Palestina

RAMALLAH, West Bank – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas opened an investigation into the death of a Hamas preacher who the Islamist group said was tortured by Fatah security services, officials said on Saturday.

RAMALLAH, West Bank – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has not agreed to postpone talks on the future of Jerusalem, a senior adviser said on Monday, disputing comments by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

JERUSALEM – French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Sunday that Israel and the Palestinians have made no real progress since a U.S.-sponsored peace conference in November, and called the situation dangerous.

ISMAILIA, Egypt  – A locally made Palestinian rocket exploded on the Egyptian side of the crossing point with Gaza on Sunday, damaging an Egyptian administrative building, security sources said. There were no injuries.

GAZA – Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group that controls the Gaza Strip, has voiced confidence that Egypt will help it ease the effects of an Israeli blockade.

GAZA – Israeli forces killed three Palestinian militants and a civilian during fighting in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip on Sunday, medical workers said.

GAZA – Hamas Islamists on Wednesday called for the Arab world to unite against Israel after Hezbollah accused the Jewish state of assassinating one of its founders.

AUSTIN, Texas – Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said on Thursday a lasting peace accord with Israel was unlikely in 2008 despite renewed diplomatic efforts to resolve the long-running conflict.

TEHRAN (FNA) – Tehran’s interim Friday Prayers leader Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami stressed that the Israeli regime could never thwart Palestinian Intifada through continued siege on Gaza and massacre of Palestinians

RIYADH – The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), which comprises 57 Muslim countries, said on Sunday it would step up action at the United Nations to stop Israel’s blockade of Palestinians in Gaza.