Israel, Palestinian | featured news

President Barack Obama on Tuesday urged Israel and the Palestinians to "step back from the abyss," saying he expected good faith gestures from both sides in coming months as part of a bid to revive stalled peace efforts.

The Israeli military on Monday rejected allegations that its soldiers committed atrocities against Palestinians in Gaza.

Four different human rights groups have issued reports on rights violations in the Gaza Strip, with all major players - Israel, Egypt, the Palestinian Authority, and Palestinian militant group Hamas - accused of wrongdoing.

The foreign minister of Israel's incoming government lives in a West Bank settlement and will begin life as a diplomat battling the perception that he is anti-Arab.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday promised vigorous and personal involvement in stalled Mideast peace efforts and criticized Israel's demolition of Palestinian homes in Jerusalem as "unhelpful."

Israel rules out a truce in Gaza unless an Israeli soldier held by Palestinian militants is freed, Israeli PM Ehud Olmert says.

Hamas officials said Friday that an announcement of an 18-month cease-fire with Israel was days away. An Israeli official said nothing had been agreed yet.

Israel launched air strikes against a number of targets in Gaza Monday to retaliate against Palestinian militants who have fired a "barrage" of rockets inside the Jewish state in recent days, the military said.

Palestinian militants fired mortar shells from southern Gaza at Israel and Israel carried out an air strike against what the military said were members of the launching squad.

Gaza militants launched two rockets into southern Israel Sunday, drawing a threat of “harsh and disproportionate” retaliation from Israel’s prime minister.