Israel, Israeli-palestinian Dispute | featured news

Israeli officials said they would press on with plans this week to build 6,000 homes for settlers on land claimed by Palestinians, defying criticism from Western powers who fear the move will damage already faint hopes for a peace accord.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday brushed off world condemnation of Israel's plans to expand Jewish settlements after the Palestinians won de facto U.N. recognition of statehood.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel reassured Israel of her country's support on Saturday, two days after Berlin disappointed the Jewish state by abstaining in a U.N. vote on the Palestinians' status.

After failing to head off a vote in the United Nations on Thursday that would upgrade the Palestinian Authority’s status, the United States and Israel are looking ahead to how they can contain the damage from the approval.

Israel also toned down threats of countermeasures after Thursday’s vote in the General Assembly, which is virtually certain to pass, aware that a harsh reaction would only isolate it further.

Israel agrees to end hostilities on land, sea and air and to halt targeted assassinations of militant leaders. Palestinians agree to stop rocket and border attacks... An Egyptian-brokered cease-fire agreement to end eight days of clashes between Israel and the Islamist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip relies heavily on the goodwill of two of the Middle East's bitterest enemies, but gave each enough to claim success.

Israel maintains air strikes on Gaza and militants continue to fire rockets into Israel as the fifth day of unrest becomes the deadliest so far.

President Barack Obama said Sunday an incursion by Israel's forces into the Gaza Strip could only deepen its death toll, cautioning against an escalation even as he defended the Jewish state's right to defend itself. Obama also warned Palestinians the crisis could crush peace hopes for years.

An Obama aide says the U.S. and Israel both want an end to the rocket fire that's coming from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

Israel continued its aerial assault on targets in the Hamas-ruled Gaza strip early Saturday, launching 200 airstrikes aimed at smuggling tunnels under the enclave's border with Egypt and what the Israeli military said were four Hamas buildings, including the group's headquarters, a police station and a commander's house. Witnesses reported that the offices of Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh were destroyed.