Hamas News

CALL my bluff, says Israel's prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, as he tries to persuade the world's leaders, and through them the Palestinians, that his recent promise to freeze the building of Jewish settlements on the West Bank is genuine, albeit admittedly temporary and partial.

GAZA CITY: The Islamist Hamas-run government ruling Gaza has approved a legal change that will allow for the execution of convicted drug dealers, its attorney general said yesterday.

A senior Hamas movement's official revealed Tuesday that Israel has agreed to free 400 Palestinian prisoners in the first stage for the release of captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in Gaza.

A Palestinian security officer guards next to portraits of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, right, and Palestinan President Mahmoud Abbas during a graduation ceremony of a special Palestinian police unit at the Farah refugee camp near the West Bank town of Jenin in November.

Israel is likely to free up to 980 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for abducted Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit, the State Prosecution announced on Sunday.

A much-awaited exchange of prisoners between Israel and Hamas is now being finalised.

If Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas of the mainstream Fatah party makes good on his threat to resign, the man constitutionally assured his post is from the rival Hamas faction.

His name is Aziz Dweik, a leading member of Hamas who was released from Israeli prison this summer after being held for three years.

Among 41 elected Hamas lawmakers - nearly a third of the Palestinian parliament - rounded up by Israel following the 2006 kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, Dr. Dweik was one of the most prominent. His resume boasts spectacular English, a PhD in urban planning from the University of Pennsylvania, and a key spokesman on behalf of 415 Hamas members deported to Lebanon in 1992. (With the help of international pressure, they were quickly returned.)

One thing nearly all [anti-]Israel pundits have in common is the sheer inability to access reality.

Both the Palestinian National Authority and Fatah party rejected on Thursday the Israeli offer to partially freeze settlement activities in the West Bank.

The media in Israel and the Palestinian territories has focused on one item above all else this week, the likelihood of an imminent swap of prisoners.

With no Israeli-Palestinian negotiations underway, no agreed terms of reference for such talks, and Israel's refusal to freeze settlements posing a key challenge, a senior United Nations official Tuesday called for "immediate actions on the ground" to prevent Middle East peace efforts from unravelling.

Both Israeli leaders and Hamas officials today attempted to dampen a frenzy of anticipation that a captured Israeli soldier is about to be released in exchange for hundreds of hardened Palestinian militants, even as last minute preparations for a deal went ahead.

Articles 23:02 11/23/2009 The conduct of this president in practice is no better than the actions of his predecessor.

Monday, November 23, 2009 12:02 Mecca time, 09:02 GMT Gaza groups deny rocket ceasefire Hamas had announced the ceasefire on Saturday, hours after three Israeli air raids Several Palestinian armed groups in the Gaza Strip have denied Hamas claims that an agreement has been brokered among them to stop firing rockets across the border into Israel.

Israeli President Shimon Peres said on Sunday there has been "progress" in talks to free soldier Gilad Shalit, held captive by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip for the past three years.

IMEMC & Agencies: Israeli Foreign Minister of the Yisrael Beiteinu fundamental party, Avigdor Lieberman, stated Monday that the Palestinian Authority seeks Israel's support in fighting and countering Hamas, and at the same time files complaints to the international community.

Hamas authorities agreed with Palestinian armed groups in the Gaza Strip not to fire rockets at Israel for the time being to avoid possible Israeli military reaction, a senior official said on Saturday.

Articles 21:37 11/18/2009 Abbas's willingness to act as a US-favored proxy has discredited him among Palestinians.

Palestinians shout slogans and wave their national flag as they attend a rally commemorating the fifth anniversary of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's death in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Nov.

You cannot sit in Des Moines or Los Angeles or Washington for that matter, and think you know the streets of Ramallah, Gaza or Jerusalem.