UN Security Council urges aid for Palestinians

The UN Security Council is welcoming the cease-fire between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers and calls for full adherence to the cessation of hostilities. Saturday's statement was approved by all 15 members of the council. It said the council mourned the loss of civilian lives resulting from the violence and stressed the immediate need for humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian civilian population, particularly in Gaza.

May 23, 2021 9:21 AM

Touring Gaza, regional U.N. humanitarian chief presses both sides over ceasefire

After touring rubblestrewn areas of Gaza hit by air strikes during fighting between Israel and Hamas, the top U.N. aid official in the region appealed to both sides on Saturday to observe a ceasefire as aid teams assess the damage.

May 22, 2021 7:44 PM

Egypt, Israel FMs discuss solidifying ceasefire

Egypt Foreign Minister Sameh Shukry has spoken with his Israeli counterpart, Gabi Ashkenazi, about stabilising the Cairo-brokered Gaza cease-fire deal.

May 22, 2021 2:34 PM

Antony Blinken to visit Israel, West Bank on May 26-27, source says

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Israel and the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday and Thursday as part of Washington's efforts to build on the Gaza truce, a source briefed on the planning said on Saturday.

May 22, 2021 2:00 PM

Gaza ceasefire holding as Egyptian mediators consult Hamas, Israel

A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas-led Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip held into Saturday as officials said Egyptian mediators conferred with the sides on securing longer-term calm. The ceasefire began before dawn on Friday, ending 11 days of cross-border shelling exchanges that caused fresh devastation in Gaza, shook up Israel and raised international concern about a slide into wider regional conflict. Egypt, which mediated the halt to the fighting with U.S. support, sent a delegation to Israel at around noon on Friday to discuss ways of firming up the ceasefire, including with aid for Palestinians in Gaza, Hamas officials told Reuters.

May 22, 2021 12:44 PM

Sudan welcomes ceasefire between Israelis and Palestinians

Sudan welcomed the declaration of a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian factions, its foreign ministry said on Friday adding that it appreciated the Egyptian, regional and international efforts to reach this agreement.

May 22, 2021 12:28 PM

Tense calm prevails in Gaza

May 22, 2021 12:28 PM

Israel-Palestine Conflict: Two-state solution is only answer, says Biden

US President Joe Biden has said that there is no shift in the commitment of his administration towards the security of Israel but insisted a two-state solution that includes a state for Palestinians remains the only answer to that conflict. Biden's comment comes a day a ceasefire was announced between Israel and Hamas negotiated by Egypt following an 11-day war that caused a lot of casualties and infrastructure damage in Gaza.

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May 22, 2021 11:21 AM

NOT REAL NEWS: A look at what didn't happen this week

A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. Here are the facts:

Image of pyramids lit with Palestinian flag is manipulated

CLAIM: A photo shows Egypt projected the Palestinian flag on its Giza Pyramids during the latest war between Palestinian militants in Gaza and the Israeli military.

THE FACTS: An internet search reveals this image was fabricated using a 2014 photo of the pyramids that did not feature the flag projection. Since fighting broke out between Israel and the Hamas militant group in Gaza on May 10, neighboring Egypt has treated wounded Palestinians and sent trucks carrying humanitarian aid and medical supplies to Gaza. However, Egypt has not shown solidarity with the Palestinians in the form of a light show on its three famed pyramids of Giza, despite a fake image suggesting as much on social media. The image circulated widely on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter on Tuesday, with captions in both Arabic and English. “Egypt showing the flag of Palestine on the pyramids,” wrote a Facebook user. “Thank you Egypt!” In reality, the widely circulating picture is an edit of a 2014 image of the pyramids that can be found on Wikimedia Commons. On Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced Israel would halt its offensive against Hamas militants. (via AP)

May 22, 2021 10:06 AM

AP's firing of journalist following tweets prompts outcry

The Associated Press is being criticized for firing a young journalist over her social media activity, with some suggesting the news agency bowed to a political pressure campaign over her pro-Palestinian views from when she was in college. Emily Wilder, 22, had started at the AP on May 3 as a news associate for the Western U.S., based in Phoenix. On Wednesday, just over two weeks later, the AP informed her that she was being terminated for violations of its social media policy that took place after she became an employee. In the days before her firing, Wilder had been targeted in conservative media for her pro-Palestinian rights activism while a student at Stanford University, where she graduated in 2020. AP spokeswoman Lauren Easton would not say what Wilder had written that violated the policy. Wilder said she wasn’t given specifics. Her Twitter feed since joining the AP contains a few retweets that appear sympathetic to Palestinians in the current Gaza conflict, including a video clip of demonstrators chanting, “Free, free Palestine!” On Sunday, she tweeted: “‘objectivity’ feels fickle when the basic terms we use to report news implicitly take a claim. using ‘israel’ but never ‘palestine,’ or ‘war’ but not ‘siege and occupation’ are political choices — yet media make those exact choices all the time without being flagged as biased.” AP prohibits employees from openly expressing their opinions on political matters and other public issues for fear that could damage the news organization's reputation for objectivity and jeopardize its many reporters around the world. (via AP)

May 22, 2021 9:51 AM

Israel and Hamas claim victory as fragile ceasefire holds

The ceasefire agreement between the armed groups of Israel and Palestine in the Gaza Strip seemd to be holding, however the reports of tensions in the occupied East Jerusalem have come up. In East Jerusalem, police stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and fired tear gas at the Palestinians after the Friday prayers. The Egyptian brokered ceasefire came into effect in the lee morning hours of Friday after 11 days of non-stop, relentless firing from both sides. A couple thousands of rockets were fired from both sides, thousands of people were injured and over two hundred people died in the conflict.

May 22, 2021 9:51 AM

Good morning, readers! It is day 2 of the fragile ceasefire that still seems to be holding. We will continue to bring live news updates on the conflict and ceasefire, stay tuned with us!

May 22, 2021 9:46 AM

Stay tuned for all the top developments on the Israel-Palestine conflict and subsequent cease fire.

May 21, 2021 11:38 PM

Israel-Palestine News LIVE Updates: Israel hit Hamas very hard; ground reality will determine whether ceasefire holds, says diplomat

Israel has hit Palestinian militant group Hamas "very hard" in the Gaza Strip as it successfully struck hundreds of targets including military and intelligence infrastructure and underground tunnels of the outfit in the last few days, a senior Israeli diplomat said on Friday. Rony Yedidia Clein, the Deputy Chief of the Israeli embassy, said the US and several other countries provided full support to Israeli's action while India had an understanding of it. "We spoke with our Indian counterparts. We have found an understanding from them although they did not go for public expression of support as other countries did. We did have an understanding from the Indian government officials we spoke with about the Israeli actions," she said. Both Israel and Hamas agreed on a ceasefire that has come into effect on Friday after 11 days of intense fighting in which around 230 people were killed in Gaza and 12 in Israel.

May 21, 2021 10:05 PM

Israel-Palestine News LIVE Updates: What was the outcome of the latest Gaza war?

A cease-fire took effect Friday after 11 days of heavy fighting between Israel and Gaza's militant Hamas rulers that was ignited by protests and clashes in Jerusalem. Israel carried out hundreds of airstrikes against what it said were militant targets across Gaza, destroying homes and damaging vital infrastructure in the impoverished territory, which has been under a crippling blockade since Hamas seized power there 14 years ago. Palestinian militants, meanwhile, fired more than 4,000 rockets at Israel, with some reaching as far as Tel Aviv, bringing parts of the country to a standstill. At least 243 Palestinians were killed, including 66 children and 39 women, with 1,910 people wounded, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Twelve people in Israel, including a 5-year-old boy and 16-year-old girl, were killed.

May 21, 2021 9:01 PM

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