The dark-haired 22-year-old in black T-shirt, blue jeans and red Crocs is understandably hesitant as he sits at a picnic table in the incongruous setting of a beauty spot somewhere in Israel. We know his name and if we used it he would face a criminal...

Eight Palestinian civilians including four children have been killed and 25 others injured in the latest Israeli raid on the Gaza Strip. Israeli tank fire killed a 10-year-old boy Friday after 10 Israelis tanks along with two armored bulldozers, backed...

It was a display of Palestinian unity rarely seen since the militant Islamic group Hamas seized power in Gaza last summer and left the rival pro-Fatah Palestinian Authority struggling to hold on to the West Bank. As thousands of men and women crowded...

“Alarmed by the recent Israeli incursion into Gaza and the continuing socio-economic deterioration of the occupied territories, several NGOs have launched crisis intervention programmes for traumatised Palestinian children…”

Why did Israel attack Gaza with such brutality? Did Israeli officials think, even for a fleeting moment, that their army’s attacks could halt, as opposed to intensify, Palestinian rockets or retaliatory violence? Indeed, was Palestinian violence...

After failing to anticipate Hamas’s victory over Fatah in the 2006 Palestinian election, the White House cooked up yet another scandalously covert and self-defeating Middle East debacle: part Iran-contra, part Bay of Pigs. With confidential documents,...

Calls are mounting for an end to the Israeli bombardment and lockdown of Gaza and for Israel-Hamas talks to end their armed confrontation. Egypt and other countries were reported to be working behind the scenes for an agreement that would end the...

Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai’s much publicized remark last week about Gaza facing a “shoah” — the Hebrew word for the Holocaust — was widely assumed to be unpleasant hyperbole about the army’s plans for an imminent...

Hamas has publicly laid out its conditions for a ceasefire with Israel, calling for a break in fighting that has left dozens dead in recent weeks. Ismail Haniya, the Hamas leader, on Wednesday demanded an end to Israeli raids in Palestinian territory...

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wraps her latest Middle East peace bid on Wednesday, urging Israelis and Palestinians to resume talks despite new deadly raids in the Gaza Strip. Rice is to meet senior Palestinian negotiators and Israeli foreign...