalists organised a rally yesterday, 16 August under the theme ‘Don’t silence the media’ in solidarity with Russian journalist, Maxim Shevchenko, following death threats against him as a result of his vocal support for the Palestinian Cause. The sit-in was held in front of the Gaza...

Reports in the Egyptian media claim that Israel’s spy agency, Mossad, has plotted to cause infertility in Egypt. According to Al-Ahram newspaper, Supreme State Security Criminal Court investigations of Bashar Abu Zaid, the Jordanian who is accused of spying on Egypt for Israel, have revealed an Israeli plot to...

A report issued by the Public Defender’s Office at the Israeli Justice Ministry has described the conditions endured by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails as “very harsh”. The issues mentioned by the report include severe overcrowding, which could cause suffocation, facilities which don’t meet even basic standards, excessive punitive...

The 43 year old prisoner, Zakaria Daoud Hassan Isa, from the town of al-Khader in Bethlehem who is currently serving a fifteen and a half year sentence went into a coma a few days ago after which he was rushed from the Negev Desert Prison to the Soroka Hospital...

EXCLUSIVE PICTURES Israeli aircraft have launched intense night raids against civilian areas inside the Gaza Strip. During the attacks, the Abu Samra household was targeted and completely destroyed. A thirteen year old child is reported to have been killed while several other members of the family were injured. Also...

Palestinians in Umm Al Fahm (in the north of the 1948-occupied territories) have held a protest against a visit by the Israeli Defence Minister to their city. Sources in Israel said that once news of Ehud Barak’s visit spread, dozens of residents took to the streets in protest, including...

The Arab League has warned of a “dangerous” Israeli plan to expel prominent Palestinians from Jerusalem in the context of escalating Israeli activities in the Occupied Territories. In a press release, the League cited well-informed sources in the occupied city in claiming that the Israelis intend to expel 384...

The fifth Miles of Smiles Aid Convoy is due to enter the besieged Gaza Strip before the end of Ramadan after an epic journey across Africa from Cape Town. The convoy’s general coordinator, Dr. Essam Mustafa, said that the citizens of South Africa were very generous with their donations...

EXCLUSIVE PICTURES As Israel continues to bombard Gaza today, here are some of the pictures of relatives mourning their loved ones. Images include funerals of the Palestinian children killed in the north of the Gaza Strip and also six other Palestinians killed near Rafah. At the time of writing...

Palestinian sources have said that around 15 Israeli settlers from the West Bank settlement of Ramat Migron, which is built on land belonging to the Makhmas village near Ramallah, attacked a 10-year-old Palestinian child with iron bars. The child suffered injuries to the head and several other parts of...

The Arab League’s General Secretariat held an emergency meeting on Sunday, 21 August, to discuss the consequences of Israel’s on-going attacks on the Gaza Strip. The meeting, headed by Oman and attended by Arab League Secretary General Nabil El Arabi, was held in response to a request made by Palestinian...

The Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan has congratulated the people of Libya for their revolutionary victory in gaining control over large areas of the Libyan capital, Tripoli. Hammam Said, the Brotherhood’s General Supervisor, issued a statement saying, “We congratulate the great Libyan people and the Arab and Muslim nation for...

A Libyan scholar has played down fears over Islamist extremism in the country post-Gaddafi. Dr Ali Al Salabi, the Libyan member of the Secretariat of the International Union for Muslim Scholars, stressed that the people of Libya are moderate and reject all kinds of extremism. In an interview with...

The state of Israel has filed a legal case against a young Egyptian who tore down the Israeli flag from the embassy in Cairo. According to an Egyptian Foreign Ministry official, Ahmed Al Shahat has been accused of a “blatant affront to the state of Israel” and its dignity....

Israel’s Defence Minister has said that he did not apologise to Egypt for the killing of five Egyptian security personnel by the Israel Defence Forces last week. Speaking to Israel’s Channel 2 television, Ehud Barak said that he didn’t offer an apology, he “expressed regret” while promising to involve...

The Palestinian team responsible for preparing the UN initiative in September recently obtained an independent legal opinion that reveals a high risk involved with the plan to join the UN. The UN initiative to transfer the representation of the Palestinian people at the United Nations from the PLO to...

The Israeli Minister for Home Front Defence has said he is pessimistic about the repercussions across the region of the situation in Libya. Speaking during an inspection of the “Iron Dome” air defence system deployed near Ashkelon, Matan Vilnai said that “the developments in Libya are not in Israel’s...

Israeli opposition leader Tzipi Livni has said that the escalation in the Gaza Strip has had negative effects. This, she claims, necessitates the immediate restoration of Israel’s deterrence capability. In an interview with Army Radio, Livni said that the political isolation facing Israel is limiting its ability to act...

The Palestinian Institute for Communication and Development has condemned Israel’s continued detention of Palestinian journalists and attacks on media organizations. In a press release, the PICD called on the international community, especially the United Nations and international press associations and unions, to condemn Israeli violations of Palestinians’ press freedom...

EXCLUSIVE PICTURES Israel has further escalated tensions with the Gaza Strip and continued the sequence of violence by launching further rocket attacks against the beleaguered sector, despite agreeing to a recent ceasefire with resistance factions. Yesterday, targets in the north of the Gaza Strip, including the Beit Lahiya sports...

Reports from Israel claim that the Foreign Ministry is taking a series of punitive measures against Qatar because of the Gulf state’s “anti-Israel activity” in the international arena. According to the Israeli newspaper Maariv, Israel is angry with Qatar for its strong ties with Hamas and the financial support...

Media sources in Israel have revealed the government’s efforts to reach a rapprochement with Turkey and end the crisis between the two countries in a way that does not involve having to apologise for the attack on the Freedom Flotilla. Nine Turkish activists were killed by Israeli soldiers during...

A Palestinian rights centre has called for an investigation into the high incidence of illness and disease among Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails. A significant number die very soon after leaving prison, it is claimed. The Palestinian Centre for Defending Detainees stated that hundreds of detainees develop serious and...

The head of Libya’s National Transitional Council has confirmed that the Sudanese government provided medical support to the Libyan rebels in their fight against Muammar Gaddafi’s regime. Mustafa Abdul Jalil said that it was time for him to reveal that Sudan’s support contributed to the liberation of some cities,...

Israel’s Prime Minister has expressed his cabinet’s readiness to consider any Egyptian request to amend the Camp David accords to allow for an increase in the number of Egyptian troops deployed in the Sinai Peninsula. During a cabinet meeting on Sunday, 28 August Benjamin Netanyahu said that if Egypt...

EXCLUSIVE PICTURES Palestinians throughout the occupied West Bank yesterday began celebrations to mark the end of Ramadan, the month of fasting. Most Muslim and Arab countries also began the festivities on 30th August. In the West Bank, families made every effort to make the occasion as enjoyable and memorable...

EXCLUSIVE PICTURES Hundreds of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip were forced to observe Eid of a different kind this year. Many spent the first day after their period of fasting visiting the graves of their loved ones who were killed in Israeli attacks during the month of Ramadan. Instead...

The Israeli government rejected a Palestinian request to bring the date for the transfer of tax revenues belonging to the Palestinian Authority forward so as to allow payment of staff salaries in time for the occasion of Eid ul-Fitr.  The Israeli Minister of Finance, Yuval Steinitz, confirmed that he...

The Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) has called on Denmark to support the Palestinian Authority’s decision to go the UN this month in order to obtain full membership as a state within the June 4th 1967 borders considering the step a ‘corrective move’ for the Palestinian cause. Yesterday, Dr Hanan...

An high-levelled Israeli political source has said that the Palestinian Authority’s decision to go to the UN this September to gain recognition of a state within the 4th June 1967 borders will finally bring an end to negotiations between the two sides.  On Wednesday (31.09) Hebrew Radio quoted the...

EXCLUSIVE PICTURES Palestinian journalists in the Gaza Strip held a vigil in front of the office of the United Nations yesterday in support of the detained Al-Jazeera correspondent Samer Allawi. Allawi, 45, was detained by the Israeli occupation authorities about one month ago while he was crossing into Jordan...

EXCLUSIVE PICTURES At dawn on Monday (05/09), Israeli settlers set fire to the ground floor of Al-Nurain mosque in the village of Qasra to the south of Nablus. According to local village sources, residents of Qasra woke this morning to yet another settler crime against mosques and Islamic holy...

The leader of Hamas in Gaza has made clear his movement’s rejection of the UN Palmer Report into Israel’s attack on the Freedom Flotilla in May 2010. According to Mahmoud Zahar, the report which calls Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza “legitimate”, flies in the face of international law and...

The Secretary General of Egypt’s Freedom and Justice Party has demanded that Essam Sharaf’s cabinet take stronger measures against Israeli aggression on the border with Egypt. Saad Al Katatny said that his country should follow Turkey’s example, which has expelled the Israeli ambassador following the Zionist state’s refusal to...

The Arab League has criticized the United Nations for issuing a report which claims that Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip is legitimate. Such a position, said the League’s spokesman, harms the UN’s reputation, having declared previously that the siege imposed on Gaza’s million and a half Palestinians is...

Turkey’s Foreign Minister has laid the blame for a lack of peace in the Middle East firmly at Israel’s door. Ahmet Davutoğlu told a meeting of EU foreign ministers that with its “intransigent policies and arrogance, Israel is ending any hopes for peace in the region.” The Minister also...

Egypt’s Foreign Minister has condemned the attack by Israeli settlers on a mosque in the village of Qusra in the occupied West Bank. Mohammed Amr said that the occurrence of such criminal acts with no decisive intervention by the Israeli occupation authorities is yet more evidence of Israel’s disregard...

At dawn on Tuesday (06.09.2011), forces of the Israeli occupation re-arrested the exiled Jerusalem deputy, Sheikh Mohammed Abu Tair following a raid on his residence in the central West Bank city of Ramallah. He was taken to an undisclosed location.   Sheikh Abu Tair has spent over 30 years...

EXCLUSIVE PICTURES A demonstration attended by farmers and fishermen from the Federation of Agricultural Workers and held under the auspices of the Union of Civil Organisations has marched on the UN headquarters in Gaza. The demonstrators sought to express their bitter condemnation of the UN’s recently released Palmer Report...

A senior Israeli official has warned that it would be a “diplomatic mistake” for Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to visit the Gaza Strip. Reports in the Jerusalem Post quoted an Israeli official who said that Erdogan would damage Turkey’s relations with the United States by visiting Gaza....

The Israeli Cabinet has approved a plan to relocate more than 30,000 of the Negev Desert’s Palestinian Bedouin from their land. The move has been described by the Bedouin’s representatives as “a declaration of war on the Bedouin in the Negev”. The plan approved at Sunday’s Cabinet meeting is...

The British Ambassador in Cairo has praised the crucial impact of Egypt’s revolution across the Middle East, especially in terms of political freedom and social justice. James Watt told a delegation of young Egyptians in Alexandria of Britain’s support for Egypt as one of its allies in the region....