Tensions continued to boil along the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, with the Israel Defense Force (IDF) warning civilians in the area to keep away from the frontier after terrorist groups in the Palestinian enclave threatened retaliation following the destruction of an attack tunnel by Israeli forces on Monday.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman on Monday hailed the IDF for destroying an attack tunnel from the Gaza Strip discovered near a kibbutz inside Israeli territory, with the two leaders attributing its discovery to Israel’s new ‘breakthrough technology.’
Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon on Sunday blasted the discovery of a tunnel underneath a Gaza school run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, accusing the Hamas terror organization of using UNRWA facilities as ‘terror bases’ and Gazan children as ‘human shields.’
Hamas is ‘begging Iran’ for help in its armed resistance against Israel, a senior Trump administration official said on Monday, addressing the visit of several Hamas leaders to Tehran over the weekend.
Thousands of Hamas activists and supporters took to the streets of Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza on Sunday night to rally against Israel and praise the terrorist ramming attack in Jerusalem which killed four Israelis.
The United States called Thursday for the Hamas terror group to disarm and renounce violence before being allowed to implement a highly touted unity deal with Palestinian rival Fatah, in a first detailed response to the agreement.
As part of the intra-Palestinian reconciliation, Hamas has pledged not to perpetrate terrorist attacks from Judea and Samaria, the London-based pan-Arab daily Asharq Al-Awsat reported on Sunday.
Rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah have reached agreement on aspects of their reconciliation bid during talks mediated by Egypt in Cairo this week, Hamas said on Thursday.
High-level Hamas and Fatah delegations are scheduled to participate in reconciliation talks in Cairo on Tuesday in a bid to start work on ending the decade-long territorial division between the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military said on Sunday it destroyed an outpost belonging to the Islamist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip on Sunday after Gaza militants fired a rocket toward Israel.
With the ink on the reconciliation deal between Fatah and Hamas not yet dry, with the mutual declarations of ‘real reconciliation on behalf of Palestinian national strength’ still reverberating in the background, the first signs of division over the implementation of understandings began to surface over the weekend.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed on Tuesday that Israel would not deal with a Palestinian government that included Hamas if it maintained its anti-Israel stance and remained committed to terrorism.
A new round of Palestinian reconciliation talks experienced its first sign of trouble on Tuesday as the Hamas terror group said it would not give up its vast weapons arsenal, putting it at odds with both the rival Fatah movement and Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Tuesday spoke out against efforts by the rival Palestinian factions Fatah and the Gaza-ruling terror group Hamas to form a unity government.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said that he would not be prepared to accept Hamas keeping its armed forces in Gaza like Hezbollah does in Lebanon and demanded ‘full control’ of the Strip, including over the border, security and all the ministries.
PA Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah and several other government ministers are set to travel to Gaza Monday morning in a historic bid to work on ending the territorial division between the West Bank and Gaza.
The son of a prominent Hamas leader shocked members of the U.N. Human Rights Council, including representatives of the Palestinian Authority, declaring in testimony that the PA is the ‘greatest enemy of the Palestinian people.’
Despite an all-time low in relations between the Riyadh government and the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas, a leading Saudi newspaper has offered a cautious welcome to the current reconciliation process between Hamas and its rival Fatah as they prepare for next week’s session of the Palestine National Council in Gaza — the first such meeting in three years.
Hamas has agreed to dissolve the administration that runs Gaza, it said on Sunday, a major step towards handing control of the enclave to a Palestinian unity government after a decade of bitter rivalry with President Mahmoud Abbas.
Ismail Haniyeh, political chief of Hamas, said the organization is ready to talk reconciliation with the rival government of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas without preconditions.