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The article reports that the owner of Santa Maria Souvenirs, David Joseph, a Palestinian Christian, glumly padlocked his storefront and said there was no point in waiting around. It mentions that Israel, in an effort to contain the highly contagious Omicron variant of the coronavirus, has barred entry to most international travelers until at least the end of December, leaving the holy sites of the Old City devoid of foreign visitors for a second straight Christmas.

The article reports that a Palestinian driver has plowed a truck into a group of Israeli soldiers, which killed several soldiers, as of January 2017. It states that the police have called the incident an act of terrorism, and mentions that according the attacker Micky Rosenfeld has been killed. It notes comments from Palestinian Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding similarity of the attack to attack by the terrorist group Islamic State.

The article reports on the Yasir Arafat Museum in Ramallah, West Bank which opens on the 12th anniversary of the death of Palestine Liberation Organization former leader Yasir Arafat, focusing on the contents of the museum which unlikely provide answer to uncertain legacy of Mr. Arafat. Information on the detailed exhibit of the role of Mr. Arafat in the rise of Palestinian nationalism, but left the involvement of Mr. Arafat in acts of terrorism carried out by Palestinian factions unexplained.

The article discusses Pope Francis I's planned visit to the Middle East as of May 21, 2014, highlighting his plans to express support for a sovereign Palestinian state and to travel directly into the West Bank without passing through Israel. Topics addressed include the Vatican's denial of any political reasoning behind the pope's itinerary; his plans to visit Jordan; and his plans to meet with refugees and deliver a Mass in Manger Square, Bethlehem.

The article reports that confusion and tension remains in Gaza Strip following the cease-fire in November 2012. It mentions the incident of gunfire that killed Anwar Qudaih and wounded nine others who tried to cross the border fence to Israeli territory. It says that the incident did not affect the truce, but confusion remains over the cease-fire deal as Hamas officials boast the concessions from Israel, while Israeli officials say nothing has been agreed beyond the cessation.

The article reports on the celebration of Palestinians in Gaza that vows unity between rival factions and renewed loyalty to resistance tactic. It says that Israel leaders tried selling their accomplishments on military operation to domestic audience skeptical of cease-fire deals. It states that people poured on blasted streets, beaming as they shopped under the shield of cease-fire agreement in Cairo, Egypt after Israeli shelling that killed 162 Gazans and flattened buildings and homes.

The article reports on municipal elections delayed by Palestinian high court, scheduled for October 8, 2016 in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, pending a second hearing after a challenge by a lawyer over balloting in East Jerusalem and comments from an official Jamal Dajani, on same.

The article offers information on the Parliamentary debate by conservative lawmaker Anat Berko on no place such as Palestine as there is no letter P in Arabic language.

The article reports that the political system of Palestine has approached a total collapse. Armed forces of the Hamas organization have seized effective control of the Gaza Strip from its rival political group Fatah. President Mahmoud Abbas, a Fatah member, reacted by dissolving the unity government of the two groups agreed to in March, 2007, a move Hamas dismissed as illegal. The U.S. and Israel reacted with dismay. Some Palestinians foresee Palestine splitting into two entities.

The article reports that armed conflict between the Palestinian political groups Hamas and Fatah has escalated to what appears to be a civil war. Hamas fighters attacked a number of Fatah posts in the northern Gaza Strip, and the two forces exchanged attacks on the homes and offices of their respective leaders. The joint unity government of the Palestinian Authority the parties agreed to in March, 2007 after Saudi mediation appears on the verge of total collapse.

The article reports on the removal of the name of Muhammad Abu Khdeir, the Palestinian youth who was beaten, abducted as well as burned to death by the three Israeilis, at the memorial for the country's Memorial day in response to the request of his father.

The article reports on the organization of the event 'Right to Movement: Palestine Marathon' in March 2015 in Bethlehem, West Bank.

The article focuses on a sniper attack from Palestine which has interrupted the ongoing ceasefire in the 50-day war between Israel and Gaza militants.

The article reports on the violence, one in Jerusalem and another in the West Bank, as two drivers plowed their cars into Israeli officials that fueled fears for another Palestinian uprising to take place.

The article reports on the acknowledgement of Palestine Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah that he still lacked authority in the Gaza Strip dominated by the Hamas and that nothing had altered on the ground in 2014.

The article reports on the swearing-in ceremony for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on June 2, 2014, who vowed to reunite West Bank and Gaza Strip after seven years of social and political division.

The article reports on the focus of the leadership of Palestine on its diplomatic and legal struggle for the international recognition of the country as a state under occupation with the collapse of negotiations with the U.S. with the Middle East.

The article focuses on the vote by the United Nations in favor of granting a nonmember state to the Palestinian territories and its implications on Israel and Palestinians. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that he is ready for talks with Israel without preconditions. Saeb Erekat, a senior official in Palestine, says that life will be different following the United Nations' nonmember state recognition.

The article reports that the Israeli officials turn down the importance of a draft resolution, which calls for the upgrading of the Palestinian status to nonmember observer state from observer. Mark Regev, Israeli government's spokesman, says that the United Nation General Assembly will pass a one-sided anti-Israel resolution. The British government mentions that it would consider voting for the resolution pending public assurances and amendments.

The article reports on the reaction of Israel on the bid of Palestine to have an enhanced status at the United Nations (UN). It mentions that the Israeli Foreign Ministry threatens foreign governments that it would cancel the Oslo Peace Accords if the status of Palestine in the international body will be enhanced. It adds that Israel opposes the enhancement of the status of Palestine in the UN as it is a unilateral measure that violates the Oslo Peace Accords.

The article reports on the surge of violence between Palestinian militants and Israeli group in Gaza. It says that five Palestinians and four civilians were killed after the Israeli returned fire to the Palestinian militants, who fired antitank missiles at an Israeli military jeep patrolling the border. It says that the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine claims the responsibility for the said attack on the military jeep.

JERUSALEM -- A potentially explosive re-examination of the circumstances behind the death of Yasir Arafat, the symbol of the Palestinian national struggle, has galvanized Palestinian suspicions that he was poisoned and led the Palestinian Authority to agree in principle on Wednesday to an exhumation of his remains, possibly within days. Mr. Arafat's widow, Suha, called for the exhumation a day earlier in an interview with Al Jazeera, the Arabic television channel based in Qatar, after it reported that Mr. Arafat might have been poisoned with polonium, a radioactive element associated with K.G.B.-style assassination intrigues. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Israel on Thursday completed the evacuation of 30 families from five buildings in the disputed Ulpana section of Beit El, a settlement in the West Bank. About 15 right-wing activists barricaded themselves inside an apartment for several hours. The police removed them, arresting six, a police spokesman said. The families left peacefully after the government promised to build 300 more homes in Beit El and 500 in other West Bank settlements. The Supreme Court had ordered the buildings to be demolished by July 1 because they sit on private Palestinian land. The state has requested an extension of several months. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

BATTIR, West Bank -- In this scenic Palestinian village in the West Bank hills near Bethlehem, just south of Jerusalem, a week is said to last eight days, not seven. That is because Battir's eight extended families take daily turns watering their crops from the natural springs that feed their ancient agricultural terraces, a practice they say has worked for centuries. The water flows through a Roman-era irrigation system down into a deep valley where a railway track -- a section of the Jaffa-Jerusalem railway built in Ottoman times -- roughly marks the 1949 armistice line between the West Bank and Israel. The area is dotted with tombs and ruins upon ruins of bygone civilizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An Israeli soldier and a Palestinian militant were killed in an exchange of fire early Friday after the militant breached the fence along the Gaza-Israel border. Israeli forces fired warning shots from the ground and the air, and then carried out an airstrike in Gaza against a squad that had fired a rocket at Israeli soldiers, according to military officials. A Gaza medical official said that four Palestinians were wounded in the airstrike. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CAIRO -- Both candidates for Egypt's presidency have pledged to respect the country's peace treaty with Israel, but they differ greatly in their approach, especially regarding the Palestinians. In addition to preserving the peace with Israel, Ahmed Shafik, a former Egyptian Air Force general, is expected to continue Egypt's patronage of the mainstream Palestinian faction Fatah. Fatah, which leads the Palestinian Authority, cooperates with Israel. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- Yousef Shayeb, 37, a Palestinian journalist from Ramallah, published an article in a Jordanian newspaper this year charging officials at the Palestinian diplomatic mission in Paris with corruption and espionage. In an interview here last week, he said that he had imagined people might thank him for his expose. Instead, he spent eight days in a Palestinian Authority jail. Jamal Abu Raihan, a Palestinian blogger, has been in prison for three weeks, after he posted a satirical column lampooning the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, as a donkey on a Facebook page he ran titled, ''The people want an end to corruption.'' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

JERUSALEM -- Israeli officials on Friday rejected any prospect of cooperation with an inquiry called for a day earlier by the United Nations Human Rights Council into how Israeli settlements affect the rights of Palestinians. Israeli officials here called the council resolution seeking the inquiry a new source of friction between Israel and the Palestinian leadership, but the Western-backed Palestinian Authority welcomed it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An Israeli soldier was stabbed in the neck on Thursday while trying to make an arrest in a West Bank village, the Israeli military reported. The soldier opened fire on his Palestinian assailants, killing one man and wounding another, the military said. It was not immediately clear whether the man who was killed had taken part in the knife attack. The soldier was part of a force that had gone to Yatta, south of Hebron, to rearrest a Palestinian man, Khaled Mahamra, who had been released from prison in the fall as part of an exchange for Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier who was held captive for five years in Gaza. Palestinian news reports said that the Palestinians were shot during clashes as they tried to prevent the arrest. The military said that Mr. Mahamra was suspected of transferring funds to establish a terrorist network in the West Bank. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- For many Palestinians and their international supporters, the one bright spot in an otherwise dreary political landscape has been the nation-building efforts of Salam Fayyad, the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, who has restored law and order and encouraged economic growth in the West Bank. But over the past two weeks Palestinians have been taking to the streets here and in other West Bank cities to denounce Mr. Fayyad, protesting soaring prices and recently approved tax increases. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, said Wednesday that a round of exploratory discussions with Israel under Jordanian auspices had ended. But he left open the possibility of a resumption of contacts under certain conditions and after consultations with Arab League representatives on Feb. 4. Jordan played host to five meetings this month between Israeli and Palestinian envoys as part of an international effort to get the sides back to formal peace negotiations after a break of more than a year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

JERUSALEM -- President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority and the leader of the rival Islamic group Hamas met Thursday and the sides agreed to go ahead with elections in the Palestinian territories next year, according to officials, even as they failed to resolve differences over an interim unity government to prepare for the vote. The meeting, in Cairo, was the first between Mr. Abbas, chief of the mainstream Fatah movement, and his rival, Khaled Meshal, the political leader of Hamas, since the two men signed a reconciliation accord in May. Even since then, the leadership of the Palestinian territories has remained divided, with Mr. Abbas's authority confined to the West Bank while Hamas controls the coastal enclave of Gaza. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Palestinian bid to become a full member of the United Nations headed toward certain failure on Tuesday after the Security Council's membership committee deadlocked on the issue, according to a draft report by the committee. The outcome, which had been anticipated, was laid out in typically detached diplomatic language. ''The committee was unable to make a unanimous recommendation to the Security Council,'' the report concluded. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

JERUSALEM -- Israel on Sunday formally accepted an international proposal to return to peace negotiations with the Palestinians, but any immediate resumption of talks appeared unlikely as the Israelis and Palestinians differed sharply over the letter and spirit of the proposal. A senior Palestinian official said over the weekend that after three days of deliberations, the Palestinian leadership had decided not to return to talks unless Israel halted all settlement construction and agreed to clear terms of reference for the negotiations -- requirements that were perhaps implied but not spelled out in the Sept. 23 statement of the so-called quartet of Middle East peacemakers, which is made up of the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- The Palestinian decision to apply for full United Nations membership at the Security Council, announced Friday by President Mahmoud Abbas, was the most viable of the only options possible: surrender, return to violence or appeal to the international community, a senior Palestinian official said Saturday. The official, Nabil Shaath, spoke to journalists before leaving for New York as part of the Palestinian delegation heading to the United Nations. He said that the appeal would change the ground rules of the conflict, and that although the Obama administration had vowed to veto the request and Israel had threatened punitive countermeasures, the Arab uprisings should make them reconsider. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

BILIN, West Bank -- Residents of this tiny Palestinian village, along with Israeli and foreign supporters, on Friday held what organizers billed as the last of their trademark weekly demonstrations against the Bilin section of Israel's West Bank barrier. It was a milestone that illustrated both the success of the unarmed popular movement that was born here, and its limitations. The six-year campaign is winding down because the Israeli military has begun to dismantle the fence that separated the village from about two-thirds of its agricultural land. This is in belated compliance with a 2007 Israeli Supreme Court ruling against the country's influential security establishment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president and Fatah party chief, and Khaled Meshal, the Damascus-based leader of the militant group Hamas, will meet in Cairo next week to try to finalize the makeup of a Palestinian unity government after lower-level talks ended Tuesday without a consensus, according to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa. Fatah, which dominates in the West Bank, and Hamas, which controls Gaza, signed a reconciliation agreement in early May. Fatah has nominated Salam Fayyad, the current prime minister of the Palestinian Authority government, to lead a unity government of independent technocrats. Hamas has rejected Mr. Fayyad as a candidate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

JERUSALEM -- After President Obama's high-profile speech on Thursday in which he laid out broad principles for reaching an Israeli-Palestinian deal, the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, called an emergency meeting at his headquarters in Ramallah in the West Bank. He advised his associates not to comment on the speech, according to a senior Palestinian official who attended the meeting, but to wait instead for Mr. Obama's meeting with the prime minister of Israel in the White House ''and see if there are any positive signs.'' By the end of that meeting, judging by the statements of Mr. Abbas's associates, the prospects of renewed negotiations leading to a swift agreement appeared at least as distant, if not more, than before. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- A day after the two main Palestinian factions announced surprise plans for a unity government, the challenge of bringing together two rival parties with distinct ideologies burst into view, with each side presenting a different picture of what the accord means and what produced it. Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, said Thursday that because he was also chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization he remained in charge of peace efforts with Israel. The future unity government, he said, will have only two functions, to rebuild Gaza and set up elections within a year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

GAZA -- A radical, Al Qaeda-inspired Islamic group in Gaza said Thursday that it had kidnapped an Italian citizen in the Palestinian territory and threatened to execute him unless Hamas, which rules Gaza, released the group's imprisoned leader by 5 p.m. on Friday. But early Friday morning, Hamas officials announced that the body of the Italian man, a pro-Palestinian activist, had been found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

JERUSALEM -- There were signs on Wednesday of a new effort to restart the Israeli-Palestinian peace process after months of stagnation, but chances of a resumption of talks looked slim, and Israel appeared to be stepping back from the stated goal of reaching a framework agreement resolving the core issues of the conflict by September. Instead of a final accord on Palestinian statehood by fall, Israel is now floating the idea of an interim arrangement as a step toward a two-state solution, even without Palestinian agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

JERUSALEM -- The prime minister of the Palestinian Authority dissolved his cabinet on Monday and was immediately reappointed by the president to form a new one. It was the latest in a series of political steps taken by the authority after the popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. Ghassan Khatib, the spokesman for the authority's government in the West Bank, said that there had been plans for a cabinet reshuffle for months, but that the process had ''taken longer than expected.'' [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

TEL AVIV -- With neighboring Egypt and other parts of the region in upheaval, Israelis contemplating their own future are taking refuge in familiar positions, and the prospect of the Netanyahu government's making peace with the Palestinians, already distant, receded further. Committed advocates of the peace process urged the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to take a significant step toward reconciliation, arguing that over time Israel could find itself more isolated and less certain of its bargaining power. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

HEBRON, West Bank -- Israeli soldiers shot and killed an unarmed 65-year-old Palestinian man in his bedroom in this tense city early Friday, in what appeared to be a case of mistaken identity. The man's wife said he was sleeping and she was praying when soldiers burst into the apartment before dawn, entered the bedroom and immediately opened fire. Afterward they asked her for his identity card. She gave her account a few hours later, standing next to the bed, whose mattress, sheets and pillows were soaked in blood. The headboard, an adjacent wardrobe and the ceiling were also spattered with blood and bits of what appeared to be brain matter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BILIN, West Bank -- Clashing narratives over the case of a 36-year-old Palestinian woman who died on Saturday is fast making her a new symbol of the enduring conflict here, with the Israeli military anonymously casting doubt on Palestinian accounts -- backed by medical documents -- that she died from inhaling tear gas. The woman's relatives, village leaders and staff members at the hospital in Ramallah where she was treated said that she was fatally sickened by tear gas fired on Friday by Israeli forces during the weekly protest against Israel's separation barrier in the Palestinian village of Bilin. Her mother said she and her daughter, Jawaher Abu Rahmah, were watching the protest from a distance when a cloud of tear gas wafted their way, causing her daughter to collapse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, hosted a two-hour meeting with about 60 Israeli politicians, public figures and activists at his headquarters here on Sunday in an effort to reach out to the Israeli public at a time when the official peace process is at a standstill. ''In the end, we want to make peace between the people, the Israeli and Palestinian people,'' Mr. Abbas said, not just the governments. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An article by a Palestinian Authority official denying any Jewish connection to the Western Wall appeared to have been removed from the Web site of the authority's Information Ministry on Wednesday after provoking sharp Israeli and American condemnation. The article, posted on Nov. 22, described the wall as the western wall of Al Aksa Mosque. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

JERUSALEM -- The prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, on Thursday strongly denounced a Palestinian Authority paper that denies any Jewish connection to the Western Wall, the iconic holy site and place of Jewish worship in the Old City of Jerusalem, describing the report as ''reprehensible and scandalous.'' The episode appeared to signal a worsening atmosphere after a two-month hiatus in peace talks. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

JERUSALEM -- The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, said Sunday that any American proposal for restarting Israeli-Palestinian negotiations must include East Jerusalem as part of a complete halt in Israeli settlement building. It was not immediately clear whether Mr. Abbas's position, which is consistent with Palestinian policy, would scuttle a proposed deal that the Americans hope will lead to resumption of the negotiations. In the past the sides have found ways to surmount such difficulties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]