Israel's participation in Egyptian-brokered talks on consolidating a Gaza ceasefire is aimed at bolstering its security not a peace deal with the Palestinians, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in remarks published Wednesday.
"These are negotiations on security issues, not peace negotiations," Netanyahu told pro-government freesheet Israel Hayom.
Full StoryU.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Tuesday to discuss the situation in Gaza, a state department official said.
The meeting in New York came as leaders converged for the United Nations General Assembly, and a day after Abbas gave a speech at Cooper Union vowing to present a new timetable for peace talks with Israel.
Full StoryIsraeli and Palestinian negotiators in Cairo on Tuesday agreed to schedule new talks on a durable Gaza ceasefire for the last week of October, a Hamas official said.
A delay in the talks after their first Egypt-mediated negotiations since the end last month of a devastating 50-day war in Gaza had been expected, because of upcoming Jewish and Muslim holidays.
Full StoryIsraeli troops on Tuesday killed two Palestinians in the West Bank suspected of the murders of three Jewish teenagers in June, which sparked events leading to the devastating war in Gaza.
The killings, during a raid on the suspects' hideout, came before Israeli and Palestinian delegations began negotiating in Cairo a more permanent Gaza ceasefire, almost jeopardising the talks, a Palestinian official said.
Full StoryIsrael said on Sunday it would send a delegation to attend indirect Gaza truce talks with Hamas in Cairo next week, although a minister said they would likely achieve nothing.
Confirmation that Israel would return to the Egyptian capital on Tuesday to resume negotiations on cementing an August 26 ceasefire agreement which halted 50 days of bloodshed in Gaza, came from a senior Israeli official, who refused to give further details.
Full StoryA "solution to the conflict" between the Israelis and Palestinians will be put to the U.N. Security Council, French President Francois Hollande said Friday after meeting Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas in Paris.
"We will have a resolution, to be presented to the Security Council, that will say very clearly what we expect from the (peace) process and what the solution to the conflict must be," Hollande told reporters in a joint news conference with Abbas.
Full StoryA dud Israeli shell from this summer's Gaza's war exploded Friday, killing two people and wounding three others in the north of the Palestinian enclave, an official said.
The blast killed Ayman Abu Jebbeh and Abdullah Abu Asr, emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said.
Full StoryAn Israeli Arab rights group on Thursday called for an international investigation into alleged Israeli war crimes during the latest Gaza conflict, a week after the army dismissed several cases.
The army announced on September 10 it launched five criminal investigations into incidents involving its forces during the 50-day conflict that killed more than 2,140 Palestinians and 73 people on the Israeli side.
Full StoryIsraeli naval gunfire wounded a fisherman off the coast of Gaza on Thursday, a medical official said, in a sign of ongoing tension around the battered Palestinian territory.
The man was moderately wounded in the incident, emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra told Agence France Presse, without providing further details.
Full StoryThe Middle East Quartet of peacemakers on Wednesday joined calls for a quick start to the rebuilding of war-ravaged Gaza before the current truce with Israel ends in renewed violence.
"The precarious situation in Gaza and southern Israel, the danger that violence could flare up again at any point, are precisely the reason to move as quickly as possible on the short-term and long-term recovery efforts," Quartet envoy Tony Blair wrote in remarks published by his office ahead of a meeting on international aid to the Palestinians.
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