JERUSALEM — Israel on Sunday released the names of 477 prisoners it intends to swap Tuesday in exchange for a soldier abducted by the militant group Hamas, while some Israelis opposed to the deal asked the Supreme Court to intervene. News of the imminent swap, which includes the release of more than 1,000 prisoners in two phases, elated Israelis who have followed the plight of Staff. Sgt. Gilad Shalit as their own. But it also has reopened old wounds for Israelis who have lost loved ones in attacks and reignited the debate over whether Israel should negotiate in cases of kidnapped citizens. Read full article > >

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Gilad Shalit release: Israeli terror victims’ families seek to halt prisoner swap

JERUSALEM – Israeli authorities say they believe Jewish extremists are responsible for setting fire to a mosque in northern Israel early Monday and leaving behind scrawled messages similar to those written after attacks on mosques in the West Bank. The arson in the village of Tuba-Zangaria caused extensive damage to the mosque and set off clashes between angry villagers and police. Read full article > >

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Mosque torched in northern Israel

JERUSALEM – Israel on Sunday agreed to a proposal by international mediators to resume peace negotiations after the initiative was positively received by the Palestinians, but there were no signs that a dispute over Israeli settlement building that has blocked talks was any closer to being resolved. Read full article > >

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Israel welcomes peace talks plan

JERUSALEM — The Palestinian leadership on Thursday cautiously welcomed a proposal by international mediators to resume peace negotiations but said Israel had to first halt settlement building on occupied land, a demand rejected by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Palestinian position, issued after a meeting in Ramallah chaired by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, underlined the continuing impasse that has prevented a resumption of talks, even as the United Nations Security Council considers a Palestinian application for U.N. membership . Read full article > >

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Palestinians link talks plan to settlement freeze

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Thousands of Palestinians rallied in cities across the West Bank on Wednesday in support of their leadership’s bid for recognition of a Palestinian state at the United Nations, with only scattered incidents of violence in the first test of the move’s impact on the streets. About 2,000 people gathered in Ramallah, many of them civil servants, schoolchildren and private-sector workers given time off to participate. A downtown square was filled with a sea of Palestinian flags as speakers called for a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with its capital in Jerusalem. Read full article > >

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Palestinians rally to back U.N. statehood bid

JERUSALEM — After a week in which Israel’s diplomats were forced out of Turkey and Egypt, for years its regional allies, and facing a possible United Nations vote recognizing a Palestinian state, the country is experiencing a deepening sense of siege. Televised scenes of Egyptian protesters storming the Israeli embassy in Cairo on Friday, and dramatic media accounts of the threat faced by six security men that were trapped for hours inside, summoned up for many Israelis nightmare scenarios of a lynch by an Arab mob. Read full article > >

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In Israel, Cairo attack deepens sense of siege

JERUSALEM — Two senior White House envoys arrived Tuesday for meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders in a last-ditch effort to head off a Palestinian bid for recognition of statehood at the United Nations this month. David Hale, the Obama administration’s acting special envoy to the Middle East, and Dennis Ross, the president’s Middle East adviser on the National Security Council, are pressing for a resumption of peace negotiations that were broken off a year ago. But their prospects for success appear dim, with aides to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas ruling out any change of plans to seek recognition of a Palestinian state at the U.N. General Assembly session beginning Sept. 20. Read full article > >

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U.S. envoys press Palestinians to drop U.N. statehood bid

JERUSALEM — The United States has warned of a cut in aid to the Palestinians if they proceed with a unilateral bid for statehood at the U.N in September, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Friday. Israel and the U.S. strongly oppose the Palestinians’ U.N. plan, saying Palestinian statehood should only be achieved through negotiations. They maintain that a Palestinian state must emerge from Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, which have been stalled for almost a year. Erekat said the U.S. Consul-General in Jerusalem, Daniel Rubinstein, told him Friday that the U.S. Congress will take “punitive measures” if the Palestinians proceed with seeking U.N. recognition of statehood. Read full article > >

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Palestinian official: U.S warns of aid cutoff in response to bid for unilateral recognition

JERUSALEM — A tenuous cease-fire between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza Strip was punctured Wednesday by a deadly Israeli airstrike that triggered mortar fire at Israel. After 48 hours in which air attacks were suspended, an Israeli drone strike killed Ismail Asmar, a senior member of the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad group, in his car in Rafah near the border with Egypt, according to the military and local medical officials. An Israeli army statement said Asmar was involved in arms smuggling and efforts by Gaza militants to attack Israel from Egypt’s Sinai peninsula. In a cross-border attack from Sinai last week, eight Israelis were killed north of the resort town of Eilat, setting off a series of airstrikes in Gaza and rocket attacks on southern Israel that lasted five days. Read full article > >

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Gaza cease-fire tested by Israeli airstrike, Palestinian mortar fire

JERUSALEM — An Egyptian-brokered cease-fire between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip took hold Monday, as airstrikes and rocket salvos triggered by a deadly attack by gunmen in southern Israel tapered off after five days of fighting. Israel’s relations with Cairo were strained last week after three Egyptian security officers were killed as Israeli forces pursued the gunmen responsible for the attack on Thursday. The killings led to furious protests outside the Israeli Embassy in Cairo and a threat by Egypt to recall its ambassador to Israel. Read full article > >

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Gaza cease-fire takes hold

JERUSALEM — Militants suspected to have crossed from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula attacked a bus, vehicles and Israeli soldiers in southern Israel on Thursday, killing at least six people and wounding about two dozen more, according to the army and medical officials. The commuter bus, carrying soldiers and civilians, was attacked near the city of Eilat by gunmen who got out of a car and opened fire, according the military and Israel Radio. Israeli special forces later exchanged fire with the attackers, killing at least one, the radio said. Read full article > >

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Gunmen attack Israeli bus near Egypt border

Israel’s interior minister gave final authorization to build 1,600 apartments in disputed east Jerusalem and will approve 2,700 more in days, officials said Thursday.

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East Jerusalem Housing Is Approved

Israel gives final approval for the controversial building of 1,600 settler homes in occupied East Jerusalem.

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Israel backs 1,600 settler homes

JERUSALEM — Israel’s interior minister gave final authorization to build 1,600 apartments in disputed East Jerusalem and will approve 2,700 more in days, officials said Thursday, detailing a plan that could complicate diplomatic efforts to dissuade Palestinians from declaring statehood at the United Nations. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office knew the construction plans were moving ahead, Interior Ministry spokesman Roi Lachmanovich said. An earlier approval for the 1,600-apartment project badly embarrassed Netanyahu and caused a diplomatic rift with the U.S. because it coincided with a visit to Israel by Vice President Joe Biden. Read full article > >

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Israel to approve 4,300 new apartments in disputed East Jerusalem

The Arab League says it will support full UN membership for a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

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Arab boost for Palestine UN call