Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday held a rare meeting in Ramallah with a delegation from rival Hamas over possible reconciliation between the battling Palestinian factions.
Some 2,000 members of the Hamas terror group marched in the Gaza Strip Wednesday to mark ‘victory’ after Israel removed contested metal detectors from entrances to the Temple Mount a day earlier in a bid to calm tensions.
The European Union’s top court kept Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on the EU terrorism blacklist on Wednesday and removed Sri Lankan separatist rebels, the Tamil Tigers.
Azzam al-Ahmad, a member of the Fatah Central Committee who is responsible for internal Palestinian affairs, revealed on Tuesday that over the past 10 days he had held direct and indirect contacts, through other countries, with the leadership of Hamas.
The Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet security agency arrested 29 Hamas members, including senior officials of the terror group, in overnight raids in the West Bank.
Security forces in Israel and the West were on high alert Wednesday, with mass civil disobedience expected after Palestinian leaders called for a “Day of Rage” after Israel imposed increased security measures on the Temple Mount after a terror attack killed two policemen on Friday.
Palestinian militant groups Hamas and the Islamic Jihad called for an escalation in violence amid new Israeli security measures on the Temple Mount.
A new UN report released on Tuesday highlighted the negative impact of a decade of Hamas rule in Gaza, ending with the grim prediction that living conditions in the coastal enclave will worsen significantly over the next three years.
amas has produced several dozen short-range rockets that can carry a relatively heavy explosive load, Army Radio reported Tuesday.
Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal made a rare plea on Wednesday for uniting his popular Palestinian Islamist movement with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), bringing it, for the first time, into the umbrella group recognized internationally and by Israel as the representative of the Palestinians.
Israel’s Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman has said in an interview that any future hostilities between the Jewish state and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip will be the last, “because we will completely destroy them”.
Hamas announced a “day of rage” on Friday to mark one year since the start of the latest terror wave unleashed by the Gaza-based terror group against Israeli targets.
As the residents of the Gaza Strip endure daily hardships due to the dire economic situation in the enclave, their Hamas leaders spend over $100 million a year on the group’s military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, according to estimates by both Israeli and Palestinian sources. Spending on digging tunnels accounts for some $40 million of that annual sum.
The United States on Tuesday called on Americans in the Gaza Strip to leave the coastal enclave “as soon as possible.”
The Israeli Defense Forces says it has no intention to escalate conflict in Gaza after air and artillery strikes hit dozens of targets in the Gaza Strip overnight Monday in response to earlier rocket fire from the coastal enclave into Israel.
A leading Republican senator is calling on the Obama administration to launch a formal investigation into the potential diversion of U.S. taxpayer funds to organizations that have reportedly been infiltrated by the Hamas terror organization, according to new documents obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
It has been two years since the July 2014 Gaza War, which killed over 2,000 Palestinians and 70 Israelis.
According to IDF estimations, the likelihood of Israel initiating a war in the next year remains low, both due to the turmoil in the Middle East which is keeping many of Israel’s enemies busy, and because of Israel’s current deterrence abilities. Even so, the likelihood of a severe incident leading to an escalation and even a war has increased, and is being described by the IDF as ‘moderate.’ This is due to the tension along Israel’s borders, especially the ones in the north and near the Gaza Strip.
Turkey is demanding that Israel permit unfettered access to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip as one of the conditions before it renews diplomatic ties with Israel, according to a report in Saturday editions of the Hurriyet Daily News.
Hamas and Hezbollah officials discussed the latest developments in the Palestinian and Lebanese arenas in Beirut on Sunday, as well as ways of coordinating their moves against Islamic State.