Palestina

Human rights activists set sail from Cyprus on Friday, August 22, to the Gaza Strip to break the months-long Israeli blockade on the 1.6 million Palestinians in the poverty-stricken strip.

LARNACA, Cyprus (Reuters) – International activists departed from Cyprus by boat on Friday in an attempt to run an Israeli sea blockade on 1.4 million Palestinians in Gaza.

TEHRAN, Aug. 22 (ISNA)-Iran’s foreign minister deputy Ali Reza Sheikh Attar and an official in Popular Front for Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) Maher al-Taher met in Tehran.

BIR NABALA, West Bank (Reuters) – Israel, under international pressure to ease restrictions on Palestinians, removed a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank on Thursday that had curbed movement outside a main Palestinian city.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel’s chief negotiator said on Thursday a Palestinian uprising could reignite if the international community piled too much pressure on the sides to paper over differences and rush into an agreement on statehood.

SUSIA, West Bank (Reuters) – In the stony hills south of Hebron, Palestinian shepherds complain of frequent attacks by militant Israeli settlers encroaching on their land.

GAZA (Reuters) – Israel closed border crossings with the Gaza Strip on Tuesday in response to a cross-border rocket attack, but Palestinian officials said banks were able to bring in 68 million shekels ($19 million) to ease a cash shortage.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that Israel will not allow the return of any Palestinian refugees as part of a future statehood deal, Olmert’s office said on Thursday.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for a referendum to determine the future of the Palestinians and urged Western governments to end their support for Israel.

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Palestinians gave their national poet Mahmoud Darwish what amounted to a state funeral in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Wednesday, mourning a man who articulated their sense of loss, exile and defiance.