Gaza Strip

The Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank closely aligned with the White House, is embroiled in a dispute with several Jewish organizations over charges that some center staffers have publicly used language that could be construed as anti-Israel or even anti-Semitic. The controversy could add to divisions over Middle East policy among groups that are key political allies of President Obama, potentially complicating the president's reelection outreach to some Jewish voters, just...

CAIRO — Dozens of disgruntled border policemen forced the closure of Egypt's main crossing point into the Gaza Strip on Friday to protest the abduction of their colleagues by suspected militants, underscoring the lawlessness and crisis of authority in the country two years since the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak. The police protest comes a day after masked gunmen ambushed two taxis at gunpoint outside the city of el-Arish, the capital of North Sinai governorate, fleeing with four...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip, Aug. 2 -- Hamas forces battled Fatah-linked fighters with mortars and machine guns in a crowded Gaza neighborhood Saturday, leaving at least nine dead in the worst Palestinian infighting in nine months. About 88 people were injured, 12 of them children, hospital officials said. Loud explosions and gunfire could be heard throughout the day in the Gaza City neighborhood of Shijaiyeh, a stronghold of the Fatah-allied Hilles clan. Hamas has accused the clan of hiding suspects responsible for a car bombing last week...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — A prominent Islamic scholar making a landmark visit to the Gaza Strip declared Thursday that Israel has no right to exist and voiced his support for rocket fire on Israel, giving a boost of legitimacy to the militant Islamist Hamas rulers of the Palestinian territory. Yusuf al-Qaradawi is the latest of a few high profile figures visit Gaza, boosting the Hamas effort to break its international isolation. The U.S., EU and Israel brand Hamas a terror group, while the rival...

JERUSALEM, Jan. 3 -- Israel launched a major ground invasion of the Gaza Strip on Saturday night, moving in tanks, infantry and artillery units after eight days of relentless air attacks failed to halt Hamas rocket fire from the narrow coastal territory. Israeli officials indicated that the incursion would be lengthy but said they have no intention of reoccupying the densely populated strip more than three years after withdrawing troops and settlers. Less clear is whether Israel intends to use the ground assault to try to topple Hamas,...

JERUSALEM, June 17 -- Israel and the armed Islamist group Hamas agreed in principle Tuesday to a truce in and around the Gaza Strip, officials on both sides said, capping months of indirect talks brokered by Egypt . The deal demonstrated Hamas's staying power as the ruler of Gaza and Israel's willingness to reach accommodation with groups it has labeled terrorist organizations. In recent weeks it has intensified negotiations with Lebanon's Hezbollah movement over a possible prisoner transfer and begun indirect...

Although others might celebrate their birthdays with cake or a trip to the spa, one Derwood woman recently spent her special day helping women in the Gaza Strip. Pam Rasmussen, along with more than 50 other peace activists from around the world, delivered 2,000 gift baskets filled with shampoo and other toiletries to the women of the war-torn territory on International Women's Day on March 8. "I could not have asked for a better way to spend my birthday or International Women's Day," she...

TEL AVIV — The death toll of Israel's military campaign in the Gaza Strip rose to 91 Monday, the local Health Ministry said, as shelling and airstrikes continued overnight and into the morning. Hoping to avert an Israeli ground invasion, foreign leaders stepped up efforts to broker a cease-fire. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was en route to Cairo, where he intended to "appeal personally for ending the violence," a statement from his office said. Meanwhile, Egypt dispatched...

THE IMMEDIATE cause of the exploding conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip was a series of attacks by Palestinian militants , including a missile fired at a jeep carrying Israeli soldiers inside Israel, and a rain of rockets against Israeli towns — more than 180 in the course of a few days. Israel could not but respond, and when it did, it chose to deliver a strategic blow: the assassination of Hamas's military commander, Ahmed Jabari , and airstrikes against...

CORRECTION: The article incorrectly described Nazareth as part of the West Bank. It is an Israeli town north of the West Bank. NIR AM, Israel , Dec. 28 -- The family of Um Shadi al-Bardaweel did not sleep. The Israeli airstrikes and the explosions, the sirens and the screams of strangers outside their house near the Shati refugee camp in the Gaza Strip kept them awake into the predawn hours Sunday. At the first light of dawn, the mother of five sent her son to the bakery to buy bread.

JERUSALEM — Israel has given preliminary approval to build nearly 300 housing units in a West Bank settlement, a spokesman said Thursday, bringing a Palestinian rebuke and possibly complicating U.S. efforts to relaunch Mideast peace talks. The approval came as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with Israel's chief negotiator in Rome. The negotiator, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni played down the new housing approval. Maj. Guy Inbar, a military spokesman, said 296 homes in the...

JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israel and the Palestinians could not achieve a peace deal based on land swaps alone and insisted that the most important thing is for Palestinians to acknowledge Israel as a Jewish state. "You saw what happened when we left the Gaza Strip. We evacuated the last settlers, and what did we get? Missiles," he said, referring to Israel's unilateral withdrawal of soldiers and settlers from the Palestinian coastal territory in 2005.

JERUSALEM — A Palestinian stabbed a Jewish settler to death in the West Bank on Tuesday — the first fatal attack on an Israeli there in more than a year — and the killing triggered retaliatory violence in both the West Bank and Jerusalem, a police spokesman said. In the Gaza Strip, an Israeli airstrike killed an Islamist militant who allegedly was involved in the recent firing of rockets from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula toward the southern Israeli city of Eilat. The airstrike...

For Laila El-Haddad, maqlouba is the quintessential comfort dish of her Palestinian homeland. She has eaten it since childhood and now makes it for family gatherings. She layers sliced potatoes, tomatoes, roasted red peppers, carrots, rounds of griddled eggplant and chunks of lamb in a deep pot. Once a final thick layer of spiced rice is spread over the top, in goes a long-simmered broth infused with cinnamon, allspice, cardamom, rosemary and nutmeg. Flavorful steam rises to coax the rice into tenderness.

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley plans to depart Saturday on an eight-day trade mission to Israel and Jordan, a trip that was rescheduled as a result of last fall's violence in the Gaza Strip. O'Malley (D) is leading a delegation of more than 30 business, civic and higher education leaders, his office said, and he will promote Maryland as a destination for businesses seeking a U.S. presence, including those in life sciences, cybersecurity, information technology, aerospace and defense.

JERUSALEM — Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad resigned on Saturday, exposing a rift in the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank at a time when the United States is pushing to revive dormant peace talks with Israel. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas accepted Fayyad's resignation and asked him to stay in his post until a new government is formed, according to the official news agency WAFA. The two leaders had been at odds over economic policy and the extent of the prime minister's...

JERUSALEM — Secretary of State John F. Kerry worked Monday to build support for new Arab-Israeli peace talks that would establish an independent Palestinian state and settle many other old Mideast grievances. The Obama administration hopes to prod Israel and the Palestinians to return to talks, and to use a comprehensive regional peace plan written a decade ago by Arab leaders as a template, U.S. and other officials said. Israel has never agreed to the Arab League plan, and several of the countries that...

JERUSALEM — The death of a Palestinian prisoner in Israeli custody triggered a flare-up of violence across the Israel-Gaza border early Wednesday, but calm later returned to the area as both sides appeared to be stepping back from further confrontation. A rocket fired into Israel after the prisoner's death Tuesday triggered an Israeli airstrike overnight. On Wednesday morning, two more rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip. One landed at the entrance to Sderot, an Israeli town...