Top Hamas officials are meeting in Qatar today to discuss a potential unity agreement with the rival Palestinian Fatah faction. Back in the West Bank, however Fatah officials are calling on the Iran-backed terror group to release a Fatah member currently jailed in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip: Fatah called on...

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The State Department is emphasizing that a planned trip by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the Gaza Strip next month is “counterproductive.” Speaking to reporters at a briefing yesterday, State Department Acting Deputy Spokesperson Patrick Ventrell added that U.S. officials consider the Iran-backed group to be a “foreign terrorist organization [and]…...

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Slowly, quietly, the new divided Egypt – divided between the Muslim Brotherhood and its opponents – is changing the space where Egypt meets the Gaza Strip. While the smuggling of goods through the Rafah tunnels has begun returning to its old patterns, the scope of that smuggling has dropped off...

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Egyptian security forces operating in the Sinai Peninsula have seized several caches of weapons and explosives this week, which officials believe were destined for use against both Israel and Egypt. Officials told the Ma’an News Agency that among the cache contained anti-aircraft shells, grenades, and anti-tank mines intended for the bordering...

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Arabic media outlets are reporting that a high-level Israeli security delegation landed in Cairo on Thursday to meet with Egyptian intelligence and military officials. The leak to Ma’an News Agency is said to have come from an airport official. Focus on the Sinai Peninsula If confirmed, the news will be...

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Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is delaying a planned trip to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, which if carried out would widely be viewed as a diplomatic victory for the Iran-backed terror group. He will now delay the trip at least until after he meets with President Barack Obama in May....

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Hamas is beating, arresting, and forcibly cutting the hair of men who have “immodest” haircuts, part of a campaign to enforce Islamic styles in the Gaza Strip: The human rights group says the men were beaten and forced to sign an agreement to keep their hair short. They are also...

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Hamas appears to be stopping short of employing its full force to stop Gaza-based jihadists from launching rockets at Israel, though it has the power to do so. The Iran-backed group knows that clamping down too hard would provoke anger from the Gazan public. Hamas security forces detained a number...

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One needn’t romanticize this week’s West Bank unrest. It wasn’t exactly a spontaneous outburst of rage – rather, the three funerals held recently were a pre-planned set piece for the stone-throwing that followed. Near Tulkarem, and in Hebron, two teenagers were laid to rest, having been hit by IDF fire while throwing...

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The United Nations agency responsible for distributing aid in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip has suspended much of its activity after its headquarters was stormed by Palestinian protesters.  Robert Turner, who heads Gaza operations for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) blasted the “apparently pre-planned” incident, calling it “completely unacceptable… unwarranted and unprecedented.”...

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