Gaza

(Newser) - Hamas launched dozens of rockets and mortar shells at Israel this morning, ending a five-month cease fire. The blasts rocked the country as it celebrated its 59th Independence Day. The Hamas-led government blames Israel for the breakdown, citing the deaths of nine Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank killed...

(Newser) - An obscure Palestinian group claims to have murdered a veteran BBC journalist kidnapped in Gaza a month ago. There is no confirmation of the claim and a Palestinian Authority official, Saeb Erekat, said: “I urge those who abducted Johnston, instead of circulating rumors, and I hope these rumors are...

(Newser) - "As a Jew, I am embarrassed by the role that so many prominent Jews have had in empowering the enemy," Joe Klein writes in a blog from Jerusalem, noting the number of neoconservatives in the Bush  war machine who had close ties to the Israeli government. Klein says...

(Newser) - Palestinians are actually receiving more foreign aid, not less,  than they were before the US and the European Union slapped an aid embargo against the Hamas led Palestinian Authority last year, reports Steven Erlanger. The United Nations and the International Monetary Fund say $1.2 billion was given to...