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EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini called Wednesday on Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) to resume peace negotiations, saying the situation on the ground was "not sustainable," according to AFP. Mogherini issued the remarks after eyewitnesses said the Israeli Air Force (IAF) carried out four strikes on terror targets in Gaza on Wednesday, hours after terrorists launched five rockets at civilians in the Jewish state. "We see the situation on the ground as not sustainable and (it is) an illusion to think the status quo is an option," Mogherini said at the opening of an annual meeting in Brussels...

Israel has returned 15 fishing boats seized in recent years off the Gaza coast, the Israel Defense Forces said late Wednesday. "The naval branch (navy) returned to Gaza 15 fishing boats which deviated from the Strip's permitted fishing zone and were seized over the years," the IDF statement read. The small vessels were dragged back to shore by a boat from the Gaza fishermen's union, an AFP photographer said. Because of security concerns, Israel bans fishing off the coast of Gaza beyond six nautical miles. Boats that exceed that limit are often fired on as a warning. Gazan fisherman, meanwhile,...

A senior Hamas terrorist said Monday his Islamist group which controls Gaza is rebuilding its heavily depleted rocket arsenal to prepare for a new terror war against Israel. "Any regional or international attempt to lay siege to Hamas or its armed wing is bound to fail," said Marwan Eissa, a commander of Hamas's "military branch," the Al-Qassam Brigades, reports AFP. Hamas is "not looking for confrontation" with Israel, he said, as quoted by Hamas-run news agency Al-Ray. "But we are making sure our forces are reinforced in case of a confrontation. We're continuing to make rockets." Hamas fired thousands of...

Canadian law professor William Schabas, who was appointed to head the UN committee tasked with probing Israel’s alleged “war crimes” during last summer’s Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, announced on Monday evening he was stepping down. According to the Reuters news agency, Schabas cited Israeli allegations of bias due to consultancy work he did for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the reason for his resignation. In a letter to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) which appointed him to head the inquiry, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, Schabas said he would step down immediately to...

A full 185 Arab residents of Gaza were given rare permission by Israel to hold prayers last Friday on the Temple Mount, where they promptly waved banners of the Hamas terrorist organization and burned French flags, protesting satire magazine Charlie Hebdo's recent cartoon of Mohammed. The magazine's Paris headquarters were targeted in an Islamist terror attack two weeks ago, with 12 people including senior staff brutally murdered over its depictions of the founder of Islam. Defiantly the paper last week released a new edition with Mohammed on the cover, which has sold out in record time. The nearly 200 Gaza...

After years of calling for Israel’s destruction, is Hamas actually prepared to talk with the Jewish state? According to a report on Monday in the British Independent, the group may be considering it. According to the report, Hamas is reviewing its strategy with the changing times. It is conducting an internal debate, with proposals which have had to be officially refuted. One such proposal was for direct negotiations with the Israelis, currently forbidden by the movement’s constitution. A statement was issued saying direct negotiations with Israel is not the movement’s policy and is not on the table for discussion. The...

The IDF will on Thursday pull out its security forces from Israeli communities that are not located near the security fence with Gaza, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit announced on Monday evening. The move was made after evaluating the security situation, with the understanding that the IDF provides optimal security to the communities in the Gaza Belt, in coordination with the heads of the communities, the statement said. “IDF forces are deployed in the area and are prepared for any scenario,” stressed the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit. Responding to the decision, the heads of the local communities in the Gaza Belt called...

International envoys pledged about $5.4 billion in aid for the Gaza Strip at a meeting in Egypt on Sunday, Norway's foreign minister said. "The participants pledged approximately $5.4 billion (4.3 billion euros)," said Boerge Brende, reading out a closing statement at the Cairo conference which Norway co-hosted. Half of the pledges will go for reconstruction and the rest as unspecified aid to the Palestinians, he said. The donors "committed themselves to start disbursing their assistance as soon as possible," Brende said. The conference aimed at financing the reconstruction of swathes of Gaza destroyed in a July-August war between Israel and...

Qatar promised $1 billion in reconstruction aid for Gaza at a donor conference in Cairo on Sunday, topping US and European pledges for the devastated Palestinian terror enclave. "Qatar announces its participation with $1 billion for the reconstruction of Gaza," said Khalid bin Mohammad Al Attiyah, the foreign minister of the gas-rich country. UN chief Ban Ki-moon told the donor conference Sunday that he would visit the Gaza Strip on Tuesday. "I will visit Gaza on Tuesday to listen directly to the people of Gaza," he said, adding he would also visit Israel "shortly." The international community insisted that Hamas's...

The same "conditions" that "provoked" Hamas into waging a war on millions of Israeli civilians still apply, spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri claimed Saturday night. "The conditions for the situation in Gaza exploding still exist," Abu Zuhri stated to Al-Jazeera. "On the contrary, they are even tougher now than they were before the Israeli aggression in Gaza." Abu Zuhri then made some veiled threats to the international community, urging them to put pressure on Israel. "If the international community wishes that the situation will not blow up again, it must step in and resolve the situation and handle it through a...

At a weekly Palestinian Authority (PA) unity government meeting on Tuesday, it was announced that Israel had agreed to allow Arab residents of Gaza to travel to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. The move comes as part of a general increase in the number of Gaza residents allowed to travel into Judea and Samaria, a gesture in the ongoing ceasefire talks between Israel and the terrorist organization Hamas, which are to resume in Cairo in the last week of October. The talks come amid reports that Hamas has renewed its terrorist preparations to attack Israel. Arab rioters have...

A Palestinian Authority (PA) official newspaper actively publishes racist comments against US President Barack Obama, a watchdog group revealed Thursday - despite the millions of dollars in US aid it receives. Official publication Al-Hayat Al-Jadida printed an editorial from Ibrahim Abd Al-Majid claiming Obama, as a "black president," has committed "crimes [that] have surpassed those of all the white presidents." Palestinian Media Watch translated excerpts, below, into English: Israel has found an opportunity to start [its] ethnic cleansing [in Gaza],because the Arabs are [currently] busy with what is going on in their countries - as in Iraq IS (Islamic State)...

The United Nations (UN) and Palestinian Authority (PA) on Tuesday called for international donors to supply $550 million to the Hamas terror enclave of Gaza, despite the fact that Hamas has already restarted construction on its terror tunnels to attack Israel. The appeal seeks to repair damage caused in the 50-day Operation Protective Edge, which started in July after Hamas launched a rocket war on the Jewish state. "The scope of damage and devastation is unprecedented in the Gaza Strip," said UN Humanitarian Coordinator James Rawley in a statement, reports AFP. "The crisis is far from over." Rawley and PA...

Middle East Quartet Envoy, Tony Blair, applauded the ceasefire in Gaza and called to focus on a long-term plan to restore the region, which would include opening the Strip to the world, under the control of the Palestinian Authority. “Such a plan can allow Gaza residents to lead better lives, and Israeli citizens to live in safety and security,...

Israel is claiming victory in the 50-day war with Hamas, which temporarily ended in a ceasefire that went into force Tuesday. "We were victorious in the negotiation phase,” said Liran Dan, Head of the National Information Directorate in the Prime Minister's Office, in an interview with IDF Radio Wednesday. “The military blow that the IDF dealt Hamas – the hardest it has experienced since it was founded – was heavy and meaningful. What we saw is that in a prolonged and well executed campaign, Hamas suffered a harsh military blow and damage to the most heavily constructed arrays it built.”...

The first night of the ceasefire was peacefully quiet: no violations were reported on the part of either side. .....

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) -- Israel and Hamas agreed Tuesday to an open-ended cease-fire, halting a seven-week war that killed more than 2,200 people, the vast majority Palestinians, left tens of thousands in Gaza homeless and devastated entire neighborhoods in the blockaded territory. Hamas declared victory and bursts of celebratory gunfire erupted across Gaza, but the terms of the deal fell far short of Hamas' demand that Israel and Egypt open Gaza's borders. Under the Egyptian-brokered deal, Israel is to ease imports into Gaza, including aid and material for reconstruction. It also allows Palestinians to fish six nautical miles...

Israel is considering launching another heavy ground offensive into Gaza, Communications Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud) indicated Saturday, in the wake of renewed rocket fire and an exodus of Negev residents from their homes. "Has the decision been made? No," Erdan stated to Channel 2 News. "But we are closer to it than we ever have been." A ground offensive would be the most extensive so far since the 2005 Disengagement, Erdan said. No matter what, he stressed, Israel would take action. "We are committed to this operation, and making sure it does not revert to how life was before," Erdan...

The IDF has declassified a new special report detailing Hamas's "illegal use of civilian infrastructure" throughout the course of Operation Protective Edge, which began July 8. The report was released on Tuesday, the same day that Hamas breached a ceasefire, and presents an irrefutable case against the terror organization utilizing intelligence maps, photographic and video evidence. According to the report, during the course of its recent terror war on Israel, Hamas has fired over 1,600 rockets from civilian sites, cynically using UN facilities, schools, graveyards, mosques and power plants, among others. The declassified report can be seen here in slideshow...

The armed wing of Hamas has executed three Palestinian Arabs and arrested seven others for allegedly collaborating with Israel during the Gaza war, a website close to the movement reported Thursday. The Majd website quoted a senior security official in the enclave as saying seven people had been arrested on suspicion of scoping out targets for Israel and that three others had been shot dead. The official said that the three were killed after "revolutionary procedures" were completed against them. No date was given for the executions or the arrests. The site added that zero tolerance would be shown to...