Palestina News

RAMALLAH, West Bank – Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip observed a general strike on Wednesday, in a rare show of unity after Israel killed 18 people in fighting a day earlier.

JENIN, West Bank – Israeli troops shot dead a leader of the Islamic Jihad militant group in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, Palestinian hospital officials and witnesses said.

TEHRAN (FNA) The results of the visit to the region by US President George Bush manifested themselves in no time, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said during a phone conversation with a Hamas official in the wake of a massacre of Palestinians by the Israeli regime in Gaza.

GAZA – Israel killed at least 18 Palestinians, nearly all Hamas militants, in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, in violence the Palestinian Authority said was a “slap in the face” to President George W. Bush’s peace efforts.

RAMALLAH, West Bank – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the most serious peace talks in seven years would begin on Monday and must tackle all of the most sensitive issues including Jerusalem without delay.

GAZA – Palestinian gunmen stormed the American International School in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip on Saturday, smashing windows, seizing computers and torching buses but causing no injuries, security sources said.

JERUSALEM – Israeli and Palestinian negotiators struggled on Monday to get U.S.-sponsored peace talks, stalled by disputes over Jewish settlements, on course before a visit by President George W. Bush.

GAZA – Palestinian Islamist group Hamas on Saturday dismissed U.S. President George W. Bush’s upcoming visit to the Middle East as a “photo opportunity” and said he was not welcome in the region.

DAMASCUS – Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal called on Friday for unconditional talks with the rival Fatah faction to halt violence between Palestinians but vowed to keep up the Islamist group’s armed struggle against Israel.

RAMALLAH, West Bank – Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad criticized Israel on Friday for a major military operation in the West Bank, saying such intervention was ruining a Western-backed internal Palestinian security plan.