Palestina

ATHENS (Reuters) – Two boats carrying activists from 17 countries will leave the Mediterranean island of Cyprus next week bound for Gaza in a bid to break an Israeli blockade of the Palestinian territory, organizers said on Tuesday.

JENIN, West Bank (Reuters) – Hamas and Fatah carried out tit-for-tat arrests of each other’s followers on Sunday after deadly Gaza bomb attacks fuelled tension between the Palestinian factions.

CAIRO (Reuters) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas rejected accusations by Gaza’s Islamist Hamas rulers that his Fatah movement was behind a deadly bomb attack that killed five Hamas gunmen and a girl in Gaza two days ago.

GAZA (Reuters) – Hamas security forces clashed with gunmen from the Army of Islam, an al Qaeda-inspired group, in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, part of a security crackdown following a surge in internal violence.

GAZA (Reuters) – Bomb blasts rocked a cafe and a Hamas politician’s home in the Gaza Strip on Friday, killing at least one Palestinian in one of the biggest flare-ups in internal violence since Islamists seized the enclave a year ago.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli President Shimon Peres hosted Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for talks in his official residence on Tuesday, saying the unprecedented visit should help dispel doubts about Israel’s desire for peace.

BEN GURION AIRPORT, Israel (Reuters) – Britain’s Gordon Brown will discuss a way ahead in Middle East peace moves and announce new aid for the Palestinians during his first visit as prime minister to Israel and the Palestinian territories, which began late on Saturday, British officials said.

EIN AL-HILWEH, Lebanon (Reuters) – Two people were killed on Saturday in a gunbattle between members of the Fatah faction and Sunni Islamist militants at a Palestinian refugee camp in south Lebanon, camp officials said.

LEBANON/ISRAEL BORDER (Reuters) – Hezbollah handed the bodies of two Israeli soldiers to the Red Cross on Wednesday to be exchanged for Lebanese prisoners held by Israel in a deal viewed as a triumph by the Lebanese Shi’ite guerrilla group.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Middle East envoy Tony Blair is preparing to travel to the Gaza Strip this week in what would be the highest-level visit by a Western official since Hamas took control a year ago, Palestinian and Western officials said.