Tens of thousands of people attended a rally in the Gaza Strip to mark the 25th anniversary of Hamas and the return from exile of its political leader, Khaled Meshaal.
Israel agreed to suspend its offensive in the Gaza Strip while the Egyptian Prime Minister paid a visit to the area but they did not respect the temporary lull and killed a further two people.
President Obama says the issue of Syrian WMDs is two-fold, raising fears that chemical or biological weapons may fall into the hands of anti-Israeli extremists.
The campaign to uproot militants in Sinai was launched after gunmen ambushed a border guard outpost near Israel’s border and killed 16 soldiers, according to the military.
The Palestinian group says it has been holding secret political talks with five European Union member states in recent months – a possible signal that the isolation of Hamas is easing
Although the violence of recent days shows no immediate signs of subsiding, both Hamas and Israel seem eager to avoid the kind of all-out war that erupted three years ago.
The Israeli Ambassador to Ireland writes that a bid to have an independent Palestinian state recognised by the UN, to live side by side with Israel, cannot be achieved in the present climate of violence.
Four Irish activists arrived back in Dublin today as a result of their vessel being damaged in Turkey last week, as Greece blocks a boat trying to join the international flotilla from Crete.
Israel has asked for evidence linking its agents to sabotage of the Irish boat the MV Saoirse. Meanwhile the Tánaiste says the government would take a very serious view if it was sabotage.
President Mahmoud Abbas says elections won’t be held in July to allow reconciliation between the Fatah movement and the Hamas group, who are working on forming a unity government.
France has dealt a blow to Israel’s hopes to isolate incoming Palestinian unity government by threatening to support a unilateral declaration of Palestinian independence if peace talks do not begin by September.
The pact aims to end the bitter four-year rift between the rival Palestinian factions – however, Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu has said that the agreement is a “tremendous blow for peace”.
Fifteen Palestinian factions have agreed to a reconciliation deal, which aims to end a four-year rift between the two major Palestinian political movements, Hamas and Fatah. Israel has called the deal a “hard blow to the peace process.”
Israeli leaders have today rejected a unity deal between Hamas and Fatah – insisting they will not enter any negotiations with a Palestinian government that includes the Islamic militant group.
The agreement comes four years after Hamas seized control of the Gaza strip in a violent takeover. Israel and the US appeared to reject the deal given Hamas’ stated goal of destroying the Jewish state.
Hamas said its troops were storming a building in which the trio believed to be responsible for death of pro-Palestinian activist Vittorio Arrigoni were hiding.
In todays Fix: Poland remembers the victims of last year’s plane crash in western Russia; an Oxford academic cancels his book launch in NUI Maynooth over Lucinda Creighton’s “anti-Turkish and anti-gay” comments; and we hear Obama’s first campaign song. Maybe.
ONE OF AMERICA’S biggest child beauty pageant organisers is set to spend €20,000 staging their first-ever Irish contest in September.
The Herald reports today that beauty bosses said it will be open to “babies, toddlers and teens” and will also include a heat with kids in swimwear.
Some parents believe that contests celebrates their children’s beauty, helps them learn about camaraderie and boosts their self-confidence. While others think that beauty pageants send out the wrong kind of message to children and that the costumes and make-up involved sexualises kids.
So, today we would like to know: Would you enter your child in a beauty pageant?
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