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UNITED NATIONS, (AP) -- The U.N. chief on Tuesday accused Israel of lying about attacks on United Nations schools and other facilities during the Gaza military campaign — including one reported to have killed more than 40 people — and formally demanded compensation. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said a U.N. investigation found conclusively that Israeli weaponry — some containing white phosphorus — was "the indisputed cause" of attacks on several schools, a health clinic and the world body's Gaza headquarters. Israel denies that it intentionally struck the compounds, and says it was forced to act against militants using the buildings and...

The geopolitics of China’s rise and its implications for the Arab world and wider Middle East is a topic for serious debate. Currently, China’s Middle East strategy revolves around shoring up its energy security and tapping consumer markets and investment opportunities for Chinese businesses. Given China’s status as the world’s fastest growing energy consumer and third-largest net importer of oil coupled with the global financial crisis, energy and commercial concerns will continue to dominate China’s interaction with the Middle East in the foreseeable future [1]. Yet as China’s economic clout grows, Beijing is also keen on leveraging its economic power...

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran's judiciary has asked Interpol to issue arrest warrants for 15 Israelis in connection with the Gaza offensive, Iranian state TV reported Monday. Interpol denied receiving such a request. The TV said a court set up to investigate Iranian complaints against Israel provided Interpol with a list of Israeli leaders and details on accusations against them. Prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi was quoted as saying Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak were all on the list. Others were top military officers involved in the recent offensive against Gaza's Hamas rulers. However,...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) -- A Palestinian fighter died in a clash with Israeli troops and Israeli aircraft attacked two targets in Gaza on Monday as mediators tried to broker a long-term cease-fire a day before Israel holds national elections. The militant group Islamic Jihad said in a statement that one of its fighters was killed overnight in an Israeli airstrike. The Israeli military said troops spotted an armed militant trying to cross the Gaza-Israel border late Sunday and opened fire, after which a bomb belt he was wearing detonated.

"Hamas have internalized the extent of the physical and moral blow inflicted upon it. Unlike arrogant statements sounded in the media, the organization is conducting serious soul-searching on its strategic mistakes and operational failures," Military Intelligence chief Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin said Sunday in the weekly cabinet meeting. "Two weeks after the cease-fire began, terrorists not belonging to Hamas are challenging the organization and carrying out attacks in order to bring on another escalation. Hamas is deterred and respecting the cease-fire, but not doing enough to discourage the others," he continued. "Operation Cast Lead improved Israeli deterrence and brought radical factions...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) -- More than 5,000 Hamas supporters rallied in Gaza on Friday, as a leader of the Islamic militant group emerged from hiding to declare victory in the 23-day Israeli offensive that devastated much of the Palestinian territory. Hamas lawmaker Khalil al-Hayeh appeared in public for the first time since the war's start on Dec. 27 and remained defiant despite Hamas' heavy losses. "We thank God when we see our houses bombed and our institutions destroyed, but our people say yes to the resistance and yes to martyrdom for the sake of God," al-Hayeh said, standing...

Hamas's Academic Cheerleaders [incl. Hamid Dabashi, Rashid Khalidi, Fawaz Gerges, Joseph Massad, Muqtedar Khan, Mark LeVine, et al.] If further proof was needed that the field of Middle East studies is marred by a politicized, morally vacuous approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict, the reaction of many of its leading lights to the current war in Gaza should suffice.According to these self-appointed arbiters of international law, Israel's military campaign against Hamas following the firing of over 6,000 rockets at Israeli civilian targets since 2005 is unjustified. Hamas, they tell us, is not a terrorist organization bent on Israel's destruction, but rather...

JERUSALEM, Israel (AP) -- Gaza's streets brimmed with energy Monday as people picked up the pieces of their lives, while Israeli officials said they planned to pull all troops from the territory by Barack Obama's inauguration as president of the United States on Tuesday. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon planned to travel to Gaza on Tuesday to inspect the damage and visit United Nations facilities hit in the fighting. The visit will make him the highest-ranking international official to visit the territory since Hamas militants took it over in June 2007. Ban will not meet officials from Hamas, whose government is...

Netanyahu: I warned that unilateral Gaza pullout would create 'Hamastan.'

At a Hanukkah candle-lighting at the Shin Bet security services headquarters two weeks ago, Yuval Diskin spoke with former heads of departments about the organization's preparedness to confront Hamas. The head of the Shin Bet sounded quite cautious. Perhaps even he was surprised by the quality of the intelligence that he and his people had succeeded in providing the Israel Defense Forces during the months of planning that preceded Operation Cast Lead and in the days prior to its launch. Even those who object to the war in the Gaza Strip will find it hard not to agree that this...

(IsraelNN.com) The IDF reported that two well known Hamas terrorists were among the dead in the IDF strike on a school Tuesday which also killed over 40 civilians. According to the IDF, the terrorists were using the school to fire mortar shells at troops. The dead Hamas operatives were Imad Abu Askhar and Hassan Abu Askhar. The IDF said, “We face a very delicate situation where the Hamas is using the citizens of Gaza as a protective vest.”

Dozens of American and Canadian Lutheran bishops arrived in Jerusalem on Tuesday for their annual Academy, a meeting for theological discussion. Planned many months in advance, they gathered in the shadow of the war in Gaza. Bishop Mark Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, called for a cease-fire ahead of his visit, urging "officials of both parties to the conflict to... refrain from all violent acts, which only bring destruction and tragedy, and urge them instead to work to resolve their differences through peaceful and nonviolent means," the church said in a statement. The church believed...

(IsraelNN.com) Israel's steamroller success in its Cast Lead counterterrorist campaign against Hamas has allowed it to begin setting out conditions for a new truce, including foreign supervision at the Egyptian border. The Saudi Gazette published a report from Reuters that "Israel has conditioned any halt to its Gaza Strip offensive on international backing for new fortifications and monitoring on the Egyptian border to prevent Hamas from rebuilding tunnels and rearming." The government is determined to prevent a repeat of the failed Gaza Disengagement agreement and the ceasefire that officially ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War. Hamas terrorists amassed a huge...

A Grad rocket struck an empty kindergarten in Ashdod on Monday, sending several people into shock and causing heavy damage to buildings in the area. The facility was empty due to a Home Front Command directive to keep schools and kindergartens closed. Local residents had complied with safety instructions, entering bomb shelters and safe rooms after hearing the warning siren. The epicenter of the day's rocket attacks was Ashkelon, where five Grads damaged structures and sent people into shock. Another four landed later, causing no damage. By Monday evening, the day's total stood at 37 rockets fired at the South....

Three years after being evacuated from settlements in the Gaza Strip, some of the evacuees are now returning - in uniform. Aharon Cruz, a paratroops officer, lived in Netzarim for two years before the disengagement. On Sunday, he and his unit, to which he had been recalled a mere day after his wedding last Thursday, were back at the settlement's ruins in central Gaza. "On one hand, there's a feeling of 'what did we leave for?'" said his father, Rabbi Ze'ev Cruz. "On the other hand, there's joy that he is returning to a place he knows." The ground operation...

Hamas representatives claimed on Sunday that their militiamen were fighting against IDF troops in the Gaza Strip with weapons confiscated from the Palestinian Authority in the summer of 2007. They said Hamas had managed to lay its hands on all the weapons that Israel, the US and other countries had given forces loyal to PA President Mahmoud Abbas. Hamas had also seized dozens of armored vehicles used by Abbas's security forces, they added. After its men took full control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, Hamas announced that it had seized tens of thousands of rifles and pistols, including heavy...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Israeli defense officials said Saturday that ground forces are crossing the Gaza border. Artillery units joined Israel's Gaza offensive for the first time Saturday, while warplanes and gunboats pounded more than 40 Hamas targets and a mosque where 10 people were killed.

(IsraelNN.com) The IAF hit a house in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City on Thursday evening. The strike targeted senior Hamas terrorist Nabil Abu el-Amrin.Powerful secondary blasts were seen from the air after Amrin's house was hit, confirming IDF intelligence according to which the building was used to store large quantities of explosives and ammunition. It was not immediately clear if Amrin was killed in the strike.On Thursday afternoon the IAF hit and killed Nizar Rayyan, making him the most senior Hamas terrorist to be killed by Israel in several years. Several others were killed in the blast as well. Paramedics believe...

NEW YORK, (AP) -- Israel's ambassador to the United Nations says the goal of the current offensive in the Gaza Strip is much broader than ending Palestinian rocket attacks. She says Israel wants to destroy Gaza's ruling Hamas movement. In an interview Tuesday, Ambassador Gabriela Shalev said Israel's main goal is to "destroy completely" what she called a "terrorist gang."

The government's decision to launch a political and media offensive before beginning the major military operation in Gaza was an important and necessary step. The moral case for using force to protect citizens against aggression is clear - the most basic human right is the right to life, and this point needs to be highlighted in every venue. In contrast, there is no moral justification for Hamas's terror and missile attacks, or for remaining silent in the face of the use of human shields in Gaza to protect terrorists from counterattack. But based on past experience, to make this moral...

(IsraelNN.com) President Shimon Peres said in a statement released to the media Sunday that it is time for the world to understand that Israel has been more than patient in waiting for the people of Gaza to come to their senses. Detailing all the agony and subsequent fallout of the 2005 Disengagement from Gaza, Peres said, "The story is simple. Israel has left Gaza completely… The passages were open. Money was sent to Gaza. We suggested aid in many ways – economically, medically and otherwise… Still I have not heard until now a single person who could explain to us...

Hundreds of people lined the busiest intersection near the Galleria on Sunday, chanting and waving Palestinian flags to protest the Israeli bombing in Gaza. "People are very upset, obviously. They are angry," said Said Fattouh, host of the radio talk show Arab Voices. "Nobody knows when it will stop." The protest grew spontaneously, with several Arab-American organizations spreading the word. People said they heard about it through e-mail, text messages and telephone calls and traveled to the intersection of Westheimer and Post Oak to participate. Members of the Houston Coalition for Justice Not War said they would hold a second...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Terrified prisoners fled a Gaza City jail bombed by Israeli warplanes on Sunday, their faces white with dust and red with blood as they stumbled over huge piles of rubble. Across the territory, grieving families pitched traditional mourning tents of green tarp outside the homes. Yet the rows of chairs inside these tents remained largely empty, as residents cowered indoors for fear of new Israeli strikes. Plumes of gray smoke rising into the sky marked the site of the latest Israeli attacks. Even for war-weary Gazans, who've lived through countless Israeli incursions, air attacks...

TEL AVIV | The threat of an Israeli invasion of the Islamist-ruled Gaza Strip loomed Sunday, with the call up of 6,500 reservists during the second day of an air offensive that sparked global protests and the deepest penetration yet by Palestinian rockets into southern Israel. Israeli bombers targeted 40 smuggling tunnels linking the Gaza Strip to Egypt, while Palestinian demonstrators clashed with Egyptian border police in an attempt to flee the bombing. The death toll approached 300 and demonstrations erupted throughout the Muslim world. The Syrian government broke off indirect peace talks started earlier this year with Israel. A...

IAF planes targeted a guest palace used by the Hamas government and the house next to Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh's home in a refugee camp next to Gaza City early Monday morning. Haniyeh was not home, as Hamas leaders have gone into hiding. Israel Radio reported that 307 Palestinians have been killed the IDF 'Operation Cast Lead,' which began on Saturday.

Israel Shatters Key Hamas Targets Breaking News 11:37pm UK, Sunday December 28, 2008 Israeli warplanes have bombed a significant Hamas cultural symbol in a new wave of air strikes on Gaza. Israeli airstrikes have continued on Gaza for a second day Six airstrikes pummelled the Islamic University as Israel widened its deadliest-ever air offensive against Hamas targets. Some 40 smuggling tunnels running under the border with Egypt have been attacked, destroying a network that is a lifeline to the outside world. Meanwhile more tanks and artillery have been sent towards the Gaza border, increasing the threat of a ground invasion....

Crawford, Texas (AP) -- The deaths of hundreds of Palestinians in Israel's deadliest-ever air assault on the militant Hamas further complicates President-elect Barack Obama's challenge to achieve a Middle East peace — something that eluded both the Bush and Clinton administrations. The Bush administration has blamed the renewed violence on the militant Islamic group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, saying it broke a cease-fire by firing rockets and mortars deep into Israeli territory. The Arab world, however, has reacted with rage to the aggressive Israeli counterattacks, which have left at least 290 Palestinians dead and more than 600 wounded....

EIRUT, Lebanon (AP) -- Crowds of thousands swept into the streets of cities around the Middle East on Sunday to denounce Israel's air assault on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip. From Lebanon to Iran, Israel's adversaries used the weekend assault to marshal crowds into the streets for noisy demonstrations. And among regional allies there was also discontent: The prime minister of Turkey, one of the few Muslim countries to have relations with Israel, called the air assault a "crime against humanity." Several of Sunday's protests turned violent. A crowd of anti-Israel protesters in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul...

World reaction to Israel's sudden, massive strike against terror infrastructure in the Gaza Strip ranged from immediate condemnation and a call to halt all attacks to cautious acknowledgement of Israel's right to defend its citizens. Some international powers spoke against Hamas's bombardment of communities in southern Israel since the cease-fire ended last week; others wrung their hands over the humanitarian suffering in the Strip. In a statement released Saturday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for an immediate halt to all violence in both Gaza and southern Israel. "While recognizing Israel's security concerns regarding the continued firing of rockets from Gaza,...

Follow Link Above (IsraelNN.com) The IDF on Saturday night released aerial photos of Hamas facilities targeted by IAF fighter pilots on Saturday in Operation 'Cast Lead.' The photos show the military training facilities Hamas has developed in Gaza, where Israel forcibly evicted close to 10,000 of its Jewish citizens in August 2005 in hopes of establishing peace with its Palestinian Authority Arab neighbors.

Gaza Strip (AP) -- Israel launched an airstrike on Gaza early Wednesday after its troops clashed with Hamas militants who fired mortars into Israel, leaving six Palestinians dead. It was the first battle since a June truce mostly quieted violence in the volatile territory. The Israeli army said the clashes erupted late Tuesday after its forces uncovered a tunnel in central Gaza that militants planned to use to abduct Israeli soldiers. It said a special army unit headed to the area to destroy the tunnel. One Palestinian was killed in fierce gunbattles that ensued. Hamas then fired mortars across the...

'A people without walls is a people without any choice." So writes Aristotle in The Politics. In modern parlance, we might say that a nation that does not adequately defend or define its borders subjects its citizens not only to military risk but to political danger. A country that cannot maintain its deterrent capability vis-a-vis its hostile neighbors rapidly loses strategic maneuverability, becomes enervated and finds itself increasingly helpless. Israel, as recent events have once again made lamentably plain, risks becoming such a country. Fifteen Israelis were wounded Wednesday - four seriously - by a Grad-model rocket that hit a...

Hamas faces unprecedented crisis, as Israel, Egypt prepare for flare-up Alex Fishman 4/16/08 Egypt asked Israel to put its forces along the Gaza Strip border on alert, while at the same time the Egyptian army is on special deployment on the Philadelphi Route and south of it. Officials in Israel and Egypt estimate that Gaza is on the brink of eruption that may be violently manifested on the Strip’s border with the two countries. Israeli security officials estimate that Hamas’ Gaza regime has reached a dead-end and is facing an unprecedented crisis not seen since it took over the Strip....

JERUSALEM, Israel (AP) -- An aide to Israel's public security minister was wounded by a Palestinian gunman on Friday as he toured an observation point overlooking the Gaza Strip with a group of Canadian tourists. Dozens of other people were at the site at the time, Cabinet Minister Avi Dichter said, but no one else was hurt. The deputy director of Barzilai hospital in Ashkelon, Dr. Emile Hay, said Dichter's bureau chief, Matti Gil, was in stable condition with gunshot wounds to the lower abdomen and pelvis. Several militant groups claimed responsibility for the attack, including the military wing of...

Two Palestinian terrorists were killed by the IDF late Saturday evening, Palestinian sources claimed. Rescue workers reported three explosions near the town of Jabaliya in the northern Gaza Strip. They said the two gunmen. Reportedly they were trying to plant an explosive device near the security barrier. Military officials said the Palestinian report was being looked into. On Friday, IDF troops shot and killed two Palestinian gunmen during clashes in the Gaza Strip, and a Kassam rocket slammed into a kibbutz kindergarten moments after the children had left the playground. A Hamas man was killed and another was wounded during...

SDEROT, Israel (AP) -- Touring a war-battered town, Sen. John McCain said Wednesday he understands Israel's tough response to Palestinian rocket fire, adding that there is no point in negotiating with the Gaza Strip's Islamic Hamas regime. The Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting also praised the moderate Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, saying he is committed to reaching a peace deal with Israel — though McCain is not meeting Palestinians this time. McCain's visit to Israel is part of a weeklong trip through the Middle East and Europe. After a day of meetings with Israeli leaders, he visited Sderot, the southern Israeli border...

GENEVA, Switzerland (AP) -- The U.N. Human Rights Council has condemned Israel's offensive in Gaza and called on Palestinians to stop rocket fire into Israel. The resolution passed Thursday said Israeli incursions into the Palestinian territory inflicted collective punishment on the civilian population. Israel launched the offensive last week in response to Palestinian militants barraging southern Israel with rockets.

Published: 03.06.08, 15:29 / Israel News Defense Minister Ehud Barak decided Thursday to cancel his US visit, scheduled for next week, due to the escalating situation in southern Israel. Barak was to meet with Vice President Dick Cheney and US secretary of Defense Robert Gates. (Roni Sofer)

Several thousand Arabs led by Arab nationalist Knesset members participated in a procession through the Israeli city of Umm el-Fahm near Megiddo Tuesday evening. The demonstration was held in protest of Israeli military operations in Gaza and involved incidents of rock throwing at Israeli cars.The crowd chanted "Israel, the mother of terror" and held a sign that read "Stop the Zionazi" in English. Additional slogans were "Rest, O martyr, we will complete the task," "Warm blessings to the rock children," as well as the standard "With blood and spirit, we will redeem Palestine." The participants held Syrian and PLO...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) -- Palestinians say they know when an Israeli drone is in the air: Cell phones stop working, TV reception falters and they can hear a distant buzzing. They also know what's likely to come next — a devastating explosion on the ground. Palestinians say Israel's pilotless planes have been a major weapon in its latest offensive in Gaza, which has killed nearly 120 people since last week. "Our experience is that the drone missile is successful in hitting its targets, and it's deadly," said Dr. Mahmoud Assali, a Palestinian physician who works in the emergency...

The London-based human rights organization Amnesty International has condemned Israel's attacks on Gaza, claiming they are "being carried out with reckless disregard for civilian life." "Israeli military attacks over the past few days have killed more than 75 Palestinians in Gaza, including at least 10 children, and other unarmed civilian bystanders not involved in the confrontations" Malcolm Smart, director of Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa program, said Sunday. "Israel has a legal obligation to protect the civilian population of Gaza. Such attacks are disproportionate and go beyond lawful measures which Israeli forces may take in response to rocket attacks...

Gaza Strip (AP) -- A bloody spike in Israel-Hamas fighting put the Israeli city of Ashkelon and its 110,000 residents at the center of an intensifying militant rocket barrage Thursday — and Israel's defense minister warned he would invade Gaza, if necessary, to halt the attacks. Israel sent a not-so-veiled warning to Gaza's Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, killing 20 Palestinians in almost a dozen airstrikes, including a missile attack on a guard post outside Haniyeh's home. Hamas leaders have been in hiding in recent weeks, though Israel has so far only targeted militants, not Hamas politicians. The dead Thursday...

TEL AVIV — New population data have some Palestinians contemplating an unorthodox formula for Middle East peace — a single democratic nation of Arabs and Jews, in which Palestinians would be the majority. "If Israel wants to call it Israel from Jordan to the Mediterranean, I accept it. So we'll be equal to them," said Saeb Erekat, a negotiator who has been at the center of negotiations to set up a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. "And with the majority, I will change the name of the Knesset to Parliament and the name of Israel to...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) -- The eight-month closure of Gaza has created "grim and miserable" conditions that deprive Palestinians of their basic dignity, the U.N.'s humanitarian chief said Friday. Later Friday, a powerful blast went off in the house of a senior Islamic Jihad activist, killing him and five others, medics and an Islamic Jihad spokesman said. Islamic Jihad said an Israeli airstrike targeted the house, but Israel denied it. John Holmes, undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, visited Gaza during the day and urged that the territory's borders be reopened to relieve the suffering. Israel and Egypt severely restricted access...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) -- An explosion Friday in the house of an Islamic Jihad activist killed at least one person and wounded 30, Hamas police and medics said. Islamic Jihad spokesman Abu Hamza said the house was hit in an Israeli airstrike. Hamas security officials said the cause of the explosion was not clear. The Israeli military had no immediate comment. The blast happened at the central Gaza home of Ayman Atallah Fayed

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) -- Leaders of Gaza's ruling Hamas movement have gone into hiding, fearing Israeli assassination attempts in response to a wave of Palestinian rocket attacks on southern Israel, officials said Monday. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak ordered the military to prepare to invade Gaza, and told Israeli lawmakers that under certain circumstances, Israel would "even take down Hamas." Barak spoke at a closed parliamentary meeting whose discussions routinely are leaked to the media. It was the first time a senior Israeli official hinted so strongly that Israel was prepared to overthrow Hamas if the Palestinians didn't...

Pali-Arab Hate Watch Pali-parasites get 7.6 billion in aid. For what? For this? Palestinian Authority under Mahmoud Abbas continues to portray the United States as the merciless enemy of the Palestinians. A cartoon in the PA official daily last week shows Gaza drowning in blood, while the US is cruelly stamping on the outstretched Arab arm trying to help Gaza.(Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Jan-19-2008) *This demonization of the USA is a continuation of PA policy for many years. See the PMW web site for more cartoon examples. Palistan Reality: The dude with a case of cigs talking on a cell phone....

Likud MK Yuval Shteinitz, who chaired the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in the Sharon government, says that with the breakdown of the border between Gaza and Egypt, Israel's lone option remains the same: "We must take over Gaza." Speaking with Arutz-7 today, Shteinitz said, "If Hamas worked to break open the border with Egypt, this means it is not in Israel's interest.  For one thing, our pressure tactic against the Gazan terrorists - that is, the siege that we imposed - is no longer effective, as they can just go to Egypt to buy whatever they need.  In...

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- The Gaza border crisis caused another sharp flap Thursday in Egyptian-Israeli relations, with Egypt angrily accusing Israel of trying to dump all responsibility for the troubled Gaza Strip in its lap. It was not clear if the proposal for Israel to relinquish all control over Gaza, expressed privately by several Israeli officials and publicly by one, was serious or just an effort to test international reaction to the idea. But Egyptian officials were fuming. "This is a wrong assumption," Hossam Zaki, the official spokesman for Egypt's Foreign Ministry, said of Israeli hints that it was thinking...

GAZA CITY — Hamas has for the first time reported firing surface-to-air missiles at Israeli aircraft. Hamas said its new army launched SAMs toward Israeli attack helicopters that operated over the Gaza Strip. The Islamic regime, in the first such announcement, said the air defense systems were employed on Dec. 20 during an Israeli military operation in the central Gaza Strip. "Our fighters opened intense fire from more than one weapon at 11:30 a.m., and forced the surprised IAF helicopters to withdraw," a Hamas statement said. Hamas distributed leaflets throughout the Gaza Strip that reported the use of SAMs. The...