Free Republic

In a message posted to Islamist websites on Monday, the militant Palestinian Islamic Jihad group announced that "from today" it will no longer respect an eight-month unofficial ceasefire."Following the killing of Islamic Jihad's military wing al-Quds Brigades' leader Luai al-Saadi, we are free of the obligation to respect the ceasefire and will respond to the Zionist aggression" the group's message read. Israeli troops shot dead al-Saadi - most senior Palestinian militant killed since the start of the ceasefire - in Tulkarm on Monday. The previous day, they targeted an al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades member, Majed al-Ashkar, killing him in a raid...

Palestinian security forces in Ramallah on Monday arrested a suspect in the murder of Samir Rantisi, a local journalist and spokesman for former PA Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo. Rantisi, 42, had for years urged Palestinians to endorse non-violent methods in their confrontation with Israel and was strongly opposed to suicide bombings. He was murdered early Monday morning while he was sleeping in his bedroom in the Sateh Marhaba neighborhood. A lone gunman who broke into his apartment in the Shkukani Building shot him twice in the head in front of his wife. The wife managed to identify the suspect,...