Israeli soldiers take part in a military operation searching for Hamas members overnight in the West Bank city of Hebron. In Israel, concern is growing that it may have to return land it has long occupied and built settlements on if Palestinian statehood is officially recognized by the UN. ­On Friday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas made a passionate televised speech vowing to seek full recognition... 

Sets up collision course over issue of Palestinian statehood. In a further jolt to U.S. influence in the Middle East, China is expected to vote in favor of Palestinian statehood when the 66th United Nations General Assembly takes up the issue next month, according to Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin. Chinese President Hu Jintao told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in an exchange of notes last... 

Benjamin Netanyahu Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected U.S. President Barack Obama’s call for Israel’s 1967 borders to be taken as the starting point for talks on a future Palestinian state. In a landmark speech to the State Department on Thursday, Obama said the peace negotiations should result in “a viable Palestine, and a secure Israel.” “The borders... 

Moscow has greeted the reconciliation between the Palestinian Fatah and Hamas groups with enthusiasm, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry’s official spokesperson, Aleksandr Lukashevich. ­“On May 4, 15 Palestinian movements, including the two largest, Fatah and Hamas, signed an inter-Palestinian reconciliation agreement. Based on this, a transition government of independent “technocrats”... 

Sarkozy tells L'Express: "France will face up to its responsibilities on ... recognition of a Palestinian state". France may recognise a Palestinian state later this year Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, said in an interview with a leading weekly magazine. “If the peace process is still dead in September, France will face up to its responsibilities on the central question... 

A member of the Hamas security forces surveys the scene on the Gaza Strip after Israeli retaliated to the biggest Palestine bombardment for two years. Palestinian militants in Gaza fired more than 50 rockets into Israel today, the heaviest barrage in two years, Israeli officials said. A Hamas official was killed and four civilians were wounded when Israel hit back with tank fire and air strikes, said... 

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at the Kremlin in Moscow, December 13, 2010. Fatah official Nabil Sha’ath tells Al-Hayat newspaper that Dmitry Medvedev will affirm Soviet Union’s 1988 recognition of a Palestinian state during West Bank visit. Israeli officials fear that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will announce on Tuesday during a visit to Jericho that Russia recognizes a Palestinian... 

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev cancelled an official visit to Israel this month due to a strike by Foreign Ministry staff. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visits the Palestinian territories on a “historic” trip Tuesday as part of his Middle East tour. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas welcomes him in Jericho in the West Bank, where the two are expected to hold a joint press... 

An influential Israeli rabbi has said God should strike the Palestinians and their leader with a plague, calling for their death in a fiery sermon before Middle East peace talks set to begin next week. “Abu Mazen and all these evil people should perish from this earth,” Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, spiritual head of the religious Shas party in Israel’s government, said in a sermon late Saturday,... 

Demonstrators in Istanbul set fire to Israeli flags after the bloodshed An emergency meeting of the UN Security Council has been held amid mass protests and international condemnation after Israel’s deadly attack on an international aid convoy. Britain joined other countries in denouncing the dawn raid as “deplorable” with Palestinian leaders describing the bloodshed as a “massacre”. There... 

Israel can be deprived of Jerusalem. The world’s leading countries are trying to solve the crisis in the Middle East against the background of yet another conflict between Palestine and Israel. Arab countries are about to convince Israel ’s major ally, the USA, to approve the Saudi initiative, in accordance with which Israel will no longer have Jerusalem. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov...