Palestina

Cairo vehemently opposes the deployment of an international peacekeeping force in the Gaza Strip, Egypt’s intelligence chief Omar Suleiman told a delegation of MKs from the left-wing Meretz party in Cairo Sunday.

The 22-country Arab League will send envoys on a historic first mission to Israel this week to discuss a sweeping Arab peace initiative and how it might prop up embattled Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Israeli and Arab diplomats said Sunday.

A special Israeli envoy gave Egypt last week a list of Hamas prisoners Israel is prepared to release in an exchange for abducted Israel Defense Forces Cpl. Gilad Shalit, the London-based newspaper Al-Hayat reported.

A delegation of Israel’s liberal Meretz party will on Sunday travel to Cairo to meet with Egyptian officials, the party said in a statement.

The EU is scaling back its monitoring mission at the Gaza-Egypt border, a spokeswoman said Saturday, suggesting that Gaza’s only gateway to the world won’t open again anytime soon.

Held in solitary confinement, handcuffed, hooded and threatened with death, Alan Johnston spoke on Wednesday about his “frightening” ordeal in Gaza, saying it was like being buried alive.

Gaunt but smiling, kidnapped BBC reporter Alan Johnston emerged Wednesday from 16 weeks of solitary confinement in a dark room, an experience he said was “like being buried alive”. 

King Abdullah on Wednesday urged greater efforts by France and the EU to help revive the Middle East peace process, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Egyptian border guards shot a Sudanese refugee and arrested two others early Wednesday as they tried to cross from Egypt into Israel, a police official said.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said on Tuesday that Damascus is ready to resume unconditional peace talks with Israel, at a press conference with his Danish counterpart Per Stig Moeller.