Israeli-Palestinian cauldron tests US as Blinken visits
An alarming spike in Israeli-Palestinian violence and sharp responses by both sides are testing the Biden administration as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken plunges into a cauldron of deepening mistrust and anger on visits to Israel and the West Bank this week.
Close aide curses Palestinian leader in leaked audio
A top aide to President Mahmoud Abbas was heard in newly released recordings on Tuesday cursing the Palestinian leader and insulting other members of the Palestinian leadership. The purported remarks by Hussein al-Sheikh, a senior official who is seen as a potential successor to the 87-year-old Abbas, gave a glimpse of the bitter infighting inside the Palestinian leadership as several hopefuls try to position themselves for the post-Abbas era. The recordings were released by a news website run by the militant Hamas group, the bitter rival of Abbas’ Fatah party.
news.yahoo.comPalestinians join huge Fatah rally in Gaza Strip amid rift
Tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza have marked the anniversary of the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat — a rare public show of support for the Fatah faction in the heartland of its Islamist rival, the militant Hamas group
washingtonpost.comUN: 2022 likely deadliest for Palestinians in West Bank
The U.N. Mideast envoy says 2022 is on course to be the deadliest year for Palestinians in the West Bank since the U.N. started tracking fatalities in 2005 and called for immediate action to calm “an explosive situation” and move toward renewing Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
Israeli troops raid gunmen's hideout; 5 Palestinians killed
Israeli forces raided a stronghold of an armed group in the occupied West Bank's second-largest city, blowing up a bomb lab and engaging in a firefight, the military said Tuesday. Five Palestinians were killed and 20 were wounded, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The overnight raid in the old city, or kasbah, of Nablus, was one of the deadliest in the West Bank in 2022 and comes at a time of escalating tensions.
news.yahoo.comUN envoy: Israel defies UN resolution on halting settlements
The U.N. Mideast envoy says Israel continued its defiance of a 2016 U.N. Security Council resolution demanding an immediate halt to all settlement activity in lands the Palestinians want for their future state, advancing plans for construction of nearly 2,000 housing units in the last three months
washingtonpost.comUN envoy: Israel defies UN resolution on halting settlements
Israel continued its defiance of a 2016 U.N. Security Council resolution demanding an immediate halt to all settlement activity in lands the Palestinians want for their future state, advancing plans for construction of nearly 2,000 housing units in the last three months, the U.N. Mideast envoy said Wednesday. Tor Wennesland told the council that no progress was made by Israelis and Palestinians on other demands in the resolution -- preventing all violence against civilians, refraining from acts of provocation, incitement and inflammatory rhetoric, distinguishing between Israeli territory and territories occupied since the 1967 war, and exerting “collective efforts to launch credible negotiations.”
news.yahoo.comPalestinian President Abbas skirts apology for Munich attack
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas expressed no regret Tuesday for the deadly attack by Palestinian militants against Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics half a century ago, countering that Israel had committed “50 Holocausts” against Palestinians over the years. Eleven Israeli athletes and a German police officer died after members of the Palestinian militant group Black September took hostages at the Olympic Village on Sept. 5, 1972.
news.yahoo.comAP PHOTOS: Israel's separation barrier, 20 years on
Twenty years after Israel decided to build its controversial separation barrier, the network of walls, fences and closed military roads remains in place, even as any partition of the land appears more remote than ever. Israel is actively encouraging its Jewish citizens to settle on both sides of the barrier as it builds and expands settlements deep inside the occupied West Bank, more than a decade after the collapse of any serious peace talks. Palestinians living under decades of military occupation, meanwhile, clamor for work permits inside Israel, where wages are higher.
news.yahoo.comU.S., Israel and Arab states to expand cooperation in unprecedented meeting
While unprecedented, the meeting came amid a growing list of tensions between the Washington and its Middle East allies, including the the Iran nuclear deal, tensions between Israelis and Palestinians and a lackluster response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine from Arab and Israeli partners.
washingtonpost.comBlinken set to see Israelis, Arabs wary about Iran, Ukraine
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will try to use his three-nation tour of the Middle East and North Africa to reassure wary Israelis and Arabs that the Biden administration is committed to the region’s security at a time when Washington is confronting multiple foreign policy challenges.
Israel approves measures for Palestinians after leaders meet
Israel's defense minister approved a raft of measures aimed at improving relations with the Palestinians on Wednesday following a rare meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Israel. Defense Minister Benny Gantz met with Abbas at his private residence in a Tel Aviv suburb late Tuesday night. It was the first time Abbas met an Israeli official inside Israel since 2010.
news.yahoo.comIsraeli defense minister meets with Palestinian president
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas paid a rare visit to Israel on Tuesday for talks with Israel's defense minister, the latest in a series of meetings by top Israeli officials with the Palestinian leader. Israel’s new prime minister, Naftali Bennett, opposes Palestinian independence and has ruled out formal peace talks.
news.yahoo.comAbbas issues ultimatum to Israel in harsh UN address
In an unusually harsh speech, President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday gave Israel one year to end its occupation of territories the Palestinians want for a future state. “If the Israeli occupation authorities continue to entrench the reality of one apartheid state as is happening today, our Palestinian people and the entire world will not tolerate such a situation," Abbas said.
news.yahoo.com