All Stories Archive

The Arab League's annual ministerial meeting to be be held in Cairo next week will discuss the Israeli attack on the Yarmouk Industrial Complex in Khartoum, Sudan. According to the Sudanese Media Services Centre, the League's Deputy Secretary General, Ahmed Bin Heli, called the attack "a dangerous precedent". The...

A survey conducted by Israeli newspaper Haaretz has shown that more than 80 per cent of Israelis do not believe in the possibility of reaching a peace agreement with the Palestinians. Nevertheless, two-thirds of respondents support a two-state solution, despite their belief that there is no Palestinian partner in...

The Hamas-led Palestinian government in Gaza has made an unambiguous apology for the police attack on a women's protest march on Tuesday. The demonstration had reached the Palestinian Legislative Council building in Gaza City when police used force to disperse the demonstrators as they called for an end to...

Egypt's newly elected Patriarch of Alexandria, Pope Tawadros II, has announced that he will maintain the policy of his predecessor Pope Shenouda III of discouraging Coptic worshippers from visiting Jerusalem until it is liberated. He said that Christians and Muslims will visit Jerusalem together, after its liberation. The issue...

A Palestinian farmer was injured in an Israeli drone attack in Gaza on Wednesday. The man was working on his land to the east of Al-Burij refugee camp in the middle of the Gaza Strip. Ambulances and paramedics rushed to the scene to offer first aid. A spokesman for...

Egypt's Foreign Minister has insisted that Sinai is Egyptian land and his country is the only one with legal sovereignty over it. Speaking about the security situation in Sinai to Al-Arabia TV, Mohammed Kamel Amr said, "Sinai is a part of the internal policy of Egypt and Cairo will...

The United Nations Fourth Committee has accused the Israeli authorities of obstructing efforts to reconstruct the Gaza Strip, which was devastated during the Israeli war in 2008/2009. Life in Gaza, claims the UN, will not be viable if the siege is not lifted. "The mission of reconstructing the Gaza...

A US court acquitted on Tuesday the Arab Bank of charges of aiding and abetting Hamas gunfire from Gaza into an occupied area where an Israeli-American was injured in 2008. District Judge Jack B Weinstein in Brooklyn, New York, ruled that the plaintiff did not show enough evidence that...

An Israeli military court has extended the detention of human rights researcher Ayman Nasser for a further seven days. Nasser, 42, is a researcher for Al-Dameer Association for Human Rights. He was detained at his house in Safa village near Ramallah in the middle of October. Nasser's advocate said...

The Israeli occupation authorities have issued eviction notices to five more families in Wadi al-Maleh in the North of the Jordan Valley. The head of the village council, Aref Darghmeh, said that 60 families have been evicted over the past two days. Israel says that its armed forces carry...

An eleven year old boy was killed on Thursday evening by live fire from an Israeli tank. The incident took place to the east of Al-Faraheen village, near Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip. Ahmed abu-Dagga, 11, was killed when he was returning home from school during a limited...

Tunisia's Minister of the Interior Minister has insisted that militant groups in the country cannot expect any compromise or truce from the government. Ali El-Areed said that this stance will also be taken against those sections of the media which are "highly politicised and anti-government". In an interview published...

A senior member of the PLO Executive Committee has said that that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is to start an international tour to garner support for the proposal to get non-member state observer status for Palestine at the United Nations. Saeb Erekat told Palestinian television that he expects...

The State Attorney's Office in Israel has filed an appeal in Supreme Court against the acquittals of former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on charges of corruption, public betrayal and the receipt of bribes. The move comes as Olmert ponders a move back into public life by standing in the...

EXCLUSIVE PICTURES The Palestinian Legislative Council has approved the new cabinet in the Gaza government. As before, the government will be led by Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, who confirmed that the cabinet shuffle will not affect internal reconciliation moves. The Islamic Resistance Movement, he said, is ready to end...

EXCLUSIVE PICTURES More than one million Palestinian students started the academic year in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip on Sunday. Almost quarter of a million attend government schools, while just over 200,000 go to schools run by the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). A number of...

A squad of Israeli police officers, border guards and illegal Jewish settlers have stormed a Palestinian home in occupied Jerusalem to evict the family on the pretext that the land is owned by the settlers. The Hamdallah family home is in the Silwan district of Jerusalem; they were given...

Convicted Israeli spy Ouda Tarabin is to be set free under an agreement between Egypt and Israel in exchange for 83 Egyptians being held by Tel Aviv. A report on Radio Israel revealed details of the swap deal in which Israel's readiness to release all of the Egyptians in...

The Israeli occupation authorities have completed the apartheid wall around Jerusalem, cutting it off from its West Bank hinterland. The final 130km section brings the total length of the illegal wall to 784 km. The city is now ringed by electrified wire and cement blocks to a height of...

An Israeli ministerial committee has decided to hand over Hebron's old vegetable market to the Hebron Settlement Council. The decision has been condemned by the Palestinian-run Hebron Rehabilitation Committee which warned of the repercussions on geographic, demographic, political and economic levels. The committee issued a press release pointing out...

Jewish vandals attacked and set fire to Al-Latrun Monastery in Jerusalem in the early hours of Tuesday morning, writing anti-Christian graffiti on its walls. Muslims and Christians have denounced the incident. The main gate of the Monastery was completely burnt and the vandals sprayed obscenities about Jesus, Christians and...

EXCLUSIVE PICTURES The Palestinian Supreme Court in Ramallah has ruled that teachers who were sacked for their political affiliation in the West Bank have to be reinstated. The ruling to cancel the decision of the Education Ministry to sack teachers for their political affiliation was unanimous among the 19-strong...

EXCLUSIVE PICTURES Mohammed Abu-Tir, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), was released on Wednesday after spending one year in administrative detention in an Israeli prison. The parliamentarian, 55, was expelled from his home city of Jerusalem to Ramallah in December 2010, when his Jerusalem ID was revoked...

More than eighty Palestinian civil society organisations have handed a petition to the EU representatives in the Gaza Strip, Jerusalem and Ramallah complaining about Europe's expansion of trade and other links with Israel. The Palestinian groups regard the EU decision as a serious breach of the terms of the...

Israel's various intelligence services have conflicting and contradictory details about Iran's nuclear programme, Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth said this week. This has led to some confusion in the country's security cabinet. The cabinet heard details of Tehran's nuclear development from officers belonging to Mossad and Shabak as well as...

The Palestinian Prime Minister in Gaza has claimed that his government has been able to break the territory's international isolation thanks to official delegations to foreign capitals. Ismail Haniyeh pointed out that the resulting agreements signed with other countries, along with his own and colleagues' overseas tours, have helped...

WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGES Israeli forces have killed six Palestinians and wounded two others in two separate attacks in the Gaza Strip in less than 12 hours, Palestinian paramedics said on Thursday morning. Four Palestinians were attacked by an Israeli drone while they were driving at Al-Burij refugee camp in...

Palestinian Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad, has stated that the Palestinian National Authority is waiting on the receipt of external money transfers in order to pay its public sector employees for August. In a recent interview with Palestine Radio, the Prime Minister admitted that currently he could not specify when...

Beirut – Oliver Holmes Oposition activists have reported that Syrian government forces stormed into Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp and raided a hospital after a four-day artillery assault on the southern suburbs of Damascus. Rebels are alleged to have dug into the area and there are fears for the safety...

The Israeli government has backed the proposal to turn Ariel College into a university. The college is located in an illegal settlement built on occupied Palestinian territory. Supporting the proposal, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu argued that Ariel "is an integral part of Israel and will remain so in any...

Deputy Israeli Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said on Monday that Israel would not accept any modification of the Paris Economic Protocol (PEP), Israeli sources have reported. Speaking on Voice of Israel radio, Ayalon said that the PEP is connected to other political agreements signed between Israel and the Palestinians....

The German government will not support a unilateral Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle has told Haaretz newspaper. Speaking during a visit to Israel, Westerwelle added that such a strike would break the international coalition against Iran's nuclear ambitions. Westerwelle was confirming what German Chancellor...

EXCLUSIVE PICTURES A comprehensive strike in protest at recent price-hikes of fuel and other essential commodities has hit life in the occupied West Bank. Protesters closed all main streets in major West Bank towns and cities, with burning tyres blocking the way. Protests began last week with two-hour strikes...

Israeli forces have cracked down on a Palestinian protest in Beit Amer, in the occupied West Bank. Protesters were demanding the resignation of Salam Fayyad's Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority in the wake of massive price rises of essential goods. According to Quds Press, Israeli soldiers attacked the protesters with tear-gas...

A spokesman for Hamas in Gaza has accused Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas of provoking a crisis with the Islamic Resistance Movement in order to divert attention from anti-PA protests across the occupied West Bank. Dr. Sami Abu Zuhri called upon Abbas to commit to Palestinian reconciliation, "and not...

A senior Muslim Brotherhood official has been assigned to manage the Gaza free zone portfolio by Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi. Khairat Al-Shater is one of the prime movers behind the Brotherhood's renaissance project. The appointment was revealed by Abdullah Kandil, the Head of the Chamber of Commerce in Northern...

The Islamic Action Front political party in Jordan has denied that it has pledged to review its position on an election boycott. In a press statement, the party's secretary, Dr. Abdullah Faraj Allah, said: "This hasn't been discussed within the Islamic movement and any of the parties, let alone...

EXCLUSIVE PICUTURES Demonstrations against massive price-hikes of fuel and other essential commodities which began last week in the occupied West Bank have accelerated following clashes which erupted between security services and protesters on Monday. Huge numbers of protesters burst onto the streets of Nablus, Hebron and Ramallah. The clashes...

After concluding meetings between Palestinian and Egyptian senior security officials, Palestinian Prime Minster Ismail Haniyeh is scheduled to meet his Egyptian counterpart this week, the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper reported on Monday. The well-informed source quoted by Al-Hayat said that the security talks between officials from both countries led to...

William Hague has arrived in Cairo for meetings with Egyptian officials to discuss bilateral cooperation. Britain's Foreign Secretary is being accompanied by British businessmen. They are due to meet President Mohammed Morsi, Prime Minister Hisham Qandeel and Foreign Minister Mohammed Kamel Amr. "We will discuss how the UK can...

The Palestinian government in Gaza has expressed its satisfaction at the statements made by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, saying that they help to reinforce international peace and security. Ban told the UN's Human Rights Council in Geneva that he is concerned about "the unfulfilled human rights of the...

A senior official at Israel's Defence Ministry has warned that the collapse of the Palestinian Authority will lead to the collapse of Israel's peace agreement with Jordan. Amos Gilad was speaking at the 12th world summit of the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism held in Herzliya. He also called on...

The Israelis have demolished the Negev Bedouin village of Al-Araqeeb for the 42nd time, as security forces corralled its inhabitants in the local cemetery. Witnesses said that a huge number of police officers stormed the village with bulldozers in the early morning without notice, calling on inhabitants to leave...

EXCLUSIVE PICTURES The Palestinian government in Gaza has given the enclave's fishermen new equipment which has been donated by the Qatar Charity. The new net-pulling motors and other essential items were handed over in a small ceremony in the Port of Gaza attended by officials from the Palestinian Ministry...

The Israeli occupation forces have blocked the preparatory work on an agricultural wells project funded by Norwegian People's Aid in the occupied West Bank. The project was being implemented by the Union of Committees for Agricultural Work in the village of Al-Rahwa, south of Hebron. The union told Quds...

A delegation of professors from Constantine and Khenchela Universities in Algeria along with scientists from the Centre of Astronomical Research, have arrived in the Gaza Strip for a solidarity visit. The five-day visit will include a series of lectures to be given by the visitors at Gaza's three universities...

EXCLUSIVE PICTURES The Palestinian Minister for Prisoners' Affairs in the Ramallah Authority has taken the lead in popular protests in solidarity with prisoners who are serving long-term sentences in Israeli. Isa Qaraqe called for the protests to take place on the 13th September anniversary of the Oslo Accords. Qaraqe...

The District Court in East Jerusalem has convicted an Israeli businessman of fraud. Benno Zussman was found guilty of fabricating documents relating to land owned by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Jerusalem. The court's proceedings revealed that Zussman had deceived the Patriarchate as he forged contracts signed with the...

Presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina has said that the repeated derogatory remarks made by Israel's Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, about Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas cannot be accepted any longer. Abu Rudeina called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to let the world know where he stands on his Foreign...

Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, the Israeli Minister of Industry, has warned that hatred of Israel "is increasing" in the wake of the violence and anger across the Arab world triggered by an anti-Islam film. The movie was made by an Israeli and, it is claimed, was financed by Jews. Ben-Eliezer predicted...