News and Analysis

JERUSALEM (AFP) — The Israeli army is preparing for a possible rush on the border fence around the Gaza Strip aimed at breaking a months-long economic blockade, local media reported on Sunday. According to a report on army radio the Islamist Hamas movement which has ruled the Gaza Strip since June may stage a mass…

The mayor of Sderot, an Israeli town repeatedly targeted by rockets fired from the Gaza Strip, says in order to save Israeli lives he is ready to talk to Hamas – despite the international ban on contact with the militant Palestinian organisation. “I would say to Hamas, let’s have a ceasefire, let’s stop the rockets…

The Green Party of England and Wales has adopted a radical policy in support of boycotting Israel. At its spring conference in Reading over the weekend, delegates agreed to back the “Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions” campaign launched by Palestinian groups which urge “broad boycotts” of Israel similar to those imposed on apartheid South Africa .…

CAIRO (AFP) — Around 15 Egyptian trade unions — from doctors to writers — issued a protest on Thursday over a decision to make Israel a guest of honour at a major Paris book fair next month. “This choice is unacceptable while Israel continues to breach human rights,” president of the Arab and Egyptian writers’…

As pictures of Gaza in darkness circulated the world’s media a few weeks ago, the start of Israel’s blockade of the strip caused a far lesser-known crisis in kitchens across the Jewish state. In an arrangement that seems to turn the Middle East tensions on their head, Orthodox Jews are orchestrating their own boycott of…

Livni: Palestinian people have no future under Hamas rule Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said on Thursday that the Palestinian people had no future under Hamas, adding that Israel would continue its campaign against the terror created by the Islamist group. Livni met Thursday with her Romanian counterpart, amid mounting international pressure on Israel over its…